Numerous Fun Things!

Hrrrgh…so…many…blogs…to catch up on…

Here are some links from some of the best stuff I’ve missed out on this week. I don’t even remotely have time to link them all, but maybe if I keep this up I’ll eventually catch up. (Blog-reading is one of those things that quickly falls off the back burner when my plate gets full (oo, nice mixed metaphor).)

You suspected it just as I did, but man it’s nice to read it: Retroactive
Telecom Immunity in the FISA bill…probably unconstitutional. There’s several good reasons, but the best? Checks and balances, baby: Congress isn’t allowed to interfere in judicial process.

Oo, wow — the “Personal Use of Marijuana by Responsible Adults Act of 2008” is an interesting development. Guess some of the statistics finally caught on…like this one:

“829,625 people arrested for marijuana law offenses in 2006,
89 percent for mere possession. Taxpayers are stuck with the
multibillion-dollar bill for these hundreds of thousands of marijuana
arrests, which consume 4.5 million law enforcement hours — the
equivalent of taking 112,500 law enforcement officers off the streets.”

and this one:

“Contrary to conventional wisdom, it is unlikely that marijuana
decriminalization would lead to an increase in marijuana use. As the
World Health Organization detailed in its recent report,
the U.S. has the highest rate of marijuana use in the world despite
some of the most punitive drug policies. In the U.S., 42.4 percent of
people have used marijuana, compared to just 19.8 percent in the
Netherlands, where marijuana has been decriminalized for decades.”

…both quoted from the ACLU article.

Also, the TSA still wants to see you naked before you can fly on an airplane, but they’ve instituted some “calming measures” to, um…er…actually, I can’t think what the hell they think that’ll accomplish.

Also also, a good bit on Faith-Based Termination — in plain language, firing people because they don’t “do” the boss’s religion. Funnily enough, the article doesn’t mention the Salvation Army, but that’s the first place I thought of, as they started doing this pretty much the second they realized Bush would let them get away with it.

…And a good resolution for Tanika, the Detroit woman who had a restraining order on her abusive spouse, but got evicted anyway when he showed up and trashed her apartment. This is way more common than you’d think; the perception that domestic violence victims are somehow responsible or to blame for the actions of their abusers is really frighteningly pervasive. That Tanika won this one hands-down is an awesome development.

Yay, that batshit school principal in Florida got the smackdown! That makes me happy. I had a batshit principal in high school, too. (Which is where my early fondness for the ACLU comes from, actually; they got him smacked a good one, too.)

OMG, I have to…hand a victory…to television. (My husband and I always argue about TV; he says that it can be a good, educational thing; and I say yes, I could win the lottery twice, too, but neither is very freaking likely to actually happen.) But in this case? A soap opera, of all things, is having a surprising effect — it’s giving Saudi women a glimpse of what having a kind, passionate, sensitive and caring husband might be like! (Link via Walter Jon Williams’ blog, just because I like it and it’s worth linking to. ;)

But probably the BEST news today is that Fred Phelp’s Westboro Baptist Church caught on fire. …Which, I have to admit, is the best evidence I’ve ever seen that God IS real.