Some magicians may ride a broom and fly in the air with the help of the djinn. – Sheikh Abdel Mohsen Obeikan
As I explained last week, I was absolutely swamped with links; this week we’re more back to normal, which is good because one extra TW3 column (which will appear Tuesday) is quite enough, thank you very much. Our top contributor, as so often happens, was Radley Balko, with everything down to the first video. That one was provided by Franklin Harris, who also gave us “disgrace”; it’s fairly long but well worth it if you’re a fan of Star Wars, Batman: The Animated Series, or both. And though being an avid bicyclist might increase your appreciation of the second video (contributed by Jillian Keenan), enjoying slapstick will also do the trick. The links between the videos are from Broke Brehon (“Steed”), Jesse Walker (“witchcraft”), my husband (“homeless”), Nun Ya (“OK”), Lenore Skenazy (“lava lamp”), Mike Siegel (“closing”), Susan (“freedom of assembly”), and Cop Block (“never call cops”).
- Because only America’s ruling class is immune to prosecution in America.
- Cops shoot dog because former tenant let car registration expire.
- There is no such thing as a “consensual” police encounter.
- There is a God, and He has a sense of humor.
- A disgrace to her profession.
- From the John Steed collection.
- Saudi Arabia’s war on witchcraft.
- Welcome to our world, homeless people.
- A magic button that makes everything OK.
- Bomb squad successfully defuses lava lamp.
- Feds threaten to arrest man for closing down his own company.
- That whole “freedom of assembly” thing was nice while it lasted.
- This week’s edition of “Never call the cops for any reason whatsoever.”
- Against her own will and all previous judgments, Maggie admitted to herself: I like this Pope.
From the Archives
- Fascism, patient abuse, six words, an unintended metaphor, spell ban, cops, guilt without fault and the Cult of Personality.
- Cops arrest strippers under vague “sex trafficking” pretenses, and random people on spurious prostitution charges.
- Apparently, some British juries recognize that a prostitute can be raped.
- Under criminalization, is reporting a ripoff hooker to cops really worth it?
- Both 2012 presidential candidates were descended from polygamists.
- The role of Manichean thinking in creating “sex trafficking” hysteria.
- The problems Asian sex workers face in Victoria’s legalized system.
- Volunteering at a shelter confers “trafficking” expertise in months.
- Filipino “trafficking” hotline is confused about number of “victims”.
- It’s so nice when people who have never done sex work get it.
- A once-important festival now consigned to the attic of history.
- Indian sex workers rescue a little girl from her abusive mother.
- Barcelona’s campaign to drive vulnerable women into poverty.
- Scientific illiterates attack a politician’s scientific illiteracy.
- The Indian Supreme Court waffles on decriminalization.
- Another attempt to destroy the internet is defeated.
- Northern Ireland contracts the Swedish disease.
- How to obscure reality by manipulating words.
- Two very different tales of artificial life forms.
- An online conflict between two activists.
- $2 billion in preventable medical costs.
- Several examples of sex work scams.
- Three whores go to a strip club.
- The moral panic over “sexting”.
- A look at sex work in Yemen.
- Porn causes terrorism!
I’m even starting to warm to God since the last pope admitted it was Him who told him to quit.
That librarian ought to be ashamed of herself for discouraging that kid. Team Tyler! You go little boy, and read like your life depends on it. Because it might.
{—-proud bookworm and librarian’s pet
Did you know that male-female couples in Saudi Arabia in public have to produce a marriage certificate on demand if they are stopped by the police in public together?
http://castroller.com/podcasts/Nsfwcorp/3694944
Khalwat.
It’s on the books in many Islamic countries, though its only the Gulf oil states that seem to enforce it with any vigour.
In Malaysia it’s generally only used to harass people who’ve gotten up the nose of authorities.
RE; the Pope
“”Just be natural,” Severgnini wrote. “If he wanted to get bored, he would have called a government minister.””
CLASSIC!
The cops in Britain, specifically in England and Wales, are fond of repeating the mantra, “policing by consent”, often after some egregious act of theirs has come to light. I’m not sure how long they can continue with this deception; certainly in Scotland the new unified force seems to be taking only the hard-line bits of the previous forces there. Of course, many people in N Ireland would laugh at the idea of the PSNI policing by “consent”.
This Librarian is a Marxist pig but let me me tell you – if I had a son or daughter that read 63 books in less than a two-month period I’d be worried enough to do something about that.
This is where I depart with society – which unquestioningly believes that NO amount of reading is TOO much. Too much of anything is a bad thing – and it doesn’t matter what it is.
MOST reading is submersion into a fantasy world – unless the kid is reading technical manuals or science digests or something. If that were the case – I might conclude I had a “savant” on my hands and just turn him loose to cure cancer or invent the first warp drive.
But too much submersion into fantasy is bad – whether it’s from books, or DVD’s. Even if it’s Shakespeare he’s reading.
If I were that kid’s Dad – next summer he’d be on a ball team somewhere.
This is one of my pet-peeves. I can’t stand to hear pussies complaining about how music programs and reading programs in schools have been cut back. News Flash – phys-ed programs have NEVER received much attention or funding in America. No – I’m not talking about football teams – goddamn we spend too much money on those but those are not the broad-based phys-ed programs I’m talking about. Football is worthless as a targeted tool to improve the physical conditioning of both boys and girls – and even some boys aren’t built to play football.
I think every kid ought to be taught a martial art in school – and I would recommend judo because I don’t come at this from the perspective of trying to teach a kid to defend himself so much as I believe he should be able to work with his body in an organic fashion – and I think judo helps greatly in this. Judo’s not the self-defense tool many people think … you want real-life self-defense … try “Krav Maga” – but I don’t recommend teaching kids to kill each other – at least not until they’re mature enough to be able to use a tool like that responsibly.
Dance programs – particularly for girls … we need to really sit down and figure out how to improve kid’s physical health in a broad based fashion.
Can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked up to a kid in the gym and he told me … “I’m trying to get in shape and lose weight to join the Coast Guard.”
The Coast Guard??!! Jesus man, their physical standards aren’t that though – and every kid graduating high school should be able to laugh their ass off while performing the Coast Guard physical readiness test. Same thing with the Navy’s too!
One of the biggest problems Company Commanders in Navy Boot Camps face is kids coming into the service who can’t perform extended periods of physical activity. Stress fractures – one the biggies. Goddamn we had to completely redesign the boot camp facility at Great Lakes, IL just so kids don’t have to march “too far” to the chow hall. What the fuck people?
We suck.
Just one more thing. One of the reasons I like Romanian women so much is Romania seems to have a physical fitness culture that is a cut above what you normally see here in the west. All of the Romanian girls I’ve met all told me they did … DANCE and … GYMNASTICS … from an early age.
And they LOOK like they have too. They’re in incredible shape – and the only one’s I’ve met are hookers. Lea Lexis – a Romanian porn star – was a also national champion gymnast in her earlier years.
So being of a similar vintage to myself can I assume that you too were once tortured by adolescent fantasies of a young lady named Nadia Comenici?
I was an obsessive reader of science books and technical manuals when I was in primary school and the teachers and school librarian took my parents aside to express their concern that I didn’t read fiction (that was one factor in a short lived push to have me sent to a ‘special’ school, despite the fact that I topped almost all subjects – except art and handwriting – and ultimately duxed the school).
They were always shoving Enid Blyton and ‘Boys own Adventures’ crap into my hands and getting very worried when I discarded them after a few pages.
Then when I was about ten I discovered horror stories.
Strangely my sudden enthusiasm for fiction didn’t seem to reassure adults at all.
Re: The Pope: I liked the _Dune_ reference. I actually read it in Max von Sydow’s voice.
I’m glad SOMEBODY picked up on that! 🙂
Doh! Disappointed that I missed it!
I’d make another Links=Lynx=Cat joke, but after that last TW3 I’m afraid to.