It would seem payback time was in order for that Goldilocks invasion. A Scottish family came home to find that a badger had entered their house through the cat door and feel asleep in the cat bed.
Continue reading “And The Littlest Bed Was Just Right . . .”
Below is my column in the Washington Post on the movement to remove President Donald Trump through Section 4 of the 25th Amendment. Richard Painter, the chief White House ethics lawyer under George W. Bush recently declared the “answer” to Trump suggestion of a Democrat and Russian collusion in the election is “Amendment 25.” Previously, Painter wrote a piece with clinical psychologist Leanne Watt, Ph.D. where they discussed the “downward mental health spiral” of Trump. They identified the illness as “extreme narcissism or self-centeredness” as well as “an extreme anti-social tendency, an inability to understand how other people feel.” That, Painter suggests, is enough for the first removal of a president under the 25th Amendment in the history of the country. If so, half of the presidents could have been removed for their “self-centeredness” and “anti-social tendencies.” I strongly disagree with such interpretations.
Here is the column:
We have previously discussed how the Democratic establishment has held on to power despite the disaster in the last presidential election. The Democratic leadership and members were virtually unanimous in guaranteeing the nomination for Hillary Clinton despite the clear anti-establishment mood of the electorate and Clinton’s record negative polling. By the end of the campaign, the Democrats were largely arguing for an anti-Trump vote rather than a pro-Clinton vote. Despite the loss to the least popular presidential candidate in history, Nancy Pelosi and various other Democratic leaders have tightened their grip on power. The establishment then fought off a challenge from Bernie Sanders supporters and elected close Clinton ally Tom Perez to lead the Democratic National Committee. Now Perez has moved to fill high-ranking positions with establishment figures and Clinton allies. Among them is Donna Brazile who lied about her violation of DNC rules in sharing debate questions with Clinton. While the DNC staff rallied around Brazile, others saw Brazile as the very embodiment of the rigged primary and the hard-wired Clinton support in the media. Her unethical conduct led to the termination of her CNN contract, but Perez now wants her on the DNC rules committee.
Below is my column in the Hill Newspaper on third round of litigation over the immigration orders issued by President Donald Trump. On Friday, in Honolulu, U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson converted the earlier temporary restraining order into a preliminary injunction. With the two decisions in Hawaii and Maryland, the appeals should move on an expedited basis back to the Supreme Court (which is expected to dismiss the second immigration case from the second round of litigation this week). Like T3, EO3 could be named “Redemption” as the Administration gears up for what is likely (and hopefully) the final round in this series.
Here is the column:
Continue reading ““REDEMPTION”: EO3 AND THE TRAVEL BAN 3.0 SEQUEL”
We recently discussed the free speech and associational implications of a Kansas teacher barred from a job due to her church’s support for the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement. Now there is a story out of Dickinson, Texas where residents were told that they had to guarantee that they do not support boycotts of Israel as a pre-condition of hurricane relief. Again, this is nothing to do with the merits of the BDS controversy or Israel. The question is the constitutionality of the federal or state government demanding such commitments from citizens to secure employment or relief.
Rebecca Palmer, 26, has gone from scorn to “stir” in a false rape case. The English woman had consensual sex with a twenty-two year old soldier based in Tidworth but he later “rejected her.” She proceeded to develop an elaborate false record to accuse him of rape. The police fortunately were able to find clues that the record was manufactured and arrested Palmer. She is now looking at a five year sentence.
Continue reading “Woman Sentenced To Five Years For False Rape Claim”
I am in my hometown of Chicago this weekend — still recovering from the loss of our Cubs to the Dodgers (who cheated by hitting the balls outside of Wrigley where our players could not catch them and throwing the balls really, really fast so we could not hit them). Returning home for me continues to be rejuvenating, particularly with this unseasonably warm weather. I wanted to share a few pictures of our beautiful city to counter the dire descriptions that have been raised in the political forum. Chicago is experiencing a terrible violent crime wave, but the city is not the hellscape that comes out of some political exchanges. I will readily admit that I am biased. I have always been proud to be a Chicagoan and raised in this resilient city. I hope that people will come for themselves to experience the wonderful lakeshore, restaurants, bars, museums, architecture, boating, sports, and sights.
Indiana homeowner Billy Swaggerty has a simple piece of advice for his fellow citizens after sixteen guns were stolen from his home: “don’t let strippers into your home.” To clarify matters for Swaggerty, he did not know the woman was a stripper when he agreed to let her into his home on a cold night. He now accuses the woman of returning to steal his collection of guns.
We have previously discussed how environmental dangers remain something of an abstraction for most people who fail to recognize that changes in air or water pollution standards results in high and quantifiable rises in death rates. Even changes in areas like shipping fuels can translate to thousands of deaths. However, since these deaths are not immediate and borne privately, the true costs of pollution are often dismissed. I have been highly critical of the environmental record of the Trump Administration for this reason in rolling back on protections in a variety of areas as well as appointing regulators with anti-environmental records. Now a new major study has found that environmental pollution kills more people every year that all of the wars. It exceeds the death tolls for smoking, hunger or natural disasters combined. It kills more than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. Yet, unlike these causes of death, pollution remains a policy concern that is often pushed to the side for more immediate goals like job creation. This is not to say that environmental protection would trump all other concerns but rather the real costs of such pollution are rarely discussed in real terms of premature deaths by politicians.
If airlines do not have enough on their hands with Al Qaeda and changing weather patterns, it now has to face a new threat: superstitious elderly Chinese travelers. For the second time in weeks, a flight was suspended after an elderly Chinese woman threw coins into an airplane engine for good luck . . . and engine failure. The Lucky Air flight was fortunately halted after other understandably alarmed passengers asked for the metal debris to be removed from their engine.
Continue reading “New Aviation Threat: Superstitious Elderly Chinese Travelers”
There was another incident of student protesters preventing a meeting or class from occurring, though this incident has a welcomed conclusion: arrests. At the University of California, Santa Cruz, students found out that fellow students were meeting in the library as part of the College Republicans. That was unacceptable to them, so they put out a posting on Facebook to stop the meeting. They succeeded. The protesters entered the room denouncing their fellow students as “fascists,” “racists” and “white supremacists.” One student protester reportedly told a Young Republican: “Your existence is a disturbance to every marginalized person in this country.” It was a telling comment. The very existence of a young Republicans is viewed as an offense like some type of human microaggression.
Below is my column in the Hill Newspaper on latest statement on the cause of her electoral defeat . . . other than herself. Clinton’s use of prison lingo is only marginally better than her curious decision to compare herself to Cersei Lannister,the murderous, incestuous queen in Game of Thrones. Notably, after the column posted, it was confirmed that there were roughly 3000 government communications found on Weiner’s laptop — leading to the re-opening of the investigation. As noted below, the belated discovery (and the delay in resolving the controversy) can be laid at the feet of Clinton and her staff. The Clinton team delayed turning over material and participating in interviews. Their disclosure of material was incomplete and ultimately lead to the “shiv” referenced by Clinton.
Here is the column:
Continue reading “Orange is the New Black: Clinton Complained Of Being “Shivved” By Comey”
It appears that the Senate race in Alabama between Republican Roy Moore and Democrat Doug Jones is now a dead heat. The tie in the normally reliable red state reflects controversial views of Moore who was twice removed from his job as chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court for defying federal court orders. One of his most alarming recent statements concerns the Supreme Court. Moore told followers that he would support the impeachment of any justice voting in favor of same-sex marriage, a position that would destroy the integrity and traditions of our legal system.
In one of the most reckless and chilling attacks on free speech, the