Farewell. The Flying Pig Has Left The Building.

Steve Hynd, August 16, 2012

After four years on the Typepad site, eight years total blogging, Newshoggers is closing it's doors today. We've been coasting the last year or so, with many of us moving on to bigger projects (Hey, Eric!) or simply running out of blogging enthusiasm, and it's time to give the old flying pig a rest.

We've done okay over those eight years, although never being quite PC enough to gain wider acceptance from the partisan "party right or wrong" crowds. We like to think we moved political conversations a little, on the ever-present wish to rush to war with Iran, on the need for a real Left that isn't licking corporatist Dem boots every cycle, on America's foreign misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. We like to think we made a small difference while writing under that flying pig banner. We did pretty good for a bunch with no ties to big-party apparatuses or think tanks.

Those eight years of blogging will still exist. Because we're ending this typepad account, we've been archiving the typepad blog here. And the original blogger archive is still here. There will still be new content from the old 'hoggers crew too. Ron writes for The Moderate Voice, I post at The Agonist and Eric Martin's lucid foreign policy thoughts can be read at Democracy Arsenal.

I'd like to thank all our regular commenters, readers and the other bloggers who regularly linked to our posts over the years to agree or disagree. You all made writing for 'hoggers an amazingly fun and stimulating experience.

Thank you very much.

Note: This is an archive copy of Newshoggers. Most of the pictures are gone but the words are all here. There may be some occasional new content, John may do some posts and Ron will cross post some of his contributions to The Moderate Voice so check back.


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Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Reasonableness strikes Harrisburg

By Dave Anderson:


The Republican dominated Pennsylvania state government is making several changes to the criminal code.  And surprisingly, these changes are both reasonable, non-punitive, humane and commonsensical.  It just might be because the impacted populations are not overwhelmingly members of non-Republican voting demographics, but I'll take what I can get.


The Post-Gazette has the details:


The bills will ensure that juveniles receive legal counsel in court, something that didn't happen in the Luzerne County scandal and resulted in many teens unfairly getting significant time in juvenile detention facilities.


As for the new offenses of... sexting, such charges would apply only if "a minor knowingly transmits an electronic message, including a visual depiction of a person in a state of nudity, to another minor with the intent to coerce, intimidate, torment, harass or otherwise cause emotion distress to the other minor. Consensual activity is not a crime under this provision."


Mr. Greenleaf and several officials of juvenile justice and counseling groups acknowledged that sometimes teens "do stupid things'' and the intent isn't to punish them for normal teenage curiosity.


Sexting is not the smartest thing in the world, but as long as it is consensual, there is no societal benefit of labeling teenagers sexual offenders with the attendant civil rights and economic restrictions that designation has.  Now let's see if these changes are approved by the House and signed into law. 


 



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