We previously saw how Chinese environmental officials are struggling to pull dead pigs out of the river in Shanghai while assuring people that the tsunami of dead pigs has no effect on drinking the water. Now the body count is up from 900 to 6000 and some articles suggest the number is more like 9000. Yet, Chinese officials insist that they are unable to locate the source.
Month: March 2013
North Korea has long been an example of a clinically psychotic nation that engages in propaganda displaying wild fantasy and transference. The latest video however is truly unnerving. In a nation with extreme poverty and malnutrition, North Korea has run a video showing that (rather than it receiving aid from the U.S.) the U.S. relies on aid from North Korea and is a virtual hellscape of poverty, death, and despair. I can now understand why Dennis Rodman calls Kim Jong Un a “friend” and plans to vacation with him. It is better than eating birds and shooting children back in the states.
Conservative sites have exploded with a new controversy surrounding Joe Biden who appears to distinguish between true abuse or worrisome signs of abuse and a “garden variety slap across the face.” However, listening to the YouTube clip it is clear that the statement has been cut off.
The bizarre world of Iranian extremism was evident again this week as clerics in Iran raised a hue and cry over a picture where President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is shown consoling Hugo Chavez’s mother with a hug. Clerics called the picture a sin and abomination against Islam. They also attacked another cleric, Iranian Vice President Mohammad Reza Mirtajeddini, who felt no moral difficulty in lying about the hug and saying that the photo was doctored.
Continue reading “Iranian Clerics Attack Ahmadinejad For Hugging Chavez’s Mother”
We previously discussed the case of Lisa and Anthony “A.J.” Demaree who had their three children taken away from them after a Walmart employee reported them to the police as child pornographers for innocent pictures in a bathtub on a vacation. The absurd reaction of Walmart led to their then 5, 4 and 1 1/2 year old daughters being taken away for a month and put the family through a ridiculous criminal process due to the equally negligent acts of the police and prosecutors. Their case is now before the Ninth Circuit in seeking to be able to present their claims to a jury.
Today I will join a distinguished panel to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Watergate. I will be speaking with Liz Holtzman, member of the House Judiciary Committee during Watergate; Daniel Ellsberg, of Pentagon Papers fame; and Fritz Schwarz, Chief Counsel, Brennan Center for Justice and former Chief Counsel to the Church Committee. We will be discussing the legacy of Watergate in terms of our current controversies over FISA, war powers, presidential papers, and other executive abuses.
Continue reading “Forty Years Later: The Lessons of Watergate”
This is not the advertising that Thomas Lewis Edwards was looking for in placing the ad for his firm. Edwards, a DUI lawyer, had his recent mug shot posted next to his law firm advertisement. You guessed it: he was arrested for DUI.
As I posted a couple days ago, my dog Molly was hit by a car in McLean, Virginia this week. She has been in intensive care as we tried every possible medical intervention to save her, but this afternoon we had to put down Molly. My two older sons, Leslie, and I held Molly as she was euthanized. I want to thank so many on this blog for reaching out in the last couple of days and I thought you should know. The whole family is devastated. Molly was the center of gravity for our family and I cannot express the terrible sadness that I feel in losing Molly.
Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Milton Tingling has struck a victory for sanity (as well as individual choice) in striking down New York Mayor Bloomberg’s widely ridiculed ban on large sugary drinks. As we previously discussed, the law was a poorly drafted and poorly conceived ban that allowed a host of higher caloric drinks to be sold in bars and other establishments. Tingling found the law to be “arbitrary and capricious.” Bloomberg has appeared to have developed an insatiable appetite to dictating what others can eat, including a proposed crackdown on popcorn and milk. After the soda ban, a long list of items have been put forward to Bloomberg to ban before Judge Tingling put a halt to the feeding frenzy.
Continue reading “Big Gulp: New York Judge Strikes Down Bloomberg’s Beverage Ban”
The family and neighbors of Arthur Dixon, 43, has raised questions over his death after two St. Petersburg police officers shot him to death after he brandished scissors in a confrontation. Police were called to the home to deal with Dixon who was threatening suicide and had doused himself with gasoline. Firefighters refused to enter the home and family and friends were cleaning up the gasoline and talking to Dixon when police arrived and ordered them to leave. An hour later, Dixon was dead.
At first, this article sounded like a reform in the making out of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: the government is considering a moratorium on beheadings. However, the reason is not some sudden modernization and rejection of medieval Sharia laws. Saudi is facing a labor crisis of sorts: there are too few swordsmen to dispatch the guilty.
Continue reading “Saudi Arabia Considers Halt On Beheadings . . . Due To Shortage of Swordsmen”
There is a rather disturbing poll out this week where 54% of Austrians think neo-Nazi groups could be successful in Austrian elections if a ban is lifted and 42 percent of Austrians think “not everything was bad under Hitler.” Of course, one has to focus on trains arriving on time and traffic control while forgetting about the genocide and war that left Austria and Germany in utter ruins.
Continue reading “Poll: Hitler Bad on Genocide But Good On Services?”
There’s crazy and then there is Karzai crazy. Afghan President Hamid Karzai spoke this weekend and accused the United States of colluding with . . . the Taliban. It was an odd accusation from a man who said that he wished that he had joined the Taliban against the United States as American soldiers were dying in the field and the American people were pouring billions into this corrupt family and country. Notably, however, Karzai does put the lie to the Administration’s heralding how the President is trying to pull out troops from Afghanistan when reports indicated that the Administration has been trying to get Karzai to let more troops stay in the country.
Continue reading “Karzai Accuses U.S. of Colluding With Taliban on Attacks”
The hope for reforms in Saudi Arabia remain a roller coaster ride for civil libertarians. On Saturday, a Saudi Arabian court sentenced two prominent political and human rights activists to at least 10 years in prison for protesting the policies of the Kingdom and speaking with the media. Mohammed Fahd al-Qahtani (shown right) and Abdullah Hamad are founding members of the banned Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association, known as Acpra, which documents human rights abuses. The group also has called for a constitutional monarchy and elections. The exercise of basic rights of free speech and association that led to the banning of the group and now the sentencing of its leaders.
Continue reading “Saudi Arabia Sentences Two Leading Civil Libertarians To Long Prison Stints”
The environmental problems in China continue to grow worse as the regime spurs industry to keep up production numbers in an economic downturn. We have recently seen environmentalists attacked for criticizing Communist officials for the dismal condition of rivers in China. Now, one city that uses a polluted river for drinking water woke up to find more than 900 dead pigs floating down their river. Chinese officials insist that it is not a case of dumping but curiously say that they have no idea how it happened or where the animals came from.
Continue reading “Almost 1000 Dead Pigs Pulled From Polluted Chinese River”