Posts Tagged ‘judges’
Tuesday II: The Wrath of Trump!
* A Storify of tweets from the #ShapingChange Butler conference, from the great Moya Bailey.
* Come for the Sputnik Awards, stay for the impossibly byzantine voting system…
* Star Trek as critique of Robert Heinlein. An excerpt from the new book Trekonomics, which I’ve been enjoying a lot.
* A new study, published recently in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), draws a link between human smarts and an infant’s dependency, suggesting one thing led to the other in a spiraling evolutionary feedback loop.
* Incredible: Erie debt collectors held fake court hearings.
* Republicans Express Shock at Trump, but Stand By Him. What’s Going on in the Republican Party Right Now is Shocking. ‘Trump U’ scandal gets worse for Florida’s AG. Texas Governor Linked to Alleged Cover-Up of Dropped Trump University Investigation. Kirk out. Here Comes Hillary the Hawk.
* Leopard escapes at Utah zoo, visitors take shelter. Quick, find me some parents of a four-year-old to blame!
* Rethinking Judicial Selection.
* 10 Theoretical Megastructures, From Big to Massive.
* It is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of Clara Oswald.
Weekend Links
* Tolkien Class At Wis. University Proves Popular. Marquette English hits the big time.
* A decade-long spending binge to build academic buildings, dormitories and recreational facilities — some of them inordinately lavish to attract students — has left colleges and universities saddled with large amounts of debt. Oftentimes, students are stuck picking up the bill.
* Legal systems and/as the history of imperialism and colonialism.
* The New York Times drops its oppo research on Cory Booker.
When snow blanketed this city two Christmases ago, Mayor Cory A. Booker was celebrated around the nation for personally shoveling out residents who had appealed for help on Twitter. But here, his administration was scorned as streets remained impassable for days because the city had no contract for snow removal.
Last spring, Ellen DeGeneres presented Mr. Booker with a superhero costume after he rushed into a burning building to save a neighbor. But Newark had eliminated three fire companies after the mayor’s plan to plug a budget hole failed.
* California judge declares that women’s bodies can prevent rape. Don’t worry, folks — he’s already been admonished. Still a sitting judge, but admonished.
* American Exceptionalism: The Shootings Will Go On.
* So it’s okay when he says it: “The truth of the matter is that my policies are so mainstream that if I had set the same policies that I had back in the 1980s, I would be considered a moderate Republican.”
* Glenn Greenwald has seen Zero Dark Thirty.
The fact that nice liberals who already opposed torture (like Spencer Ackerman) felt squeamish and uncomfortable watching the torture scenes is irrelevant. That does not negate this point at all. People who support torture don’t support it because they don’t realize it’s brutal. They know it’s brutal – that’s precisely why they think it works – and they believe it’s justifiable because of its brutality: because it is helpful in extracting important information, catching terrorists, and keeping them safe. This film repeatedly reinforces that belief by depicting torture exactly as its supporters like to see it: as an ugly though necessary tactic used by brave and patriotic CIA agents in stopping hateful, violent terrorists.
* This time Obama is totally going to keep his promises about drug enforcement.
* Why race matters after Sandy.
* UC surrenders, zunguzungu named chancellor.
* China Miéville vs. science fiction.
* Twenty-seven-year-old single mother of three sentenced to life imprisonment for bag holding the same day HSBC declared officially above the law. Outrageous HSBC Settlement Proves the Drug War is a Joke.
* School cafeteria worker fired for helping needy student. You know, Christmastime.
A Few Links from the Week
* Krugman says Obama’s big job speech was okay. I agree! If nothing else, perhaps bipartisan austerity is really done.
* But he’s still screwing up on judges in a big way.
* This is the second year in a row Binghamton has recorded a 1-in-100 year rain event. If only there were some sort of scientific theory that could explain these abnormal weather patterns.
* Just great: GOP debate audience cheers Perry’s execution record.
* TPM v. Anonymous. Weird times.
* Scientists have finally invented psychohistory.
* And from Reddit: a brief history of banking.
Better Judges Have Daughters
Looking at data from the U.S. Courts of Appeals, we find that conditional on the number of children, judges with daughters consistently vote in a more liberal fashion on gender issues than judges without daughters. This effect is particularly strong among Republican appointed judges and is robust and persists even once we control for a wide variety of factors.
Can’t Get Enough Election Links
* It gets worse: Why the GOP will likely control the House for a long time.
* Ezra Klein: Blame the kids.
* Matt Yglesias: No, blame the upper half of wage earners.
* ThinkProgress: Don’t blame the Affordable Care Act. Drum: Don’t blame cap and trade.
* And confidential to Iowa, the rest of the Midwest, and the South: This is why it doesn’t make any sense to elect judges.
You Remembered
* Childhood dreams confirmed: You can jump the flagpole in Super Mario Brothers.
* Early reports that the top kill had worked may have been premature.
* Twenty-two mile plume of oil slinking towards Alabama.
* In what seems to have been something of a surprise vote, a repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell has passed the Senate Armed Services Committee, and now appears in the latest defense appropriations bill as well. It’s a few years late, but it’s finally happening.
* If I’m reading this right, in fourteen years I will be president.
* Solved and unsolved Lost mysteries. Life with Hurley and Ben on the Island.
* ABC is considering rebooting Alias, sans Rambaldi. I must be in the minority that thought Rambaldi was the only good part of that show.
* All but confirmed: Joss Whedon will direct The Avengers.
* In the late 1950s, psychologist Milton Rokeach was gripped by an eccentric plan. He gathered three psychiatric patients, each with the delusion that they were Jesus Christ, to live together for two years in Ypsilanti State Hospital to see if their beliefs would change. Via MeFi.
* I still remember how scandalized I was when I moved to Ohio and discovered that some states elect their judges. It’s simply nuts.
* For the past six years he had been studying for his PhD in the history of homicide in 19th century England from 1847-99, comparing Victorian investigative techniques with modern policing methods. There’s no way to frame this sad story about a British criminology Ph.D. student accused of murdering three women that doesn’t seem like I’m trying to make a joke out of it. Via.
* And Eyemaze has a new game, Transform. Jay Is Games has the walkthrough.
Gerry Canavan 
