GEEKY STOICS: Don't Break Things To Understand Them

In Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Gandalf famously confronts his old friend and mentor, Saruman the White, who now is in service of the Dark Lord Sauron. Something that didn’t make it into the beloved Peter Jackson film adaptations is that Saruman the White gives up the white cloth, symbolizing purity and truth, and adopts a shimmering robe of many colors.

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Stephen Kent
WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Star Wars in the age of lost innocence

The brand problem for Disney, however, looms large in the background of this miniature Star Wars controversy. Most families expect Disney+, like the Disney Channel of old, to be a place where they can blindly trust the content to be PG. It is an unwelcome surprise for an unwitting parent to have to explain they/them pronouns or sexual assault after turning on a show with Disney’s name attached to it. And yet, both of these things have occurred in Star Wars projects.

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Stephen Kent
HATTIESBURG AMERICAN: Mississippi can get it right on mobile sports betting

The alternative is prohibition and turning a blind eye to what your people are doing in the absence of a regulated market. An effective regulatory regime accounts for the kind of consumer behavior lawmakers can reasonably anticipate and then keeps those people as safe as possible without removing adults’ right to make adult choices. 

Like in Iowa and Tennessee, HB 1302 bars the use of credit cards in online bets, and requires age verification for players, a policy piloted by Pennsylvania and Michigan. The bill allows for up to two online betting services to partner with a local casino in order to operate. The $6 million protection fund exists to serve the smaller Mississippi casinos that might not acquire online betting partners. 

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Stephen KentSports betting