News & Politics

Everyone knows what slander is, right? A defamatory statement that is spoken. Well generally to recover any damages for a slander lawsuit, a plaintiff has to show actual (or special) damages, meaning a measurable economic harm, such as being fired from a job. General, presumed damages for loss of reputation are not available except for the very worst kind of slander, that does the very most kind of harm. This is called slander per se.

What are the types of slander per se, you may ...

Tags: sexism

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News & Politics

I made this a blog post instead of an EoEO thread because I doubt many of you care that much about the details.

Today, the Supreme Court issued a massive opinion upholding the Affordable Care Act, aka “Obamacare” (CNN’s hilarious screw up notwithstanding). I disagree with the decision, but in a somewhat surprising way. On a strictly constitutional level, I think Chief Justice Roberts’s opinion (which while not technically the Court’s opinion in all respects, ends up controlling all ...

Tags: healthcare

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News & Politics

This is an introductory post on the Streisand effect. The Streisand effect occurs when an attempt to censor or otherwise hide information leads only to that information being spread more effectively. This is otherwise known as “the internet.”

Once upon a time, many moons ago, the website comic The Oatmeal noted that another website, FunnyJunk, was hosting a crapload of its content. The Oatmeal then asked FunnyJunk to delete that content, and FJ responded by deleting a small percentage ...

Updated 06-23-2012 at 10:26 PM by Raistlin

Tags: free speech

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News & Politics , Internet

Recently, the Maryland Court of Appeals (the state's highest court) did a mind-bogglingly stupid thing. Normally, a dog owner (or a landlord that allows a certain dog on the premises) is not negligent for simply having or allowing a dog that bites someone else, unless there's evidence that the owner knew or should have known that the individual dog was dangerous. For instance, a history of attacks or aggressive behavior.

That has now changed in Maryland, at least for pit bulls. In ...

Updated 05-17-2012 at 11:28 PM by Raistlin

Tags: dogs

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News & Politics

A couple of instances of mind-numbing stupidity that have been on my mind lately.

Obama and his adoring fans: The other day, Obama announced that he supports same-sex marriage, at least according to the mainstream media and many liberals. My Facebook has been full of posts regarding this "monumental" occasion where a US President endorses gay marriage rights. Except... he didn't. Spurred on by Vice-President Biden's unqualified support for gay marriage, Obama tentatively ...

Tags: drugs, obama, sexism

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News & Politics

In the US, the hysteria against pedophilia has caused more harm and hurt more kids than the vast majority of actual pedophiles.

Just recently in Iowa, three girls face charges for possession and distribution of child pornography. The kicker? The girls are ages 16-17, they took the pictures of themselves, and they only sent the pictures to one 19-year-old guy… who is being charged with “sexual exploitation” of those very same child porn mongers. Because he obviously ruined their lives ...

Tags: law

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News & Politics

So I'm writing a federal habeas corpus brief for a pro bono client of my research professor, claiming ineffective assistance of trial counsel. Right now my job is basically to pick apart everything the state court did in denying our state-level habeas claim for ineffective assistance to try and persuade the federal court just how horrifyingly irrational the state court's decision was. I'm given pretty wide leeway to be as blunt as I need to, and some of things I write would not be out of place in ...

Tags: law

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Personal Life , News & Politics

One thing that really annoys me is when completely oblivious people make adamant, absolute claims that are entirely bogus. Regarding the Supreme Court, this comes often from liberal, very partisan, wannabe commentators who only whine about the conservative corporate shills (because NONE of the Democratic elite does what any large corporation wants).

For instance, today the Supreme Court struck down a California law which prohibited the distribution of violent video games to minors, ...

Tags: rant, scotus

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News & Politics

After I posted my last entry, in which I discussed a story about a lot of people pissed off that NBC edited out "under god" in the televised Pledge of Allegiance, I discovered that NBC also pissed off a US Senator. And the Senator sent an angry letter to NBC, demanding a "full written account of its decision-making process in this matter, including an explanation of why these specific words were omitted, and what actions NBC intends to take to prevent such inappropriate edits from ...

Tags: evolution, god, pledge

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News & Politics

I have not been around much lately due to work and, well, life. But I still try to browse the web at some point each day to see what stupid, ridiculous, and nonsensical things are going on. I sometimes even manage to stumble across the occasional good thing.

So earlier this year, Georgia passed a law, the purpose of which was to drive illegal immigrants out of the state and thereby creating more job opportunities for honest Americans. And it succeeded; illegal immigrants left Georgia ...

Updated 06-23-2011 at 05:18 AM by Raistlin

Tags: god, immigration, obama, pledge

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News & Politics