Miami Heat owner suing blogger and Google over "unflattering" photo [pixiq]

Small-town cops loading up on free surplus US military gear and weapons [Danger Room]

A major "working-class" subset: The white working-class votes, acts differently [Edsall@NYT]

"Modern America doesn't have much of an intellectual immune system"; Richard Florida at it again [iSteve]

Pot-shots

>>>Local cops sued over taser death. Four Washtenaw county Sheriff's deputies who were assisting in a Livingston and Washtenaw Narcotics Enforcement Team dope bust tased a guy and it apparently killed him. We'll see how that plays out in court.

>>> Rush Limbaugh has lost seven advertisers from his radio program since  last week over his  comments about contraception. Free speech has a price sometimes.

>>> Zombie Apocalypse course being taught at MSU? No, not really. But that sexed-up course title for a class about group dynamics in times of crisis during and following natural disasters and social upheavals is being promoted by a market savvy MSU social work professor. Smart. This will no doubt get picked up by the news media for inclusion in articles and blog posts about silly course offerings at public universities but it really isn't. Just some clever marketing. I wonder how many goofs sign up for this course drop it when they figure this out?

>>> The proles & peasants need to just STFU and work, pay, and obey their betters. Cornell professors conclude ordinary people are too stupid for democracy to work very well. The dumb proles need experts like, say, Cornell professors to decide important issues about society and government.

>>>Government Is Not Civilization, It Is Slavery by J.G. Vibes
"If we attempt to examine government from an outsider’s perspective, we would see a world where people are grouped into two different categories, those in government and those not. At face value, we can see that these two groups of people have completely different standards and expectations, even though they are the same species and have the same basic needs. Looking closer, we can see that these different standards and laws are not neutral, they are very much benefiting those in government at the expense of those who are not. The most important discrepancy to mention here is the fact that those in government have a license to kill anyone who happens to disobey them." [read it all here]

Shut the f*ck up, he argued

Political opinion in America is fading from many shades of gray to totally black. Others have noted this too.

"Has anyone else noticed, "says Jim Goad @ Taki's Magazine," a disturbingly rapid ossification of American political divisions over the past couple years? All grey areas have been obliterated in a collective ingroup/outgroup psychosis that dictates if you disagree with one team on a single, microscopic ideological trifle, you are entirely bought and sold by the enemy team. ... Excuse me—did you just mutter something not entirely positive about the left? The only reason you could have done that is because you’ve been brainwashed by the right." [emphasis added]

Jeepers Jimbo where have you been? It's been like that here in Ann Arbor for about two, three decades now.  Seriously.

Goad's money shot: "Never in world history have more retarded people called other people retarded in more retarded ways." [emphasis added]

Goad sure has that right. Maybe it's just me but I can't really even discuss sports scores without  carefully stepping around the verbal trip wires and rhetorical land mines and hoping a shouting match leading to a fist fight doesn't ensue.  Even formerly safe topics of small talk like say the weather are out now. Especially so in the People's Republic of Ann Arbor. Here, if people want your opinion they'll tell you. And they'll tell you in the most unstinting terms what it had better be too. Otherwise you're a racist who is as bad as Hitler.

Weblog - Michigan edition

Redistricting could mean trouble for Michigan Democratic Rep.s Carl Levin, Gary Peters (Alec Jacobs, Daily Caller)
"Elections have consequences. Especially in a redistricting year. And Michigan Democrats are learning that the hard way." Too bad they can't get rid of John Conyers or John Dingell instead.

Ann Arbor voters need to decide what they want and what their willing to pay for (Tony Dearing, annarbor.com/)
A decent editorial as far as it goes. The thing is, times have changed. We can't afford as many cops, firefighters and high-end manager/bureaucrats at $100k or more plus benefits without a lot more tax dollars coming in. We can't even afford the ones we have now in fact, hence the layoffs. Just like with the industrial unions city employee's gains come at the expense of their jobs. Fewer but still gold-plated cops, firefighters and managers or more employees with less pay & benefits. That's what it comes down to in my opinion.

Quitting Borders: Staffers flee the bankrupt bookseller  (Eve Silberman, Ann Arbor Observer)
"The common sentiment ... was that 'if you weren't looking for another job, you were crazy.' Another refugee says the company is so short-staffed it recently called and asked him to come back (he refused)." Indeed. Why wait for the last life raft? Get out while the gettin's good.

Christian missionaries take on Muslims, Catholics at Arab International Festival in Dearborn (Niraj Warikoo, Det Free Press)
Hey folks, "infidels" (i.e., everybody but Muslims) have free speech rights too. Welcome to America.

Taking back the park (Dylan Lawrence, Det Metro-Times)
Local activists tear down developer's illegal fence at the foot of the Ambassador Bridge that cuts through a neighbor hood public park. A little direct action is good. More is better.

weblog

"A federal law is needed to cover threats against free-speech rights. Across media and geographies, Islamic extremists are increasingly using intimidation to stifle free expression" say Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Daniel Huff in an op-ed at the LA Times.

"It's time for free-speech advocates", says Hirsi Ali, "to take a page from the abortion rights movement's playbook. In the 1990s, abortion providers faced the same sort of intimidation tactics and did not succumb. Instead, they lobbied for a federal law making it a crime to threaten people exercising reproductive rights and permitting victims to sue for damages. The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, or FACE, passed in 1994 by solid bipartisan margins. A similar act is needed to cover threats against free-speech rights."

Maybe it is.