Folks are debating the pros and cons of giving the Oregon shooter very much attentio, but FAIR suggests that mass media coverage of these shootings make them "contagious," more so than first-person shooter video games, for example. Some folks will cry "censorship" at the prospect of less media coverage of mass murders, but should we obligate our media to share prurient details we don't need to know in order to avoid trouble? Maybe we should try making mass murder boring, in addition to shameful. It'll mean fewer episodes of Criminal Minds, but there are enough of those.
Trans-Pacific "Partnership" negotiations have restarted (not with a whole lot of notice in the media, you may have noticed), and the U.S. proposes excluding tobacco corporations from using "investor-state tribunals" to nullify anti-smoking laws in other nations. I'm no great fan of the tobacco industry, obviously, but that provision sounds a bit like a bill of attainder, and we generally avoid those. They've opened a real Pandora's Box there, though -- why not prevent chemical corporations and oil and gas drilling corporations from using the tribunals as well?
The Consumerist reminds us of all the reasons why the Better Business Bureau just isn't the brand name it used to be. It's not just the BBB that's lost its luster, though -- the whole notion of "better business," while it obviously matters to the small businesses I encounter in my travels, seems to matter very little to Our Glorious Elites, who seem to think "better businesses" do nothing but redistribute worker wealth upward to CEOs.
Auto security expert finds that auto dealer diagnostic tools could be a vehicle for hacking any car that comes into the dealership for repair, meaning a malware-infected car could come into a dealership and infect any other car that comes through. That could affect your car's transmission or brakes, both of which would be bad. This isn't a call to avoid buying any new cars, of course -- it's a call to be mindful that security is a journey, not a destination.
Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-WI) says funding Planned Parenthood isn't necessary because "as a guy," he enjoyes many options for health care. Remember back in the day when Idaho Sen. Steve Symms became pro-choice because he decided abortion was a matter "between a man and his God"? Good times, eh? Well, Glenn Grothman is half the man Steve Symms is. Recall that Mr. Grothman's predecessor, longtime Republican Rep. Tom Petri, pointedly refused to endorse him in 2014.
Finally, Marco Rubio alleges that harvesting fetal tissue from aborted fetuses has essentially created "an industry" where people are "pushed into abortions," and then, under assertive counter-questioning, he says "people" "look forward to having abortions." Of course he didn't mean that, but when you're running for President, you're supposed to be able to avoid saying dumb crap. And beginning a sentence with "I just think" is the clue that he's on his heels and he's about to say something really stupid. Our parents had Dan Quayle; we've got Marco Rubio.
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