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Monthly Archives: March 2015
The First Amendment and Hate Speech: Do we lag behind the rest of the world?
Tanya Cohen, from the website ThoughtCatalog, wrote a piece regarding the First Amendment and hate speech. She made a number of comparisons to the First Amendment, and how other countries around the world handle what she describes as “hate speech”.
From the article:
In the United States, hate speech is often spewed forth by people with a great deal of influence, thus making it even more dangerous. Freedom of speech always comes with responsibility, and people in powerful positions need to have extra responsibilities. Consider the case of Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson. In a civilized country with basic human rights, Phil Robertson would have been taken before a government Human Rights Tribunal or Human Rights Commission and given a fine or prison sentence for the hateful and bigoted comments that he made about LGBT people. In the US, however, he was given no legal punishment, even though his comments easily had the potential to incite acts of violence against LGBT people, who already face widespread violence in the deeply homophobic American society – and his comments probably DID incite acts of violence against LGBT people.
IRS to Expand Policing Political Non-Profits
You would think that problems Lois Lerner created would have made for smarter agency heads. You’d be wrong. From Politico:
IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said the agency may expand a yet-to-be-released rule governing 501(c)(4), “social welfare” groups, to include political groups known as 527s, which focus on elections. It could require them both — as well as other types of tax-exempt groups — to operate under the same definition of “political activity.”
“If it’s going to be a fair system, it needs to apply across the board,” Koskinen said when asked by POLITICO if such groups would be included in the new rule. “[I]f we have a set of definitions for 501(c)(4)s, what about everybody else? Can they do more or less [political activity]? And for us as (an) administration, for ease of administration, it makes sense to have this common definition.”
Rule 5: Spring Break Wednesday
She might need some tanning lotion on her back…
Starbucks and the Community: Let’s talk about race over coffee!
Photo credit: Fortune Magazine
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz says we need to talk. From Fortune Magazine:
In a video addressing Starbucks’ nearly 200,000 workers, 40% of whom are members of a racial minority, Schultz dismissed the notion that race was too hot a topic business-wise for Starbucks to tackle.
“I reject that. I reject that completely,” he said in the video address. “It’s an emotional issue. But it is so vitally important to the country,” he continued, pointing to that the United States is “so much better” than what the current state of race relations portray it to be.
Rule 5: Spring Break Tuesday
Sunning at the Beach.. Continue reading
Rule 5: Spring Break Monday
Surfing the waves…
View from the Mountains: 15 Mar 2015
This is impromptu, but a few things stood out this weekend..
Rule 5: Sunday
Angels..
Poolside reading in the Desert: “Sex Trouble” and “Assault and Flattery”
This past week, I read a couple of books, that, for me, were a bit intertwined, unintentionally.
Sonoran Conservative 