Overnight Open Thread (6-30-2013)

The George Zimmerman Reenactment

Here DMartyr at the Jawa Report does a service to the blogosphere and puts together pertinent videos and diagrams in the Martin case for you to watch and judge for yourself.

This is Zimmerman reenacting for the police his actions on the night of the shooting. Note that this is less than 24 hours after the shooting and his account has never varied from what he told the police that night.

His description is compelling and after watching this I simply cannot comprehend how a prosecutor could bring a case against him in good faith much less a murder charge.

Another thing that become clear from the video and diagrams is that is a relatively compact neighborhood and everything took place in a small area. So Trayvon Martin must have gone home first and then returned to confront Zimmerman.

Go here to see it all.

The Strange Case Of Paula Deen

So as I understand it Paula Deen admitted at a deposition that she has used the N-word during the past 30 years and so she's been branded a racist and is being treated like a carrier of race crime who might infect anyone she comes too close to. She's been fired by the Food Channel and nearly all of her sponsors. Even though her next cookbook is already #1 on Amazon just through pre-sales her publisher just dropped her - essentially throwing away millions of dollars of sales.

I've never watched her show or followed her but this just seems...well insane. Often when you see a shunning cascade of someone over what seems to be a minor offense it's because they're a nasty person and people are just using the incident as an excuse to get rid of them. But as best I can tell this isn't the case with Deen. Charlotte Hays at NRO says Deen's biggest crime is being Paula Deen, a large white Southern woman who violates all the norms of the elite:

Paula Deen isn't really on trial for using the N-word. She's on trial for the crime of being Paula Deen, a woman who cooks with lard (yum!), shows up for the Today Show wreathed in tears and garbed in an inappropriately girlish hue of pink, and says unfortunate things such as "I is who I is."

And Bill Burr weighs in on the whole Deen affair.

Glenn Greenwald, the First Amendment, and Espionage

Before taking the job in Hawaii, Mr. Snowden was in contact with people who would later help arrange the publication of the material he purloined. Two of these individuals, filmmaker Laura Poitras and Guardian blogger Glenn Greenwald, were on the Board of the Freedom of the Press Foundation that, among other things, funds WikiLeaks.

In January 2013, according to the Washington Post, Mr. Snowden requested that Ms. Poitras get an encryption key for Skype so that they could have a secure channel over which to communicate.

In February, he made a similar request to Mr. Greenwald, providing him with a step-by-step video on how to set up encrypted communications.

So, before Mr. Snowden proceeded with his NSA penetration in March 2013 through his Booz Allen Hamilton job, he had assistance, either wittingly or unwittingly, in arranging the secure channel of encrypted communications that he would use to facilitate the publication of classified communications intelligence.

If Greenwald was talking with Snowden and helped setup encrypted channels before he joined Booz Allen in order for Snowden to pass secrets back to him, why wouldn't he be considered a co-conspirator? Is the title 'journalist' a license to run your own spy rings against the government and publish whatever you can uncover?

Jimmy Carter: Christianity Mistreats Women as Much as Islam

In citing more inequalities for women around the globe, Carter said that, in Saudi Arabia, women are not permitted to drive or vote; that, in some cultures, girls are forced to marry before their tenth birthdays; and that, in the United States, women are paid about 70 percent of what men earn for the same work.

"The point is that the voices demanding these circumstances change are few and far between," Carter said.

Oh Jimmy haven't you done enough for one lifetime.

The Face of a Suicide Bomber

Captured alive in Afghanistan yesterday.

English Defence League Leaders Arrested for Walking Where Drummer Lee Rigby Was Killed

Because that might upset local Muslims.

In a statement posted on the EDL's Twitter feed, the group said: 'Tommy Robinson & Kev Caroll arrested for obstructing the police and carted off.' Scotland Yard yesterday said it was imposing conditions due to fears that both the march and gathering would 'result in serious public disorder and serious disruption to the life of the community' and a breach of the conditions would be a criminal offence.

Also Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer have banned from entering Britain because this might upset local Muslims.

Taylor Swift: Fornicating Whore

The Westboro Church finally gets around to heterosexual sin:

Yes, that's right: THE WHORISH FACE OF DOOMED AMERICA, the pop-country star formerly known as Taylor Swift, has been guilty of "hopping from one young man to the next and strutting across the world stage like a proud whore," according to the WBC press release.

A High Resolution View Inside the B-52

A fascinating mix of high and low tech.

The Amazing Falling Bead Experiment

Irony Alert: Snake Expert Dies From Snake Bite During Presentation to Calm the Public's Fear of Snakes

Granted it was a heart attack but it sure couldn't have helped anyone's snake fear.

A German snake expert died after being bitten multiple times by a viper during a presentation aimed at helping people ease their fears of the scaly reptiles. Dieter Zorn, a 53-year-old herpetologist, died Tuesday evening of a heart attack minutes after he was bitten by an Aspic viper, according to Germany's English-language newspaper The Local.

Weekly AoSHQ Commenter Standings

Top 10 commenters:
1 [857 comments] 'Esteban10077@sven10077' [120.33 posts/day]
2 [542 comments] 'Anna Puma (+SmuD)'
3 [522 comments] 'Oldsailors Poet  Palin/Bolton 2016'
4 [496 comments] 'Jane D'oh'
5 [463 comments] 'Niedermeyer's Dead Horse'
6 [429 comments] 'J.J. Sefton'
7 [426 comments] 'logprof'
8 [425 comments] 'Vic'
9 [418 comments] 'AllenG (Dedicated Tenther)'
10 [414 comments] 'BCochran1981 - Credible Hulk'

Top 10 sockpuppeteers:
1 [70 names] 'The Political Hat' [9.83 unique names/day]
2 [59 names] 'logprof'
3 [57 names] 'Cicero (@cicero)'
4 [43 names] 'Islamic Rage Boy'
5 [36 names] 'kbdabear'
6 [34 names] 'toby928? for TB'
7 [34 names] 'Romeo13'
8 [32 names] 'RiverC'
9 [32 names] 'The Chicken'
10 [24 names] 'Adam'

The group. Yeah.

Where it's at - the Twitter

Tonight's post brought to you by a young Alex Trebek:

Notice: Posted by permission of AceCorp LLC. Please e-mail overnight open thread tips to maetenloch at gmail. Otherwise send tips to Ace.

posted by Maetenloch at 10:40 PM

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