First Amendment

A sign that our nation may be maturing; more groups are beginning to insist our leadership skip breakfast—national prayer breakfast. The biographies compiled by CongressDotOrg show that our leadership has overwhelming stated their religious affiliation as Christian based—with less than 10 using the "not stated" or "not affiliated" categories.

Where is the "nontheist" category—do we really have zero leadership that believe they and they alone in concert with their Christian colleagues are responsible for guiding our nation? If true, that alone could explain a lot of our current predicament—if untrue, who are they?

Web: NYT, National Prayer Breakfast Draws Controversy

Originally Published August 12, 2009; Last Updated February 03, 2010; Last Republished February 03, 2010:

Hey France, we have more important things to work on than what clothing is appropriate for women (or men) to wear or not to wear in a public environment¹.

Subject to bare minimum² (pun alert) rules on public health, safety, and lawful identity requests by authorities a person must be able to wear or not wear whatever amount and type of clothing makes them comfortable³.

Fortunately, most accommodate the wide public preferences without much fuss even when those preferences do not reflect the bare minimum. But, we should also accommodate and accept the fussy—whether that's a burkini or bikini.

Web:

• UPDATED 02/03/2010 BBC, France bars citizenship over veil.

  It seems useful to distinguish between ensuring all women function as autonomous individuals in all their decisions and dictating what an autonomous woman chooses to wear.

  Of course for women to function autonomously they must be taught—this may be what France is trying to accomplish using an ineffective method?

  It seems useful to point out that some segments of our own society vehemently oppose women's rights to function autonomously and assert they should be subservient to others. You won't see a burka, hajib, niqab, al-amira, shayla, khimar, or chandor but the oppression and coercion is very real.

  The article includes a nice graphic showing the various types of scarves primarily worn by Muslim women.

• UPDATED 08/15/2009 BBC, French minister urges burka ban.

  The French minister, Fadela Amara does not provide the supporting logic and evidence for her assertion that a law banning the wearing of the burka in France would help stem the spread of the "cancer" of radical Islam.

  Unfortunately, the French minister is likely exactly 180^o incorrect in her assertion that a burka ban will be helpful. In fact a very strong case can be made that her assertion is every bit as oppressive as the derigueur demanded or imposed on women by the male dominated tribal religion of Islam.

  Ensuring the education of all women worldwide will likely accomplish what the French minister's proposed burka ban will not—and a whole lot more!

  One can certainly understand the frustration of the mostly educated and always enlightening French women when lesser educated women engage in obsequious (wearing a burka is only one of the many expressions) behavior—however, they above all must know that a law banning a burka is not helpful. In fact it makes about as much sense as a law mandating the wearing of a bikini or jock strap.

  Stated in the context of the French minister's assertion; it's not the law that will empower women to cease their obsequious adorning of a burka but their education. Of course that may imply changes that the French minister is less enthusiastic about⁴?

• Muslim Swimsuit Draws French Ban

-----notes-----

1. As opposed to private; prison; or contractual and consensual organization; (e.g. military, clubs, boy-girl scouts, police, judge etcetera) environments.

2. Authorities are nothing if not infinite generators of justification for rules, especially those relating in any way to sexuality. Bare minimum means birth clothing unless absolutely and scientifically necessary for identity, health and safety.

So for example France's "strict hygiene standards" forbidding the wearing of a burkini at a public pool is not "bare minimum"—neither is an American judge's rule prohibiting the wearing of a bikini in court.

As an aside I recently observed an American courtroom clerk request a male to remove his hat while permitting a female to continue wearing a multi-colored knitted scarf like cap during the same proceeding.

3. There are American communities, which are "bare minimum" tolerant. The occasional naked walkers, bikers, runners, and protesters are ignored—as are those wearing clown clothing, jeans, avante garde, and haute couture.

4. Some nations with higher standards of living often seek to sustain their standard of living by failing to invest in their immigrant population (at the other extreme are those nations requiring college level job ready skills and a job offer for their immigrants).

Nations adopting a low investment immigrant strategy often resort to draconian laws aimed at the immigrant population—their unspoken reasoning is that it's cheaper and does not defeat the purpose of allowing them to immigrate in the first place.

Of course as their jails fill up and incarceration costs sky rocket the nation’s leadership begin rethinking their "low cost" immigration strategy—especially if the nation is a “democracy” following the rule-of-law and their judges begin mandating how much more they must spend on prisoners to meet minimum standards.

Last week our Supreme Court decided Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, a monstrous 5-4 opinion unconvincingly¹ characterizing our corporations as associations of citizens entitled to First Amendment political speech rights, limited only by disclaimer and disclosure requirements.

The majority seems to have conflated the regulatory process applicable to our corporations with the political process applicable to our citizens. Evidently, an interest to protect is sufficient for the majority to guarantee our corporations First Amendment rights in our political process.

That said one can only hope for such a simplified, expansive, and unlimited approach for all First Amendment case law—call it the return to ancient First Amendment principles approach to First Amendment case law.

-----notes-----

1. Many have viewed the decision as an unreasoned political polemic, which further dulls our Supreme Court's patina of credibility.

An American judge that feels compelled to decorate his courtroom with the 10 commandments likely does not have the required judicial temperament to be a judge and should be remove from the bench. This is particularly true for any judge redecorating their courtroom with the 10 commandments after their initial 10 commandments decoration was declared unconstitutional and ordered removed. Any new removal order should include removing the Richland Common Plea Court (RCPC) Seal from the RCPC website too.

RCPC Website Seal1

Although a judge may personally choose to live by the 10 commandments, nobody appearing before that judge should have even the slightest impression that she thinks they should too.

Web:

• UPDATED 01/29/2010 Examiner, Ohio judge sued for pushing religion in court
• UPI, Judge goes to court over 10 Commandments

-----notes-----

1. The statement "With God All Things Are Possible" is factually incorrect; the statement presumes God needs or has a spokesman; the statement presumes God has not made some things impossible (e.g. proving or disproving God); the statement presumes that God exists; the statement presumes that God does things; the statement presumes God uses the concepts of possible and impossible; the statement cannot be proved or disproved...

The ACLU has filed a speech case that reveals how far we are from realizing the full potential and promise of our beautiful First Amendment. Our nation, the world's preeminent defender and champion of free speech, is in the relative Dark Ages. Colonel Morris Davis, a former Guantanamo prosecutor, expressed his personal opinion on issues related to trials for Guantanamo detainees and related matters. He was fired from his job at the Library of Congress, Congressional Research Service for his public personal expressions (others may have judged his expressions unacceptable, incorrect, or inconsistent or too political etcetera).

You simply do not have free speech rights if you can be fired or denied a job or denied advancement or denied anything or punished in any way because your public personal expressions may be diverse, divergent, inconsistent, incongruent, or incompatible from your employer's.

Kudos to the ACLU for pursuing this case—the issue shouldn't be whether Colonel Morris Davis' employer has adequately documented its ability to restrict his personal public expressions as a condition of employment, but whether such conditions were they to be clearly and boldly documented are nevertheless void as a matter of constitutional law and public policy. All such conditions, express or implied should absolutely be void.

To suggest that Colonel Morris Davis cannot have publicly diverse, divergent, inconsistent, incongruent, or incompatible personal expressions from his employer's is to treat Colonel Davis like a monkey and his employer like an organ grinder.

Web: ACLU Sues Library Of Congress On Behalf Of Former Guantánamo Prosecutor

Blog: FAS SP, ACLU Files Suit on Behalf of Fired CRS Official

Originally Published February 12, 2008; Last Updated January 01, 2010; Last Republished January 01, 2010:

Danish intelligence uncovers a three five person (one Dane, two Tunisians, all Muslim) murder plot aimed at killing the cartoonist parodying the violence advocated in the name of the prophet Mohammad.

The cartoons were published by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in 2005 2006 (click on cartoon to view all twelve cartoons):

Web:

• UPDATED 01/01/2010 UPI, Intruder at Danish cartoonist's home shot and BBC, Somali charged over attack on Danish.

  Another unbalanced immature assassin triggers republishing of Mohammad Cartoons.

• UPDATED 02/13/2008 AFP, 17 Danish newspapers print controversial Mohammad cartoon
• UPDATED 02/13/2008 UPI, Danish papers rally around cartoonist
• UPDATED 02/12/2008 NYT, 3 Arrested in Plot to Kill Cartoonist
• UPI, Danes break up cartoon-linked terror plot

Here are the top ten Lunog¹ posts created in 2009, in descending order (most views too least):

1. Submarine USS Hartford SSN 768 Collides
2. Iran 2009 Election Post Khamenei Speech
3. Still Managing The Tiananmen Student Massacre Fallout
4. Virginia Class Submarine - Defense Authorization FY10
5. Memorial Day 2009
6. Kangaroo Kommission Kickoff Update-32
7. Fathers' Day 2009 - In Support of Iranians
8. China Provokes US Hosing And Formal Protest
9. Mohamed v. Jeppesen Dataplan - Ninth Circuit
10. United States Navy Joins Air France Flight 447 Search
11. The border case²

Happy New Years!

-----notes-----

1. Lunog holds individual blogs GNU/Linux, First, Halibut, Misblog, LCB, Blogenomic, Toowiki.

2. Australian SEA 1000 Submarine Program Manager Named

Originally Published November 07, 2006; Last Updated January 07, 2010; Last Republished December 31, 2009:

Today, Reporters without Borders has published its list (2006 data see below for 2009) of countries with the worst records of censoring the internet:

Belarus Burma China Cuba Egypt Iran North Korea

Saudi Arabia Syria Tunisia Turkmenistan Uzbekistan Vietnam

Three countries have been removed from the list; Libya, Maldives, and Nepal.

Reporters without Borders has launch the internet campaign "24 hours against Internet censorship" to protest and highlight the 13 countries remaining on the internet censorship list.

Web:

• UPDATED 01/07/2010 UPIAsia, China reins in cyberspace – again.

• UPDATED 03/18/2009 UPIAsia, China warns against 'cyber mafia'.

  China's communist party leaders imagine a cyber-mafia; by which it means Internet content inconsistent with its perception of itself.

  Not surprisingly the imagined "cyber-mafia" is quiet large and posts quite a bit of Internet content about the authoritarian Chinese Communist Party's that is inconsistent with its self-perception.

• UPDATED 03/18/2009 Sydney Morning Herald, Banned hyperlinks could cost you $11,000 a day.

  Perhaps Australia should be put on the list of countries to watch? The Australian Communications and Media Authority recently added the transparency site Wikileaks to its "censorship list" and then threatened to fine sites linking to Wikileaks!

  Shame on Australia and Australians if they tolerate ACMA's anti-speech and censorship behavior!

  "We are not. The Government is embarking on a deeply unpopular and troubling experiment to fine-tune its ability to censor the internet.

  "I agree with Reporters Without Borders. If you consider this kind of net censorship in the context of Australia's anti-terror laws, it paints a disturbing picture indeed."--Australian Senator Scott Ludlam--

  • Dentist, animal carer websites blacklisted in internet censorship debacle
  • SMH, Leaked Australian blacklist reveals banned sites
  • ZDNet Australia, Claimed blacklist spreads on internet

  • UPDATED 03/20/2009 Wikileaks, Australian government secret ACMA internet censorship blacklist, 6 Aug 2008

    • UK Register, US prof undermines foundations of Aussie firewall
      Derek Bambauer, Assistant Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School has a general guide to legitimacy of an internet censorship blacklist process:

      "Legitimate censorship is open; transparent about what is banned; effective, yet narrowly targeted; and responsive to the preferences of each state’s citizens"--Register quoting Derek Bambauer--

      It is useful to clarify Bambauer's general statement to ensure no other alternative to censorship exists and to assert a citizen's preference should be controlling and determinative. If a citizen's preference violates a law arrest in accordance with the rule-of-law, not censorship is the remedy.

• UPDATED 03/12/2009 Reporters Without Borders 2009 Censoring Countries

  Countries (2009) Actively and Aggressively Impeding or Censoring Unrestricted Internet Information Flows (in alphabetical order):

  Belarus, Burma, China, Cuba, Iran, Libya, The Maldives, Nepal, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam

  Countries (2009) Favoring Actively and Aggressively Impeding or Censoring Unrestricted Internet Information Flows (in alphabetical order):

  Bahrain, Egypt, European Union, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, United States, Zimbabwe

  Remarkably our country whose lode-star is our First Amendment finds itself on the list of countries to watch!

  It's easy to maintain free speech and press when nobody can hear or read—when everybody can hear and read, we'll that's going to be a huge, even in America!

  It will take our governments awhile to learn to govern in an environment of unrestricted information flows—but our governments and our world will dramatically improve when all governments must so govern.

  Governments that specialize in looting, war, and oppression will have a shorter and shorter half-life. It's probably not a coincidence that these are the governments most intent on restricting information flows.

• UPDATED 06/06/2007 Censorship 'changes face of net'

State capitol administrators in Springfield, Illinois, to their credit, permit a variety of "displays and messages" during the winter holidays1. One display from the nontheist advocacy group Freedom From Religion Foundation included the message:

Illinois Capitol

"At the time of the winter solstice, let reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is just myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds."--UPI quoting Display Message--

A local resident and candidate for comptroller decided the message should be removed and received a police escorted from the capitol building.

Monotheists displeased by a nontheist message should recall their own first century biblical history. That history includes polytheistic Roman authorities not just expressing displeasure and escorting the monotheists from the building. But, escorting them into a public arena so they the ruling elites and their obsequious public could delight in the barbaric killing of the monotheists.

Based on history you might suppose monotheists would understand and empathize with nontheists—they're simply advocating a further reduction in the theist number.

Web: UPI, Illinois police protect atheist sign

-----notes-----

1. The hassles and headaches of trying to achieve a neutral balance (see ACLU's Allegheny County v. Greater Pittsburgh ACLU, 492 US 573, 1989) between vying holiday messages can be daunting—it's nice some administrators persist in permitting holiday displays and messages.

The recent and ongoing efforts by some of our Supreme Court justices to endowed our government with religious-free-speech rights notwithstanding.

Originally Published October 14, 2008; Last Updated December 31, 2009; Last Republished December 15, 2009:

"Experts say U.S. teenagers who post nude photos of themselves on the Internet or send them out in e-mails do not realize how public they can become."--UPI--

Wonder if our teens do realize how public their nudity is and are simply rejecting the alleged "protection" which they perceive as intended to shame them¹ into rejecting their body and sexuality?

How better to illustrate this “shaming” than for a Newark, Ohio (City-Data for Newark, OH) prosecutor² to file criminal charges against teens for sending a nude likeness of themselves (wonder if our First Amendment applies)?

Blog:

• UPDATED 12/31/2009 LSSU, 2010 Banished Words List.

  Lake Superior State University, Word Banishment Committee students have included "sexting" (sexy cellular phone texting) on its Banned Word List for 2010.

  Topping the popular 35^th annual list of the top 15 misused, over-used and generally useless words was "shovel-ready".

• UPDATED 03/28/2009 ZDNet, Girls sue DA who threatened them over bra photos.
• UPDATED 03/27/2009 Wired, ACLU Sues Prosecutor Over 'Sexting' Child Porn Charges. Includes comments from Skumanick.

Web:

• UPDATED 12/24/2009 UPI, Nude photo of teen disrupts high school.

  One wonders how many of these reports will precede the report that parents, police, prosecutors, principals, priests, and preachers et al. have stopped getting excited and exercised about teenage sexting.

• UPDATED 12/17/2009 CSM, How to keep your teen safe on the Internet.

  ...the old fashion way—talking to the teens even when you're utterly convinced they're not listening.

  The article includes a link to a Federal Trade Commission Publication, Net Cetera: Chatting with Kids About Being Online.

• UPDATED 12/15/2009 UPI, 15 percent of teens may be sexting
  • PewInternet, Teens and Sexting Survey

  • U.S. Census Statistical Abstracts; Section 24

    The total number of cellular text messages has exponentially increased from 2.1 billion in 2003 to 110.4 billion in 2008. (see UPI, Texting Up Newspapers Down).

• UPDATED 08/04/2009 Reuters, "Sexting" craze on the rise among children⁴.

  Our wonderful teens might want to check out (or write) software that enables them to encapsulate their sexting activity into a self-expiring object (e.g. "Vanish").

  In this way it will be more difficult for sexting activity, that give many adults apoplexy and our religious crowd infarction, to outlast the very important "first love" relationships.

  In the event a relationship period exceeds the self-extinguishing sexting activity—more self-extinguishing sexting activity will surely follow.

  Self extinguishing objects have the added feature of enabling our teens to estimate the length of their relationships, a valuable skill to learn.

• UPDATED 07/14/2009 UPI, Houston schools may ban 'sexting'.

  It's unlikely that any school district has the authority to ban sexting and even less likely, the ability to enforce such a ban.

  Hopefully the Houston Independent School District does a better job teaching our children than making policy restricting their expressions.

• UPDATED 05/15/2009 BBC, Alarm bells ring over "sexting". Finally, the debate appears to be focusing on educating our wonderful teens; not punishing them or suppressing their quite normal and natural sexuality; or shaming them for self-expressions (however inept) of their sexuality.

  It's a perfect opportunity to reflect back healthy attitudes in response to their initial efforts to develop and test their sexuality.

  Let's not pretend that a healthy sexuality will develop by suppressing or reflecting back criminal charges for their expressions of their sexuality.

  Or far worse explicitly or implicitly teach or communicate to our wonderful teens that developing their healthy sexuality is in any way connected or dependent on the usage of their naked likeness by another person—it is not!

• UPDATED 05/04/2009 Reuters, Safe "sexting?" No such thing, teens warned. The article states but does not provide any supporting data or studies on how sexting can damage our girls’ futures?

  It cites Vanessa Hudgens' semi-nude photo becoming public, public humiliation, harassment, or even sexual assault as dangerous consequences but again provides no supporting data.

  Supporting data is important because we want to ensure sexting is not used as a pretext (attempted pun) for continuing oppressive stereotypes about a woman’s body and sexuality.

  If a woman is being sexually assaulted it's not because she is sexting and to imply that it is perpetuates a very dangerous and harmful stereotype—that a woman is responsible for provoking their sexual attackers! Same with harassment! It's not clear how a naked photo humiliates—unless you first infer all the dangerous and harmful stereotypes about a woman's body—then you can justify all oppression of women, including forcing them to wear a burka, so their body is opaque and does not provoke!

  Most do not want harm to come to our teen children from sexting, but perpetuating stereotypes seems much more harmful (e.g. suicide because her naked likeness is public). One hopes someday when we read stories of a boy/girlfriend posting a naked photo of their former girl/boyfriend our response will be what an asshole—not to tell our girls how shameful it is that they are exposing their bodies and then make general unsubstantiated statements about “dangerous consequences”!

• UPDATED 05/01/2009 UPI, Sexting at middle school investigated. It seems like Virginia is taking a more educational and welcomed approach to sexting?

  Assuming the police investigate to ensure our children are not being harmed, exploited, or abused and that the sexting is typical teenage sexual shenanigans, silliness, and stupidity then education is always the solution set.

  Coercive and threatening indoctrination, arresting, and prosecution of our teens for sexting is not in the solutions set.

• UPDATED 04/02/2009 UPI, Canadian teens low on sex, booze, tobacco. Wonder if they're sexting less, too?
• UPDATED 03/31/2009 UPI, Judge: Teens can't be charged for photos. Download the judge's order. A hearing on the injunction has been scheduled for June 2, 2009.
• UPDATED 03/28/2009 MTV, Teens Could Get Hit With Child-Pornography Charges For Sexting.

• UPDATED 03/28/2009 NYT, Judge Sees ‘Serious’ Issues in Cellphone Photos Case.

  “It seems like the children seemed to be the victims and the perpetrators here,...How does that make sense?”--NYT quoting District Court Judge James M. Munley--

  It doesn't make sense, regardless of how nakedness or the physical position depicted in the girls' non-coercive self-shot-image.

  A prosecutor, regardless of how well intentioned, IS NOT qualified and should not be running human sexuality workshops to teach our young girls how to understand, appreciate, and protect their hormone saturated body. Especially a male prosecutor threatening coercive criminal prosecution—talk about obscene—it’s not the teen girls who are the goofballs!

  CBS Julie Chen Interviews DA Skumanick

• UPDATED 03/27/2009 SFGate, NJ girl, 14, arrested after posting nude pics.

• UPDATED 03/27/2009 ACLU, ACLU Sues Wyoming County D.A. For Threatening Teenage Girls With Child Pornography Charges Over Photos Of Themselves (3/25/2009).

  Kudos to the ACLU and the very brave teen girls Marissa Miller, Grace Kelly, and Nancy for filing a lawsuit (pdf) to stop the abusive threat of prosecution by Pennsylvania prosecutor George P. Skumanick.

  The threat of prosecution may say more about Skumanick than the teenage antics of Marissa, Grace, and Nancy?

  • NYT, Students Sue Prosecutor in Cellphone Photos Case
  • CBS News, Sexting Girls Facing Porn Charge Sue D.A.
• UPDATED 02/18/2009 UPI, Boy could face kid porn charge for sexting. It appears the adults (who else but our (over)zealous school administrators³) are shoe-horning a teenage playboy phenomena into a criminal act—breathe, deep breaths...wonder how much, if any, of this is "agenda" or persistent Puritan psychology masquerading as "protection"?
• UPDATED 02/18/2009 NPR, 'Sexting': Racy Teen Messaging Could Be Illegal

• UPDATED 02/15/2009 Newsweek, Teens, Nude Photos and the Law

  "Judging from the sexting prosecutions in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana this year, it's clear that the criminal-justice system is too blunt an instrument to resolve a problem that reflects more about the volatile combination of teens and technology than about some national cybercrime spree. Parents need to remind their teens that a dumb moment can last a lifetime in cyberspace. But judges and prosecutors need to understand that a lifetime of cyberhumiliation shouldn't be grounds for a lifelong real criminal record."--Dalia Lithwick"

• UPDATED 12/11/2009 UPI, Sociologist: Few teens 'sexting'

  "No one brought it up [sexting],'' she [researcher C.J. Pascoe] said. "I had them go through their last 10 messages, their last 10 photos and I never saw it."...--UPI--

• UPDATED 12/11/2008 IW, Teens Post, Send Nude Pix As Sexy Presents
• Nude pix can mean trouble for teens

Res:

• Midwest Teen Sex Show (ORGASMS - Midwest Teen Sex Show #19)

-----notes-----

1. This also seems like a perpetuation of the very harmful logic that says a person is responsible for provoking another simply by expression.

Usually the logic is applied in the context of a female "provoking" a male into sexual assault by virtue of her naked likeness or nakedness.

One of the most effective ways to protect our teens from sexual predators is to ensure they develop a strong and healthy sexual identity—repressing our teens' sexuality and simultaneously teaching them to develop a strong and healthy sexual identity are mutually exclusive.

Shots of Britney's and Paris' vagina going viral on the Internet seem like confirmation a reminder of how much we have to learn—or how much their publicists have learned?

2. Kenneth Oswalt is Licking County's current prosecutor.

3. How long before our school administrators are conducting dragnet strip searches for students' cellphones and inspecting the contents?

• UPDATED 04/14/2009 see UPI, High court to consider strip-search case and NYT, Strip-Search Case Tests How Far Schools Can Go on April 21, 2009 at 10 a.m and U.S. Supreme Court Safford Unified School District #1, et al., Petitioners v. April Redding

  • UPDATED 06/25/2009 Opinion Safford Unified School Dist. #1 v. Redding.

    Fortunately, our Supreme Court upholds our students' reasonable expectation of privacy not to have their undergarments searched; unfortunately the court still fails to grant our students full "probable cause" 4th Amendment protection against school searches, opting for a lesser standard. Additionally, it continues to provide school administrators with "qualified immunity" for all but the most shockingly offensive illegal searches (see BBC, Strip-search of US girl illegal).

  • UPDATED 04/21/2009 Oral argument transcript - when Supreme Court justices begin asking, what's next cavity searches, you've probably cross a threshold.

    Intrusive humiliating strip-searching our children (here Savana Redding) at school seems like indicia of disorder not order especially as here little or no investigation was conducted before the knee jerk strip-search looking for ibuprofen!

    But consider whether it is permissible to MWave scan our students when you suspect they're "popping" ibuprofen or you just want to recover their cell-phone?

Recently a 14 year-old female student was searched and arrested after she was caught texting in class (not sexting) and wouldn't surrendering her cellphone to the teacher or authorities—you'll be happy to know the phone was recovered from the girl's clothing (see Girl arrested after texting in class)!

Are these confrontational encounters frequent? Necessary? Helpful? Creating more problems than they solve? The result of ? ? They certainly are offensive—perhaps Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas misspoke when saying "students do not shed their rights at the schoolhouse gate" (Tinker v. Des Moines School District)? Wonder what would have happened if the young girl had been sexting instead of texting—or talking?!

The young girl can take some solace in the fact that shortly all, students and teacher, will be texting "in class"—it'll be called learning not disruption!

4. British teens have the benefit of a slightly more progressive healthcare system than American teens.

England's National Health Service Sheffield recently told teens "an orgasm a day keeps the doctor away"³—and you thought it was an apple.

Information about the Sheffield self pleasuring publication, can be found here.

Unfortunately American still has a tendency to pressure, intimidate, and fire its healthcare professions, parents, and teachers for daring to teach our children to masturbate.

America is changing and the debate over sexting is commingled in that change.