SAR #14232

If we knew more about from, we'd know more about to.

On The Street Where You Live: How militarized are the cops in your town? Probably about the same as the ones in Ferguson who strut around wearing more elite killing gear than an average tactical squad on patrol in Kandahar. Equipped with Kevlar helmets, gas masks, combat gloves, knee pads, urban combat fatigues, tactical body armor, semiautos strapped to their thighs, M4 semi-automatic rifles with “close-quarter-battle receivers” and advanced combat optical gunsights, with at least 120 rounds of ammo, these guys are looking for a fight. And if they don't find one, they'll start one. Interesting, they can afford all this lethal gear but can't afford frills like education and food security for the citizens they are serving and protecting and arresting and killing.

Be Afraid: Australia's Tony Abbott took a break from screwing the environment to warn Aussies that he had to impose stricter security laws in order to prevent protests against his heavy handed policies terrorist beheadings.

Say No Evil: When an environmental scientists working for the Canadian government has startling new information concerning global warming, she has to get her boss' permission first. And her boss' boss' permission. And her boss' boss' boss' permission. Repeat for a total on nine times, until the departmental minister gets to say 'No!'. Meanwhile, Canadians rely on US science for their news... about Canada. Remember the good old days when Canada was more liberal than the US?

Comes the Dawn: A judge in North Carolina has figured out that the state's school voucher system is working as designed, benefiting religious schools teaching creationism with public money.

Because Competition: A GOP FCC commissioner wants to prohibit cities from providing broadband services to their citizens, because they can do it for a lot less than the commercial firms are used to stealing.

Parts Is Parts: The headlines, and the stories behind them, are claiming that 'the pause in global warming' could last another decade. Listen up: There has been no 'pause in global warming'. There has been a pause in the warming of the atmosphere as the deep oceans sop up most of the additional heat caused by the increase in atmospheric CO2. The waters warm far slower than the land and the air, but once they have the heat, they will hold it for centuries. This is not a good thing. And the oceans are the largest part of the globe. Don't panic, the heat'll get here.

Give Piece A Chance: In Ferguson, the right of the people to assemble is good for five seconds. Then the cops arrest them for loitering. There is a “free-speech” zone, but you can't get there from here. 
 
Suspicion Of Being Black: During Mayor Bloomberg's 12 years in office, NYPD cops stopped-and-frisked over 5 million people, 25% of them young black men – a demographic that makes up about 2% of the NYC population. The 5 million stops found illegal firearms 0.02% of the time. 
 
Reading, Righting and Rat-a-Tat: The school board in Compton, California will be equipping its school police officers with AR-15 rifles.

Nothing Up My Sleeve... Scientists report that 39 kilotons of carbon tetrachloride is being injected into the earth's atmosphere every year even though none of the ozone-depleting compound has been legally manufactured anywhere in the world since 2007. Profits outweigh progeny.

See No Evil: Scotland Yard has warned that “viewing, downloading, or disseminating” the video of James Foley's beheading “might constitute a criminal offence under terrorism legislation.”