TheAgitator.com
Morning Links
Friday, March 11th, 2011- If you haven’t seen the tsunami videos yet, you should watch them. Just . . . damn.
- Regretsy mocks a cease and desist letter.
- The sunbeam nap.
- Queens DA has concocted a fun little scheme to deprive poor people of their Miranda rights.
- Girl Scouts: 30 percent full of lies.
- So this is pretty creepy.
- Guy buys secondhand landscape paintings . . . and then adds monsters to them.
- “Snoop” Perason gets arrested in a Baltimore drug sweep. Thoughtful response from David Simon here.
- The Road to Iowa Is Paved With Pizza.
- Photographer recreates favorite childhood pictures.
Those are the most internally conflicted monsters ever. I love that.
In today’s semi-good news, a couple of Florida legislators are working to eliminate mandatory minimum sentencing in drug cases, including the law that resulted in Richard Paey’s 25-year prison sentence. Idea is still flawed (the law requires a mandatory minimum fine of $25,000 to $500,000), but it’s better than the status quo, at least.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/fl-mandatory-drug-sentences-20110311,0,5015387.story
That seriously makes a mockery of the Miranda warnings… and yet, it would be nice to have a way to tell the cops the truth about something before having to get a lawyer involved (at least, when you are innocent, anyway).
I just can’t see one that isn’t ripe for abuse. Bummer.
David Simon’s response is fantastic, and spot-on.
Having selected a number of criminal juries, I can confidently say it’s DA training 101 to boot anybody who has ever been convicted of a crime, or who seems too poor, uneducated, or disaffected.
Nobody facing down a felony is truly judged by a jury of their peers, because nobody on the jury has ever been charged with a felony.
My Thin Mints sleeve was to the top of the box. Looks like the dude ate some and is trying to blame those porr little Scouts!
From the Regretsy link:
The Law Firm of Koppian and Paystin
I like it.
I generally refuse to support the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts due to their “no Atheists” policy. but the Mint Girl Scout Cookies are a definite chink in my armor.
I generally devour a package in about two hours.
“If there is something you want us to investigate about this incident, then you have to tell us now so we can investigate it,” the questioner says.
I’m no expert… would “Blow me, Sir” qualify as a legitimate response than can be investigated?
I think Bill of Rights Circumvention must be the hottest class in Law School these days. Or do young hotshot DAs learn these tricks in private ministrations from the Mob?
Aresen: google for “thin mints recipe”. Also, thin mints are best when you put them in the freezer.
… on ice cream.
Lightweight
Incidentally, my whole family is atheist and we all participated in Girl Scouts in one way or another.
Wow, the tsunami did a LOT of damage. I bet the death toll gets into the tens of thousands vs the “hundreds” reported so far.
I’m pretty sure that if you removed law enforcement stings, rescue industry “research”, and under cover “journalism” from the equation, the underground sex trade would be instantly cut in half.
My Dad was a hardcore atheist, and he a) enrolled me in Boy Scouts when I was 6 or 7, and b) went to AA meetings, even though AA explicitly requires that you ‘surrender to a higher power’ or something, I think.
You take what you need from those sorts of things and contribute what you can, despite whatever indoctrination efforts you have to side-step.
Dave Krueger! Think before you write! If you remove law enforcement stings then the underground sex trade will probably eleventy-tuple because none of them are being apprehended!
Aresen: The Girl Scouts are a separate organization from the Boy Scouts. Their pledge does say “to serve God”, but officially you’re allowed to change that to fit your beliefs if you’re not a monotheist. Still, it’s supposed to reflect a spiritual commitment, which is a bit oogy. Local troops may enforce rather different rules than the national council, of course, legally or not.
@ Pete & Kirsten
A very good atheist friend of mine actually ran a Cub Scout group for several years (no one else in her small community would do it) until the local HQ found out she was an atheist and expelled her.
Now, I donate to kids’ sports teams, piss on the guys who run the Scouts. I feel sorry for the kids.
all the sex stings seem creepy to me…
As a Iowa native, I can say that the pizza at the Pizza Ranch is so-so. But, the chicken is great. They really should change the name, but “Chicken Ranch” is already trade marked.
Again, Boy Scouts ≠ Girl Scouts. Two completely separate organizations.
When I see Cub Scouts/Boy Scouts selling shit outside the grocery I never give them the time of day because of their anti-gay stance. The Girl Scouts has no such policies regarding gays (or atheists, for that matter).
I love the DAs defense is that this process will help get ot the truth! Well then! Why don’t we make all lawyers divulge confidential client communication? Truth! Why don’t we make people testify at their own criminal trials? Truth!
His reasoning is the logical euqivalent of getting accused of murder and saying “yeah but I only killed bad people! yay!!” There are rules here, dude.
I once managed to eat only half a box of Girl Scout cookies in a day. As a reward to myself, I ate the other half.
“The Road to Iowa Is Paved With Pizza”
Well, that certainly bodes well for Herman Cain.
Apparently, I must plead guilty to a false assumption.
OTOH, I no longer have to feel “Atheist Angst” over buying the Mint Cookies. :)
I wish Bob Ross would have painted monsters in his paintings.
Just a note – the childhood pictures link does contain one NSFW image.
“And we said then that if asked to serve on any jury considering a non-violent drug offense, we would move to nullify that jury’s verdict and vote to acquit. Regardless of the defendant, I still believe such a course of action would be just in any case in which drug offenses—absent proof of violent acts—are alleged.”
That is a great strategy, Mr. Simon. Jury nullification–and proper understanding of the role of the jury–may sow the seeds of the drug war’s destruction. So choose to acquit in the court room. Also, choose not to call the police on your pot smoking neighbors at your apartment building. Choose to ignore the crack dealer on the corner (unless he tresspasses on your property or commits an actual crime while on his “post”). After all, that annoying dealer is only out there because the government fucked up and banned drugs (instead of regulating them in the interest of consumer safety).
If citizens choose not to cooperate with the drug war game, then the war will end eventually. It continues to exist because citizens refuse to part ways with the puritanism that has interfered with freedom in the U.S. since its founding.
If you like that cease and desist letter mocking you might want to read over some of the legal threats to somethingawful.com. They’re orders of magnitude funnier.
http://www.somethingawful.com/d/legal-threats/
Mattocracy…happy little monsters?
Love the children’s photos link. Great stuff.
Yes, with little Bob Ross afros.
The tsunami footage is breathtaking and horrifying. Unless all those buildings being swept into a pile of floating, burning rubble had been evacuated before the wave hit, the death toll will be in the thousands.
“His reasoning is the logical equivalent of getting accused of murder and saying “yeah but I only killed bad people! yay!!” There are rules here, dude.”
Okay, Sergeant Doakes.
All the Media Mavens are now flocking to Japan to boost ratings. I can safely predict that unlike Cairo, none of them will be beaten, raped or sexual assaulted in Japan.
Except for Anderson Cooper who will be willingly violated by several large octopi.
When I see Cub Scouts/Boy Scouts selling shit outside the grocery I never give them the time of day because of their anti-gay stance.
Think those 8 year old kids have a anti-gay stance, do you? I hope you glare at them and perhaps spit in their general direction.
Regretsy – Huh?
Let’s see here, etsy’s complaint goes something like the following…
You (regretsy – but I’ll continue to use “you”, “your”, etc.) visited my (etsy – but I’ll use “I”, “my”, etc.) web site where I PAY my web site host to send a copy of this photo to ALL who visit, AT NO CHARGE to the visitor. You then put it up on your web site, where your web host sends a copy of it to all who visit, at no charge to the visitor. I want you to stop doing for free what I pay someone else to do for me.
Doesn’t make sense. In particular, if regretsy used a link to the original photo, rather than a separate copy, I can’t see where etsy has any legal recourse.
But isn’t this rather like someone saying “Hey! Take that photo I sent you for free off the wall in your art gallery!”?