Slashdot Mirror
Fraud in Internet Dating Prompting Regulation
anaesthetica writes "According to the Washington Post, an increasing tide of fraud in internet dating is prompting lawyers and lawmakers to examine possible regulations and consumer protections. Wire fraud scamming, plane ticket ripoffs, fraud perpetrated to fund trysts, fake "date bait" messages -- these are just a few of the issues the courts are beginning to deal with. Dating websites were immunized from lawsuits over false statements by the recent Communications Decency Act. Other attempts to regulate internet dating, such as the 2005 'mail-order bride' legislation, are already being challenged in court, but an increasing number of states are sponsoring their own legislation."
You know, especially with conservatives pissed off at the new big-government Republican party, you guys would normally be surging with popularity and election wins, except you disqualify yourself with certain kooky positions, like drug legalization. If you want to be a mainstream party, and you have tremendous potential, you need to boot the hippies and appeal to the mainstream. And you'll never get any portion of the Republican base with your position on abortion. Saying "government should be kept out of" the abortion issue is like saying government should stay out of the homicide issue, or the racism issue, etc. You're effectively saying, in lame pussyfooting language, that abortion should not be illegal. But abortion snuffs out a life - so much for being for "a world in which all individuals are sovereign over their own lives." Come back when you've rid the party of the druggie fringe, and when you've rid the platform of blatant inconsistencies.
Our law is based on the Common Law of old England, which originally came from the church. A judge who respects judicial history and continuity will obviously rule that marriage is defined in the Common Law as the union of one man with one woman. Anything else is legislating from the bench.
Abortion is probably the same, though I'm sure the issue rarely came up in old England. Murder is against the law, pure and simple. The only reason abortion is legal in the USA is because of a really far-fetched interpretation of the right to free speech.
Sheesh, if you want it legal, just pass a law. Making a joke of our judicial system is not cool.