Dental School Blogger Punishment Reduced

Dental School Blogger Punishment Reduced: "you're what's wrong with capitalism
(Score:5, Insightful)
by misanthrope101 (253915) Alter Relationship on Friday January 06, @03:12AM (#14407762)
Okay, so you're not really what's wrong with capitalism. But I have always hated that we have to be defined, 24/7, by what we do to buy bread for the table. A dentist fixes teeth. Wow. It's a profession, not an identity. By your logic, they could demand that you vote Republican, copulate only on Tuesdays, etc. They don't own you just because you want to be a physician. They aren't even guarantors of the competence or knowledge of physicians--they're just a trade union who is trying to keep the numbers down to keep pay high. Yes, I know that they can get away with governing what you say even in a non-official capacity, but it's wrong to use their gatekeeper power to control criticism. Saying it's legal isn't saying it's right.
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The civil liberties issue might be this

(Score:5, Interesting)

by Budenny (888916) on Friday January 06, @02:32AM (#14407657)

The civil liberties issue might be a bit different. A lot of people have argued that if you are a student, the school has the right to react to your public remarks about it. This must be true, an employer will have the same right. You cannot expect to remain a member in good standing of a church, company, school or club if you make public speeches bringing it into disrepute. So people are right to argue that this is not a free speech issue.

But surely there is something very odd indeed about the proposed 'punishment' or elements of it. The demand that the guy get counselling. What exactly is the legal status of counselling? When is it required, and who has the right to require that one get it? The idea that a school can require one to get counselled is strange. Even stranger is 'Community Service'. This is used as a punishment by the courts, and the idea that a school can impose it is bizarre.

Surely the civil liberties issue is something like this: what sort of demands may a school make, and what evidence do they have to have before making them? There must be some limits, and it seems to me that in requiring counselling and community service, the school has overstepped them.

Bring it closer to home. My company has a standard of x bugs in y lines of code. One month I am having some problems and go over. Do they have a right to demand that I do 100 hours of community service as penance? Or stand outside at 8.00 with a sign around my neck saying that I sinned? Or wear scarlet overalls for a week? Or not use the cafeteria?

It would be fine to require him to maybe do some remedial tutoring work in the school, or something similar, school related. But the community service and counselling stuff remind you uncomfortably of the Cultural Revolution...
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If we don't recognize some limit to what an employer, school, or other organization can rightfully control, then a company can say 'our official position is that we support the Iraq war, so we will all be voting here in the office in the next election. Just turn your ballot in to your supervisor.' There has to be a socially recognized limit, even if the courts don't address the question directly.

And no, I'm not a Marxist. But we do have an unnerving tendency to turn our profession into an all-encomassing identity. It's just a freakin' job, for crying out loud."

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and now 4 something completely different!

http://zfacts.com/p/318.html

Iraq and Foreign Policy
	ZFacts has regarded Saddam as a tyrant since before the days when Rumsfeld was shaking his hand to sell him an oil pipeline. It was right to work for his removal and could have been right to use force against him. But this was done with an arrogant incompetence which has cost America and Iraq far more than it should have, and, as documented here, it was done by deceiving the American people and, quite possibly, the President.
	"The description our sources gave us of the technical features required by such facilities are highly detailed and extremely accurate. We know what the fermenters, tanks, pumps, compressors and other parts look like." —From Powell's speech to the U.N. Unfortunately, all of this was a "fabrication" by "Curveball," a relative of one of Chalabi's advisers and, according to the President's Commission on WMD , a drunk. == Why are we in Iraq?: Cheney wanted Iraq, while Bush wanted Bin Laden. He's still wanted, but Cheney's got Iraq. It wasn't easy to sell America this grand nation building adventure, but Cheney and his neocons started early&mdashsome in 1996 the rest in 1997. Until 9/11, most of their work was in the open. Impacts On U.S. and Iraq. Some costs are clear: lives lost and dollars spent. But is there clear evidence of its impact on American prestige and credibility? Iraq has benefitted from the removal of Saddam, a horrible tyrant. That is no small benefit. Also, they have a start towards democracy. That is harder to assess. How powerful are the Iranian Shiites in the new government? How costly are the terrorist attacks and the economic chaos? Oil production is one measure. Terrorism: Former counter-terrorist czar Richard Clarke is not the only one who believes that the War in Iraq has served to increase the terrorist threat to our nation. Meanwhile, al-Qaeda is alive and well.

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prior story, chum,...
EPIC Recommends Phone Companies to Drop Marketing Plan. In letters to Ameritech President Gail Torreano and Verizon President Ivan Seidenberg, EPIC urged the companies to follow Qwest's example by suspending their plans to use records of telephone calls for marketing purposes. Both phone companies sent opt-out notice to customers in the most recent billing statement. The notices, which required customers to telephone a toll-free number to opt-out of the sale of their calling data, have sparked controversy as customers attempting to use the toll-free number experienced numerous difficulties. (Feb. 7)

http://www.epic.org/privacy/cpni/
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