Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….
- Even Lindsey Graham doesn’t deserve this: Steve Benen
- This is why we can’t have nice things – The GOP has become so addicted to grandstanding, demagoguery, and lying for “points,” that it’s sickening to watch. Money grafs: “Now would be a terrific time for a real debate. Republicans could — get this — raise legitimate objections to the legislation, and raise concerns that — believe it or not — are entirely sensible. But, no. We can’t have real debates because we’re too busy suffering through idiotic mendacity.”
- Public Schools Are Giving Your Kids STDs and Dooming Them To Hell – Wow. Public schools sounds a whole lot more fun than it was when I was growing up.
- Texas’ Cruel Push To Prevent Same-Sex Couples From Divorcing – Yeah, “family values.” Right.
- Right-Wing Media Distorts Clinton’s Oklahoma City Speech To Claim He Wants To Muzzle Dissent – Y’know, Conservatives used to be all about personal responsibility, and they still are when it comes to cutting welfare benefits and unemployment insurance payouts, and they’re all about the evil influence of others when it comes to rock music and video games. But let someone even suggest that people take a bit of responsibility for the effects their incendiary rhetoric, and those same folks start sounding like they’re being dragged off to the camps …
- Maryland Foster Agency Won’t Allow Muslim Mother To Foster A Child – Wow. That has to possibly be the lamest excuse for religious prejudice I’ve heard of in months.
- A ride down San Francisco’s Market Street, September 1905… – This is just fascinating, including seeing the mix of vehicles — horse carts for most business purposes, but a lot of private autos for passengers. Cable cars, but also some horse-drawn trolleys. Very few people riding horses alone, and nobody paying much attention to what we’d consider traffic laws.
- Modifying Morality In the Lab – Sadly, you have to know that there are people in the military and intelligence realm who are avidly reading this research …
- A 4/20 Reminder – Unfortunately, the “War on Drugs” not only has strong institutional protection by folks who profit from it (on both sides of the law), but it’s part and parcel of America’s cultural puritanism — the idea that someone might be idle, might be having “fun” (even self-destructive fun), being too much to bear. Only because alcohol was so wide-spread did Prohibition fail — and its cost in building up organized crime in this country is still with us. I don’t think all illegal drugs should be decriminalized, but the current system squanders so much money and hurts society so badly, there must certainly be a way to recalibrate where the legal/illegal dividing line should be.
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