25 Jan 2007
Cabbies refuse customers carrying booze

OK, this got me steamed. Just like the pharmacists who refuse to provide birth control, these boneheads have confused the ideals of religious freedom with the idiotic notion that the world owes them a living on their terms, no matter what.

Applying a bit of reductio ad absurdum might be instructive: Pentecostal cabbies won't have to haul folks from dances and not have the company can'em. Christian Scientist cops won't have to call the paramedics and they'd still be walking the beat. Hindus could demand jobs at McDonalds even though they refuse to touch the beef ...

It's one thing to own your own business and refuse to serve somebody: Hel, I've done that! And that's my absolute right - it is, after all, my business. But for an employee to think they should keep their job for after refusing to perform their assigned duties (be it hauling fares or selling pills) is moronic. If you don't like what your job requires you to do, find another job. And if you you don't do your job and get fired because of it, don't come crying about "religious freedom" ... you're just belittling those who really are persecuted unfairly for their beliefs.

In the past five years, 5,400 would-be taxi passengers at the [Minneapolis-St.Paul] airport were refused service for this very reason, said the Metropolitan Airport Commission, or MAC. Last May, passenger Bob Dildine says he waited for 20 minutes, and five cab drivers would not give him and his daughter a ride. He was carrying wine he bought on vacation.

(link) [CNN.com]

20:35 /Politics | 3 comments | permanent link

Premises registration will minimize losses, says Knight

Note that there's no explanation of exactly how NAIS is going to stop disease, only the bland assurance that it will "help". How? Sarpy Sam did a great little riff on this fallacy the other day.

As for the simplicity of premises registration, well, the government already has my premises "registered": I file farm tax forms every single year. The county health department issues me a license. The Indiana State Egg Board issues me a license - and I always have to list my address. Do I really have to fill out another form ...

Well, maybe not - according to Mr. Knight, it's all "voluntary". I just wonder if the USDA's definition of that word matches the IRS's. Betcha it does.

Bruce Knight, USDA undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs, urged livestock producers attending the American Farm Bureau Federation s 88th annual meeting to participate in a voluntary nationwide program that could help prevent an animal disease outbreak from becoming widespread.

(link) [The Prairie Star]

07:17 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

iPhone trademarks: the real issues

A really good primer on the vagaries of trademark law, and why Apple may have a case after all.

Apple's iPhone announcement and Cisco's iPhone trademark lawsuit has brought the iPhone moniker into the spotlight. But other companies also own and use iPhone trademarks, and market and sell their iPhone products. Mark Rasch explains how U.S. trademark law works and the real issues at play in this highly publicized trademark dispute. This is sort of 'reverse trademark confusion'.

(link) [The Register]

07:05 /Copywrongs | 0 comments | permanent link