There are people who are less emotional and more reasoned. They’re called libertarians.
Not sure if I have the quote exactly right. I heard this on a recent Science Salon podcast. Damn near had an accident due to sudden burst of laughter.
Author: Derek
This Is Why I Hate Qualified Immunity
The Innocence Project, known for helping free people who were unjustly convicted is helping a former prosecutor fight to get his job back.
Why was he fired? For not breaking the law.
Eric Hillman was an Assistant District Attorney in Nueces County who unfairly lost his job in January 2014 after he found an independent witness who was not included in police reports from an intoxication assault prosecution. Hillman, who also served as a Harris County (Houston) police officer for 21 years, was ordered by a DA’s Office supervisor to keep the information about the witness to himself, saying it did not have to be turned over to defense lawyers because it came from an independent investigation.
After he was fired for refusing to “follow orders,” Hillman sued to get his job back, arguing that Texas law should protect prosecutors who refuse to break the law and hide evidence that aids the defense. Earlier this year, the Innocence Project and the Innocence Project of Texas urged the Texas Supreme Court to take up Hillman’s case, arguing in a friend of the court brief that these employment protections are critical to ensuring that innocent persons are not wrongly convicted.
He was fired for doing what prosecutors should be doing. What if he had followed orders and the defendant was erroneously convicted? Could Mr. Hillman be sued for violating the defendant’s rights? Nope. He would have qualified immunity.
It’s time to remove that crap. Let prosecutors have to carry malpractice insurance. That will make them more diligent in their duty instead diligent in improving their conviction rate.
Voting
Did my civic duty. There are some elections where I’m excited to fill out my ballot. This time, it was draining. A lot of voting against candidates than voting for candidates. And quite a few blank votes, because I’m damn sure not voting for either one.
Metal Tuesday- Godsmack – When Legends Rise
Yeah, this one will stick in your head for a while.
Rabid Dogs
I have some very progressive friends on Facebook. Most of them are people I know in meatspace. One of them had a tweet bitching that Trump saying the synagogue attacked this weekend should have an armed guard was “blaming the victim.” I’ve seen similar attacks when women are told to take basic precautions. No, we should be disarming the people or making the bad men not be bad men. I’m calling bullshit on this.
People who do heinous acts are the human equivalent of rabid dogs. Why? You can’t reason with them. Their worldview precludes reason by the time they’re acting. You will never take away enough dangerous items to prevent them from harming others. Just like you can’t take away a rabid dog’s teeth and claws, you can’t take away a human’s mind – and that’s the dangerous part. Take away guns, they’ll use knives, gasoline, acid, cars, or the myriad of other dangerous things we have in a modern world. The brutal truth is that the only way to deal with a rabid dog is to stop it with force.
It is not “blaming the victim” to tell people who live in dangerous areas or who belong to groups known to be the target of dangerous people to take precautions and to have the means to deal forcefully if/when the bad guys attack. It is dealing with realities of living in a modern society.
If you are a member of an often targeted group (i.e., minorities), and you want to learn how to protect yourself, I recommend getting in touch with Operation Blazing Sword. If you go to a place of worship, talk to your leadership about a security plan. It should not only be call 911. Ben Branam of the Modern Self Protection podcast offers a free church security outline.
Beware of the rabid dogs, and be prepared if they darken your door – wherever you are.
Friday Quote – Jared Howe
Anything which requires the labor or property of other people is not a basic human right. That includes education, healthcare, food, internet access, housing, or anything else that involves an investment of capital and labor. To demand free goods and services from people who sacrifice time and capital to produce them is to demand that those people become your slaves. You don’t have the right to enslave people for food or education or healthcare anymore than plantation owners had a right to enslave people to pick cotton.
Horoscopes for Professionals
Reason has a review up on the new book The Personality Brokers: The Strange History of Myers-Briggs and the Birth of Personality Testing by Merve Emre.
Probably one of my favorite quotes of the article:
The test has been most influential among the kinds of businesses given to weekend “success seminars” in Ramada ballrooms. Today you’ll still see people putting their Myers-Briggs type on their LinkedIn pages, the way others might mention their astrological sign on a dating profile.
My coworkers are big into this stuff, to the point that we need to talk about what style we are. Well, they do. I just answer sarcastically and remind them it’s all bullshit.
Which they say is typical of my type.
Judge Offers Victims CCW Class
From Rob’s Slow Facts blog comes a story about a judge offering free CCW classes for victims of a serial stalker.
After passing down the sentence [on the stalker], Ashland Municipal Court Judge John L. Good ordered the people who were victimized by Fulk to be provided with free Concealed Carry Weapon Classes.
The individuals who were victimized by Scott Fulk [convicted stalker] participated in CCW Classes on Sunday, September 30th, under the shared sentiment of “We will not be victims”.
Good sentiment.
Metal Tuesday- Turisas – The Land of Hope and Glory
The Brother got me into Apple Music after I was having some issues. This one popped up on my station and piqued my interest. And since I love sharing…
Not a Good Few Weeks For Peer Review
Okay, three academics getting papers they knew where utter bullshit published and considered great scholarship was one thing. Now, we have a respected journal publishing a horrific paper on homeopathy. The peer review process and the issues with p-hacking are undermining the current scientific process. What to do then?
I lean to not publishing without duplication. I always said that if I hit the lottery, particularly one of those big payouts, I’d start a lab for the purpose of just duplicating experiments. Kind of a UL for experiments.