Squeezing in a post

But for good reasons. After various scheduling interruptions the past few nights, I’m spending as much time as possible with TYG this evening. So a link post it is.
•Among the various budget items slashed by House Republicans (most notably the Paul Ryan budget) is a program to remove lead paint from homes because of the health hazards to kids.
•The NYPD took flak back in the sixties for infiltrating nonviolent protest groups. It’s still at it, this time infiltrating a movement protesting Bangladesh sweatshops.
•I linked a while back to the case of the Iowa dentist who fired his assistant because she was so hot, he didn’t think he could stop coming onto her (a rationale the Iowa Supreme Court signed off on). RH Reality Check argues that this makes sex discrimination easy (“I had to fire her, my spouse insisted!”) and subscribes to purity-culture concepts that the man just can’t help himself and that God approves of this view (the dentist got his pastor’s go-ahead).
•Lovely. In most states, you can also be fired because you’re a victim of domestic violence.
•It’s not news that for all Obama’s aggressive war on leakers, some leaks are okay. As witness American officials telling the newspapers about our plans in Yemen. And the same people who denounce Edward Snowden for giving away our intelligence gathering secrets suddenly decide it’s good to reveal secrets because it’ll scare the bad guys. It’s almost like the way al Qaeda is either terrifying or crippled depending on the PR slant the government wants. Which goes back to Bush, who swung between declaring his total commitment to taking out bin Laden and his total lack of interest in such a minor threat, depending what policy he wanted to justify (this does not, however, excuse Obama’s playing the same games).
•The TSA is expanding out from airports to buses and Amtrak. But it won’t say if it’s disrupted any terrorist plots or accomplished anything (I’m sure that means No) and doesn’t use warrants or follow Fourth Amendment restrictions. And I’m sure the department will need much, much more money to keep up these searches.
•Georgia Rep. Phil Gingrey (who previously defended Todd Akin’s opinions on rape),now thinks gender roles should be taught in schools.
•A libertarian suggests the solution to low pay for McDonald’s workers is tip jars.
•CBS is not only yanking its programming from Time Warner over a fee dispute, it’s not streaming it over the Internet to Time Warner customers.
•Pope Francis says he’s not totally anti-gay. Right-bloggers fret.