Daily Blend: Monday, May 17, 2010

I’m actually starting to wonder if the universe isn’t so ironic to the point where all that far-Right noise about how the government is supposedly “taking away their freedoms” might be becoming true on certain levels, particularly when it comes to the justice and legal systems. Warrantless arrests, indefinite detentions despite lacking evidence, stripping citizenships based only on nebulous accusations of terroristic activity, amongst all the other Bush-era crap (the PATRIOT Act, for starters) that the Obama administration has been sure to keep afloat despite its many promises otherwise … Not a pretty picture for legal rights.

• United States: Home of the Free … to be arrested, imprisoned and prosecuted as terrorist suspects at the President’s sole discretion.
  (via Pharyngula)

• So Yip Yips are book-reading, baby-eating evolutionist atheists? Told you aliens were smarter than humanity.
  (via Friendly Atheist)

• Your winner!

• I smell a great lampooning around the bend.
  (via @todayspolitics)

• 7-year-old Aiyana Jones shot and killed when SWAT raided a Michigan home in search of a murder suspect. It’s still too early to pronounce any real judgment on the cops’ part, but any case where a young child ends up shot in the “neck/head area” inherently casts suspicion upon the level of force used in the operation. Meanwhile, deepest sympathies to the poor girl’s family and friends.
  (via The Agitator)

• Instant nightmare fodder.
  (via @donttrythis)

• Supreme Court rules that certain “sexually dangerous” sex offenders can be kept locked up even after their sentences are complete. So what’s the freaking point of even handing out limited sentences, then? I understand that some recidivists truly are too dangerous to the general public, but the potential for this ruling to be applied to other, non-dangerous offenders is chilling. Because you know it will happen. It always does.
  (via @washingtonpost)

• Conversely, some good news: Supreme Court rules that juveniles can’t be given life sentences without parole for non-homicidal crimes.
  (via @washingtonpost)

As always, if you have any story suggestions, feel free to send them in.