R.H. 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (730)

• On the post: Federal Judge Places County Jail Into Receivership After County Fails To Comply With Consent Decree

  

  R.H. ( profile ), 05 Aug, 2022 @ 05:10pm

  It's not the prison board that's elected in this case. It's the county board of supervisors, the group that runs the county government. In most American states, the County Sherrif is also an elected position but, if it wasn't then they'd be appointed by that same county board of directors/supervisors.

• On the post: Democrats “Strategically” Push Net Neutrality Bill That Won’t Pass And Won’t Be Noticed In The Summer Heat

  

  R.H. ( profile ), 01 Aug, 2022 @ 11:15am

  It's not quite THAT bad

  The Democrats have a majority in the House and the Senate is tied 50-50. It's bad but not quite as bad as you've stated. My reply to JBDragon goes into more detail on the specifics.

• On the post: Democrats “Strategically” Push Net Neutrality Bill That Won’t Pass And Won’t Be Noticed In The Summer Heat

  

  R.H. ( profile ), 01 Aug, 2022 @ 11:13am

  100%?

  Yes, the Democrats have the Presidency and a majority of the House. However, with a 50/50 split in the Senate, two Democratic Senators who often don't vote with the party, and 60 votes necessary to defeat a filibuster, they don't have full control of Congress. Also, the Supreme Court is split 6-3 in favor of conservative justices. Out of the three branches, that gives the Democrat party about 50% control. That's quite a bit down from your "100% of the power" wouldn't you agree?

• On the post: City Of Chicago, Chicago PD Officers Sued Over Their Use Of Questionable ShotSpotter Technology

  

  R.H. ( profile ), 28 Jul, 2022 @ 06:56pm

  Remember that language is descriptive, not prescriptive. Once enough people use a term in a specific way, it's part of the language. Even if you do consider language prescriptive, here's Merriam-Webster's definition of Latinx for you.

• On the post: Texas Courts Fix Its Judge Alan Albright Problem By Automatically Reassigning Most Of His Patent Cases

  

  R.H. ( profile ), 27 Jul, 2022 @ 01:14pm

  District versus Division

  The United States District Court for the Western District of Texas has 7 Divisions (including its home in San Antonio). One of those happens to be Waco and the Waco Division only has one judge. In total, the Western District of Texas has 12 District judges (with one unfilled vacancy) in addition to its Chief Justice and a few Senior Justices who are allowed to take reduced caseloads due to a combination of age and seniority (their age plus time on the bench must be at least 80 and they must be over 65-years-old to get such status).

• On the post: Clarence Thomas REALLY Wants To Make It Easier For The Powerful To Sue People For Criticizing Them

  

  R.H. ( profile ), 29 Jun, 2022 @ 08:30pm

  Term Limits and Jobs

  First, we don't have term limits for Congress. There's an argument for them but, if you're using that as an example of why Justices should be similarly limited, there's nothing there. Secondly, Justice Thomas is on the faculty at George Washington University in addition to his position on the court so he has "an actual job". Thirdly, retired Supreme Court Justices keep their titles, are allowed to maintain an office at the court, and still draw a salary. The more retired Justices there are, the more Supreme Court Justice salaries will be paid. Finally, the point of having lifetime appointments for federal judges is to prevent a President from requesting the resignation of judges he doesn't agree with. How many of the Democrat-appointed federal judges would have survived Trump's Presidency without that protection? Also, having fixed lengths for their service wouldn't necessarily protect them. The heads of the FBI and CIA are technically appointed to 10-year terms but they often resign once a President of a different party takes office unless asked to stay on until a replacement is confirmed.

• On the post: Indian Government Briefly Pulls New IT Bill, Reissues It With Expanded Gov’t Power Over Content Moderation

  

  R.H. ( profile ), 16 Jun, 2022 @ 12:19am

  Your own source says that only 14.2% of Indians are Muslim. That's similar to the percentage of Americans who are black (13.4%) and I certainly see myself as a minority.

• On the post: Cops Continue To Make The Best Argument For Defunding The Police

  

  R.H. ( profile ), 07 Jun, 2022 @ 09:47pm

  I'm not going to argue with your point on gun control but, concerning this:

  Society shouldn’t make suicide easier

  Why not? If reasonably painless assisted suicide was legal those of us who have decided that we don't want to exist anymore wouldn't be as pressured to, let's say, go out with a bang. I understand that some people who would decide to commit suicide-by-cop would still make that attempt but, since the one thing that a person must own outright without the interference of others is his or her own life, why shouldn't ending that life also be a right?

• On the post: Being A Supreme Court Clerk Now Hazardous To Your Privacy

  

  R.H. ( profile ), 02 Jun, 2022 @ 09:38pm

  This is exactly what I thought when I first heard about this. The clerks need to work together on this.

• On the post: Being A Supreme Court Clerk Now Hazardous To Your Privacy

  

  R.H. ( profile ), 02 Jun, 2022 @ 09:35pm

  The 4th Amendment does require a warrant to compel the phone records but, if your employer requests them and says that you'll lose your job otherwise is that illegal? Unfortunately, in this case, the employer in question is the governmental body that ultimately decides the constitutionality of such a thing.

• On the post: The End Of Roe Will Bring About A Sea Change In The Encryption Debate

  

  R.H. ( profile ), 17 May, 2022 @ 02:47am

  I'm a man. If I have an unwanted parasite leeching off of my body I'd have the right to have it removed by a medical professional immediately. Why should this change if I'm female or if the parasite is a member of the genus homo? I'm all for the mammalian parasitism that we call human reproduction if the host is a willing participant. If not, then it's best for everyone involved for the parasite to be removed.

• On the post: Blaming Social Media And Section 230 For Mass Shootings Is Ridiculous; Stop It

  

  R.H. ( profile ), 16 May, 2022 @ 02:19pm

  It's been mentioned even in mainstream media since he was in elementary school and has existed since before he was born. (It was created in 2003.) What are you really asking here?

• On the post: Welcome To The New Techdirt!

  

  R.H. ( profile ), 25 Mar, 2022 @ 06:44pm

  Looking at the page code, the flag as spam option seems to require Javascript. In fact, all of the rating buttons do. Without scripts, you are able to view and comment but that's about it.

• On the post: Welcome To The New Techdirt!

  

  R.H. ( profile ), 02 Mar, 2022 @ 09:38pm

  Comment Scrubber Issues

  When using the variable page width setting, the Comment Scrubber covers the left side of the comments.

• On the post: Medical, Home Alarm Industries Warn Of Major Outages As AT&T Shuts Down 3G Network

  

  R.H. ( profile ), 23 Feb, 2022 @ 12:56pm

  Re: Re:

  Suspending the trading of a company only hurts the shareholders, not the company. That's effectively a game of hot potato where whoever is holding the stock when trading is suspended loses.

• On the post: Law Firm Sues US Citizen And Immigration Service After It Tries To Claw Back Docs Obtained Legally Thru A FOIA Request

  

  R.H. ( profile ), 14 Feb, 2022 @ 11:14pm

  Re: What does return documents mean, legally?

  Normally a "return" request for electronic documents simply means, destroy any copies you have or that you've disseminated. If that's not possible, explain why.

• On the post: New FCC Broadband 'Nutrition Label' Will More Clearly Inform You You're Being Ripped Off

  

  R.H. ( profile ), 03 Feb, 2022 @ 11:13pm

  Re:

  He nominated Gigi Sohn back in October. The ball is in the Senate's court now.

• On the post: Another Illinois Appeals Court Handles Compelled Password Production, Says There's No Fifth Amendment Issue Here

  

  R.H. ( profile ), 23 Dec, 2021 @ 10:51pm

  Re:

  Yes, they would be providing testimony. In the hypothetical you presented, authorities with a warrant would crack the safe to get at its contents rather than ask for the passcode or key.

• On the post: The US Gov't Paid For Moderna To Develop Its Vaccine; But Moderna Wants To Keep The Patent All To Itself

  

  R.H. ( profile ), 22 Dec, 2021 @ 03:36am

  Re: Big problem here

  So, I was going to say that polio isn't quite extinct. However, the last cases of wild polio were in January (one in Afghanistan and one in Pakistan) which is down from 94 in 2020. There were also 170 cases of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus this year (this happens when there are too many unvaccinated people in a population and the weakened poliovirus from the vaccine infects them and mutates into a dangerous form again**). That 170 figure is down from 1069 in 2020 though and so polio may really be on the verge of eradication this time. *Source who.int
  **Source polioeradication.org

• On the post: The US Gov't Paid For Moderna To Develop Its Vaccine; But Moderna Wants To Keep The Patent All To Itself

  

  R.H. ( profile ), 22 Dec, 2021 @ 03:22am

  Re: Re:

  You joke but, I'm reasonably sure that none of those fusion patents are of gravity-based hot fusion (the kind that happens in stars). Any patent like that should be rejected out-of-hand.

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