Links With Your Coffee - Tuesday
- Language Log » What’s wrong with being naked?
Naked men meet cop and pass the time of day. Nothing to see here, move along. - A sound theory? : Nature News
A new theory suggests a natural basis for our preference for musical consonance. But does such a preference exist at all, wonders Philip Ball.
- Dispatches from the Culture Wars: McCain:Ignorant or Lying?
My father, a lifelong Republican, called and left a message on my voicemail yesterday saying that McCain's reaction to the Supreme Court's ruling on habeas corpus and the Gitmo detainees had sealed any chance McCain had for getting his vote in November. And McCain's statement was so ridiculous that one has to wonder if he is really that ignorant of the law or if he was simply lying through his teeth. Here's what he said:
We are now going to have the courts flooded with so-called, quote, Habeas Corpus suits against the government, whether it be about the diet, whether it be about the reading material. And we are going to be bollixed up in a way that is terribly unfortunate, because we need to go ahead and adjudicate these cases.
That may be the single dumbest thing said in this entire election so far. - BBC NEWS | Health | Early man 'couldn't stomach milk' (tip to David)
Analysis of Neolithic remains, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests no European adults could digest the drink at that time. University College London scientists say that the rapid spread of a gene which lets us reap the benefits of milk shows evolution in action.
- Good Math, Bad Math : The Koranic Speed of Light
A reader sent me a really wonderfully wacko link. It's a fundamentalist islamic site, which tries to use relativity to argue for the divinity of the Koran. It's remarkably silly.
- t r u t h o u t | Dan Rather Slams Corporate News at Conference
Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather delivered a blistering critique of corporate news on Saturday night at the National Conference for Media Reform hosted by Free Press.
- Passenger Rail: We Can Say It Now
- Wonkette: The D.C. Gossip » Blog Archive » Cindy McCain Continues To Steal Easily Googlable Recipes
- Obama's Blind Spot on Israel
Bumper stickers reveal link to road rage : Nature News
Bumper stickers such as “Make Love, Not War” and “More Trees, Less Bush” speak volumes about a vehicle's driver — but maybe not in the way they might hope. People who customize their cars with stickers and other adornments are more prone to road rage than other people, according to researchers in Colorado- erv : Atheist Q&A
Comments
Funny Story.
It must be very a weird balance to be a cop in San Fran.
re: McCain & SCOTUS Habeus Corpus decision
Either McCain a) fails to understand the merits and significance of this case or b) he doesn't believe his voters understand it, giving him free reign to spin this as "judicial activism" of sorts.
The SCOTUS supporting Habeus Corpus is "judicial activism"? Really? Lawsuits over diet? This doesn't make sense any way you spin it.
If you have a few minutes, I strongly suggest you read http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/07pdf/06-1195.pdf this PDF and skip to page 110. Here you will find Scalia's dissenting opinion, and everything wrong with that which labels itself as "conservative" these days.
For those who don't yet understand what the bid deal is all about, let me lay out a simple "what if" for you. NYC, 2010. You, a foreign national working in NYC for the summer, are on your way to work, and stop to grab a hot dog from a vendor on the way. As he hands you your change, he is charged by a dozen FBI agents who uncover a few pounds of C4 in his cart. This vendor is in fact part of a vast conspiracy to blow up the UN building. You on the other hand, now handcuffed and taken into Federal custody as a "terrorist suspect", are simply a foreign national on the way to work.
Which is the more AMERICAN way to handle a case like this?
option a) You are told the reason for your detainment, and explain the misunderstanding. The FBI runs a quick background check and apologizes for an honest mistake. (They though you were a co-conspirator, and that your change was Al-Queda funding).
option b) You are shipped to an American-occupied prison within the sovreign territory of Cuba, and held (on the US taxpayer's dime) for 7 years. While there you suffer from extreme "interrogation techniques", including but not limited to sexual assault. After a few months of this, just like John McCain, you "break", and begin confessing to things that you do not agree with.
Calligraph: as a McCain supporter, does this not strike you as the ultimate irony? Shouldn't we expect McCain to understand this issue far better than anyone else running?
Have you ever been wrongly charged with a crime? How about a bogus traffic ticket? Did you simply pay it, and take an insurance hike, or did you go to court and fight it? And even if you didn't, don't you appreciate that due process exists, and that this option remains?
Those who support Scalia's take on the issue can be best described as lawless. If you are willing to ignore a centuries-old cornerstone to all western law, how can I expect you to respect any law?
This isn't jaywalking. This isn't abortion. This isn't a "grey zone" of law. This is Habeus fucking Corpus, capish?
This is Habeus fucking Corpus, capish?
LOL Zaphod. No, they don't capish. 'Get used to saying it: "President John McCain"
The Supreme Court outlawing abortion? Get used to that too.
Have you ever been wrongly charged with a crime?
Oh Zaphod,
In Calligraph world, only those who are guilty are charged with a crime, and every person charged with a crime is guilty. Nothing that you or any of us will say will change his mind.. that is until such time that Calligraph or a member of his family is charged with a crime. That's how it works. Them's the facts. Get used to saying it: "President John McCain"
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