Mayor Michael Bloomberg has continued his public persona as the Captain Ahab of great big sugary drinks. The state Supreme Court Appellate Division has issued a second opinion that Bloomberg’s ban on large soft drinks in New York City is unconstitutional. Yet, Bloomberg has pledged to fight on with more appeals to defend a law that is not only paternalistic but utterly unconstitutional.
Continue reading “Appellate Panel Votes Unanimously Against Bloomberg Soda Ban”
Russian Lawmaker Vitaly Milonov is promising to arrest Olympic athletes found to be in violation of the country’s new abusive anti-gay law. The “gay propaganda” law has led many to call for the games to be shifted from Russia since the host country would arrest athletes who are openly gay. In the meantime, a boycott of Russian vodka has picked up steam around the world in protest of the crackdown on gays and lesbians.
Continue reading “Russian Legislator Promises To Arrest Gay Olympic Athletes Under New Anti-Gay Law”
Raif Badawi, who started the ‘Free Saudi Liberals’ website to discuss the role of religion in Saudi Arabia, has been sentenced to a Saudi “court” to seven years in prison and 600 lashes for his engaging in free speech. It is the latest outrage from our closest Arab ally. Yet, we continue to treat Iran as part of the axis of evil while our allies deny basic rights and enforce draconian Medieval laws against dissidents and non-believers.
Continue reading “Saudi Court Sentences Blogger To Seven Years And 600 Lashes Under Sharia Law”
We have seen the reaction of police in the United States to being videotaped by citizens in arrests and destruction of equipment. It may therefore be instructive to see how police in other countries respond to such videotaping like this officer in Sweden.
Continue reading “Videotaping Police Is Not Always A Crime . . .”
After years of abuse in confinement from denying him a charge to denying him counsel, Pfc. Bradley Manning finally had a trial on the most serious charge against him: aiding the enemy. He was convicted on lesser charges. The verdict should again focus attention on the mistreatment of Manning by the Obama Administration for leaking classified reports and diplomatic cables. Many of these documents showed that the U.S. government was lying to the public and to its allies.
Continue reading “Manning Acquitted Of Aiding The Enemy in Wikileaks Case”
Brian Cisneros, 34, is accusing the Los Angeles Police Department of assaulting him without provocation last week. Cisneros says that he was riding his bike when officers allegedly jumped out of a cruiser and beat him severely. He was charged with “for no lights after hours of darkness.” He has charged the officers with police abuse in a complaint.
There is a tragedy in California that has led to a particularly challenging question of proximate causation. It appears well established that Arman Samsonian, 19, was driving recklessly when he slammed his SUV into a utility pole and a fire hydrant. It was a bad combination. When two individuals ran over to help, they were both electrocuted to death by the electrified water from the hydrant in contact with a fallen wire. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Karen Nudell last week approved charges of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence for the deaths of good Samaritans, Irma Zamora (right) and Stacey Schreiber (left). The defense insists these were unforeseeable intervening acts that should not be the basis for criminal charges.
The great thing about a feline crew is that they are good for nine lives and work for fish and kibble.
In his embarrassing quest to become something of a Russian action figure, Vladimir Putin has been featured a race car driver, great white hunter, jet pilot, oceanologist, martial artist and Hell’s Angel. During one such stunt Putin was shown as a scuba diver where he retrieved perfectly preserved ancient jars from the Ocean floor. His aides swore to a skeptical public that nothing was staged. Of course, it was shown later that the whole thing was staged. Now, aides are wondering why no one seems to believe them that Putin caught a record-setting pike. Professional fisherman cried foul at the latest Putin fish story.
Continue reading “Putin’s Pike: Vlad’s Latest Fish Story Leaves Russians Laughing”
Ok, after seeing these high resolution pictures of narcissism on parade, I have decided that Anthony Weiner and Sydney Leathers are made for each other. Leathers is now reportedly considering a porn career. In the meantime, there appears one group that remains enthusiastic about Weiner. Believe it or not, it is women aged 18-36 which give him a 78 percent favorable rating according to a poll by a dating site. Putting aside the skewed population for the poll, it is still pretty disheartening.
Continue reading “Just When You Thought The Weiner Scandal Could Not Get Creepier . . .”
Fort Worth officers are claiming in affidavits that they killed an innocent man, Jerry Waller, 72, after going to the wrong house on a burglary charge and mistook Jerry Waller, 72, in the poor lighting at 12:51 am. The incident is drawing criticism and calls for an independent investigation of the two rookie officers.
There has long been a controversy over the use of snitches and informants by police who are willing to say or do anything to avoid jail time for their own crimes or simply make some money framing another person. Many cases are built virtually entirely on such testimony of jailhouse confessions or stings using such unreliable individuals. To see just how easy it is to frame someone, look at the video below where an informant is caught planting drugs at a “smoke shop” to allow for the arrest of its owner, Donald Andrews Jr.
Continue reading “New York Informant Caught Planting Crack Before Arrest Of Businessman”
Last Saturday, Roy Middleton went out to get a cigarette out of his mother’s car. A short time later, he would end up shot and bleeding on his driveway. Not the victim of a drive by or mugging mind you. The unarmed man was shot by police responding to a call of a man reaching into a car.
In the interview below, Fox News Lauren Green is interviewing the author of a new book on Jesus Christ. However, Green appears to be incapable of getting over that academic/author Reza Aslan is a Muslim. While Fox and the other networks routinely interview Christian and Jewish experts on Islam (including highly biased authors), it appears inconceivable that a Muslim would ever write a book on Christianity.
Submitted by Darren Smith, Guest Blogger
Most are aware of the situation Edward Snowden faces: stranded essentially in a legal and diplomatic limbo the result of a protracted effort by the US government to arrest him by pulling nearly all diplomatic stops out. To encourage the Russians to deny him asylum and convey him to the United States for trial, is a letter promising to provide Mr. Snowden due process of law from an administration widely criticized to respect those rights to be believed? Or is it that they can have credibility given the allegations of abuse of the rights to privacy of the American citizenry by data mining their private information, the activities of which Mr. Snowden is alleged to have revealed?
Continue reading “Mr. President, We Must Not Allow a Data-mine Credibility Gap.”