Is George Zimmerman missing playing pretend cop and shooting people?
A TPM Reader reader in The Hive (sub req) flagged this bizarre little story. It seems Zimmerman has been volunteering as a night security guard at a Motorcycle and gun shop in DeLand, Florida called Pompano Pat’s.
After eight years, this afternoon TPM officially signed off of Skype.
That’s not something particularly visible from the outside. And to be clear, we only used the service as an instant messaging platform. We never used it for telephony or conference calls or video chats or anything like that. But as numerous current and former TPMers can attest, for almost the entire history of TPM as something beyond a single person blog (which ended in 2005), Skype has been deeply embedded in the organization’s DNA, functioning as the hive brain synapses stitching together reporters and editors and programmers and publishing staff, between two offices and – a bit more weirdly – within the same offices.
This seems like a pretty big development in the labor activism surrounding the fast food service industry.
Democrats and Republicans are locked in an election aimed rhetorical war over whether the GOP House will impeach Obama. But when I saw the news last night about the sweeping move on immigration President Obama is considering, it immediately occurred to me: this is like waving a red cape in front of the Impeachment Caucus in the House. So could it happen? Absolutely. Sahil Kapur explains the dynamics and why, yes, it could definitely happen.
Meet the anonymous Twitter users who brought down Buzzfeed editor Benny Johnson.
This chart shows how Tea Party strength is actually fairly low in the key Senate races in play this year. But it’s also just a cool interactive chart that tells you how popular the Tea Party is in your county. Check it out.
Boehner: Impeachment is ‘scam’ for Dems to raise money. Also we may have to impeach the president.
Some of us think bringing AR-15s to the airport to pick up your spouse is probably a bad idea. But if you’re going to make it legal, this might be something to think through. Peter Steinmetz was arrested at Sky Harbor International Airport not because – as far as we know – he was threatening to shoot anyone but because “the way he was carrying it” scared a mother and teenage daughter who thought he was pointing it at them.
Jon Stewart goes off on Israeli criticism of John Kerry: ‘What the F*ck?’ Watch.
From the Associated Press …
Residents of Mosul have watched helplessly as extremists ruling the northern Iraqi city blew up some of their most beloved landmarks and shrines to impose a stark vision of Islam. Next up for destruction, they feared: the Crooked Minaret, a more than 840-year-old tower that leans like Italy’s Tower of Pisa.
But over the weekend, residents pushed back. When fighters from the Islamic State group loaded with heavy explosives converged on the site, Mosulis living nearby rushed to the courtyard below the minaret, sat on the ground and linked arms to form a human chain to protect it, two residents who witnessed the event told The Associated Press on Monday.
They told the fighters, If you blow up the minaret, you’ll have to kill us too, the witnesses said.
Read the rest here.