Random thoughts for 12 July 2014

• There is no justice in a world where all four original Ramones die before Keith Richards.
• Israel's ultra-Orthodox religious fundamentalists and hard-right hawks have made the country thoroughly unlovable. The illegal settlements are bad enough, but this pointless rocket/missile exchange with Hamas over the teens each side has slaughtered ... are right-wing Israelis too blind to see what a dead-end strategy they've embraced?
• Andy Lopez was a 13-year-old killed by police last year because officers mistook his replica toy gun for the real thing. Some have cast the shooting as racially tinged and an example of police brutality, but I think this was simply a terrible mistake. I understand the family's outrage. However, the onus here is on the toymaker: if you make a realistic replica of an AK-47, you're simply inviting a tragedy like this. ThinkProgress has a good recounting of the story.