The unimportant news thread

[Ken B]

Cruel and unusual punishment, plain and simple.

7 years seems excessive for the superintendant but this was an organized fraud. They bilked the system, extracting money on the basis of faked scores, and presumably impaired some of the kids' schooling.

[Todd]

7 years seems excessive for the superintendant but this was an organized fraud. They bilked the system, extracting money on the basis of faked scores, and presumably impaired some of the kids' schooling.

They were convicted of racketeering.  Racketeering laws were designed to pursue organized crime.  This smacks of prosecutorial overreach and is an abuse of state power.  Justice was not served, not even close.

[Karl Henning]

It was the best place to shop, it was the worst place to shop.

[Ken B]

I'm going to leave this here, since it's in the Diner, but the thread it belongs on by topic is the BPO gig thread.

http://www.newsday.com/opinion/columnists/cathy-young/trudeau-s-troubling-view-on-speech-1.10305122

[Todd]

Odd that Mr Trudeau would adopt a blame the victim approach.  Or maybe not.  Also, the cartoons in question seem closer to blasphemy than so-called "hate speech", though that may be a fuzzy distinction here.

[Ken B]

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/04/csi-is-a-lie/390897/

But I still think OJ did it.

[Todd]

News you can use.

[Ken B]

A voluntary fame tax
http://www.capx.co/its-time-to-introduce-a-voluntary-fame-tax/

Actually, it exists in the USA: the treaury accepts donations.

[Todd]

Whew, that was close!

[ibanezmonster]

Obama thanks Japan for anime.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=49&v=l-8zQC-9Iok


His awesomeness level just increased by 10 points.   

[Karl Henning]

McDonald's knows you don't eat there anymore — and it wants to change that

[Karl Henning]

The fruit do hang low for this writer, but who could fault him for even company leaders are admitting the fries have gone cold . . . .

[Todd]

It's true, if McDonald's doesn't act fast, it could shrivel to oblivion.  As Bloomberg wrote, we may have hit peak burger.

(I wonder if McDonald's execs now think divesting in Chipotle was a good long-term decision?)

[Todd]

What's Yum! Brands?

Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC.

[Ken B]

Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC.

Ah. The Yum is ironic.

[Karl Henning]

It's spin, and only unintentionally ironic 

[Todd]

Liberté, égalité, fraternité?

[Florestan]

Liberté, égalité, fraternité?

The shallowest slogan ever to come out from some of the worst demagogues in history. 

[Ken B]

The shallowest slogan ever to come out from some of the worst demagogues in history. 

"Emancipation of the dissonance."

[Karl Henning]

"Emancipation of the dissonance."

Prima la musica, poi le parole