This entry was published at least two years ago (originally posted on July 14, 2010). Since that time the information may have become outdated or my beliefs may have changed (in general, assume a more open and liberal current viewpoint). A fuller disclaimer is available.
Sometime between July 13th and July 14th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!
- “Fleeting Expletive” Ban Lifted: "Reacting to a Supreme Court order to take a new look at 'indecency' on radio and TV, the Second Circuit Court suggested on Tuesday that constitutional law on free speech may need to be updated for the Digital Age, especially now that 'new offensive and indecent words are invented every day.' Even so, applying First Amendment doctrine as it now exists, the three-judge panel struck down the Federal Communications Commission's ban on the day and evening broadcast of even single 'fleeting expletives.' If the Obama Administration plans to continue defending the ban, the case could be on its way back to the Supreme Court."
- Mayor McGinn Proposes Letting Bars Stay Open Later, or All Night: "Letting bars serve liquor later or even all night is one controversial option Mayor Mike McGinn is considering as part of a new initiative to curb nightclub noise and violence. McGinn presented his proposal — which also includes required bar security-officer training, tighter noise restrictions and more late-night bus service — at a rock-concert-themed news conference Tuesday night on Capitol Hill. McGinn said his proposal is 'a new approach to an age-old issue.'"
- Reviewing the History Channel’s World War II shows as if they were genre fiction TV:: "Let's start with the bad guys. Battalions of stormtroopers dressed in all black, check. Secret police, check. Determination to brutally kill everyone who doesn't look like them, check. Leader with a tiny villain mustache and a tendency to go into apopleptic rage when he doesn't get his way, check. All this from a country that was ordinary, believable, and dare I say it sometimes even sympathetic in previous seasons."
- Soccer fans shun hookers for art’s sake: "The influx of thousands of soccer fans would increase demand on South African sex workers; at least that was the belief of a leading expert prior to the start of the 2010 World Cup. But it seems fans of the beautiful game that traveled to the Rainbow Nation have created a flop in sex-worker business — leaving prostitutes out-of-pocket and out of work — in favor of more high-brow pursuits."
- Embattled Marysville School Board member resigns: "Kundu's decision came after the NAACP, the Tulalip Tribes, the Hispanic Commission and four board members asked him to resign in the weeks following a June 3 e-mail in which Kundu suggested that different races have different brain sizes and intellectual capacities. Those racial differences, he implied, help explain the school district's achievement gap."