Links galore!

•The government puts a man on trial for supporting terrorist groups, but it seems more like an attack on his First Amendment rights. On the other hand, we have federal judges who think any regulation of business is unconstitutional, even at the state level.
•Even as our government continues monitoring us, it condemns foreign states for spying on their citizens. Digby looks at the growth of the security/surveillance state. Corey Robin argues more generally (and very well) against the assumption that national security is an automatic excuse for whatsoever we do. Glenn Greenwald observes that judges aren’t too keen on protecting our rights in these situations.
Speaking of our right to privacy, they’re still chipping away at it in Washington.
•Another good example of a book that reminds us how times have changed.
•The kind of thing that makes me despise some of my fellow Christians: Praying that political adversaries get terminal breast cancer.
•Florida’s governor vetoes funds for rape-crisis centers. The military simply diagnoses women who report rapes as crazy. And a talk-radio host advocates raping a lesbian to turn her straight.
•Taxpayers are on the hook for anti-abortion counseling services that only hire Christians. So insurers being told to cover birth control violates other people’s rights but government funded discrimination doesn’t?
•The crime of jaywalking didn’t exist until the 1920s. This article paints it as the work of auto manufacturers and owners to shift blame for collisions to the pedestrians.
•Claims that “only in America could (something happen)” are usually wrong. It’s the American exceptionalism thing, I guess: It’s not enough to believe our country is good, we have to believe we’re superior to everyone else.
•A number of conservatives are shocked, shocked and appalled, that Obama hasn’t invaded Syria. Of course, they also don’t give him credit for increasing drone attacks in Yemen (a point I made recently). Apparently we no longer even need to identify our targets so long as CIA intel indicates “the presence of an important operative or a plot against U.S. interests” (as noted at the first link, even reading or watching arguments in favor of terrorism is proof of Evil Enemies).
•A writer ponders the lack of male contraception.
•Echidne analyzes discrimination against women in healthcare.
•Speaking of innocent until proven guilty: An account of an innocent man zapped multiple times with tasers. And in case you’re wondering, tasers can kill.
•The Catholic Church objects to Girl Scouts almost as much as nuns. Apparently it’s reaching the point on the right wing where even giving money to groups that might have anything to do with contraception (the Girl Scouts have links online to groups such as Doctors Without Borders, which provide emergency contraception for rape victims in war zones. The fiends).