U.S. District Judge strikes down Virginia's ban on same-sex marriage, finding it unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment. I agree with that reasoning, but the U.S. Supreme Court may not -- the four most reactionary justices will probably insist that the 14th Amendment was really all about slavery and can never, ever be interpreted to be about anything else, though I can't say Anthony Kennedy would join them. As an aside, would Tony Perkins please STFU about "activist" judges? He's said not word one about the activist jurisprudence evident in Citizens United v. FEC.
Danske Bank, the largest bank in Denmark, announces plans to terminate bank accounts for 15,000 Irish customers, acknowledging that "some" folks (which could also be "most" folks) will be locked out of their accounts before they can move their money to another bank. Danske, which made over $1 billion in profits in 2013, seems to have utterly botched the job of notifying and reminding customers -- and after eight years of George W. Bush, whenever I see incompetence, I wonder if it's on purpose.
Pandora Media plans to enable political advertisers to target its users -- and Pandora thinks they have you pegged. Pandora plans to start with your zip code and then, you know, figure you for a Republican if you like country, a Democrat if you like jazz, et cetera, which won't make you happy if you, for example, love Merle Haggard and Thelonious Monk. But I suspect they're not too far off -- R&B users do lean only "slightly" Democrat in my experience, and Bruce Springsteen fans likely remember the "Rambo of Rock" signs at his Born in the U.S.A. shows.
Jill Richardson writes about "the best way to keep our water safe." Ways to keep our water safe range from things you can do relatively quickly (get more energy-efficient appliances and better insulation) to things you'd need a big chunk of cash to do (redesign your home and plant huge trees in your yard for shade) to things we'd need to do as a community (wean ourselves off of water-polluting coal and getting onto wind and solar), that last item taking the gold medal. Of course, it's all worth a go.
Finally, Allen Goldstein laments that social media and social justice movements have suffered from a lack of "program, party, and leadership." He cites "Facebook and Tweets," the Arab Spring, and Occupy Wall Street as movements that failed without "program, party, and leadership," and the Tea Party as one that succeeded with all three. Of course, the Tea Party had massive amounts of corporate money behind it, too, and the Working Families Party and the Progressive Danes have done pretty well at the municipal level in New York City and Madison, Wisconsin respectively. I know, I know, I have to do more. I'm working on it.
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