Cool Stuff, and Other Things

I am not in the mood to be a Serious Blogger (tm) today. Racism! Sexism! Torture! Law! Politics! Raining frogs!

There, enough for now. In other news:

Art student's car vanishing act

I will be participating in a toe-up sock knit-a-long on Ravelry, which I just joined (here's me on ravelry). Based on the newest Wendyknits book. I'm not a big sock-knitting fan, but I'm in love with some of the yarns I found at Etsy, and will knit as many pairs as I can stand to. Wendy's book: Socks from the Toe Up. I can't tell you why I'm not a big sock-knitting fan, as they seem to have all the characteristics of projects I would like - small, compact, portable, useful, etc. And yet.

Why have I not been able to download more Dollhouse episodes on iTunes? I was so happy (ok, with dialup, not 'happy' really, but happy to have the chance to see the show without spending $50/month on a cable subscription just for one TV show) about it.

Why doesn't Sidra have a cable TV subscription? I'm glad you asked. I go through phases where I'm not interested in television at all. I made a conscious decision to not subscribe to anything when I moved to my current apartment and began law school. My writing time is limited enough by having a demanding, challenging job, I don't need the distraction. And, if I have a TV, I'll watch it, even if it's crap. Which is stupid. So, I don't get TV reception. I don't miss it much, it just doesn't make sense to pay that money and have that much distraction for the pleasure of 2, maybe 3 TV shows.

links!

1. Cool cool thing at central station in Antwerp. Op zoek naar Maria - Dans in het Centraal Station van Antwerpen I can't tell if it's a conscious performance, perhaps of the flashmob variety, or the real thing. I will state for the record, I've been part of a different similar experience that was the real thing, spontaneous and synchronized. Stranger things have happened.

2. I was disappointed yesterday to read an article about Kiva (a microlending project, check it out) that summed up why people would become lenders as "more people are investing these days" or something idiotic like that. More people are connecting to each other as people, and aware that we really are in this together. That's why I and so many other people give money to total strangers. Because we are capable of feeling someone else's pain and their desire to lift themselves up, and wanting to help even though our own resources are limited. We are all human beings, and in this together.

3. Angry that New Orleans recovery proceeding slower than surrounding areas, but not surprised.

4. Wanted to go see Watchmen tonight with a co-worker, but it's not at the theater!

5. David Neiwert is insightful as usual. As their power spirals downward, the Right's rhetoric gets nuttier and nastier. He links to Eric Boehlert's equally interesting and insightful article, Glenn Beck and the rise of Fox News' militia media.

6. Just fucking certify Al, all right? Absentee votes extend Franken lead

7. Finally watched Susan Boyle's Britain's Got Talent performance after a week of everyone telling me to see it. Holy cow. Britain's got some AWESOME talent. Someone get this woman a recording contract and put her on tour, STAT. Yaaaay, Susan!

Glenn Beck is a douche

Who knows absolutely nothing about wind energy, obviously.

More Beck Babble: Wind power needs nukes to work

Wind, when it blows, makes energy. When it stops, you can't store it, so what's making the energy? Wind energy doesn't work without something else making energy for when the wind stops, which it does -- especially if Al Gore controls the temperature, and all the winds and everything else, so we never have blowy days!

Is this what contemporary America calls journalism or something, or is he technically a pundit and therefore granted license to be a completely ignorant blowhard? Pardon the pun.

Or, she said optimistically, is this an Andy Kaufman-esque piece of performance art?

No, probably not.

The wind is going to keep blowing, my friends, since we do not have futuristic weather-control machines. That's only in 1980s-era James Bond movies, I'm afraid.

Maybe we need "journalistish" now, to go along with "truthiness".

Karzai legalizes marital rape

Mother. Fucker.
Afghan leader accused of bid to 'legalise rape'

In a massive blow for women's rights, the new Shia Family Law negates the need for sexual consent between married couples, tacitly approves child marriage and restricts a woman's right to leave the home...

. . .

The provisions are reminiscent of the hardline Taliban regime, which banned women from leaving their homes without a male relative. But in a sign of Afghanistan's faltering steps towards gender equality, politicians who opposed it have been threatened.

Now go support the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. http://www.rawa.org/

Just so you know

I don't talk about my day job on this blog, much, or at all, which may be why I haven't been posting (so perhaps this policy should change, I'll think about it).

This is my firm representing these two asylum seekers:

Detained immigrants in Florida say they're not getting medical care

Brazilian migrants sue ICE over mental health care

Brazilian migrants sue ICE over mental health care

"Brazilian migrants sue ICE over mental health care"

PM2.5 NAAQS remanded to EPA

It's possible this NAAQS (national ambient air quality standard) value will not change as a result, but the discussion is illuminating: EPA failed to show how the value would protect human health, which is required by mandate. This is particularly (ahem) relevant to anyone who wants to claim that compliance with EPA regulation = protective of human health, in, say, some environmental review of a polluting project.

PM2.5 is fine particulate matter.

D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals Remands Annual Fine Particulate Matter Standards, Upholds EPA's Decision on Coarse Particles

I've read the opinion and I think the D.C. Circuit does a bang-up job of articulating the standard of review and applying it propertly. Very well-written. The pm2.5 section would be good for those wanting a quick intro to clean air law.

election fraud arrests

Several Clay County Officials Arrested On Federal Charges

Five Clay County officials, including the circuit court judge, the county clerk, and election officers were arrested Thursday after they were indicted on federal charges accusing them of using corrupt tactics to obtain political power and personal gain.

The 10-count indictment, unsealed Thursday, accused the defendants of a conspiracy from March 2002 until November 2006 that violated the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). RICO is a federal statute that prosecutors use to combat organized crime. The defendants were also indicted for extortion, mail fraud, obstruction of justice, conspiracy to injure voters' rights and conspiracy to commit voter fraud.

According to the indictment, these alleged criminal actions affected the outcome of federal, local, and state primary and general elections in 2002, 2004, and 2006. The indictment accused the defendants of the following criminal actions:

It is so easy already, if you have money and want to be evil. Let's not make it even more easy using fucked up electronic voting systems. (Let me remind you all of my experience with electronic voting systems as an election inspector during the gubernatorial recall in California: Sidra Vitale, Election Official. OH, and Electronic voting systems hackable.)

Tent Cities - "Bushvilles"

I've noted these before, but of course it bears repeating.

From Boom Times to Tent City

The credit crunch tent city which has returned to haunt America

Incredible Cognitively Dissonant Conservatives

I somehow subscribed to this email news thing that's quite conservative. The level of vitriol directed at our president for spending money to stimulate the economy is impressive. And yet, today, from the same source, I get "Obama Spending Spree Could Send Stocks Soaring!" So, invest now and get in on the profits!

So, you're totally happy to profit off him if it works but tear him down for doing it in the first place? DOn't they call that biting the hand that feeds you?

note to self

story idea involving luddite enclave with dead librarian and a wired cop whose accessories all get turned off before he's allowed in to solve the murder

Torture Report Could be Trouble for Bush Lawyers

Well, well, well. Torture Report Could be Trouble for Bush Lawyers.

An internal Justice Department report on the conduct of senior lawyers who approved waterboarding and other harsh interrogation tactics is causing anxiety among former Bush administration officials. H. Marshall Jarrett, chief of the department's ethics watchdog unit, the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), confirmed last year he was investigating whether the legal advice in crucial interrogation memos "was consistent with the professional standards that apply to Department of Justice attorneys." According to two knowledgeable sources who asked not to be identified discussing sensitive matters, a draft of the report was submitted in the final weeks of the Bush administration. It sharply criticized the legal work of two former top officials—Jay Bybee and John Yoo—as well as that of Steven Bradbury, who was chief of the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) at the time the report was submitted, the sources said. (Bybee, Yoo and Bradbury did not respond to multiple requests for comment.)

Brockton Power Plant

Many things happening with my pro bono work, not the least of which is the Board voting to permit the plant but not give it a zoning exemption, so it has to go through local (municipal) review.

Plus: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/17/france-admits-deporting-jews France shows us some class whilst the pope pets holocaust deniers.

The End of Solitude

and death of us introverts - can we become a dying breed? Is it actually possible?
The End of Solitude

"Another said, why would anyone want to be alone?"

Malaysian Twins Spared Death Row

Malaysian twins spared death row

Wow.

She's maybe gonna blow

Melting glacier shows heat under Alaska volcano