Time to clear this up once and for all
I overheard someone say the following at breakfast today. "This is the United States, I can say whatever I want. We have freedom of speech." Yes I've ranted about this before; but in light of recent events, it is worth revisiting.
You can say almost anything without fear of the government taking action against you. There's an exception carved out that makes it a crime to threaten the life of the president of the United States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threatening_the_President_of_the_United_States. There are others related to inciting a riot, making threats and so on. But for the most part, you can say almost anything without fear of consequences from the government.
That doesn't mean you are free to say whatever you want without fear of consequence from private businesses, and other individuals or groups with no governmental affiliation. If you walk into your bosses office and start yelling at them about what a major jerk they are, they can and will almost certainly fire you. You can't sue for wrongful termination and claim your freedom of speech was violated.
If you say rude things to a business owner inside of their business, they can and will almost certainly invite you to leave. Even if you are a member of a "protected class", you can't try to assert that in combination with your freedom of speech rights to force the business owner to serve you.
Which brings me around to the other reason this is on my mind. I'm not so sure that even the "fighting words" exception to free speech rights gives a public university the authority to expel a student. I don't disagree with the decision of OU president David Boren to expel the two SAE members who were leading that chant on that party bus. I'm just not sure he had legal authority to do so.
* * *
Senator Ted Cruz is the first GOP candidate for that party's 2016 presidential nomination. Much is being made of the fact that his wife, a managing director at Goldman-Sachs, will be taking an unpaid leave of absence to work on his campaign. Which means that his health insurance, currently paid for by her employer, will be lost.
Or so the media is saying. But they are ignoring an important fact. COBRA, an acronym for the law that allows employees to maintain their coverage when they lose their job (or are on a leave of absence), allows Mrs. Cruz to choose to purchase the company's benefits at her own expense. That can go on for at least 18 months for Senator and Mrs. Cruz.
Given Senator Cruz's firm stance in opposition to the Affordable Care Act, where he gets his benefits from is an appropriate topic for discussion. But the whole point of the ACA is to get benefits for everyone, not to lower the level of benefits private employers provide.
Update: Now Cruz is saying his family will get coverage through the ACA. Hypocrite.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
Okay, if both David Hasselhoff and Ann Coulter are going to be killed in the next Sharknado movie, I'll have to watch it.
People need to get over Angelina Jolie's choice to have her ovaries removed. Yeah, yeah, awful. www.instantrimshot.com Just push the red button.
A Chevron station owner in Santa Monica is suing Carson Daly over a fence that he had built between his home and the station. The gas station owner claims the fence is on his property. I'm just shocked to find a gas station in Santa Monica, given the value of real estate there.
Jon Hamm and Jennifer Westfeldt are asking for "...privacy and sensitivity going forward" with respect to Hamm having finished a stint in rehab. Do we owe famous folk privacy at times like this? I guess it is only the fame whores that don't deserve it. Hamm isn't a fame whore.
The studded leather jacket worn by Kelly LeBrock is up for sale on EBay for only $35,000. The owner does assure it is in excellent condition. That's a lot of money for a jacket very few people can ever wear.
Kudos to TMZ for using the company featured in the commercial below in their story on a lawsuit about FOX's show "Empire."
No one should be allowed to donate secretly to a political campaign. Especially Wisconsin billionaires with an agenda.
The media is covering the story of a police officer being killed in Northern California. They're focused on the fact the suspect was reportedly armed with a "high-powered rifle." As though a "low-powered rifle" is somehow less deadly. BB guns kill an average of four people a year and they're less powerful than the low-powered rifles.
You can say almost anything without fear of the government taking action against you. There's an exception carved out that makes it a crime to threaten the life of the president of the United States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threatening_the_President_of_the_United_States. There are others related to inciting a riot, making threats and so on. But for the most part, you can say almost anything without fear of consequences from the government.
That doesn't mean you are free to say whatever you want without fear of consequence from private businesses, and other individuals or groups with no governmental affiliation. If you walk into your bosses office and start yelling at them about what a major jerk they are, they can and will almost certainly fire you. You can't sue for wrongful termination and claim your freedom of speech was violated.
If you say rude things to a business owner inside of their business, they can and will almost certainly invite you to leave. Even if you are a member of a "protected class", you can't try to assert that in combination with your freedom of speech rights to force the business owner to serve you.
Which brings me around to the other reason this is on my mind. I'm not so sure that even the "fighting words" exception to free speech rights gives a public university the authority to expel a student. I don't disagree with the decision of OU president David Boren to expel the two SAE members who were leading that chant on that party bus. I'm just not sure he had legal authority to do so.
* * *
Senator Ted Cruz is the first GOP candidate for that party's 2016 presidential nomination. Much is being made of the fact that his wife, a managing director at Goldman-Sachs, will be taking an unpaid leave of absence to work on his campaign. Which means that his health insurance, currently paid for by her employer, will be lost.
Or so the media is saying. But they are ignoring an important fact. COBRA, an acronym for the law that allows employees to maintain their coverage when they lose their job (or are on a leave of absence), allows Mrs. Cruz to choose to purchase the company's benefits at her own expense. That can go on for at least 18 months for Senator and Mrs. Cruz.
Given Senator Cruz's firm stance in opposition to the Affordable Care Act, where he gets his benefits from is an appropriate topic for discussion. But the whole point of the ACA is to get benefits for everyone, not to lower the level of benefits private employers provide.
Update: Now Cruz is saying his family will get coverage through the ACA. Hypocrite.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
Okay, if both David Hasselhoff and Ann Coulter are going to be killed in the next Sharknado movie, I'll have to watch it.
People need to get over Angelina Jolie's choice to have her ovaries removed. Yeah, yeah, awful. www.instantrimshot.com Just push the red button.
A Chevron station owner in Santa Monica is suing Carson Daly over a fence that he had built between his home and the station. The gas station owner claims the fence is on his property. I'm just shocked to find a gas station in Santa Monica, given the value of real estate there.
Jon Hamm and Jennifer Westfeldt are asking for "...privacy and sensitivity going forward" with respect to Hamm having finished a stint in rehab. Do we owe famous folk privacy at times like this? I guess it is only the fame whores that don't deserve it. Hamm isn't a fame whore.
The studded leather jacket worn by Kelly LeBrock is up for sale on EBay for only $35,000. The owner does assure it is in excellent condition. That's a lot of money for a jacket very few people can ever wear.
Kudos to TMZ for using the company featured in the commercial below in their story on a lawsuit about FOX's show "Empire."
No one should be allowed to donate secretly to a political campaign. Especially Wisconsin billionaires with an agenda.
The media is covering the story of a police officer being killed in Northern California. They're focused on the fact the suspect was reportedly armed with a "high-powered rifle." As though a "low-powered rifle" is somehow less deadly. BB guns kill an average of four people a year and they're less powerful than the low-powered rifles.
posted by me at 7:12 AM
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