February 2013

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February 27, 2013

To appreciate the perversity of this story, you have to see the floor plan of Pistorius’ home. His bedroom door wasn’t down the hall, where hed heard the purported burglar noises. It was in the entryway right next to him. All he had to do was wake Steenkamp and slip out with her. His “limited mobility,” which supposedly prevented him from making it 15 feet to the bedroom door, somehow didnt deter him from maneuvering 20 feet down the hall toward the danger, and around a corner for another 15 feet to where he thought the intruder was. There, a homeowner ostensibly too terrified to turn on a light in his bedroom, or even unlock his bedroom door and flee, had no trouble firing four shots through the locked toilet door, which offered no escape route. If there really was an armed intruder, this was the course of action most likely to escalate the carnage.

The Slaughter of Reeva Steenkamp – Slate

February 26, 2013

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“Farts are—I just refuse to be snobbish about certain shit with comedy. You know, farts come out of your ass and they make a fucking trumpet sound. That shit smelling gas comes out of your ass and it makes a toot sound. What the fuck is not funny about that? It’s perfect, it’s a perfect joke. It has all the elements.”

The Annotated Wisdom of Louis C.K.

February 26, 2013

The Awl

February 25, 2013

Time magazine’s Steve Brill tackles a widely ignored issue in the healthcare debate: Why exactly are the bills so high?

What are the reasons, good or bad, that cancer means a half-million- or million-dollar tab? Why should a trip to the emergency room for chest pains that turn out to be indigestion bring a bill that can exceed the cost of a semester of college? What makes a single dose of even the most wonderful wonder drug cost thousands of dollars? Why does simple lab work done during a few days in a hospital cost more than a car? And what is so different about the medical ecosystem that causes technology advances to drive bills up instead of down?

Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us

February 25, 2013

Yes. By a mile.

February 25, 2013

February 22, 2013

And if you’re not swayed by moral and constitutional arguments against solitary confinement, there’s also the fact that it costs three times as much per prisoner.

Isolation changes the way the brain works, often making individuals more impulsive, less able to control themselves. The mental pain of solitary confinement is crippling: Brain studies reveal durable impairments and abnormalities in individuals denied social interaction. Plainly put, prisoners often lose their minds. … And remember: Most persons now in solitary confinement will someday be back on Americas streets, some of them rendered psychotic by what are called correctional institutions.

Bravo, George Will. There’s still a spark of good in you.

When solitude is torture – The Washington Post

February 22, 2013

In Focus

February 22, 2013

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The Lively Morgue

February 22, 2013