Displaying comments 1 to 50 of 1076
MeFi post:
Cats Defending Henhouses
I think it's important to clarify something that these links are omitting. Ullyot may have been at the White House when the Torture Memos were first proposed by Yoo and Bybee, but there's really no way he had a hand in them. The insider's account of The Terror Presidency by Jack Goldsmith makes it quite clear how Yoo and Addington employed secrecy to make sure that the only people involved were those who would never fight back.
So the real question is this: do we want... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by allen.spaulding
at 2:13 PM on September 30, 2008
Ask post:
Forget Creationism, we should teach _______ in public schools!
Every now and then I become convinced that the world came into being exactly this way yesterday and we were all given false memories. of the past No intelligent design, no evolution, just a random occurance of a lot of subatomic quantum tunneling. Straight up statisticial coincidence which is about to disappear at any...
posted to Ask Metafilter by allen.spaulding
at 10:38 PM on September 28, 2008
Ask post:
Should I take a chance on my last chance?
I didn't go, althoughy many in my family and peer group did. I was personally concerned about the overt pressure to meet/marry/procreate/repopulate with other Jews. The whole thing always struck me as subtle as a "singles" cruise. I'd ask people if this was there experience, if it made them feel uncomfortable, if there was an overt heteronormativity, etc.
posted to Ask Metafilter by allen.spaulding
at 10:21 AM on September 21, 2008
MeFi post:
For a Prosperous Tomorrow
A link to Whole Foods or the Obama campaign would have been just as effective. Er, I mean just the Whole Foods. *runs for cover* *oh noes, they're everywhere!*
posted to MetaFilter by allen.spaulding
at 9:34 PM on September 16, 2008
Ask post:
What qualities do YOU look for in your legal secretary?
I'm not sure what you expect to get out of working for a law firm and "real world experience" is an iffy term that doesn't add much. Working in a non-legal capacity at a law firm, whether it be as a paralegal or not, does not teach you much about being a lawyer any more than selling peanuts at the ballpark doesn't teach you about being a baseball player. Furthermore, top law schools may in fact look disfavorably on this experience as they get tons of applications from paralegals.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by allen.spaulding
at 10:22 AM on September 16, 2008
MeFi post:
Life as an asexual couple
The immediate denial of liking boys stood out to me. I've often wondered if a large percentage of self-professed asexuals were individuals struggling with desires they didn't want to accept and therefore "turned off" that part of their person. I'm not saying you can't be asexual, but my instinct is to always assume that someone is struggling with something, not that someone is missing something.
posted to MetaFilter by allen.spaulding
at 9:28 AM on September 9, 2008
MeFi post:
"For the rest of the evening my name will be Violetta."
I'm so sick of this wave of ivy-league callgirl stories. Whether or not this is true (highly doubt it) it should have no bearing on any discussion of prostitution. If a bunch of wealthy Manhattanites decided to work in an asbestos mine because they loved the independence, and like, totally hated safety regulations, they shouldn' be able to impact policy discussions. Every time I read an article like this I feel like a dozen or so discussions on trafficking are silenced by statistical... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by allen.spaulding
at 5:09 PM on September 7, 2008
kid ichorous, the analogy holds whether it kills your erection or not. The widespread abuses of sex workers and the extreme indignities suffered both by women who are trafficked and by other women who find themselves in sex work have nothing to do with zero-tolerance thinking and everything to do with the fact that we live in a patriarchy that chews up and spits out these women. Blaming second-wave feminists is just laughable and a pretty rough defense mechanism; similar to blaming... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by allen.spaulding
at 10:35 PM on September 7, 2008
Where exactly do you get the idea that these women constitute the majority of sex workers?
Numbers are numbers. The vast majority of women in prostitution were abused as children. The overwhelming majority of prostitutes want to leave the job (The Elizabeth Fry Society found that over 90% of women in street prostitution want to leave but cannot). Finally, data exist that 60-80 percent of prostitutes are raped while on the job. Doesn't sound like... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by allen.spaulding
at 5:08 AM on September 8, 2008
MeFi post:
St. Paul Police say Democracy? No.
As someone who has attended many protests like this and has been arrested at a few, I can say that this is nothing new and has nothing to do with the Republicans. This is really the problem of the St Paul police, which is a nice way of saying the people of St. Paul. Middle-class white Americans have gleefully watched as local police forces are transformed into Swat teams and have had no problem locking up tons of black people in order to feel a little safer. These tactics are nothing new and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by allen.spaulding
at 7:49 PM on September 1, 2008
or in other words: if Kent State happened today a majority of Americans would support the national guard and a smaller minority would have been ok if the students had been waterboarded first. Absent any pressure from the people, of course the police are going to do this.
posted to MetaFilter by allen.spaulding
at 7:52 PM on September 1, 2008
MeFi post:
Obama/Kennedy?
Obama/Kennedy is good, I'll give him that. What I really want to see though is Bill Bradley. Tallest ticket ever. They'd dunk McCain. And he's an intelligent elder statesman who can credibly represent progressive change. But mostly the height. Americans love tall people.
posted to MetaFilter by allen.spaulding
at 5:41 PM on August 19, 2008
MeFi post:
Hatecrimes
That is some godawful reporting by the Salt Lake Tribune and it's almost as though they want him lynched. Significant facts, such as the victim's sexuality and the location of the children are presented as ambiguous or purely sympathetic to the attackers. Whether or not the children were located in the bedroom certainly seems important to the commentators, but instead of discussing the issue, Alberty lets the attackers tell the story. Twice they mention the bedroom, with no dissent. But the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by allen.spaulding
at 12:24 PM on August 8, 2008
MeFi post:
Toilet Confessions
So I once urinated on the statue of Christopher Columbus in front of a hundred thousand people. I really had to go and there were cops everywhere guarding the kind of places that would have public bathrooms. This wasn't intended as a political statement, despite being at a protest. I just had to go and had few options. Anyway, despite asking my friends to "cover me" (it made as little sense to them as it does typing), people started noticing and joining in. I suspect others were... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by allen.spaulding
at 7:49 PM on August 6, 2008
MeFi post:
Let's Go Exploring
This seems like pretty straightforward copyright violations and like those that came before it, will hopefully go away soon. Bad form and subpar post.
posted to MetaFilter by allen.spaulding
at 2:25 PM on August 5, 2008
Ask post:
Is there a doctor in the house
What do you mean when you say you don't have worker's comp? If you mean you weren't injured on the job, that's one thing, but nearly everyone who posts on AskMe will be in a jurisdiction with some statutory form of worker's compensation.
posted to Ask Metafilter by allen.spaulding
at 10:54 AM on August 4, 2008
MeFi post:
"Are we in the midst of a coup?"
Dear Most of the rest of the world,
Please don't pity us. Instead, take our guns away. We're never going to learn and we need to be stopped before we lose it again.
XO
posted to MetaFilter by allen.spaulding
at 10:27 PM on August 3, 2008
MeFi post:
Van Doren Gives Answers
The passivity of the article left a bad taste in my mouth. I enjoyed the movie when it came out and this has always been a fascinating subject to me. As such, I liked hearing a new recollection from a central figure. That said, he doesn't seem to see himself as someone who was in the wrong - merely as someone who somehow ended up in a complicated situation that ultimately came crashing down around him. I know there are people who think that this was a good thing for Americans, teaching them... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by allen.spaulding
at 1:20 PM on July 29, 2008
MeTa post:
Randy Pausch, 1960-2008
I got the news this morning as well. While I never took Building Virtual Worlds, I attended all of the yearly presentations and enjoyed them greatly. After watching the lecture on youtube, like millions of others, I went and read the book. Deeply suspicious of anything sold in an airport in a size/format that looks more appropriate for Tuesdays with Morrie, I was stunned by how good and decent the book was. I gave it to my own father on Father's Day and it allowed us to talk more about what... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by allen.spaulding
at 8:11 AM on July 25, 2008
Ask post:
An Appeal for an Appeals Lawyer
There are a lot of questions raised by this post and hopefully you can unravel some. The biggest question is the procedural history up to this point. She's going to have exhaust her state court options and she'll probably have had counsel for quite some time by then. If she's unhappy with a trial verdict, she can't just jump to SCOTUS. Your post makes me wonder if there's even been a conclusion trial, to be honest.
The Supreme Court doesn't just throw out state laws... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by allen.spaulding
at 11:25 AM on July 17, 2008
*er, conclusion of her trial.
posted to Ask Metafilter by allen.spaulding
at 11:25 AM on July 17, 2008
and finally, there are no prosecutors in civil law suits, so your friend wasn't exactly prosecuted. Nor is there such a thing as a probable win at the Supreme Court. Like I said, the odds of getting cert granted are so small and the process so long, it may be time to think of other options. IANYL, etc.
posted to Ask Metafilter by allen.spaulding
at 11:27 AM on July 17, 2008
Ask post:
The old red, white and blue.
You can't get Westvleteren outside of Belgium and even there it can be hard to find. I think the closest I've found that's available is the St. Bernadus 12, but it's a loaded question and there's little agreement on the issue. If you're adventurous and willing to pay, you can often get Westvleteren on eBay.
posted to Ask Metafilter by allen.spaulding
at 8:04 AM on July 10, 2008
marked best answer
