Question of the Week
Given the Power, What Would You Ban?
Posted Mar 4, 2009 2:05 PM CST
By Molly McDonough
Banned Books Week isn’t for another few months, but toy makers may be watching how the American Library Association rallies in support of controversial literature if one West Virginia lawmaker gets his way and bans Barbie dolls from his state.
The push by Delegate Jeff Eldridge (D-Lincoln County) for Barbie's early retirement in West Virginia comes on the eve of the doll's 50th birthday March 9. Eldridge has said he wants Barbie and similar toys banned because they teach girls that physical beauty rather than intelligence is what counts.
This Operation Eliminate Barbie made us wonder what you’d knock off the store shelves or out of the atmosphere if you could.
Tell us…
Given the power, what would you ban? No need to limit your answers to products. Feel free to tell us about behaviors you’d nix.
Answer in the comments section.
Read last week's answers to this question: What Would Be the Ultimate Lawyer TV Spin-off?
Our Favorite Answer:
Posted by Blake: "Great TV spin off idea…... 'The Secret Life of Supreme Court Justices' or 'The Secret Life of Justice Scalia.' This would be like the TV show 'House' but Scalia is the justice version of House."
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Comments
tim
Mar 4, 2009 2:15 PM CST
People who believe in freedom don’t ban things they don’t like.
What a dumb story.
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TJ
Mar 4, 2009 2:27 PM CST
The propensity to overeat!
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AC
Mar 4, 2009 2:28 PM CST
censorship and most lawyers.
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B. McLeod
Mar 4, 2009 2:34 PM CST
I’m just pleased that none of the first 3 commenters said “B. McLeod.”
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J.D.
Mar 4, 2009 3:45 PM CST
Democrat Chuck Schumer says that conservative thought is like “pornography” and that it can therefore be banned and/or regulated by the government. So I hope the thought police don’t acquire this power.
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Brad
Mar 4, 2009 8:03 PM CST
liberals and hypocrites. They generally go hand in hand but not necessarily.
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Lynn
Mar 5, 2009 12:33 PM CST
The chanting of “Let’s go Mets” by Mets fans at Phillies home games.
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Supremacy Claus
Mar 5, 2009 9:53 PM CST
I would arrest, try for an hour the lawyer hierarchy for its insurrection against the Constitution. This vile criminal cult enterprise is destroying our country, and causing every economic and social problem. Then, they would hang, summarily, from the trees outside the courthouse.
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Victoria
Mar 6, 2009 6:33 AM CST
I would ban February, but something just a bad would fill the vacuum.
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Steve Perkins
Mar 6, 2009 7:30 AM CST
The new “Question of the Week” section.
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Jules
Mar 6, 2009 7:49 AM CST
People who give their children weird, made-up names or can’t rest without “adapting” the spelling.
We would indeed start with Sarah Palin, all of whose children would get real names at last. No one needs to be reminded, every time someone calls on them in schohol, that their parents consider themselves extra-special.
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Jules
Mar 6, 2009 8:01 AM CST
Liberals and hypocrites? The conservatives of this country back a big government budget-buster for 8 years, and then call “liberals” hypocritical???? Don’t you guys owe the milllions of newly-unemployed Americans at least some new epithets for liberals, preferably with actual content?
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MEM
Mar 6, 2009 8:02 AM CST
The depressing stories that the ABA Journal has been running for the last 6 months about firm layoffs, money grubbing partners, and the grim outlook for young lawyers.
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leila
Mar 6, 2009 8:09 AM CST
Standing on moving sidewalks!
Are you really so lazy you need a break from walking for that 20 yards?
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RJM
Mar 6, 2009 8:46 AM CST
I’d Ban Roll-On
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JMH
Mar 6, 2009 8:47 AM CST
I thnk I would ban large law firms using the phrases “work-life balance” and “part-time associate” in their recruiting materials.
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Kevin
Mar 6, 2009 8:53 AM CST
Once respectable law news publications trying to act like edgy “blogs”.
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Stevie B
Mar 6, 2009 8:55 AM CST
The H-1B and J-1 Visa, especially in time of economic stress.
Engineering companies are still bringing in aliens on these visas, even now, while laying off citizens. This has hit the news in some cases.
Over 15% of all MD residency jobs go to J-1 and H-1B visas—even now. This creates shortage of jobs and has made it impossible for me to find one.
I recently added overseas MD (overseas schools dont practice as much illegal age discrimination as US schools do) to my JD. One reason I cant find MD residency is that many programs prefer cookie-cutter, “top student,” young, interns from India to a lawyer from USA.
I think the employer preference is due to a false impression that the aliens are less likely to complain about being asked to work longer than 80 hour maximum workweeks while lying on logs, to accept scuttwork, and to better survive two 30 hour shifts each week than someone ancient.
Age bias is very apparent in interviews—every one asks “how is someone over 50 going to be able to handle residency.”
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PDL
Mar 6, 2009 9:39 AM CST
I agree with Victoria (I live in Pittsburgh)
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LAH
Mar 6, 2009 9:56 AM CST
The use of pickles in tuna salad. It’s just wrong.
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PHG
Mar 6, 2009 10:38 AM CST
Libertarian that I am, I would ban banning.
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T. Rinehart
Mar 6, 2009 10:54 AM CST
I would lift the ban on marijuana use. Too much of the government moeny is spent on prosecuting and holding petty criminals, because of marajuana use. The drug is no more dangerious than alcohol.
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doc99
Mar 6, 2009 11:18 AM CST
Most guns
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sb
Mar 6, 2009 11:25 AM CST
I would ban the phrase in the swearing in ceremony where state lawmakers “swear to uphold the constitution”—because that way, they can’t get in trouble when they do something like ban a popular children’s toy because they don’t like the message they ignorantly attribute to it.
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RCF
Mar 6, 2009 11:43 AM CST
I’d ban a number of things:
1. Government interference with personal choices.
2. Campaigning. There’s better reality TV.
3. The terms “green,” “carbon footprint,” and “eco-friendly.” It makes me want to go buy dirty diesel and run the tap for hours.
4. Political parties. What used to serve a true valuable purpose 200 years ago is now a circus of ineffectiveness, name and insult-hurling, and us taxpayers paying a fortune in annual salaries for idiots who do absolutely nothing to accomplish nothing.
5. Insurance companies. ‘Nuff said.
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ldhh01
Mar 6, 2009 11:49 AM CST
Gum chewing and the manufacture and sale of clothing for women which is inappropriate to their physical size or build.
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JME
Mar 6, 2009 11:56 AM CST
#23 - don’t ban mine. where the heck would we be if we hadn’t had guns to fight a revolution? Where would we be if thousands of our hunters hadn’t been able to send rifles to England in the early 20th century when they needed to arm a military for a war they were not prepared to fight? Perhaps you don’t see the need for a personal firearm, I do. what would I ban? I don’t think there is anything to ban. I am a Christian Conservative, and think that banning things is wrong. Feel free to make your own errors and excuses, but the less government intrusion into the family and social life, the better.
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O
Mar 6, 2009 11:56 AM CST
I’d ban toy guns.
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JME
Mar 6, 2009 12:16 PM CST
#28, that is actually a good idea. my kids grew up without toy guns, they learned to use real ones, and that included safety lessons. Meanwhile, a little kid in church a few years ago was being a cowboy with his cap gun and pointing it at people. With his dad watching, I lit into him (gently but fiercely) about gun safety, etc. No, I caught no flak from daddy about it, the boy calmed down, and yes, I carry, even in church.
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JBJD
Mar 6, 2009 12:24 PM CST
I would ban bans. No human being should cede power over him or herself to another to prohibit him or her from anything. It’s a disgrace the world has come to this - that all policy makers know how to do is ban or tax things. Sad state of affairs.
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chuck
Mar 6, 2009 12:40 PM CST
#12, you are assuming that true conservatives backed Bush and that they didnt vote for him for other reasons…. Mainly fear of what a bigger liberal like Gore and Kerry would do… I am sorry, many many people who voted for Bush was just trying to postpone the lunacy of what is now going on with a democrat majority.
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Andy the Lawyer
Mar 6, 2009 12:44 PM CST
Undisclosed mayonnaise in shrink-wrapped sandwiches.
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Bryan
Mar 6, 2009 1:07 PM CST
Bans….what a horrid notion….but if I WERE going to ban something, it would probably be the private practice of law in a country where we pay lip service to the idea of equality under the law. Of all the things we talk about socializing, law is the only one I can justify on a constitutional basis.
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JohnyLaw
Mar 6, 2009 1:12 PM CST
Petulant, incompetent law professors.
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Jenny
Mar 6, 2009 1:28 PM CST
If I could, I would ban divisiveness in politics: name-calling, blame-shifting, fear-mongering, berating, hateful speech and behavior towards those not on your side of the political fence. Where have everyone’s manners gone, and why can’t we have a civilized exchange of ideas anymore?
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Poster
Mar 6, 2009 1:34 PM CST
Jenny, for the record, it was much worse in the past. Check out old newspapers and pamphlets. Read about the attacks on Adams. There were duels for God’s sakes! Despite how bad it gets now adays, it’s far more civilized.
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Dan
Mar 6, 2009 1:50 PM CST
I also vote for a ban on bans - for a free society, the idea that a majority can ban whatever they don’t like (be it smoking, trans-fats, or prostitution) is terrible - but if we are not living in the “land of the free” anymore than bring on the bans! Let’s put up everything to a simple vote and ban anything!
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jan
Mar 6, 2009 2:34 PM CST
If I had the power - I would ban all live coverage of any military operation for at least 24 hours. The idea of having CNN, Fox, MSNBC, and all the others reporting in a militarized zone (at the time it is happening) is downright irresponsible. We as a public have a right to know what is going on but we do not have the right to put our troops or allies troops at risk just because of a news story.
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Kory
Mar 6, 2009 3:03 PM CST
Pit Bulls. They have absolutely nothing positive to offer humanity that is 100% unique that even comes close to justify their 100% unique breed characteristics of a proven higher probability of inflicting serious bodily injury or death upon their victims. All you have to do is see just one of the dozens of autopsy reports of the children ripped apart to see the unjustifable danger these canus frankensteinus brings. www.dogsbite.org
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Hadley V. Baxendale
Mar 6, 2009 3:17 PM CST
Cell phones
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mythago
Mar 6, 2009 6:11 PM CST
leila - the purpose of those moving sidewalks is to help you walk faster. That aside, I don’t really have a problem with elderly, arthritic people or tired new parents with a stroller being ‘lazy’ on the sidewalk, as long as they keep to the right.
I’d ban any Internet comments or any conversation that is preceded by “IANAL, but…”
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tf
Mar 6, 2009 9:04 PM CST
pathological liars who mask themselves as competent lawyers.
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bg
Mar 6, 2009 9:23 PM CST
Wearing pajama pants in public. Honestly, who do you think you’re fooling? I looked up in court one morning to find a defendant wearing the exact same PJs I had been wearing the night before! It is one thing to wear your PJs when taking Fido out to do his business before going to bed, but quite another to wear them to work, shopping, or out.
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PeteMoss
Mar 6, 2009 9:47 PM CST
State judicial elections. State and Commonwealth judges should be appointed by the governors and confirmed by the legislatures.
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Kalifornia Arnold
Mar 7, 2009 3:27 AM CST
Deodorant
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ohyes
Mar 7, 2009 10:08 AM CST
Wholeheartedly agree with PeteMoss
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J.D.
Mar 8, 2009 12:31 PM CST
A ban on free speech is already underway. Reps. Pelosi and Eshoo, Sens. Kerry, Durbin, Harkin, Stabenow, and Bingaman, Jerry Brown, Bill Press, Bill Clinton, ex-Clinton lackey John Podesta: ALL have spoken in absolute favor of having the government regulate speech on the radio airwaves.
This is the most fascistic thing our government has advanced in years. But taking a cue from 1984, they still call it the “fairness doctrine.”
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U-MN JD78
Mar 8, 2009 12:56 PM CST
Nitwit legislators with no understanding of the Constitution and no concept of personal liberty, who believe that they can and should ban anything that offends them, and that attitudes and thoughts can and should be legislated.
We have a mechanism called “elections” to keep such incompetents and demagogues out of office, or to remove them from office after they reveal themselves. The fact that so many of the electorate now seems to share their viewpoint is a powerful indicator of our nation’s decline.
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Bill
Mar 8, 2009 8:28 PM CST
Federal regulation under the commerce clause.
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Hadley V. Baxendale
Mar 9, 2009 7:58 AM CST
BG #43: I just have to ask—how did that defendant acquire the pajamas you were wearing the night before? Was he your client, or someone you were prosecuting or suing? Or an early morning burglar? There’s a tale to be told here—or it’s a great opening line to a new lawyer novel!
” I looked up in court one morning to find a defendant wearing the exact same PJs I had been wearing the night before.”
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