- France: Scholar faces criminal libel charge over mildly negative book review [Steven Landsburg/The Big Questions; more, Citizen Media Law] U.K. atheist convicted of religious harassment for leaving cartoon leaflets in prayer room [Media Watch Watch and earlier via Secular Right]
- Classic New Yorker writer of 1940s: “St. Clair McKelway on insurance, embezzlement, arson, and counterfeiting” [Freeland, North Mississippi Commentor]
- Bulletin: In hiring new editors, New York Times will stop preferring those with scores of 89 over those who score 65. Oh wait;
- “If I can drive a motorcycle, why can’t I drive a marginally more dangerous car concept? Because Detroit and its lobbyists have built it into the system, that’s why.” [reader at Andrew Sullivan]
- “Jersey Shore Victim Wants DVDs Suppressed” [Above the Law]
- Class action suit against Yelp.com alleges “extortion” [NY Times “Bits”, TechCrunch]
- “Some Employers Complain Law Barring Genetic Bias Hurts Wellness Efforts” [ABA Journal]
- “The Criminalization of Almost Everything” [Harvey Silverglate and Tim Lynch, Cato Policy Report]
Filed under: France, free speech, hate speech, NHTSA, United Kingdom, workplace
6 Comments
“If I can drive a motorcycle, why can’t I drive a marginally more dangerous car concept? Because Detroit and its lobbyists have built it into the system, that’s why.”
I find the line of reasoning weak. While there is certainly some market for these vehicles, they sacrafice versatility for effeciancy. If you have a destination outside of a major city, mass transit really isn’t an option; and with a range for 40 miles (likely not at highway speeds) the ‘icar’ these people envision wont cut it either. That means that you now need an ‘icar’ and a regular car? You have friends or kids you want to drive someplace, the ‘icar’ isn’t gonna cut it. Want to pick up anything bigger the a couple bags of groceries? Not gonna cut it. But wait, your spouse needs to commute too? Now you need 2 ‘icars’ and a regular car… unless you and your spouse might need to transport a passenger at the same time… now you need 2 ‘icars’ and 2 regular cars?
Those who think that what stands in the way of an ‘icar’ are the safety rules have no idea what its like if you don’t live in the center of a major city with excellent mass transit options…
Sorry, Monty, but what you missed is that the car cannot be imported into the US at all (because of perceived safety issues), not how well it would perform here.
So not even the urban wealthy can use it.
You can “drive a motorcycle” only because its invention, mechanical evolution and refinement as a means of transportation preceded Federal sfety regulation of motor vehicles. If the motorcycle were invented today, it would not be approved for highway use.
Wasn’t that NY Times opinion penned by David Duke? Besides a racist, who else believes that African-Americans aren’t capable of scoring high on a test.
Bozak, what opinion artice were YOU reading? I read the same article and didn’t get the “David Duke” impression you seem to have gotten…?
About Bozak’s comment above: I’m not David Duke, but African Americans have more trouble with tests than whites.
How did the disparate impact arise? Wouldn’t one have to show a marked discrepancy between the percentage of minorities in the well qualified class than in the qualified class?
The hiring of “qualified” minorities is just perfume on racial quotas. If diversity is socially justified, then race-norm. Either way you can get a Colin Powell, whose speech to the United nations was entirely wrong.