"Unlike clients of a government agency, customers of a commercial enterprise really are customers, representing potential profit, not cost. In contrast to the DMV sign I shared the other day, consider the sign below, spotted at a small restaurant (via Niels van der Linden)." Continue reading →
"Parents in East Ramapo, New York celebrated the firing Monday night of their local school board’s attorney in the wake of a profanity-laced tirade caught on video, WNBC-TV reported. The decision followed a protest at school district headquarters demanding the removal of Christopher Kirby, an attorney with Minerva & D’Agostino, a Long Island-based firm. However, Kirby did not provide an apology for his actions. The video, shot after the board’s July 2 meeting by a local parent, Antonio Luciano, shows Kirby calling Peggy Hatton a 'fat c-nt,' as well as accusing Luciano of 'hiding behind his women' while filming." Continue reading →
"'It’s always a problem — in November I hung a portrait of the US wall in Mexico here and an American came by and shouted at me, ‘You can’t compare this.’ But for me, it doesn’t matter if it’s a religious, national or economic conflict — the idea that you have a problem and you can solve it by building a wall has simply been obsolete since 1989.' Wiedenhoefer said the bleak, often heavily militarised ramparts against illegal immigration, like the US fence on the Mexican border and around the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla in Morocco, or along religious lines such as in Baghdad and Belfast, were tragic testaments." Continue reading →
"The fact that mass spying on Americans isn’t necessary to keep us safe is finally going mainstream." Continue reading →
"Justin Carter, 19 was arrested for making an off-color joke to a friend about a MOBA* computer game they were playing. For this transgression, Carter was not just investigated, but arrested. He's been in jail for months now, held on $500,000 bail. Across the country, in Washington, D.C., a very similar situation has had a very different outcome. D.C. Police Officer Christopher Picciano, 'a 17-year veteran who was a member of the elite presidential motorcade detail,' will be suspended without pay for a little over a month after joking about killing the first lady, threatening to go on a shooting spree, and calling Pres. Obama a communist." Continue reading →
"Showing 'total lack of awareness,' a Sacramento County sheriff’s deputy awoke a mentally ill man and then shot him to death in his own bedroom, the man’s family claims in court. Theodore and Karen Rose sued Sacramento County, its Sheriff Scott Jones, and Deputy David McEntire for the wrongful death of their son Johnathan Rose, in Federal Court. He says in the complaint that though he called 911, he did not overdramatize the situation or indicate that Johnathan was on a rampage. After Ted Rose’s 911 call, Johnathan calmed down enough to take his medication and fall asleep. More than an hour later, Deputy McEntire showed up at the Rose home." Continue reading →
"A woman’s testimony against an extreme anti-abortion bill in Texas was cut short when state troopers escorted her out of the state Senate. The Senate committee was holding a hearing on legislation that would ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy and enact strict regulations on abortion clinics. She mocked State Senator Donna Campbell (R-New Braunfels) for framing herself as an expert on reproductive health even though she was an ophthalmologist. After this, Chairwoman Jane Nelson interrupted Slamen and told her not to disrespect the senators. As the two began to argue, state troopers grabbed Slamen and escorted her out of the room." Continue reading →
"At any one time, California holds about 12,000 inmates in extreme isolation, including some who have been in windowless boxes known as security housing units (SHUs) for decades. They are allowed out for an hour a day to exercise – some in a yard, others in a kennel-size cage. Supporters say the strike is a legitimate response to cruel and inhumane conditions. 'The use of prolonged solitary confinement is a form of torture,” said Laura Downton, director for US Policy and Program at the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. California has an unusual policy of indefinitely putting suspected gang members in solitary until they identify fellow gang members." Continue reading →
"Christine Lagarde, one of the most powerful women in the world as head of the International Monetary Fund, is facing acute embarrassment after a letter in which she urged former French President Nicolas Sarkozy to 'use me' was found during a police raid on her Paris flat. Ms. Lagarde, as head of the International Monetary Fund, is commonly held to be one of the most powerful women in the world. But as this leaked letter shows, she is just as encumbered by alliances as anyone else, and her success may lay in her ability to convince others that rather than being a leader, she can be counted on as a good apparatchik." Continue reading →
"Disgraced ex-IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said the legal principle of being innocent until proven guilty was violated in the sex scandal that brought him down. Strauss-Kahn told CNN he was still angry with the US justice system over his treatment in 2011 when he was paraded before TV cameras in New York in handcuffs, on charges of rape that were later dropped. 'The problem is that it’s a moment where in all European, American society you are supposed to be innocent, you are supposed to be innocent until you are convicted,' he said." Continue reading →