Loss of Freedom Archives - Page 25 of 33

Freedom of Photography: Police, Security Often Clamp Down Despite Public Right

Washington Post has a story about the picture police: “A few weeks ago, on his way to work, Matt Urick stopped to snap a few pictures of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s headquarters. He thought the building was ugly but might make for an interesting photo. The uniformed officer who ran up to him didn’t agree. He told Urick he was not allowed to photograph federal buildings. . . . Courts have long ruled that the First Amendment protects the right of citizens to take photographs in public places.”

See “Snohomish settles with UW prof arrested for photographing power lines,” which tells the story of a woman who was arrested for taking pictures in a public place, sued and won $8,000. See also “Professor detained for taking pictures sues.”

Students Aren’t Allowed To Touch Real Rocks – How the Consumer Product Safety Commission Drives Parents & Everyone Else Crazy

Forbes: Fear that real rocks may contain harmful substances, a school cancelled its rock purchase order and showed students a poster of rocks instead of the real thing. “And so it goes in the unbrave new world, where nothing is safe enough. It’s a world brought to us by the once sane, now danger-hallucinating Consumer Product Safety Commission. . . . [that] actively engages in fear mongering, perhaps to give it something to do.”

“Then there’s the Little Tykes workbench. Last year the CPSC recalled that product’s toy nails after an 11-month-old boy almost choked on one. Those nails are made out of plastic. They’re 3 1/4 inches high and 1 1/4 inches wide. They’ve been sold with the workbench since 1994. And the boy who almost choked is fine. So we’re talking about a product that has been on the market for 15 years and sold 1,600,000 units. It is popular, safe and time-tested. To me that’s an exemplary toy. To the CPSC it is a killer on the loose.”

Federal Judge Rules Cheerleading is not a Sport – Yes, Really!

Quinnipiac University dropped volleyball as a girls’ sport because it could not afford the expense so naturally the girls sued. The girls claimed that QU must pay for them to play a college sport because under a federal law known as Title IX, the school could not drop volleyball because then its ratio of mens’ sports participants to womens’ sports participants would drop below that required by Title XI. QU had 62% women and 38% men enrolled during the period in question. Without counting cheerleading as a sport, the percent of women in QU’s sports program fell to a disgustingly low and clearly discriminatory 58%. Big brother cannot allow such an injustice to stand.

Title IX is a perfect example of the federal government having too much power. Title IX does specify participation rules that colleges with sports must follow or experience the wrath (a cut off of federal funds, which means financial death) of the Department of Education. Should government in a free country be dictating to colleges how many girls and boys can play college sports?

QU replaced girls volleyball with less expensive cheerleading, but the federal judge ruled that college cheerleading does not qualify as a college sport and so the number of cheerleaders on the squad will not be counted in determiing if QU has the proper ratio of boys to girls. Result: Ratio test failure and QU must spend more money and continue the girls volleyball team. One of the common solutions colleges have when they are bleeding money on sports and need to keep their ratios up to the federal requirement is to drop both boys and girls teams. This is one reason a lot of mens’ college sports teams have disappeared since the inception of Title IX.

See the judge’s ruling. See also “Judge: Quinnipiac violated female athletes’ rights.”

Growing Number of Prosecutions for Videotaping the Police

ABC News: “it wasn’t his daredevil stunt that has the 25-year-old staff sergeant for the Maryland Air National Guard facing the possibility of 16 years in prison. For that, he was issued a speeding ticket. It was the video that Graber posted on YouTube one week later — taken with his helmet camera — of a plainclothes state trooper cutting him off and drawing a gun during the traffic stop near Baltimore. In early April, state police officers raided Graber’s parents’ home in Abingdon, Md. They confiscated his camera, computers and external hard drives. Graber was indicted for allegedly violating state wiretap laws by recording the trooper.”

Update: “Charges dismissed against Md. man who taped traffic stop.”

Here Come the Fat Police: Obesity Rating for Every American Must Be Included in Stimulus-Mandated Electronic Health Records

CNS News: “New federal regulations issued this week stipulate that the electronic health records–that all Americans are supposed to have by 2014 under the terms of the stimulus law that President Barack Obama signed last year–must record not only the traditional measures of height and weight, but also the Body Mass Index: a measure of obesity. . . . The law also requires that these electronic health records be available–with appropriate security measures–on a national exchange.”

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