Tuesday, November 8, 2011

is anyone minding the brain-cell store?

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-- Religious (and other) bullies have gotten a hand up with a Michigan law against bullying. The law, shaped and passed in memory of a young fellow who killed himself in the wake of anti-gay bullying, leaves a loophole for those who wish to bully others without sanction:

All they need to do, according to the newly passed legislation, is claim that their bullying was based on “a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction.”
Sincerity is such a flimsy and sometimes ridiculous basis for principle. Popular, but flimsy.

-- Ooops! Every once in a while, the truth slips out and makes you wonder what was so special about it that it needed to be kept secret in the first place.

In the latest example, French President Nicolas Sarkozy was overheard saying to U.S. President Barack Obama that he thought Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was a "liar." Obama, for his part, replied, "You may be sick of him, but me, I have to deal with him every day." The media are all over the story, but it's hard not to wonder what the news is ... outside the fact that everyone has been smiling and lying up to this point... and will return to lying once the storm dies down.

-- Cigarette manufacturers and smokers got a little graphic relief Monday when a court granted a temporary injunction against a Food and Drug Administration mandate that requires all cigarette packages to display pictorial, down-side effects of smoking. In a 29-page opinion, the judge said the new requirement simply does not pass constitutional muster. Stay tuned.
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