Freedom and whores are the most cosmopolitan items under the sun. – Georg Büchner
Speaking of enjoyment, I discovered a new source of it while guest blogging: constructing links columns. Radley does one nearly every day, so I continued his tradition by publishing three of them a week; as you may have noticed over the past few Sundays, I had fun thinking of “teaser” phrases intended to make y’all curious enough to click the links. So much fun, in fact, that I’m loath to give it up, so I won’t; as part of my gradual decrease in workload I will henceforth post a links column each Sunday. This will not replace the “That Was the Week That Was” columns, but will instead act as a supplement to them; the items featured there will mostly be non-hookery things I found interesting that week, and a few sex work items presented without much comment. If you’ve enjoyed the last few Sunday columns, these will be more of the same except presented without introductory comments in most cases. And since I can compose the columns during the week while going about my usual internet-canvassing, I can essentially decrease my workload by 14% while still giving y’all a column every day and providing fodder for interesting comment threads.
I only published one new column over there this week, “The Differences That Aren’t”; it’s an answer to those who feel I’m being disingenuous when I say that sex is no different from any other human activity. I also published two links columns, whose contents are below:
- The cat who walks through surveillance.
- Nightmarish conditions at a US-funded military hospital in Afghanistan are covered up by US military officials. Don’t look at these pictures unless you have a strong stomach.
- In Chicago, cops can steal your car by claiming to discover even a tiny amount of marijuana on one of your passengers.
- The conversion of a climate-change skeptic.
- TSA concludes that babies and American G-men are unlikely to blow up airplanes.
- Fellow guest blogger Ken White on why the freedom to express a negative reaction to another’s speech is just as important as the speech itself.
- The apes are rising.
- Welcome to our world.
- Six important sci-fi ideas that were invented by a hack.
- Marines catch “deserter” – five years after his honorable discharge.
- Louisiana teachers’ union threatens to sue private schools that accept vouchers.
- Do 3-D printers make prohibitions impossible?
- Today’s edition of “never call the cops for any reason whatsoever.”
- The most important trade agreement that we know nothing about.
- Cop chastises man for not being grateful that said cop harassed and humiliated him and frightened his daughter.
And last but not least, here are a few items I’ve collected since Tuesday:
- Cop tases 12-year-old girl because her mother has unpaid traffic tickets.
- Mississippi man somehow manages to “commit suicide” with a pistol in the back seat of a police car while his hands are handcuffed behind his back, after being searched twice.
- Read this Harvey Silverglate article carefully, then think long & hard about what one-issue folks call a “War on Women”. (Here’s background on the Gibson Guitar story.)
- A fine example of modern American fascism.
- Lost Dr. Who episodes recovered from deep space.
- In for a penny, in for a pound.
- OK, I’m impressed.
- Bay Area home-invasion robbers targeted Asian escorts.
- A little good news: ACLU stops police robbery gang in Texas.