derivative work

Apparently, Dayton, Ohio, officials think that tossing pepper spray* into a mosque nursery, filled with infants and directly in the face of their ten-year-old babysitter, is nothing more than a random chance chemical irritant attack. Certainly not a hate crime. In fact, it was probably motivated by love — James Dobson-style “tough love” for those [...]

Ah, generally I am always happy to read a Dahlia Lithwick piece. She’s insightful, and a clear writer. But she blew it on her recent piece on affirmative action, “The Downsides of Diversity: What Clarence Thomas might have to say about Sarah Palin” (Newsweek; Slate, 2008/8/29). In the article, she reminds the reader, bemused by [...]

A Louisiana state Representative is considering a plan to pay poor women to have their tubes tied, to stave off additional reproduction by undesirables. One wonders just how bad history classes have to be in Louisiana for John LaBruzzo to have actually failed to learn about the many, many times governments have tried programs like [...]

Damn you, rich people who own really giant homes. I have been designing libraries for my dream home since I was, like, ten — and now I find out that the home library is now trendy among the wealthier folks. Who, natch, like them for décor.

Sarah Palin recently made a strange and nearly incoherent comment about US energy policy when asked about keeping domestic oil production in the US (WarRoom 9/19): Of course, it’s a fungible commodity and they don’t flag, you know, the molecules, where it’s going and where it’s not. But in the sense of the Congress today, [...]

Siva is shutting down Sivacracy. From the inside, it feels right. There are lots of voices talking about copyright and information policy now, and all of us Sivacracy bloggers have enough other balls to juggle. From the outside, though, the other part of me is saying, “hey but I’m going to be reading blogs again, [...]

Looks like a McCain-Palin supporter was busy at work cleaning up the Sarah Palin wikipedia entry — the day before the announcement was made. The editor claims no conflict-of-interest, although included fact-based information like, “Sarah Palin kept her campaign promises.”

California has followed Oregon in claiming copyright over its state statutes.

Reading this account of a large “Alaskan Women Reject Palin” rally — reminds me of the massive anti-Gulf War protest in San Francisco in the early 1990s. Almost no media coverage for that protest. Almost no media coverage for this one. And yet, apparently the smaller pro-Palin rally did receive media coverage. I get “if [...]

This is un-fucking-believable: Amy Goodman and producers were arrested at the RNC protests. Arresting an award-winning journalist for inquiring about her arrested producers. The video of Goodman’s arrest (“Update II”) should be watched along with the SF Chronicle‘s interview of her on her release (“Update VII”). See also Washington Post. An AP reporter was arrested [...]