Midweek link dump

[tangaroa]

• Chinese state media is questioning the use of torture to obtain confessions.
• Britain's Liberal Democrats have agreed to coalition terms that allow the Conservatives to continue running the government without a majority if the Lib Dems drop out of the coalition.
• The BBC offers short biographies of Britain's new Cabinet.
• U.S. President Barack Obama has nominated Solicitor General Elena Kagan for a position on the Supreme Court. Related links:
  • In 2009, Kagan argued that prosecutors should be immune from liability for fabricating evidence in a malicious prosecution.
  • Kagan has argued against trials for persons accused of aiding al-Qaeda.
  • Scotusblog has a biography of Kagan and notes additional points about her background. One interesting note is that Kagan was nominated for a judgeship in 1999 but she was denied a confirmation hearing by the Republican-controlled Congress.
• U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has called for an end to the Miranda practice of police informing prisoners of their rights. The notices were ordered by the Supreme Court in 1966 not as much to remind prisoners of their rights but to remind the police.
• Arizona has passed a law banning public schools from teaching classes that are "designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group" or which promote racism. Related links:
  • The law itself, H.B. 2281
  • A report from 2008 of controversy in the Chicano studies program of Tucson, Arizona.
  • Fired Chicano studies teacher John Ward claimed in 2008 that the program taught students the Aztlan myth as fact.
  • Arizona schools board head Tom Horne was profiled in the Washington Times on this issue in 2009.
• The city of Los Angeles has barred any new contracts with companies based in Arizona.
• Former Hizb-ut-Tahrir member Maajid Nawaz has turned against the group's jihadist ideology.
• Martin Lewis reports that new Prime Minister David Cameron was a member of the Bullington Club of Oxford rich brats that treated other people the way a feudal overlord treated peasants.
• U.S. hardware chain Home Depot was found guilty of stealing an inventor's design for safety equipment and was ordered to pay six times what the man asked for. A notable quote on the company's court behaviour: "when Powell's attorney asked for records of injuries caused by the saws, Home Depot attorneys handed over 6,000 documents. In a spot check of 2,300 pages, Powell's attorneys found one document that dealt with a saw injury."
• The current trend of American comic books to revive the classic mid-20th century superheroes of has had the side effect of writing out a lot of the newer non-white superheroes.