People have mixed feelings about their high school lives. For some, it was a pleasant experience, for others a time of torment. Most of us, even those with positive memories, would not seek to relive those experiences, though we may wish we had done some things differently and fantasize about an alternative history where we did not waste opportunities.
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I will be volunteering with the Ohio ACLU during the Republican convention that begins on the 18th, monitoring the media coverage though I have not yet been told exactly what I will be doing. At a meeting some months ago to prepare, concerns were raised that the police might try to stop the public from recording their actions using their mobile phones. These citizen produced videos have altered the dynamic in police-public relations in that in the past, the statements of the police as to what happened were largely taken at face value but now we often have video and audio of the events as they unfold, sometimes even livestreamed, and this has often exposed the use of extreme and unnecessary and even deadly force, especially targeting people of color.
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Here is a supercut of the kind of banter that took place on Fox and Friends with Gretchen Carlson who has filed a sexual harassment suit against the head of Fox News Roger Ailes. It is hard to imagine in this day and age that people could be so obviously sexist and obnoxious, though they clearly seem to think they are being complimentary. They are like the men on the street who ‘compliment’ women on their looks as they pass by.
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Honestly, sometimes I think that the Catholic Church goes out of its way to make itself look ridiculous. A prime example is the recent document issued by the archbishop of Philadelphia Charles Chaput. It concerns divorced Catholics who remarry without an annulment of their first marriage which means that the church does not recognize the second marriage as valid. Since they are living in sin, they are forbidden from taking part in the communion rite. But Chaput says that there is a way that they can receive communion, and that is if they abstain from sex and live together as “brother and sister.”
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The long-awaited inquiry by Lord Chilcot into the UK decision to join with the US in waging the illegal way against Iraq has ended and its final report has been released. The investigation was started in 2009 to look into the decision that has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in the region and created anarchy and lawlessness that have become the breeding grounds for vicious and deadly groups like ISIS. The report offers a searing indictment of former prime minister Tony Blair and the entire way that the government made that fateful decision.
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It has long been obvious that the objectification of women is an integral part of the Fox News business model. The network features a bevy of attractive women who are required to wear dresses that emphasize their cleavage and show their legs and some shows even have a ‘leg cam’, a camera placed strategically to get the best view of whichever woman on the panel happens to have the ‘best legs’ that day, whatever that means. I kid you not.
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There is more video on the immediate aftermath of the panic (that I wrote about yesterday) that ensued in a Cleveland suburb after police got 911 calls from the sister and father of a hotel desk clerk who had told them that a man in the hotel lobby in traditional Arab dress was using multiple disposable cell phones and pledging allegiance to ISIS.
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There are a whole lot of new bloggers who have joined the Freethoughts Blog network recently and I feel guilty that I have not been keeping up with them. I just discovered that Marcus Ranum, whom many of you will recognize because of his spirited contributions in the comments here, has his own blog where he has been posting since June 26.
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