Kentucky Judge Steven D. Combs in Pike County has been temporarily suspended after an array of charges of bizarre comments and actions, including calling officials such names as “Fishface,” “cokehead,” and “Dumbo.” Worst yet, he threatened to put a “bullet in the head” of the next police officer who pulled him over. A temporary suspension until resolution of the 10 charges seems quite modest punishment but his counsel, Stephen Ryan, still conveyed Combs’ “disappointment” with the action taken by the Judicial Conduct Commission.
The complaint detailed Combs use of various, less-than-flattering ways of referring to other people like “Fishface,” “cokehead,” “dumbo,” “retarded,” “coward” and “prick. ” — use of those words has led to the temporary suspension of a Pike County circuit judge.
Combs is accused of conflicts of interest in cases, inappropriate communications, inappropriate political activity, soliciting contributions from attorneys in cases before him, and other violations. One of the most interesting is that he allegedly made inappropriate statements on the gossip website Topix under usernames including “LOL,” “Better Call Wusty,” “Imma Tellinyou,” and “City Hall Patrol.”
That last allegation is problematic and goes again to the right of public employees to engage in social media, particularly when using an alias.
One of the worst charges concerns the alleged statement of Combs that the next officer who pulled him over would get a “bullet in the head.” When confronted by police over the statement, he allegedly replied “I’m elected by the people and not pieces of trash like you-all.”
Combs, who has been a judge since 2003, is paid $124,620 annually.
And finally a great story before I sign off on this blog.
The Germans have come up with a Solution 😊
The Ultimate V Weapon
http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKKBN0P41CG20150624
Armed German robbers chased away by shopkeeper wielding vacuum cleaner.
German shop assistant in a late-night convenience store chased away two armed robbers demanding money with the hose of a vacuum cleaner she was using to clean her shop in Berlin’s Neukoelln district, police said on Wednesday.
@Ninian
Wasn’t there somebody named Cromwell, because I remember him from movie, maybe Solomon Kane??? And then there was Guy Fawkes, who was mentioned by T.S.Eliot ala “A penny for the old guy! Mistah Kurtz, he dead” or something like that. The there was that V for Vendetta guy, whatever his name was who wore the mask. And Robin Hood. And whoever it was who said, “for lack of a nail, my horse was lost – – -a horse, a horse, no one has a horse of course, like Ed” or something like that. Which that part was from Shakespeare, IIRC.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
For the want of a nail goes back to the 13th century and was revived by Benjamin Franklin…. Oliver Cromwell chopped the King’s head off and is a hero in the creation of a Constitutional Monarchy. Guy Fawkes was a Catholic and tried to blow up parliament and King James I the Scottish king who was crowned after Elizabeth I died. This was a plot rather than a civil war.
On a different note Queen Elizabeth II gave a speech in Berlin yesterday and in it acknowledged Magna Carta. She said it “had marked the long, slow and interrupted process of our country’s evolution into a democracy.”
I am saying your Constitution and Bill of Rights will have a similar fate. It will evolve and is evolving. Those of you who say I am talking nonsense are plainly wrong and are using aggressive language because they have lost the plot and aren’t getting their own way. And it shouldn’t have to be a Limey that is telling you these things.
I think guns attract people with a certain personality. Sort of alpha male. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But when you lose your temper and you are armed. That’s when bad things happen.
The other issue on the gun side relates to “what I want” not what “we as a nation want” so there is an element of self centred-ness and selfishness with disregard for others. A lack of will to compromise and lack of empathy seem to prevail.
But most important of all its about money. Like everything else is about money. The industry like tobacco and alcohol isn’t going to sit back and permit any sort of restriction and will play you off against its opponents.
For England excluding other countries in uk – we’ve been fighting for longer than you in the US. And I hope you don’t catch up…. it’s complicated but here is the general idea.
Tribal wars with Romans and later Vikings invading in dark ages before England was properly created.
Battle of Hastings 1066 sort of english civil war as Normans and Saxons were really Vikings in origin.
Medieval Wars Stephen/ Matilda (proper English civil war) leading later into ……
War of the Roses ended Richard III 1485 Battle of Bosworth Field (proper civil war). He was the hunchback king and his body was recently discovered in a car park
Spanish Armada 1588 but not really english civil war.
2 Civil Wars CHARLES I and II vs parliament. Charles I was beheaded
The Glorious Revolution 1688 William of Orange was invited to displace King James who favoured catholics this was a bloodless revolution.
But England also ruled much of France at 1 time so if you count England and France as 1 country you could include 100 years War (which was <100yrs)
Also Wars with Scotland over the centuries. Bonny Prince Charlie invaded England. Not really a civil war until Scotland joined England in 1603.
Also wars with Ireland over hundreds of years but not really an English civil war.
That's a very rough guide off the top of my head.
The English are no angels and are glorious because the victory write the textbooks. There's a good series of books for kids called "Horrible Histories" and this goes into the stories in more grizzly details and tells the English what they were really like. Needless to say it was written by an Irish man. It's got some interesting stuff about the USA in that section and shows the appalling behaviour of Clive of India and how Lord Kitchener of WWI fame had the skull of an African Leader on his desk as an inkwell or some such thing. I think he was reprimanded for this and not treated as a war criminal. So the British have a lot of which to be ashamed.
Violence creates most States and it's nothing to be proud of. There were more deaths from armed conflict in the 20th century than at any other time in history if I remember correctly.
I think you are right about guns in UK. Historically the British were armed initially with swords but later with firearms. I'm not sure that the general public carried weapons in the same way Americans do but I think there was a progressive intention to disarm. Now weapons are tightly controlled in the UK. Our police were famously disarmed but this is changing in view of terrorist activity and special armed units carry weapons. And now they have started to do this we are getting collateral damage with innocent civilians being shot by police. So it's something the British are cautious about.
I think the USA lost more lives in your civil war (I'm not including Indian Wars which were also civil wars I suppose) than in all the other wars put together.
I watched the US TV documentary on the Civil War with that haunting music of the Ashoka Farewell which we all thought was an old folk song -but wasn't…..and I've been to the battlefields in the USA and it was a reakly moving experience despite my British/Irish roots.
That war is what really cemented you as a nation I suppose. But the carnage was dreadful in comparison to the small skirmishes we had in England excepting the Civil war of Charles I II.
It's all a mugs game…. all it caused was misery and it's the ordinary citizen who really pays the price.
I saw them taking down the Confederate Flag in Alabama so there still must be some needle going on underneath it all.
@PaulCS
I’ll bite. How many Civil Wars have the English had???
(Sidebar: Maybe that is why their government won’t let them have guns anymore??? Because they can’t be trusted with them the way us Americans can, and they will just engage in another Civil War???)
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Squeeky – it actually depends on how you define ‘English.’