Insert a Trite Metaphor about a Corral

Posted on December 14, 2005 in Roundup

This roundup covers the period from 5 December 2005 to 11 December 2005.

The shooting of Rigioberto Alpizar certainly caught my attention, but others focused on matters higher up the pyramid. Alpizar’s death is proving to be an opportunity for bipolars and their families to come forward, to talk about how the disease affects them. Unfortunatly more than a few media pundits have spread about the same old false information about mental illness and bent over backwards to defend the “shoot when scared” policy of many law enforcement agencies.

The other things which interested people last week included: using the Nobel Prize as a bully pulpit; the threat to liberty posed by librarians; Narnia as the realm of Satan; does Wal-Mart’s money buy more than ads?; media double standards regarding the Swift Boat and NARAL ads; finding more excuses to stay out of Kyoto; the death of Richard Pryor; and using obscenity laws to suppress the truth about casualties in Iraq.

Mercenaries — er — private security companies; the illusion of representative democracy in America; Venezuela elections; the anniversary of the Montreal Massacre; once more the Patriot Act trumps civil rights as a Florida professor is acquitted and then rejailed; porn star sells part of her genitals; the nonconspiracy against Christmas; confused MENSA member on rape; and New York, the abortion capital of America.

Helping elections matter by requiring paper ballots and outlawing “proprietary code”; a site for people with broken legs; proving that voting machines can be hacked; bribery; commercializing Christmas or else; the not so secret air war in Iraq; a chance to buy your way into heaven; and keeping the world safe from Quakers.