BLACKOUT: OPPOSE SOPA and PIPA
Paint It Black: 7 Ways You Can Protest SOPA and PIPA
Right Now the US Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open Internet. For at least twenty-four hours, TO RAISE AWARENESS, I will remain offline, and ask you you to do the same. Phone people; don't use email. Don't browse. Don't click on ads. Don't shop. TRY TO REMAIN OFFLINE.Labels: Blacklist, Censorship, Freedom of Information, Law, PIPA, Politics, Protest, SOPA
# posted by j @ 10:56 et / | 
22-Year-Old Sells Virginity Online
«A 22-year-old woman is selling her virginity online — offering her body to bidders nationwide in an auction that reportedly has netted a US$3,7 million offer — and the law
isn't doing [fortunately can't do] a thing to stop her.»
Read more at
Fox NewsNote: from 15 January 2009Labels: Law, News, Sexuality
# posted by j @ 15:34 et / |
Australia town bans bottled water
A rural town in Australia has voted overwhelmingly to ban the sale of bottled water over concerns about its environmental impact. And it sounds like a rather brilliant idea.
Read more
here.
Labels: Law, Nature
# posted by j @ 00:44 et / |
New Mexico votes to repeal death penalty
Earlier today, Friday, 13 March 2009, the New Mexico Senate voted 24-18 to repeal the death penalty in New Mexico and replace it with a sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole. House Bill 285 passed the house of representatives last month and now goes to Governor
Bill Richardson for his signature. When Governor Richardson signs this bill, New mexico will become the second state in as many years to legislatively abolish the death penalty.
Labels: Law, Politics
# posted by j @ 16:43 et / |
UN split over homosexuality laws
By
Laura Trevelyan BBC News, United Nations
Sixty-six countries at the United Nations have called for homosexuality to be decriminalised. The countries signed a declaration sponsored by France and the Netherlands demanding and end to legal punishment based on sexual orientation.
Sixty other countries of the UN's 192 member states, including a number of Arab and African states, rejected the non-binding declaration.
They said laws on homosexuality should be left to individual countries.
Gay men, lesbians and transsexuals worldwide face daily violations of their human rights.
Homosexuality is a criminal offence in more than 80 countries, while in at least seven nations, including Saudi Arabia, sex between men can be punished with the death penalty.
Considerable opposition This month marks the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the French and Dutch governments are using this to highlight discrimination against homosexuals.
Their statement calls for an end to the execution, arrest and detention of homosexuals and transexuals.
The Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen said it was a significant declaration.
Yet there is considerable opposition to this at the UN. Socially conservative countries in the Arab world and in Africa did not want anything to do with it.
Syria spoke on behalf of 60 countries, arguing that domestic laws should be respected, and claiming the declaration could legitimise deplorable acts including paedophilia.
The US was the only major Western nation not to sign the declaration. Even though the US Supreme Court has ruled that states cannot make homosexuality a crime, diplomats claimed the declaration was not compatible with the division between between state and federal law.
France and the Netherlands hope more countries will sign up to the declaration in the future.
Story from BBC NEWS
© BBC MMVIIILabels: GLBT Interest, International Affairs, Law, Politics, Sexuality, UN
# posted by j @ 23:49 et / |
