The Super Bowl promotes prostitution almost as much as ice fishing. Hudson, Ohio may open Hudson Springs Lake to Ice Fishing. Craig Shubert is unusually opposed to opening Hudson Springs Lake for ice fishing. Shubert states that opening up the lake for ice fishing will lead to prostitution.
In city council video that reads like sketch comedy—Shubert’s comic delivery would be perfect, if this were comedy—the mayor warns that if you open up the lake to ice fishing, ice shantytowns will follow, and then commercial sex. Ice shanties can be irresistible for sex workers, doesn’t it? There is nothing like feeling the cold water and fish guts to lift your mood!
“If you open this up to ice fishing, while on the surface it sounds good, then what happens next year—does someone come back and say I want an ice shanty?” Shubert asked. Shubert replied, “And then you allow ice fishing using shanties? That leads to another problem: prostitution.”
He added, “Just data points to think about.” Shubert apparently doesn’t know what “data points” actually means.
That the mayor’s comments come this week—Super Bowl week—is pretty perfect. Perhaps this isn’t real or funny, but rather brilliant. CommentOn another topic, we will discuss prostitution: The idea that large sporting events such as the Super Bowl attract sex traffickers.
Law enforcement continues to spread the myth that the Super Bowl is linked with sex trafficking every year. Some media outlets also pick up the story uncritically. It’s despite the fact that there isn’t any evidence supporting such a claim, as well as the fact that this idea has been disproved over and over again. Check out this list of debunked claims from 2020.
Because it provides cops with a reason to target adult sex workers or consensual sex, the Super Bowl sex–trafficking myth seems appealing. It gives the feds a pretext for additional surveillance and security theatre. If you look into any Super Bowl “sextrafficking” stings, you will see that it just leads to the arrests of many sex workers as well as their clients.
FREE MINDS
Some fears regarding election laws may have been exaggerated, according to research.Research by Alan I. Abramowitz, a political science professor, and the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics suggests that voting procedure rules of the type being changed in the statehouses across the country have limited effect.
In the aftermath of the high-turnout 2020 election, many Republican-controlled state governments have passed legislation that Democrats believe will harm their party’s voter turnout.
Voting rules had little impact on the turnout, and did not have any measurable effect on the margins of vote at state levels in 2020’s presidential election.
The strong preferences of the majority of voters among the major parties influenced both voter turnout as well as voting decisions for 2020.
Free Markets
Spotify gets a threatening letter from the New York State ComptrollerIn a February 2 letter, Thomas DiNapoli, Comptroller, wrote that “as we’ve seen with other media and technology companies which host or publish content,” and warned of the potential reputational, legal and financial risk. Spotify should provide more details about their content policies, he said.
Spotify has added warnings about vaccine misinformation to COVID-19 content last month amid artist boycotts,” Spotify notes. Pitchfork. The tweak “did not satisfy critics”, as New York state’s comptroller pointed out. Reuters notes that DiNapoli is one of a number of prominent activists who have succeeded in pushing for greater content supervision at social media sites.
QUICK HITS
• The cost of protectionist policies:
????NEW???? @CatoInstitute paper, “American Protectionism and Construction Materials Costs”, examines how trade remedies (AD/CVD) tariffs affect US prices of key construction inputs like lumber (and thus likely US home prices) https://t.co/r6J8PbzYNH /1 pic.twitter.com/m7u45CH0nS
— Scott Lincicome (@scottlincicome) February 9, 2022
• U.S. senators have reauthorized Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) programs, but with a controversial new gun provision known as the “boyfriend loophole” removed. More information about VAWA and President Joe Biden’s involvement in it can be found here. You can also find more details about the so-called “boyfriend loophole”.
• Wearing a “fuck the police” shirt isn’t cause for arrest, rules the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit.
• Facebook’s monopoly was always doomed.
• “At the beginning of the pandemic, we were too slow to adapt to changing circumstances. The status quo is being defended, but we now face the risk of prolonging it more than what is necessary. Yascha Mounk writes that it is now time to let everything go.” Atlantic.
• How “machine learning is making fruits and vegetables more delicious.”
• Georgia’s election investigation has failed, once again to find massive voter fraud.
• Sigh:
Some people of color may prefer ????. because it feels neutral — but some academics argue opting out of ???????? signals a lack of awareness about white privilege, akin to society associating whiteness with being raceless.https://t.co/9g3rochT0K
— NPR (@NPR) February 9, 2022