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Archive for August 3rd, 2024

Reviewing…a person’s cell phone is the best approximation government officials have for mindreading.  –  Judge Nina Morrison

All-Purpose Excuse (#990)

It’s rare these days for a US court to uphold the Constitution against the government:

The Fourth Amendment still applies at the border, despite the feds’ insistence that it doesn’t.  For years, courts have ruled that the government has the right to conduct routine, warrantless searches for contraband at the border…CBP…has [wrongfully interpreted] that…to force travelers to hand over data from their phones and laptops.  But…Judge Nina Morrison…ruled that cellphone searches are…more akin to a strip search than scanning a suitcase…Therefore, the court ruled, a cellphone search at the border requires both probable cause and a warrant.  Morrison did not distinguish between scanning a phone’s contents with…software and manually flipping through it…

Thought Control (#1325)

I was destined to be threatened with state violence regardless of career path:

[A busybody pig] spent months methodically [rooting]…through [books Christian fundamentalists dislike] and highlight[ing] key passages amid reams and reams of paper.  He wore his body camera to record his interactions with [people whose lives he wanted to ruin] and…photographed…books [the lunatic fringe deemed “pornography”, including]…The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison…an 824-page investigative file obtained by NBC News…shows how, for two years, [self-appointed censor Scott] London vigorously pursued felony charges against librarians in…Granbury [Texas]…London secured subpoenas, filed public records requests, received names of students who’d checked out certain books and, after a year, wrote draft criminal complaints…The [rooting and harassment finally] came to an end in June after Hood County District Attorney Ryan Sinclair turned down London’s request to indict the librarians, citing a [total] lack of…evidence [sufficient] to charge them with felonies…

Creepy Coppers (#1414)

Some cops don’t limit themselves to one type of creepiness:

A Massachusetts [cop named]…Matthew B. Marshall…was arrested…[for] possession…[and] dissemination of child pornography…and [other crimes stemming from]…”videos depicting [Marshall] entering…a Dunkin Donuts and urinating all over the inside of the bathroom…on the sink, on the handles, on the door”…

If Men Were Angels (#1436)

The problem isn’t Catholicism, Christianity or even religion; it’s teaching kids to blindly submit to authority:

Omaha’s Archbishop is among the clergy members named in a lawsuit filed against the Archdiocese of St. Louis…by 27 anonymous plaintiffs.  It accuses the defendants of often transferring the perpetrators to different locations within the Archdiocese or Catholic Church or sending them away for treatment before returning them to unsupervised access to children…One of the plaintiffs, a former altar boy, alleged Omaha Archbishop George Lucas sexually assaulted [him] when [he was] a junior in high school at the Saint Louis Preparatory Seminary…[where] Lucas was…Dean of Education at the…time. “The church is not a democracy, so that gives a seminary head…extraordinary power over very vulnerable and devout teenagers,” [sexual abuse activist David] Clohessy said…

Censor Chic (#1438)

Judge rules that a spade is actually a spade:

…a prominent “disinformation expert” once hired to head a government board to [censor speech the government declared] untruths but unceremoniously dumped from the position when the board was dissolved amidst public outcry…sue[d Fox News] for defamation [because it correctly described her function as]…censorship…Nina Jankowicz[‘s]…”Disinformation Governance Board was formed precisely to examine citizens’ speech and, in coordination with the private sector, identify ‘misinformation,’ ‘disinformation,” and ‘malinformation’…That objective is…a form of censorship”…concluded [U.S. District Judge Colm F. Connolly, who]…dismissed Jankowicz’s claim “in its entirety”…

To Molest and Rape (ROTW #12)

Give sexually-aggressive thugs power over kids; what could possibly go wrong?

A [typical and representative Florida cop paid to spy on, harass, and intimidate students has been]…found…guilty of child sex abuse…Joshua Robert Herren…was arrested Nov. 28, after a victim [reported that]…Herren [had seduced and repeatedly molested her] from the time she was 15…[but] had [already been stalking her]…prior to her turning 15…Herren…want[ed] her to dress up as a young girl and…call him “Daddy”…[after she] blocked his phone number and…social media accounts…he began [send]ing [her threatening] letters…He…is set to be sentenced on Aug. 26…[and] faces up to life in prison…

The Cop Myth (#1453)

Sleeping with a cop is one of the most dangerous things a woman can do:

A [typical and representative English cop was given a slap on the wrist] for repeatedly attacking his ex-girlfriend, including punching her and throwing her across a room…Paul Whitehurst…also [abused] two other women [in the past], but…was not charged…[and this time he was given a mere 9 weeks] in prison….[and] released the same day, because of the time he had already served…Whitehurst [also threatened to rape the woman and repeatedly]…tried to “gaslight” her…She…said she was selling her house and car as she did not feel safe there any more and did not want Whitehurst to know where she lived[, but luckily she has learned her lesson about trusting cops]…

 

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