CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Linking Sen. Leland Yee’s Voting Record To Major Donations.
On Facebook, Charles Glasser comments: “Bloggers who write about politics could pick up a tip from this kind of story. After a scandal breaks, editors want a ‘second day’ story, something that looks deeper into the ‘who’ and ‘why’…donation databases are low-hanging fruit to come up with more details.”
SO IT WAS REALLY MORE LIKE . . . HOW I MET YOUR STEPMOTHER.
Kathy Shaidle has a new book out called Confessions of A Failed Slut.
DON SURBER: The Joys Of Becoming A Hundredaire.
CONTRARY TO POPULAR IMPRESSIONS, earthquakes don’t seem to be becoming any more frequent.
AT AMAZON, most popular Coupon Deals. On all kinds of stuff. Browse and save!
Plus, up to 70% off on Men’s Casual Buttondowns, and on Men’s Polos.
KNOW YOUR PLACE, PEASANTS! Deputies search wrong home, then the real fun begins:
Huron County Common Pleas Court Judge Timothy Cardwell issued a secret gag order March 21 to seal the search warrant. The gag order is also secret, Cardwell’s court clerk said after the Register asked for a copy of the order.
And the criminal complaint that was filed with the Huron County Sheriff’s Office also is secret.
The Register learned the search warrant was gagged after Huron County Sheriff’s Capt. Ted Patrick failed to deliver on assurances he made Thursday, when he said he would follow up on the Register’s requests for the initial complaints that led to the search warrant.
Incident reports and search warrants are generally public record that cannot be withheld from release.
“You send me a records request via email and I’ll be happy to get what you need,” Patrick said Thursday.
Patrick did not respond to the email the Register then sent and, when a reporter went to the sheriff’s office Friday, the incident reports weren’t available.
Patrick, who for the past three years has routinely failed to follow the public records requirements of the Ohio Revised Code, was also unavailable.
Tar. Feathers.
QUICK — SUE HIM INTO OBLIVION! A Futurist on Why Lawyers Will Start Becoming Obsolete This Year.
Schroeder points to efforts like the Ethereum project, which uses block chains—the technology behind bitcoin—to create smart contracts. Such contracts live online, beyond the control of any single entity, and anyone can check their operating parameters at any time.
“It’s a kind of automaton,” says Schroeder. “It will follow the rules that have been laid down for it to the letter. It will never cheat.”
Uh huh.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: In Wake of 70% Enrollment Decline, La Verne Adopts Flat-Rate Law School Tuition Model.
SELF-DEFENSE COURSES FOR WOMEN ONLY: Obvious sexism. Well, it’s a benefit for one sex, based on a stereotype of the other.
ANOTHER NARRATIVE DIES, I GUESS: Science: Women Fake Orgasms For Pleasure. “A study published in the Journal of Sexual Archives says women will fake orgasm not just for the relationship, or their own insecurity, but to feel sexually excited.”
READER BOOK PLUG: From reader Miriam Sawyer, Nothing Much: Life with Mother, Bubbe & Mr. Charm.
PARASITIC MIND CONTROL: Sexually Transmitted Virus Sterilises Insects, Turns Them On.
Why would a sterile male cricket mate with an infertile female? On the surface, this behaviour makes no sense: sex takes energy and effort, and there’s nothing in it for either of these partners. Neither one can foster the next generation.
Shelley Adamo from Dalhousie University has the answer. Her team have shown that one particular insect virus can sterilise crickets, but also change their behaviour so they continue to mate with each other. By doing so, they pass the virus on to uninfected hosts.
So it’s sort of like Cosmo for bugs then. More seriously, from the comments: “I do find myself wondering about how many STDs in humans also alter host behavior. And other pathogens too, for that matter. I know this isn’t easy to study and answers probably aren’t forthcoming any time soon. My guess is ‘more than we realize.'”
DISASTER PREP WRIT LARGE: Civilization’s Starter Kit.
THAT’S SILLY, SINCE I’VE BEEN DRINKING NITRO BREWS FOR YEARS: Left Hand Brewery Attempts To Trademark ‘Nitro’ For Its Beer Line.
DESIGN IS A PROCESS, NOT AN EVENT: Fire Fighter: Tesla Model S Upgrade Adds Titanium Shield and Aluminum Deflector.
More here: “We believe these changes will also help prevent a fire resulting from an extremely high speed impact that tears the wheels off the car, like the other Model S impact fire, which occurred last year in Mexico. This happened after the vehicle impacted a roundabout at 110 mph (177kmh), shearing off 15 feet (4.5m) of concrete curbwall and tearing off the left front wheel, then smashing through an eight foot tall buttressed concrete wall on the other side of the road and tearing off the right front wheel, before crashing into a tree. The driver stepped out and walked away with no permanent injuries and a fire, again limited to the front section of the vehicle, started several minutes later. The underbody shields will help prevent a fire even in such a scenario.”
MORE ON THAT FAILED FLORIDA DEAN SEARCH: President ‘Crushed Hopes of Law School’ by Rejecting Dean Candidates Approved by Faculty. That said, I think the Florida faculty was probably unfair to Alex Acosta, too.
JUST SO YOU KNOW, MY FONT COLOR IS #000. Charlie Martin: A Little Typographical Rant: #666: text color of the beast. A lot of Web design is done by 20-somethings with excellent eyesight, using gigantic monitors. This doesn’t always do so well out in the real world.
ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Why the Hell Did I Sleep Through High School Physics?
IN THE MAIL: From Hiawatha Bray, You Are Here: From the Compass to GPS, the History and Future of How We Find Ourselves.
Also, today only: Black & Decker 20-Volt Lithium-Ion Drill Kit with 100 Accessories, $62.99 (55% off).
TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 326.
PETER BEINART: Hillary Doesn’t Deserve A Free Pass From The Media.
The media loves conversion stories. So when David Brock, who once rummaged through Little Rock in pursuit of Bill Clinton’s dirty laundry, returned to the city yesterday to speak at the Clinton School of Public Service at the University of Arkansas, both The New York Times and Politico took notice. Brock, Politico reported, came to Little Rock to “explain his transformation” from Clinton-hater to Clinton-defender. But his speech inadvertently did something else. It showed that in his approach to politics, David Brock hasn’t changed much at all.
Brock’s core argument was that as we approach 2016, mainstream journalists must stay far away from the anti-Clinton attack journalism peddled by the partisan right. In explaining why, Brock cited his own work in the early 1990s for the Richard Mellon Scaife-funded “Arkansas Project,” in which he dug up “a kitchen-sink-full of preposterous allegations,” many of which entered mainstream publications, but “almost none” of which “turned out to be true.”
Really? Many of the Arkansas Project allegations—that the Clintons oversaw a cocaine-smuggling ring, that they ordered the murder of Vince Foster—were of course preposterous. But Brock also uncovered a woman named “Paula,” who later alleged that while working as an Arkansas state employee, she was escorted by Governor Clinton’s bodyguard to his hotel room. There, she claims, Clinton exposed himself and demanded sex. When Paula Jones leveled her allegations, mainstream reporters like The Washington Post’s Michael Isikoff and The American Lawyer’s Stuart Taylor did exactly what Brock now says the media should not: They looked into it. And they concluded that—although Jones was clearly being used by Clinton’s political enemies—her story had merit. (If you doubt that, read Taylor’s summary in Slate of his much-longer American Lawyer investigation into what likely transpired between Clinton and Jones on May 8, 1991. It’s horrifying).
Clinton ultimately settled Jones’ sexual-harassment case for the entire amount she requested. U.S. District Court Judge Susan Webber Wright found him in civil contempt of court for “intentionally false” testimony, which led to the suspension of his Arkansas law license. Despite this, Media Matters, the journalism watchdog organization that Brock founded in 2004, after his ideological conversion, still occasionally savages Isikoff and Taylor for the reporting they did.
The lesson for journalists covering 2016, Brock told the Little Rock crowd, is that “Clinton-hating had nothing to do with what the Clintons did or did not do.” If only it were that simple. . . . Clinton’s behavior wasn’t irrelevant. He used the powers of his office—both as governor and president—to solicit sex and cover it up. He lied under oath and he urged others to lie. That’s far worse than sexting, which destroyed Anthony Weiner’s career.
Of course, Bill Clinton won’t be on the ballot in 2016. But not everything Clinton-haters said about Hillary was wrong either.
Read the whole thing. As Beinart notes, Hillary’s biggest problem isn’t her checkered past, but her us-against-them approach to politics.
And whenever I see David Brock’s name mentioned, I wonder if he was accompanied by an aide with an illegal gun.
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