Seems pretty obvious: Top Arizona court rules tattooing is protected speech

Arizona's Supreme Court, stepping into a zoning dispute over a tattoo parlour, ruled on Friday that tattooing was a constitutionally protected form of free speech, the first such decision by any state high court in the country, lawyers said. The ruling stemmed from a dispute between tattoo artists Ryan and Laetitia Coleman and the Phoenix valley city of Mesa, which denied the pair a business permit three years ago to set up shop in a local strip mall. ...

I hate to give Ryan points, but his take on this is more sensible than Obama's or Biden's. Obama's crackdown on medical cannabis is one of the reasons he lost my vote. (Not that I'm voting for Romney/Ryan either.) Ryan: Don't interfere with legalized medical pot

Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan says the federal government shouldn't interfere with states that have legalized medical marijuana.

In These Times looks back at George Orwell's time at the BBC, and how his time producing British propaganda led to the development of 1984.

‘Two Wasted Years’: Orwell at the BBC

A few weeks ago, the Telegraph reported that BBC director Mark Thompson had vetoed a proposed statue of George Orwell on the grounds that the writer was “too left-wing.”

...

Besides which, Orwell's feelings about his former employer were not always friendly. Though he publicly insisted that “in my experience the BBC is relatively truthful,” he privately described the organization as “a mixture of whoreshop and lunatic asylum.”

Good on you, Jimmy Wales.

Jimmy Wales May Use Encryption To Fight Snooper’s Charter

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has spoken out against the Draft Communications Bill, the UK government plans to monitor and store all digital communications, dubbed the “Snooper’s Charter”.

In case Draft Communications Data Bill becomes the law, the US entrepreneur has promised to encrypt all connections between Wikipedia servers and the UK, effectively reducing the government’s ability to snoop on use of Wikipedia. Wales was speaking to a joint committee tasked with scrutinising the proposed Communications Bill before it is debated in the House of Commons.

Image: Wikipedia

For a while yesterday, I was feeling happy with the Democrats. The news was that they had worded a plank of their platform so as to remove a pointless reference to "God" in the phrase "make the most of their God-given potential". It wasn't much, but it looked like a nod to secularism and religious liberty, to the idea that a significant number of Americans are not believers in the idea that some big daddy in the sky is responsible for assigning us our potential. Some of us believe in a big mommy, some in a committee, and some that our potential is based on a combination of heredity and environment. I was pleased that the Dems had made a small move to acknowledge that we have a secular government that leaves these beliefs up to each individual.

No question that Bill Clinton gave a good speech last night -- reading the transcript even I had to nod along in agreement in places. But his remarks about changing voting procedures to reduce turnout were pretty ironic:

If you want — if you want America — if you want every
American to vote and you think it is wrong to change voting
procedures…just — just to reduce the turnout of younger, poorer, minority, and disabled voters, you should support Barack Obama.

Has everyone already forgotten about his wife's disenfranchisement tricks in Nevada during the 2008 primary campaign? And how Bill defended those dirty tactics?

I always have a couple of old toothbrushes in my toolbox; they have the proverbial thousand-and-one uses. I've even used one to help de-gunk a stuck bolt -- but not in free-fall.

ABC News reports on how astronauts on the ISS freed a stuck bolt on a replacement electrical switching unit: Space Station Saved by a Toothbrush?

What to do if there is no hardware store in the neighborhood and the next supply ship is months away? Build it yourself -- so they attached a simple toothbrush to a metal pole and voila! They were able to clean out the bolt's socket today and finish the job. Shades of Apollo 13 -- when engineers threw parts on a table and brainstormed a solution, which saved the crew.

A noble hack.

Over the past few months, federal contracts for ammunition have become fodder for PCTists who are ignorant about firearms: "OMG look at all those bullets! They must be preparing for civil war!"

This is a perfect example: Why does Social Security need 174,000 bullets?

It didn't take long for the Internet to start buzzing with conspiracy theories after the Social Security Administration posted a notice that it was purchasing 174,000 hollow-point bullets.

...

The agents carry guns and make arrests — 589 last year, Lasher said. They execute search warrants and respond to threats against Social Security offices, employees and customers.

Agents carry .357 caliber pistols, Lasher said. The bullets, which add up to about 590 per agent, are for the upcoming fiscal year. Most will be expended on the firing range.

...

"Six hundred rounds per year for training, qualification and I would assume to carry on duty is not out of line at all," said John W. Worden, director of the University of Missouri's Law Enforcement Training Institute. "Hollow points are carried by law enforcement all over the country and are probably the preferred type of ammo no matter what caliber."

The episode illustrates what can happen when a seemingly salacious tidbit gets amplified and embellished on the Internet.

It's worth noting that paranoid conspiracy theorists aren't the only ones ignorant about firearms; having "thousands of rounds of ammunition" has become a mainstream media shorthand for someone likely to be a deranged mass murderer, despite the fact that for a recreational shooter who fires off 200 rounds at the range (not at all unusual) just once a month will go through 2,400 rounds a year.

From www.laborarts.org, this 1911 poster remains depressingly relevant today. Pyramid of Capitalist System

The Pyramid of Capitalist System is a provocative illustration of the hierarchical system of capitalist rule in America. In this beautifully colored portrait, the artist depicts the multiple tiers of working class oppression. At the top of the pyramid sits the state, which serves the interests of the ruling class and functions under capitalism as the protector of private wealth and property. Below the state stand the religious leaders, clergymen, and preachers of false consciousness who encourage obedience to and acceptance of the status quo, entreating the working masses to accept their ordained fate and seek their just rewards not on earth but in that glorious hereafter.

If a Bush strategist thinks the GOP is laying on the BS a bit thick, time to break out the hip waders,

Fmr. Bush strategist calls out Paul Ryan over convention speech lies

Matthew Dowd, President George W. Bush’s former chief strategist, on Sunday said that Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan “so stretched the truth” during his convention speech by suggesting that President Barack Obama was responsible for a GM plant that closed before he took office.