Man behind bars 2 years after judge orders release — Daniel Larsen was found 'actually innocent' of carrying a concealed knife, but the attorney general's appeal is keeping him in prison, claiming that he missed a key deadline. Feel safer now? What if this was you trapped in prison because someone else missed a paperwork deadline? Tough on crime makes for a great campaign soundbite, but the nuances ruin people's lives. Too bad half the American voting population doesn't do nuance.
Charles Negy, Professor, Says Students Showed 'Religious Arrogance And Bigotry' In A Letter Later Posted On Reddit — Interesting read. (Thanks to
The Checkpoint — Terror, Power, and Cruelty. An IDF soldier on working a Palestinian checkpoint. (Thanks to David Goldman.)
In Congress’s Paralysis, a Mightier Supreme Court — Which fits in well with the Right's anti-government agenda, given the conservative loons now in control of the Supreme Court. (Thanks to Dad.)
Todd Akin’s comment brings ‘war on women’ back to prominence — At least until Election Day, Republicans were supposed to pretend that their party’s alleged “war on women” was nothing but a paranoid fantasy stoked by desperate Democrats. Obviously, Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) didn’t get the memo. Yep. This. Which is why I'm quite surprised by all the crocodile tears from the GOP over Akin simply stating what the party has been pushing for years.
Republican Party approves strict anti-abortion platform, earning rebuke from Scott Brown — Despite all the mock outrage from the GOP, Akin really was just speaking the Republican mind. What Romney et al are horrified about isn't what he said, it's that he said it so plainly that some swing voters might actually notice what's really going on in their long term assault on women's health and reproductive freedoms.
Todd Akin Fallout: Rape, Abortion and the Dark History of Qualifying Violence Against Women — The "forcible rape" canard has been around for a while. The problem is in trying to police the kind of trauma that merits the right to an abortion.
One little adjective — Language Log (of all places) with some good detail on Akin's position on rape. And remember, per the party platform just adopted, his remarks represent the core GOP view of the issue. Akin's mistake was in being a little too honest, instead of using the usual conservative code talking to permit plausible deniability of their real intentions. Slacktivist Fred Clark extensively documents how mainstream Akins' views are within the GOP.
Soledad O’Brien tries to get Christine O’Donnell to define the word ‘Marxist’ — Your Liberal Media actually does its job for once, and calls out a conservative on their lies. Good luck keeping that job, Soledad. (Via
Are 'Swift Boat' attacks on Obama bogus? — By definition. 'Swift Boat' attacks are knowing lies and character assassination. Imagining them to be genuine is like imagining the Tea Party to be a politically independent, grass roots movement.
Hurricane Isaac may Threaten RNC convention of Climate-Change Deniers in Tampa — So, it is at least a little ironic that the largest convention of professional climate change deniers in the world should be menaced by an extreme weather event. Nature is not impressed by Big Oil lobbying dollars.
Hank Williams Jr. calls Obama a Muslim who ‘hates the U.S.’ at Iowa concert — Because when you're a conservative, evidence-based reality takes a distant back seat to good old "Real American" hate.
In Praise of Fact-Checkers — Ta-Nehisi Coates on Newsweek and Niall Ferguson's blatant dishonesty there. Oddly enough, Ferguson was arguing a conservative perspective when he lied in Your Liberal Media. This is why Sarah Palin's "Real Americans" vote Republican: because of the lack of ethics among liberals.
We Are Two Countries Now. It's the Space Between That's Scary. There Are Guns There. And No Laws. — Speaking of conservatives deliberately isolated from reality. Charles Pierce with a long, fascinating essay.
The convenient untruth of GOP lies on abortion, climate change, tax cuts, and vote fraud — Common wisdom on the left is that Mitt Romney has decided to lie his way to the Presidency. But there is another explanation, one that is much worse: Romney may actually think he is telling the truth. Ideologues don't live in the same world as the rest of us. If the facts don't fit the ideology, then the problem must be with the facts, as the ideology can never ever be wrong. This is precisely what lies behind the wholesale conservative rejection of the reality-based community. Thirty years of cynically deliberate cultivation of counterfactuals in pursuit of the loyalty of the GOP base has produced a culture of anti-intellectualism that will someday be seen as breathtakingly dangerous and wrong-headed in historical terms.
Will anyone say "Mormon" at the Republican convention?
Prime Time for Paul Ryan’s Guru (the One That’s Not Ayn Rand) — Ah, Hayek. (Thanks to Dad.)
?otD: When's day?
8/22/2012
Writing time yesterday: 0.75 hours (WRPA)
Body movement: 60 minute suburban walk
Hours slept: 5.75 (solid)
Weight: n/a
Currently reading: Heartland by Mark Teppo