WE Blog

A Sedgwick County District Court grand jury began an inquiry last week into whether area sex shops are violating obscenity laws. But if this jury is like ones in other cities, nothing will happen — other than the jurors will spend a lot of time looking at porn. The reason is that most jurors are uncomfortable defining and dictating an obscenity standard for the entire community. Plus, the motive behind this grand jury seems to be shutting down the sex shops, not removing certain materials. If so, that won’t fly.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee

Americans need to wake up to the rise of the European Union, which we tend to hear about only in trade flaps over airplanes and wine. Meanwhile, Europeans see the EU as nothing less than a means toward their desired end of being a superpower to rival the United States. “I don’t think the (U.S.) State Department is paying enough attention,” said Leslie Lebl, who served as minister-counselor for political affairs at the U.S. mission to the EU in Brussels. Now retired from a 24-year foreign service career and living in Connecticut, Lebl recently visited The Eagle editorial board when she was in town to speak to the Wichita Committee on Foreign Relations on “EU-NATO Cooperation.”
What would lead European nations to unify politically and economically is hard for unilateral-minded Americans to comprehend. But, Lebl said, “If you join the EU, you get wealthy, you have stability, nobody invades you.” Even after the failure of French and Dutch voters to ratify the European Constitution this year, the EU is gathering strength and relevancy, she said.
What’s of special concern, though, is that the EU and its European Parliament lack democratic legitimacy and are turning the national parliaments into “pass-throughs.” Maybe President Bush’s second-term agenda of advancing democratic ideals ought to include Europe.
Posted by Rhonda Holman