Daily Blend: Thursday, February 28, 2013

Bill Donohue

NOTE: Effective tomorrow, Disqus will automatically “update” the old system (still in use on this blog as of this writing) to the new platform, which trades in marginally improved functionality while stripping any trace of customization. I expect to spend some time tinkering with the new system to try and squeeze out any possible improvement, though I won’t hold my breath. (Configurations and commenting histories should remain untouched.) That is all. (UPDATE: 03/06/13 3:35 PM ET – Date has been set back to the 13^th. So … yay?)

You know, it’s not often that we see priests making accusations of clerical child abuse against their superiors. Refreshing?
(via Joe. My. God.)

Indiana Republicans correct themselves: One government-sanctioned rape by medically pointless transvaginal ultrasound (instead of two) is just right for women seeking an abortion after all.

Another prosecutor thinks the best way to protect teens from the eeevils of “sexting” is by ruining their lives with the criminal justice system.

US Senate finally reauthorizes full Violence Against Women Act despite House Republicans’ best attempts to derail it and strip LGBT, native American and undocumented immigrant protections.

(Old gem) Quacks of a feather: Australian chiropractors accused of being key supporters of the anti-vaccination Australian Vaccination Network.
(via @DrRachie; RT: @BadAstronomer)

And finally, I don’t understand what Bill Donohue’s ^[pictured] anti-abortion argument is, here. I don’t think he does, either.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Richard Dawkins

Eleven-year-old Indiana boy arrested for “sexting” to a girl. Any bets on how long before “child porn” charges are brought out?
(via @AdamThierer; RT: @radleybalko)

Sadly, Richard Dawkins ^[pictured] still doesn’t get it. So frustrating to see a supposed icon of reason embrace a fallacy as obvious as “I don’t see it, so it doesn’t exist!”.

UK bigots use anti-abortionism to argue against same-sex marriage.

These fish are dickheads. Literally.
(via @science)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: sexting • Dennis Parsley • Bedford, IN • Richard Dawkins • Lucy Wainwright • misogyny • sexual harassment • Veronica at Purple NoiZe • Society for the Protection of Unborn Children • anti-choice • anti-choicers • anti-abortion • anti-abortionists • pro-life • pro-lifers • same-sex marriage • gay marriage • homophobes • homophobia • Phallostethus cuulong • Phallostethus • fish

Daily Blend: Wednesday, December 11, 2011 – Playing catch-up

Purse with embroidered revolver

• Shorter police article: “Why bother with vet care or humane euthanasia for unwanted or injured animals when you can just shoot ’em instead?”
  (via @radleybalko)

• Media: 1/5 of teens engage in “sexting”! Researchers: Bullshit.

• New on TSA’s Forbidden Items list: Purses with embroidered gun pictures ^[pictured].
  (via @AmandaMarcotte)

• North Carolina dog-lovers defeat proposed breed-specific legislation. Again: No bad breeds, only bad owners.
  (via @PersonalFailure)

• Large shopping center chain officially bans in-mall pet stores nationwide.
  (via @PersonalFailure)

• Kudos: Google valiantly thumbing their nose at U.S. government’s warrantless search policy regarding emails.
  (via @csoghoian)

• PZ Myers destroys David Barton’s idiocy about abortion and homosexuality being “aberration[s]” of nature and “against evolutionary law”.

• MythBusters goes loose cannon: Cannonball misses target, flies into nearby suburb, blasts through house and crashes into minivan. Only injuries are PR team’s sudden headache.
  (via @thinkgeek)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: PoliceOne.com • sexting • TSA • purses • guns • Cumberland County, NC • pit bulls • Rottweilers • dogs • dog breeds • Macerich company • shopping centers • malls • pet stores • puppy mills • Google • email • warrants • warrantless searches • Gmail • PZ Myers • David Barton • homosexuality • natural law • naturalistic fallacy • MythBusters • cannons • Tassajara Creek • Alameda County Sherrif's Department

Daily Blend: Saturday, May 28, 2011

“Sexting”

• Texas bill reducing “sexting” [pictured] charges from felony to misdemeanor goes to Gov. Perry for signing.

• Self-parody: Detroit crime lab ordered closed due to “sloppy investigations”, subsequently left open to the elements, with evidence still inside.

• The bottomless stupidity of WND: Obama’s birth certificate is fake because tiny random markings in signature look like a smiley face. Journalism!
  (via @todayspolitics)

• Five things that make poor people’s lives that much more difficult.

• China takes a decidedly bizarre approach to prison “hard labor”.
  (via @ebertchicago)

• Facebookers who actually believe Onion articles. What a sad spectacle.
  (via @jennifurret)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Supplemental tags: Weird • Prisons • The Onion • Satire/Parody

Texas proposes some good sense on dealing with “sexting”

Finally, a sign of sanity in the dangerous hysteria surrounding “sexting” – and from the Lone Star State, to boot:

Bucking a trend seen in other states, Texas lawmakers are taking steps to separate teen “sexting,” the sending and receiving sexually explicit photos via cell phone or email, from child pornography.

A bill proposed by State Sen. Kirk Watson of Austin, and backed by Texas State Attorney General Greg Abbott, would classify sexting as a Class C misdemeanor for first time violators under 18. Under current law, sexting is a Class C felony carrying penalties of two to 10 years in prison, a fine up to $10,000 and lifelong registration as a sex offender.

The Lone Star State deserves credit for taking a sensible approach to addressing what is without doubt stupid behavior that comes with serious consequences, but is far from the predation that child pornography laws are intended to target.

As the Houston Chronicle reports, instead of sending young people to jail for sexting, the bill, SB 407, would authorize judges to sentence minors — and one of the minor’s parents — to participate in an education program about sexting’s consequences.

The new law also would allow teens to apply to the court to have the offense expunged from their records.

Personally, I’d prefer it if the government just removed its nose from the issue altogether, but this is certainly a welcome start. You have to know that something’s gone terribly awry within the criminal justice system when minors are being charged with child-fucking-pornography simply by deliberately taking pictures of themselves and sending them to people of their own choosing. For fuck’s sake, that is no more child porn than masturbating is self-rape. Those who support that sort of absolutist, black-and-white view of law and morality are simply devoid of any shred of common sense and are quantitatively unfit to hold any sort of public office.

Remember: Sexting doesn’t destroy kids’ lives. It’s what overzealous adults do to them when they catch them that does.

(via The Agitator)