"A Dorchester County, Maryland, teacher was taken in for an 'emergency medical evaluation,' suspended from his job, and barred from setting foot on another public school… As classes resumed, parents worried that their children were in danger, so police decided to remain on the premises to watch over them… What happened? The teacher… published a fiction novel." It just gets dumber from there. (Grokked form Lisa Morton)
And here I must come clean, in High School I wrote a play about how zombies took over the school and it became an apocalyptic world by the end of the play. We produced it as part of our play writing class. It did pretty well. Wasn't even called to the counseling office over it.
"They found that three out of four waste facilities were sited in African American communities or poor communities, and that the single most determining factor in the results was race, while income was second." And it's only gotten worse since then. Just in case you think we're living in a "post-racial" nation. And it's not just "oo, that smells bad" or "there's too many trucks on the road", there are real, long lasting health effects of this policy. Also noted in case you think Executive Orders are always bad things. (Grokked from the Slactivist)
Irony is dead. After failing to stand for an invocation, which included a big shout out thank you for being able to pray and think what we want, and then failing to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, a Florida man is escorted from a meeting of the city council. Remember that link about honor? The mayor "told the Orlando Sentinel that he felt Richardson's refusal to stand during the pledge was disrespectful to American troops."
On the need to make our (would be) criminals the most vile and our (would be) protectors saintly and how that it's all a bunch of hooha. I'll remind everyone that Trayvon Martin wore a (dare I say it) hoodie. Shock. Women fainting on couches. Strong men swaying. There's also this story about how the officer had an orbital blowout fracture. That would be amazing, because the bones in your hand are more fragile and it would be damn lucky and difficult to hit exactly the way you'd need to to do that. The nose and zygoma get in the way a lot (and they have different fracture profiles). Also, being that close the officer would never had been able to draw his firearm, he would have been protecting himself. Life is not like the movies. But then this is all about the "Stories We Tell Ourselves." It's how we sleep at night.
I'm sure I've linked to this before, but, yes, this. "Generation X is sick of your bullshit… Right now, Generation X just wants a beer and to be left alone." (Grokked form Jason Sanford)
The Antarctic Ocean is experiencing greater sea-level rise that the rest of the world. Mostly because freshwater coming off the glaciers is less dense than salt-water, but still just pointed out incase your on the fence about the latest in global climate change. (Grokked from Stewart Sternberg)
"The lawsuit is part of a flood of recent cases… that accuse employers of violating minimum wage and overtime laws, erasing work hours and wrongfully taking employees’ tips. Worker advocates call these practices 'wage theft,' insisting it has become far too prevalent… Some federal and state officials agree. They assert that more companies are violating wage laws than ever before, pointing to the record number of enforcement actions they have pursued." This is also coupled with a move of outsourcing and re-categorizing workers as "independent contractors" that leaves the parent company with the excuse, "we didn't know". Yea, sure. Of course, the business say this is just extortion and is being used by government officials to show their union credentials. Well, I guess we'll see you all in court then. Say, remember when that other judge knocked aside the "protection" parent corporations had from the actions of their franchises? (Grokked from Morgan J Locke)
The elderly migrant worker. Welcome to retirement. Buy your RV and go around the country scrounging for manual labor. Great. (Grokked from Matt Staggs)
And to round up our labor related links, some charts that show just how bad the employment scene in the US really is. And now with that, I'll need to check my work email. (Grokked from Kameron Hurley)
Kirk Cameron is going to be out with a new movie about the War on Christmas. I don't know why, but this is playing through my head at the moment:
Say, remember when we were all discussing that shooting at the Navy Yard and how all the idiots thought if we only had more guns that would solve the problem and a lot of us were all, "nope, because who would know who was shooting at whom?" Well, same thing with armed militia on the border. Good thing our federal officers are bad shots, eh?
Engineering the next October surprise. My guess is if this latest of Benghazi probes goes into 2016, it won't end until right before Thanksgiving (that way they can use the innuendo of possible wrong doing to its fullest effect before having to admit it was a bunch of noise and wind).
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