dangerousmeta!, the original new mexican miscellany, offering eclectic linkage since 1999.

Salon: Mississippi could begin prosecuting women for miscarriages.

Ol’ Miss wants to play God.

You thought Ryanair’s attendants had it bad? Wait ‘til you hear about their pilots - Home News - UK

“The RPG [‘Ryanair Pilot Group’] organised the letter amid concerns that the airline was making the majority of its pilots self-employed. Under the scheme, pilots sign a contract binding them to fly exclusively for Ryanair – but not as employees. The pilots are then paid for the work they do but have to pay for all their own expenses, including uniforms, identity cards, transport and hotel accommodation. The contracted pilots have no pension scheme or medical insurance unless they set it up themselves.” The golden days of richly paid and overqualified former WWII aviators is long, long gone.

Atlantic: Facebook, One Year Later: What Really Happened in the Biggest IPO Flop Ever.

“The consensus among hedge funds on the West Coast was to short the stock on day one.” Gawd. After missing out on various other tech IPOs, I actually contemplated dropping some coin this time around. So glad I didn’t.

TG’s Political Wire: Republican Claims on Benghazi Prove False.

So, who was the Republican who altered the quotes? An investigation should take place, shouldn’t it, since this is the season of freewheeling substanceless investigations?

CJR: Peggy Noonan loses it on the IRS story.

Oy vey.

Economist: Barack Obama and the presidency — W’s apprentice.

“Increasingly, however, the exigencies of office seem to be trumping the legal qualms of the campaign trail—something Mr Obama’s supporters will regret when a future Republican president perfects the dodges he is pioneering.”

National Review: Theater Night — Vigilantes 1, Vulgarians 0.

“So I minded my own business by utilizing my famously feline agility to deftly snatch the phone out of her hand and toss it across the room, where it would do no more damage. She slapped me and stormed away to seek managerial succor.”

ArtDaily: Paris police boost efforts to protect tourists.

“It will also begin distributing leaflets in heavily touristed areas, in English and French, warning against a trend that involves young criminals asking visitors to make donations to false charities or to sign false petitions, distracting them from pickpockets.” Heavy theft in the City of Light.

MSNBC: Charges dropped against Florida teen over amateur science experiment.

“The Florida teenager who was arrested two weeks ago for causing a small explosion on the campus of her high school will not be charged with a crime. Kiera Wilmot, 16, was arrested by police in Bartow, Florida, after conducting an unauthorized science experiment which lightly damaged an eight ounce plastic water bottle.” My emphasis.

CSM: Did the IRS illegally target the Tea Party? Seven questions answered.

Some needed background.

Guardian.UK: Pioneering author’s body found mummified in New Mexico home.

“Her brother-in-law Louis Ponce found the body after he and his wife Edna, Salinas’ sister, drove from their home in California to check on her after two years of unreturned phone calls and letters.”

CELDF.org: First County in U.S. Bans Fracking and all Hydrocarbon Extraction.

Good for you, Mora County. Now batten down the hatches and get ready for the legal challenges.

Guardian.UK: Yoga guru Bikram Choudhury accused of rape in two new lawsuits.

Ugh. Read this, esp. the end of the article! Double ugh.

The Nation: Congressman Seek Constitutional Guarantee of the Right to Vote.

“Every citizen of the United States, who is of legal voting age, shall have the fundamental right to vote in any public election held in the jurisdiction in which the citizen resides.”

FT: Protests mount on use of BP Gulf spill funds.

Give money to the states, see them pad the pork barrels.

BillMoyers.com: Gun Violence Since Newtown.

“Number of people killed by guns in the first 98 days post-Newtown: 2,244.”

MailOnline.UK: Pilots ‘left Airbus carrying 166 passengers on autopilot.’

“Two pilots have been suspended from an airline after they allegedly left an Airbus carrying 166 passengers on autopilot and air hostesses in charge while they slept in business class.” Reminds me of a Spalding Gray monologue about flying in Asia.

Guardian.UK: No Patriot Act II—Americans choose civil liberties over security laws.

“The latest CNN/Time/ORC poll finds that 49% of Americans are not willing to give up civil liberties in order curb terrorism, while only 40% are. In fact, 61% of Americans are more fearful that the government will overreact to the Boston bombing, compared to 31% who are worried that the government won’t act strongly enough.” Avoid the terrible recrudescence of fear & panic. The first time did enough damage.

Guardian.UK: Florida student charged and expelled after ‘science experiment’ goes awry.

Seems to me the teacher needs the discipline, not the student. Hmmm?

Guardian.UK/Greenwald: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s repeated requests for a lawyer were ignored.

“A senior congressional aide said Tsarnaev had asked several times for a lawyer, but that request was ignored since he was being questioned under the public safety exemption to the Miranda rule.”

NewStatesman: “Instagram act” under fire for treatment of copyrighted works.

If I were in Britain, I’d consider taking all my works off the ‘net. Or egregiously watermark them.

BBC: How Britons fled grim jihadist camp.

“As soon as the sun set, the men were in darkness. Ishaaq Hussain, 19, had left home two days earlier - where his mother made the beds. Now, with no bed at all, he was disillusioned.” Read the entire thing, for a bit of a chuckle.

The New Yorker: What if the Tsarnaevs Had Been the “Boston Shooters”?

Our responses to extreme violence are skewed.

Guardian.UK: US schools weigh bulletproof uniforms: ‘It’s no different than a seatbelt in a car’.

I understand the desire to protect kids. But … to think we actually need to go this far. Stats show % of households with guns is actually lower than the ‘70’s. Perhaps a more immediately effective preventative would be to mandate a certain level of psychological care in insurance coverage (a pittance in most health care policies today). That way, hurting people can get something more than a generic Prozac script from a GP.

Rolling Stone: The Biggest Price-Fixing Scandal Ever.

“These banks, which already possess enormous power just by virtue of their financial holdings – in the United States, the top six banks, many of them the same names you see on the Libor and ISDAfix panels, own assets equivalent to 60 percent of the nation’s GDP – are beginning to realize the awesome possibilities for increased profit and political might that would come with colluding instead of competing. Moreover, it’s increasingly clear that both the criminal justice system and the civil courts may be impotent to stop them, even when they do get caught working together to game the system.”