Get Cynical

From The Baltimore Sun:

Felicia “Snoop” Pearson had served a prison sentence for murder and returned to drug dealing on the streets of East Baltimore, before a visit to the set of “The Wire” led to a star turn on the show and offered a new chance to change her life.

But her past kept creeping back — she was a witness to a murder and was arrested after she refused to testify — and subsequent film and television offers were hard to come by.

Now, Pearson, 30, has been accused of playing a part in a large-scale drug organization, whose members were arrested in raids Thursday throughout Baltimore and surrounding counties.

Update:

David Simon on Snoop’s arrest:

In an essay published two years ago in Time magazine, the writers of The Wire made the argument that we believe the war on drugs has devolved into a war on the underclass, that in places like West and East Baltimore, where the drug economy is now the only factory still hiring and where the educational system is so crippled that the vast majority of children are trained only for the corners, a legal campaign to imprison our most vulnerable and damaged citizens is little more than amoral. And we said then that if asked to serve on any jury considering a non-violent drug offense, we would move to nullify that jury’s verdict and vote to acquit. Regardless of the defendant, I still believe such a course of action would be just in any case in which drug offenses—absent proof of violent acts—are alleged.

Both our Constitution and our common law guarantee that we will be judged by our peers. But in truth, there are now two Americas, politically and economically distinct. I, for one, do not qualify as a peer to Felicia Pearson. The opportunities and experiences of her life do not correspond in any way with my own, and her America is different from my own. I am therefore ill-equipped to be her judge in this matter.

Sen. Rand Paul at a Consumer Choice in Energy Committee Hearing complains that Democrats give women a choice for having an abortion when he doesn’t have a choice about what kind of toilet he may buy.

Of course, he fails to explain why he thinks he should have the right to buy a toilet that can flush his big steaming pile of Galtian bullshit while taking away a woman’s right to having control of her own reproductive system.

(Photo taken by the picnicking Strawberry Samurai)

From Eater.com

Food Network star Guy Fieri’s bright yellow Lamborghini has been stolen! Like something out of a movie, the thief used climbing gear to get onto the roof of a luxury car dealership in San Francisco before making off with the yellow and black 2008 Lamborghini Gallardo.

The food dude owns ten sports cars, and it seems likely that he might get this one back: police are saying the thief will have a rough time selling the highly-recognizable car, which is worth about $200,000. But Police Sargent Michael Andraychak also said a heist like this “would require a certain amount of planning,” so presumably the thief planned for that as well?

Here we go:

The advice, which would be given to women considering terminations, has caused anger, with anti-abortion campaigners accusing doctors’ leaders of forcing an “absurdly liberal agenda” on women in a vulnerable situation.

The draft guidance from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists is for all doctors, nurses and counsellors advising women contemplating terminations.

Its first recommendation on “what women need to know” instructs health professionals: “Women should be advised that abortion is generally safer than continuing a pregnancy to term.”

The guidance also says that women who are deciding whether to have an abortion must be told that most do not suffer any psychological harm. Until now, their advice has been that while rates of psychiatric illness and self-harm in women are higher among those who had an abortion, there was no evidence that termination itself was likely to trigger psychological problems.