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“Pornography: What Do We Know?”

/ Matthew Clemente / Leave a comment

“Pornography: What Do We Know?”

That was the question being examined on the BBC’s Analysis radio programme. Here is a description of the show: 

What do we really know about the effects of pornography? 

Public debate has become increasingly dominated by an emotive, polarised argument between those who say it is harmful and those who say it can be liberating. Jo Fidgen puts the moral positions to one side and investigates what the evidence tells us. She explores the limitations of the research that’s been carried out and asks whether we need to update our understanding of pornography. She hears from users of pornography about how and why they use it and researchers reveal what they have learnt about our private pornographic habits. 

With pornography becoming increasingly easy to access online, and as policy-makers, parents and teachers discuss how to deal with this, it’s a debate that will have far-reaching implications on education and how we use the internet. 

Producer: Helena Merriman 

Interviewees: 

Professor Neil Malamuth – University of California 
Dr Miranda Horvath – Middlesex University 
Dr Ogi Ogas – Author of A Billion Wicked Thoughts 
Professor Roger Scruton – Conservative philosopher and Author of Sexual Desire: A Philosophical Investigation 
Professor Gail Dines – Wheelock College, Boston.

Syracuse College of Law Professor Kevin Noble Maillard: Racially Profiled in Palm Beach – Excerpts

/ Daniel Ramsey / Leave a comment

Syracuse Law Professor Kevin Noble Maillard authored the following article, featured as original content for The Atlantic Magazine on July 23, 2013.  The full article can be accessed here.

 

Race is America’s Voldemort: That-Which-Must-Not-Be-Named. Even when discrimination’s role in an event is obvious, there has to be another reason. It’s not about race, it’s about class. It’s about safety. It’s about line dancing. But we are arguably experiencing the greatest racial tensions since the 1960’s, Barack or not.

The most prominent racial issue dividing America today is racial profiling. Trayvon, Stop-and-Frisk, Obama’s Beer Summit, and Arizona’s Show-Me-Your-Papers law are all about acting on racial presumptions.

Three years ago, on a balmy summer night in Palm Beach, I went for a midnight bike ride. Earlier that day, I presented a paper at a law professor conference at the Breakers Hotel. The whole day and early evening was crammed with intense intellectual schmoozing, so I was glad to have some solitary time to explore the long, narrow island. I hopped on my rented beach bike and headed south and over a bridge.

***

Suddenly I am blinded by a profusion of oncoming lights, accompanied by a siren, crossing against traffic into my lane on the two-lane road. Reacting quickly, I squeeze left and right brakes in addition to steering the bike sharply to the right. All together, it is perfect choreography for an overbar face-plant. I spill onto the blacktop.

I skid a little in front of my bike, scraping my elbows, wrists, and forearms on the road. Blood, but not too much. My childhood comes back to me in that odd mix of pain and nausea I felt from bike accidents in fifth grade.

***

The first policeman steps out of the car. “Where are you headed?” I tell him I’m on a bike ride. “Why so late?” I say I like it late. “What are you doing here?” I tell him I’m a law professor attending a conference at The Breakers.

At this point, I’m still thinking about my lonely, abandoned doll of a bike on the ground. Then the second policeman approaches. “We’ve had some robberies here.”

***

The first policeman asks for my ID. He asks for my name and address–clearly printed on the card, next to my picture that looked exactly like me–and my university affiliation.

Both men retreat into the car with my ID to run it though an interminable, rotary-dial background check system. It takes no fewer than 15 minutes. I’m alone with my thoughts, which are mostly questions. I try not to move, and attempt rationalization. Perhaps the burglary announcement was coincidental. I had multiple bike violations, and night cyclists are rare. There must be a logical reason for getting stopped. Other people must have gotten stopped like this.

The first policeman comes back with my ID and tells me I’m free to go. I’m mulling over this incident, and so I cross back over the bridge and decide to do a full loop of the island and think.

I’m on my bike for only a few minutes before another high pitched siren ringtone tells me to stop cycling. Again. This time there are two police cars.

***

Americans love to say “it’s not about race.” Unless there is a cross burning and people wearing “I’m racist” t-shirts, it has to be about something else. Complaining minorities, so the refrain goes, have chips on their shoulders.

Nothing violent happened. But this incident showed me something about bias and perception. Though it’s common to hear race described as just one “factor” in profiling, it’s a factor that seems to outweigh all others: age, education, class, occupation, and just plain common sense–remember, rental bike. It’s utterly exasperating to realize that how hard you work, how much money you have, where you went to school, who your friends are mean nothing at crucial times. The values of colorblindness and merit–which conservatives, including black conservatives, rely on in other race-based debates, for example those about affirmative action–wouldn’t even save Clarence Thomas on the street in these moments: Cabs will pass, police will stop, and as we painfully know, neighbors will shoot.

 

Kevin Noble Maillard is a law professor at Syracuse University.  Teaching courses in Family Law, Wills and Trusts, and Social Deviance and the Law, he is a frequent writer for the NY Times and appears on MSNBC.  You can follow him on Twitter:  @noblemaillard

 

 

California v. Texas

/ Matthew Clemente / 1 Comment

Okay, that wasn’t quite the proposition being debated on the Intelligence Squared podcast, but that was essentially what it boiled down to. Instead, the proposition debatined was “For A Better Future, Live In A Red State.”

Moderated by ABC News’ John Donvan, the debate featured Hugh Hewitt–radio host of The Hugh Hewitt Show–and Stephen Moore–editorial board member of The Wall Street, who argued for the motion; and Michael Lind–co-founder of New America Foundation–and Gray Davis–37th Governor of California, who argued against the motion.

Here is description of the debate:

While gridlock and division in Washington make it difficult for either party or ideology to set the policy agenda, single-party government prevails in three-quarters of the states. In 24 states Republicans control the governorship and both houses of the legislature, and in 13 states Democrats enjoy one-party control. Comparing economic growth, education, health care, quality of life and environment, and the strength of civil society, do red or blue states win out?

Bringing Lincoln Back From The Dead: Luxury Cars and American Automaking

/ Matthew Clemente / Leave a comment

Bringing Lincoln Back From The Dead: Luxury Cars and American Automaking

Today, NPR’s Planet Money podcast reran a story about how Lincoln is attempting to recapture its image as a cool luxury car and the economic implications of a successful re-branding. 

Here is a description of the podcast: 

Lincolns used to be the coolest cars in the world. They used to be driven by kings, moguls and celebrities. Today, Lincolns are driven by the old, the out-of-touch, and the guys hustling you at the airport.

On today’s show: How Lincoln is trying to regain its former glory — and how the story of Lincoln may be the story of the U.S. auto industry, for better or for worse.

“League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis”

/ Matthew Clemente / Leave a comment

Recently, PBS’s Frontline ran a powerful documentary about concussions in the NFL.

The full video is available for free from the Frontline website.

Here is a description of the program:

From PBS and Frontline: The National Football League, a multibillion-dollar commercial juggernaut, presides over America’s indisputable national pastime. But the NFL is under assault as thousands of former players and a host of scientists claim the league has covered up how football inflicted long-term brain injuries on many players. In this special investigation, FRONTLINE and prize-winning journalists Steve Fainaru and Mark Fainaru-Wada of ESPN reveal the hidden story of the NFL and brain injuries, drawn from their forthcoming book League of Denial: The NFL, Concussions and the Battle for Truth (Crown Archetype, October 2013). What did the NFL know and when did it know it? What’s the truth about the risks to players? What can be done? The FRONTLINE investigation details how, for years, the league denied and worked to refute scientific evidence that the violent collisions at the heart of the game are linked to an alarming incidence of early onset dementia, catastrophic brain damage, death, and other devastating consequences for some of football’s all-time greats.