Random shots around the web:

• Alli Reed posts the worst dating profile ever on OkCupid and proves, as you might suspect, that horny men will hit anything.
• Stephen Foster thinks it should be illegal to take pictures of people if you plan to have dirty thoughts about them later, or something.
• Rob Hustle explains what happens when you call the cops:

• Along those lines, a local group called We Charge Genocide (named after the 1951 U.N. partition charging the U.S. with genocide against African Americans) is raising money to send a group to a meeting of the United Nations Committee Against Torture in Geneva, Switzerland to present a report on Chicago Police abuses.
• NSA recruiters turn out not to like being recorded in public.
• By the skin of their teeth, man, the skin of their teeth:

 

(Hat tip: Prison Culture)

Random shots around the web:

• Yet another case of judges saying you can drive away from the cops. Well, not that you can actually do that, but if you open your window because a cop pulled up behind you, got out of his car, and knocked on your window, you are totally doing that voluntarily for purposes of admissibility of evidence, because you absolutely could have driven away. (I mentioned a similar case here.)
• According to the synopsis, Naomi Kline, who argued in The Shock Doctrine that right-wing ideologues used disasters to impose their value on others, is arguing in This Changes Everything that climate change is an opportunity for left-wing ideologues to impose their values on others.
• CSI: Gallifrey.
• Something stirs from slumber in Bat Country.
• Making Satan look like a sensible choice.
• Maggie ruins my fond memories of Scully.

 

Random shots around the web:

What is it with Illinois and bizarre double jeopardy cases? In the 1990’s we had the Harry Aleman murder trial do-over which wiped out his earlier acquittal (a classic Chicago tale), and now the state is requesting to re-try Esteban Martinez after refusing to present its case in the first trial. (Gideon covers it too.)

Greenwald and Snowden reveal that the British GCHQ has been using its intelligence agencies to go after political enemies and dissident groups rather than just the terrorists they’ve been using to justify their budgets.

Gideon has a fascinating explanation of a new twist in consent search law, courtesy of the Supreme Court in Fernandez v. California.

A jury awarded 2 million dollars for the killing of Pastor Jonathan Ayers by (of course) a drug task force.

According to Scott Greenfield’s review of his book, Professor Robert Blecker thinks that we need to spend more effort to rehabilitate prisoners we are planning to release, but for those who will never get out, we need to expend more effort to make their lives miserable. From what I can tell from his video (below), because nobody in the correction system is specifically tasked with punishing inmates, prison must not be a form of punishment. So I guess if Scott and I kidnapped Dr. Blecker and locked him in a cage in my basement, but treated him very well, with a nice colored television and weekly calls home to his family, he’d be totally cool with that.

In other news, Scott Greenfield is also fighting with people with gigantic egos.

And now to lighten things up a bit, the Bryan Williams Rap:

(Hat tip: Stillettos and Sneakers)

Random shots around the web:

Matt Brown has a lot more background information about the cop who shot a surrendering man in the back and about the leadership in Pinal County that make it likely he’ll get away with it.

Norm DeGuerre has a very good essay describing the mismatch between how the justice system works and how real people live their lives.

Gideon notes that prosecutors aren’t always as pro-victim’s rights as they say.

The appellatesquack has a great post about fake peer-reviewed journals. His post is based on a Science magazine article that is itself a great read if you’re into that sort of thing. At times it’s pretty snarky for a science article:

After months of e-mailing the editors of SAP, I finally received a response. Someone named Charles Duke reiterated—in broken English—that SAP is an American publisher based in California. His e-mail arrived at 3 a.m., Eastern time.

I’m pretty sure everybody inside the Beltway sees themselves this way. Non-ironically.

(h/t Popehat)

 

Random shots around the web…

After reading the harsh conclusion Scott Greenfield reaches in his response to the Pinal County Sheriff’s department’s shooting of Manuel Longoria as he was surrendering with his hands in the air, I had this running through my head:

When they kick out your front door
How you gonna come?
With your hands on your head
Or on the trigger of your gun

When the law break in
How you gonna go?
Shot down on the pavement
Or waiting in death row

— The Clash “Guns of Brixton”

Along the same lines, Ex-Cop Law Student has started an interesting series of posts about the First Rule of Policing (“Get home safe”) and the harm that it does. Part 1 and Part 2 are up and worth reading.

Mark Bennett isn’t a marketing guru, but his years of participation in the blogosphere have given him some great insights for anyone using blogging or social media to establish a professional presence. He wrote it in response to a specific lawyer who made some specific mistakes, but it applies to almost everyone.

I work in a virtual office where everything we do is conference calls, and this is pretty accurate:

Rankin Bass’s version of The Thing: