Category Archives: Right to Privacy

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The President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund argued that Louisiana voters, exercising their free choices, were not voting correctly She also argued against the foundational guarantees of our representative democracy.

In 1986, Robert Cortez “Bobby” Scott, then a state Senator in Virginia, ran for election to the Commonwealth’s First Congressional District seat against incumbent Representative Herb Bateman (R-VA), losing in a landslide, 56% to 44%. In the redistricting which followed the 1990 Census, the state legislature, at the direction of the federal Department of Justice, reapportioned the Third District into a “majority-minority,” meaning majority black, district, just for Mr Scott. The new Third District ran along the James River, from Newport News to Richmond, packing in heavily black areas. It worked: Mr Scott stomped Republican Dan Jenkins 79%-21%. Mr Scott is still in the United States House of Representatives, having served since January 3, 1993, 32 years, 9 months, and 13 days ago.

But, there was another election result in 1992. Mr Bateman barely won re-election in the reconfigured First District against newcomer Andy Fox, with barely over 50% of the vote. Mr Fox ran against Mr Bateman in 1992, but his time the Republican won in a landslide, because so many solidly Democratic voters had been peeled away from the First and placed into the Third District.

It’s simple: A Republican congressman who was at least subject to a strong Democratic challenger now had his seat in the “safe Republican” category, and Mr Bateman held that seat until his death on September 11, 2000. My family and I were living in Hampton, Virginia, in the First District, during all of this, which is why I remember it so well.

Now comes Louisiana v. Callais, a case before the United States Supreme Court concerning how much legislatures can use race in consideration of redistricting. The Louisiana state legislature, seeing the previous result in Allen v Milligan, 2023, believed that a second majority black district needed to be created to comply with the provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, 52 USC §10301. But, to do that, the state came up with a district shaped like a snake, wholly unlike any definition of being compact.

Naturally, some state residents sued. Allen v Milligan allowed this kind or racial gerrymandering, but Louisiana v Callais threatens to undo that. Naturally, the left are up in arms, and Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson went so far as to claim that black Americans are “disabled” when it comes to voting.

Jackson noted that the majority opinion in a 2023 Supreme Court ruling — which found Alabama unlawfully diluted the voting power of black people in the state — “used the word ‘disabled’” to describe voters subject to “processes [that] are not equally open.”

There is an interesting point that is being mostly ignored in all of the debates. Janai Nelson, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, argued before the Court:

(Associate Justice Samuel) Alito suggested that racially polarized voting could easily be identified through statistical analysis, and it could be seen whether White Democrats vote for Black Democrats at a lower rate, for instance.

At which point Miss Nelson stepped right into the trap.

Nelson told him that White Democrats were not voting for Black candidates — whether they were Democrats or not. She said there was no question that even if there is some correlation, that race was the driving factor.

In other words, Miss Nelson was arguing that Louisiana voters, exercising their free choices, were not voting correctly. In a partisan climate in which the Democrats have been arguing about racial ‘equity’ in terms which seem very much like a zero-sum game, the arguments for black empowerment seem to be made in terms in which gains for black Americans concomitantly entail losses for white Americans. But whatever their partisan and philosophical reasons, our system is predicated upon a secret ballot and the right of the voters to choose to vote however they wish.

There is another, even more pernicious assumption behind all of this. In a country which the equal protection of the laws is guaranteed under the Fourteenth Amendment, the arguments of Miss Nelson are, in effect, that black citizens cannot be represented by white congressmen, and that includes the notion that white citizens cannot be represented by black congressmen. Our system of representation, in our cities and states as well as in Congress, is that our representatives represent all of the people withing the bounds of their districts; the president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund argued against the foundational guarantees of our representative democracy.

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Big Brother is watching you! Do you want Elon Musk looking over your shoulder?

All of those electronic ‘convenience’ things in our lives, such as debit cards, just mean that businesses and the government have more ways to keep you under surveillance. From USA Today:

Authorities use Tesla data to track Cybertruck before bombing, raising privacy concerns

by Kathleen Wong | Thursday, January 2, 2024 | 8:58 PM EST | Updated: Friday, January 3, 2025 | 12:08 AM EST

Tesla vehicle telematics and records from a Cybertruck are providing key insights into the New Year’s Day explosion in Las Vegas – data that may not have been available decades ago but which raise troubling questions about how governments and companies track personal travel information. Continue reading →

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Real women have to sacrifice their games to protest men males trying to horn in on their sports If Brayden Fleming wasn't such an [insert slang term for the anus here], this wouldn't be necessary.

UPenn Women’s Swim Team, via Instagram. It isn’t difficult to pick out the one man male in a women’s bikini top. Click to enlarge.

There are two competing and unreconcilable positions when it comes to ‘transgender women,’ the word salad used to denote males who believe that they are female, and ‘identify’ as women. The left take the position that ‘transwomen’ real women, while sensible people understand that there are only two sexes, and they cannot be changed. If ‘transwomen’ were effectively keeping quiet about it, and not trying to compete athletically against real women, like Will Thomas did, no one would really care, because Mr Thomas calling himself “Lia” would not have trampled upon anyone else’s rights.

Alas! Mr Thomas did insist on competing on the University of Pennsylvania’s women’s swim team, and, as John Lohn, Editor-in-Chief of Swimming World, noted, Mr Thomas went from a mid-500 ranking as a male swimmer — he did compete on Penn’s men’s team before his ‘transition,’ to top ranks in women’s swimming. While he had been taking medication to get his testosterone levels down, he had already gone through puberty as a male.

The San José State University women’s volleyball team has a ‘transwoman’ playing. Apparently Brayden Fleming, who now goes by the name “Blaire”, hid the fact that he is male, well enough that he was able to compete on the girls’ volleyball team at John Champe High School in Virginia, and a year on the women’s volleyball team at Coastal Carolina University, before transferring to SJSU. Whether team members, or the athletics department, at SJSU knew that Mr Fleming is male has not been disclosed, yet if they were aware, it was kept hidden, but one team member, Brooke Slusser, has joined a lawsuit against the NCAA for allowing ‘transwomen’ to compete on women’s athletic teams.

This has come to a head, now that collegiate volleyball season has begun — Mr Fleming’s status as being ‘transgender’ was not made public until last spring, after volleyball season was over — several teams have decided to forfeit matches with SJSU rather than go along with the idea that girls can be boys and boys can be girls. So far, Southern Utah, Boise State, Wyoming, Utah State, and Nevada-Reno have refursed to compete, but now comes the kicker:

A volleyball team balked at playing against trans woman. The university wasn’t having it.

The players voted to forfeit because there’s allegedly a trans woman on San Jose State’s team

By Mira Lazine | Tuesday, October 15, 2024

Individual players with the University of Nevada’s women’s volleyball team will be allowed to opt out of their upcoming match against the San Jose State University women’s volleyball team.

Nevada’s team had initially voted to forfeit the October 26 match due to San Jose State University allegedly having a transgender woman, making Nevada’s university the fifth recent one to forfeit. However, the University of Nevada, citing the Nevada Constitution and state laws, said it will have its team compete as originally agreed.

Note that the article, from the very much transgender supporting LGBTQ Nation, states that the player is “allegedly” a male claiming to be a female. SJSU has not confirmed that Mr Fleming is ‘transgender,’ but the university has not denied it, either. While it could be considered a violation of privacy for the university to confirm that he’s male without his consent, if Brayden was actually Blaire, she would have said so publicly.

In a statement explaining its decision, the University of Nevada wrote that a majority of the women’s volleyball team voted on October 13 to forfeit the match.

“The players’ decision and statement were made independently, and without consultation with the University or the athletic department,” the statement said, adding that the players’ decision didn’t represent the position of the university.

“The University and its athletic programs are governed by the Nevada Constitution and Nevada law, which strictly protect equality of rights under the law, and that equality of rights shall not be denied or abridged by this state or any of its subdivisions on account of race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, ancestry or national origin,” the statement continued. “The University is also governed by federal law as well as the rules and regulations of the NCAA and the Mountain West Conference, which include providing competition in an inclusive and supportive environment.”

“The University intends to move forward with the match as scheduled, and the players may choose not to participate in the match on the day of the contest,” the statement concluded. “No players will be subject to any team disciplinary action for their decision not to participate in the match.”

We have not been told how many of the 17 members of the UN-R team voted to forfeit the match, simply that a majority did, which means at least nine of the players. Volleyball matches are conducted with six players on the court, meaning that, if there were as few as 11 players choosing to forfeit, Nevada-Reno could still field the team. But if twelve voted for the BOYcott, and stick to their guns, Nevada-Reno would enter the match one player short, unless they recruited walk-ons.

I have mockingly suggested that the men’s volleyball players — and at UN-R, men’s volleyball is a club sport, not a varsity team — all claim that they identify as women for that night, and show up to play the match.

One thing is certain: the media will be there in force for the scheduled SJSU-UNR match, and if the players hold strong to their positions — and I will bet euros against eclairs[1]My version of dollars against doughnuts. I suppose pounds vs pretzels would also work. I had to buy a $2.50 item a couple of days ago, and it had a discount for cash, but all I had in my wallet were … Continue reading that the UN-R administration are lobbying the players hard to play the game — it will make great television.

It’s a shame that real women have to sacrifice their games to protest men males trying to horn in on their sports, but that’s apparently what it takes. If so many of the ‘transgendered’ weren’t just absolute [insert plural slang term for the anus here] about things, this wouldn’t be necessary, and Brayden Fleming is an [insert slang term for the anus here].

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↑1 My version of dollars against doughnuts. I suppose pounds vs pretzels would also work.

I had to buy a $2.50 item a couple of days ago, and it had a discount for cash, but all I had in my wallet were two 5€ notes.
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USA Today sports columnist is incredibly butthurt that two top athletes didn’t speak out the way she wanted

For whom Patrick Mahomes and Caitlyn Clark intend to vote has absolutely no bearing on for whom I intend to vote, but sports columnist Nancy Armour apparently believes that it’s their duty to open their secret ballots to me.

Caitlin Clark, Patrick Mahomes’ bland answers evoke Michael Jordan era of athlete activism

by Nancy Armour | September 13, 2024

Not every athlete can be LeBron James or Megan Rapinoe.

Remember Michael Jordan’s comment about Republicans buying shoes? There’s a long history of athletes putting as much space as possible between themselves and controversy, and what Caitlin Clark and Patrick Mahomes did this week was no different.

Asked about the upcoming presidential election Wednesday and who they might be supporting, both Clark and Mahomes dodged the question and instead found a safe space in encouraging people to register and to vote.

“It’s more than nothing, but it doesn’t put them on the front lines of the discussion,” said David Niven, an associate professor of political science at the University of Cincinnati who teaches a course on sports and politics.

Perhaps, just perhaps, Mr Mahomes and Miss Clark were not thinking about Mr James or Miss Rapinoe; perhaps they were thinking about Colin Kaepernick, and the activism that persuaded NFL owners not to sign him.

Mr James did himself no favors with his political statements, which only exacerbated people looking at him as an opportunist and a flop artist in the NBA. Miss Rapinoe’s political activism didn’t serve her or women’s soccer very well, either. The fact that Mr Mahomes plays in deeply conservative Missouri, and Miss Clark in very red Indiana might have contributed to their decisions, and Miss Clark, who has led the WNBA from near-obscurity to sold-out arenas when and where she plays, makes her hugely valuable to the league. Miss Armour was saying that it’s a shame the athletes weren’t openly supporting Kamala Harris Emhoff.

Clark’s Instagram account is now flooded with nasty comments from supposed fans who are upset she liked Taylor Swift’s post endorsing Kamala Harris. Mahomes is getting backlash both from people who want him to disassociate himself from his wife’s (presumed) political beliefs and people angry he didn’t defend them.

Perhaps Mr Mahomes disagrees with Mrs Mahomes, who ‘liked’ an Instagram post from former President Trump, and perhaps he doesn’t. That’s really kind of a ‘who cares’ thing as far as I am concerned.

We have a long tradition of a secret ballot in the United States, and while a lot of people, including me, are willing to tell others how they will vote — I will vote the straight sensible ticket, meaning Republican, over the blithering idiots, the Democrats — a lot of other people are not.

The Democrats have even tried to exploit the secret ballot, with comments that women do not have to tell their husbands or boyfriends how they voted, and that they can even lie and support Mrs Emhoff, when the men in their lives vote more sensibly. And when it comes to the presidential contest, it almost doesn’t matter: President Trump will carry the states in which Mr Mahomes and Miss Clark live, and it will not be close.

Outkick noted that Miss Armour did not support Tom Brady speaking out on politics, because Mr Brady supported Mr Trump. It seems as though Miss Armour is really only interested in athletes speaking out on politics if they happen to support the politicians she likes. Miss Armour was similarly upset when Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker spoke in favor of conventional, Catholic morals at a Catholic college. She just retweeted a post in which Mr Butker missed a kick, which said, “Harrison Butker is, once again, a little too far right.”

And she has taken the far-left position that ‘transgender women’ — meaning males who have deluded themselves into thinking that they are girls — should be able to compete in women’s sports. Neither her Wikipedia profile nor her Twitter bio say anything about her ever having played sports.

Miss Armour has, as we all do, the absolute freedom of speech and of the press, and she can say whatever she wishes. But the freedom of speech and of the press carries with it the freedom not to say something, and the columnist is just wholly upset that a couple of well-known athletes didn’t say what she wanted them to say.

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When he says we must listen to students, it needs to be all that the students say!

The Great Valley Middle School case in Malvern, Pennsylvania, has mostly faded from the news. As The Philadelphia Inquirer reported, some students created 22 faked TikTok accounts, “some depicting racist, homophobic, or sexually inappropriate content” that were attributed to teachers.

On Monday morning, Inquirer columnist Jonathan Zimmerman, pondered how to maintain freedom of speech for students and still avoid the ‘disruption’ student speech can sometimes cause. We need to listen to the students, he told readers, but missed an important point. Continue reading →

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I told you so!

I really do love being proved right!

I had previously said that school districts which kept students “gender transitions” secret from their parents will have opened the districts to humongous lawsuits.

More parents claim Colorado school district forced children into overnight rooms with students of opposite sex

Multiple parents claim their child was forced to stay in overnight accommodations with transgender students.

By Kendall Tietz, Fox News | Monday, January 15, 2024 | 9:00 AM EST

More parents have come forward with claims that children in a Colorado school district were forced into sharing overnight rooms, even showers, with students of the opposite sex.

For whatever reasons they have, Fox News is now requiring readers to provide their email addresses to see the articles. If you want to check the original I used, you can access it here without going through more idiocy. Continue reading →