The Prenda Saga Goes Criminal: Steele and Hansmeier Indicted On Federal Charges (Updated)
This is the latest post in the Prenda Law saga. More than three and a half years ago I started covering a copyright-troll firm called Prenda Law, which came to my attention because it was filing defamation suits against critics accusing it of wrongdoing. Rarely does the Streisand Effect so utterly annihilate a group of […]
Deserving Trust
"Fake news" is the slogan of the day. As a concept, it's typical: it has a grain of truth and descriptive value, but has been wantonly overused and twisted for partisan ends. Will you run into "news" that is based on simply false facts? Yes. Will you also see people using "fake news" to describe […]
Cracked Drunkenly Paws At Free Speech Theory Again
I feel both fondness and respect for Cracked. I remember reading the magazine as a kid — it was number two or three to Mad, but it tried harder. As a web site, it's done good work in the realms of satire, fatuity, and social and political commentary. But like any institution it has a […]
Lawsplainer: Why Flag Burning Matters, And How It Relates To Crush Videos
I have a question about flag burning. I deserve this. I earned this. I've . . . done things. I am forsaken and abhorred by God. Oh stop being so dramatic. I just want to ask why I should care. What? Look, I get that the Supreme Court ruled — twice — that flag burning […]
We can never be too safe! (Update – Passenger banned for life)
We can never be too safe from awful speech. You know, speech with which we disagree. That kind. This douchebag got on a flight and went on a 45 second triumphant rant about Trump. “We got some Hillary bitches on here,” the man yelled. “Come on, baby. Trump!” He then kept yelling, telling everyone that […]
Update: Ninth Circuit Rejects Attack on "Comfort Women" Monument
In 2013, the city of Glendale, California created a monument to "comfort women" — women of various countries sexually enslaved by the Imperial Army of Japan during World War II. Back in 2014 I wrote about a lawsuit brought by Japanese-Americans against the City of Glendale in which the plaintiffs claimed that Glendale's commemoration violated […]
Castro Dead – Good Time to Talk About "Fake News"
"Journalists" are writing about "fake news" as if "bullshit" was something new. If you don't know the name "Herbert Matthews," but you think you know anything about Fidel Castro, you don't know shit. Matthews was the master of journalistic fiction, and he and the New York Times are why you even know Castro's name. Matthews […]
Castro is Dead. So What?
So Castro is finally dead. Some are dancing on his grave. Some are mourning him. As usual, I agree with nobody. Fulgencio Batista, the Cuban dictator who preceded him was arguably worse. Knowing that matters. Batista jailed and tortured his political opponents and was as brutal a dictator as Castro ever could have imagined. He […]
True Threats v. Protected Speech, Post-Election Edition
So. Thank goodness everyone seems to be going about this really calmly. Dateline: Rutgers. Kevin Allred, a professor of Beyoncé Studies, is not taking recent news philosophically. In the course of a rant he offers these: Days later, the NYPD shows up at his home and hauls him off to Bellvue for a psychiatric evaluation. […]
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