On June 14, a bystander shot this video of a Seattle police officer punching a 17-year-old girl in the face during an altercation with her 19-year-old cousin. My pal David Forbes tweeted this bit of news to me this afternoon, and I’ve been trying to wrap my head around both the video and the responses to the video ever since. The response is overwhelmingly in support of the officer. Here are a few choice snippets:
I got hacked this weekend. My pal René Walling let me know about it in an email Sunday morning, and I immediately phoned up my host to ask for help. I’m hosted through Superb, a company recommended to me by the late, great Emru Townsend (through whom I met René). When Emru made this recommendation, I had no concept of the scope of his illness, or how very dearly it would cost him and his family. If I had known,…
So glad you asked. Recently, there’s been a lot of discussion about modifying Miranda warnings, or the warnings suspects are given upon arrest in the United States that inform them about their rights to silence, an attorney, termination of questioning, and possible contact with a consular authority. Current Attorney General Eric Holder is pushing Congress to modify the rules for terror suspects, specifically to change when Miranda warnings can be read, and to whom they apply.
C. Wess Daniels has a great post wherein he explains Henry Jenkins’ definition of fandom thusly: Appropriation – A person appropriates in their own life a particular text, work, and practice relating to their fan object. Often these objects are reinterpreted in their own life. Participation – There is an openness for people to participate at all levels within the community. They are so inspired by it they write music, create events, etc. Emotional Investment – People become really invested…
I was raised Catholic. I should know the answer to this. But somehow it just never came up, in catechism. If you asked me what various theologians would have to say on the issue, I might be able to speculate (Augustine would likely say no, on the grounds that robots have no soul to save; Aquinas wouldn’t know his own mind until he wrote a 13-volume treatise on the subject; Benedict would probably consider their rote behaviour as Godlike in…
“We are evolving every year, every decade. That’s a fact, whether it is to the intensity of the sun, whether it is to, as a chiropractor, walking on cement versus anything else, whether it is running shoes or high heels, of course we are evolving to our environment….” —Canadian Science Minister Gary Goodyear, responding to criticism about his refusal to answer whether he believed in evolution It would be easy to criticise Minister Goodyear for not “believing” in evolution despite…
Sitting in council chambers, next to the person who invited me specially, taking photos and eating cookies and being offered coffee by friendly cameramen. And clapping for science.
Last night my old roommate IM’d me with: “Dude! We just elected a black president! You missed out!” I replied that I was still a citizen of the United States of America, and I had voted for him two weeks ago, and that the things he had promised her as a candidate were privileges that I already enjoyed, like socialized medicine. If I had been thinking clearly, I would have added more to the list: gay marriage, reproductive rights that aren’t…
Tonight a thought blossomed in my head whose seed was planted the Saturday afternoon that I saw The Dark Knight. And if you couldn’t infer it from the title, that thought is this: This whole election is The Bridge Choice. The Bridge Choice has a long history in comics. It starts with Spider-Man and Gwen Stacey, but TDK gave it a new spin: participatory justice. The Joker offers two very different sections of Gothamites the opportunity to eliminate one another,…
There have always been many reasons to be proud of reading and writing science fiction. But today we’re reminded of some of the best. Today, Election Day, when so much hangs in the balance and when America has a chance to re-define itself, we can see how that what was once a conservative genre is now looking toward a different future. Some examples: I hope you will do the right thing, the just thing, and the moral thing when you…