Heads of government aren’t supposed to punish their critics. That may be normal in Saudi Arabia, but it’s not normal in putative democracies.

Nixon did it anyway.

Nixon’s Enemies List, officially called his “Opponents List,” was a document that was initially compiled by presidential advisor George T. Bell for Charles Colson, the infamous “hatchet man.” Colson turned over the list to White House Counsel John Dean on September 9, 1971. The list, which at first included 20 names, was a compilation of figures from all walks of life, ranging from the actor Paul Newman (“Radic-Lib causes … Heavy McCarthy involvement ’68”) to journalists such as Mary McGrory and Daniel Schorr (a “real media enemy”) to politicians like the

I guess some people are saying Trudeau should apologize to the Saudis, because a former Canadian ambassador to the UN says he should not.

Urging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to jump on a plane to Riyadh to apologize for Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland’s tweet on Saudi human rights abuses is bad advice. Suggesting that we should seek U.S. President Donald Trump’s intervention with the Saudis is no better. And portraying Saudi Arabia as a friend and ally is preposterous.

Apologists for the Saudis need to give their heads a shake. Saudi Arabian authorities continue to subject peaceful dissidents to arbitrary arrests, trials and convictions. Human rights defenders are imprisoned and tortured into confessing.

Saudi authorities continue to discriminate

Nick Little on the busy Pennsylvania priests:

Yesterday a Pennsylvania Grand Jury report was released, detailing credible accusations of sexual abuse against over 300 priests in just six dioceses. Over 1,000 child victims were identified.

That’s a lot of priests and a lot of child victims. And yet, and yet, they still consider themselves to have the moral authority not only to tell us what to do, but also to stop us, forcibly, doing things they consider Religiously Forbidden. Women putting a stop to their own pregnancies is forbidden by god but priests raping children is not. That is one very fucked up god.

While the reports against individual priests shock the conscience, the descriptions of institutional knowledge,

Does it make sense to see McCain as The Good Wing of the Republicans? The New Yorker toys with the question:

McCain spent the months after Trump’s Inauguration on an international reassurance tour, telling overseas allies the story that some Republicans in Washington were telling themselves—that Trump’s authoritarianism would be constrained by those around him, that this was a phase that would pass.

Or to put it another way, “It’s not our fault.”

“He has a lot of faith in Mattis,” Salter said, of James Mattis, the Secretary of Defense. In February, 2017, at the Munich Security Conference, an annual meeting of Western military officers and defense officials, McCain, without naming the President, delivered a broadside against Putin, Trump,

So here’s this very nice man in baggy T shirt and shorts and a baseball cap (not a MAGA cap, that I can see) talking to hotel workers in Uganda. He appears to be distraught because the electronic key to his room didn’t work. He’s apparently a missionary? Or maybe just a pretend missionary, aka a crank who uses “jesus” as a veil for abusing people. His favorite thing to call the hotel workers (who are all men, which is probably fortunate) is “bitch” – or more like “biiiitch.”

He got busted.

Uganda police arrested an older American man after reviewing a video that showed him striking out at hotel workers and using racial slurs.

The police identified the

Ripe for satire:

An artist in India is challenging sexist drawings of women in comic books by parodying them using male heroes in poses typically associated with women.

She-Hulk has superhuman strength and speed and is one of the most formidable hand-to-hand combatants in the Marvel world.

Like Hulk, not only does she have physical power, she’s also completely green.

Yet, on a 1991 comic book cover, she is shown in a seductive pose, wearing a G-string bikini, with her curves sharply accentuated.

Because power shmower, getcher tits out.

SHREYA ARORA

The Indian artist Shreya Arora finds this annoying.

Her artwork draws inspiration from comic book covers but parodies the male superheroes using body language typically associated with women.

We live in strange times.

https://twitter.com/KateClancy/status/1029804418340937728

A woman, bragging about writing a book on menstruation that rarely mentions women, as if that’s something to be proud of.… Read the rest

I knew about this but PBS gives a very entertaining explanation and illustration of it.

… Read the rest

Paul Krugman takes a look at the Horrors of Socialism in Denmark.

Last weekend, Trish Regan, a Fox Business host, created a bit of an international incident by describing Denmark as an example of the horrors of socialism, right along with Venezuela. Denmark’s finance minister suggested that she visit his country and learn some facts.

That’s silly; she can’t visit Denmark, lest she be thrown in the gulag.

Denmark has indeed taken a very different path from the United States over the past few decades, veering (modestly) to the left where we’ve veered right. And it has done just fine.

American politics has been dominated by a crusade against big government; Denmark has embraced an expansive government role,

Screechy Monkey alerted us to a story that began with an origins of life conference featuring 14 men and 0 that’s zero women.

0/14 women speakers at FfAME Origins of Life Conference+Workshop in ATL.
I made this slide for the precise purpose of preventing this from happening. #smh #YAAMM #YAMMM #manel #STEMDiversity https://t.co/MQ9iQ2ZYXL pic.twitter.com/0MEwFdLj0S

— Jennifer Glass (@methanoJen) August 7, 2018

She emailed the organizer to object, so he…announced a panel to discuss “biases and disparities in origins research” including her name without ever asking her.

The latest on #FfAME fiasco. Without ever agreeing to do this, nor ever even being asked, my name was added to OoL program.Unbelievable. Here’s a screenshot of the new program and an email

We need a place for alerts about news items and whatever else needs sharing, so this can be that place.

… Read the rest

Ever wonder how the youngest lambs get down the hill? Wonder no more.

Donkey & mule nannies are used in Italy when grazing animals are moved from high pastures down to the plains. Newborn lambs are unable to make the journey on their own.
They ride in pouches of a specially made saddle on the back of a nanny.
At rest stops lambs are returned to their mothers for a meal & some nuzzling.