Tim Wise to his 12-year-old daughter

One of the millions of expressions of the sadness people all over the country feel, but one that maps out once again the work to be done. Dry your tears, little one.

No Justice: No Peace

Nice job! Fifty years after Medgar Evers, we've now got Trayvon Martin killed with the killer free. So much for the "post-racist America" charade. –At least The New York Times has something on its front page this morning to comfort me about being from Oakland. –Oh, and Happy 14 juillet, France. Although you aren't much better on the social justice agenda. –What a world. "Humans."

Turkey & the "patriot" Act

So these two entities, as they are manifesting themselves in current event, have kick-started this blog. The courage of secular free-thinkers in Turkey heartens me. And the blatant audacious hypocrisy of the U.S. as it tries to justify its policy of integral surveillance sickens me. These two thing combined spur me to vent. So vent I will. Quote of the day (note to self: "Make a rubric for this as soon as you can figure out how to use this damned thing): Robert Mueller, FBI chief, in congressional testimony: "There are no American names in that lockbox. There are only numbers in that lockbox."

Snowden Fallout

So first we are reassured by Obama that they're not trawling content and now, today, we're told by NSA chief, Gen. Keith Alexander, that the outed program has foiled just dozens of terrorist plots.

Right, by analyzing metadata only?

Yeah, we're stupid and naive.