News & Media

Well, it looks like we know who pushed to kill Nevada’s Anti-SLAPP statute. Video here. And why? Because he got the Pwned while representing Steve Wynn in California. Here’s the loss.

It looks like a bill is working its way through the Florida legislature that could turn it’s terrible Anti-SLAPP law into one that is of the “not so bad” variety. Florida House bill 1041 and its Senate companion, Senate bill 1312, take Florida Statute § 768.295 from “completely useless” to “hopeful.” Currently, Fla. Stat. § 768.295 is super anemic. It only applies to governmental entities. Florida has another Anti-SLAPP act that only applies to homeowners’ associations (but not condo associations). See Fla. Stat. § 720.204(4). As far as I know, § 768.295 has never been used. On the other hand, § 720.204(4) has been used exactly one time. (See Veranda Partners v. Giles) — and that didn’t get appealed, so

I don’t know Jose Arcaya. I only know about him. I know that he is apparently a psychotherapist and a lawyer. I know that someone wrote a bad Yelp! review about him. I hired Arcaya to help with a case. I asked him at the outset if he had handled these matters before and he said yes. The ensuing performance suggests otherwise. When I mentioned his truly pitiful performance he implied that it was my fault. When i reminded him that he was the lawyer and hired to do a professional job he made fun of my medical issues. Absolute scum. (source) Does this Yelp! review make me think less of Mr. Arcaya? No. In fact, the review itself does

After reading this, if you are against SB 444, come back and click here: Choose SB 444, and voice your displeasure to this anti-freedom and anti-business bill. Anti-SLAPP statutes are there so that free expression doesn’t come along with a side helping of bankruptcy, if your speech offends the wrong person. They don’t protect you from liability for real defamation, but they do protect you from being dragged through three years of litigation over a claim that never should have been brought in the first place. You see, that’s how the bastards win. If they don’t like your political speech, or even your mild consumer review, they file a lawsuit against you. You try and file a motion to dismiss,

A long time back, I wrote about a Third Amendment claim in Nevada. (source) A few weeks ago, Judge Gordon rejected the plaintiff’s Third Amendment claim. (source)

My latest CNN column – sparked by a recent controversy, but illustrating an ongoing theme of enforced ignorance.

The TTAB is looking to add a member to its ranks. (source) This is the perfect candidate, since she seems to be explaining the TTAB’s prevailing view in Section 2(a) cases, with just about as much logic as any written decision handed down by the TTAB. [youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJMiKvnIUjQ&t=82]

This Boston Globe article discusses how fucked up imprisonment rates are. (source) It is pretty shocking how much more likely you are to go to jail if you’re black. Black high school drop outs have a nearly 70% chance of incarceration. You’re seven times more likely to go to jail if you’re black than if you’re white. But, this “all” statistic doesn’t make it clear if the high school dropout rate skews the “all” category. Nevertheless, this makes one thing pretty clear — if you’re black, you can cut your chances of going to jail by almost 66% by staying in school. That’s not much help to the other statistical anomalies though.

Because if you question the victim, you’re committing the crime of perpetrating “rape culture.” Well, you know, unless the story is complete bullshit. Then, I guess that “rape culture” is just a nasty way of pronouncing “the truth” or “due process.” See Erik Wemple, Charlottesville police make clear that Rolling Stone story is a complete crock.

In Knoxville, Tennessee, a Christian church put up what proved to be a controversial sign. The sign read, “Remember, Satan was the first to demand equal rights.” And a shitstorm ensued, of course. Some people found this to be a swipe at gays seeking equal rights. (source) I think, however, they’re looking at it the wrong way. Lets look at Christian mythology. Who is this “God” character, and who is this “Satan” guy? Lets look at it with a little bit of a critical eye. The first thing we need to remember is that the victors write the history books. So, you’ve got to look at the Bible as a piece of propaganda for the winning side. Of course the

Last week’s post “There will never be a nigger in SAE” has been sanitized for mass publication. See What we risk when we ban racist speech at CNN.com.

I need not collect a compendium of links to show you that American police are more out of control than the crips and the bloods ever were. But, you know what? Maybe if we got rid of the chickenshit laws like underage drinking, possession of marijuana, and the like, they wouldn’t have such an us-vs-them attitude. A 20 year old kid who wants to drink a beer is not a “criminal.” Some guy who wants to smoke a joint is not a “criminal.” These are usually completely normal people, who are no threat to the state or their neighbors. But, when they are “criminals,” all of a sudden the pie chart of who is a criminal vs. who is “law

Yavuz Baydar, in the Guardian, reports on the sad state of journalism in Turkey. (source) This is a boiled down version of his much longer study, available here. Large media companies kowtow to state pressure, and contribute to a culture of fear and accusations that try to keep independent media in check. Yet if alarm for the independence of the Turkish press was already high, those concerns were raised still further soon after the outbreak of the summer demonstrations in 2013 to protect Istanbul’s Gezi Park. Protests spread to 78 of the 81 provinces in Turkey. The degree of self-censorship became so intense that the mainstream Turkish media itself became the subject of demonstration and open ridicule. Even so, Erdoğan

And I applaud them for it. In the spirit of learning by doing, students drafted a bill to learn the process of how a bill becomes law. They proposed House Bill 373, an act establishing the Red Tail Hawk as the New Hampshire State Raptor. Even though it passed through the Environment and Agriculture committee with a majority vote, some representatives were far from receptive. (source) Cue the outrage. In fact, the headline was “NH lawmakers brutally kill 4th-graders’ bill in front of them” Rep. John Burt, a Republican from Goffstown said, “Bottom line, if we keep bringing more of these bills, and bills, and bills forward that really I think we shouldn’t have in front of us, we’ll be

Irish is, without a doubt, the dominant immigrant culture in Massachusetts. Growing up there, in a town where Sicilians were the plurality, St. Patrick’s Day was always a little underwhelming. Instead, we celebrated St. Joseph’s day on March 19. Of course, every St. Joseph’s Day, someone would bring up the old story that St. Patrick’s day should be “our” day too — since St. Patrick was really Italian. We wanted to believe it, so we did. We poked that in the Irish kids’ eyes, as we liked to bust balls. But, not enough to ever wear Orange on March 17. Every year, articles pop up repeating the story that St. Patrick was really Italian. Even GoErie.com repeats the tale. St.

Next time your server or your supermarket tries to sell you Salmon, ask where it comes from. If it is “Atlantic Salmon,” tell them to fuck off. Well, if you want to be polite, you can just say “no thank you, I don’t eat that garbage, and you shouldn’t be selling it, you soulless heathen fuckhead.” There is no such thing as Atlantic Salmon. Well, correction, there really isn’t such a thing as a commercially viable Atlantic Salmon fishery. If it comes from the Atlantic, there’s a 99% chance that it is farm-raised. And if it is farm-raised, then it is about as healthy for you as mass-raised chicken. It likely lacks most of the omega 3s that make wild-caught

Germany’s high court has ruled unconstitutional a North Rhine-Westphalia regulation prohibiting teachers from wearing Muslim headscarves. (source) The law bared religious symbols or actions that were deemed to be a “threat to harmonious co-existence.” (source) The ruling leaves an opening though. Judges at the Karlsruhe-based court in southwest Germany said a ban could only be justified if the wearing of the Islamic headscarf led to a “sufficiently concrete danger” of disruption in the school, or of “state neutrality”. (source) I am relying on third party sources here, as I can not read German. But, it would seem that this ruling would comport with EU Human Rights regulations. The initial ban seemed targeted simply at displays that cracked Germany’s homogeneity, but

How could we ever forget? This week marked the five year anniversary of that ill-fated mission. (source)

An Indian bride walked away from the altar when she figured out that her husband-to-be was too fucking stupid to answer a simple math problem. (source)

Great article from the BBC on swearing. (source) So why does The Dude have to use so many cuss words? Strong language often involves naming things you desire but aren’t supposed to desire; at the very least, it aims to upset power structures that may seem a bit too arbitrary. (source) The only thing I have to say to that is “cunt.” [youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efZQhYu1E5s]