I’m at the State Bar of Texas Animal Law Institute today.
Without a doubt, this is the only event for Texas lawyers where, by 3:00 p.m., the vegan lasagna is all gone, and the beef & sausage lasagna is the only leftover.
All for me…..
![By jodylehigh [Public domain, CC0 1.0], via Pixabay](http://crypticphilosopher.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/prison-fence-219264_640-300x225.jpg "By jodylehigh [Public domain, CC0 1.0], via Pixabay")
An appellate court recently ruled in favor of a prison inmate who was denied early parole, effectively speaking, for being an atheist:
Atheist Randall Jackson had been serving time in the Western Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in St. Joseph, Missouri when he learned about an opportunity to get early release on parole — all he had to do was attend the center’s “Offenders Under Treatment Program.”
Just one problem: The program was faith-based, requiring him to both pray and acknowledge the existence of God. (Another treatment program promoted Alcoholics Anonymous which is also religious in nature.)
He explained his misgivings to prison staff, and was allegedly told to pretend that “God” stood for “good orderly direction.” I think I’ve heard that one before.
This prison inmate, however, had some scruples.
Jackson eventually asked to be transferred to a secular treatment program — but his request was denied. Instead of lying and playing the game, he chose not to enroll in OUTP… and was later denied an early release.
(Emphasis added.)
This seems pretty self-evidently unconstitutional. Here we have a benefit offered to inmates, early release, conditioned on completion of a program that is pretty explicitly religious. (It’s probably safe to assume that it is Christian in nature.) The inmate in question here is an atheist, but one could substitute any non-Christian religion—or even different flavors of Christianity—and the problem presents itself even more clearly.
Jackson sued, but lost in the trial court. He appealed to the Eight Circuit: Continue reading
![Ricardo Thomas [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](http://crypticphilosopher.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/President_Ford_and_Queen_Elizabeth_dance_-_NARA_-_6923701.jpg "Ricardo Thomas [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons")
– I hope you had enough cake for the guards: A couple invited the Queen of England to their wedding “as a joke.” She showed up.
This really ups the stakes for all the people who try to invite porn stars to their prom & stuff.
– That would be quite a warning label: A prison inmate (described by Vice as a “pimp”), who is serving time in part for “kicking the shit” out of someone, is suing Nike under a theory of products liability for failing to warn that his shoes could be used as weapons.
– And don’t. do. drugs: According to this almost-certainly-fake Australian PSA, skipping school and slacking is dangerous, because land mines. (Just think of it as a not-quite-two-minute slasher film.)
– Don’t click this link, seriously: Also from Vice, the story of a man with no butt crack. It’s not a congenital conditional or anything. A doctor had to sew it shut. Ouch.
Photo credit: Ricardo Thomas [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
![Chris Piascik (chrispiascik.com) [CC BY-ND 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/)], via Flickr](http://crypticphilosopher.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/6279261654_505fcfd7cc_z-268x300.jpg "Chris Piascik (chrispiascik.com) [CC BY-ND 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/)], via Flickr")
Sorry, Folks, Rich People Actually Don’t ‘Create The Jobs’, Henry Blodget, Business Insider, November 29, 2013
Entrepreneurs and investors like me actually don’t create the jobs — not sustainable ones, anyway.
Yes, we can create jobs temporarily, by starting companies and funding losses for a while. And, yes, we are a necessary part of the economy’s job-creation engine. But to suggest that we alone are responsible for the jobs that sustain the other 300 million Americans is the height of self-importance and delusion.
So, if rich people do not create the jobs, what does?
A healthy economic ecosystem — one in which most participants (especially the middle class) have plenty of money to spend.
The Bitters Tears of the American Christian Supermajority, Chase Madar, Al-Jazeera America, March 30, 2014 Continue reading
!["Corporate PAC Campaign Contributions Have Tripled Over the Last Two Decades" by citizens4taxjustice [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)], via Flickr](http://crypticphilosopher.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/7074471287_34e8617198_z-300x229.jpg "\"Corporate PAC Campaign Contributions Have Tripled Over the Last Two Decades\" by citizens4taxjustice [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)], via Flickr")
I haven’t read the actual McCutcheon opinion yet (if ever). To be honest , the minutiae of campaign-finance law makes my head hurt, mostly because of the system’s artificial and inane complexity. To be more honest, I have generally always accepted that campaigns with more money tend to win, but I’ve never really understood the mechanics of why. Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns & Money offers a bit of post-McCutcheon tough love that, I think, nails the real problem:
My thought on the McCutcheon case’s importance is as follows. Liberals need to quit whining about the money. I’m not saying the case isn’t a big deal. It is. But I am saying that the plutocrats have always had far more money than working people and they’ve always used it to control politics the best they can.
***
The problem today is that progressives believe the ballot box is where change is made, when in fact it is where change is consolidated. Organize on the ground to demand the change desired and the money can be overcome. But if you think a social movement is buying ad time on television or the right kind of media messaging, that’s a game that progressives are never going to win.
(Emphasis added)
How do political campaigns spend money? That’s actually a serious, non-rhetorical question. I know they pay for massive amounts of advertising, along with all the expenses of running a campaign. For the purposes of discussing how money influences politics, the advertising seems like the pertinent issue. Continue reading
I often hear that the private sector can handle things better than government, with the implication being that government rarely, if ever, gets anything right. Here’s the rub, as I see it: The process of privatization requires handing over public functions, sometimes including the outright sale of public property, to the private sector. This process is necessarily performed by the government.
Why are people so sure, if government generally screws things up, that they won’t also screw up privatization? Why should I trust a company that our incompetent, ineffective, inefficient government selected to take care of things? Isn’t the mere fact that the government thought they were up to the job evidence that they are not up to the job at all?
Repeat this argument as necessary until libertarian heads explode.
![By Saffron Blaze (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](http://crypticphilosopher.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/The_Leaning_Tower_of_Pisa_SB.jpeg-196x300.jpeg "By Saffron Blaze (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons")
Conservatives to women: Lean back, Dana Milbank, Washington Post, March 31, 2014
The conservative minds of the Heritage Foundation have found a way for Republicans to shrink the gender gap: They need to persuade more women to get their MRS degrees.
The advocacy group held a gathering of women of the right Monday afternoon to mark the final day of Women’s History Month — and the consensus was that women ought to go back in history. If Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg’s mantra is “lean in,” these women were proposing that women lean back: get married, take care of kids and let men earn the wages.
Paul Ryan’s April Fool’s joke, Steve Benen, MSNBC, April 1, 2014
Unlike most years, there’s no real point to the House and Senate Budget Committees presenting budget blueprints this year. Federal spending levels for this fiscal year and the next were already established in an agreement that was approved months ago.
But House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) today unveiled a 99-page document (pdf) anyway, not because he had to but because he wanted to. This is a political exercise, intended to make an election-year point. That’s not intended as criticism, per se – political exercises in election years are hardly outrageous – but it’s important to realize this is more of a Republican fantasy. There’s no pretense that this will actually become the nation’s budget.
Obamacare: Will The Haters Ever Stop Hating?, The Economist, April 1, 2014
Before it will be judged a historic success, Obamacare has more hurdles to clear (Charles Ornstein lays out a few). But the catastrophic-failure scenario envisioned by the ACA’s critics, in which low enrollment composed of disproportionately sick people leads to premium hikes and an adverse-selection “death spiral”, now seems unlikely (though it isn’t entirely out of the question, as our health-care correspondent writes). The solid enrollment is all the more striking given that Republican states have largely rejected the ACA’s expansion of Medicaid, and many Republicans and well-funded conservative groups (like the one that brought me that irritating ad) have fought implementation tooth and nail. Indeed, surging enrollment has spooked a number of Republicans into claiming that the registration numbers aren’t real.
Photo credit: By Saffron Blaze (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons.
March 2014 was the first month in more than ten years in which no U.S. troops died in combat. This moving photo was posted to Imgur last night:
The good news was quickly followed, however, by a reminder of how far we have to go:
The number of suicides by American servicemembers exceeded the number of combat deaths in 2012, and the suicide rate has continued to rise since then. The number of suicides may have started outpacing combat deaths as far back as 2008. Continue reading
I suppose it is inevitable, in the era of internet memes, that a pretty blonde appointed to a prominent leadership position will become the subject of some creepiness.
But anime fan art? Really? (h/t Jen)
In Japan, people watching events unfolding in Crimea appear to have become captivated by the region’s newly-appointed attorney general.
Clips of a press conference with Natalia Poklonskaya have been shared widely on Japanese platforms, says website Rocketnews24. She was appointed to the post on 11 March and formerly served as a senior prosecutor for the city of Simferopol.
In particular, one video in which Poklonskaya listens to a reporter’s question has been viewed nearly 300,000 times since it was posted to a Japanese YouTube channel. There is no translation of her answer. Some people appear to be so taken with the seemingly charming prosecutor, they are turning out manga images and anime fan art inspired by her.
Okay fine, it’s a tribute or something. But serving as a senior prosecutor for a city of 362,000 people that serves as the capital of a disputed subnational territory, then becoming attorney general for that entire region, all by the age of 34, is at least as impressive as being really pretty. Just sayin’.
It’s also at least as impressive as being the main character in a Grand Theft Auto game, which she is also about to be (unless that was an April Fool’s joke on the part of the International Business Times).
Perhaps this is all best summed up by Tumblr user Kishona: Continue reading
NOTE: None of these links are in any way related to April Fool’s Day, however much one might like to think otherwise.
![By LadyofHats [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](http://crypticphilosopher.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/800px-Centrosaurus_dinosaur-300x142.png "By LadyofHats [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons")
This picture makes no sense in the context of this post.
Damn, it must be good to be a Christian. This is the sort of thing that makes your blood boil?! Atheists are working on things like getting openly-non-theistic people elected to public office… meanwhile, McNulty’s angry because the universe doesn’t completely revolve around her.
Target Had Chance to Stop Breach, Senators Say, Elizabeth A. Harris, New York Times, March 26, 2014
Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, Democrat of West Virginia and chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, said at a hearing that the hacking last year of Target, one of the nation’s largest retailers, “must be a clarion call to businesses, both large and small, that it’s time to invest in some changes.”
Senators Rockefeller and Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, said that Target’s failure to heed warning signs of incursions by cybercriminals ultimately was the fault of its top executives.
“The best technology in the world is useless unless there’s good management,” Mr. Blumenthal said. “And here, to be quite blunt, there were multiple warnings from the company’s anti-intrusion software; they were missed by management.”
Photo credit: By LadyofHats [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
