Despite all the rhetoric, when detailed studies are made that explore the actual empirical evidence, suspicions about the dangers of cats are revealed time after time to have little basis in reality. – David Nutt
I’m sorry if I’ve been slow to answer correspondence lately; my husband got home Tuesday and we’ve been working all day, every day since Friday on rebuilding the terrace in our new house (long story short: the combination of a design flaw, overly-optimistic assumptions and the financial crash of 2008 resulted its being ruined). But after Wednesday, it should be all done and I really hope we don’t have any more issues. Our top contributor this week was Radley Balko, with all of the links down to the first video; both of them this week are ones I found a while back, but for some reason never featured. The links between the videos were provided by my cat (“catflakes”), Nun Ya (“cat ban” and “soccer”), Jesse Walker (“chimps” and “journalists”), EconJeff (“place names”), and Wendy Lyon (“Sweden”).
- Washington, D.C. threatens flower-lover with prison “for his own good”.
- During Ramadan, Guantanamo prisoners will only be force-fed at night.
- So much for the third amendment being the only one still intact…
- Cops arrest a man for recording them, then murder his dog.
- Hello, NSA!
- Catflakes.
- A plan to ban cats?
- Chimpanzee death rituals.
- Journalists against journalism.
- Drunk Russian severed-head soccer.
- The real meanings of American place-names.
- Mike Siegel on mathematical malpractice in one of last week’s links.
- Sweden makes non-consensual videography harder for individuals, but easier for the state.
From the Archives
- Third-grade math skills and a sense of New York City’s size are not required for a position on its city council.
- How Ashton Kutcher escaped from his handlers and made a complete ass of himself.
- Hawaii’s tolerated brothels and the power struggle which doomed them.
- Partisan prohibitionists use bad study to blame GOP for “sex trafficking”.
- Why a Norwegian politician called for the Swedish Model to be scrapped.
- Why Sarah Woolley winces through Hollywood sex scenes and not porn.
- The inherent racism of “trafficking” mythology isn’t usually this obvious.
- It’s good to see at least a few countries stand up to American bullying.
- Vietnam moves forward in its treatment of sex workers, while the US…
- It’s nice to see the attacks on Nicholas Kristof continuously increasing.
- Not quite as bad as arresting someone for moving out of a dumpster.
- Montgomery County, Maryland wages war on kids’ lemonade stands.
- The American obsession with “safety” has created an evil nightmare.
- Google encourages Irish prohibitionists, censors rights campaigners.
- How one of the great masterpieces of children’s literature was born.
- Two ads from Europe: one anti-sex worker and one pro-sex worker.
- MTV protects itself against STD liability claims from dirty amateurs.
- In which some prohibitionists enter a battle of wits half-armed.
- Georgia learns about the Law of Unintended Consequences.
- Methinks Professor Kubistant needs to find a regular escort.
- An example of governmental insanity in Western Australia.
- The end of Louisiana’s wicked “crime against nature” law.
- Village Voice’s campaign against “sex trafficking” hysteria.
- Zahia Dehar isn’t doing too badly for a “trafficked child”.
- Another cop scheme to destroy sex worker safety nets.
- Another flying leap onto the “trafficking” bandwagon.
- Bubbles Burbujas on the problems with “pole taxes”.
- My two previous columns for Independence Day.
- In support of loosened immigration restrictions.
- Is there anything cops don’t wildly exaggerate?
- The growing insanity of “trafficking” hysteria.
- Cops, testilying and “climbing the ladder”.
- The “trafficking” article that was neither.