Four trans­plant patients in Chicago have contracted HIV from the organ donor. It is alleged to be the first case of such trans­mission in the U.S. in 13 years. Initial tests on the donor for HIV, hepatitis and other condi­tions came back negative, most likely because the donor had acquired the infec­tions in the last three weeks before death. Personal details about the donor were not released [to the recip­ients or their doctors] by medical official [sic] officials, who cited privacy laws. Emphasis added. The screening process has, granted, been (appar­ently) successful in preventing tissue trans­plant trans­mission of HIV for 13 years. [ . . . ]

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The jury awarded $2.9M, purportedly finding liability on all four counts. (Remember, they were defamation [which did not stem from the funeral protests them­selves], invasion of privacy: intrusion on seclusion, invasion of privacy: public disclosure of private facts, and inten­tional infliction of emotional distress.) I still think the invasion of privacy suits should have failed because if we’re going to have public property, the Constitution controls the contra­diction. I do not think the behavior of the WBC protesters was suffi­ciently extreme or outra­geous to warrant a finding of liability for inten­tional infliction of emotional distress. And I find the defamation claim unin­ter­esting, meaning that [ . . . ]

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News reporter gets the wrong problem when reporting on the firing of a teacher for showing a bootleg copy of The Simpsons Movie to young students. The complaint is that showing a PG-​​​​13 film to 3d-​​​​5th graders is inap­pro­priate. Nothing is said about how showing a bootleg of such a film is inap­pro­priate. In my not so humble opinion, the latter is the worse offense. The rating system is private, voluntary, and pretty arbitrary. The film might well be just fine for children in a super­vised classroom setting. Copyrights, however, are the law. Teachers should be fired for infringing copy­rights in the classroom before we even [ . . . ]

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Our Glorious American System of Welfare and Entitlement has been, in no small part and despite Bill Clinton’s inef­fectual efforts to the contrary, instru­mental in increasing the size of the Welfare-​​​​dependent popu­lation of this country. If you’re poor, one of the fastest ways to get money without having to do any [Ed: well, much] work is to have a baby. Having more kids means you get more money from TANF, more food stamps from WIC, more tax credits, more free services. Now, Democratic Presidential hopeful Hillary R. Clinton wants to give every baby born in America an automatic five grand. The [ . . . ]

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