We have been discussing the rising outcry about passengers at the continually shrinking legroom and comfort on airplanes, including storing passengers in what was previously luggage space. Those complaints led to a federal amendment seeking to establish minimum standards for passenger comfort. The airline lobby put on a full-court press to stop the measure and it failed 42-54. Notably, no one actually spoke against the proposal before it was voted down.
Category: Society
Prescott College, a private college in Arizona, has caused a firestorm of controversy over the creation of a fee to fund a scholarship for illegal immigrants. Students can decline the $30 annual fee but must do so affirmatively — otherwise it is automatically added to their $28,000 tuition.
There continues to be a debate (particularly among libertarians) over the basis for criminalizing prostitution when engaged by consenting adults. The French National Assembly however has reached a curious resolution in dropping any penalties for selling sex while making it a crime to pay for sex. Paying for sex services now carries a fine of 1,500 euros ($1,700). Repeat offenders could be fined up to 3,750 euros ($4,260). In addition to the fines, johns will have to take a course on the plight of sex workers.
Continue reading “French Law Drops Penalties for Prostitutes While Adding Penalties For Johns”
I have previously criticized the nonprofit People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) for its over-the-top commercials. While (as many here know) I am a big animal rights advocate, PETA often goes for sensational and shocking publicity that undermines the cause, in my view. One such example is the latest message from PETA to mothers that “eating chicken can make your kid’s dick small.” The video ends with, “Worried about the size of your kid’s pecker, moms-to-be? Don’t eat chicken!” Given the currently debate over the size of Donald Trump, PETA appears to be pitching the same basis for refusing to eat poultry.
There is another story of an employee fired over her exercise of free speech in her private life. The speech itself is vile and upsetting. Erica Walker is a radical activist associated with the the New Black Panthers Party and extremist Eric Sheppard Jr. Sheppard is on the run after organizing a protest at Valdosta State University Campus in Georgia where he stomped on an American flag. A gun was found in his backpack and he is wanted by the police. Walker has staged her own protests in walking on the flag. However, after she was identified, her employer, 1380 WAOK The Voice of the Community, reportedly fired her. As we have previously discussed, there is a trend where private and public employees are being disciplined or terminated for their exercise of private speech. There is no indication that Walker associated her disgraceful action with 1380 WAOK The Voice of the Community.
I have been a long critic of the criminalization of speech in Europe and particularly in France. An ever-expanding range of speech is being subject to charges in France as racially or culturally or religiously insensitive. The latest such example is the $34,000 fine imposed on former far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen for calling the Nazi gas chambers a “detail” of World War Two. I can certainly understand the anger over the comment and it may indeed reflect a questioning of the holocaust. However, it is also free speech that should be protected in France and other countries.
Saudi Arabia has produced almost weekly stories of grotesque and medieval sentencing out of its Sharia court system. The Sharia courts apply Islamic law that can be both brutal and primitive in flogging and beheading people for crimes against the faith. The latest is the sentencing of a man to death for renouncing Islam and allegedly posting a video ripping up a Koran and hitting it with his shoe. Saudi Arabia still enforces death sentences for apostasy for those denying their Islamic faith. It is crime that places the Kingdom well outside of the most basic guarantees of human rights and civil liberties.
Continue reading “Saudi Arabia Sentences Man To Death For Renouncing Islam and Ripping Up Koran”
Knesset member Bezalel Smotrich of the Jewish Home party is calling for the segregation of Arab and Jewish mothers in maternity wards in Israeli hospitals. He insists that Israeli mothers should not have to have their babies next to Muslim babies “who might want to murder” them in 20 years. Media reported that Shaare Tsedek and Hadassah hospitals in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv’s Ichilov and the Meir hospital in Kfar Saba were all segregating patients.
Continue reading “Knesset Member Calls For Segregated Israeli Hospitals”
There is a new report that contains a surprising figure on the level of drug use in the European Union. According to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), EU citizens spend more than 24 billion euros ($27.3 billion) every year on illegal drugs such as cannabis and heroin. The report warns about the funding for terrorism and organized crime but the report is an insight into the level of drug use in Europe.
Continue reading “EU Citizens Spend $27.3 Billion On Drugs Annually”
It appears that the Communist censors of China are concerned about more than just discussion of the absence of civil liberties. It appears that one of the greatest concerns for Communist censors is any proof that its Communist leaders are capitalists. Networks like Sina Weibo and Wechat have deleted all discussion of the Panama Papers leak which names several members of China’s elite, including President Xi Jinping’s brother-in-law, as hiding huge amounts of money in foreign accounts. Mao warned that “There is a serious tendency towards capitalism among the well-to-do peasants.” It appears that the well-to-do peasants have discovered foreign bank accounts.
Cyprus is following the precarious path of countries like France and Russia in criminalizing one side of the historical debate over the genocide of Armenian Turks by Turkey. It is now a crime to deny that Ottoman Turks committed genocide against Armenian Turks a century ago, according to a resolution passed Cypriot parliament. While a French court later struck down its law, the addition of Cyprus among countries criminalizing historical debates is chilling and disconcerting.
Continue reading “Cyprus Criminalizes The Questioning Of The Armenian Genocide”
There is an interesting development in the Clinton email scandal. The investigation has entered a particularly dangerous stage for Clinton with a key aide receiving immunity and interviews scheduled for key associates. The danger is that statements given prosecutors can differ and contradict each other or, worse yet, contradict Clinton. Moreover, such statements could be unknown to Clinton when she speaks with investigators. For that reason, many are likely to view a recent announcement with considerable suspicion that the top four staff members to Clinton have agreed to be represented by the same attorney, Beth Wilkinson. That would allow a degree of coordination or at least confirmation of differing statements or accounts. Since Wilkinson is not allowed to represent multiple clients with conflicts, it would also create a situation where the statements must not conflict in significant ways between the clients and, if they do, she would likely have to remove herself — a move that would likely be known to the Clinton counsel and highlight a potential problem with a given associate. She will represent former Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills, Deputy Chief Jake Sullivan, Mills’ deputy Heather Samuelson, and Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines.
Given the Wall Street poll showing that one-third of Sanders voters are not willing to vote for Hillary Clinton in the general, the outburst by Clinton over the “lies of Sanders” is not going to improve those numbers. While Clinton dismissed the young person as a Sanders supporter, she is not. She is an uncommitted Greenpeace volunteer. Various media sites have challenged Clinton’s denial of receiving money from the fossil fuel industry and Sanders went on television to repeat the basic allegation. They say that she has received a great deal of money from people in the industry and her PAC has continued to take such money. They argue that she is again making a technical defense (direct contributions from companies to the campaign are not at issue because such donations would be illegal). At issue is the fact that Clinton has refused to sign the pledge of Sanders not to take fossil fuel money. Like the recent Clinton campaign demand that Sanders change “his tone,” this videotape will only likely cement the opposition of many Sanders supporters and prompt them to vote in the fall for Green Party candidate Jill Stein or other candidates. Ironically, Clinton once attacked President Obama on this very point: for taking money from individuals in the industry.
There is an interesting controversy surrounding the hit musical “Hamilton” on Broadway. I have not yet seen the play on a trip to New York but I have been told by friends that it is terrific. Frankly, as a constitutional law professor, any play based on the Framers is a must-see. However, the play now has a more contemporary legal character after a complaint about its casting call. The casting notice put out by the play tells white actors that they need not apply.
The United States continues to give overwhelming support to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as he continues his expansion of authoritarian power, the dismantling of secular government in favor of Islamic rule, and the destruction of free speech and the free press in the country. Now Erdogan’s insatiable appetite for censorship and sanctions of critics has extended to outside of Turkey where he is demanding that critics be silenced. Not only has his thuggish security details been criticized for roughing up protesters in Europe and the United States, but Turkey is demanding action from governments against his critics.