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My favorite part of this story is that Cohen paid a guy who was recommended to him by Jerry Falwell Jr, to create a social media campaign called, "Women for Cohen", that promoted how sexy he was, like sexier than "Andy Garcia in The Godfather". It contained photos of Trump and Cohen together with the caption, "Two Handsome Men" and a photo of Cohen with Diamond & Silk (who are a pro-Trump minstrel show) captioned, "Look at that stud!"

https://www.usatoday.com/story...

You gotta admit, Trump only surrounds himself with the best people.

Oh, and since Jerry Falwell Jr's name is in this story, it's worth mentioning that Jerry Falwell Jr and his wife met an attractive pool boy while on vacation in Miami and ended up giving him $1.8 million for...something.

https://www.miaminewtimes.com/...

Part of me is really gonna miss Trump when he's gone. You gotta admit, he's done the "circuses" part of "bread and circuses" better than any president since WWII. You got your porn stars, you got your Putin, you got your Rudy Giuliani (who fucked his cousin), you got your evangelical leaders w/ pool boys, you got your Women for Cohen. Haberders. I don't know how I'm gonna be entertained when Trump is gone.

You think standing matters to ICE or Border Patrol?

How credulous can you be?

But what about a third parameter: size ?

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/n...

According to this both Irma and Andrew were both Cat 5 storms but Irma is way bigger

Is this not considered libel? Is that legal now?

Effectively, libel doesn't exist in the US, especially for anyone in the public sphere.

And this is a good thing, because how else would we have learned that Ted Cruz is the Zodiac Killer?

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/n...

It's been my theory all along that Trump is trolling the Republican party

And in the meantime, we have a candidate for president that is actually the Zodiac Killer.

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/n...

And the Slashdot editors want to act like this isn't really happening.

As for being upset about this or that spying program, I'm looking for some place where the spying program was used in a manner to harm a US citizen who was not actually a criminal or a terrorist. I'm coming up short on that one.

That's unsurprising, since there's usually a few decades of lead time before you find out about these things.

Having said that, there are plenty of examples of real harm to non-criminals, but we don't know how much can be attributed to the wholesale spying program as such.

According to Reddit, Florida is no more per capita crazy than any other state, it just allows public access to all police records.

"Since 1909, Florida has had a proud tradition that all government business is public business and therefore should be available to the public. That means all records, including photos and videos, produced by a public agency are easily accessible with a few narrow and obvious exceptions. Public officials are also required to open all of their meetings — even unofficial ones — to the public."

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/how-floridas-proud-open-government-laws-lead-to-the-shame-of-florida-man-news-stories-7608595 [Warning: Possibly Disturbing Mugshots]

Would a kid of any other background been arrested?

First of all, yes.

Second, back at you: would a kid of any other background have been invited to the White House? (Spoiler: the girl in the above link wasn't.)

If this kid's name had been Seamus or Mordechai or simply Johnny, his arrest (a) would have hardly caught any media attention or public outcry, and (b) absolutely would have not been recognized by the President and resulted in an invitation for a personal audience.

What (if anything) this boy's background had to do with his arrest is anyone's guess, but it has everything to do with his being a media darling, capturing Presidential attention/sympathy, and evoking the unprecedented level of populist white-knighting.

Schiavo was considered an atypically unambiguous case medically (with massive amounts of brain that just weren't present anymore, much less electrically active or not)

You mean to say that Terri Schiavo was kind of alive-o?

What about the end result? Give the government a big hammer and he will see everyone as a potential nail, even a joke, or an accident could put you in the wrong side of the stick.

And the government is a lot of people, with both clear big money behind bias, and people that could not do what is supposed to do with that information (Snowden is an example working against them, that was uncovered because he wanted to go public, think in others going against you for personal profit not going public).

You must have been a really boring kid, we did a lot of things a **LOT** worse than this, and those of us who were caught got suspended for a couple of days. Of course we were white kids in a small town (and that house didn't burn down) so of course there was no public outcry.

things were different back in the day before kids started killing 20 kids at school and bringing actual bombs to school.

World has changed, it's not the 50s or 60s or 70s or 80s or 90s anymore. After Columbine and 9/11 shit got real. Can't just set off bombs in public places and expect police not to show an interest.

Like I said, I think the punishment fit the crime, we don't need every student setting bombs off at school and calling them "unauthorized science experiment". And I love how they said "she's a honor roll student", as if that means getting a good grade means the rules don't apply? And yes, setting off bombs is actually prohibited in the rules: "Section 7.05 of the school's conduct code, Lauderdale says, which mandates expulsion for any "student in possession of a bomb (or) explosive device... while at a school (or) a school-sponsored activity... unless the material or device is being used as part of a legitimate school-related activity or science project conducted under the supervision of an instructor."

"Unfortunately, what she did falls into our code of conduct," Leah Lauderdale, a spokeswoman for the district, tells Riptide. "It's grounds for immediate expulsion."

More specifically, Wilmot's mini-explosion -- which came after she mixed "common household chemicals" in a plastic bottle -- violates Section 7.05 of the school's conduct code, Lauderdale says, which mandates expulsion for any "student in possession of a bomb (or) explosive device... while at a school (or) a school-sponsored activity... unless the material or device is being used as part of a legitimate school-related activity or science project conducted under the supervision of an instructor."

...Wilmot's principal acknowledges that the 16-year-old wasn't trying to hurt anyone and simply made a "bad choice," the school's rules said she had to be expelled.

...The spokeswoman says the school district stands by its rules. "We urge our parents to convey to their kids that there are consequences to their actions," she says.

source They undoubtedly maintained that since a teacher wasn't present at the time, that violated the letter of the law and, obviously, "NO EXCEPTIONS TO RULES EVER" is the most important message schools can teach to kids. (sarcasm)

There's also obviously a bit of "I'm just following orders, it's not me who is doing this clearly stupid and unethical thing even though I am the actual one expelling you."

I think there are two big roots to the problem. The first is zero tolerance policies. Schools love them deep down because it makes fretful parents think their children are safer, and also probably dealing with kids all day makes you really want to clamp down hard with rules for your own sanity. And obviously in this case, the school was more interested in showing that students are not going to be blown up by science-loving terrorist children than they were in the student. Even if the schools didn't want zero tolerance, all the other idiots involved want them, legislators and parents.

The second is personal liability. No one wants to stand up and say "Fuck that rule, it's a stupid fucking rule" and then potentially lose their job. I have no idea how likely that would have been in this case. Evidently, no one even wanted to say "She DID have permission, so she's not really violating the rules." Maybe the teacher who gave her permission chickened out and said "Well, I didn't give her permission to do THAT, so please don't fire me.

TLDR: it would be nice if someone had the power to use their own judgement and intelligence here, but there are plenty of mechanisms in place to ensure that can't happen. Preventing this type of idiotic heavy-handed action will require bigger changes than one administrator growing a brain and/or balls.

And I don't think you understand what injured means here. Being butt hurt because someone let a minor explosion off at school is way different then someone dying. Big fucking time.

Absolutely. I think you missed the intent of the quotation marks I put around "injured." I don't actually think the school or its officials were injured. Butt hurt, as you put it, is exactly what I think was going on here.

This article includes the police report and some really asinine statements from school officials. Those make it sound like the school and DA are reacting out of butt hurt.

On the one hand, I don't see any reason to attribute racism here. From what I see, "OMG hazardous chemicals at school! My butt hurts!" is apparent motive for dropping the hammer on the student.

On the other hand, I would be very interested to know the racial makeup of the school, both the student body and the school administration. Based on what the school official has said to the press, they don't sound very interested in justice in this case. Maybe the blame is shared between the DA and the school, or maybe it primarily lies with one or the other. The more I read about the case, the further I get from giving the school any benefit of the doubt.

"Kiera Wilmot got good grades and had a perfect behavior record. She wasn't the kind of kid you'd expect to find hauled away in handcuffs and expelled from school, but that's exactly what happened after an attempt at a science project went horribly wrong."

It's the first friggin' paragraph, in fact.

Try being a rape survivor with PTSD triggers on non-consensual groping. Try having a colostomy or other embarrassing medical device of your choice. Try being a transgendered person forced to risk being outed to some random TSA chimp to travel. The epsilon-minus Wal-Mart rejects they hire are not exactly the sort of people who can be relied on to handle such situations discreetly and respectfully.

Moreover, even for someone who has no such special vulnerability, this sort of treatment is simply unacceptable. You may not have a problem with it - hell, you probably like it and wish they'd shove that jackboot up your ass just that much harder - but the notion that one should be expected to be okay with having the government inspect one's genitals is simply obscene. Make no mistake, this is a rape, and it's about the same thing most other rapes are: the assertion of power so absolute as to abrogate the victims' control over even the most intimate parts of their own bodies. This is the forcible reduction of free persons to 'bare life', as Agamben would put it. This is a seed, and thanks to people like you willing to accept and defend it, it has taken root and become almost impossible to challenge, and now we wait in fear of the next step. When fully matured, this is O'Brian saying to Winston Smith, "If you are a man, Winston, you are the last man. Your kind is extinct; we are the inheritors. Do you understand that you are alone? You are outside history, you are non-existent."

All in all, I recommend you reconsider your position.

Lately, I've found The Onion and Fox News to be indistinguishable. Christian right leader George Rekers takes vacation with "rent boy"... that's satire, isn't it? Isn't it?!?

There's a longish article about Psystar's Robert & Rudy Pedraza in this week's Miami New Times, published before the verdict. They were expecting to win.

But don't just whine because your publicly displayed identifier is being checked against known offenses.

Yeah, tell that to one of these cops when you want their badge number. Go ahead, take a picture smarty. They'll break your camera or your face, and they'll DARE you to do something about it.

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And can we stop using the term "convicted monopolist?
This is right up there with people complaining that a convicted pedophile is not allowed to volunteer next to a school. Ya know, I am so sick of people talking shit about my homeboy. Stop using the term 'pedophile' He did it, he served his time, and it has nothing to do with current situation. He just wants to help the shop! It is just a buzzword used to rile people up. Not relevant in any way.

Wonderful summary, I would also like to add the following:

There has been a general decline in beekeepers as cited in this news paper http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2007-02-15/news/bee-s pell/ .

I like their creative choices of monsters too. I think the next one is going to be about people who are attacked by giant squirrels.

Here is some inspiration from the news:
Truce called in war on squirrels
Squirrels Gone Wild
Russian squirrel pack 'kills dog'

That's going to be a good movie.

If you discount the terrorist leader Saddam Hussein and his vast "Republican Guard" terrorist army, yes there were not terrorists there. I guess those guys meant diddlysquat in Iraq. Abu Nidal, one of Saddam's guests? I guess he was a peaceful Nobel prize winner.

In fact, the terrorists ruled before Saddam's aggression forced the US to fight back. Iraq used to be about 100% terrorist ruled. Now they only control dwindling pockets.

Yes, all the enemies of our Dear Leader GW Bush are TERRORISTS (tm). All despots, dictators and other figures on our bad side ARE DIRTY TERRORISTS WHO WERE PROBABLY INVOLVED IN THE 9/11 ATTACKS SOMEHOW, SEE THEY ONCE HAD A TERRORIST LIVING IN THEIR COUNTRY, SEE? WHY DON'T YOU LIBERAL TRAITORS GET IT?

I mean it's not like the US has ever harbored terrorists, right? (of coarse not, they ain't terrorists if they be killin' commies!)

Considering that about 12-13 million people are regularly tuning in every week to see pointless pastiche like "Two and a Half Men" and "Survivor! VANUATU!!!" I'd say that lowest common denominator media has a long way to go before it's dead. Also, it's great that things like these will give voice to bright new talent, but that's the thing, it has to be bright new talent. Just because you've got an XL2 and a working knowledge of Premiere doesn't mean you're going to make anything I'd like to see.

However, I am a very strong believer that porn is the quickest adopter of anything in media. Considering that the adult industry's monopoly is headed by a few big players (Vivid Video, Hustler as well, I presume), there's still a lot, a lot, and I mean, A LOT of adult amateur* content on the web. Still, the monopolies exist. However, the cheap barrier to entry (a digital camera, $1000, and some desperate women {PG-13 work safe}) has created interesting new developments that "old media" probably couldn't have thought of, i.e. BangBus and all the other gimmicky gonzo websites.

So my guess is we'll be seeing a lot of this coming up.

* Literally.