Author Archives: legallysociable

Supreme Court decides on Chicago guns

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In a long-awaited decision, the Supreme Court has decided 5-4 against Chicago’s gun ban in McDonald v. Chicago. The Chicago Tribune notes that Chicago will soon consider new gun laws and that the decision seems to be motivated in part by current conditions in the city:

In the majority opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito, the court noted a recent call by two state legislators to deploy National Guard troops to quell the violence on Chicago’s streets.

“The legislators noted that the number of Chicago homicide victims during the current year equaled the number of American soldiers killed during that same period in Afghanistan and Iraq,” the opinion stated.

“If (the) safety of . . . law abiding members of the community would be enhanced by the possession of handguns in the home for self-defense, then the Second Amendment right protects the rights of minorities and other residents of high-crime areas whose needs are not being met by elected public officials.”…

Read the full decision here.

Alito’s argument (summed up briefly in the article above) is interesting: Chicago may have lost this case because the crime rate, particularly murder rate, remains high even with a gun ban. Chicago’s ban has not limited the number of guns in the hands of violent actors. If violent actors can get guns even with a ban, Alitio suggests local citizens should have the tools to be able to fight back, particularly citizens “whose needs are not being met by elected public officials.” This is a case about a law but this statement in particular is a Supreme opinion regarding the abilities of Chicago government.

UPDATE 11:13 PM 6/28/10: Some Chicago officials also read some of the decision as an attack on the performance of Chicago’s police and government. Read here.

UPDATE 7:08 AM 6/29/10:  Links to more coverage:  Chicago Sun-Times, National Law Journal, ABA Journal, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, NRA press release…

Modern careers more amenable to women?

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Hanna Rosin writes in the July/August 2010 issue of The Atlantic about the rise of women in many career fields and the consequences for society. Rosin argues that in addition to women holding “a majority of the nation’s jobs,” dominating higher education, and having a majority in 13 of the 15 job categories predicted to grow the most in the next ten years, more and more jobs today seem suited to women and men have not yet adapted:

The postindustrial economy is indifferent to men’s size and strength. The attributes that are most valuable today—social intelligence, open communication, the ability to sit still and focus—are, at a minimum, not predominantly male. In fact, the opposite may be true.

The list of growing jobs is heavy on nurturing professions, in which women, ironically, seem to benefit from old stereotypes and habits.

Some of this has been more visible lately with the effects of the recent economic trouble, dubbed by some a “man-cession” or “he-pression” due to a disproportionate loss of jobs in male-dominated fields. The loss of manufacturing and manual labor jobs in the last five decades has been severe and men, unlike women, have not yet jumped on the higher education bandwagon.

The strange world of Google Streetview includes “Horseboy”

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The Daily Mail of London reports on another strange find on Google Streetview: “Horseboy,” with the body of a man and head of a horse. The article highlights some of the other strange finds over the years including Samurai warriors, Sherlock Holmes, and others.

There are websites devoted to seeing odd things on Streetview – a quick Google search will lead you to a number of websites.

Sports redemption vs. true redemption

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Former NBA player Manute Bol died recently. Bol’s primary claim to fame was that he stood 7 feet 7 inches tall. Upon his passing, Bol was hailed as a “humanitarian.” As Jon Shields, a professor at Claremont McKenna College, points out in the Wall Street Journal, this humanitarianism was rarely linked to Bol’s strong Christian faith. The redemption Bol believed in was quite different than the redemption sports journalists typically write about. Rather than overcoming odds on the basketball court to finally reach a personal accomplishment, “Bol reportedly gave most of his fortune, estimated at $6 million, to aid Sudanese refugees. As one twitter feed aptly put it: “Most NBA cats go broke on cars, jewelry & groupies. Manute Bol went broke building hospitals.”

Shields argues that the redemption Bol was after was not connected to personal rewards but was instead “the Christian understanding of redemption has always involved lowering and humbling oneself. It leads to suffering and even death.

Privacy is possible online?

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A journalist laments the end of JournoList – but also seems to think that privacy is possible in today’s online world. Really? This is something that most 20 year old Facebook users know: if you don’t want something to become known online, don’t ever post it online. Even among groups that trust each other, as the journalists on JournoList did, the Internet is one of the least private places I can imagine.

The Fellowship of the Vuvuzela

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This is making the rounds – but it is an entertaining mashup of Lord of the Rings and the World Cup. Watched a World Cup game this summer and wanted to get rid of the vuvuzela noise? Just bring in the Fellowship of the Vuvuzela.

Watch here.

Stories for Afghanistan

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Wired writes of a new Department of Defense program to develop “interactive stories” to find common ground with Afghan residents.

The “Negotiate Across Cultures” project will kick off with a two-day workshop… “participants will use a ‘Wizard of Oz’ approach to illustrate how each approach, if implemented, would operate on selected negotiation problems within specific socio-cultural environments. In the ‘Wizard of Oz’ approach, one or two human representatives of each participant team will listen to a problem description and manually act out the operation and structure of the tool using props they bring to the event.”

Using stories in this way is not uncommon. In recent decades, governments, activists, and social scientists have successfully used media, such as radio and television shows, to teach certain messages in areas like public health.

Graphing flight delays by airport and airline

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The Infrastructurist displays a great graphic that summarizes flight delays at major US airports. A quick interpretation: be prepared to be behind when traveling to New York, San Francisco, and Philadelphia or when flying on Northwest, JetBlue, AirTran, and American.