Weekend link dump for October 19

On dealing with horrible bosses, in Hollywood and elsewhere.

We’re using less gasoline. This is a good thing.

“I have a friend who is a police officer and he never watches police procedurals. Even in the years when the Law & Order franchise owned the soul of NBC he wasn’t ever tempted to tune in. He says that he gets too frustrated watching the show get all the details of his job wrong and it just saps all the enjoyment out of watching tv. I never understood his position; there were never any dancing babies in my legal career, yet I was able to enjoy the escapism of Ally McBeal. But watching HTGAWM, I finally understood. There is something just so scream-worthy about a show that can’t bother to even get the basics right.”

I for one welcome our snake-bot overlords.

How not to sound like an idiot when talking about Ebola.

“People dressed as clowns are causing a stir in California’s San Joaquin Valley.”

“Here are five reasons why personal-injury attorneys and insurers should be very, very afraid of autonomous cars.”

“This is a stunning change in the way the Catholic church speaks of gay people”. See The Slacktivist for more on that that really means.

RIP, Tommy Lewis, the Alabama football player who made the famous off-the-bench tackle of Rice’s Dicky Moegle in the 1954 Cotton Bowl.

So now we have Ebola conspiracy theories, which guarantees that no matter what else happens, we’ll all be stupider by the time this plays out.

If only we hadn’t cut the NIH budget. Anyone up for another Ice Bucket Challenge?

Clearly, tighter border security is called for.

“There’s nothing on Orman’s agenda that isn’t on the agenda of every aspiring Democrat who’d get run out of town as a crypto-Socialist in red America. But call yourself an independent, and suddenly it all sounds so sensible.”

As an Italian who grew up in New York, Columbus Day is in my bones. Nevertheless, I can totally get behind this.

If only Jesse Helms had lived to see the legalization of same sex marriage in North Carolina.

The relativity effect on batted balls.

I’d been thinking about giving Jimmy John’s a try, but based on how they treat their employees, I think I’ll stick with Which Wich and Subway.

Go read Ed Kilgore and Judge Richard Posner on the fraud of voter ID.

President Obama’s nominee to lead the civil rights division of the Justice Department is the current director of the ACLU’s Center for Justice and an advocate for legalizing marijuana.

“So while nuttery can be found on the left and right, it is not a bipartisan problem at the national level.”

RIP, Elizabeth Pena, actress whose role I liked best was in the movie “Lone Star”.

Will HBO standalone be the end of cable – or TV – as we know it?

“To put it bluntly: we’ve entrusted our national medical system to the managerial competence and goodwill of the Rick Scotts of the world, and that is much scarier than a podium fan.”

There’s wrong, there’s embarrassingly wrong, and then there’s Amity Shlaes.

“Here is the reality: If judges fear multimillion-dollar campaigns against them, they will have to raise millions themselves, or quietly engineer campaigns by others to do so. Who will contribute, or lead those efforts?”

The fallout from the Shellshock vulnerability may last well beyond the patching stage.

Apparently, Texas’ tort “reform” law is stronger than Ebola.

RIP, Tim Hauser, founder of and visionary behind the legendary jazz vocal group The Manhattan Transfer.

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