Merry Christmas, Religious Right, Science and Relgion, Creationism, Ultra-Orthodox Judaism

Merry Christmas

• The fake "War on Christmas" outrage Salon
• Five myths about Christmas: Challenging everything you think you know
• 13 Weird Things You Never Knew About 'It's A Wonderful Life'
• Why 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' Almost Never Aired
• Hail Mary: You have more in common with the mother of Jesus than you think
• Kwanzaa is made up but useful
• Hollywood's Sexy Santas
• Santa Con
• USPS Delivers Christmas Gift 371 Days Late
• C&H: Season's Greetings

Religious Right

• The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Don’t Believe in Science (or Many Other Inconvenient Truths)
• Kentucky church bans inter-racial couples 'in the name of the greater unity'
• Lowes pulls ad from TLC's "All-American Muslim" reality show after Christian group complains that the families are too normal
• Let's Face it: It's the Radical Right, not Islam, that is the Greatest Threat to the American Way
• Christian theocracy: How Newt Gingrich and the GOP would abolish courts and legislate morality
• 5 Reasons the Religious Right Should Stop Whining About Being Persecuted
• Why young evangelicals are leaving church

Science and Religion

• Top Ten Peacemakers in the Science-Religion Wars: 2011 was not a good year for hardliners of either stripe
• Science and Religion: Are They Compatible?
• Science and religion can and do mix, mostly

Creationism

• David Attenborough joins campaign against creationism in schools
• Creationist claims in Northern Ireland--Supporters of creationism in Northern Ireland are abusing the language of rights and equality in order to gain a foothold
• Mommy, why is that man covered with penises?
• Muslim students walking out of lectures on Darwinism because it 'clashes with the Koran'
• Bachmann: Teaching Only Evolution Is 'Censorship'

Ultra-Orthodox Judaism

• Israel’s Old-Time Religion--"How government policies have caused the surge in ultra-Orthodox Judaism in Israel—and why it’s an economic disaster."
• As ultra-Orthodox flex muscle, Israel feminists see a backsliding
• Women's rights in Israel challenged by ultra-Orthodox — including singing in public
• Religious Jews still try to segregate Israel buses--Illegally demanding that women sit in the back of the bus.
• In Brooklyn, a Hasidic walking tour opens ultra-Orthodox Jewish life to outsiders

SOPA, Your Rights Online, DMCA, Piracy, IP Addresses, Louis CK

SOPA

• Victory! Boycott forces GoDaddy to drop its support for SOPA--This was not long after they bragged that the boycott wasn't hurting their bottom line, but this reeks of a publicity stunt (they scrubbed their SOPA-supporting blog posts) and just so make 29 December "Move Your Domain Away From GoDaddy Day".
• SOPA: So how much does it cost to buy off America's Internet freedom?
• Vincent Cerf on SOPA: "Unprecedented censorship"
• RedState.com: Stopping SOPA--"This battle is so important — and is one of those rare fights where the left and right are united against Congress — that I suggest the left and right unite and pledge to defeat in primaries every person named as a sponsor on H.R. 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act."
• At the SOPA Cabana, the place where SOPA can ban ya

Your Rights Online

• Senator Harry Reid Moves To Approve PROTECT IP And Begin Censoring The Internet
• Don't Break the Internet
• Twitter stake bought by Saudi billionaire--"Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has taken a $300m stake in Twitter."
• EU Council Quietly Adopts ACTA, By Hiding It In An Agriculture And Fisheries Meeting
• GlobalChokepoints.org--"Global Chokepoints is an online resource created to document and monitor global proposals to turn Internet intermediaries into copyright police."

DMCA

• Appeals Court reaffirms DMCA protection for user-generated content
• Universal loses DMCA lawsuit against Veoh--Two years ago, a judge already said "safe harbor" applied to Veoh. But this could all change with SOPA.
• SST Records' DMCA Take Down Request Results in Removal of Legit YouTube Videos

Piracy

• Retired, Computerless Woman Fined For Pirating 'Hooligan' Movie
• 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine' Pirate Sentenced to One Year in Prison
• "Spanish Napster" Victorious As Court Rejects Major Label Copyright Case

IP Addresses

• RIAA: Someone Else Is Pirating Through Our IP-Addresses
• Court confirms: IP addresses aren't people (and P2P lawyers know it)
• Court: IP Addresses Are Not 'Personally Identifiable' Information

Louis CK: Live at the Beacon Theater

• Louis C.K. tops $1 million in sales of $5 comedy special--A strategically-priced no-hassle DRM-free high-quality production video can make a shitload of cash.
• Louis C.K. and the Direct-to-Fans Model
• Louis C.K.'s Working-Class Roots and Success NYT

Occupy Movement, Payroll Cut Extension, The 1%, Public-Private Partnerships, Banks, Bailouts and Bonuses, Mortgages and Foreclosures, Eurozone

Occupy Movement

• Time Magazine Picks Occupy Wall Street as the top news story of 2011
• Occupy Protesters Have Blocked Access to Three West-Coast Ports--The port truck drivers published an open letter.
• Many in Gen X disconnected from 'Occupy'
• Alan Moore Reacts To Frank Miller – "We Have Diametrically Opposing Views"
• The 1% reacts to OWS, Green Arrow edition

Payroll Cut Extension

• US Republicans in climbdown on payroll tax deal--In other words, they caved.
• Is This The Moment The GOP Implodes?--Boehner not only cut off the pro forma session short but also the C-SPAN cameras so as to avoid discussing the payroll cut extension.
• Poll: Job approval for Congress sinks to new low

The 1%

• The 1 Percent, Revealed: The superrich have drawn a clear line in the sand between themselves and everybody else. How did we get here?
• Bankers Join Billionaires to Debunk ‘Imbecile’ Attack on Top 1%
• A Christmas Message From America's Rich

Public-Private Partneships

• Hedgefunds got insider tips from politicians--Scratch my back.
• The Corporations that Occupy Congress--"30 brand-name companies paid a federal income tax rate of minus 6.7 percent on $160 billion of profit...." Emphasis mine.
• Why Lobbying Transparency Is More Important Than Open Government

Banks, Bailouts and Bonuses

• Break up the banks: Feds must end 'too big to fail'--"Making them smaller and less 'systemically' important may be the only way to get them to lend more. If they hold less capital, they can start taking some risks without a chance of blowing up the whole financial system."
• Bill Black's Handy Guide to Bankster Fraud, From 'Small Fraudulent Fry' to 'Septic Tank Scum'--"The white collar criminologist calls out Bush and Obama for not prosecuting financial fraud and demands an end to the free pass for campaign contributors."
• Bail-out Bombshell: Fed "Emergency" Bank Rescue Totaled $29 Trillion Over Three Years--"While the 99% suffered hardship, a new study shows that the Fed propped up buddies in the banking industry and a vast shadow banking system far beyond what anyone has guessed."
• Bankers ready to take legal action to protect bonuses--"As banks decide on 2011 pay, City lawyer Paul Quain warns that they will be hit by legal claims."
• Revealed: bankers' secret meetings with ministers--"Details of Treasury visits prompt fears Osborne will take soft line on banking reform."

Mortgages and Foreclosures

• It's official: Housing market was sicker than we thought
• "The FBI Estimates That 80 Percent Of All Mortgage Fraud Involves Collaboration Or Collusion By Industry Insiders"
• BofA to pay $335 million to settle Countrywide mortgage bias probe
• Bank Of America Decides To Let Foreclosed-Upon Family Stay In House Until Wife Dies
• Bringing America Back: A Bank Doing the Right Thing--"Instead of moving quickly to foreclose and cover losses, Webster Bank is committed to helping families stay in their homes."
  

Eurozone

• Bankers Are Using the Eurozone Crisis to Wage Warfare on Working People and Seize Control of Governments
• What really caused the eurozone crisis?
• Italian Senate votes through austerity package

Iraq, Iran, War on Terror: Surveillance and Indefinite Detention, Manning and Wikileaks, Military Industrial Complex, TSA

Iraq

• Lie by Lie: A Timeline of How We Got Into Iraq --It wasn't from lack of provocation, and "not one has taken responsibility" for these lies.
• Last US troops to leave Iraq cross Kuwait border
• Iraqis Say They're Worse Off After War, View Iran Unfavorably
• Panetta: Iraq War was "worth it" Salon
• Junkyard Gives Up Secret Accounts of Massacre in Iraq NYT
• Remains of 274 US troops dumped in landfill
• "Dishonest Dubya" Lying Action Figure Doll

Iran

• US military 'ready to engage in a conflict with Iran'--"America's most senior military official has indicated that the country is ready to engage in a conflict with Iran, if President Barack Obama were to give the signal."
• Iran official: We tricked the U.S. surveillance drone to land intact
• O'Reilly Lectures Romney: Bombing Iran 'Starts World War III'--It's bad when O'Reilly is the one making sense.

War on Terror: Surveillance and Indefinite Detention

• Has the nation simply wasted a trillion dollars protecting itself against terror? Mostly.
• Did Congress Just Endorse Rendition for Americans?
• A public letter to the US Government upon the passing of NDAA
• GOP Rep Introduces Measure To Prohibit Detaining American Citizens Without Due Process
• FBI says Carrier IQ files used for "law enforcement purposes"
• More Predator drones fly U.S.-Mexico border
• Tom the Dancing Bug: 'So... You've Been Indefinitely Detained! Helpful Information From Your U.S. Government'

Manning and Wikileaks

• Feds Withholding Evidence Favorable to Bradley Manning, Lawyer Charges
• Bradley Manning lawyer: White House review found 'leak' did no real damages
• Julian Assange wins the right to take his case against extradition to the UK supreme court.

Military Industrial Complex

• One Nation, Under Arms--Vanity Fair's Todd S. Purdum shows how the miltary industrial complex has come about, "warping almost every aspect of society, deflecting attention from urgent problems, and splitting the country into two classes."
  
• For Sale, Cheap: The Things You Need to Invade a Nation--"As the U.S. leaves Iraq, the military rushes to pack up and ship out eight years' worth of war gear." But how can the money keep rolling in?
• 806 Billion Spent for Hundreds of Thousands to Be Killed and Wounded: The Staggering, True Costs of the Iraq War
• Ex-Blackwater firm gets a name change, again--"Xe announced that it was changing its name to Academi, part of a years-long effort by the company to shed a troubled legacy that critics said made the firm a symbol for mercenaries and impunity in Iraq and elsewhere."
• Fatal problems plague the F-22, the U.S.' costliest fighter jet

TSA

• Young Mom Sues Guards Over Breast Milk Matter--"A young mother claims Transportation Security Administration agents mocked her for 40 minutes and made her stand in a glass enclosure in front of other airline passengers because she requested an alternate screening process so her breast milk would not be exposed to radiation."
• Terrorist Threats to Commercial Aviation: A Contemporary Assessment
• 'Strip search' claims prompt call for advocate at US airports
• Hand over the fork, sir!--"TSA confiscations reach new levels of absurdity -- and the Hysteria Hall of Shame goes international." Salon
• TSA screenings aren't just for airports anymore--"Roving security teams increasingly visit train stations, subways and other mass transit sites to deter terrorism. Critics say it's largely political theater."
• Gun in carry-on accidentally fired
• TSA Agent Lets Rapper Keep His Weed?

Bad Cops, Arpaio, Seattle, Chiefs, The Feds

Bad Cops

• Unfit for duty: Opa-Locka Sgt. German Bosque still on the job after 40 internal affairs investigations
• North Chicago police beating, Tasing caused man’s death: suit
• Suit Filed After NM Teen Cuffed For Burp In Class
• Former lovers of undercover officers sue police over deceit
• OPD officer shoots, misses unarmed man with saggy pants
• Ex-cop allegedly took coke, gun for 'dirty DUIs'
• Newark police officer steals car from drunk driver, smashes into wife's car, authorities say
• Firefighter Awarded Damages After Arrest
• Teenage Photographer Wins Settlement From London Police
• Young, Black and Frisked by the NYPD NYT

Arpaio

• Arpaio Corruption: The Feds Have Spoken, But Justice Won't Be Served Until the Sheriff's Indicted
• Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio Failed To Investigate Over 400 Sex Crimes, Including Molestations Of Undocumented Children
• Latino Military Veteran Not Expected To Survive After Scuffle With Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Officers

Seattle

• Seattle Police Department Regularly Violates Constitution and Federal Law, Department of Justice Says
• Seattle Police: A Department in Denial--"Why is the city's top cop still insisting there's not a problem?"
• The proper response to the federal probe of Seattle police--"Warning bells ring loud because Seattle Police Chief John Diaz's first reaction was to question Department of Justice findings about police use of force. The only way he can usher in the numerous changes required is to embrace them — not swing at them."
• Feds slam Seattle for policy that shields cops
• Deputy Seattle Police chief defends leak investigation--Probably spent more time and money finding out who leaked to the press than prosecuting a bad cop.

Chiefs

• Student Protester Surprises NYPD Commissioner With Police Brutality Slideshow, Calls on Him to Resign
• Judge questions why Bell's former police chief isn't facing corruption charges
• Former sheriff of the year busted on drug charge --"Patrick Sullivan, 68, who was the National Sheriff's Association's 'Sheriff of the Year' in 2001, was being held on $250,000 bail in the Arapahoe County jail that bears his name, the Patrick J. Sullivan Jr. Detention Facility."

The Feds

• U.S. citizenship no defense against deportation threat--"A Minneapolis man was arrested and illegally detained for 43 days by federal immigration agents who sought to have him deported even though he is a U.S. citizen, according to a lawsuit filed recently in federal court in Minneapolis."
• Federal agents say 88-year-old Saratoga man's invention is being used by meth labs
• Man catches 881-pound tuna, seized by feds
• Feds want Barry Bonds in jail for obstruction of justice conviction after lying to grand jury about steroid use
• Woman Loses Job Due to Error in FBI Criminal Database

Obamacare, Health and Politics, Fat Tuesday, Studies, Teen Health, Immunization

Obamacare

• Supreme Court Sets Dates To Hear Oral Arguments
• Health care law changing behavior
• Obamacare Extended Health Coverage To At Least 2.5 Million Young Adults
• Defeated, Health Insurers Cut Lobby Costs, Thank You Obamacare!
• 'Obamacare' to the rescue: A woman who felt President Obama had let the middle class down has changed her mind.
• Obama Health Coverage Policy Passes 'Hot Potato' to States--"The Obama administration avoided a potentially brutal lobbying battle over the medical benefits insurers must cover under the U.S. health-care overhaul when it decided last week to hand the decision off to states."
• The ‘good parts’ of the ACA

Health and Politics

• This Is Why Elizabeth Warren Should Win Any Damn Elected Office She Ever Runs For
• Republicans Show Their Holiday Spirit By Demanding Billions In Health Care Cuts
• Inside Chemical Drug Corporations: Former Sales Rep Says The Truth: Pharma Doesn't Want to Cure You

Fat Tuesday

• Why women need fat Salon
• County places obese Cleveland Heights child in foster care
• Medicare anti-obesity initiative triggers treatment debate--"The decision that Medicare will pay for screening and counseling services to help obese patients lose weight has o"pened an old debate about who can best help people slim down.
• FDA accuses 1-800-GET-THIN centers of deceptive advertising
• Denmark's fat tax strikes again--"New levy outrages pastry bakers; health advocates see fat tax going global".
• Why the Overweight Earn Less NYT
• McDonald's finds a way around San Francisco's 'Happy Meal ban'

Studies

• Study: Eating less keeps the brain young
• Low-fat foods 'could cause weight gain'
• High-fat diet leaves its mark on sperm

Teen Health

• Dear 16-year-old Me
• Lie-in for teenagers has positive results
  
• Health panel approves new nutrition rules for Mass. public schools

Immunization

• Docs Turn Away Unvaccinated Patients
• Immunise or lose benefits, parents told
• Malaria blocks 'super-infection'

SOPA, Net Censorship, Europe, Anonymity, Trolling

SOPA

• SOPA Markup Runs Out Of Time; Likely Delayed Until 2012 [Update: Or Not...]--"Despite the fact that Congress was supposed to be out of session until the end of January, the Judiciary Committee has just announced plans to come back to continue the markup this coming Wednesday. This is rather unusual and totally unnecessary. But it shows just how desperate Hollywood is to pass this bill as quickly as possible, before the momentum of opposition builds up even further."
• Dear Congress, It's No Longer OK To Not Know How The Internet Works
• How SOPA 2.0 Sneaks In A Really Dangerous Private Ability To Kill Any Website
• SOPA-Rope-a-dope--"Critics of the Stop Online Piracy Act (H.R. 3261) have had an impact. A manager's amendment has been offered by Lamar Smith, R-TX, the Judiciary Committee chairman. [...] Unfortunately, the new version would still do great damage to Internet security...."
• SOPA and everyday Americans
• Head MPAA shill reduced to outright lies in bid to make the case for SOPA
• 'Internet is for Porn' pops up during House SOPA debate
• "Firewall" (Don't Let Our Government Ruin The Internets)

Net Censorship

• Clinton Urges Countries Not to Stifle Online Voices NYT
• Welcome To The United Police States of America, Sponsored By Twitter--Twitter claims the accounts got flagged for spamming.
• Megaupload Video Reinstated, Universal Says "You Can’t Touch Us"--UMG wanted to censor the video.
• India Treads China Censor Path
• Won't remove material just because it's controversial: Google

Europe

• Clueless EU Politicians Sign ACTA--"It was fun while it lasted. This internet thing became too powerful, and shifted the balance of power too much to the people. Politicians found a partner in the content industry, and here we have it."
• Act against ACTA now!
• Illegal downloading to be curbed by Government order --"The Department of Enterprise, Innovation and Jobs has written to music publisher EMI Ireland confirming the order will be published and incorporated into existing legislation in January."

Anonymity

• Libel reform vows to slay anonymous trolls--"A single complaint about an anonymous article or posting online could be enough to legally force a website to take it down – if new Parliamentary proposals on defamation get passed into law."
• Business seeks IDs of anonymous Pantagraph commenters
• Israel's Supreme Court rules that no legal procedure is available to reveal anonymous commenters
• Fix for anonymous sleaze is in our attitudes, not laws
• Online, Anonymity Breeds Contempt
• How to avoid trolling: anonymous vs. identifiable commenting
• A Troll By Any Other Name: The Case For Commenting Anonymously

Trolling

• Internet troll jailed after mocking deaths of teenagers
• Internet bigot Stephen Birrell jailed for eight months
• Creepy crawlies : The internet allows the malicious to menace their victims
• More Than a Decade In, and Internet Comments Continue to Be Terrible
• Online commenting: the age of rage
• Internet Argument Techniques
• If you can't say anything nice, then kill yourself now
• Judgment of accidental deaths outrageous
• How To Beat The Haters (how I do it) by Rob Liefeld

Jobs, Congress, Budget, Fucks News, Signs of the Times, Pepper Spray

Jobs

• America's army of jobless: The real number of unemployed or underemployed people in the U.S. is a stunning 26.9 million.
• For 34 Straight Months, There Have Been More Than Four bUnemployed Job Seekers For Every Job Opening
  Obama Says Americans Think The Stimulus Worked
• As Layoffs Rise, Stock Buybacks Consume Cash--How's the job creation going for ya? NYT
• GOP Supercommittee Member Admits Bush Tax Cuts Didn't Create Jobs, Can't Explain Why Citigroup to Lay Off 4,500 Workers NYT
• Kids, stop dreaming of Wall Street Salon
• The Age of the Superfluous Worker NYT
• Take this job and ... be glad you have it

Congress

• Poll: Blame hits GOP in Congress
• American public to Congress: Get out. All of you.
• Washington Week with Gwen Ifill & National Journal: Webcast extra on Congress--""The do-nothing congress... all this Congress does is try to keep the lights on--that's the only thing they pass--are CRs to keep the government running. They passed 67 laws this year, and that's the lowest since 1947 when the records started to be kept."

Budget

• Death & Taxes 2012: The most open and comprehensive record of government spending ever to exist
• Democrats abandoning millionaire surtax proposal
• Congress Cuts Winter Heating Aid For The Poor While Boosting The Defense Budget
• Commemorative $1 coins scrapped to save money
• Who Killed the Postal Service?--"USPS is slashing first-class delivery, cutting billions of dollars, and looking to cut thousands of workers. How did it get this bad?"

Fucks News

• Frum: Fox News Creates an 'Alternative Knowledge System'
• The damage Fox News is doing to the Republicans
• Former Dubya Speechwriter Frum Tells CNN's Kurz That Fox 'News', Talk Radio Destroying GOP
• A Republican Primary Campaign Waged on Fox News NYT
• Today In Dishonest Fox News Charts

Signs of the Times

• Baby-Boomers are the most selfish generation in history
• Ignorance is bliss when it comes to challenging social issue--"The less people know about important complex issues such as the economy, energy consumption and the environment, the more they want to avoid becoming well-informed, according to new research"
• 'Company Policy: We are not hiring until Obama is gone'--Brings back memories of that doctor who allegedly fired his Obama-voting employee

Pepper Spray

• Apologies for UC Davis pepper-spray incident come with a warning
• Pepper-Spray Cop Begets Pepper-Spray Shopper
• 14-Year-Old Girl Pepper Sprays Classmates At Harlem's Academy For Social Action, 9 Sent To Hospital
• Off-duty police pepper spray NC shoppers
• Pepper spray store opens in Bethlehem

Husbands and Wives, Sexy Science, Relationships, Men, Pr0n

Husbands and Wives

• Custody Battle Leads to Facebook Double-Sting--"A woman pretended to be a 17-year-old to draw out incriminating evidence from her ex-husband via Facebook. But an investigation after his arrest showed that he was the true online mastermind."
• Benito Apolinar: Like His Sad Facebook Updates, Or Else
• Florida Man Freaks Out During Threesome, Throws Multiple TVs at His Wife
• Court Orders Man To Delete Revenge Blog Targeted At His Ex
• In new alimony bill, wealthy, cheating men could pay less
• My response whenever my girlfriend asks "Do I look fat in this?"
• SMBC: "Ugh... my freakin' wife!"

Sexy Science

• Beauty and brains DO go together! Study claims good-looking men and women have higher IQs
• The science of objectification Salon
• The Science of Physical Attraction & Why the Internet Won't Cut It
  
• The science of the smooch
• SMBC: According to Science....

Relationships

• You have a boyfriend, Fuck You
• The Think Tank
• Why Men and Women can't be "just friends."
• How to Get the Girl
• SMBC: "Why doesn't she love me?"

Men

• Tough Guise
• Men's Magazines Were Way Manlier
• Being a Man in the 50's was Rough!
  

Pr0n

• Porn, Piracy, & BitTorrent
• Time Warner CEO: Web porn eating our profits
• Porn studio loses appeal in Google copyright case
• Lawsuit says grandma illegally downloaded porn
• Porn industry: Shaming busted viewers for profit Salon
• Pornography to be blocked by internet service providers unless users opt in
• Judge Throws Batarang At 7097 Of 7098 Batman XXX Pirate Cases

Brain, Tech, Evil, Personality, Mind Control

Brain

• Ode to the Brain! by Symphony of Science
• Our brains are magic
• Brain tweak turns wimpy mice into dominant leaders

Tech

• Internet 'may be changing brains'--"Social network sites may be changing people's brains as well as their social life, research suggests."
• The powerful and mysterious brain circuitry that makes us love Google, Twitter, and texting
• Your Brain on Computers - Overuse of Digital Devices May Lead to Brain Fatigue
• Facebook friend tally is associated with differences in brain structure
• Feel stressed if you can't get online? You could have 'discomgoogolation'
• Study Says Internet Use Affects Our Memory--I noticed this myself lately.
• Internet Explorer Users Have Low Risk Intelligence
• Study confirms many of us go online for no reason

Evil

• The Menace Within: What happened in the basement of the psych building 40 years ago shocked the world. How do the guards, prisoners and researchers in the Stanford Prison Experiment feel about it now?
• Are You Evil? Profiling That Which Is Truly Wicked
• The Face of Evil?

Personality

• Single dose of 'magic mushrooms' hallucinogen may create lasting personality change, study suggests
• Magnets Can Manipulate Morality
• The Creative Personality: Ten paradoxical traits of the creative personality
• Our personalities may be set as early as 1st grade
• Nice guys really do finish last: Nasty people earn more money, study finds

Mind Control

• Ritual Magic, Mind Control and the UFO Phenomenon
• National Geographic: CIA Mind Control
  
• CIA Mind Control Techniques: MK-ULTRA Program Brainwashing Experiments Documentary (1979)
• Derren Brown: The Assassin
• How brainwashing came to life and thrived
• Mind control: More than just a plot point?
• Mission Mind Control : National Archives and Records Administration
• Top 10 mind-control films before 'Inception'
• THE CARRIER - Sci-Fi Thriller Short Film
• SMBC: The Trematode

Indefinite Detention, Medical Marijuana, 420, War on Drugs, Mexico

Indefinite Detention

• White House drops veto threat of Defense authorization bill--After the House And Senate discussed it in secret.
• 'Indefinite detention' provision stirs online anger — and Jon Stewart
• Suspend habeas corpus and enact martial law?--"Americans seem ready to forfeit their most basic civil liberty -- actually, all their civil liberties -- without a whimper."
• US: Refusal to Veto Detainee Bill A Historic Tragedy for Rights
• Explaining to a 5-Year Old Why the Indefinite Detention Bill DOES Apply to U.S. Citizens on U.S. Soil

Medical Marijuana

• 77% of Americans believe marijuana should be legal for medical purposes--It seems that the overzealous government crackdown on marijuana has less to do with dealing with stoners but more to do with the threat Big Pharma sees to their business model by a cheap, natural solution that they have no control over.
• Study shows medical marijuana laws reduce traffic deaths--"A groundbreaking new study shows that laws legalizing medical marijuana have resulted in a nearly nine percent drop in traffic deaths and a five percent reduction in beer sales."
• Medical Marijuana: The Government’s View--Rafael Lemairte of NDCP says, "To date, the Food and Drug Administration has not found smoked marijuana to be either safe or effective medicine for any condition." But as a redditor points out: "It's illegal because we have not proven it safe and effective, but we haven't proven it safe and effective because it's illegal." Another notices the incessant mentions of "smoked marijuana". NYT
• Medical Marijuana Target of U.S. Prosecutors NYT
• Governors Ask U.S. to Ease Rules on Marijuana--"The governors of Washington and Rhode Island petitioned the federal government on Wednesday to reclassify marijuana as a drug with accepted medical uses, saying the change is needed so states like theirs, which have decriminalized marijuana for medical purposes, can regulate the safe distribution of the drug without risking federal prosecution." NYT
• My Mother-in-Law’s One High Day-"When my mother-in-law was in the final, harrowing throes of pancreatic cancer, she had only one good day, and that was the day she smoked pot." NYT
• L.A. Hospital Denies Liver Transplant to Medical Marijuana User Despite Prescription from Its own Doctor
• An embattled Orangevale medical marijuana dispensary is going out with a bong, er, bang.--"In response to federal and county efforts to shut down dispensaries, Magnolia Wellness is having a farewell party on Friday – its last day of business – with free pot for its customers."
• Wide range of medical marijuana users find relief in pot, despite government misgivings

420

• Colorado Democratic Rep. Jared Polis: The federal government should not be in the business of regulating marijuana use by Americans
• Majority of Massachusetts Voters Supports Marijuana Legalization
• Why Did Pot Become Illegal?--And it wasn't illegal until 1937.
• Man Can Get His Pot License Plate--"Nebraska has snuffed out a lawsuit by agreeing to issue a marijuana-themed personal license plate to an activist leading a legalization drive in the state. "
• Nassau officer cleared in fatal shooting of an unarmed man; family can only grieve

War on Drugs

• Pentagon's War on Drugs Goes Mercenary
• Police Officers Find That Dissent on Drug Laws May Come With a Price NYT
• War on drugs is a hoax: US admits to guarding, assisting lucrative Afghan opium trade
• America's shadow war on drugs--"US agents have crossed into grey areas to fight cartels. Why it's not working."
• Parents blame Eric Holder for son's death
• Ethics Panel Scorches Drug Court Judge--"The Commission on Judicial Qualifications accused Glynn County Superior Court Chief Judge Amanda Williams of 'tyrannical partiality,' making false statements, indefinitely incarcerating defendants, abusing court visitors and defendants, and nepotism."
• Legalization debate: first pot, now coke?
• A win-win on drugs? Fighting gangs by legalizing pot
• Portugal and the drug war--"The Portuguese drug decriminalisation and harm reduction model has been in place for a decade and is a proven success. It is a shining example to the world that the human values of dignity, respect and freedom can challenge and replace the inhumanity, incarceration and barbarity of the War on Drugs."

Mexico

• U.S. Drug Agents Launder Profits of Mexican Cartels NYT
• Mexico has seven million lost youth
• 26 bodies found in western Mexico

SOPA and PROTECT IP, Abuses, Corporations, Online, Bandwidth

SOPA and PROTECT IP

• Harvard Law: SOPA is unconstitutional
• Lawmaker Waters Down His Online Blacklisting Bill
• Shockingly Unshocking: Two Congressional Staffers Who Helped Write SOPA/PIPA Become Entertainment Industry Lobbyists
• Google chairman says online piracy bill would "criminalize linking and the fundamental structure of the Internet itself"
• Wikipedia co-founder threatens blackout over anti-piracy law
• Rupert Murdoch Lobbies Congress To Restrict Internet
• Colbert explains the science behind the net-killing SOPA, the worst proposed Internet law in American legislative history.
• Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act, a pair of bills that threaten Internet freedom
• Internet piracy bill: A free speech 'kill switch'
• Copyright Regime vs. Civil Liberties

Abuses

• The pirates of YouTube: The real villains of YouTube are the multinational companies cashing in on public domain footage they claim is their own
• MPAA Boss: If The Chinese Censor The Internet Without A Problem, Why Can't The US?
• UMG abuses You Tube's video removal system to take down megaupload's new song--And now they're being sued.
• Feds Falsely Censor Popular Blog For Over A Year, Deny All Due Process, Hide All Details
• Senator Wyden wants answers from DHS over domain name seizures

Corporations

• How the Telecom Lobby is Killing Municipal Broadband
• Why Do Republicans Keep Claiming That Net Neutrality Will Kill Jobs?
• Connecting RSS and Occupy--"The problem for the tech industry corporations is that RSS disempowers them. It makes them commodities."
• Voice-over-internet companies win EU backing in dispute with mobile carriers
• Company Thanks Guy Who Alerted Them To Big Security Flaw By Sending The Cops... And The Bill

Online

• Piracy Pays for Itself, Swiss Government Says
• Canada Supreme court rules that people cannot be held liable for how they use hyperlinks on websites
• EFF: Senate Committee Agrees That Violating Website Terms of Service Shouldn't Be a Crime
• Italian court: Online editors not responsible for reader comments
• No Copyright Intended

Bandwidth

• Study: Bandwidth hogs aren't responsible for peak network congestion
• Another Study Shows Data Caps Are Likely Ineffective, Address Wrong Problem
• Data caps a "crude and unfair tool" for easing online congestion
• Web usage-based billing on its way
• Shit-ass Websites--Your web usage has been climbing because all the marketing and tracking crap websites have been sending to you.

Elizabeth Warren, Corporate Personhood, Wall Street, Banks, Overseas

Elizabeth Warren

• Wall Street lobbyists go into overdrive to defeat Elizabeth Warren
• Elizabeth Warren, Wall Street Shill--" I see that Karl Rove's PAC unveiled a preposterously deceptive ad yesterday claiming that Elizabeth Warren is unfit for the Senate because she's....wait for it....too close to Wall Street. Yes, you read that right. Here on Earth Prime, of course, Warren is perhaps one of the financial industry's most loathed figures."
• Elizabeth Warren Revives The Democratic Gospel Of Optimism
• Occupy's next step: Elizabeth Warren in Senate?
• Who is Behind the Attacks on Dem Senate Candidate Elizabeth Warren?

Corporate Personhood

• Moyers: Why 'We The People' Must Triumph Over Corporate Power
• Steven Van Zandt: There Is Only One Issue In America
• Occupy is Not Just About Occupying: The Goal is Not to Occupy it is to End Corporate Rule
• Bernie Sanders’ New Bid to Overturn Citizens United Ruling
• L.A. calls for end to 'corporate personhood'
• Colbert Pushes 'Corporations Are People' Referendum NYT
• Between 2008 And 2010, 30 Big Corporations Spent More Lobbying Washington Than They Paid In Income Taxes

Wall Street

• The $7 trillion secret loan program: The government and big banks should be punished for deceiving the public about their hush-hush bailout scheme.
• 60 Minutes: Prosecuting Wall Street
• The Department Of Justice Has Basically Given Up On Bringing Criminal Charges For The Financial Crises
• Obama’s Take on Wall Street Prosecutions--And he supposedly can’t comment on them (Salon).
• Corzine: 'I Simply Do Not Know Where The [$1.2 billion] Is'

Banks

• For the Families of Some Debtors, Death Offers No Respite--"After Linda Long's husband died of colon cancer last year, the phone calls poured in. The 68-year-old retired office worker says she got as many as 10 calls a day from a debt-collection firm asking for $16,651.52 that her husband, Millard, had racked up on a Bank of America Corp. credit card."
• Transaction Infraction: How Bank Practices Increase Overdraft Fees
  
• Chase Pushed Minorities Into Subprime Loans
• Crocodile Tears From the Credit Card Industry
• Activists Fight Back Against the 1% After Investors Lock a 75 Year-Old Great-Grandmother Out of Her Home

Overseas

• Britain is ruled by the banks, for the banks--"Is David Cameron's kid-glove treatment of the City remotely justified, when it neither pays its way nor lends effectively?"
• At last! Bank boss told to pay back bonus: Lloyds plans to strip former chief Daniels of £1.5m payout
• Iceland Arrests Former CEO Of Failed Bank

Debt and Taxes, Taxing the Rich, Plutocracy, Economy, GOP

Debt and Taxes

• The American public and the GOP are moving in the opposite direction on taxes
• One way to end debt: hit the brakes and do nothing
• The GOP's dual-trigger nightmare
• The tax fight Democrats might actually win Salon
• Krugman: Things to Tax NYT
• Bruce Bartlett: Raising Taxes on the Rich: Not Whether, but How NYT
• Some GOP opponents of tax break say voters will understand

Taxing the Rich

• GOP Objects To 'Millionaires Surtax'; Millionaires We Found? Not So Much
• McConnell Swats Down GOP-Sponsored Bill To Raise Taxes On Millionaires
• Top Republican: We'll Only Extend Payroll Tax Cut If You Extend Bush Cuts Too--Norquist says payroll-tax-cut expiration isn't a tax hike.
• A Very Good Reason to Tax the Very Rich
• OECD urges raising taxes on high earners

Plutocracy

• The 1 Percent Club's Misguided Protectors NYT
• The Citigroup Plutonomy Memos: Two bombshell documents that Citigroup's lawyers try to suppress, describing in detail the rule of the first 1%
• 10% of American Billionaires Have Donated to Romney

Economy

• Why We Occupy: Visualizing The 2012 Federal Discretionary Budget
• Eric Cantor smacks down 'insider' Spencer Bachus--Insider trading is illegal, of course when it's not.
• Obama on ‘Trickle Down’ Economics: 'It Doesn’t Work, It Has Never Worked'
• New laws to clamp down on executive pay pledged--"Nick Clegg threatened to introduce new laws to clamp down on executive pay yesterday, as he warned that the private sector must take its share of the pain in the 'age of austerity'."
• Government should print money to pay off our debts

GOP

• GOP wanted to take me down, not fix country's problems: Obama
• Buyer's Remorse for the Tea Party?
• Mistrust of Institutions May Touch GOP Itself NYT

Elections 2012, 'Strong' and Wrong, Vote Machinations, Voter Suppression, Gerrymandering

Elections 2012

• A Club of Liars, Demagogues, and Fools
• Send In the Clueless NYT
• When Candidates Lie, What's A Political Reporter To Do?

'Strong' and Wrong

• Weak, man
• The Colbert Report: Rick Perry's Pro-Christmas Ad
• Why Rick Perry is going to hell – or at least back to Texas

Vote Machinations

• House votes to end election commission--"The House on Thursday approved a bill ending the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) that was set up to ensure states meet certain standards at the voting booth, and ending the public financing of presidential campaigns. The bill passed in a mostly partisan 235-190 vote."
• Diebold voting machines can be hacked by remote control Salon
• Former Dem Rep. Artur Davis Still Wouldn’t Provide Examples Of Voter Fraud
• Prosecutors: GOP 'robocall' plan to suppress black votes hatched on hectic Election Day--"A plan by former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s campaign manager to suppress black votes in Baltimore and Prince George's County was hatched shortly before 3 p.m. on a desperate, hectic Election Day last year, prosecutors alleged Tuesday in Baltimore Circuit Court." He was subsequently found guilty of election fraud.
• Sen. McConnell Claims Electing The President By Popular Vote Is A 'Genuine Threat To Our Country'
  

Voter Suppression

• Poll taxes make amazing comeback
• Voting limits put democracy in peril
• Why people don't vote or can't vote
• Wisconsin Republicans Move To Make It Harder For Many College Students To Vote
• Ohio Voters Have Nearly Enough Signatures To Block Gov. Kasich’s Anti-Voter Law

Gerrymandering

• Arizona Supreme Court Reverses Brewer-Led Impeachment, Reinstates Redistricting Commission Chair --But Brewer isn't giving up just yet.
• Why your vote for Congress might not matter
• Texas asks Supreme Court for help in redistricting flap--And they have blocked the redistricting plan that "would increase chances for Democrats and minorities".
• Fix Gerrymandering to Fix the Electorate
• Carving Up Urban Areas as Parties Seek Influence NYT

Games, DRM, Piracy, Tetris, Online Games

Games

• Who killed videogames? (a ghost story)
• Corporate Censorship Kills Creative Innovation
• Hollywood shuns intelligent entertainment. The games industry doesn't. Guess who's winning?

DRM

• Despite Being Pirated 4.5 Millions Times, 'Witcher 2' Developer Refuses To Annoy Paying Customers With DRM
• DRM-free gaming distributor GOG.com trades convenience for safety
• PC Prince of Persia contains no DRM. It's a trap!
• EA Brings Spore, Warhammer Online, And More To Steam--Switches to a lesser DRM evil
• The Steam Effect

Piracy

• Valve: Piracy Is More About Convenience Than Price
• Lord of the Rings Online doubles revenue since going free-to-play--Going on triple.
• CAD: Take that, piracy

Tetris

• Tetris Tetris everywhere
• Late to the party
• xkcd: Heaven
• What *really* happened in Tetris
• Коробейники sight-read & improvised from a lead sheet by Tom Brier

Online games

• Magic Pen--Very fun physics game
• Desktop Tower Defense
• GravityPods
• Bloxorz
• Dark Tower

Corruption, Public-Private "Partnerships", Accountability and Transparency, Whistleblowing, Hacking

Corruption

• Caught on camera: top lobbyists boasting how they influence the PM--"Special undercover investigation: Executives from Bell Pottinger reveal 'dark arts' they use to burnish reputations of countries accused of human rights violations"
• Least corrupt place? New Zealand. Worst? Somalia, North Korea
• Transparency International cuts ties with Fifa

Public-Private "Partnerships"

• Pssst ... Wanna Buy a Law?: When a company needs a state bill passed, the American Legislative Exchange Council can get it done
• Occupied Washington: Grotesque income inequality is just a symptom of our larger political disease
• 5 GOP Senators Filibustering Consumer Protection Nominee Have Received Millions From Wall Street This Year--One of them says he did it to sabotage the agency.

Accountability and Transaprency

• Blair Regrets Passing Freedom of Information Law NYT
• Supreme Court To Weigh Case Of False Testimony
• FBI Sanctioned for Lying About Existence of Surveillance Records
• Despite Feds' 'Pervasive' Concealment of Evidence, No Contempt Charges in Sen. Stevens Case
• Justice Dept. proposes lying, hiding existence of records under new FOIA rule--They decided it wasn't a good idea after all.
• Law allows state PUC to keep utilities data secret
• BSA: Open standards will 'increase e-government costs'
• Before leaving office, Romney staff wiped records--"Ex-governor's aides say they did nothing wrong," and Romney says it was done keep the records from political opponents.

Whistleblowing

• Cuomo Administration Continues to Pursue Case Against Jeffrey Monsour NYT
• Whistle-blowing doctor: My fight to speak the truth
• Board members in Olympus cover-up resign--Its management was 'rotten to the core'.

Hacking

• British Inquiry Is Told Hacking Is Worthy Tool NYT
• Hacking Scandal Spreads to Government. Are You Four Digits Away From a Security Breach?
• Neville Thurlbeck: 'News of the World withheld hacking evidence'

Prison Privatization, Jail Nation, Alabama, Walker and Wisconsin, Carrier IQ

Prison Privatization

• Judge Rules Florida Prison Privatization Unconstitutional
• The Shocking Ways the Corporate Prison Industry Games the System--"The private prison system has rebounded, growing dramatically, and making big bucks with huge help from the Feds, as large numbers of immigrants are incarcerated."
• Arizona Puts Profit Over Prisoners’ Progress With New Fee
• Private Prison Charges Inmates $5 a Minute for Phone Calls While They Work for $1 a Day
• Arizona auditor general found that it actually might be more expensive to hold Arizona prisoners in private, for-profit facilities than in public ones.
• Riverside Charges Inmates for Stays In 'Prison Hotels'
• One Year of Prison Costs More Than One Year at Princeton

Jail Nation

• A Nation Of Prisoners : A Look Inside America’s Jail System
• Victimless Crime Constitutes 86% of The Federal Prison Population
• Rocrast Mack Murder At Alabama Prison Followed Trail Of Violence By Guards

Alabama

• Alabama considers prison labor to replace lost immigrants
• Alabama AG makes revision suggestions for immigration law
• Feds Tug On Purse Strings Of Alabama Cops Over Immigration Law Enforcement

Walker and Wisconsin

• Wisconsin ra. Wants Protesters To Pay For Security
• Wis ACLU: State ‘Wasted Their Time Today’ In Session About Pay-To-Protest Policy
• Under Scott Walker, Wisconsin leads the nation in jobs lost
• Bullies, Liars and Impostors: How Facebook and Go Daddy Shield Scott Walker's Online Guerillas
• Man Arrested in Washington County for Defacing Recall Petitions

Carrier IQ

• Carrier IQ disputes spying accusations; security researchers agree
• Carrier IQ Speaks: Our Software Ignores Your Personal Info
• Al Franken Calls On Carrier IQ To Explain Mobile Tracking Software
• Carrier IQ hit with privacy lawsuits as more security researchers weigh in
• Carrier IQ denies responsiblity for insecure log files, suggests manufacturers are to blame
• Translation From Corporate Jargon Doublespeak to English of Carrier IQ's 'Media Alert'
• Today in corporate denials: Carrier IQ edition