Monday Mule Pack – February 6, 2017
The Monday Mule Pack will be a regular feature on The Meade Mule highlighting some of the more interesting, thought-provoking, and/or funny articles I’ve come across on the web recently. It may or may not be published on Mondays (it’s technically Tuesday right now… I’m not good at deadlines). This is the first edition.
In these six American towns, laws targeting ‘the illegals’ didn’t go as planned
“It wound up costing our city $9 million in attorney’s fees,” said Bob Phelps, the mayor of Farmers Branch, Tex., a Dallas suburb that saw its ordinance defeated in court after a seven-year legal battle. “And we accomplished zero.”
The local efforts were championed by two men who are now Trump advisers and reportedly were considered for Cabinet positions.
A Few Thoughts on the “Muslim Ban”
It is perfectly possible—and increasingly necessary—to speak about the ideological roots of Islamism and jihadism, and even about the unique need for reform within mainstream Islam itself, without lapsing into bigotry or disregarding the suffering of refugees. Indeed, when one understands the problem for what it is, one realizes that secular Muslims, liberal Muslims, and former Muslims are among the most desirable allies to have in the West—and, indeed, such people are the primary victims of Islamist intolerance and jihadist terror in Muslim-majority countries.
How far can protesters go before the government steps in?
In Washington state, a lawmaker termed some protests “economic terrorism” and introduced a bill that would permit judges to tack on an additional year in jail to a sentence if the protester was “attempting to or causing an economic disruption.”
In Minnesota, a person convicted of participating or being present at “an unlawful assembly” could be held liable for costs incurred by police and other public agencies.
And in Indiana, a proposed law would direct police encountering a mass traffic obstruction to clear the road by “any means necessary,” echoing a phrase made famous by Malcolm X during the 1960s civil rights movement.
The Peculiar Populism of Donald Trump
In normal circumstances, two fundamental shifts — from traditional and religious values to secular and rational values, on one hand, and from survival to self-expressive values, on the other — “tend to move in the same direction over time,” Wilkinson writes. “In the United States they haven’t.”
Instead, he points out, the United States has gone in two seemingly opposite directions over the past 15 years, becoming “significantly more secular-rational, while losing ground on self-expressive values.”
An orangutan will have a chance to find her mate — through Tinder
Upon being handed a tablet, 11-year-old Samboja immediately destroyed it.
84 Lumber and the big-budget Super Bowl ad to nowhere
84 Lumber found itself sandwiched between both sides of a fierce debate, even though owner and president Maggie Hardy Magerko voted for Donald Trump, according to Adweek.
If the company wanted attention, it certainly got it. Radick said the 84 Lumber website traffic ballooned to 300,000 views within minutes of the commercial airing just as the first half of the Super Bowl between the Atlanta Falcons and the New England Patriots ended. There were 6 million attempts in the first hour, which slowed access to the video.
Whiskyfun’s Review of the ‘Trump’ Single Malt Scotch (Glendronach)
Nose: look at this nose, this big fat nose, it’s not flat like, for example, Haig Club. It’s so flat, total disaster. This is the best nose, love it. It is great. It’s so terrific. We have the best nose, this nose is a big plus. The Mexican whiskeys, they call it tequila, have the worst noses, just look, no Mexicans in Scotchland, because they have Hadrian’s Wall. Look at that wall, it works, it’s great. The Scotch have made the Romans pay for it, they’re smart. Brilliant.
-MM-
