I’ve written before about the idea heroism is supposed to be uniquely male. And one blogger’s similar complaint that Real Men Protect, Real Women Are Protected. Complementarian Christians are big on the ideal, unless it requires protecting women from abuse.
•Jimmy Carter shocked people by admitting he sometimes lusted for women other than his wife. Republicans slammed Bill Clinton for being a philanderer. Yet as Ted Cruz notes, Repubs are flocking to Donald Trump, lecher and serial philanderer. At the link, Frank Bruni suggests Trump can get away with it partly because he’s a sexist pig: he’s not about informed consent and equal satisfaction, he’s about the Mad Men era when a man could slap his secretary on the butt and not take any blowback. And lots of conservatives miss those days (and he makes similar points to my recent And column).
•Someone suggests if guys fail in high school, it’s girls’ fault for looking too sexy.
•Objectivist Carl Barney runs a for-profit chain of colleges. Which means he opposes government loans, except when students take them out to make him rich (the colleges are no longer for-profit, but one lawsuit charges that’s to evade inconvenient regulations.
•Speaking of regulations, Baltimore food trucks are suing over city rules that keep them 300 feet away from a competing bricks-and-mortar store (can’t sell truck pizza if you’re that close to a pizza place). The plaintiffs argue they’re being held to a standard not applied to regular restaurants. Of course that argument admits that they’re free of a lot of costs and expenses regular restaurants face (parking lots, rental fees, etc.). It’s a minor thing, but I’ve written about the issue as a reporter, so it caught my interest.
•Stonewall, the bar where modern gay rights began (though gay-rights activists did exist prior to Stonewall), is becoming a national monument.
•Megan McArdle richsplains that instead of worrying about income inequality, we should be concerned about things like “inequality of opportunity.” Except she’s already on record saying we should do nothing about inequality of opportunity. So as noted at the first link, I suspect this upcoming series is less about solutions and more about warning us not to take money from the rich and give it to the poor who are poor because they’re failures.
•Heidi Cruz would like you to know that Ted Cruz’s campaign for the White House is as important as the fight to end slavery.
•A new conservative meme has forced-birthers declaring All Lives Matter, equating the fight to stop women getting abortions with the fight against police who kill black people. Oh, and one Missouri forced-birther has declared that having to bear your rapist’s child is a silver lining for the victim (a common anti-abortion claim).
•So there’s spyware that users can install on other people’s phones — partner, child, employee — without the target knowing it. Although a lot of the ads talk about how you can eavesdrop or track people, some manufacturers also say You Must Never Actually Do This to shield themselves from liability. At the link, Consumerist looks at the legal landscape. Another company has tried the same defense.
•If you text someone while driving and texting makes them crash, you might be liable.
•A federal court says a lawsuit against Facebook’s over its facial-recognition system can proceed.
•A politician claims the alleged bribes he took were just First Amendment-protected free speech.
•Trump’s thoughts on dealing with crooks, and critics.
