CLIMBDOWN NOT AS COMPLETE AS THOUGHT: PayPal Still Threatens $2500 Fines for Promoting “Discriminatory” “Intolerance” (Even if Not “Misinformation”).

HMM: 2 men shot near Long Island home of Republican gubernatorial nominee Lee Zeldin.

OPEN THREAD: Better late than never!

SPRING FASCISM PREVIEW: Tweep’s ‘hobby’ of finding sofas and other objects that Jill Biden’s dresses are ‘MADE from’ results in spectacularly HILARIOUS thread.

(Classical — and possibly NSFW — reference in headline.)

WHY ARE LEFTY INSTITUTIONS SUCH CESSPITS OF RACISM? Yowza: L.A. city council members caught on leaked audio making racist, mocking comments about colleagues.

UPDATE: “If you think your town or city is badly governed, remember that it could be worse: you could live in Los Angeles. Appalling ignorance, racism, corruption and political greed came to light when someone recorded a conversation among three members of the Los Angeles City Council and the city’s most powerful labor leader. The Los Angeles Times covers a story that must be painful for the paper, since everyone involved is a Democrat.”

THE 21st CENTURY IS NOT TURNING OUT AS I HAD HOPED: Amazon “suicide kits” have led to teen deaths, according to new lawsuit.

Lawyers, who are representing parents suing Amazon for selling “suicide kits” to teenagers who died by suicide, say they have reached a “breaking point.”

Amazon lawyers have allegedly told parents that the online retailer had a right to sell these so-called “suicide kits.” The kits are described in the lawsuit as bundled items that Amazon suggests buyers purchase together, including a potentially lethal chemical called sodium nitrite, a scale to measure a lethal dose, a drug to prevent vomiting, and a book with instructions on how to use the chemical to attempt suicide. The online retailer’s lawyers also allegedly said that it would be “unfair and inhumane” to hold Amazon liable for the teens’ deaths.

One of the parents’ lawyers, Carrie Goldberg, took to Twitter yesterday, alleging that Amazon’s corporate ties with news outlets like CBS are effectively working to silence media attention for their lawsuit, while more lives likely remain at risk.

“For months, we avoided press attention to this case,” Goldberg, founder of C.A. Goldberg, PLLC, told Ars in a statement. “But we have reached a breaking point of too many people dying, of medical providers not knowing what is happening or that a treatment protocol exists, and of press spiking stories about it—presumably because of corporate ties to Amazon.”

Read the whole thing.

I HAD TO GIVE UP THE MIDNIGHT PIZZAS YEARS AGO: Eating Late Can Change How You Burn Calories And Store Fat, Depressing Study Finds.

THE JOY OF FLYING: Just ‘plane’ bad etiquette: Airline passenger drapes her long, thick hair over the back of her seat. “At one point, the long brunette locks reached Christensen’s tray table and even flirted with the top of her coffee cup.”

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS:

Shot: “And speaking of the system of justice, we are also changing — y’all might have heard that this week — the federal government’s approach to marijuana.  (Applause.)  Because the bottom line there is: Nobody should have to go to jail for smoking weed.  (Applause.)”

—“Remarks by Vice President Harris in a Keynote Address at the 2022 Texas Democratic Party Johnson-Jordan Reception,” the White House, today.

Chaser:

Kamala Harris’ opponents and critics have picked apart her prosecution of marijuana crimes during her presidential run, knocking her for over-aggressive jailing of pot users and lambasting her as a hypocrite for saying she now supports legalizing the drug.

But Harris’ history of prosecuting marijuana cases as San Francisco district attorney is more nuanced than those debate-stage confrontations indicate, according to new data obtained by the Bay Area News Group and interviews with more than a dozen former prosecutors, defense attorneys, criminal justice experts and activists who’ve been following her career.

Harris oversaw more than 1,900 marijuana convictions in San Francisco, previously unreported records from the DA’s office show. Her prosecutors appear to have convicted people on marijuana charges at a higher rate than under her predecessor, based on data about marijuana arrests in the city.

—“Campaign fact check: Here’s how Kamala Harris really prosecuted marijuana cases,” the San Jose Mercury, September 11th, 2019.

Hangover:

Vice President Kamala Harris’ record of securing convictions for marijuana-related offenses could be put back into the spotlight after President Joe Biden pardoned people convicted of simple possession under federal law.

Biden took the decision to grant the pardons on Thursday and also asked the secretary of health and human services and the attorney general to “expeditiously” review how marijuana is scheduled under federal law.

However, the move will not affect the nearly 2,000 people who were convicted while Harris was San Francisco district attorney (DA) because those convictions were not made at the federal level.

—“Biden’s Marijuana Pardons Don’t Cover Hundreds Kamala Harris Had Convicted,” Newsweek, Friday.

JESSE SINGAL: It Isn’t Journalism’s Job To Hand-Hold People To The Correct Moral Conclusions.

Journalism is screwed for a lot of reasons, most of them structural and having nothing to do with the views of even the most moralizing, censorious gatekeepers. But still: It’s a really, really bad sign that said gatekeepers understand journalism in this way, and that they’re eagerly trying to inflict their views on other journalists.

These are eternal debates within journalism, of course: what “objectivity” means, the proper way to contextualize bad acts and actors, and so on. It isn’t new for people to respond angrily to a portrayal of a wrongdoer that is rendered with certain shades of gray.

Way back in 2013, for example, I wrote a piece for The Boston Globe (unlocked archive here) arguing that, contrary to a swell of outrage, Rolling Stone hadn’t actually erred in publishing an issue of its magazine fronted by this image of Boston Marathon bombing co-conspirator Dzhokhar Tsarnaev:

I wrote that while some complained that the image “glorified” the terrorist, “We fear the image not because it glorifies Tsarnaev, but because he looks like any other teen trying to strike a cool, aloof pose for a photograph. He appears too normal to have done a horrible thing.” This is useful! The whole point is he was a normal kid, and then he became a terrorist. As someone once said, It Is Really Important to Humanize Evil if we hope to understand it.

The Tsarnaev cover outrage was a big media story at the time, and some retailers refused to carry that issue of Rolling Stone. But I don’t remember large numbers of journalists piling on the magazine for making this decision, nor does a quick review of the contemporaneouscoverage of the controversy show that this was the case. I guess it could just be that Twitter wasn’t a very big deal yet and we weren’t all swimming around in journalists’ opinions about each and every controversy (what a nightmare we inhabit), but I do think back then most journalists understood that “You made the bad man look not so bad” was a fairly un-journalistic opinion to hold, even if they could understand why members of the public might feel upset.

These days, journalists are very quick to make these sorts of snap judgements. As part of the great Donald Trump brain-melting — a process that is still unfolding — many journalists now understand their jobs differently from how they used to. One of their most holy responsibilities, in this view, is to protect readers and listeners from bad ideas, which can easily infect them if journalist-guardians drop their guards for one second.

Read the whole thing.

TEACH WOMEN NOT TO RAPE! (CONT’D): Female NYC teachers were equal-opportunity predators, probers find.

Related: Woman duct-taped, slashed naked Tinder date — then ordered DoorDash: cops.

THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: Department of Justice exposes biggest COVID stimulus fraud scheme yet.

The Justice Department recently announced the largest fraud claim uncovered in any Covid-19 relief program, accusing 44 people in Minnesota of allegedly committing fraud against anti-hunger programs during the pandemic, stealing $240 million.

The group billed the government for meals “they did not serve to children who did not exist,” The New York Times reported.

The brazen fraud stands out among the many instances of federal pandemic aid theft.

Prosecutors in the North Star State said one accused conspirator told the government he had fed 5,000 children a day in a second-story apartment, The Times reported.

The alleged criminals didn’t bother to try to hide their fraud, knowing that little attention would be paid to the details while the government was overwhelmed with applications and intent to get as much money out the door as possible.

Flashback: Florida man charged with buying Lamborghini, Rolex, Louis Vuitton, more with COVID relief money.

THE DESIRE NAMED STREETCAR: How California’s Bullet Train Went Off the Rails.

VIRGINIA POSTREL: How to Honor Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

I think about breast cancer every October, and not because it’s “Breast Cancer Awareness Month,” which I find some mixture of ridiculous and distasteful. I’m all for raising money for breast cancer research and treatment. But making people “aware” by slapping pink on everything from the water in public fountains to specials at Dollar Tree doesn’t do much to save lives. When someone’s selling “breast cancer awareness” tchotchkes, any contributions won’t be more than their profit margins and quite likely less. (See this 2015 Business Insideranalysis of how little money from the NFL’s breast cancer merch makes it to the cause.)

It’s not the orgy of pink that reminds me of breast cancer. It’s the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. I have a rooting interest, and so far I’ve been disappointed. I want the prize to go to UCLA cancer researcher Dennis Slamon, who in recent years has been on the Great Mentioner’s short list (an improvement since I started paying attention a decade or so ago).

Read the whole thing.

GOOD: SpaceX to Launch Starlink Satellites Every Week to Build Second-Gen Network.

OLD AND BUSTED: “Safe, Legal and Rare.”

The New Hotness?

Like Mark Kelly, they can't be honest about this. Amazing to watch this. https://t.co/aYyYrOHjw3

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) October 9, 2022

READER FAVORITE: Cordless Vacuum Cleaner. #CommissionEarned

FRANK CAPRA WOULD APPROVE: Mr. Paul Goes to Washington. Capra’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington was accused of being both too corny and too cynical in its portrayal of a brave senator singlehandedly defending the public good against the thoroughly corrupt political and journalistic establishments. But we’ve seen a version of that plot for two years now, thanks to Senator Rand Paul’s lonely battle against Anthony Fauci, the CDC, and the mainstream press.

Invoking Hayek’s “fatal conceit,” Paul has repeatedly exposed Fauci’s blind arrogance, shabby tactics, and disastrous policies. My City Journal piece shows how Paul has asked the questions that Fauci’s fan club in the press should have been asking.  Paul has delivered consistently better scientific guidance than Fauci or the CDC  — and he has vowed to hold them accountable if Republicans regain the Senate majority.

SOLID ADVICE: Hurricane Ian Flooded Many Cars. Don’t Buy One of Them.

BERKELEY HATEWATCH UPDATE: Some Berkeley Law “Jew Free Zone” Updates. “One point I didn’t mention in my previous post is that SJP’s statement seems part and parcel of a nationwide SJP campaign to specifically try to exclude Jews from ‘progressive spaces’ unless they will specifically denounce Israel’s existence. . . . Again, this is a political strategy, rather than simply isolated incidents.”

Why is higher education such a cesspit of hate?

PAYPAL WALKS BACK UPDATE TO USER POLICY THAT THREATENED A $2,500 PENALTY FOR SPREADING ‘MISINFORMATION.’

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: Who wants to swim with robot dolphins? More people than you may think.

ALL OF A SUDDEN, BLOGGERS SEEM INFLUENTIAL AGAIN: Russian rockets kill 17 in Zaporizhzhia as bloggers rip Putin after Crimea bridge blast. They seem to be the only ones openly and publicly criticizing Putin’s conduct of the war, which is a big switch from their earlier treatment.

THE WEEK IN KANYE:

● Kanye West Wears ‘White Lives Matter’ T-Shirt Design at YZY Season 9 Presentation.

—Complex.com, Monday.

● Kanye threatens to go to WAR with ‘Jewish people’: Claims he can’t be anti-Semitic because ‘black people are actually Jew also’ — after his Insta was restricted for saying Diddy was being controlled by Jewish people.

—The London Daily Mail, today.

● Twitter Locks Kanye West Out of Account After Tweet Declaring War on Jews.

—Mediaite, today.

No word yet if Kanye will be collaborating with Roger Waters on his next album.

THERE ARE DUMBER IDEAS OUT THERE, BUT NOT THAT MANY: How green are biofuels? Scientists are at loggerheads: Replacing gasoline with ethanol has changed landscapes across the globe.