I haven’t had time to read this entire decision, which just came out today, but from what I can tell it is actually as stupid and vile as it seems. (Its only saving grace, I’d think, is that it may be SO stupid and vile that it could elect Wendy Davis as that state’s new Governor.) This text comes from this story in Cosmo online: http://www.cosmopolitan.com/lifestyle/news/a31262/texas-appeals-court-rules-for-upskirt-photos/ (Hey, really, I got it from a friend, OK?)
Quoting from her opinion again, [Presiding Judge Sharon] Keller wrote that protecting someone, even a child just trying to have fun in a splash pool, “from being the object of sexual thoughts,” is something the First Amendment stands against. Furthermore, a ban on upskirting and the like, she says, represents the “‘paternalistic interest in regulating the defendant’s mind’ that the Amendment was designed to guard against.” Taking the defendant’s case, Peter Linzer, a professor of constitutional law at Houston University’s Law Center added, “it’s hard to see how you could make taking a picture a crime.” One more awful quote from his arguments to the court:
“To think that it’s unlawful to look at a little girl in a swimsuit, when you have lascivious thoughts, in public? And you did not do anything to that child? That cannot be made a crime in the United States. The fact that some people might find that very offensive doesn’t change anything. … You can’t prevent someone in public from looking at you and having dark thoughts.”
On these free speech grounds, the court’s ruling thus invalidates parts of a Texan law that had previously criminalized examples of invasive, sexualized photography.
Finally, a constitutional alternative to the rights-busting plan that DA Rackauckas had to bar anyone on the sex offender registry from public parks: attract them all to Texas! Adios, cowpokes! Hope someone doesn’t break your cameras (and your fingers)! (That’s not strictly true — actually, I do.)
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Meanwhile, Chairman Vern has been recording YouTubes again, and this is him playing Malagueña, a composition by Cuban pianist Ernesto Lecuona based on traditional Spanish flamenco tunes:
This is your Weekend Open Thread. Talk about that or anything else you’d like within reasonable bounds of decency and decorum.
Play fuck sharks instead.
NEXT weekend open thread!
(but here’s the URL if anyone’s curious.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMuM2QESiV0 )
As a native Texan let me just say:
This hardly the stupidest law in Texas.
and this law is really, really stupid.
yeah, but they got sxsw and franklins
And barbecue, and breakfast tacos, and mega-ritas, and Shiner Bock, and the Butthole Surfers, and ZZ Top, and Jim Hightower, and…
gun racks and pick up trucks
A couple of Climate Change developments:
1) “Today, 310,000 people took to the streets of New York City to call for climate action — the largest climate march in history. And we were joined by hundreds of thousands of others around the world at over 2646 events in 156 countries.
And on Tuesday, the world’s politicians will gather in New York to talk about climate action — 125 heads of state in total. They’ll be gathering with the knowledge that more people than ever are demanding action, not just words, and that their political future is on the line — as well as the future of the planet.
We will bring that message to the top leadership of the UN inside Tuesday’s summit, with a hand-delivered message to top UN climate negotiators.If you stand with the hundreds of thousands of people who marched today around the world, tell world leaders that you mean business” :
act.350.org/letter/ready-for-action/
2) Rockefellers on fossil fuels:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/22/us/heirs-to-an-oil-fortune-join-the-divestment-drive.html
Ricardo,
It’s ALL about money and power. That you are holding up a family that falls into the upper .001% of wealth as a paragon of virtue when the linked story has a quote that spells it all out, is just precious!
“Steven Rockefeller, a son of Nelson A. Rockefeller and a trustee of the fund, said that he foresees financial problems ahead for companies that have stockpiled more reserves than they can burn without contributing significantly to climate damage. “We see this as having both a moral and economic dimension,” he said.”
You don’t think they have thought this statement out with the spin doctors? Simply precious!
Then there’s the small problems with the ginned up IPCC-5, report that several of the authors have disavowed because it was summarized inaccurately and overblown as well. Keep right on drinking the kool-aid…