Linkee-poo rings out the old

Let's hope the New Year treats us better than the last year.

So, the Cleveland Grand Jury listened to the prosecutor's opening statement and declined to indict either police officer involved in the Tamir Rice shooting. Remember that the Justice Department also already found the Cleveland PD has used force unjustifiably, and is under a court order to retrain and have a monitor. This was all from incidents prior to Tamir (but the findings came after his shooting). There have been various findings of corruption within the department. One of the officers was nearly fired from an earlier position because the Independence PD felt he was unstable and unfit for duty. The other officer has been brought up on charges before. Once the video came out, it disproved the officers official reports. It pretty much shows the police acting as cowboys and inciting events that lead to no other option than the killing of Tamir Rice. This is heartbreaking, but being heartbroken changes nothing.

Spent some time the other night arguing with a racist on twitter. Spent way too much time at work arguing with them there as well. So far nothing hasn't changed.

Using this as an example of what I do post and what I don't.

Tobias Buckell on when to trunk a story. Well, actually he talks more about finding your own process which then will help you determine when to trunk a story.

More on the Wheaton College professor. "Indeed, much of what drives Western Christianity’s close mindedness—even in many seminaries—is fear. Fear that if we get it wrong God will condemn us to hell." Well, in my experience, it's mostly "what will the neighbors say" that they fear the most. "And good religion, like Jesus—who upset the politics of religious respectability of his day—is not doctrinaire. It’s humble. It’s always repenting, always learning and always growing. Too, good religion is an ongoing discussion that includes and welcomes different voices." Yes, that. (Grokked form the Slactivist)

"A bill being introduced in the (NY) City Council Monday would require all employers to put contracts in writing, impose civil and criminal penalties for taking longer than 30 days to deliver payments, and award double damages plus attorneys fees to contractors who’ve been stiffed — similar to the protections now enjoyed by regular employees." Oh hell yes. Part of the problem is the final paragraph, which ends on a codependent "explainer away" mood. "'It’s not like a fat cat with a cigar in his mouth,' Meyer says, of the companies she’s found have been slow to cut checks. 'A lot of it is part of institutional infrastructure that was built in a different era, and doesn’t have the kind of provisions for the kind of work that we do.'" Nope, those companies have updated their business infrastructure to integrate freelancer doing the work, but somehow forgot to update their payment systems to include vendors? Bullshit. (Grokked from John Scalzi)

And what should come as no real surprise, Americans believe religious liberties should be "for people like them" and not for other groups. Dear fellow Americans, rights and liberty don't work that way.

Moro Rubio intercedes with a state licensing board to help his brother-in-law. "'(Marco Rubio) believed Orlando should be judged on his own merits and felt it would be highly inappropriate, and could be perceived as exerting undue pressure, if his letter stated that Orlando was a relative,' (a spokesperson) continued." Uh, yea, about that. See, there's this thing called "conflict of interest" that is usually very important… both in making decisions and disclosing to those making those decisions.