With the failure of Proposition 19 in California came the loss hope among many citizens of the Golden State to be legally practicing one of their “recreational” hobbies. Many still wonder, what is the big deal about legalizing the use of the substance as some of our colleagues in Europe have?
The common thought is, if we legalize marijuana like tobacco and alcohol, then there will not be as many problems, right? Right? Well, let me say this in my best Texan. Just ‘cause you change the look of something, don’t mean it’s right. In so many different areas, there is a search to make something look better by changing the wording of it.
As “political correctness” takes over we can suffer a compromise that will hurt us on the long run. Take, for example, the little controversy of patent trolls in the business arena.
Patent trolls consist of companies who have obtained patent licenses with the sole intent to use them as a pistol aimed at bigger businesses that might have infringed on the patent in order to bring a lawsuit against them for compensation.
Now, one red flag of a patent troll is that the business has not manufactured the patented item and will never do so. Some uproar has come as a result of this practice and many are taking sides.
In an attempt to downplay this unethical practice is to refer to them, not as patent trolls, but rather, “non-practicing entities”. As in, “We choose not to implement the objects of our patents.” That’s like saying, “I’m a non-practicing dieter”.
Whatever the case may be, if it quacks like a duck, walks like a duck, and has feathers like a duck then it’s a duck.
The New “Romeo and Juliet” Law in Texas
June 7th, 2011A new law has just been passed in Texas that is sure to ruffle some feathers, particularly for social conservatives. Really it’s more of an amendment to existing law and I’m not sure where I stand on this one. It’s been nicknamed the Romeo and Juliet law. It basically lowers the age of consent for teenagers from eighteen to fifteen and protects the consensual partner from prosecution on statutory rape charges, through the age of nineteen. Here’s the upside: under the current law, anyone who had sex in high school or immediately out of school who happened to be at least eighteen and had sex with a younger student could be prosecuted and wind up on the state sex offender list indefinitely. Obviously, this precludes him or her from all kinds of work, and will follow the offender where ever they go. It also inflates the sex offender numbers making it difficult to distinguish a potential threat from someone who merely made a mistake as an adolescent.
We’ve all heard horror stories about young people being put on the state’s list, despite eventually marrying their “victims.” I don’t know how often that kind of thing happens, but I don’t deem anyone who had sex as an adolescent to be a threat to my loved ones. Of course many social conservatives (with whom I often agree mind you), will argue that this merely continues to make society more permissive. Now, I’m willing to be taken to task on this but, I really don’t think this legal change is going to result in increased promiscuity. How many teens are really holding off on sex due to the threat of prosecution? All the new law really does is highlight the unfortunate lais·sez-faireapproach to sexuality that is predominate in our society. It’s not government’s job to inculcate values into our families. An old governmental principle states that a leader should never make a law he is unable to enforce. That’s what the statutory rape laws had become, largely unenforceable. As I see it, all the state of Texas did, was make the law enforceable.
Tags: Adolescent, Age Of Consent, Feathers, Horror Stories, Lais, Mistake, Principle States, Promiscuity, Prosecution, Rape Charges, Romeo And Juliet, Romeo And Juliet Law, Romeo Juliet, Sex Numbers, Sex Offender List, Sex School, Sexuality, Social Conservatives, Statutory Rape Laws, Teenagers, Texas romeo and juliet law, Tyler Texas
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