Below is my column today in The Los Angeles Times where I discuss the continuing trend of arrests of citizens videotaping police. We have followed many more cases but a couple are mentioned in the column. What is most disturbing is that prosecutors and police are continuing to fight court rulings upholding the right of citizens to videotape police.
Continue reading “The Right of Citizens To Videotape Police”
We have previously discussed the new labeling rules for cigarette packages and I have not hidden my criticism of the graphic images from both a legal and policy perspective. This afternoon, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon handed down a major decision granting an injunction of the rules — a move based on his belief that the cigarette makers are likely to succeed in blocking the new packaging rules.
Continue reading “Federal Judge Grants Injunction of New Tobacco Labels”
I often read ABA Journal as a great source of legal stories. The journal however has been the center of controversy this month after reporting on the results of a study on the preference of secretaries vis-a-vis male and female partners. The study by Professor Felice Batlan interviewed 142 secretaries at larger law firms and produced a surprising result: not a single secretary preferred female partners. When the ABA Journal reported that surprising fact, professors accused it of fostering gender stereotypes, misrepresenting the results of the study, and displaying a sexist view of the work. Some demanded a retraction and apology from the ABA Journal.
Continue reading “ABA Journal Under Fire For Coverage Of Survey Of Legal Secretaries”
Reporters and columnists often wait until Friday for the White House to do things that it does not want covered extensively in the press. This Friday’s news dump was the firing of Maj. Gen. Peter Fuller for saying what most everyone is saying about our ally, Afghan President Hamid Karzai — he is nuts. Remarkably, Fuller said if much more nicely, expressing concern whether Karzai is “isolated from reality.” My own disappointment is that Fuller did not add that Karzai’s family is little more than a criminal enterprise fostering corruption and drug trafficking.
Continue reading “Obama Administration Fires General For Calling Karzai “Erratic” and “Divorced From Reality””
This dog owner has tackled one of the longest standing problems of people of faith: paganism in pets or, worse yet, atheist animals. Some however insist on their dogs being both playful and prayful. This dog has been trained to give thanks to the Almighty before chowing down.
Continue reading “Fighting Pagan Puppies One Dog At A Time . . .”
Submitted by Lawrence Rafferty (rafflaw)-Guest Blogger
A milestone passed by most of us this past week. It seems that the Patriot Act birthday cake added a 10th candle this week and there was no party! The infamous Patriot Act turned 10 this week and a decade of attacks on our personal liberties went unnoticed by our Main Stream media. You can probably remember that the act passed with little opposition in the House and with only 1 member of the Senate in opposition. Continue reading “A Decade of Misplaced Patriotism”
Submitted by Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
The reports from State College, Pa are shocking. Long-time assistant to iconic coach, Joe Paterno, charged with multiple counts of deviant sexual acts with at least eight minors — most under age 12. University administrators who did nothing despite horrific credible eyewitness accounts of explicit sexual acts in locker rooms and showers. Disadvantaged kids taken advantage of by an authority figure who founded an organization ostensibly to help them, but apparently designed to fulfill his own aberrational desires.
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
According to a Washington Post article, a “treacherous milestone” was reached earlier than expected when Social Security went “cash negative” last year. With high unemployment and the subsequent loss of payroll taxes, the outlays of benefits outstripped the income from payroll taxes. There’s just one small detail that the article didn’t take into account: the interest income on the government bonds that the Social Security trust fund generates. When the interest income is added to the payroll tax income, Social Security is ‘cash positive,’ that is, more money is coming into the system than is going out.
Continue reading “Has Social Security Gone ‘Cash Negative’?”
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger
In an article titled Another Weapon for OWS: Pull Your Money Out of BofA, Matt Taibbi wrote that “when it comes to commercial banking, Bank of America is as bad as it gets.” He said he believed the markets seemed to agree as the bank had a credit downgrade recently “to just above junk status.”
He continued: The only reason the bank is not rated even lower than that is that it is Too Big To Fail. The whole world knows that if Bank of America implodes – whether because of the vast number of fraud suits it faces for mortgage securitization practices, or because of the time bomb of toxic assets on its balance sheets – the U.S. government will probably step in to one degree or another and save it.
After the credit downgrade in September, Bloomberg reported that Bank of America “moved derivatives from its Merrill Lynch unit to a subsidiary flush with insured deposits…” Taibbi said the transfer involved trillions of dollars in risky derivatives contracts.
Continue reading “Bank of America & The Great Derivatives Transfer”
Submitted by Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
Richmond, Va photographer, Ian Graham, must be wondering where he was this past Monday as he was arrested by local police for trespassing on a city street. Graham, who was photographing police arresting demonstrators in the Occupy Richmond protest, was told by police he was trespassing as he politely stood near a public crosswalk recording the goings on with his camera. Police claim they told Graham he could take photos but only in the designated “media area,” which was, of course, far from the scene of the arrests.
Continue reading “Richmond, VA Photographer Arrested For Trespass on Public Street”
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg surprised many when he stooped to the level of Rush Limbaugh to push the Big Lie, that it was the government that caused the mortgage crisis. Bloomberg claimed that “It was not the banks that created the mortgage crisis. It was, plain and simple, Congress who forced everybody to go and to give mortgages to people who were on the cusp.” Bloomberg added that members of Congress “were the ones who pushed Fannie and Freddie to make a bunch of loans that were imprudent, if you will.”
Fannie and Freddie don’t make loans. Whom does Bloomberg think he’s fooling?
Below is today’s column in USA Today (which will run in paper form next week). It appears that the police will look into the possibility of statutory rape and someone should be brushing up on defamation law as well.
Continue reading “Celebrities and Statutory Rape: Is Justin Bieber A Victim of Statutory Rape or Defamation?”
Ben Clifford Dawson is running for city council in Centerville, Iowa and allegedly has the stamina not only to handle the race but pressing the flesh . . . he was just arrested for prostitution. On top of that, he is 83 years old.
Continue reading “Meet Ben Clifford Dawson: Octogenerian, Politician . . . and John?”
We have previously discussed how leaders in both the United States and Europe have focused on atheists and secularists as one of the greatest threats facing the free world. Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) seemed to take this to a new level in arguing this week that if the nation did not reaffirm “In God We Trust” as our national motto, we are inviting anarchy and accepting that we are nothing but “worm food.”
Continue reading “Is “In God We Trust” The Only Thing Standing Between Us and Anarchy?”