I'm giving a talk soon at a conference organized to honor my colleague Bernard Oxman. My talk has one of those titles I would never have expected to be speaking about: “What the Law of the Sea Teaches Us About the Regulation of the Information Ocean.”
If the audience doesn't throw too much, I may post a preliminary text later.
Local uber-blog Stuck on the Palmetto reported it first: Book Banning: Business As Usual In Miami-Dade County (UPDATED).
It seems some parents are tired of waiting for the school board to hear their complaints, so they are seizing copies of a book that is insufficiently anti-Cuban for their tastes from right off the school shelves. Not state action here — pure vigilantism.
And the Herald got there eventually.
Senator Gordon Smith R-OR) sinks to a new low in voter relations.
Having two self-described little old ladies arrested when they visit your office and ask to see you seems like an odd way to treat your constituents.
A good rant from The Carpetbagger Report about the media's tendency to focus on trivia at the expense of what matters.
Read it, then help me out: is this the modern equivalent of bread and circuses? Or the opiate (or is that Oprahate?) of the masses?
The University of Miami sent me the following helpful reminder (I added the photo for local color):
The natural Florida habitat and crocodiles at UM
Eight hundred to 1,000 wild American crocodiles live in the southern tip of the Florida peninsula; occasionally, one of these reptiles visits Lake Osceola on the Coral Gables campus. The University of Miami Police Department, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and other University administrators have been closely monitoring the on-campus crocodile situation over the past few years. Attempts have been made on several occasions-some successful-to capture and relocate individual crocodiles to more suitable off-campus habitats. In addition, crocodile barriers have been erected in several locations to impede the reptiles from coming on campus.
The real issue is that South Florida is a natural habitat for crocodiles. The more the crocodile population recovers from the brink of extinction and the more humans encroach on their natural habitat, the more instances there will be of human-crocodile interactions. Crocodiles are very mobile in South Florida waterways, so the number in Lake Osceola is constantly changing and sometimes at zero. The good news is that if you show them respect and keep your distance, there is no need to worry. American crocodiles are a rather shy species of reptiles. So long as the University community respects the crocodiles' space and doesn't attempt to feed or harass them, there should be no problems. There is no record of the American crocodile attacking a human in Florida. Crocodiles are a federally protected, endangered species, and feeding, harassing, or otherwise harming them is a felony. If you see a crocodile on shore on campus, keep your distance and call UM Police at 305-284-1105. Further information on the American crocodile is available at www.myfwc.com, www.miami.edu/police, or through the UM Police Crime Prevention Office at 305-284-1105.
Shorter UM Reminder: Do not pet the crocodiles.
It's bad enough to read that the state GOP — or at least the ones in the state House of Representatives (ie. the most right-wing ones at present), want to eliminate property taxes and instead increase the sales tax (which is a regressive tax). I would like to dismiss this as posturing, but there are three reasons why I can't.
1) The proposal is to make the change via a ballot proposition to chance the state constitution. Anything can happen, especially if it is dressed up as a tax cut.
2) State property tax receipts are tanking, so the state will be out hunting for more revenue.
3) This is Florida.
Jotwell Blenderlaw
