, July 1, 2014
Daily Bafflements
Dog the bounty hunter? / Photo by istolethetv.
• Here’s Shane Bauer on the shadowy for-profit bail industry, or, “How $550 and a five-day class gets you the right to stalk, arrest, and shoot people.”
• After yesterday’s SCOTUS decision giving Hobby Lobby the ability to deny female employees health coverage, as The Daily Beast reports, there are at least eighty-two more corporations lining up to follow Hobby Lobby’s example.
• MonkeyParking, the (likely illegal) app that lets people “sell” their parking spaces to other drivers before vacating them, has told San Francisco that it’s not backing down, claiming that the city’s cease-and-desist letter is a violation of their free speech. City attorney Matt Dorsey told the San Francisco Chronicle that he finds that argument absurd: “It’s like a prostitute saying she’s not selling sex—she’s only selling information about her willingness to have sex with you.”
• “Are you a jerk at work?” This Columbia Business School study has found that “many people are oblivious to how they come across to counterparts and colleagues.” For our part, The Baffler is definitely staffed by a bunch of jerks, but it’s okay, because we know it.