You may be shocked to discover that your freedoms are being oppressed right now as you read this.
This morning, Twitter was buzzing about the Mercatus Center’s latest rankings of Freedom in the 50 States. Rounding out the top 5 slots in descending order are Oklahoma, New Hampshire, Tennessee, and South Dakota. And the number one MOST FREE state according to this year’s rankings? The great shining beacon on the hill known as North Dakota! That’s right. North Dakota. Continue reading
Yesterday we heard the oral arguments for CA’s Prop 8 which audio of can be found here and a transcript here. I would write a recap, but I’ll be the first to admit that 1) I suck at translating legal jargon into actual English and 2) I don’t want to get something wrong. Continue reading
So today and tomorrow the Supreme Court will be hearing oral arguments on CA’s Prop 8 (Overturned in the 2010 case, Perry v. Schwarzenegger )and the U.S.’ s DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act signed into law by the Big Dog himself Bill Clinton in 1996.) Continue reading
Have you been watching The Bible on the History Channel? We’ve been treated to Noah gathering beasts, Pharaoh being a total prick for no reason whatsoever and Jesus wandering through the desert for 40 days after John (the baptists) baptizes him. It’s all your favorite stories from the bible in HD.
Also, Satan looks like Obama. Wait, what? Continue reading
While my NPR station was blathering on about fake Serious Person Paul Ryan and his masturbatory homage to Ayn Rand and the slightly more realistic budget coming from Sen. Patty Murray and Senate Democrats, the House Progressive Caucus quietly (in media terms) released its Back to Work Budget this week.
Contained within is a whole host of liberal red meat: Tax increases on the wealthy! Infrastructure investments! Investment income taxed like wage income! Initiatives to target climate change! It also has a healthy dose of unintended irony.
Reuters is reporting State Supreme Court Justice Milton Tingling in Manhattan has ruled the new regulation put into effect by Nanny State aficionado, Michael Bloomberg as “arbitrary and capricious.” He also declared it invalid, after the American Beverage Association and other business groups sued the city challenging the ban. Continue reading
The chief minister of Gujarat and alleged human rights abuser Narendra Modi was dropped from the lineup at the 17th Wharton India Economic Forum thanks to internal pressure from professors and students at Wharton and from pressure outside. The petition signed by students and faculty was spearheaded by the Kractivist.
Geez Wharton. What were you thinking? Continue reading
The chief minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, will be a keynote speaker at an upcoming conference sponsored by the Wharton School of Business at their 17th Wharton India Economic Forum and held at the Penn Museum at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
So who the hell is Modi and why should you care? He is accused by some of genocide in the 2002 Gujarati riots for one. General oppressor, religious bigot, and despot, for another. But he can charm your socks off, was on the cover of Time magazine, and has more charisma than Bill Clinton according to the Atlantic Wire. Continue reading
The Senate of Canada is, as randyfmacdonald pointed out two weeks ago, a useless appendage of the state, which has become a resting place for party bagmen to get paid to do not much of anything. As he noted at the time, two Senators were embroiled in a scandal over expenses (and in one case alleged criminality). Since then, the scandal has both deepened and widened. Many more Senators are facing allegations that they claimed expenses to which they were not entitled, and in some cases are facing allegations that they are ineligible to even sit in the Senate in the first place. Continue reading
We are rapidly approaching the wastelands Beyond the Sequesterdome, and there doesn’t seem to be anything anyone can do, except for maybe compromise on their precious principles a little bit, which was the whole point of the thing in the first place. As plenty of people have pointed out, the sequester is stupid: we are told that it is a “meat-axe” or a “chainsaw,” which are used by stupid butchers and lumberjacks, rather than a “scalpel,” which is used by smart, hunky doctors. Continue reading
