A Stitch in Haste

Time to clean out the aggregator —

ITEM: T. Boone Pickens has abandoned his efforts to persuade the nation (i.e., its politicians) to erect massive new wind farms and to convert most vehicles to compressed natural gas. Pickens’ plan was in reality a shameless self-serving exercise in rent-seeking, as I chronicled here.

ITEM: A business owner in Wisconsin saw both his free speech and property rights violated after sheriff’s deputies entered his premises and forcibly removed his upside-down American flag. The sheriff’s rationalization? “It is illegal to cause a disruption.” One of many previous posts here.

ITEM: A state judge in New Jersey has ruled that the state’s journalist shield law does not apply to bloggers. In a derisive “pajamas clad” style insult, the judge averred:

Courts are now being faced with the task of evaluating a virtually limitless number of people who claim to be “reporting” on issues, but who are, many times, doing little more than shouting from atop a digital soapbox.

I have previously shouted from atop my digital soapbox that journalism is in fact not a true “profession,” but merely an occupation, and therefore deserves no special treatment under so-called “shield laws.” The First Amendment is all the protection anyone needs, whether in pajamas or otherwise.

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Filed under: Updates