ASK Musings

Two things first: Happy Birthday Kevan and GO SEAHAWKS! Now, back to depressing shit…

Islamophobia

– “The 28-year-old attacker forced the front door of his neighbours’ house in the picturesque village of Beaucet near Avignon just after midnight on Wednesday shouting “I am your god, I am your Islam” before repeatedly stabbing Mohamed El Makouli, he National Observatory Against Islamophobia said Friday.” Moroccan man murdered in ‘Islamophobic’ attack in France (h/t @imraansiddiqi)

– “Emerson also claimed that “Muslim religious police” patrolled the streets of London, and beat everyone who didn’t dress in “Muslim attire.” That sparked a day of worldwide merciless parodying of the network under the hashtag #foxnewsfacts, most of which riffed off Emerson’s characterization.” Fox News’ terrible, horrible, no good, very bad weekend (h/t @TonyKaron)

– “Writers at Vox have indeed been bombarded with threats for our Charlie Hebdo coverage. But not one of those threats has come from a Muslim or in response to publishing anti-Islam cartoons. Revealingly, they have rather all come from non-Muslims furious at our articles criticizing Islamophobia.” Vox got no threats for posting Charlie Hebdo cartoons, dozens for covering Islamophobia (h/t @roqchams)

Racism

– “But the optics of this year’s slate are particularly egregious when you combine the surprising coolness towards Martin Luther King Jr. biopic Selma—nominated for Best Picture but missing in the Director, Actor, and Screenplay categories—with the fact that all 20 acting nominees this year are white, the first time such a thing has happened since the Oscars honoring the films of 1995.” The Oscars Haven’t Been This White in 19 Years (h/t @TKhatesyou)

Free Speech

– ‘But being offended certainly gives people the right to talk about the fact that they’re offended. If someone calls me, for example, an ugly terrorist bitch, I am not “censoring” them by offering a rebuke. I’m not even censoring them by deciding to block or otherwise not interact with them – free speech does not mean you have the right to a captive audience. In fact, free speech means that if I hear something I don’t like, I’m well within my rights to say, “This is garbage and I don’t want to listen to it, so I’m not going to.”’ How Much is That Free Speech in the Window? (via @jaythenerdkid)

– “Free speech and freedom of the press, like in the United States, are constitutionally protected rights. However, in France this typically comes with a few very important caveats. It is prohibited for an individual to publicly incite another to discriminate against individuals on grounds of ethnicity, nation, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation or handicap. However, the definition of “discrimination” remains intentionally murky and is frequently challenged in cases brought under these laws.” How France went from free-speech rallies to 54 hate-speech arrests in one week (via @FusionIsNews)

– “But as reporters have been pointing out, the lineup included traces of hypocrisy—Turkey, Egypt, and Russia aren’t exactly on the vanguard of robust and unshackled journalism. ” Walk Is Cheap: The “Circus of Hypocrisy” Among World Leaders at This Weekend’s Rally in Paris (via @strangerslog)

– “As pernicious as this arrest and related “crackdown” on some speech obviously is, it provides a critical value: namely, it underscores the utter scam that was this week’s celebration of free speech in the west.” Frank Arrests a Comedian for His Facebook Comments, Showing the Sham of the West’s ‘Free Speech’ Celebration

– One Student’s Epic Tweets Call Out the Biggest Hypocrites Marching for Free Speech in Paris

Government Surveillance

– “They — and not just the security services — will be able to use it to intercept all of our communications. That includes things like the pictures of your kids in your bath that you send to your parents to the trade secrets you send to your co-workers. But this is just for starters. David Cameron doesn’t understand technology very well, so he doesn’t actually know what he’s asking for.” What David Cameron just proposed would endanger every Briton and destroy the IT industry (h/t @stavvers)

– “The known facts from this latest case seem to fit well within a now-familiar FBI pattern whereby the agency does not disrupt planned domestic terror attacks but rather creates them, then publicly praises itself for stopping its own plots.” Latest FBI Claim of Disrupted Terror Plot Deserves Much Scrutiny and Skepticism

Police Brutality

– “In every case, in spite of the clarity of the evidence, or the outrageousness of the chokehold, the NYPD completely rejected every single disciplinary recommendation given by the Civilian Review Board.” New York inspector general issues ‘alarming’ report on NYPD’s continued use of banned chokeholds (via @shaunking)

Willful Ignorance

– “Cruz has also spoken out against decades of science that indicate climate change, telling CNN last year that in “the last 15 years, there has been no recorded warming” to support “a so-called scientific theory”. His vociferous opposition to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and his support of extreme budget cuts could spell trouble for Nasa’s less prominent programs, such as its own climate research and sophisticated supercomputers.” Republican senator Ted Cruz to oversee Nasa in Congress (h/t @WilWheaton)

– “Rich straight white guy telling the world he’d appreciate “less outrage”. This notion doesn’t sit well with those who daily face various forms of outrageous and awful kinds of oppression or marginalisation. How exactly should people of colour show “less outrage” while responding to racism? How should rape survivors and targets of sexual assault convey “less outrage”, while daily exposed to men who think they own women’s bodies? How should gay rights activists threatened with death convey “less outrage” in countries where their existence is a crime?” Patton Oswalt fans and how to outrage properly (h/t @tauriqmoosa)

Health Care

– “This conversation isn’t about death at all. “Death” is the word that confuses the conversation, that makes people too afraid, and too angry, and too frantic to keep talking. This conversation is really about autonomy. It is about what makes life worth living, and if, in keeping people alive for so long, we are consigning them to a fate worse than death.” How Americans’ refusal to talk about death hurts the elderly (h/t @elementalnw)

Misogyny

– “So you’re faced with what to do when you’ve been so badly abused it’s made international news. Do you go to the police or not? Well, if you don’t, they’ll claim that it wasn’t real because there’s no police report. They did so with Anita (who did have a police report, which was conveniently ignored). If you do enter the system, you have to accept that all of what I’ve already written is what you’re facing down, with little chance at actually seeing justice, be willing to sign up for the years-long process in the event that it actually goes to trial, and know you have little chance of a court order stopping your obsessive abuser any more than seeing people target and hurt your family and the families of those close to you ever did.” August Never Ends (h/t @thelindywest)

– “But it also reveals some truths that apply to all working women. There is a gender wage gap in nearly every kind of job, from high paying to low paying, and every industry. That gap doesn’t disappear even when taking into account career experience, which includes any breaks taken to raise children.” Charlize Theron Negotiates $10M Raise After Sony Hack Reveals Male Costar Was To Be Paid Millions More (via @ThinkProgress)

Death Penalty

– “If they truly want to honor me, then they will do away with the death penalty for him, and they will give him life in prison without the possiblity of parole,” Waller said in a video that was sent to the defendant’s lawyers.”When he dies, I want it to be because it’s his time, not because he’s been executed due to what happened to me and my child. I don’t want that on my hands. It makes me feel like I’m no different from him.” Mother Of Murdered Infant: ‘If They Truly Want To Honor Me’ They Won’t Execute The Killer (via @ThinkProgress)