There is a fascinating new law in Italy that seems a victory for the growing population of polyamorists around the world. Italy may drop the promise for couples to remain faithful in marriage as a commitment that may be viewed as outdated or objectionable by many modern couples who do not view sexual “fidelity” as a precondition for marriage.
Continue reading “Italy Moves To Remove The Promise Fidelity As A Condition For Marriage”
This year passed a milestone for law schools. For the first time, women make up a majority of law students with just over 50 percent of the seats at accredited law schools in the United States. It is a particularly poignant moment for those of us at George Washington Law School where Belva Ann Bennett Lockwood graduated and ultimately became not only one of the very first female lawyers in the United States but the first woman admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court. The incoming class owes a debt of gratitude to pioneers like Lockwood who bravely fought entrenched discrimination and ignorance to reach this incredible moment in history.
Continue reading “Women Outnumber Men in Law Schools For The First Time In History”
There is a hopeful report out this week that the cost of solar energy has dropped so dramatically that it is not cheaper than wind power in emerging markets like China and India. Indeed, Popular Mechanics is now calling solar energy the “cheapest energy” option. In Chile, electricity is being produced by solar power for $29.10 per megawatt hour–half the price of power produced by coal. These countries are seeing the benefits in the investment into alternative energy sources in both cost and the environment. The pledge of the Trump Administration to expand drilling and “clean coal” use runs against the trend in other countries.
Continue reading “Cost of Solar Power Dropping Globally As “The World’s Cheapest Energy””
Phelan Moonsong, 56, has achieved something that no pagan or non-pagan has ever achieved before him. He has been allowed to wear his ceremonial goat horns as a religious garment for his Maine driver’s license. If anything, they should eliminate any difficulty recognizing the Pagan priest.
Continue reading “Pagan Priest Wins Right To Wear Horns For Maine Driver’s License Photo”
We have long dealt with the plague of fake news, a particular problem on the blogosphere where stories are picked up and replicated. Sometimes however questionable stories arise from allegedly false claims rather than false reporters. The Knoxville News Sentinel has suggested that it may have been hoodwinked in a bizarre and disturbing account by a professional “Santa” who recounted how he granted a dying boys heart-wrenching final wish: to die in the arms of Santa. Eric Schmitt-Matzen gave his emotional account of how the boy died in his arms as the family looked on in a hospital. The problem is that reporters have not been able to verify that the boy existed and Schmitt-Matzen has said that he is withholding the family name out of a concern for their privacy. The New Sentinel posted a warning that it could no longer stand by the story.
Continue reading “Newspaper Suggests That Touching Santa Story Is A Hoax”
We have previously discussed the alarming rollback on free speech rights in the West, particularly in France (here and here and here and here and here and here) and England ( here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here). Much of this trend is tied to the expansion of hate speech and non-discrimination laws. We have seen comedians targeted with such court orders under this expanding and worrisome trend. (here and here). Even politicians have been charged under the ever-widening standard of criminalized speech. Now Spain has made clear that it is committed to the same trend of curtailing free speech. In a moment worthy of Franco, Spanish police arrested five Catalan independence activists for allegedly burning photos of King Felipe VI. Much like arrests in Russia, destroying or disrespecting the image of the national leader is all that is required in Spain.
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We have previously discussed the move to expand the pronouns used at schools and allow students to chose a gender but also a pronoun. Indeed, at George Washington University where I teach, the school is asking faculty to list their preferred pronouns so I recently received an email from a colleague with “Pronouns: he, him, his” after his name. Over the weekend, stories appears in various sites that Oxford University has asked its faculty and students to stop using “he” or “she” entirely in favor of “ze.” It now appears that the story was based on a policy to encourage the use of correct pronouns and not any mandate.
Continue reading “Ze Has Arrived? Oxford Union Denies That It Barred Using “She” or “He”[UPDATED]”
We have previously followed controversies at leading universities where students have objected to reading works by white males (even as part of classic English literature courses). Now, students at the University of Pennsylvania removed a portrait of Shakespeare from a prominent location in the school’s English department because he is a white male. He was replaced by Audre Lorde, a black feminist and author who died in 1992.
Continue reading “Penn Students Remove Portrait of Shakespeare With Black Feminist Author”
It appears that the hidden hand of Adam Smith has claimed another aspirational enterprise that lacked economic viability. In Grand Rapids, Michigan, a restaurant was opened to offer vegan cuisine through a “Marxist” “collectivist” “worker-run” establishment called Bartertown. Employees were guaranteed a “living wage”,” no bosses, and a strong union. The problem was complaints about rising prices, unreliable service, and unpredictable hours. The restaurant changed its name recently to the Garden Diner and Cafe, but the business collapsed this month.
It seemed that during the campaign the media could not spend enough time on Donald Trump’s attacks on the media. I thought it was well-earned criticism and I was shocked by Trump’s lashing out at the media. This included accounts from various people who claimed that there were call made to intimidate them. However, Mika Brzezinski has now claimed that not did the Clinton campaign try to pull her off the air but that the brass at MSNBC knew about it and said nothing publicly.
Continue reading “Did The Clinton Campaign Try To Sack Mika Brzezinski?”
As Congress and the incoming Trump Administration grapples with how to carry out Trump pledge for a crackdown on illegal immigration, a recent tragedy in Louisville has galvanized the pro-deportation forces. While most undocumented individuals lead productive lives in the United States, Miguel Angel Villasenor-Saucedo, 40, could well become the next Willy Horton for the crackdown campaign. After it was alleged that the illegal immigrant had killed two people in a hit-and-run. it was discovered that he had been deported eight times from this country. The case shows just how open our borders are when someone like this man can enter so easily after deportations.
Continue reading “Suspect In Deaths Of Two Women In Kentucky Was Deported Eight Times”
The Washington Post has been under fire for its publication of an article entitling “Russian propaganda effort helped spread ‘fake news’ during election, experts say.” The article by Craig Timberg relied on a controversial website called PropOrNot, which published what is little more than a black list of website that the authors deemed purveyors of fake news including some of the largest sites on the Internet like Drudge Report. However, the previously unknown group was itself criticized for listing “allies” that proved false. Yesterday, Hillary Clinton ramped up the call for action against “fake news” which she described as an epidemic. Now the Washington Post has published a rather cryptic correction to the fake news story. The controversy is the subject of my latest column in USA Today.
Continue reading “Washington Post Issues Correction To “Fake News” Story”
The answer for Mary Jo Smith, 47, is a curious mix of a bad relationship, a Jeep, and Christmas tunes in Connelsville, Pa.
Continue reading “Can You Guess What This Person Was Charged With?”
The Weather Channel is not where one would expect a media scrum but the venerable channel went after conservative site Breitbart with a haymaker of a video after Breitbart used one of its reporters, Kait Parker, for a story suggesting that the Earth is actually getting colder. The video is below.
Continue reading “Weather Channel Gives Glacial Response To Breitbart’s Climate Change Denial”
For the first time, Israel has denied entry to a prominent traveler due to her part advocacy of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. African theologian and academic Isabel Phiri is an assistant general secretary with the World Council of Churches in Geneva. She was refused entry at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Monday afternoon. The decision has raised a long-standing concern over people being barred from Israel for their political views and protected speech. The decision this week raises the concern that millions of people supporting the BDS movement could be barred from entry on the basis of their political support for the movement.
Continue reading “Israel Bars Entry To Boycott Advocate In Major Free Speech Controversy”