Mass murder as a device for garnering media attention

The person who committed the deadly attacks on two mosques in New Zealand apparently had live-streamed the whole thing of Facebook. Although the video was subsequently taken down, in these days nothing ever disappears and I am sure that with some diligent searching, one could find it. The questions are why one would want to do so and whether one should do so. I did not watch the video and will not do so because I find acts of violence to be repulsive. This applies even to scripted violence in films and TV and I will only watch it if it serves an integral part of the story, which is very rare actually. It seems like much of the violence on screen is gratuitous. If I see a film as containing violence as its primary descriptor, I immediately rule it out.
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The strange rise of Beto O’Rourke

I supported Beto O’Rourke when he ran for the Texas senate seat because when your opponent is Ted Cruz, you don’t really need a platform other than “I am not Ted Cruz”. But it has never been really clear what he stands for and so I am a little surprised that his announcement that he is running for the Democratic nomination for president is being taken so seriously.

Seth Meyers looks at this and other issues.

Well, duh! Of course flipping the bird is free speech

A federal appeals court has upheld the complaint of Debra Cruise-Gulyas, who sued a police officer Matthew Minard who had issued her a citation after she gave him the middle finger.

In a ruling filed this week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit said: “Any reasonable officer would know that a citizen who raises her middle finger engages in speech protected by the First Amendment.”
…

A three-judge panel of the 6th Circuit said her gesture did not violate any identified law. Minard, it said, “clearly lacked authority to stop Cruise-Gulyas a second time.”

“Minard should have known better,” the opinion says.

It pointed to a 2013 ruling by another appeals court that said the “ancient gesture of insult” does not give police “a reasonable suspicion of a traffic violation or impending criminal activity.”

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Students call for global strike to demand action on climate change

The revulsion over the mass murder of Muslims in New Zealand by white supremacists has overshadowed an important news event today and that is the call for a global strike by students to call attention to the need for governments to take action on climate change. They are rightly pointing out that it is their generation and those that follow who will have to live with the consequences of inaction by my generation.
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Carnage in New Zealand

I have been to New Zealand many times because my wife’s family lives there and she goes there every year. The impression one has is of a bucolic, sheep-dominated, pastoral country, somewhat sleepy and relaxed, the kind of place one might retire to if one were seeking peace and quiet. So the news this morning of the murder of 49 people at two mosques and the injuring of roughly the same number in that country came as a shock.
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Stranded dog rescued from snowy mountain ledge

Via Carla Sinclair I came across this heartwarming story of a dog rescued in Scotland whose presence in the snowy region was first picked up by infra-red cameras.

It was a routine winter training mission in northeastern Scotland until the Maritime and Coastguard Agency crew spotted a stranded dog on the snowy Cairngorms mountains below.

They couldn’t fly away and leave the dog in trouble, so winchman Mark Stevens on Wednesday was lowered to the ground, scooped up the cold and frightened animal, and both were raised back to the helicopter.

The dog, named Ben, was cuddled and warmed on board before being rushed to a veterinarian.
It turns out Ben had been missing for two days in dangerous weather caused by Storm Gareth.

Officials say Ben has recovered from exposure and has been reunited with his owner.

Here’s video of the rescue.

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Everything is rigged to favor the wealthy

The latest example of how the wealthy rig the system for their benefit is the story of how they bribe their children into the colleges of their choice by paying people to do standardized tests for them or bribing sports team coaches to certify that the students are top athletes when they are nothing of the sort. This kind of bribery is for those who cannot afford he more traditional kind of bribery of making large ‘donations’, with the Trump and Kushner families being prime examples. The extremely wealthy can do even more, by making even larger donations to colleges for buildings and the like. All this is legal. As has been often pointed out, what is shocking in the US is not what is illegal but what is legal.

Stephen Colbert explains what kind of cheating was done in the cases that were just revealed.

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