Michael Hardt reviews Naomi Klein’s “The Shock Doctrine” at Upping the Anti, though it looks like the article is originally from an edition of the New Left Review published earlier this year. Hardt co-wrote Empire and Multitude with Antonio Negri, and is a very intelligent political philosopher. I’m always pleased to see new material from [...]

This is just sad.
A federal jury this afternoon found that an Austin police officer and two former officers did not use excessive force against Ramon Hernandez, whom they were videotaped beating in September 2005.
There’s a video linked from the article of the event in question. There’s no disputing that Ramon Hernandez should have been arrested, [...]

Starbucks had apparently been paying shift supervisors out of the baristas tip jar. So a judge in California rules that this is illegal practice, and the company has to pay baristas the tips back, plus interest.
Starbucks claims that this is unfair to shift supervisors. That shift supervisors should get to share in the tips.
Can one [...]

I was interviewed earlier today for an industry perspective regarding an incredibly tragic incident which happened here in Central Texas. My short snippet said something to the effect of, “If parents object to a game their kids are playing, they should feel like they can step in and stop it. It’s a parent’s responsibility to [...]

Although it’s more than six months old, I ran across this video today.

I had the good fortune to know Charles Mudede when I lived in Seattle. I met him through mutual friends, and we even read a couple books in the same reading group. He’s an incredibly smart man, and I look forward to seeing [...]

And I’m jumping on the hate train.
“I’ve been pretty consistent, pretty upfront and straightforward about my views,” Kristol says. “I had the same views when they were reasonably popular as I do now when they’re unpopular. It would really be pathetic to adjust one’s analysis based on public opinion.”
It wouldn’t be pathetic, however, to adjust [...]

If the measure Bush vetoed would have become law, the White House said it would have compelled taxpayers for the first time in our history — to support the deliberate destruction of human embryos.
Frustrating.
The administration doesn’t seem to mind compelling taxpayers, yet again, to support the deliberate destruction of mature human life. But that gives [...]

Would you rather design a game which glorifies the exploitation of women or which marginalizes the lives of foreign peoples?
Either game can (and should) use violence to achieve its thematic end.

There was a bomb scare in Austin. A legitimate scare, because the device found was a bomb. Packed with nails — designed to seriously maim people. Why wasn’t this reported on more widely? Because the target was an abortion clinic. Can’t be terrorism, right? Just some nutty pro-lifer trying to harm women, again. Nothing to [...]

Epic Games, creators of the popular (understate much?) Gears of War, sent a cease and desist letter to a fan who created a GoW toy for his cousin, as a Christmas present.
Absolutely idiotic.