While checking out a news website I hadn’t known about, mic.com, I ran across an article by Jon Levine about a recent interview with actress and activist Susan Sarandon who’s loved for so many roles and where she openly admitted that she used marijuana to relax. Morgan Freeman has also admitted using it in order to ease his fibromyalgia. There’s a growing movement to legalize it the article reminded readers. A bipartisan group in Congress has in fact introduced a bill to legalize marijuana for medical uses in the 23 states which already allow it, and more than the majority of people now believe that it should be legalized. Also relevant is that 69% Continue reading “You Decide”
Category: Freedom
China, Censorship and Movies
The Chinese have been having a say in U.S. movies, and Hollywood studios have gone along, says a report from NPR’s Shanghai based correspondent Frank Langfitt. Scenes from Iron Man 3 and Mission Impossible III were changed so that the Chinese would not be portrayed in a negative light. Ultimately the officials who have a say so go back to the wish of the Communist party. It’s not surprising, the Chinese are going to look out for their best interest. Of course Hollywood studios are no different, they too are acting in a way that will safeguard their best interest, in this instance benefit their bottom lines. Where does that leave the average consumer either Continue reading “China, Censorship and Movies”
Challenged Books
The American Library Association has released its annual list of most frequently challenged books—their euphemism for books someone wants banned in some way. The list includes Jaycee Dugard’s memoir “A Stolen Life”. The reason is sexual content although as a reader may remember she was abducted and sexually abused for years. The list also contains Sherman Alexie “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” Marjane Satrapi’s “Persepolis” and Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye” for it too is said to be objectionable Continue reading “Challenged Books”
Pre-Empting Laws
Decades ago the tobacco industry developed a strategy to reach state governments in order to get their agenda across. The strategy was perfected by the National Rifle Association. Now it is being used by the restaurant industry to fight wage increases and by a group of corporations in order to better fight common issues. The trend recently came to the fore after the new Texas governor, Greg Abbott, warned cities that by passing certain ordinances and regulations they were undermining the business friendly image Texas has been working towards. Pre-empting the power of local government, as this is called, is now standard practice in several states such as Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, South Carolina or New Mexico, states where Republicans control state houses. A new law in Arkansas, for example, forbids municipalities from passing ordinances protecting gays and lesbians from discrimination. In New Mexico, the restaurant industry says it will support a small wage increase only if the state promises to pass laws forbidding other increases. In Washington D.C. a variation is at work where the Congress is trying to override a law legalizing marijuana which was passed by 70% of the D.C. electorate in November 2014. Given Republicans’ emphasis on local control, critics see hypocrisy in the use of these pre-empting laws. Democrats have been known to use them too, but apparently their practice is more sporadic and not as organized.
Understanding the uses and consequences of pre-empting laws defies easy explanations. That, of course doesn’t lessen their importance because if we believe in the democratic process, these laws are an instance showing us the need to know what corporate money is buying, or as in the case with Marijuana in D.C., one where the will of the people is being superseded and ignored—Both corroding, interfering and restricting the working out of what is meant to be a basic tenet of any country believing in democracy.