Matt Taibbi unearths Michelle Bachmann

In the current version of Rolling Stone, Matt Taibbi dissects Michelle Bachman. The biggest question is whether she is a nutcase or a knowing fraud, or both:

Bachmann's story, to hear her tell it, is about a suburban homemaker who is chosen by God to become a politician who will restore faith and family values to public life and do battle with secular humanism. But by the time you've finished reviewing her record of lies and embellishments and contradictions, you'll have no idea if she actually believes in her own divine inspiration, or whether it's a big con job. Or maybe both are true — in which case this hard-charging challenger for the GOP nomination is a rare breed of political psychopath, equal parts crazed Divine Wind kamikaze-for-Jesus and calculating, six-faced Machiavellian prevaricator. Whatever she is, she's no joke.
Speaking of jokes, Taibbi is one of the most entertaining writers out there, but also one of the most serious. His piece on Bachmann is one in a long line of hit pieces on well-deserving targets.

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Apparently We Need More Accidental Criminals

I was reading my usual science blogs, and came across Weekend Diversion: And now, they're coming for me. Yeah, me. Because I write for you. at Starts With a Bang. Apparently Congress is creating new classes of felons that would have no idea they were doing anything even technically wrong. In brief,  U.S. Senate Bill 978 (that just cleared committee) makes it a Federal Offense (felony) if you happen to embed someone's video on your post that someday someone may claim infringed on a copyright. If I, for example, embed a video of some stranger's birthday party on this blog, that pans briefly across a television set that happened to be playing a commercial for shoes, that has background music by the Beatles, and in five years Michael Jackson's heirs decide that this infringed on their copyright on the music of McCartney and yank the video, I could technically be sentenced to up to 5 years in prison. Even if the creator of the video, the owners of the network, and the shoe company and its marketing agent all had approved my use. Ethan Siegel has more details about this silliness and suggestions on his post.

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Italians vote no to water privatization

As reported by Alternet, the Italian people do not want multi-national corporations controlling their water supply.   The vote can be seen as a declaration that water is a basic human right, which should also be seen as a stern pushback to the Ayn Randian Free-Market Fundamentalism that prevails in many places these days.

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