Zimmerman was acquitted of killing Trayvon Martin because the crucial witness spoke a strongly nonstandard dialect of English, typically found among blacks, and the jurors interpreted her testimony wrong by taking it as standard English.

More analysis confirming that Rachel Jeantel spoke in a typical form of African-American Vernacular English, though with a little influence from Haitian Kreyol, and that she consistently followed the grammatical and lexical rules of her dialect. The jurors (none of whom knew that dialect) frequently misunderstood her testimony.

I support the idea that courts should use interpreters whenever witnesses appear to be speaking in a dialect that many jurors will not understand.

This also demonstrates how important it is for everyone in the US to learn to speak a more standard form of English — standard enough that you won't be systematically misunderstood. Not that you shouldn't ever speak some other dialect that you grew up with — but don't let that be the only one you can use fluently.

Everyone: urge Maine legislators to impeach the governor of Maine.

Cheetah numbers are dropping fast.

Bangladeshi clothing factories crushed a week-long strike and protest with the help of thugs. They fired 1500 workers and blacklisted them. This is "free trade" at work.

The article calls this a "blow" to the Bangladeshi clothing industry, but I disagree, because it appears to me that the bad guys won. (Nonetheless, it was a good try!)

A real blow to the industry will be if the workers win.

How far has sexual repression in the US gone? A proposed law to establish a 5-year maximum penalty for sex involving teenagers (in certain limited cases) is actually a reduction in the repression.