I have previously criticized Virginia Tech for its well-documented failures in the massacre of its students and faculty in 2007 while commending the actions of individuals like Professor Liviu Librescu who surpassed the school’s negligence with their own selfless heroism. One of the most outrageous aspects of the aftermath of the massacre was the use of ridiculously low liability caps of $100,000 in Virginia to deny recovery of reasonable damages by the families — and avoid full accountability over the school’s negligent conduct. Now the school is challenging a mere $55,000 fine for its negligence — a pittance in terms of the millions that it avoided through liability caps. While the school motto is Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), it views that in strictly non-monetary terms.
Continue reading “Virginia Tech Challenges $55,000 Fine For Negligence in 2007 Massacre”
Category: Academia
Mark Curran is a presumed sexual harasser under investigation in South Boston. Nothing strange there. There are unfortunately a great number of sexual harassers in every city, but Mark Curran is seven. Officials at South Boston elementary school have informed his parents that Mark is the subject of a sexual harassment investigation after he kicked another boy in the crotch.
Continue reading “School Investigates Seven-Year-Old Boy For Sexual Harassment After Kicking Another Boy In The Groin”
For fans of Breaking Bad, Professor Irina Kristy, 74, would seem to walk right out of central casting. The math professor from Boston was arrested with her son and accused of dealing methamphetamine from her home.
Continue reading “Meth Math: Massachusetts Professor Arrested For Allegedly Dealing Drugs From Home”
In Nanuet, New York, parents are irate after a second-grade teacher reportedly told her 7-year-old students that there is no Santa and that their parents leave the presents under the tree. In Chicago, the FOX Chicago news anchor Robin Robinson decided to make the case to a bigger audience and proclaimed on the news show that Santa was not real and parents should tell their kids that the presents come from them.
Continue reading “Santa Slips: Teacher and Reporter Under Fire Over Santa Comments”
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
The National Review was founded in 1955 by William F. Buckley, Jr. It defined its’ purpose in a statement of intentions:
“Middle-of-the-Road, qua Middle of the Road, is politically, intellectually, and morally repugnant. We shall recommend policies for the simple reason that we consider them right (rather than “non-controversial”); and we consider them right because they are based on principles we deem right (rather than on popularity polls)…” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Review
Bill Buckley, the son of an oil baron, was born to wealth and privilege. He was a lieutenant in the Army from 1943 until 1945 when he entered Yale and became a member of Skull and Bones, along with future President George H.W. Bush. In 1953 Buckley became prominent for his book “God and Man at Yale”. So when he founded the National Review he was already prominent in Conservative circles. Oh yes, it should be mentioned he was a CIA field agent under E. Howard Hunt, from 1951 through 1953.
“George H. Nash, a historian of the modern American conservative movement, believed that Buckley was “arguably the most important public intellectual in the United States in the past half century… For an entire generation, he was the preeminent voice of American conservatism and its first great ecumenical figure.”[6] Buckley’s primary contribution to politics was a fusion of traditional American political conservatism with laissez-faire economic theory and anti-communism, laying groundwork for the new American conservatism of U.S. presidential candidates Barry Goldwater and President Ronald Reagan“. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_F._Buckley,_Jr.
Whether you like the National Review or not, you must admit that it is the single most important magazine of the Conservative movement in America and has been so since its’ founding. As you can see from their mission statement above they claim to eschew popularity and polls, serving higher priciples. I was therefore interested to come across a story this week that calls into question their true dedication to higher principles, or perhaps one of their principles is merely naked greed. Continue reading “Et Tu National Review?”
Submitted by Mike Spindell, guest blogger
Andy Warhol, said in 1968 that “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.” Forty-Three years later the remark has become ubiquitously prescient. The world is awash in a celebrity culture and America is at the acme of this “culture”. From one perspective this is merely the harmless fluff that people use in order to distract themselves from the depressing things their lives have offered. It is the triumph of “kitsch” over substance in the business of being famous. This has been true throughout mankind’s history. The lives and activities of the powerful have been followed by the masses with avid interest and have been the fodder of discussion around what served as the ancient’s water coolers, perhaps the public wells. Without a doubt in ancient Egypt, the Pharaoh’s comings and goings were constant conversational topics. Today, in a much different context, the American multitudes avidly follow the lives of the powerful, rich and famous, via innumerable outlets including Facebook and Twitter.
The question I’m broaching here is if this is a historic human trait, are there negative aspects of it that threaten the functioning and stability of our society? My own answer is that I’m not sure one way or another, but I am concerned about what I see all around me and perhaps would like the writers here to talk me down, so to speak. Now one might rightly ask what does this have to do with the law and the other topics we treat here on a daily basis. Only this week we have had news bulletins and stories about the sentencing of Michael Jackson’s doctor to four years in prison. On that same day no doubt there were dozens of news stories that had greater effect on our lives, yet every network paid much attention to it on their nightly news. At the risk of offending Michael Jackson fans, the death of this once famous “Pop Star”, self titled “King of Pop” if you will, was hardly worth the attention paid to it, when issues of economic collapse, wars, revolutions, genocides and famines raged throughout the media frenzy. Yet, I must say that the media knew their audience and this story catered to that audience. I understand the need for, and I myself have need of distraction from the woes of the world, so it is not as if I hold myself apart from the indulgence. Frequently instances of self loathing come to the fore as I slavishly behold the spectacle that our media creates for us surrounding people and issues that embarrass our attention, as they play out before our wide-eyed gazes. Continue reading “Today’s Celebrity is Yesterday’s Aristocracy”
Kamal Subhi, a former professor at the King Fahd University, and the Majlis al-Ifta’ al-A’ala, Saudi Arabia’s highest religious council, have issued a “scientific” report that the proposed lifting of the ban on women driving will result within ten years in “no more virgins” in the Kingdom as well as “a surge in prostitution, pornography, homosexuality and divorce.”
The ABA Journal has released its list of the top 100 legal blogs in the world and we are once again in this august group of blogs. Congratulations to all of our regulars contributors and weekend bloggers. This blog’s success is due entirely to the consistently high level of commentary among our readers and, I believe, our commitment to civil and substantive (if at times passionate) dialogue on the legal and political issues of our day. We are again placed in the “opinion” category and facing two of the top five most popular blogs. You can vote at You can vote at this site by clicking on the “opinion” category and we need your vote. A quick registration is needed to prevent cheating in the competition.
Continue reading “Turley Blog Selected As A Top 100 Legal Blog — Now We Need Your Vote!”
We have another case of a teacher who has been suspended or fired because of conduct in their private lives. Kevin Hogan teaches English and crew at Mystic Valley Regional Charter School, a highly rated high school, in Malden, Massachusetts. That was before someone told the school that he has appeared in pornographic movies like “Just Gone Gay 8” under the name Hytch Cawke
Continue reading “Massachusetts Teacher Suspended Due To Prior Career As Porn Star”
Former Philadelphia schools superintendent Arlene Ackerman is the center of a firestorm this week after she accepted a roughly $1 million buyout from the city and then promptly filed for unemployment benefits. The outrage over the unemployment claim may be better directed at the school district’s handing out obscene salaries and buyouts.
Continue reading “Philadelphia School Head Is Given $1 Million Buyout . . . And Then Files For Unemployment Benefits”
We recently saw how the leading California physicians group has called for the decriminalization of marijuana as no more harmful as alcohol. Now a new study suggests that legalizing medical marijuana has resulted in a nearly nine percent drop in traffic deaths and a five percent reduction in beer sales.
Archeologists in Israel have shocked religious officials with a new finding that the revered Western Wall in Jerusalem is not what people have long believed: a wall built by the Jewish ruler Herod. Newly discovered coins underneath wall strongly indicate that it was built long after Herod’s death.
Continue reading “Oops: Archeologists Discover Western Wall Was Probably Not Built By Herod”
I just saw this video on YouTube and had to share it. Scientists decided to pump a special concrete into an ant colony to create a hard structure of the “ant city.” The result is astonishing.
Continue reading “Welcome To Ant City”
Grant Smith, 47, of Utah is the subject of a rare case of child pornography involving witnesses. Usually child porn cases arise from searches of personal or work computers. Smith, however, allegedly decided to review his cache of child porn on a flight from Utah to Boston. Another passenger in First Class reported him to flight attendants who called in the police. [Update: Smith is a professor at the University of Utah and has pleaded not guilty].
Many of us grew up watching Monty Hall on Let’s Make a Deal. It turns out that the show presents something of a mathematical conundrum: does switching your choice at the last minute between the two remaining rooms increase your chances of success? The video below presents the answer and it may surprise you.