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Wednesday, February 17, 2016
May The Odds Be Ever In Your Favor
Posted by Alan at
12:06 AM |
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Thursday, February 27, 2014
Case Against Party Planner Refusing To Serve Gun Club Heads To The Supreme Court
(Roiters) Baltimore Gun Club v. Stroud has landed on this year's United States Supreme Court docket.
In June last year, members of the Baltimore Gun Club approached freelance party planner Celine Stroud to organize a party planned in honor of the upcoming fifth anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller, the landmark case that struck down several Federal firearms laws and held that the Second Amendment protects the individual's right to possess a firearm. Stroud refused, stating that she could not in good conscience participate in a festivity celebrating an event she rigorously opposed.
The club hired a different party planner, and days after the event filed a discrimination suit against Stroud. The Maryland Commission on Civil Rights ruled that Stroud had violated state anti-discrimination law and ordered Stroud to pay several thousand in attorneys’ fees to the plaintiffs. The Maryland Supreme Court upheld the decision, and Stroud successfully appealed the U. S. Supreme Court, which will hear the case in early May.
Stroud claims that the ruling violates her First Amendment free speech rights. "Party planners aren't like the pizza delivery guy who just drops off food and goes away. We work with the client to put the event together, to create the activities and entertainment and atmosphere the client wants. We - along with cake bakers, entertainers, photographers, and the like - are essentially paid to be part of the celebration. It is unconscionable for the government to determine what its citizens must celebrate."
Her legal team cites Wooley v. Maynard as the key to her defense. The 1977 decision ruled that a state cannot compel motorists against their will to display a state motto (in this case, New Hampshire's "Live Free or Die") on their motor vehicle license plates. An amicus filed regarding a similar case, also also citing Wooley, stating that "speech compulsions are generally as unconstitutional as speech restrictions," and that such a compulsion "invades the sphere of intellect and spirit which it is the purpose of the First Amendment to our Constitution to reserve from all official control...Creating expression...requires sympathy with the intellectual or emotional message that the expression conveys, or at least absence of disagreement with such a message."
Stroud complains about media misreporting of the case. "The talking heads keep saying I'm discriminating against gun rights supporters. I'm not. I've planned parties for some of the club members in the past. I am discriminating against a certain type of event."
Musician Ted Nugent quipped to one reporter that if she loses her case, Piers Morgan should buy out her business. "Second Amendment patriots are boycotting him, so that way she doesn't have to do any more RKBA parties."
Posted by Alan at
9:00 AM |
In June last year, members of the Baltimore Gun Club approached freelance party planner Celine Stroud to organize a party planned in honor of the upcoming fifth anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller, the landmark case that struck down several Federal firearms laws and held that the Second Amendment protects the individual's right to possess a firearm. Stroud refused, stating that she could not in good conscience participate in a festivity celebrating an event she rigorously opposed.
The club hired a different party planner, and days after the event filed a discrimination suit against Stroud. The Maryland Commission on Civil Rights ruled that Stroud had violated state anti-discrimination law and ordered Stroud to pay several thousand in attorneys’ fees to the plaintiffs. The Maryland Supreme Court upheld the decision, and Stroud successfully appealed the U. S. Supreme Court, which will hear the case in early May.
Stroud claims that the ruling violates her First Amendment free speech rights. "Party planners aren't like the pizza delivery guy who just drops off food and goes away. We work with the client to put the event together, to create the activities and entertainment and atmosphere the client wants. We - along with cake bakers, entertainers, photographers, and the like - are essentially paid to be part of the celebration. It is unconscionable for the government to determine what its citizens must celebrate."
Her legal team cites Wooley v. Maynard as the key to her defense. The 1977 decision ruled that a state cannot compel motorists against their will to display a state motto (in this case, New Hampshire's "Live Free or Die") on their motor vehicle license plates. An amicus filed regarding a similar case, also also citing Wooley, stating that "speech compulsions are generally as unconstitutional as speech restrictions," and that such a compulsion "invades the sphere of intellect and spirit which it is the purpose of the First Amendment to our Constitution to reserve from all official control...Creating expression...requires sympathy with the intellectual or emotional message that the expression conveys, or at least absence of disagreement with such a message."
Stroud complains about media misreporting of the case. "The talking heads keep saying I'm discriminating against gun rights supporters. I'm not. I've planned parties for some of the club members in the past. I am discriminating against a certain type of event."
Musician Ted Nugent quipped to one reporter that if she loses her case, Piers Morgan should buy out her business. "Second Amendment patriots are boycotting him, so that way she doesn't have to do any more RKBA parties."
Sunday, May 26, 2013
Great Britain Needs A Dose Of Cultural Subversion
On 9/11 Todd Beamer led several ordinary citizens to thwart the objective of the hijackers of United Airlines Flight 93. Last Wednesday, two jihadists hacked to death Drummer Lee Rigby of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers - and stayed at the scene for 20 minutes as passers-by stood around and did nothing.
How did British citizens become such a passive lot? How can they rediscover their inner Todd Beamer? Changing a culture is a long drawn-out process, but I have one idea that might contribute a little spark.
Television can be a powerful tool. Somebody could create a program that celebrates the virtues associated with heroism. Make its protagonist a technologically-savvy eccentric who travels in a conveyance not registered with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency. He would find himself constantly stumbling into all sorts of nefarious intrigues, fighting racial supremacists, totalitarian regimes, politicians, soldiers, organized crime syndicates, ferocious wildlife, megalomaniacs, mad scientists, megalomaniac mad scientists, and even a broadcasting executive.
He would attract a wide array of associates, most with ordinary backgrounds: a school teacher or two, secretary, freelance journalist, flight attendant, juvenile delinquent, department store clerk. The protagonist would attract these companions, knowing that most lack any formal training that could prepare them to face the dangers he faces, but trusting that they, like himself, can improvise solutions. They would contact the authorities when possible, but then the authorities are not around, or find themselves at a disadvantage, the protagonist and his companions would take up the fight themselves. Like Todd Beamer.
What would such a show look like? And how would one get such a show past the BBC brass?
Posted by Alan at
12:14 PM |
How did British citizens become such a passive lot? How can they rediscover their inner Todd Beamer? Changing a culture is a long drawn-out process, but I have one idea that might contribute a little spark.
Television can be a powerful tool. Somebody could create a program that celebrates the virtues associated with heroism. Make its protagonist a technologically-savvy eccentric who travels in a conveyance not registered with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency. He would find himself constantly stumbling into all sorts of nefarious intrigues, fighting racial supremacists, totalitarian regimes, politicians, soldiers, organized crime syndicates, ferocious wildlife, megalomaniacs, mad scientists, megalomaniac mad scientists, and even a broadcasting executive.
He would attract a wide array of associates, most with ordinary backgrounds: a school teacher or two, secretary, freelance journalist, flight attendant, juvenile delinquent, department store clerk. The protagonist would attract these companions, knowing that most lack any formal training that could prepare them to face the dangers he faces, but trusting that they, like himself, can improvise solutions. They would contact the authorities when possible, but then the authorities are not around, or find themselves at a disadvantage, the protagonist and his companions would take up the fight themselves. Like Todd Beamer.
What would such a show look like? And how would one get such a show past the BBC brass?
Labels: Satire
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