Slog

News & Arts

The Stranger Suggests

Critics' Best Bets
Music Arts & Food


Line Out

Music & the City
at Night

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Sunday Morning News

Posted by on Sun, Jan 27, 2013 at 7:24 AM

Posted by news intern Jocelyn Macdonald

North Korea Plans to Test Nuclear Weapons: Satellite photos and a fair amount of swagger from Kim's administration point to a go-for-launch status on nuclear weapons testing in North Korea in the next few weeks.

Prison Riot and Gunbattle in Venezuela: So far 61 are dead out of 120 injured in a prison uprising. The National Guard and inmates armed with weapons obtained through corrupt guards volleyed gunfire and explosives.

Experts point to the lack of safety for prisoners and an almost unbelievable level of overcrowding:

Venezuela currently has 33 prisons built to hold about 12,000 inmates, but officials have said the prisons' population is about 47,000.

Of course this number is paltry compared to the per capita incarceration in America, the number-one jailer worldwide.

Time to Change the Locks: Hacktivist group Anonymous honors the memory of Aaron Swartz by hijacking the US Sentencing Commission's website. Remember folks, never use a pet's name or a birth date in your password.

Great Flood of Obamacare Lawsuits: Even Mennonites are joining the fight against cost- and life-saving reproductive justice measures in the Affordable Care Act. The number of cases will probably send the question of who pays for contraception to the Supreme Court.

Well-Worn Missile Tube Turned In at BuyBack: Can't wait til that thing's melted down.

Tax the Rich for Education: Sen. Ed Murray proposes a small capital gains tax to address the state's constitutional duty to fund education.

Joint Base Lewis McChord Specialist Wants to Make Herstory: Spc. Heidi Olson is considering climbing the military ladder now that women are being officially recognized for their work on the front lines.

Under the Milkyway Tonight: Dung beetles use the stars to navigate their nightly commute.

 

Comments (28) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment
1
Gun battle.
Milky way.

Two words.
Posted by crabflex on January 27, 2013 at 8:00 AM
David Thompson 2
America: 5% of the world's population, 25% if its prisoners.
Posted by David Thompson on January 27, 2013 at 8:18 AM
Phoebe in Wallingford 3
Is the Super Bowl today, or is that next week?
Posted by Phoebe in Wallingford on January 27, 2013 at 9:07 AM
Tacoma Traveler 4
What a weird country. People think they need Surface-to-Air missile launchers to defend them against gynecologists.

Someday, thousands of years from now, the archaeologists are going to dig up the remains of our civilization. I wonder what they'll think of a country where heavy munitions are as common as dirt, and where medical care is as rare as it gets.

Given that the stuff that gets dug up is usually the most common things, I wonder if they won't find copies of Glenn Beck's books or The National Enquirer or a Beiber CD and base their assumptions of what our society was like on those artifacts.

How barbaric we will look to these future archeologists searching for clues about life in the once great American Empire. When all they find are paranoid rants and weapons, hyperbolic descriptions of each other, and crocs (because styrofoam clothing will outlast cotton or silk), that's the legacy the children of the far-flung future will learn about in school, that's the image they will have of you and I.
Posted by Tacoma Traveler on January 27, 2013 at 9:31 AM
JonnoN 5
I don't care about a useless tube of metal, that's a novelty. Over a thousand guns out of homes and off the street, that's good work. Do it again and again and again!
Posted by JonnoN on January 27, 2013 at 9:59 AM
JensR 6
@3 is that relevant to you if you can't even remember on your own?
Posted by JensR http://ohyran.se on January 27, 2013 at 10:41 AM
I Heart Flan! 7
RE: Hacktivist group Anonymous hijacks the US Sentencing Commission's website. Remember folks, never use a pet's name or a birth date in your password.

Or use ColdFusion running on IIS...
Posted by I Heart Flan! on January 27, 2013 at 10:46 AM
8
Someday, thousands of years from now, the archaeologists are going to dig up the remains of our civilization.


TacomaTraveler, you're so optimistic.
Posted by LMcGuff http://holyoutlaw.livejournal.com/ on January 27, 2013 at 10:47 AM
9

It's more than a little disturbing some of the buybacks were to J Random Person rather than the city buyback program. Along with the good, did Seattle just set up a particuarly unchecked private gun sale?
Posted by david on January 27, 2013 at 10:56 AM
10
Isn't Seattle the closest American city to those N Korean nukes?
Posted by kiss your asses goodbye on January 27, 2013 at 10:59 AM
11
9

yes, but please don't piss in the Credulous Liberals' punch.....
Posted by It's full of Kook Koolaid on January 27, 2013 at 11:02 AM
12
Did Anonymous actually hack the website? Or just another DDOS on the front page?

Also, what's the point of buying and melting down a used and inoperable missile launcher? Shouldn't that money have been used to buy back an actual weapon which could have been used to hurt somebody?
Posted by GermanSausage on January 27, 2013 at 11:15 AM
13
What?!

NOTHING about the Labor Board SMACKDOWN?

Kiss your Boeing jobs 'byebye...'
Posted by SOUTH CAROLINA on January 27, 2013 at 11:24 AM
14
10 please get a map of america that was made after oh about what, 1960?

we added a few states.
Posted by geography of ignorance on January 27, 2013 at 11:27 AM
15
sure. like N korea is going to waste a nuke on Nome...
Posted by pucker up on January 27, 2013 at 11:30 AM
Pope Peabrain 16
@4 I think they'll take more interest in why our prison population is so skewed by race. Or why Wall Street bankers were never put in prison, but people who do drugs are. Or why we never did get control of global warming.
Posted by Pope Peabrain on January 27, 2013 at 11:58 AM
ChadK 17
Looks like Anonytroll is conversing with his multiple personalities again. Is it wrong that I don't block unregistered accounts just so I can see the avenues down which his blatant imbalance will take him?
Posted by ChadK on January 27, 2013 at 12:55 PM
19
To the archeology thought experiment, that is really fascinating.

Just imagine how collectively aghast and what consensus there would be that it was enormously fucked up if, in looking back to the Roman Empire the way a historical lens would look back on the American Empire...that a portion of society stole, affected, and ruined countless fortunes --at the threat of the stability and foundation of the entire society--without recourse, while plebeians were thrown in dungeons for stealing bread. It would be so clear how unjustified and deleterious to the Empire it was. Yikes. But presently, nobody cares.
Posted by six five on January 27, 2013 at 1:32 PM
Supreme Ruler Of The Universe 20
Property tax by state:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/10/busine…

I note that with all the yelling about Kansas about to eliminate income tax, it has one of the higher property tax rates at 2.09% (even higher is Texas at 2.57).

Meanwhile Washington, a state full of wealthy property owners and asset holders constantly cries "Poor" while taxing at a paltry rate of 1.03%... among the lowest in the nation.

I don't see how landed deadbeats can get away with taxing the productive class in this way.

Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe http://www.you-read-it-here-first.com on January 27, 2013 at 2:03 PM
Pope Peabrain 21
@19 There were a whole lot of things in play with Rome. A major problem was leadership. There was no peaceful transfer of power but instead an up for grabs dual of generals. And without stability, there were few real laws that couldn't be upended to suit the few. I think greed was Rome's biggest enemy. Emerors would just kill rich citizens and take their money. Not good for business.
Posted by Pope Peabrain on January 27, 2013 at 2:14 PM
22
Supreme Ruler / John Bailo: Thank you for never, ever, changing your user icon so that I know just by seeing the tip top of scroll right past without reading a word
Posted by six five on January 27, 2013 at 2:14 PM
Supreme Ruler Of The Universe 23
#18

Speaking of BPA I thought I would try switching from the local megamarkets to the small organic place nearby (yes, on Kent East Hill) for groceries.

So I bought a few items none of which set off any gluten scanners. However the cashier paused and noted that the $3.59 bag of pasta was sealed with rivets.

"Mmm...metal", she said.

Then when I opened the rice bread and took it from the standard plastic bag, it additional had a hard plastic tray container with a plastic seal on top...twice as much packaging as the ordinary loaf!
Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe http://www.you-read-it-here-first.com on January 27, 2013 at 2:16 PM
24
21 - yeah I guess I wasn't trying to be historically accurate, just the thought of what 2,000 years would do to perspective on a societies behavior. Hindsight is 20/20 but why the current populace doesn't seem to care to prosecute a single person related to the economic collapse just boggles my mind.
Posted by six five on January 27, 2013 at 2:17 PM
Tacoma Traveler 25
24,

There's quite a few novels based on this theme. The Toynbee Convector by Ray Bradbury is a favorite of mine. That one had a more positive outlook than the paragraph that I wrote above, but I'm more of a depressive person by character than Bradbury was.
Posted by Tacoma Traveler on January 27, 2013 at 2:38 PM
Supreme Ruler Of The Universe 26
#22

Watch:

https://www.facebook.com/help/4205761713…

And seek mental health counseling.
Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe http://www.you-read-it-here-first.com on January 27, 2013 at 3:37 PM
27
Archaeologists aren't really able to tell the racial or economic class makeup of prison populations. They depend upon actual objects and structures to study
Posted by sarah70 on January 27, 2013 at 8:07 PM
28
"plebeians were thrown in dungeons for stealing bread"

More likely shooting someone for mean mugging them or to get some sneakers. Stealing bread? Thanks for the laff.
Posted by Sugartit on January 27, 2013 at 8:35 PM

Add a comment

Advertisement
 

Want great deals and a chance to win tickets to the best shows in Seattle? Join The Stranger Presents email list!


All contents © Index Newspapers, LLC
1535 11th Ave (Third Floor), Seattle, WA 98122
Contact Info | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Takedown Policy