From the schools don’t over-react to things file comes this story on CNN claiming that 6 girls (ages 14-15) have been charged with homicide consipiracy for planning to kill a list of people including the Energizer Bunny, Tom Cruise, and Oprah Winfrey.
While none of the girls had any weapons, it would seem one of them had a MySpace account that had the word kill on it somewhere. (of course we don’t know where because the page has been removed.)
Using the word kill is clearly a very serious attempt on a person’s life, and I’m sure it will be revealed shortly that MySpace is to blame for this.
January 26th, 2007
USA Today reports that there seems to be an alcohol jihad occuring amongst the taxi drivers in Minnesota.
To sum up the story, muslim taxi drivers from somolia are refusing to fare airport passengers carrying alcohol due to religious beliefs. Since many of the airports flights are international, a lot of tourists have duty free acohol with them. Some people have reported waiting hours just to get a cab ride.
They can’t call another cab company because of the airport’s strict contract, and the cab company is afraid to fire the cabbies since they’re claiming religious beliefs.
It seems to me like this should be a non issue. It’s perfectly legal to carry unopened alcohol in a cab, and the cabbie’s job is to fare passengers. I think the cab company would be completely justified in firing these employes. After all, I’d surely be fired if I refused to do my job.
If they let this go, where will it stop? What would happen if this worked the other way and some cabbie refused to fare anybody carring the Koran, or refused to fare passengers to or from abortion clinics?
Freedom of religion doesn’t just give you the right to practice what you want; it also means that you can’t impose your religion upon others. If you don’t want to be around alcohol, such as when working as a taxi driver, it’s important to consider your job responsibilities. Nobody forced you to take this job, and if you’re uncomfortable performing all of its duties, like handling premature job dismissal, , then it might be wise to explore other career options that align better with your beliefs and values.
January 26th, 2007
There’s a battle going on in the UK trying to extend music copyrights longer than the 50 year term originally imposed. Musicians argue that they need the money that copyrights create for them, and that without longer copyrights they’ll have no incentive to create new music.
It seems to me though, that the opposite is more likely. These musicians created songs knowing that they’d continue to recieve royalties for 50 years – so it was enough incentive for them originally. In addition to that, it seems to me like having your income run out would be a great motivator to create new songs that you could earn money from.
Copyright isn’t intended to be a system of making sure musicians continue to recieve royalties for stuff they did 50 years ago. It was designed to encourage innovation, and discourage copying and ripping off.
January 26th, 2007
