Bad Zoning in NYC

Long time readers know that I have deep skepticism about the efficacy of zoning laws. An analysis of a New York City example addresses the topic well.

Early FAC: Khaos Komic

I'll be presenting a paper entitled, "This Financial Crisis Was Brought To You By The Internal Revenue Code," at the Law and Society Conference in Denver tomorrow, so this week's FAC comes early.

In recognition of the many gay rights stories in progress right now (the California Prop 8 election, the Veiga vacancy election's choice of Pat Steadman, human rights violations in Iraq, etc.), I offer you an extremely tightly plotted, fairly realistic, well drawn comic about several LBGT kids with interlocked lives coming out called Khaos Komic, as your FAC for this week. While relationship rather than porn oriented, Khaos Komic is sufficiently explicit that it is not work safe. It is currently updated weekly and began about the same time as this blog.

FWIW, I don't know why exactly, but a surprising share of the best webcomics (rated by both popularity and by editorial quality) are gay lit. My suspicion is that a lot of good work is having trouble winning over support from comic book publishers and sellers in the print market who are worried about whether there is a market for it, and are worried about conservative buyer backlash. So, these authors, some of whom are message distribution as well as profit oriented, have turned to the webcomic medium. The meritocratic internet, in turn, pushed some of the best comics to the top of the heap, without much regard for genre. These successes, in turn, may have developed an audience for similar offerings in similar places. It could also have something to do with an increasing number of LGBT people feeling more comfortable being out themselves, or acknowledging a sexual or gender orientation, in the current political climate, thereby providing a fast growing audience. But, I really don't know.

Tomorrow is also the last day of school for my children and many DPS kids. So, please be more careful out there from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., as there are far more kids about. On to a long summer of coach pitch.

Locally Grown Anti-Gay Evil In Iraq

The latest story . . . involves two gay men being killed in Baghdad by Shia militias. . . . More than 30 such murders have occurred in the last 3 months. The excuse given is that these men are sexual deviants who are killed to restore honor of their families. . . .

One means of killing gay people there is the use of anal glue.

"A prominent Iraqi human rights activist says that Iraqi militia have deployed a painful form of torture against homosexuals by closing their anuses using "Iranian gum." ... Yanar Mohammad told Alarabiya.net that, "Iraqi militias have deployed an unprecedented form of torture against homosexuals by using a very strong glue that will close their anus."

According to her, the new substance 'is known as the American hum, which is an Iranian-manufactured glue that if applied to the skin, sticks to it and can only be removed by surgery. After they glue the anuses of homosexuals, they give them a drink that causes diarrhea. Since the anus is closed, the diarrhea causes death. Videos of this form of torture are being distributed on mobile cellphones in Iraq.' According to this human rights activist, for the past 3 weeks a crackdown on homosexuals has been going on based on a religious decree that demands their death; dozens have been targeted. She says that the persecution of homosexuals is not confined to the Shiite clerics. Some Sunni leaders have also declared the death penalty for sodomy on satellite chanels."

From here (typos in original slighly corrected, links in original relocated and made to sources of the sources cited).

In theory, asylum is available in the U.S. for people who show up in the U.S. having faced this persecution. But, proving this in an immigration court and getting to the U.S. from Iraq are non-trivial matters.

Tragedy

I've spent many long hours in maternity wards telling myself that this doesn't happen any more, but sometimes it does.

Arizona State Treasurer Dean Martin's wife, Kerry, died Monday, four hours after giving birth, followed about forty-eight hours later by their newborn first child, Austin. Both died of complications of childbirth.

Take a moment to share this great sorrow.

Pregnant Prisoners

As many as 6,000 women are pregnant in prison in the United States.

From here.

Sonia Sotomayor A Shoe-In

President Obama's first U.S. Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor, is almost certain to be confirmed now that key Republican Senators have announced that they don't plan to try to filibuster the nomination and given the large Democratic Party majority in the U.S. Senate. She will replace Justice Souter, one of the four Justices in the Court's liberal wing.

The appointment is not expected to greatly change the results the U.S. Supreme Court reaches in deciding cases, because in the usual close case Justice Kennedy who remains on the bench is the swing vote between the court's four conservative justices (Chief Justice Roberts, Justice Alito, Justice Scalia and Justice Thomas), and the court's four more liberal justices. Sotomayor is widely expected to vote with the court's more liberal wing in most close cases.

Felony Manga Possession

A 39 year old office worker from Iowa, who collected all types of manga, has pleaded guilty to a felony carrying a maximum sentence of up to fifteen years in prison for possessing seven manga (i.e. Japanese comic] books intercepted by customs officials depicting the sexual abuse of children, under a 2003 federal law. It is the first obsenity conviction for comic book art in the United States.

Quite frankly, his attorney's stated argument for not pressing the case, that a jury would consider it porn, was not impressive although one expects that the defense attorney has arranged a lenient sentence for what would otherwise could have been a long prison term.

Manga in Japan's Lolicon genre, and other hentai (porn manga and anime), are widely sold in Japan where the genre is considered to be just another form of soft porn.

The case is particularly exceptional because the primary justification for harsh penalties for child pornography is that children are actually sexually abused in the process of creating photographs or video depicting it. In manga and anime, this is very likely not the case, so the justification for distinguishing it from other types of obsenity is weak.