Jon Stewart devoted three segments to discuss the issue of racism that has suddenly flooded the media.
First up, he gave his take on the Donald Sterling story, since that seems to be the topic du jour and is the third time I am discussing it today.
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Yesterday came reports of the ghastly mess involving the execution of a death row inmate in Oklahoma because states are experimenting with a new drug cocktail since the old drugs are no longer allowed to be exported to the US from Europe because of European disapproval of their use for executions.
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Most people were taken by surprise that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver handed down the maximum penalty that he had the power to levy unilaterally ($2.5 million fine and lifetime ban from the NBA) to Donald Sterling, and also called for the other owners to force him to sell his team. Most observers had expected something a little less than the maximum, say a limited period of suspension.
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I’ve been wondering how the impasse with rancher Cliven Bundy will end. While the government seems to be perfectly willing to give immunity from prosecution to the one-percenters, it cracks down hard on ordinary people who violate the law, such as the outrageous case of a recent widow whose home was seized and sold because she had not paid a $6.30 interest fee that she said she was not even aware of. That is how an oligarchy maintains control of a society.
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There have been some interesting nuances following the Donald Sterling uproar. Commenter jaytheostrich wondered in a comment on my post yesterday as to whether Sterling’s free speech rights were being violated because he was being punished merely for something he said, and whether it was legal to do so. Another commenter Suido responded by providing a link to an excellent cartoon by xkcd that seems to settle the freedom of speech issue in a pretty convincing way.
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Sean Hannity is the next sacrificial lamb to be slaughtered for ignoring my advice to avoid taking on Jon Stewart. These people never seem to learn that standup comedians with their own TV show and writers can always get the last devastating word.
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The latest media furor is that over Donald Sterling, the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team, who had been recorded scolding his girlfriend for consorting publicly with black people and bringing them to the games. Today the NBA commissioner Adam Silver banned him for life from basketball and fined him $2.5 million.
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We have seen many examples recently of religious people claiming that their religious freedoms are being violated because they cannot practice discrimination or they wish to avoid complying with laws that they object to. But now comes a curious reversal in which religious people are suing because they are being prevented from being inclusive and accepting
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Animal intelligence is a fascinating topic and there have been many attempts at studying it. Many of the individual studies look at one or other specific trait that we associate with intelligence in one species and the traits studied can differ from species to species, making general conclusions hard to arrive at. Ed Yong reports on a massive multinational study that looked across many species at one aspect of intelligence (self control) as demonstrated by two specific tasks. (You can read the paper on which his article is based here.)
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