The 'right to bear arms' is a national embarrassment for the USA.

Ladies and gentlemen, Senator Ron Johnson!

"The left always uses the term 'assault rifle,' and they're really talking about semi-automatic weapons that are used in hunting," Johnson explained. "That's what happens in Wisconsin. These are rifles that are used in hunting. Just the fact of the matter is this is really not an issue of guns. This is about sick people doing things you simply can't prevent. It's really an issue of freedom.

That is, the AR-15 rifle with the hundred round magazine is just a hunting weapon...

Is it any wonder that the US stance on gun control (or the lack thereof) is seen as crazy by the civilised world?  Even other Western countries that are big on guns (such as Switzerland, where every male of military age is required by law to have a military grade weapon in their home) have restrictions to stop the rampant abuse of weaponry that just occurred in Colorado.  (In Switzerland, access to ammunition is tightly controlled, and use is tracked.  In the US, this killer bought 6000 rounds online without anyone thinking this might be suspicious).

Framing is important.

Via LGM, a link to some stats showing that belief in climate change increases during heatwaves (US based, naturally).  It decreases correspondingly during cold winters.

Framing [climate change] as [global warming] in so much of the public discourse is the problem here.  Those who don't pay much attention are going to laugh at the idea of 'warming' when it is cold.

Things have improved in this regard, but the legacy of [global warming] is still dominant.

Daniel Tosh

Daniel Tosh is a comedian.  Last week, he made a rape joke. It wasn't funny.  A female audience member called him on it ('Rape jokes are never funny').  He responded with a gang-rape joke, directed at the audience member ('Wouldn't it be funny if, like, 5 guys...').

 The interwebs have been having a field day with this, both on the 'rape: so funny' and the 'rape: bad' side of things.  I think the whole discussion makes for interesting reading.  Here is my take on it.  In common with other terrible things, rape can be a legitimate subject matter for jokes.  Turns out, lots of people not only agree, but have gone to the trouble of identifying the features of rape jokes that they (comedians / writers / interested observers) see as influencing whether a particular joke about the subject 'works'.

Jezebel: How to Make a Rape Joke 

Gin & Tacos: The Subtle Art of Not Being an Asshole 

Kate Harding: Rape Jokes that Work

 Needless to say, Daniel Tosh fails by the standards of all the above linked commentators.

Debtor's Prisons

They are a thing in the US.  Because the standard interpretation of Article 11 of the ICCPR ("No one shall be imprisoned merely on the ground of inability to fulfil a contractual obligation") clearly doesn't apply to America.

Messed Up...

(Via Crooks & Liars) So a lifeguard saves some guy who is in trouble outside of the flagged area.  The (private) lifeguard organisation:

a) Congratulates him;
b) Gives him a bonus;
c) Fires him.

Awesome.

Semester over. Semester begins.

My heavy teaching semester has just ended (14 contact hours over 3 courses at 3 different universities).  In the downtime, I packed up my life and shipped it to New Zealand.  Well, I had removalists pack up my life, and it is sitting on a dock in Melbourne, from whence it will hopefully make its way to New Zealand to join me.  This is all in pursuit of my new job as a Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Waikato, which I began today.

With more time on hand, I should have more to say.

RIP library.nu

This article at Al-Jazeera provides a pretty clear argument against the current publishing industry, and in favour of making access to scholarly work possible for the majority of the world population.  I understand why the industry doesn't want people like me downloading their books rather than buying them, but the available methods of prevention at the moment destroy any chance of access for most everyone else.