Anti-Manspreading Chair
Laila Laurel, from Norwich, won a major award for the seat which is crafted so that men sit with their legs closed.
She said the “concept” chair was inspired by her experiences of men “infringing on my space in public”.
But since the award, she said: “I have received a lot of explicit messages from men who seem to be under the impression that I hate all men.”
The University of Brighton student said this “couldn’t be further from the truth frankly”.
[…]
She also made a second chair intended for women which encourages sitters to push their legs apart.
“I don’t take myself too seriously, because for I really want my work to be both important and thought provoking, whilst also being engaging and funny.
“I think humour is a really interesting tool in order to tackle social issues.”
Posted by Owen at 2205 hours
Mom and Daughter Charged With Infant’s Murder
I’m glad to see them taking the death of a child seriously.
(CNN)A mother and daughter accused of murdering a pregnant woman and cutting her baby from her womb were charged Thursday with murder in connection with the baby’s death.
Clarisa Figueroa, 46, and Desiree Figueroa, 24, were charged with the murder of “Baby Ochoa” Yovanny Lopez, said Tandra Simonton, a spokeswoman for the Cook County, Illinois, State Attorney’s Office.The two women appeared in bond court on Thursday, Simonton said. They previously pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated battery in the April 23 killing of the baby’s mother, 19-year-old Marlen Ochoa-Lopez.The baby boy died June 14 after weeks on life support.Police say the women lured Ochoa-Lopez to their Chicago area home with the promise of baby items, including a stroller. Police say the two women then strangled her and cut the baby from her womb.
Posted by Owen at 2113 hours
Puerto Rico Protests
The protests erupted after Puerto Rico’s Center for Investigative Journalism published leaked chats between Gov. Rosselló and his inner circle, including profanity-laced, homophobic and misogynistic messages about fellow politicians, members of the media.Nearly a week after the messages were made public, it’s impossible to walk the streets of Old San Juan without seeing signs of the protests calling for Rosselló’s ouster.
Posted by Owen at 2106 hours
Wisconsin Democracy Campaign Beclowns Themselves
The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign has long maintained that the veto power in the hands of the Wisconsin governor is excessive and is contrary to how the legislative process should work in a democracy.
Governors of both political parties have often used their veto power to change the intent of the legislation that lands on their desks and to increase spending.
This amounts to taking powers that properly should reside in the hands of the legislature.
Agreed. So far, so good.
The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign believes that any governor, when he or she is exercising a line-item veto, must veto each item or appropriation in its entirety rather than using “creative editing” to construct a bill, or a section of a bill, that was not the intent of the legislature.
Still good.
The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign recognizes the hypocrisy of Republican officials who only now are aghast at the governor’s veto power when they had no problem with that power when the governor was from their own party.
What’s more, the current proposal from Sen. Dave Craig and Rep. Mike Kuglitsch is only concerned with the governor using the veto power to increase expenditures rather than to alter the meaning of legislation.
For this reason, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign is neither endorsing nor opposing the Craig/Kuglitsch bill.
Wha!?!? So they agree that the veto should be eliminated, but they don’t like Republicans’ hypocrisy and the amendment doesn’t go far enough. Um, why not support the move in the right direction even if it doesn’t go as far as they want? And who cares about the motive? Better government for the wrong reason is still better government.
Posted by Owen at 1954 hours
House Votes Down Impeachment
Ha!
(CNN)The House on Wednesday easily defeated an effort from a Texas Democrat to impeach President Donald Trump in a vote that highlighted the Democratic fissures when it comes to impeachment.
Rep. Al Green was able to force the vote under House rules — the first that Congress has taken related to impeachment since Democrats took control of the chamber this year — in what amounted to the most direct challenge yet to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s handling of impeachment.The 332-95 vote divided Democrats, with 95 — a little more than 40% of the Democratic caucus — voting against tabling it, or voting to keep it alive. There were 137 Democrats who joined all Republicans in voting to defeat the measure.Green’s decision to bring up his resolution presented a dilemma for impeachment supporters and moderate Democrats alike, as they’re now on the record for their vote, even if Green’s resolution was only focused on one issue — what he says is the President’s “bigotry and racism” — out of many Democrats are wrestling with on whether to move forward on impeachment.
Posted by Owen at 2228 hours
Storm Area 51
It’s all fun and games until the military turns you into a fine red mist. They ain’t the docile Berkeley police.
As of Wednesday morning, over 1.5 million people said they were “attending” the event, called “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us.” The event is scheduled for Sept. 20 at 3 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time. Another 1.1 million Facebook users indicated they were “interested.”
“We will all meet up at the Area 51 Alien Center tourist attraction and coordinate our entry,” according to the Facebook page. “If we naruto run, we can move faster than their bullets. Lets [sic] see them aliens.”
Posted by Owen at 2219 hours
Omar’s Anti-Semitism
No one is questioning the right of members of Congress and others to criticize Israeli policies. But Omar is crossing a line that should not be crossed in political discourse. Her remarks are not anti-Israel; they are anti-Semitic.
Whether consciously or not, Representative Omar is repeating some of the ugliest stereotypes about Jews—tropes that have been unleashed by anti-Semites throughout history. She is casting Jewish Americans as the other, suggesting a dual loyalty that calls our devotion to America into question.
Posted by Owen at 1355 hours
Regulating Big Tech
Putting aside the outright lie about Google being impartial (that’s been proven wrong time and time again), the next question is, what do we do about it, if anything?
Karan Bhatia, Google’s policy chief who was at the hearing, denied the claims and said it would be bad for business if users didn’t trust the company to be impartial.
Bhatia also said Google had done all it could to remove offensive content on YouTube but the volume of videos being uploaded makes it difficult to police.
Senator Mazie Hirono, a Democrat from Hawaii, told Bloomberg after the hearing that Section 230 was originally put in place to protect smaller tech companies in the 1990s rather than giants.
[…]
But Rep. James Sensenbrenner, a Wisconsin Republican, said the investigation could easily generate a gratuitous and unhealthy level of government control.
‘Just because a business is big doesn’t mean it’s bad,’ Sensenbrenner said Tuesday. He argued that breaking up big companies could hurt smaller firms around the U.S. and might compound privacy problems.
Posted by Owen at 1345 hours
Veto reform is badly needed
Here is my full column that ran in the Washington County Daily News yesterday:
When the Wisconsin Legislature passed the state budget, it already had an irresponsible $500 million spending increase for K-12 education. With a stroke of his pen, Governor Evers used his powerful veto to increase spending by another $87 million. Now some lawmakers are proposing reining in the Wisconsin governor’s ability to use a veto to increase spending.
Governor Evers and his comrades have decried the attempt to curb the governor’s veto power as a partisan endeavor. Perhaps it is. And perhaps it would have been a worthwhile reform when one part controlled the legislative and executive branches. Even so, it often takes the abuse of power to spark reform, and this reform is badly needed.
Wisconsin’s governor has the most powerful veto pen in the nation. Forty-four states give their governor some form of line item veto authority, but they all have restrictions. Wisconsin’s governor has the fewest restrictions. He or she can veto numbers, strike out individual words, edit the meaning of sentences, and even arbitrarily reduce appropriated amounts. Up until 2008, when the voters last reformed the veto power, the governor could even strike out individual letters to create new words.
This vast veto authority gives Wisconsin’s governor an extraordinary amount of power to essentially write legislation by carving up what the Legislature sends to his or her desk. While it is true that the Legislature can override a veto by a twothirds majority, it rarely happens due to the high electoral bar.
There is an argument that governors should not have a line item veto at all. The governors of six states and the president of the United States do not have a line item veto authority. When a bill reaches their desks, they must veto the bill in its entirety or allow it to become law.
Our federal Constitution, which also served as a model for many state constitutions, was predicated on the notion that concentrated power is injurious to liberty. That is why our three branches of government are integrated with a complex system of checks and balances that are meant to assure that no one branch, and certainly no one person, can wield too much power.
While in theory, a line item veto can be overridden as easily as a full veto, the real world disproves that theory. Legislation – particularly a budget – is always the amalgamation of a thousand different compromises. Any final piece of legislation has been put through the grinder of legislative committees, public hearings, and two houses of the legislature. By the time it reaches the governor’s desk, a piece of legislation is a network of interdependent priorities and conditions. When a governor vetoes a part of the legislation, it short circuits the network and undermines the legislature’s intent. Since a partial veto only strikes out a piece of the compromise, there are rarely enough votes behind an individual item in a bill to override the governor’s veto.
The constitutional amendment being circulated by Sen. David Craig and Rep. Mike Kuglitsch does not even approach eliminating the governor’s line item veto. Their amendment would simply prohibit the ability of the governor to use a veto to increase spending. The rationale is simple. No single person in government should have the power to spend $87 million on their own authority.
That is entirely too much power for one person to have over his fellow citizens. Our state constitution explicitly grants the power to appropriate money for precisely the reason that spending decisions should be subject to a rigorous legislative process and not be the subject to the arbitrary whims of a solitary governor.
The process to amend the state’s constitution is, rightly, a lengthy one. The amendment must pass both houses of the legislature in two consecutive sessions. Then the amendment must pass a statewide referendum. Fortunately, the governor is not involved in the amendment process.
Wisconsin’s governor’s veto authority makes him or her too powerful. It was true for Governor Walker. It is true for Governor Evers. It will be true for the next governor. It will be true for the one after that unless we change it. Taking a small step to limit that veto authority is not a partisan issue. It is just a simple reform to make a better government.
Posted by Owen at 0921 hours
Apollo 11 Launched 50 Years Ago Today
Time to indulge your inner space geek.
Apollo 11 launched from Cape Kennedy on July 16, 1969, carrying Commander Neil Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin into an initial Earth-orbit of 114 by 116 miles. An estimated 650 million people watched Armstrong’s televised image and heard his voice describe the event as he took “…one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind” on July 20, 1969.
Two hours, 44 minutes and one-and-a-half revolutions after launch, the S-IVB stage reignited for a second burn of five minutes, 48 seconds, placing Apollo 11 into a translunar orbit. The command and service module, or CSM, Columbia separated from the stage, which included the spacecraft-lunar module adapter, or SLA, containing the lunar module, or LM, Eagle. After transposition and jettisoning of the SLA panels on the S-IVB stage, the CSM docked with the LM. The S-IVB stage separated and injected into heliocentric orbit four hours, 40 minutes into the flight.
Posted by Owen at 0802 hours
Veto reform is badly needed
My column for the Washington County Daily News is online and in print. Here’s a taste:
When the Wisconsin Legislature passed the state budget, it already had an irresponsible $500 million spending increase for K-12 education. With a stroke of his pen, Governor Evers used his powerful veto to increase spending by another $87 million. Now some lawmakers are proposing reining in the Wisconsin governor’s ability to use a veto to increase spending.
Governor Evers and his comrades have decried the attempt to curb the governor’s veto power as a partisan endeavor. Perhaps it is. And perhaps it would have been a worthwhile reform when one part controlled the legislative and executive branches. Even so, it often takes the abuse of power to spark reform, and this reform is badly needed.
[…]
The constitutional amendment being circulated by Sen. David Craig and Rep. Mike Kuglitsch does not even approach eliminating the governor’s line item veto. Their amendment would simply prohibit the ability of the governor to use a veto to increase spending. The rationale is simple. No single person in government should have the power to spend $87 million on their own authority.
That is entirely too much power for one person to have over his fellow citizens. Our state constitution explicitly grants the power to appropriate money for precisely the reason that spending decisions should be subject to a rigorous legislative process and not be the subject to the arbitrary whims of a solitary governor.
The process to amend the state’s constitution is, rightly, a lengthy one. The amendment must pass both houses of the legislature in two consecutive sessions. Then the amendment must pass a statewide referendum. Fortunately, the governor is not involved in the amendment process.
Wisconsin’s governor’s veto authority makes him or her too powerful. It was true for Governor Walker. It is true for Governor Evers. It will be true for the next governor. It will be true for the one after that unless we change it. Taking a small step to limit that veto authority is not a partisan issue. It is just a simple reform to make a better government.
Posted by Owen at 0755 hours
Meth-Gator Warning
The latest summer blockbuster.
“On a more or less serious note: Folks…please don’t flush your drugs m’kay. When you send something down the sewer pipe it ends up in our retention ponds for processing before it is sent down stream. Now our sewer guys take great pride in releasing water that is cleaner than what is in the creek, but they are not really prepared for meth. Ducks, Geese, and other fowl frequent our treatment ponds and we shudder to think what one all hyped up on meth would do. Furthermore, if it made it far enough we could create meth-gators in Shoal Creek and the Tennessee River down in North Alabama. They’ve had enough methed up animals the past few weeks without our help. So, if you need to dispose of your drugs just give us a call and we will make sure they are disposed of in the proper way.”
The “methed up animals” is likely a reference to Limestone County’s “attack squirrel” case that made headlines across the country. Deputies say that suspect, Mickey Paulk, fed his pet squirrel meth to make it more aggressive. While on the run, Paulk denied this on Facebook Live and on the radio.
Posted by Owen at 2107 hours
Attorney General Asks for Input
While I applaud the effort at transparency, why would he need to solicit comments from the public about opinions? I thought that the AG was supposed to offer legal opinions based on the law – not public opinion.
MADISON, Wis. – Attorney General Josh Kaul today unveiled a new process and website for all Wisconsinites to provide information and perspectives on proposed Attorney General Opinion topics prior to the beginning of the Department of Justice drafting process. The new Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) webpage, doj.state.wi.us/OpinionRequests gives anyone the opportunity to weigh in on issues facing opinion review.
“With the changes announced today, we are making the AG opinion process transparent and open to input from the public,” said Attorney General Kaul.
With the new website, all commentary submitted will now be open to public review through the public records process. Public records requests can be made through the Department of Justice Office of Open Government by phone, mail or online. More information about making a public records request can be found here.
By statute, the Attorney General must, when asked, provide the legislature and designated Wisconsin state government officials with an opinion on legal questions. The Attorney General may also give formal legal opinions to district attorneys and county corporation counsel under certain circumstances. Wis. Stat. § 165.25(3) and 59.42(1)(c). Please see 77 Op. Att’y Gen. Preface (1988) for a more detailed explanation of the criteria for requesting a formal opinion.
Posted by Owen at 2102 hours
Scott Walker Takes New Job and Won’t Run for Office
I wish him and his family the very best. This sounds like a good gig for his strengths.
Former Republican Gov. Scott Walker announced plans Monday to serve full-time as president of a national conservative youth organization and ruled out the possibility of him seeking political office in the next five years.
The board of directors of the Young America’s Foundation elected Walker to become president of the group in early 2021 when YAF’s current president will step down after more than 40 years.
YAF works to promote conservative ideas among young people.
This clears the way for someone to take the mantle in Wisconsin. Who will it be?
Posted by Owen at 2050 hours
Green New Deal Is Designed to Replace Capitalism and Socialism
Chakrabarti had an unexpected disclosure. “The interesting thing about the Green New Deal,” he said, “is it wasn’t originally a climate thing at all.” Ricketts greeted this startling notion with an attentive poker face. “Do you guys think of it as a climate thing?” Chakrabarti continued. “Because we really think of it as a how-do-you-change-the-entire-economy thing.”
“Yeah,” said Ricketts. Then he said: “No.” Then he said: “I think it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s dual. It is both rising to the challenge that is existential around climate and it is building an economy that contains more prosperity. More sustainability in that prosperity — and more broadly shared prosperity, equitability and justice throughout.”
Chakrabarti liked the answer. “The thing I think you guys are doing that’s so incredible is … you guys are actually figuring out how to do it and make it work, the comprehensive plan where it all fits together,” he said. “I’d love to get into a situation where everyone’s trying to just outdo each other.” But Chakrabarti couldn’t help adding: “I’ll be honest, my view is I still think you guys aren’t going big enough.”
Ricketts seemed unfazed by the critique. “Well, you know, we’re not done. When it comes to a nationwide economic mobilization, there’s more to come on this front, for one. And other key components we’re going to be rolling forward speak to some of the key justice elements of this … ensuring every community’s got a part of this.”
Of course, the same could be said of much of the environmentalism movement. It has been co-opted by Marxists looking to use the environment as a cudgel to advance their ideology. It’s a shame that they squeeze out so many people who actually care about the environment and want us to use it in a responsible manner without abandoning our advanced civilization.
Also note the arrogance, and impracticality, of socialists. They actually think that a group of wonks sitting in a room designing an economy can produce better results than the cumulative effect of a trillion individual decisions. History disproves that arrogant notion.
Posted by Owen at 0820 hours
Rich People Shouldn’t Be President
I’ve written before that one of the greatest problems facing this country is a dearth of skepticism toward the extremely rich. Very rich people do not experience life — the tangled web of mutual obligation and care that makes working-class life possible — in the same way as us.
Really think about this: If for years someone is never subject to the will of another, compelled by the experience of scarcity, coerced by want, that person has been deprived of the human experience from which an ethic of mutuality, a capacity for empathy, grows.
Rich people tend to be less generous than poorer people. And the very wealthy are limited in their ability to comprehend the lived experience of others. Being a billionaire — a liberal one like Tom Steyer or a wannabe authoritarian like Donald Trump — should in and of itself be disqualifying for higher office, much less the presidency.
And while being rich isn’t necessarily a qualifier for office, people who have been in powerful positions, and become rich from it, are also accustomed to running large enterprises with competing interests. While nothing completely prepares someone to assume to presidency, such experience certainly helps.
Posted by Owen at 2150 hours
Armed Terrorist Killed While Assaulting ICE Facility
Good.
(CNN)An armed man was fatally shot early Saturday during a confrontation with police after he hurled incendiary devices at a Washington state immigration detention center, Tacoma police said.
The shooting occurred about 4 a.m. local time outside the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Northwest Detention Center, where the armed man attempted to set the building and parked cars on fire, according to police spokeswoman Loretta Cool.Authorities did not immediately identify the man who was armed with a rifle, saying in a statement the “medical examiner will release the identity of the victim when it is appropriate.”
Posted by Owen at 1735 hours
Anti-American Haters Tear Down American Flag
I thought the people inside wanted to BE Americans? Isn’t why they risked everything to illegally get inside America? Why raise the Mexican flag?
AURORA, Colo. (CBS4)– Hundreds of protesters gathered in Aurora on Friday evening to march to the ICE detention facility where illegal and undocumented immigrants are being housed. They also removed the U.S. flag, replaced it with a Mexican flag, and spray painted graffiti on a Blue Lives Matter flag before it was seen flying upside down on the flag pole.
I asked facetiously, of course. The reason they hoist the Mexican flag and deface a Blue Lives Matter flag is because they are an anti-American hate mob. Why do we want more of them storming over our border?
Posted by Owen at 1728 hours
Chess Master Caught Cheating
At least it’s not a doping scandal.
The world of elite chess has been engulfed in a cheating scandal after a picture emerged of a top grandmaster sat on a toilet allegedly using a mobile phone to cheat.
Police are investigating after Igors Rausis, who has represented Latvia, Bangladesh and the Czech Republic, was caught “red-handed”, the game’s governing body Fide said today.
Mr Rausis, aged 58, stunned the chess world by reaching the game’s top echelon at an age most players decline in strength.
The former Latvian champion was hailed as an inspiration to older players as he climbed from a Fide rating of around 2500 – the level of an average grandmaster – to the verge of 2700 in six years. Rausis also became the oldest player in the Top 100, reaching number 40 in the live rankings list.
However, his jump in middle age to the level of “Super” grandmaster was unprecedented in a game dominated by younger stars and this led to suspicion.
Posted by Owen at 1713 hours
Mob Kills Carjacker
I agree with the police, but it’s hare to find much sympathy for the carjacker.
(CNN)In an apparent act of mob justice, a man was beaten to death after he tried to steal a car with three children inside, Philadelphia police said.
Erik Hood, 54, drove off with the car while the children’s mother and father were in a store Thursday night, police said. The parents chased down the vehicle on foot and pulled the carjacker out of the car when he got caught in traffic, police said.Hood assaulted the father and fled, but a large crowd stopped Hood and beat him, police said. He was pronounced dead at Temple University Hospital, police said.“I’m not a fan of street justice,” Philadelphia Police Capt. Jason Smith said at a press conference Friday. “I think everything should play out through us as it comes to criminal actions.”Police have video footage of the encounter and are trying to identify the people who assaulted Hood, Smith said. No arrests have been made, he said.
Posted by Owen at 2047 hours
