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- Salty Ginger Talk Newsletter
Professor sues the University of Oregon for violating his free speech rights
Our take: The University of Oregon created a post on X encouraging people to “interrupt racism.” We are not sure why they posted it or what that means, but they sure didn’t like Professor Dr. Bruce Gilley’s response to it. Gilley is a political science and climate change researcher at Portland State University. In response to the U of O post, he quoted the Declaration of Independence, stating, “All men are created equal.” U of O promptly blocked him.
The problem here is that U of O is a public university, making it a government entity, and responsible for following the First Amendment that forbids the government from abridging citizens’ free speech rights. No matter how smart and righteous they think they are, they still must follow the law.
Gilley sued the university on these grounds. After 3 years of fruitless and misguided legal battles, Oregon agreed to a settlement with Dr. Gilley. This is a step in the right direction after the insanity we saw over the past several years. Hate speech, unpopular speech, sacrilegious speech, and even racist and evil speech are all protected by the First Amendment.
Government entities regularly like to push this protection when they are called out on issues they want to control. It is important that we all support each other on this issue, as at some point you will be the one saying something unpopular, and you will want your free speech rights intact when that happens.
COURTESY: CC COMPOSITE EDITOR
California DOE found guilty of violating Title IX by not protecting women from men participating in women’s sports
Our take: Surprising no one but the zealots who refuse to accept reality, California’s Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation have been found guilty of violating Title IX protections for women for their refusal to keep men out of women’s sports, depriving them of the protections explicitly provided by Title IX.
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any federally funded educational programming, requires schools to ensure equal opportunities, including across athletic activities.
California, however, has "actively prevented this equality of opportunity by allowing males in girls' sports and intimate spaces," the U.S. The Department of Education's civil rights office said Wednesday, announcing findings from its Title IX investigations into the two state entities.
Following the noncompliance findings, the California education department and athletics association were offered a chance to agree to reform their "unlawful practices" voluntarily within 10 days or risk "imminent enforcement action," including referral to the Department of Justice for further proceedings.
It’s about fucking time there is some accountability around this issue. We are not anti-trans in any way. This has nothing to do with transgender people—it has to do with basic fairness and scientific facts. Post puberty, biological men have clear and irreversible physical advantages over women by wide margins. Allowing men to compete in women’s sports is not only unfair to women but also puts them at risk of physical injury and deprives them of the right to fair competition.
This is not a hard issue. Create a transgender league or category in the sport in question. Until then, people need to compete in the gender category they actually are.
COURTESY: MSN
LA to raise minimum wage for airport and hotel workers to $30/hour by 2028
Our take: If you have no economic background or no common sense, feel free to support and celebrate this legislation. For the rest of us, we all know how this will play out.
California politicians stupidly think they know the labor market better than businesspeople who work in these industries every day. California already artificially raised the minimum wage for restaurants to $20 an hour, resulting in the loss of close to 10,000 jobs as business owners cut staff and automated many positions so they could stay profitable and stay in business.
Government has zero business setting labor rates in private industry. They have zero knowledge of how those industries work, and more importantly, they have no idea of what the expenses, revenues, and margins are like. People are free to work where and for whom they choose.
If businesses can keep staff at current labor rates, they can run efficiently and make a profit. If they cannot attract good talent, they will raise their labor rates as necessary to attract the talent they need. If they cannot afford that talent, they will go out of business.
This is also not a hard concept to grasp. Politicians don’t know markets better than those that operate in the market. They should stick to renaming schools and making speeches about banal things that only they and a few of their vocal constituents care about.
COURTESY: MSN
Tip of the Day - handling difficult conversations
Know that the conversation might not go your way, and that’s okay. Oftentimes, we just want to feel heard and acknowledged by the other party. Using the right kind of language and communicating in an effective way will increase the chances of that happening.
At the end of the day, though, it’s necessary to accept that we do not have control over others and only have control over ourselves.
Quote of the Day
“The question is not what you look at, but what you see.” - Henry David Thoreau