Student push for sensible gun control measures

Tomorrow (Saturday, March 24) is the day for the March For Our Lives rallies organized all around the country, with the main one being in Washington, DC. This was initiated by the students of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school students in Parkland, Florida where the February 14 mass killings took place, in which a 19-year old former student used a semi-automatic assault weapon to gun down 17 students. These students have managed to galvanize opposition to the easy availability of guns in a way that adults have not been able to. The Guardian newspaper has handed over oversight of the coverage of the event to the student journalists and editorial staff of the Eagle Eye, the student newspaper.
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A critique of Jordan Peterson’s views

To be quite honest, the Jordan Peterson phenomenon largely passed me by, appearing only in the periphery of my consciousness. I kept coming across his name in various places but what I fleetingly gathered did not suggest to me that whatever he was saying or doing was worthwhile investigating to find out more so I ignored it, much like one tries to ignore a fly buzzing around but don’t completely succeed. I adopt the same policy whenever I see the name ‘Kardashian’, quickly moving on.
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John Oliver tries to explains cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin has been much in the news recently, along with new words like ‘cryptocurrency’ and ‘blockchains’. When bitcoin first appeared some years ago, I was intrigued by the idea of a currency that was not issued by any government and tried to learn what it was about and even downloaded the software that supposedly enabled people to ‘mine’ the currency. I soon lost interest and gave up because I lacked the motivation. I am not really driven by the desire for money and the process seemed to be so complicated and boring that it did not have any intellectual appeal for me either
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The Austin bomber’s views

Mark Conditt, the 22-year old who set off the bombs in and around Austin, Texas and blew himself up when he was about to be captured, seems to have been one of your typical right-wingers.

Six years ago he claimed not to possess intense political opinions. “I enjoy cycling, parkour, tennis, reading, and listening to music. I am not that politically inclined. I view myself as a conservative, but I don’t think I have enough information to defend my stance as well as it should be defended,” he wrote on a blog.

“The reasons I am taking [a politics class at Austin community college] is because I want to understand the US government, and I hope that it will help me clarify my stance, and then defend it.”

He did, though, express strong anti-abortion and anti-homosexuality views: “Homosexuality is not natural. Just look at the male and female bodies. They are obviously designed to couple,” he wrote.

“In addition, political protection of a sexual practice is ludicrous. I do not believe it is proper to pass laws stating that homosexuals have ‘rights.’”

He expressed firm views on law and order in a blog post in 2012, saying he supported the death penalty because “living criminals harm and murder, again – executed ones do not”.
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Cambridge Analytica and Facebook exposed

The British firm Cambridge Analytica has been in the news recently about its role in influencing elections in various countries around the world. It specializes in what is known as microtargeting. This is where it gathers up all manner of information about individuals and creates profiles that suggest how they can be motivated in a particular way, using targeted messaging aimed at them to trigger their fears about an opponent. While much of this can be considered legitimate even if creepy, what has been revealed is that the company also produces false ‘news’ items that become viral and has engaged in illegal activities on behalf of its clients.
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The madness of the Iraq war signals the twilight of America

Is the US still at war in Iraq? In these days when the US is engaged in so many military actions around the globe that have not been formally declared, it is hard to be definitive. President Obama, as always trying to have it both ways, helped to cloud the issue by declaring that US troops would be withdrawn while still keeping some there and intensifying drone and other bombings. But on the 15th anniversary of the day when the Bush-Cheney gang of war criminals unleashed hell on the people of Iraq, with the US bombings continuing, all the signs point to the answer being yes, and will remain so for some time.
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Adrian Lamo has died

Those who have been following the Chelsea Manning story may be familiar with the name Adrian Lamo whom I just learned died last week at the age of 37. The cause of death is as yet unknown. Lamo was a hacker and the person who befriended Chelsea Manning online (when she was Bradley Manning), the whistleblower who had released the appalling video of US troops gleefully gunning down Iraqi civilians from a gunship as well as releasing classified military cables to WikiLeaks. Manning revealed to Lamo that she was the one who had released the video and the cables and he reported her to the authorities and that led to her arrest and subsequent sentencing to 35 years in prison where she suffered terrible abuse before her sentence was commuted by president Obama. Lamo later justified his action in an interview.

Illinois primary results

Yesterday was primary election day in Illinois. Despite running a strong race in the 3rd congressional district, progressive candidate Marie Newman just failed to edge out incumbent Democratic congressman Dan Lipinski who won by the slim margin of 51.2-48.8%. Lipinski is a truly awful candidate and one wonders how and why the party establishment supported him, given that it is a solid Democratic seat. As Ryan Grim writes, Lipinski, who ‘inherited’ the seat from his father, “opposes abortion rights, LGBT rights, immigrant rights, a $15 an hour minimum wage, and voted against Obamacare”. Given the open primary system in Illinois, it is possible that many Republicans voted for Lipinski in the Democratic primary especially since on the Republican side an open neo-Nazi was running unopposed.
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Lunuganga

Geoffrey Bawa was a renowned architect in Sri Lanka whose style spread beyond the island’s borders and influenced others in Asia. He would design homes that blended in with the lush tropical foliage. Perhaps his signature achievement was the home that he himself occupied at a place called Lunuganga (that translates as ‘salt river’) on the banks of a river near the southwestern coast of the island. He furnished it with works of art that reflected his eclectic tastes. You can see many photographs here and here. After his death in 2003, the house has been run by a trust set up by his friends. The gardens are open to the public and the buildings are part of a hotel.
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