News & Media
Drunk Driving: A Victimless Crime
by Charles Platt I wonder if anyone else agrees that drunk driving is a victimless crime. A conviction merely affirms that a person was more likely than average to hit someone or something. Well, all kinds of people are more likely to do that, such as the elderly, or people who simply don’t have an aptitude for driving. State laws
Arrest the Pope
This sounds like a great idea: Arresting the Pope. Too bad it won’t happen. But, if it did, imagine the poetic justice of him getting raped in the joint… and then the guards could cover it up so that the prison doesn’t get a bad reputation. H/T: Mike McCoy
What Apple Should Have Launched Instead of the iPad (Or why Apple should beg for help from Kyocera)
Okay, fine, the iPad is neat. I’m not even going to bash it here. But, if Apple really wanted a killer device, it would have launched my idea — the iPhone power keyboard. Lets face it, the two worst things about the iPhone are a) its “virtual keyboard” and b) its shitty battery life. If Apple could solve those problems,
Cuckoldry in nature
By J. DeVoy [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Mb0GOITRUU&hl=en_US&fs=1&]
Online "dating" catches on among newlyweds
By J. DeVoy Via Roissy (I don’t care what he’s calling himself these days), Ashley Madison – the online dating service specializing in matching married men and married women – has had a membership explosion in the Toronto area. Sexually frustrated and a little lonely, the 25-year-old started Googling “sex club” and “swingers club” before stumbling upon AshleyMadison.com, advertised as
Explaining the college admissions gender gap
By J. DeVoy Noted at Overlawyered, the University of Florida’s freshman class has 3 females for every 2 males. Most men would like those odds, but then again most men are listless betas shut out of the “dating scene” (i.e. casual sex market), and cannot fathom using this gender ratio to access the top-shelf stuff. When asked about this disparity,
Wisconsin DA threatens charges over sex education
By J. DeVoy The District Attorney for Juneau County, Wisconsin, has threatened to bring charges against teachers who inform students of reproductive options other than abstinence. Scott Southworth – whom you can contact here – wrote a letter to Juneau County’s teachers, warning them of the consequences for following a law requiring them to discuss condoms and contraceptives. “If a
Applause for Spirit Airlines for charging for carry on bags
Spirit Airlines is taking a lot of heat for its latest move — charging for carry on bags. I will not add to that heat. In fact, I applaud them. It is moronic to charge for checked bags while allowing passengers to bring on free carry on bags. Think about what you want from a flight, and what kind of
Naughty Teenagers
by Charles Platt Since “protecting our children” became a reliable mantra for DAs seeking re-election at some time during the Reagan administration, the horrors of statutory rape and child pornography have justified countless legislative excesses. Unfortunately such laws conflict with the inconvenient biological fact that most young people become capable of reproducing around the ages of 12 or 13. Age-of-consent
A funderemployment primer
By J. DeVoy [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAs2EXsHfMg&hl=en_US&fs=1&] Metalocalypse is one of my favorite shows* for many reasons, among them being its extreme social commentary. The music video, while graphic, invokes themes that have been addressed in mainstream offerings like Office Space and The Office, such as the futility of working jobs we hate and the soul-killing duplicity that corporate advancement entails. In light
Law School Relegation
by Christopher Harbin European Soccer Leagues have a concept called relegation. Teams that are in the bottom of the standings get punted down to the second-class league for the entire next season. Similarly, top performers in the second-league get promoted to the top-flight league. Imagine if the loathsome Yankees royally sucked one season and had to spend their next season
My First Earthquake
I guess there have been other earthquakes since I’ve been out west, but I never really noticed them. Today was a little different. My chair started bouncing up and down, and I thought that the dog was jumping on the back of the chair. Then I noticed that the windows were waving in and out, everything on the shelves was
Seizures (not the epileptic kind)
by Charles Platt I have no formal legal training, but emigrated from the UK to the US partly because I liked the First Amendment. The wisdom of my decision was affirmed when an erotic novel that I had written in 1969 was seized, in Britain, by the Director of Public Prosecutions, and the publisher was jailed for three months. That
Sexting Story on Nightline
A high school kid forwarded nude photos of his 16 year old girlfriend to some friends. For that, a dipshit prosecutor decided that Philip Alpert needed to be charged with 72 sex crimes, and that he should be on the registered sex offender list. Here is his story. The prosecutor is quoted as saying that he had no other option.
No One Has The Right To Live Without Being Shocked
Of course, don’t let any of the academic circle-jerk (The U.S. legal academy) hear you say that. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQ3VcbAfd4w&feature=player_embedded] H/T: Marc D.
And this is who Jesus allegedly died for?!
By J. DeVoy A Florida man recently pled no contest to five misdemeanor theft counts arising from his theft of food from various restaurants and stores. Though spared jail time, the court required the defendant, George Jolicoeur, to pay court costs and restitution. This conduct was hardly new for Jolicoeur, who had been grifting free food from businesses for years. A Seminole
NPR Story on SLAPP Suits
I was interviewed on the subject of SLAPP suits by Nazanin Rafsanjani. The interview is available here.
Congress Weighs Law Against Some Lawsuits
Discusses the Federal Anti-SLAPP legislation pending before the House of Representatives. Transcript available here. The Citizen Participation Act, which would introduce anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) remedies in Federal law if adopted, is designed to deter lawsuits filed to silence critics of powerful entities.Read more…
Happy "Good" Friday
Religion has actually convinced people that there’s an invisible man, living in the sky, who watches everything you do every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of 10 things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these 10 things, he has a special place full of fire and