Sunday, July 26, 2009

Tales of Interest

Weekend links:

# With the MSM's ongoing obsessive compulsive coverage of Clayton Weatherston's sociopathic narcissism, Slate previews the black box process of compiling the next Mental Disorder Dictionary, the DSM V. China is treating internet addiction with electro-shock therapy. But I think Big Pharma are going to have a problem marketing anti-shopping treatments without causing some Ironic Displacement Anxiety. Hat Tip A&L Daily.

# Popular police harm minimisation tool, the taser, is back in the media. It's alleged that a petrol sniffing Abbo came running at police carrying a fuel can and a lighter. So they tased him, setting him on fire.

# Here in Wellington, even lawyers rejoice in a bit of urban seal delight. Things aren't so eco-friendly in San Diego, where seals were under eviction notices from their birthing grounds until the Governator changed the law:
Before Schwarzenegger's reprieve, the city said it planned to hire someone to walk the beach with a public address system broadcasting the sound of barking dogs to scare off the seals, said Andrew Jones, the assistant city attorney for civil litigation. Force cannot be used because the seals are a federally protected marine species.
# Three mayors, four rabbis and an organ bootlegger walk into a bar. Not the opening of a joke, but a New Jersey corruption scandal. As Gail Collins laments, favours are cheap.