There are many ways to mark the holiday. Geraldo Rivera has chosen to do it by tweeting a shirtless selfie in front of a flag.
TPM Reader MS on Isla Vista …
My son and stepson live just a few blocks from where the stabbings and shootings took place in Isla Vista. They were getting ready to go out and celebrate the end of their freshman year at Santa Barbara City College when the sirens started on Friday night. My husband and I are grateful to his son for texting us to let us know he was okay before we even knew anything had happened, but I spent a terrifying 15 minutes trying to reach my own boy to find out whether he was safe.
In honor of the end of racism, Mississippi Judge allegedly slaps mentally disabled black man at flea market and yells “Run, Ni–er, Run.”
We’re hiring an Associate Editor to work out of our NYC headquarters overseeing LiveWire and breaking news. Listing after the jump …
Over the weekend I flagged how Open Carry Texas and a few similarly minded groups have decided to call off their campaign to have members go to restaurants openly carrying long guns to show that … well, to press the case that you should be able to carry your firearms into restaurants because freedom. You can currently bring long guns but not handguns. Thus the campaign to open this new front for freedom. But the groups’ leaders decided that doing this actually scares people or makes them uncomfortable and mainlymakes them really mad at you. Who knew? Now here’s video of members of the same group getting booted from Chilis. They had originally proudly posted the video as an example of the violation of their rights. But have now taken it down because of the whole making themselves look crazy and deranged thing.
Physician Dr. Julie Johnston explains why buffer zones for protesters are so crucial for providing women’s health care.
Conor P. Williams takes a look at California’s “Parent Trigger” law, which allows parents who sign a petition to make dramatic changes to a school. Though this can be a force for evil, Williams takes a look at a case in which it seems to have been used for a force for good.
Many of us are concerned about the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe. And it was in that context that we heard the news of a gunman who opened fire and killed four people at a Jewish Museum in Brussels on Saturday. But it seems like there may have been both less and more to this killing than it first appeared.
UCSB alum Shannon Kelley writes a moving essay about the “twisted world” shooter Elliot Rodgers lived in. It’s worth a read.
Group of North Carolina legislators introduces legislation which calls for “convention of the states” after determining, among other things, that the federal government has “ceased to exist.”