Writing for Knight Ridder, Steven Thomma provides evidence for the erosion of personal responsibility, marked by any number of acts of self interest without regard for consequences. Historians, philosophers, political scientists and sociologists cite many reasons for the decline of an ethic of responsibility in America over recent decades, including: A culture of narcissism or [...]
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), along with its Candian brother (the CRIA), has been lobbying for stronger copyright legislation, claiming that it has experienced significant financial losses due to illegal music downloading on peer-to-peer (P2P) services. Writing for First Monday, Michael Geist details the elaborate myths the RIAA and CRIA have constructed, distilled [...]
Pharmacists in an increasing number of instances have refused to fill prescriptions for such things as contraceptives. Their failure to perform their jobs stems–on the surface–from a dilemma they face regarding patients’ rights versus their cultist moral beliefs. Some druggists have even cited the “conscience clause,” an exception that most states have in place for [...]
When publisher Holt, Rinehart Winston proposed a textbook that used line drawings to show girls how to conduct a self-examination for breast cancer, conservatives on the Texas Board of Education were enraged. Even more damning, the book’s policy of abstinence-first was met with wide disapproval. Meanwhile, Glencoe McGraw-Hill’s own textbook, which contained no information about [...]
A bill now making its way through the Florida Senate would give students legal standing to sue professors and universities if they felt their beliefs were not being properly respected during class. The Academic Freedom Bill of Rights, similar to a bill being considered in Ohio, is said to be modeled after the “academic bill [...]
A dozen or so Imax theaters in the American South have decided against showing documentaries that present information threatening to the beliefs of christian fundamentalists. A survey taken from a sample audience revealed that some of them had adverse reactions to information. “Galápagos” (1999) takes viewers to depths of 3000 feet with scientists studying “the [...]
The Senate today voted to open the Alaska wildlife refuge to oil drilling, despite the fact that 95% of Alaska’s coastline was already open to oil exploration. The government’s Fish and Wildlife Service has this to say about it: Information gathered from the biological, seismic and geological studies was used to complete a Legislative Environmental [...]
After two years of bullying, a court has ordered that Milka Budimir, French seamstress, cede her Web site www.milka.fr to Kraft Foods, which owns the Milka chocolate brand. The U.S. food company, now enjoying an episode of corporate personhood, accused Budimir of “cybersquatting,” and said that she “made unjustified use of the registered trademark Milka [...]
Arguing that Democratic filibusters are “unprecedented,” Senate Republicans have been attacking their practice in order to clear the path for President Bush’s ultra-conservative judicial nominees. It should be noted that Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch is using the word “unprecedented” in an entirely new way–one curiously free of historic fact. Otherwise he might have to [...]
Creators Syndicate, the company that syndicates Bill O’Reilly’s columns, sent a cease and desist letter to Newshounds, a Fox watchdog concern, for posting a link to an O’Reilly column. While Newshounds did initially reprint the actual article (this article, in fact), we find Creators Syndicate’s action puzzling in light of the fact that such linking [...]
Klaus Ek doesn’t like things that are bad, to put it succinctly. Read more about him here.