1.) Cage-Free Hens
In the U.S. market, Steve Easterbrook launched McDonald's successful All Day Breakfast, removed high fructose corn syrup from the company's buns, ended the use of antibiotics in the company's chickens and embarked on a 10-year plan to liberate the birds from the cages in which they long have been confined. Chickens and eggs account for 50 percent of the items on the menu. "The terms that are important now are 'antibiotic and hormone-free,' 'natural and organic.' " "Right now only 13 million of the company's 2 billion U.S. eggs are cage-free." [1]
"Cage-free birds suffered twice the fatality rate of caged and enriched birds, according to [a] study." "Free birds also required more feed." "The egg-per-uncaged-hen average lagged because of the elevated mortality and the birds' tendency to lay eggs on the floor. Hens from enriched cages provided the most [eggs]."
"The transition to fully cage-free production will be lengthy. Henhouses have an average life span of 30 years." Constructing a cage-free henhouse tends to be three times as much as a caged version, according to estimates by United Egg Producers.
2.) Ballot Box and Bathroom Discrimination
The GOP majority in the North Carolina legislature commissioned a study into African American voting patterns and then crafted House Bill 589, which dramatically cut back ballot access in North Carolina, reducing the number of early voting days, requiring photo ID, and eliminating same-day registration, out-of-precinct voting (aimed at college students), and a preregistration program for 16-and 17- year-olds. "Black voters are three times more likely to have transportation issues than whites. They make up a disproportionate share of those lacking ID, and many of them vote on early-voting Sundays. [2]
Art Pope, the GOP's chief fundraiser, did indeed, REDMAP the state, redistricting legislative and congressional districts. Despite the GOP's lock on the Statehouse, North Carolina is still more Democratic than Republican.
Two days after the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down -- by a 3-0 vote -- HB 589, the same court would rule that 28 of the North Carolina's 170 state legislative districts were unconstitutional "racial gerrymanders." "Race was the predominant factor motivating the drawing of all challenged districts," the court found, creating "one of the largest restrictions of the franchise in modern North Carolina history."
Although Republicans like to claim that they believe that the government closest to the people governs best, they often do not honor that claimed belief. The HB2 legislation mandating bathroom use based on the gender on the birth certificate, was in response to an anti-discrimination statute that Charlotte had passed protecting trans peoples' right to use the bathroom of their choice. Critics of the General Assembly say over-and-over that hard-won victories at the local level are squashed at the state level.
ADDENDUMS:
*On November 10, 1898, a coup d' etat took place on United States soil. It was perpetrated by a gang of white-supremacist Democrats in Wilmington, North Carolina." "By the end of the day, they had killed somewhere between fourteen and sixty black men and banished twenty more, meanwhile forcing the mayor, the police chief, and the members of the board of aldermen to resign." [3]
*"Most porn is viewed on easily accessible 'tube sites,' such as YouPorn, Red Tube, X Videos, and Pornhub." "According to a recent CNBC report, seventy per cent of American online-porn access occurs during the nine-to five workday." In 2014, Pornhub alone had seventy-eight billion page views and X Videos is the fifty-sixth most popular Web site in the world." [4]
"Most performers are independent contractors who get paid per sex act." "The average career is between four and six months."
*"Since 1989, eyewitness misidentification has contributed to a seventy-one per cent rate of wrongful convictions, proved by DNA testing." The British unit (London Met's police unit of "super-recognizers") uses its record of guilty pleas as evidence of the efficacy of super-recognizers, but guilty pleas are highly unreliable indicators of actual guilt, as innocent people often plead guilty, particularly when facing charges of low-level crimes." [5]
Footnotes
[1] Beth Kowitt, "Free Bird," Fortune, September 1, 2016.
[2] Mac McClelland, "The Bathroom and the Ballot Box," Mother Jones, November/December 2016.
[3] Lauren Collins, "American Coup," The New Yorker, September 19, 2016.
[4] Katrina Forrester, "Lights. Camera. Action." The New Yorker, September 26, 2016.
[5] Letter to the editor by Karen Newirth, The New Yorker, September 26, 2016.
Showing posts with label HB2. Show all posts
Showing posts with label HB2. Show all posts
Monday, October 31, 2016
Sunday, August 14, 2016
A Big No on Abstinence Teaching; Trans Bathroom Stumbling Block; and Eyewitness Unrelibility
I. Abstinence Teaching Doesn't Work
In 2012, The Tennessee legislature passed a bill requiring everyone teaching sex education to teach abstinence as the only legitimate option and barring any discussion that could be perceived as encouragement of "gateway sexual activity." [1]
A 2011 study by the University of Georgia researchers found that states that stressed abstinence had a roughly 25 percent higher rate of teen pregnancy than states that didn't. A University of Washington study found that teens taught comprehensive sex education were 50 percent less likely to get pregnant than teens who had abstinence-only education. A study in the journal Pediatrics, published in 2009, showed that young people who took virginity pledges -- a common practice in abstinence-only programs -- were less likely to use protection when the time came. Half of all states now embrace the abstinence approach. [2]
In 2015, Tennessee enacted a law that requires sex education teachers to "inform students... concerning the process of adoption and its benefits."
The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy reported that 41 percent of 18- and 19-year olds say they know little or nothing about condoms, and 75 percent say they know little or nothing about the Pill.
II. The Unanticipated Problem of HB2
North Carolina's HB2 law requires people to use the restrooms and locker rooms of the sex shown on their birth certificates in public schools, colleges and universities, and in government buildings; also, the law bars municipalities from passing L.G.B.T.-friendly ordinances. The simple fact is that the threats to women's safety and privacy are posed by men, not trans women, "so why should trans women suffer for these men's sins?" "Ironically, the bathroom bill 'solves' an imaginary problem by creating a more realistic one, because it will force trans men to use the ladies' room!" [3]
III. Eyewitness Testimony Is Very Unreliable
In cases where an eyewitness account is the only evidence tying a person to a crime, the chance of a wrongful conviction goes up significantly. A paper published by the American Bar Association (ABA) reports that those involved in witnessing violent high-stress crimes -- especially when a weapon is used - suffer from impaired recall because their focus is diverted to the weapon, not to the face of the person holding it.
Aileen P. Clare, a Columbia, South Carolina attorney who has studied witness misidentifications, says: "Witnesses select the wrong suspect from a photo lineup roughly a quarter of the time." "When the suspect is left out of the lineup, witnesses select an innocent person more than a third of the time -- even when told the suspect may not appear in the lineup." Misidentification plays a role in more than 70 percent of convictions that are overturned by DNA. [4]
ADDENDUMS:
*A survey has found that 82 percent of Yemen's population between the ages of 18 and 24 consider the U.S. to be an enemy. Furthermore, regional experts contend that the coalition focus on targeting Houthi rebels has allowed affiliates of ISIS and Al Qaeda in Yemen to significantly expand their territories.
*The criminal justice reform legislation before Congress could be derailed by "mens rea," a legal phrase used to describe state of mind. Basically, the fight boils down to whether prosecutors should be forced to prove that someone intended to break the law, specifically when it comes to white-collar corporate crimes. The House Judiciary Committee has already moved a bill that says that when federal criminal law fails to provide a clear standard of interest, prosecutors would have to prove defendants "knew,"or had reason to believe the conduct was unlawful.
Although the Koch brothers have been credited with supporting criminal justice reform legislation, it may be the case that they are working behind the scenes to use "mens rea" to make it more difficult to prosecute corporate executives for wrongdoing.
Footnotes
[1] Becca Andrews, "Sex Negative," The Nation, April 4, 2016.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Katha Pollitt, "Discomfort Stations," The Nation, May 9/16, 2016.
[4] Diane Dimond, "Eyewitness accounts not as accurate as you think," The Albuquerque Journal, February 13, 2016.
In 2012, The Tennessee legislature passed a bill requiring everyone teaching sex education to teach abstinence as the only legitimate option and barring any discussion that could be perceived as encouragement of "gateway sexual activity." [1]
A 2011 study by the University of Georgia researchers found that states that stressed abstinence had a roughly 25 percent higher rate of teen pregnancy than states that didn't. A University of Washington study found that teens taught comprehensive sex education were 50 percent less likely to get pregnant than teens who had abstinence-only education. A study in the journal Pediatrics, published in 2009, showed that young people who took virginity pledges -- a common practice in abstinence-only programs -- were less likely to use protection when the time came. Half of all states now embrace the abstinence approach. [2]
In 2015, Tennessee enacted a law that requires sex education teachers to "inform students... concerning the process of adoption and its benefits."
The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy reported that 41 percent of 18- and 19-year olds say they know little or nothing about condoms, and 75 percent say they know little or nothing about the Pill.
II. The Unanticipated Problem of HB2
North Carolina's HB2 law requires people to use the restrooms and locker rooms of the sex shown on their birth certificates in public schools, colleges and universities, and in government buildings; also, the law bars municipalities from passing L.G.B.T.-friendly ordinances. The simple fact is that the threats to women's safety and privacy are posed by men, not trans women, "so why should trans women suffer for these men's sins?" "Ironically, the bathroom bill 'solves' an imaginary problem by creating a more realistic one, because it will force trans men to use the ladies' room!" [3]
III. Eyewitness Testimony Is Very Unreliable
In cases where an eyewitness account is the only evidence tying a person to a crime, the chance of a wrongful conviction goes up significantly. A paper published by the American Bar Association (ABA) reports that those involved in witnessing violent high-stress crimes -- especially when a weapon is used - suffer from impaired recall because their focus is diverted to the weapon, not to the face of the person holding it.
Aileen P. Clare, a Columbia, South Carolina attorney who has studied witness misidentifications, says: "Witnesses select the wrong suspect from a photo lineup roughly a quarter of the time." "When the suspect is left out of the lineup, witnesses select an innocent person more than a third of the time -- even when told the suspect may not appear in the lineup." Misidentification plays a role in more than 70 percent of convictions that are overturned by DNA. [4]
ADDENDUMS:
*A survey has found that 82 percent of Yemen's population between the ages of 18 and 24 consider the U.S. to be an enemy. Furthermore, regional experts contend that the coalition focus on targeting Houthi rebels has allowed affiliates of ISIS and Al Qaeda in Yemen to significantly expand their territories.
*The criminal justice reform legislation before Congress could be derailed by "mens rea," a legal phrase used to describe state of mind. Basically, the fight boils down to whether prosecutors should be forced to prove that someone intended to break the law, specifically when it comes to white-collar corporate crimes. The House Judiciary Committee has already moved a bill that says that when federal criminal law fails to provide a clear standard of interest, prosecutors would have to prove defendants "knew,"or had reason to believe the conduct was unlawful.
Although the Koch brothers have been credited with supporting criminal justice reform legislation, it may be the case that they are working behind the scenes to use "mens rea" to make it more difficult to prosecute corporate executives for wrongdoing.
Footnotes
[1] Becca Andrews, "Sex Negative," The Nation, April 4, 2016.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Katha Pollitt, "Discomfort Stations," The Nation, May 9/16, 2016.
[4] Diane Dimond, "Eyewitness accounts not as accurate as you think," The Albuquerque Journal, February 13, 2016.
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