President Obama’s Remarks at White House Iftar

Ta-Nehisi Coates has a piece at The Atlantic that got me thinking. For a white person to vote for Obama is racist. The one drop rule means that they are voting along racial lines. Normally I like Coates’ writing, and I agree with his general sentiment. However, it still seems like we are stuck in the same mode of racial thinking. Obama has one white parent and one black parent. Why is he still considered black? I know there is an element of self-identification involved, but as a society, we treat him as black because of the one-drop rule. Black…

I hate the security theater that is TSA. Having said that, I would like an option in an update to the app to recognize those who do their job with professionalism and respect. I think we need to point out problems, but also praise whatever good we can. FlyRights Reports Profiling and Harassment by Airport Security Right From Your Phone. Not every encounter with the TSA results in harassment or an uncomfortable “enhanced” screening, but if you feel you’ve been unjustly targeted by airport security for searches or other invasive procedures, now you can file a report directly from your…

Inbox Influence reveals your connections’ connections » Nieman Journalism Lab » Pushing to the Future of Journalism. A new tool from the Sunlight Foundation would seem to seek to tweak that paradigm. It’s called Inbox Influence, a Gmail plugin that requires exactly one step: installing it. When an email message arrives — from a company, a political candidate, a PR person, your aunt — you’ll see statistics about that entity’s political connections. The plugin detects names in body text, email addresses, and links.