It wasn’t that Mike Masnick’s observation at Techdirt was prescient, as much as he followed the dominoes. It was clear that the path on which the sniffling censors traveled led to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, as the evils they sought to eradicate crossed state and national lines. Only by going after the core of the internet could they achieve their goal, and Mike saw it coming.

Naturally, the response was to attack Mike. And Mary Anne Franks did what her ilk does, to shriek that Mike was a liar. And when the time came to do exactly as Mike said she would, because it was, of course, absolutely correct, Franks again did what her ilk does. And luckily, there is no shortage of writers willing to repeat and promote the lies in support of the cause.

U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) is trying to change that, introducing last summer a bi-partisan bill that aims to cut through the murkiness of nonconsensual pornography legislation in one fell swoop. If passed, the Intimate Privacy Protection Act would criminalize the knowing distribution of sexually explicit images of people without their consent. Perpetrators could face fines and up to five years in prison.

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Demond Wilson played Redd Foxx’s son, Lamont, in Sanford & Son. One line that’s rung in my ears was when Lamont asked, “I read Life Magazine. Do you read Ebony?” It was, of course, a false equivalency, but it made a point, that black people know white culture because it’s the culture of American society.

Whites, however, can happily go through life without ever having to know, or understand, that there is another culture, black culture, that never touches their world. But it surely touches your world if you’re black. Before you start calling me names for saying this, it’s not a political position, but merely descriptive.

It’s one of the first things a criminal defense lawyer comes to realize in order to serve his clients, because cops bust blacks far more than whites, they are our clients, and we need to understand their world to be capable of representing them. Whether we want to or not, we are compelled to see their world in context, as it explains the basics of thought and conduct of our clients. If we don’t know why they do what they do, we can’t help.

Our clients aren’t a race or a culture, but just people. We get to know them as people. Some we like. Some we don’t. Some are smart, funny, the sort of men and women you like to hang out with. Others, not so much. You know, just like real people.*  Continue reading →

Zhe’s making a list. Zhe’s checking it twice. Gonna find out who’s naughty and nice. Hope you used the preferred pronoun so you don’t get coal in your stocking. Do you wear stockings? As for me, the old traditions work just fine. Happy Holidays.

During brutal wars, the sides would lay down their arms for a day, maybe a few, for a ceasefire. No horrible thing would happen if they weren’t killing each other for a few days. Maybe something horrible wouldn’t happen. Maybe a few people would live.

But there is no ceasefire to be had this year.

The impetus for Sally Kohn’s twit was Trump’s “Happy Hanukkah” twit. Even that he can’t do without “America’s second favorite cable news lesbian” attacking him for it. The view has been asserted that it’s this depth of hatred and extremism that has driven America away from the positions held by advocates like Sally Kohn and put Trump in office. Continue reading →

George Will gives the outgoing Senator, incoming Attorney General, Jeff Sessions a well-deserved poke for the ignorant things he said on the Senate floor about civil forfeiture. They were the sort of words a politician would utter, baseless but designed to appeal to those without a clue. Whether Sessions didn’t know better or was deliberately talking smack is unclear. One would hope a senator wasn’t that clueless, and that at least there was method to his lies.

But then, how can one explain California’s outgoing Attorney General, Kamala Harris, who is on her way to Washington to take her seat in the Senate? After having the bizarrely improper case against Backpage dismissed with extreme prejudice, she decided to take one more shot.

Let’s be crystal clear here: California Attorney General Kamala Harris (who in just a few weeks will become a US Senator) knows that she has no legal basis for arresting the execs behind Backpage. How do we know she knows this? Because three years ago she signed a letter whining about how she had no legal authority to arrest Backpage because it’s (rightly) protected by Section 230 of the CDA, saying that you can’t blame a site for the actions of its users. So it did seem weird, back in October, when Harris — along with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton — decided to arrest Backpage’s execs anyway, and charge them with “pimping.” Continue reading →

It was dumb. It was dumb given the environment. It was dumb no matter what the purported justification. University of Oregon prof Nancy Shurtz should have known better than to go to a Halloween party in black face. And no doubt the uproar her decision caused drove that point home.

But it didn’t end there. Nor did it end with her dean having a stern talking-to about engaging in dumb conduct. As soon as it became known beyond a small circle of friends, Shurtz’s purpose, her intent, no longer mattered. It was no longer just a particularly dumb decision by a prof, but an act that left the campus analogue for horror in its path. Josh Blackman expands:

Nancy Shurtz, a tenured professor at the University of Oregon Law School, wore black face to a halloween party. Her costume, which also included a white lab coat and stethoscope, was meant as some sort of social commentary about the book “Black Man in a White Coat.” Nearly two dozen of Shurtz’s colleagues called on her to resign. Shurtz was suspended with pay, pending an investigation. That investigation came to a close on November 30.

Calls for her to resign. An “investigation,” a word simultaneously meaningless and scary, since the word “inquisition” has fallen from favor, undertaken. Continue reading →

Remember that brief, shining moment when video proved something? Good times.

Sure, there was “fake news,” whether of the sort that was a matter of wholesale fabrication or the more pernicious sort proffered by seemingly credible sources, twisted with half-truths artfully designed to confirm your bias. Continue reading →

There are two primary differences between rape and murder. The second most significant difference is that murder is worse than rape.* No matter how visceral the description of trauma and pain, the victim of rape is still alive.

The first, and most significant difference is that we know, with absolute certainty, that a murder wasn’t a wholesale fabrication because of one fact: there is a lifeless body of a human being left behind.

These two factors do not always come without a connection. While the fashion trend of expressing horror in the most “horrifying” of language, rife with the deepest emotions of pain and terror, has become a staple of feminism, backlashes happen. It happened to Moises Arias-Aranda.

When authorities found the body of Moises Arias-Aranda in a maroon SUV parked along North Hydraulic last Christmas Eve, his hands and legs were bound with electrical cords, he had been stabbed in the back 36 times and had head and facial injuries. A piece of cloth tied to look like a noose lay beside him. Continue reading →

The reaction to ten of their University of Minnesota teammates being suspended was first to protest and then, after disclosure of the confidential Title IX report to a local television station, to not. At immediate stake was a bowl game.

The boycott ended almost as quickly as it started, with senior Drew Wolitarsky reading from a two-page typed statement affirming the team’s commitment to seeing due process for any student accused of sexual assault. Wolitarsky’s statement also expressed concern for the young woman at the center of the incident, and condemned sexual violence on campus. While it’s back to business for the Golden Gophers, the questionable circumstances surrounding the boycott’s end, the utter disregard for the lives of ten young black men, and what could be viewed as a University decision to value money and prestige over the tarnished reputations of its student body, remain. Lingering questions deserving answers.

Chris Seaton took the position that the disclosure may have been a deliberate effort by the school to interfere with the players’ exercise of their First Amendment right to protest.

There is an argument to be made that the disclosure, unlawful though it may have been, enlightened the other team members and informed their decision to end their boycott. Judge Mark Bennett made this very important point, that evidence might have persuaded the other team members to change their position. Continue reading →

Washtenaw County Lt. Brian Filipiak was pulled over, shit-faced and red-handed. But this time, the “courtesy” extended was to the lives of others on the road rather than Filipak.

Video shows Filipak repeatedly asking to just be let go, but the Montmorency deputies weren’t having it, and at one point, told him they would use a stun gun on him if he didn’t knock it off.

It’s impossible to know with certainty that, had the deputies not done their job, Filipiak would have killed or maimed someone. But it was surely a possibility, just as it would be with any non-cop. And so they did their job.

When a drunk cop kills, the victims are just as dead as when anyone else kills. Kudos to the Montmorency deputies who did their job.

H/T Mike Paar