August 3, 2011
If at First You Don't Get a Prison Sentence, Try, Try Again
What can happen when both the states and the federal government have overlapping laws.
http://reason.com/blog/2011/07/25/if-at-first-you-dont-get-a-pri
Supreme Court ruling, rising police presence in schools spur Miranda questions
When schoolplace conversations become self-incrimination by kids.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/supreme-court-ruling-rising-police-presence-in-schools-spur-miranda-questions/2011/06/21/gIQAYXgeKI_story.html
Studying the web's impact on sex offenders
There seems to be a growing awareness of how middle-class and innocuous porn-gatherers can be.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14234281
Nebraska Offenders Cry Foul Over Sex Registry Changes
More ex post facto victimization.
http://www.ketv.com/news/28655792/detail.html
High School Sweethearts -- or Sex Offenders?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/abigail-pesta/high-school-sweetheartsor_b_908118.html
Revenge Effects of Too-Safe Playground Equipment
" By gradually exposing themselves to more and more dangers on the playground, children are using the same habituation techniques developed by therapists to help adults conquer phobias", according to Dr. Sandseter and a fellow psychologist, Leif Kennair, of the Norwegian University for Science and Technology.
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2011/07/revenge_effects.html
Earth To Be Made Child-Safe (humor)
This is fun!
http://www.theonion.com/articles/earth-to-be-made-childsafe,1088
Unraveling the Mystery of Murderous Minds
Prison psychiatrist Theodore Dalrymple asks why we feel compelled to understand monsters like Anders Breivik, but no need to explain others' righteous behavior.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904888304576476052920894000.html
Some other quotes from Theodore Dalrymple:
"Sentimentality allows us to congratulate ourselves on our own warmth and generosity of heart. Oscar Wilde said that sentimentality is the desire to have the luxury of emotion without paying for it. It turns the people on whom it is bestowed into objects. It attempts, often successfully, to disguise from them their own part in their downfall. It suggests solutions to problems that do not, because they cannot, work. Sentimentality is the ally of ever-expanding bureaucracy, for the more a solution doesn't work, the more of it is needed".
At one point, "the British government . . . wanted doctors to speculate on what people might do" and to offer law enforcement their views about who was likely to become dangerous. But human knowledge, and even more so human judgment, being fallible, "any factor you find that makes them likely to become dangerous isn't going to be 100%. It's unlikely to be even 20%. So in order to prevent one incident, you'd probably have to lock up hundreds of people.
'So actually there's a potentially extremely totalitarian or at least authoritarian aspect to this drive to understand what essentially is not finally understandable."
How The Weirdos Behind ‘To Catch A Predator’ Blew $US1.2m
The creepy, thuggish vigilantes seem finally to be recognized as such.
http://www.defamer.com.au/2011/04/how-the-weirdos-behind-to-catch-a-predator-blew-us1-2m
The Cybersecurity-Industrial Complex
More scary threats the government says we should be worried about.
http://reason.com/archives/2011/07/25/the-cybersecurity-industrial-c
Conn. court upholds ban on 'stimulating' materials by sex offenders
The idea here is that, no matter how legal the material may be for anyone else to possess, sex offenders can go back to prison for possessing it. Guess who gets to decide what material is "sexually stimulating" and which is not? Why, government agents, of course!
http://www.cbs3springfield.com/story/15142391/conn-court-upholds-ban-on-stimulating-materials
Residency Restrictions Discounted as Means of Public Safety
http://constitutionaldefense.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Residency-Restriction-Fact-Sheet.pdf
Paedophile panic in Sussex
The pediatricians and the pedicurists had better be on their toes!
http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/9159944.Paedophile_panic_in_Sussex
Statistics Laundering: false and fantastic figures
Since the beginning of the sex offender hysteria in the eighties, fabricated statistics have been used to shape public opinion and create a climate of hysteria.
http://libertus.net/censor/resources/statistics-laundering.html
Man Photographing Grandson In Park Deemed Suspicious By Police And Media
The hysteria reactions to adults photographing children in public has reached epidemic proportions.
http://www.pixiq.com/article/man-photographing-grandkid-in-park-deemed-suspicious
As raunch has waxed, rape has waned.
http://townhall.com/columnists/stevechapman/2011/07/28/does_sexual_fare_cause_sexual_violence/page/full
The Getty has installed Charles Ray's sculpture 'Boy With a Frog'
A tantalizing addition to an already great museum.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2011/07/the-getty-has-installed-charles-rays-sculpture-boy-with-a-frog.html
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