1. White terrorists are called “gunmen.” What does that even mean? A person with a gun? Wouldn’t that be, like, everyone in the US? Other terrorists are called, like, “terrorists.”

2. White terrorists are “troubled loners.” Other terrorists are always suspected of being part of a global plot, even when they are obviously troubled loners.

3. Doing a study on the danger of white terrorists at the Department of Homeland Security will get you sidelined by angry white Congressmen. Doing studies on other kinds of terrorists is a guaranteed promotion.

4. The family of a white terrorist is interviewed, weeping as they wonder where he went wrong. The families of other terrorists are almost never interviewed.

5. White terrorists are part of a “fringe.” Other terrorists are apparently mainstream.

6. White terrorists are random events, like tornadoes. Other terrorists are long-running conspiracies.

7. White terrorists are never called “white.” But other terrorists are given ethnic affiliations.

8. Nobody thinks white terrorists are typical of white people. But other terrorists are considered paragons of their societies.

9. White terrorists are alcoholics, addicts or mentally ill. Other terrorists are apparently clean-living and perfectly sane.

10. There is nothing you can do about white terrorists. Gun control won’t stop them. No policy you could make, no government program, could possibly have an impact on them. But hundreds of billions of dollars must be spent on police and on the Department of Defense, and on TSA, which must virtually strip search 60 million people a year, to deal with other terrorists. –via informed COMMENT…

I am on record against the use of the terms terrorism and terrorist. They have no meaning in a world where we have reduced the terms to pejoratives spewed by small children at bullies who’ve stolen their candy.

Previously…

Today’s headlines include:

Local News

Play outside
County scores 100% compliance
2 local kiosks to serve people on probation
2-1-1 info service available
Neighbor questions locked gates at ballfield

Top Headlines Poll: How important is the defeat of GOP leader Eric Cantor to people in the Mid-Ohio Valley?

(For comparison’s sake, I’ve added a link to the The Anchor News to these posts.)

What’s going on here…

Previously…

I got a souvenir pencil cup from the 2012 London Olympics with images of Wenlock dressed as a Bobby and as a Grenadier Guard. I thought the one-eye was a bit creepy but, at the time, not as creepy as the official logo.

Two years later I have to reevaluate that assessment. Wenlock is way more creepy.

For my part, I went from about 250 lbs to about 170 in 2002/3, by eating a very low-carb diet. This morning, I weighed in at 176 lbs. I attribute my sustained weight loss to daily swimming (which I do for physiotherapy for chronic back pain) and a moderate-carb diet, as well as a two-day-a-week 600 calorie fasting regime.

Which is to say, it’s a ton of work to stay where I am, and I know from past experience that if I skip swimming for a few days, or let myself go nuts on carbs for more than a day or two, or skip fasting-days (which aren’t really fasting — just very low-calorie days) that my weight creeps up. I pretty much never eat without making a complex (and tediously unwelcome) calculation about what I’m about to consume, and I often experience guilt while eating “bad” food and shame afterwards.

Clearly, this is less than optimal!

Cory Doctorow writing in Long-term weight loss considered nearly impossible at Boing Boing.

Today’s headlines include:

Local News

Public records: Police
Contractor breaks water main
Police chief lobbies to alter job test
Sheriff explains his view of EMA change
‘Dive into Reading’

Top Headlines Poll: What do you do when you get drowsy driving?

(For comparison’s sake, I’ve added a link to the The Anchor News to these posts.)

What’s going on here…

Previously…

Earlier, I linked to the introduction of Julian Sanchez’s essay as reprinted by The Guardian. Below are two further bits taken from the original publication of the essay by Cato Unbound that I think characterize the biggest picture, what I like to think of as the Meta-Snowden.

The individual programs are shocking, but we need to pull back and focus on the forest.

However optimistic we choose to be about the likely effects of legislation like USA Freedom, however, it was not any one legally dubious program that Snowden cites as his motive for abandoning his life and career, a decision that landed him in exile in Russia. It was a total architecture of monitoring – divided for legal and clerical convenience into discrete code-worded programs, but functionally operating as an integrated apparatus of surveillance whose true capabilities are more than the sum of its subsystems, and which may be flexible enough to simply route around the disruption of any individual data source.

If we care about seriously assessing the warning Snowden purports to offer, we need to scrutinize the full range of capabilities we’ve learned about, not only as freestanding programs, but as nodes in a network of information gathering and analysis. We’re then in a position to ask whether the design and aims of the system as a whole are compatible with a free society.

Imagine what Richard Nixon might have done with the power now invested in our Executive.

It is a stroke of historical good fortune that J Edgar Hoover’s seemingly unbounded willingness to deploy his surveillance powers against domestic political dissidents at least faced technical constraints. Having bugged the offices of the Southern Christian Leadership Congress did not render it any cheaper or easier to bug the next hotel room Dr Martin Luther King Jr checked into: time and resources had to be invested on each occasion.

Infrastructural surveillance is another matter. If a system is technically capable of rapidly collecting the Gmail inboxes of foreigners who frequent jihadist websites, then it is apt to be technically capable of doing the same for Americans who are active on Tea Party or Occupy forums. Tweaking a few lines of code will transform one system into the other.

Our government is not interested in protecting our rights. That task falls to We The People.

Armed at last with a fuller understanding of the surveillance systems our intelligence agencies have been building, it falls to us to assess whether they are truly so necessary to our security that they justify their inherent risks. And the question we should ask about such systems is the question we should ask about, say, biological weapons: Not whether we are satisfied with how (as far as we know) they are currently being used, but whether the consequences of their misuse are so great that, if and when it occurs, it will be too late to do much about it.

The majority leader in the US House of Representatives, Eric Cantor, was defeated by a Tea Party challenger on Tuesday night in a shock primary election result that may turn out to be the biggest upset of the year in American politics.

Cantor, the second most senior Republican in the House, who had been tipped to take over from the speaker, John Boehner, lost the opportunity to stand for re-election in his Virginia seat in a surprise defeat by the Tea Party candidate David Brat.

Dan Roberts writing in Eric Cantor loses primary to Tea Party challenger Dave Brat for The Guardian.

So, who is Dave Brat?

The 49-year-old teaches at Randolph-Macon College, a small liberal arts school north of Richmond. He raised just over $200,000 for his campaign, while Cantor spent more than $1 million in April and May alone to try to beat back his challenge.

However, Brat offset the cash disadvantage with endorsements from conservative activists like radio host Laura Ingraham and with help from local Tea Party activists angry at Cantor.

Politico had this to say:

Brat, who is Catholic, got his masters from Princeton Theological Seminiary, an institution that, according to its mission statement, “prepares women and men to serve Jesus Christ in ministries marked by faith, integrity, scholarship, competence, compassion, and joy, equipping them for leadership worldwide in congregations and the larger church, in classrooms and the academy, and in the public arena.”

Brat launched his campaign in January. Like many tea party-aligned candidates, he said he wanted to address the nation’s ballooning deficit and that he wanted to be Cantor’s “term limit.”

But, even for a conservative hopeful, he took on the Republican establishment in unusually harsh terms. Shortly after launching his campaign, according to an account in the Culpeper Star Exponent, Brat held an event in which he suggested that Washington politicians charged money to pass laws. He also said that, to get a seat on the House Ethics Committee, a member would have to pay $150,000.

“These days everything is for sale in D.C.,” Brat said at the time, according to the paper.

Appearing on Fox News after the race was called, Brat disputed the characterization of the race as being simply a battle between the tea party and establishment. He said he had won support from Republicans across the board who were attracted to his espousal of fiscal conservatism and “faith in God.”

“The press is always out to have these exciting stories to sell papers, and people actually do care about policy,” he said. “I give 30-minute stump speeches on policy and the press made fun of me. …Well the American people are ready for serious issues.”

Brat’s top strategist for much of the race was John Pudner, who operates an Atlanta, Ga.-based political consulting firm, Concentric Direct. Pudner spent the first two months of the contest working for Brat directly, then split off in March to start a Brat-backing super PAC.

Speaking by phone Tuesday night, Pudner said he was in shock. There were times during the race when he felt hopeful, he said, but even Brat’s strongest supporters didn’t see this coming.

“I think we’re all waiting to wake up to see if this really happened,” he said.

On Fox News, Brat called his win a “miracle.”

“I think the people are just ready for some major changes in this country,” he said, “and I was blessed. It’s a miracle.”

Pahraise Jeebuss!

Previously…

*Mid-Ohio Valley, which is roughly defined by the counties around Marietta, Ohio, the county seat of Washington County and Parkersburg, West Virginia, the county seat of Wood Count.

If your mental to-do list grows beyond that, it will get stuck in an endless circular loop of mulling, “much like a running toilet”, as Brigid Schulte – author of Overwhelmed: Work, Love and Play When No One Has the Time – put it. “The mulling is what social scientists say creates ‘contaminated time’,” she writes, “when, even in what looks like a moment of leisure on the outside, you can be lost in the churn of your thoughts and feel anything but.”

And so it is that I have spent the past week staring into space.

All right, so Shonibare only said to do it for a day or two, but I needed the practice. I’ve done it for a full seven. At first, I almost immediately experienced the sensation of total relief that I like to imagine Beyoncé experienced after it finally dawned on her, staring once again at the invitation to Kim and Kanye’s wedding, that she could just, you know, not go. My sleeping got better. My smile grew wider. I got a haircut during working hours. Everyone liked it. I felt so free!

Sophie Heawood (sorry Sophie, but I couldn’t type your name without hearing Jabuzoff in my head) I wanted to be more creative so I have spent the past week staring into space writing for The Guardian.

David Allen’s Step No. 1 which involves cognitive distribution is quicker, but I like the running toilet analogy.

Yesterday I sent a note to the Marietta Times saying that I hoped the paper was all over the story published in a United Kingdom paper on Sunday about the KKK rally in Parkersburg. No reply yet, but the above story did appear below the fold on the front page today.

Given the the Times sister publication ran stories about the uptick in Klan activity on 12 October and 31 December of last year, the Times had plenty of time to get the story.

I copied the News and Sentinel on the story and the paper did run the story, by reporter Evan Bevins, that the Times copied for today’s edition. The News and Sentinel did not, however, place the story on page one.

Being scooped by the competition sucks. Being scooped by a paper 3,818 miles away is just sad.

The Times, however, now has the opportunity to seek redemption.

Today’s headlines include:

Local News

Summer jobs
Murder a fact of life in Morgan Co.
Tests precede drilling in Fearing Twp.
Klan rally held at Mountwood Park
Guitar players at work

Top Headlines Poll: Have you had a summer job as a student?

(For comparison’s sake, I’ve added a link to the The Anchor News to these posts.)

What’s going on here…

Previously…

America’s first real debate about the 21st century surveillance state began one year ago. There had, of course, been no previous shortage of hearings, op-eds and panels mulling the appropriate “balance between privacy and security” in the post-9/11 era. But for the masses who lacked a security clearance, these had the character of a middle school playground conversation about sex – a largely speculative discussion among participants who’d learned a few of the key terms, but with only the vaguest sense of the reality they described. Secrecy meant abstraction, and in a conflict between abstract fears and the all-too-visible horror of a burning skyscraper, there could be little question which would prevail. The panoptic infrastructure of surveillance developed well out of public view.

A more meaningfully informed public debate finally became possible via a series of unprecedented disclosures about the global surveillance apparatus operated by the National Security Agency – disclosures for which the word “leak” seems almost preposterously inadequate. It was a torrent of information, and it gave even the most dedicated newshounds a glimmer of what intelligence officials mean when they complain about “drinking from the fire hose” of planet-spanning communications networks.

The fountainhead of this stream of revelations, a young former contractor named Edward Snowden, declared himself to be motivated by a “reasonable fear of omniscient State powers kept in check by nothing more than policy documents.

Julian Sanchez writing in Snowden showed us just how big the panopticon really was. Now it’s up to us for The Guardian.

[Bill] Watterson told the Washington Post that he’d first had the idea of appearing in the Pearls Before Swine strip “several years ago, when Stephan did one of his strips that mocked his own drawing ability and mentioned my strip in comparison”.

“I thought it might be funny for me to ghost ‘Pearls’ sometime, just to flip it all on its head,” he said. “It was just a silly idea, and I didn’t know Stephan [Pastis], so I never pursued it, and years went by.”

But when Pastis got in touch with him earlier this year, Watterson realised the collaboration could be a way to raise money for Parkinson’s research, “in honour of Richard Thompson”, the Cul de Sac creator.

He is pleased with how the strips turned out, and the originals are set to be auctioned for charity. “It was generous of Stephan to let me hijack his creation, and more generous still to donate the originals,” he told the Washington Post. “I had expected to just mess around with his characters while they did their usual things, but Stephan kept setting up these situations that required more challenging drawings … so I had to work a lot harder than I had planned to! It was a lot of fun.”

Pastis referenced the celebrated ending of Calvin and Hobbes, in which the pair set off together on a sledge, Calvin saying: “It’s a magical world, Hobbes, ol’ buddy … Let’s go exploring” in Saturday’s Pearls Before Swine strip. He showed Libby – sledge in hand – telling his cartoon self that “I’m bored of drawing. Besides, there’s a magical world out there to explore.”

“But it’s not even snowing,” replies Pastis.

“Do I need to hit him over the head with the symbolism?” responds Libby, turning away.

Alison Flood writing in Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson returns to cartooning for The Guardian.

It was encouraging and memorable to hear Councilman Jeff Johnson sharply challenging Council President Kevin Kelley on his sleight of hand with the Jackson administration in the final session before summer.

The issue was passage of two phases of the short but very expensive roadway, nicknamed Opportunity Corridor. It courses through an area known as the Forgotten Triangle. It would make the depressed area the Circumvented Triangle with a two-lane each way roadway with a green strip between. It will have a 35 mile an hour speed limit.

Kelley pulled the old trick, with the help of Ken Silliman, Mayor Frank Jackson’s mouthpiece, of hearing legislation that never went through proper committee hearings. Silliman can make rotten eggs appear as fresh apples when selling a program to a supine Council. It’s an old with little oversight. It took only a short time to pass it by the committee of the whole.
.
This time it was the Opportunity Corridor Phases one and two, only costing taxpayers some $238 million.

Johnson picked up on the con job by Kelley. He didn’t mince words.

The Opportunity Corridor is a $331 million unnecessary road connecting I-480 from the west side to University Circle and the Cleveland Clinic.

Johnson, showing anger, made the proper assessment. First, the legislation was being slipped through a committee of the whole in a very short discussion, noted Johnson. He also questioned quite correctly that there are already adequate streets – including Carnegie, Cedar and Euclid – that can be accessed to the same destination at no cost. All it takes is a trip up E. 55th Street from the I-490 exit.

He promised to say more on the floor of Council tonight at its weekly meeting.

Johnson, exhibiting some of his old fire, chastised Kelley, chairing the meeting, for bringing “a major project” to the table “at the last minute. He said he was displeased with leadership for not bringing in all 17 members of Council to assess a project that impacts the entire city.

Councilwoman Phyllis Cleveland, while not openly critical of the chairman, hit upon the correct analogy, telling the committee there has been community “pushback” and some “very uncomfortable” feelings in her community. The road would go through her ward.

She made the apt comparison of this road to “urban renewal” and “highway” construction that seriously devastated parts of the east side. And parts have not recovered since the 1960s.

Yet, this serious upheaval could have similar impact.

There was talk also of making Quincy Avenue, which leads right into E. 105th Street and thus University Circle into a cul de sac, which would cut it off from East 105th.

The measure was passed with one “no” vote. It was Johnson.

Roldo Bartimole writes on JEFF JOHNSON SHOWS ANGER AT KEVIN KELLEY’S CON.

Draw Keith Draw…!

As has been documented in books and articles by people like Neil Barofsky and Jesse Eisenger, Timothy Geithner symbolized the worst elements of government subservience to Wall Street. While ostensibly a public servant as head of the New York Federal Reserve Bank and later Treasury Secretary during the turbulent period up to, during, and following the financial crisis of 2008, his main goal seemed to be to protect the interests of Wall Street banks rather than the public who paid his salary and whose interests he was supposed to be safeguarding.

Geithner has now written his own book where he seeks to justify his actions and push back against his critics such as Barofsky and Elizabeth Warren. But Matt Stoller says that the public records undermines his case and that Geithner is symbolic of what Stoller calls the con artist wing of the Democratic party.

Mano Singham writing in Timothy Geithner as Chauncey Gardner at Freethought Blogs.