Links of the Day

25 Horribly Sexist Vintage AdsAds that are kind of jaw dropping by today's standards in how they depict women vs men in trying to sell products. A shoe ad has the tag line "Keep her where she belongs...", another has a woman as a rug with her head being stepped on, another is for a projector but the focus isn't the projector but the woman's breasts, and well you get the idea. Amazing these often wordy and stupid ads actually worked.

Supreme Court Guts Miranda
It took three decisions to do it, but conservatives finally have used the sheep...err the five conservatives on the Supreme Court to gut Miranda rights to the point that they have no value. In a 5-4 ruling, the Court decided that until a person verbally invokes their right to remain silent. Apparently your rights only apply when you declare you intend to use them. I am not sure how the requirement to declare your intentions applies if you can't speak, don't speak English or talk after the statement is made. A previous ruling invalidated asking for a lawyer as a means of ending interrogations. Basically, with their various rulings over the years the police are only required to read you your Miranda Rights, not honor them. They can interrogate you for as long as they want, regardless of what your do or don't say, with the full protection of the Supreme Court. It’s unclear if other rights also have to be declared out loud before they apply. I wonder if this means websites have to declare their intent to use the 1st amendment since rights are no longer implied.

Nun Excommunicated for Saving Mom's Life
In yet another sign of how bizarre and arbitrary of the so called moral authority that is the Catholic Church. A nun, Sister Margaret McBride, approved an abortion as the only means of saving the mother's life. It was in the 11th week of the pregnancy so it was the death of the mom AND the baby or the death of just the baby. The decision is sadly pretty simple. The result was she was excommunicated. As the report at the link notes, strange how this nun participated in saving a life is punished and very quickly yet all the priests that raped children are still with the church who has gone through massive steps to protect them. Moral authority my rear end.

AT&T Killing Unlimited Plans
The company has announced new data plans that remove unlimited plans for users. Those that have them will be grandfathered in but once you switch, there is no switching back. Since all the cell carriers tend to play follow the leader, it’s a sign that unlimited data plans will probably cease to exist by the end of the year. Sadly the removal of the unlimited data plans does not mean you at least might save some money as the price different between unlimited and that top tier of 2GB per month is about $5.

Conan, Colbert and Stewart Dance Off
Conan O'Brien's comedy tour continues, this time with a stop in New York. During the show he was joined first by Stephen Colbert and then Jon Stewart for a hilarious dance off skit.