#WARONMEN: Suzanne Venker: Men — the new second class citizens. “Unlike women, however, men don’t organize and form groups when they’ve been persecuted. They just bow out of the game.”
Hey, somebody should write a book on that!
Archive for 2013
July 13, 2013
THE HILL: New rules require Justice to report on journalist subpoenas.
The Justice Department announced new guidelines effective immediately that will require it to issue annual reports detailing every time it tries to get a search warrant or subpoena a journalist.
The new guidelines will also require Justice to notify news organizations about any subpoena the department sought that pertained to reporting by their employees. A decision to keep the subpoena secret would have to be made only by the attorney general and could be kept under wraps for a maximum of 90 days under the new rules.
The new procedures were announced in response to outrage over Justice’s seizure of Associated Press phone records and its spying on Fox New reporter James Rosen.
While I was in New York, I chatted with some of the media folks who were negotiating with DoJ over this. But I worry that bloggers and independent journalists won’t get the benefit of this deal.
WHY I STILL LOVE THE INTERNET: Last night I was the first person on the Internet to use the phrase “international cat speculators.”
But by the time I got up this morning, there was already InternationalCatSpeculators.com. Complete with a mid-1990s aesthetic! But although I think it was Gary Larson who started the “cats can’t spell” meme, why would that apply to cat speculators, too?
THE ECONOMIST: Secret Police And Democracy: What, Me Worry?
Actually, it’s Rik Hertzberg playing the role of Alfred E. Neuman here. But he’s had nearly five years of practice. More:
Why is any of this procedural stuff important in the first place? Because law is coercive. If the coercion of the law is to be legitimate—if government is to be legitimate—the legal rules need to be publicly justified. The rules that govern our lives need to be rules that we can see ourselves as having reason to follow.
When the government appears to be lawless, it loses legitimacy. This doesn’t mean that people immediately rush to string bureaucrats up. They just don’t follow the law any more than they have to. And so we move further down the road toward middle-class anarchy.
THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR MITT ROMNEY, A BURGEONING NATIONAL SECURITY STATE WOULD BE BENDING THE INTERNET TO ITS WILL. AND THEY WERE RIGHT! How the U.S. forces Net firms to cooperate on surveillance.
HOW’S THAT “SMART DIPLOMACY” WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Egyptian Protesters On Both Sides Angry At U.S.
THE CHICAGO WAY: Chicago Police Corruption, False Confession, and Torture Problem.
“WITH DNC IN MIND, CITY BANS CARRYING URINE, FECES.” That’s a recurring joke of James Taranto’s since it was a real headline from Colorado in 2008. But now: Texas police confiscate jars of urine, feces, paint from abortion bill protesters at state house.
LAYERS OF EDITORS AND FACT-CHECKERS: At KTVU. And, apparently, the NTSB. . . .
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, Administrative Pay Edition.
Mark Yudof, a witty constitutional lawyer who presided over a near doubling of tuition during his five years as president of the University of California, said Friday he will step down in August to teach law at UC Berkeley.
By completing five years, Yudof can add $230,000 a year on top of his pension, which he’ll collect only after he retires from UC. The bulk of his retirement pay will come from prior employers: the University of Texas, where he spent most of his career, and the University of Minnesota.
“I feel it is time to make a change in my professional lifestyle,” Yudof, 68, said. . . .
As guardian of the world’s greatest public research university, Yudof encouraged the regents to raise tuition, some years by double digits, as the state reduced its funding by about $900 million since his arrival in 2008.
It’s probably a good time to get out.
NOBEL PEACE PRIZE UPDATE: It Is Now Common Knowledge That US Drones Bomb Civilian Rescuers.
July 12, 2013
GINNING UP A POLITICIZED PROSECUTION: In Audio Recording, Department of Justice Official Urges Protesters to Seek ‘Justice’ for Trayvon Martin. “The DoJ section involved, the Community Relations Service, is supposed to render impartial aid in disputes. It clearly took a side on the Zimmerman-Martin shooting.”
IT’S ACTUALLY AMAZING HOW LONG THIS HAS DRAGGED ON: Snowden creates new headaches, distractions for White House. Though the way things are going on other fronts, the White House may welcome a distraction.
MY DAUGHTER CHALLENGED MY SUGGESTION that if she adopted a kitten it might be abducted by “international cat speculators.” She doubted that such a market exists:
I explained that they’re obviously just underground international cat speculators, but she remains unconvinced. But I guess this does mean that I’m the very first person to use the phrase “international cat speculators” on the Internet. Which is something.
UPDATE: Wow, give Google the edge for speed on this one. Less than ten minutes after I posted, it’s already showing.
ANOTHER UPDATE: A minute or so later on Bing. Still not showing on DuckDuckGo.
MORE: Reader James Durso writes: “You may be the first person to use the phrase “international cat speculators” on the Internet but I bet the Booz Allen contingent at NSA is working up a contract mod to address this alarming new threat…” And in future years they’ll brag about the success of their program!
IRAQ: Democracy in action. “Why has Maliki tilted away from Iran and towards reconciliation with his Sunni population? The answer, in a word, is democracy.”
SOUNDS SUSPICIOUS: “Saw David Gregory pausing briefly outside of a CVS. He was saying nothing and did not volunteer a reason for being there.”
NOBEL PEACE PRIZE UPDATE: US pressures human rights groups not to help Snowden. “The Obama administration on Friday urged human rights groups not to help National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden seek asylum. A U.S. Embassy official called a human rights activist who was set to meet with Snowden at a media event at the Moscow airport to reiterate the administration’s position that he is an accused criminal, not a whistle-blower.”
VIDEO: Shampooing In Zero Gravity.
21ST CENTURY FATHERING: Man swims 5 hours to save his family. “John Franklin Riggs left family members clinging to a capsized boat in a sea of stinging jellyfish, swimming miles and climbing rocks at the shoreline in pitch blackness to reach help at the first house he saw.”
HAPPY BLOGGIVERSARY TO The Dignified Rant.
K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Think You Could Never Homeschool? Confessions of a reluctant homeschool mom. “When we started homeschooling Ryan, it was only because we found out at the kindergarten screening that the public school didn’t teach reading in kindergarten and our precocious Pre-K Kangaroo, who had excelled in all things in preschool, was ready to read. Private school tuition wasn’t a realistic option for our family budget and we didn’t like the idea of stalling his education for a year. So our battle cry became, ‘How badly can we mess up kindergarten?’ That was the extent of our personal homeschooling conviction at that point. Worst-case scenario, he wouldn’t be any further behind than his public school peers, who would be learning their letter sounds and basic numbers that year. As it turned out, our little sponge soaked up everything we put in front of him.”
21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: The mobile a trois! How 20per cent of young adults use smartphones DURING SEX. The article makes it sound like they’re multitasking, but I wonder how many are sharing pics with friends. . . .
UPDATE: Or maybe it’s just men protecting themselves.
SCIENCE: Are Women Hardwired To Cheat? If so, I’m sure it turns out to be a good thing somehow.