For those of you wondering whatever happened to the 14-year-old kid charged with blasphemy in Everett, Pennsylvania for posting a photoon Facebook showing him simulating oral sex with a statue of J.C., wonder no more. The poor kid was sentenced in October to 350 hours of community service, random drug testing, and being banned from social networking sites for six months.
To appreciate the state of justice in the U.S., contrast that with the treatment of the bank executives who pulled off the largest financial fraud in world history and threw the economy into “The Great Recession” in 2008, causing millions of people to lose their jobs and millions more to lose their homes. Not a single one of the executives responsible has been charged with a crime. In the words of that national disgrace, former corporate lawyer and current U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, the banks–which he conveniently conflates with their executives–are “too big to jail.”
There are end of the year lists, and then there are “end” of the year lists. One of our favorites is Deadspin’s annual “What did we get stuck up our rectums this year?” As you might surmise, it’s a list compiled from the nation’s emergency rooms. As a bonus, they have links to the lists from the last few years.
Glenn Greenwald, former Guardian reporter and the writer who broke the Edward Snowden NSA story, hasn’t been in the news much lately. The reason is his new web site, The Intercept. It’s the place to go for news about the surveillance state.
Finally, our friends at AK Press are having a 50% off (on everything) sale through this weekend, which we presume means through Sunday ultil midnight PST.
Sharp and Pointed 