The state calls its own violence law, but that of the individual crime.
– Max Stirner
I compose these links columns all week long, adding them to a Word document as I find them; sometimes I quote the original “tweet”, link or headline directly, other times I write my own “headline” right away, and still other times I just save the link and write one later. On Thursday evening (usually) I pre-post what I have, adding whatever I find on Friday or Saturday directly into the post, then bring it into its final form on Saturday afternoon (again, usually). Well, up until Saturday morning it looked as though my friend Grace was actually going to beat out perennial link-contribution champ Radley Balko, but he pulled ahead at the last minute with several more. Everything down to the first video is from him, including the video itself; the first three items after the video are from Grace, then the rest are from Walter Olson, Brooke Magnanti, Baylen Linnekin, Neil Gaiman, Jacob Sullum, Michael Whiteacre and the North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition; the second video and the first link below it were contributed by Jesse Walker.
- The self-perpetuating police state.
- The Law of Unintended Consequences strikes again.
- Does eating chocolate make people more intelligent?
- Another unarmed man murdered by cops without any apparent reason.
- The cop who was fired for sucker-punching an innocent woman will be feted by the Fraternal Order of Police.
- Court declares that incapacitated victim “threatened” three attacking cops simultaneously by drawing a gun via telekinesis.
- For the season, I present these striking Harry Clarke illustrations from the 1919 edition of Edgar Allen Poe’s Tales of Mystery and Imagination, and a Poe-inspired short film below.
- Car dealer mistakenly sells truck for too low a price. Customer refuses to sign new contract for the higher price. Dealer has customer arrested, alleging he stole the vehicle.
- We can all agree she’s awful. But life in prison for a non-capital crime?
- Greek cops use a young woman as a human shield.
- Life imitates Monty Python.
- “No taxidermist loved his daughter more.”
- Welcome to our world, school lunch protesters.
- Giant mystery eyeball washes up on Florida beach.
- An excellent analysis of the “War On Drugs” in comic-strip form.
- Man wins cockroach-eating contest, then immediately drops dead.
- UK panicmongers claim strong beer is “worse than crack or heroin”.
- This short Hitchcock tribute by Martin Scorsese is actually a wine ad.
- Big corporations are trying to criminalize the sale of used goods.
- Four cops accused of fisting random men in the street at gunpoint.
- Woman gets phone bill for more money than there is in the whole world.
- PETA continues its campaign to become a global laughingstock by attacking Pokemon for “virtual animal cruelty”.