U.S.
Radley Balko: Morning Links
November 21, 2012
– This is way to smart of a policy to ever get implemented. Plus, making birth control available over the counter takes a way an effective wedge issue, for both sides.
– Big news may be on the way from Mars.
– Your latest forensics scandal comes courtesy of Portland, Oregon.
– Police officer tries to shoot dog, shoots another police officer instead. This is not the same story from a couple weeks ago. Or a couple weeks before that.
– The puritanical campaign against e-cigarettes will very likely kill people.
– Here is what all your student loan debt bought. This shouldn’t be surprising. Grants and subsidized loans have made higher education a bottomless seller’s market. That means colleges and universities have an endless supply of money. There’s no competitive pressure to keep costs down. Hence, bureaucratic bloat.
– FBI SWAT raid ends with agents firing shots at an unarmed woman. It doesn’t appear that they found any contraband.
– Via Reddit, and from earlier this year, this might be the most badass obituary ever written. A few highlights: “At 9, he settled a dispute with a pistol. At 13, he lit out for the Amazon jungle. At 20, he attempted suicide-by-jaguar. Afterward he was apprenticed to a pirate . . . he briefly managed a mink farm.”