Monday, September 21, 2020

Shoulder Of A Giant

"Neither federal nor state government acts compatibly with equal protection when a law or official policy denies to women, simply because they are women, full citizenship stature—equal opportunity to aspire, achieve, participate in and contribute to society based on their individual talents and capacities."

Ginsburg, J., majority
United States v. Virginia, 518 U.S. 515 (1996)
June 26, 1996

https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/boundvolumes/518bv.pdf

Saturday, August 22, 2020

Tennessee Made Me Lose My Rest

Tennessee protesters will face harsh penalties, including losing the right to vote, as punishment for participating in protests under a law enacted by the Tennessee GOP-dominant General Assembly. Right-wing Governor Bill Lee quietly signed off on the bill Thursday, AP reports.

Under the new law, demonstrators who camp on state property can now be charged with a Class E felony, punishable by up to six years in prison, rather than a misdemeanor it was previously.

Since George Floyd’s killing earlier this year, protesters have camped outside the Tennessee Capitol in Nashville, demanding a meeting with the governor to discuss racial inequality and police brutality. The protesters set up camp in War Memorial Plaza near the Capitol, naming it the “People’s Plaza” and “Ida B. Wells Plaza,” after the civil rights leader. They stayed there 24 hours a day for more than two months.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/08/22/opposite-what-americans-fought-revolution-tennessee-strip-right-vote-protesters

Monday, June 8, 2020

Antioxidants

The view that sleep is essential for survival is supported by the ubiquity of this behavior, the apparent existence of sleep-like states in the earliest animals, and the fact that severe sleep loss can be lethal. The cause of this lethality is unknown. Here we show, using flies and mice, that sleep deprivation leads to accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and consequent oxidative stress, specifically in the gut. ROS are not just correlates of sleep deprivation but drivers of death: their neutralization prevents oxidative stress and allows flies to have a normal lifespan with little to no sleep. The rescue can be achieved with oral antioxidant compounds or with gut-targeted transgenic expression of antioxidant enzymes. We conclude that death upon severe sleep restriction can be caused by oxidative stress, that the gut is central in this process, and that survival without sleep is possible when ROS accumulation is prevented.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2020.04.049

Saturday, February 22, 2020

So Shines A Good Deed In A Weary World


"I fear that this disparity in treatment erodes the fair and balanced decisionmaking process that this Court must strive to protect."

Sotomayor, J., dissenting
Wolf v. Cook County
February 21, 2020

https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/19a905_7m48.pdf

Thursday, January 30, 2020

Loss Of Legitimacy

Amused he had to say it out loud, into the public record.

Tuesday, December 17, 2019

Supreme Cowards

In September, the usual sadists filed amici curiae. Yesterday, the supreme court denied writ of certiorari. Martin v. Boise can be cited in the 9th.

My guess is the roberts court lacked the necessary arguments to strike down the precedent, because it could be too embarrassing, while the judicial branch demands to revisit Amos 5. It could also be considered a punishment for the 9th, encouraging the poorest of the poor to migrate to the 9th. Eventually another circuit could develop a case that the roberts court can use to reestablish sadism in the 9th, and everywhere the country.

Sundown laws were struck down. Vagrancy laws were struck down. Car habitation laws were struck down. Functionally, nothing really changed. The sadists simply developed new PR tactics.

Rule of law is a farce.

Monday, December 25, 2017

Expensive Obviousness

There, in II. E., in the middle of page 11/12, amongst the footnotes for II. E. page 11/12; the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, in an annual report, mentioned sleep. You can read their report if you have JavaScript and tracking cookies enabled, or can open MSWord documents.

II. Disproportionate and different impact of civil and political rights violations on the poor
E. Restricting the access of the poor to public places
Criminalization of homelessness
30. If being unable to afford shelter, decent food, a warm bath or even the use of a private toilet is not humiliating enough, homeless people can be, and commonly are, further stripped of their dignity and freedom of movement. The criminalization of homelessness is becoming increasingly well documented. Shortages of affordable housing and emergency shelter beds force people onto the streets, where they can then be fined and imprisoned. "Quality of life" offences, such as "camping" in public, sleeping in a public place, begging in public, loitering, sitting or lying down in public places and sleeping in vehicles, can be impossible for the homeless to avoid. To add insult to injury, the enforcement of such laws is very costly; a cruel irony when public funding could instead be directed to poverty alleviation for this group.

I wonder how much money the U.N. spent, and how much cheese was chewed, in the production of the obvious, for their tardy homework.