We have long discussed the crushing sexism faced by women in Saudi Arabia under its medieval Sharia legal system. One of the most glaring inequalities was the ban on women driving — a rule that courageous women defied at the risk of their own freedom and well-being. Now, while about 100 years too late, the Kingdom has announced that women will be issued driver’s licenses. Despite the fierce objections that many of us have to the Saudi system, it is important to give credit to the government in rejecting religious and cultural prejudices, including extremist views expressed recently by Saudi clerics.
I just returned from a terrific event at 
There is a new and interesting lawsuit filed by the family of the late New England Patriots football star and murderer Aaron Hernandez. Hernandez committed suicide in 2015 and tests of his brain at Boston University came back showing advanced and severe chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). The family is suing the National Football League and the Patriots for taking no action to protect Hernandez from such injuries. The lawsuit will raise some difficult causation questions. Usually violent offenses are viewed as superseding events and rarely attributable to such negligent conduct by third parties. Moreover suicide is generally viewed as the decision of individual with a variety of influences. However, CTE has been linked to an increased risk of suicide. The odds against the family are considerable with overlapping defenses ranging from preemption to assumption.
Saudi Sheikh Saad al-Hajari has 
For years, we have been discussing how airlines have repeatedly misled Congress and the public about baggage fees, which were always an avenue to bilk customers of billions. Now a new report confirms again that this is not about fuel costs or falling revenues. The airlines are continuing to cut space for passengers, add charges for simple comforts, and raising baggage fees as they hit record profits. The U.S. airlines alone pulled in a record $1.2 billion in bag fees and another $737.5 million in reservation change fees in just the second quarter of 2017.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has shocked the world with his blood-soaked reign including his 
We have been discussing how discrimination and speech regulation have become acceptable in the cause of diversity or equality for many activists. The latest example was seen at the premiere of a new documentary about comedians called “Building the Room.” The director is Sharaz Higgins who implemented “justice pricing” which originally planned to charge cis white men $20 and everyone else $10. After an outcry, he dropped the “privilege price” to $15. He and his colleagues obviously missed the point. The problem was not the price but the discrimination. 
White supremacist Dylann Roof says that he has something of a problem on his hands: he has court-appointed counsel who happen to be Jewish and Indian. He has asked the court to replace Alexandra Yates and Sapna Mirchandani in his appeal of his death sentence for the massacre of nine people in the Emmanuel AME Church during a Bible study in 2015. Roof appears to believe that the right of counsel includes the right to white counsel. It doesn’t. The court should not be a vehicle for racial or religious discrimination to cater to the wishes of a homicidal fanatic. 
The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has reinstated the defamation lawsuit against Rolling Stone by the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. The decision by Judge Katherine Forrest is an interesting application of the rarely successful “group defamation” claim. The decision comes as the 
On college campuses, faculty and students are facing new microaggression rules of ill-defined terms or images that, while not expressly racist, still constitute offensive speech. This week the President of Lipscomb University, Randy Lowry, 
USFSP regional chancellor Sophia Wisniewska has been fired after the school learned that she went to Atlanta to ride out Hurricane Irma while allegedly suggesting that she was still at her post in St. Petersburg. 
Below is a column that I wrote for the Hill Newspaper in response to a “fact checker” column by the Washington Post. I have written for the Washington Post and have great respect for the publication. Indeed, I have objected to the attacks by President Donald Trump on the Post and the New York Times which remain two of our premiere journalistic organizations. However, I was frankly floored by the column by Glenn Kessler in criticizing White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. I have discussed previously how there has been a palpable bias in reporting on the Trump Administration. It is often that case that some journalists are not simply satisfied with disagreeing with the Administration. They sometimes take judgment calls or opinions and declare the Trump side to be simply factually incorrect. This relieves the need for readers to address the opposing view of controversies like the alleged misconduct of former FBI director James Comey. Those views are simply dismissed as untrue. This is a prime example.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has been channeling his best Marie Antoinette this month in responding to widespread and growing hunger in the country. Maduro went on the news to told citizens to eat rabbits. The problem is that Venezuelans have been putting bows on the rabbits and adopting them as pets rather than eating them.
Below is my column in the Hill Newspaper on the allegations raised by the White House over the alleged misconduct of former FBI Director James Comey. It is clear that Comey violated FBI rules and regulations — offenses that would have likely cost any of his subordinates their jobs at the Bureau when he was director. However, there remains a virtual news blackout on the obvious violations and their implications.
We have been discussing how faculty around the country are supporting the abandonment of free speech principles to bar speakers and speech with which they disagree.