Constituational Rights for Dummies… Like Sterling

So Sterling pissed me off again.You see, Sterling feels his “constitutional rights” have been violated because he is being punished for his retarded racist ramblings (yay alliteration!). So let’s find out why he’s wrong.

The image above the text contains the exact text of the 1st amendment of the constitution for the United States of America, more commonly referred to as “Freedom of speech”.  People get the meaning of freedom confused as well, so let’s just define that right now. Oxford dictionary defines freedom as “The power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint”.  This does not mean there aren’t consequences.

Back to Sterling. Was he at all hindered or restrained from saying what he said? No. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be writing this… article? blog? editorial? Whatever you want to call it.  Were any laws made to forbid his racist remarks before, during, or after they were made? No. Did the United States government take action against Mr. Sterling? No, the NBA did based on their own bylaws. If he finds them unfair, he can counter sue. So, I’m unsure where exactly you feel your constitutional rights were violated.

Freedom of speech doesn’t mean you can say whatever you want without getting in trouble, it just means you can’t be stopped from saying it or punished by the law. If people want to sue, your boss wants to fire you, or the NBA wants to make you sell your team, then they have the freedom to say that as well.

********DISCLAIMER: I’m not a law student************

The World’s Newest Scumbag: Donald Sterling. Still Think Racism Doesn’t Exist?

First off, this was acquired by TMZ, so take it as you will. So Donald’s philosophy, which is heavily based in pure logic, is you should love people who aren’t white, but only in private. You can like them, but don’t take a picture with them, don’t hang out with them in public, and, most importantly, don’t bring them to his fucking games. Don’t worry, he’s not racist, he still loves them.

You can’t do these things not because he doesn’t want you to. No. This is apparently “how our world works”. Hey Donald, Christie wants to know if you’re stupid and Dr. Cox wants to weigh in on this.

But this is just a symptom of racism. If you think he’s the only one who’s done it recently, just take a listen to Cliven Bundy being a fucking dumbass and proving you wrong!

Sean Hannity of Fox News probably enjoyed that.

The FBI estimates approximately 2800 hate crimes were racially motivated. Since this introduces bias because you have to guess the motive, it is only a ballpark figure, but the point is it’s still happening. So, no more racism is over tweets and no more Clippers games. Fuck you Donald.

What Should the Legal Drinking Age Be?

Most Americans know that the legal drinking age in this country is 21. But did we get that right? Spoiler alert: I don’t think so.  Many of the arguments of keeping the age at 21 or higher revolve around safety because at that age you magically become immune to all the negative affects of alcohol. Right? No. Oh. Well then I guess they think it’s safer (feel free to explain the logic because I don’t see it).

Anyways, let’s assume it does make it safer.  This indicates that we feel 18 is too young an age for someone to be put in a dangerous environment making important decisions like, oh I don’t know, being in a war.  Wait 18 year olds can do that? Okay, I meant have their health put at risk by things that can permanently affect your health like, oh I don’t know, cigarettes. They can do that too??? Shit. I’m beginning to see a trend.

Okay, but the law at least works since we have it right? No one under the age ever drinks!! What’s that? People under the age of 21 do? Oh, but I bet that’s only a few of them. Oh wait, the CDC said that at least 39% of minors drank some amount of alcohol? I say at least because that’s only the people who admitted it.  Its effectiveness is similar to a mother leaving something out that the child might not even notice and saying “Okay, don’t touch that.”  It spikes the child’s interest and makes them more likely to go touch that.

Lastly, I would contend that this law endangers minors.  Put yourself in college. You’re 19.  Your friend is 20 and has had way too much to drink. His life is in danger but there’s alcohol in your room and and on your breath.  We are forcing these minors who aren’t supposed to be capable of making these difficult decisions to choose between jail or their friend dying. If they call 911, they’re probably getting arrested and thrown out of college.  If they don’t call, then their friend might die.  Sadly, the death option usually wins out.

In review, people are defending a law that doesn’t work, has many logical fallacies, and still endangers lives.

#CancelColbert? Let’s Not.

You may have noticed #CancelColbert floating around Twitter. This was caused by Comedy Central tweeting

And Twitter was furious. It should be pointed out that this was taken completely out of context.  Anyone who has seen the Colbert Report knows how highly satirical it is.  This was a a parody of Dan Snider’s Redskins Original Americans Foundation, and was poiking fun at the fact that he put the racial slur right in the goddamn title. Comedy Central deleted the tweet which, as you know, meant that absolutely everyone saw it.

Then things really got out of hand. Since this all started after his last show of the week, he had no chance to defend himself all weekend and the news got a hold of it. The New York Times. USA Today. CNN. Fox News. Everybody took their shots.

Now, for sake of argument, let’s pretend this wasn’t taken out of context. Stephen Colbert is a filthy redneck with a French sounding names who hates every yellow person alive (and pretend he tweeted it and Comedy Central didn’t). People are pissed. But hold on, I remember discrimination other places too.  A certain Fox News anchor once said the wife of the Boston Bomber should be in jail for wearing muslim attire.  #CancelFoxNews!! CNN said the N word multiple times (when put in context they were just reading texts or facebook posts about the story). #CancelCNN!!! But those hashtags never happenned.

Colbert did respond to these tweets last night to hear that you can go to Hulu, his website, or Google.

Putin, Those are Your Troops

My physics professor is Russian and thinks Putin won because those troops aren’t his and that exerts his power. He would be great on Fox News.  But let’s ignore the fact that I disagree that Putin won because I’m not really sure what he gains from a land with pretty much no economic value (actually negative value they need to be upgraded). But he is keeping Ukraine away from the E.U and blah blah alliances. Okay, sure whatever. That’s another rant for another day. This wouldn’t work if the troops aren’t his. And it doesn’t make sense that those troops aren’t his, despite what my professor and/or Putin says.

Now perhaps you have better alternatives, but my professor’s best defense was well maybe those 10,000 people just met up and decided to imitate the Russian army. I guess he agrees with Putin who when pressed about how the troops looked, acted and sounded like Russian troops he said that anyone could buy those uniforms at stores. I hope they come in bulk and I hope that it gives them a deal on Russian tanks.

Ignoring the lack of logic there, to assume 10,000 people just magically decided to do this overnight is possible, but astronomically unlikely.  In defending this, he cited many mass gatherings from occupy wall street to various marches in history even to the KKK. However, none of these just happened overnight unless provoked by tragedy. Now one could try (and fail) to make the point that the Ukrainian protests were the tragedy, but this is a democratic place. If the locals want a chance to leave, all they need to is ask and the rest of Ukraine will discuss.

If they say they planned then I laugh (he did and I laughed). Why would they plan to counteract a threat that had yet to come into existence… the logic is M.I.A! Also, all of this ignores the fact that the soldiers on the ground in Crimea ADMIT to being Russian (once translated of course).

So no matter what Putin says, those are his goddamn troops.