This year the University of Virginia canceled its traditional 21-gun salute in honor of Veteran’s Day to avoid “panic” of students due to gun violence in society. It seems that a notice sent by text of the salute was not enough to avoid pandemonium on campus.
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In another example of our age of rage, Hoyt Hutchinson, 32, took a knife to the famous “Baby Trump” protest balloon that has followed President Donald Trump from England to the United States. Hutchinson reportedly stated on a video that “I’m going down here to make a scene, so y’all watch the news. This is pathetic. I’m fixing to get rowdy.” In a sign of our times, people have donated money to support him in this property destruction. Many now believe that they have a privilege to stop others from speaking. Conservatives have rightfully objected to such disruptive acts on campus, but this is a conservative who is being heralded for his own anti-free speech act. A similar act of destruction was committed by a woman in London who was upset with the protest balloon’s appearance.
Continue reading ““I’m Fixing To Get Rowdy”: Baby Trump Knifed In Alabama”
It is something out of a Hitchcock film. Just weeks before Thanksgiving, wild turkeys have taken over a town called Holiday in New Jersey — terrorizing the citizens along the appropriately named Toms River.
Continue reading “Turkeys Take Over Holiday (NJ) Along Toms River”
According to WDJT, a Wisconsin man was pulled over by police after calls of a possible DUI driver with a hawk on his shoulder. Police pulled over Ernesto Martinez-Garnica and found a brown chicken in the car. The chicken was sober but Martinez-Garnica was not, according to police. The chicken’s name is Teresa.
Continue reading “Wisconsin Man Arrested For Driving Intoxicated With Chicken On His Shoulder”
My column in the USA Today concerns the growing movement among Democrats in seeking to limit free speech and embrace censorship. This trend was vividly on display this week when University of California-Berkeley sought to feature a speaker on free speech. The choice was a reporter who seeks to limit free speech and opposes those of us who advocate for the right as “absolutists.” New Yorker staff writer Andrew Marantz is actively seeking to convincing free citizens to give up this core freedom in the name of controlling extremism. Of course, all of the examples of extremism cited by Marantz seem to be found on the right.
Continue reading “New Yorker Writer Joins Growing List Of Liberals Calling For Censorship”
Well, at least that is what the instruction sounded like to me from U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson who told the jury not to watch or rent or download the movie The Godfather. It reminded me of that old cartoon showing a jury in cataclysmic shock with the judge saying “the jury will disregard the witness’s last remark.” The instruction seemed to highlight the movie and its connection to longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone.
Continue reading “Court To Stone Jury: Whatever You Do, Don’t Think About The Godfather . . . The Godfather . . . Don’t Think About The Godfather”
Actress Sharon Stone has sued rapper Chelsea Dudley, known as Chanel West Coast, for “gratuitously repeat[ing] the name ‘Sharon Stone’ thirty-three times and the name ‘Sharon’ ninety-nine times.” The song is called “Sharon Stoned.” I am deeply skeptical but I have been a longtime critic of copyright, trademark, and publicity claims over commonly used terms or names.
Continue reading “Stone Cold: Actress Sues Rapper For “Gratuitously” Repeating Her Name”
President Donald Trump’s personal spiritual adviser, Paula White, has previously made news with prayers that denounced the ‘demonic networks” and stating that Christians who vote against Trump will be called to account before God. A controversial “prosperity gospel” preacher, White will now lead the president’s Faith and Opportunity Initiative. In a prayer on a conference call White proclaimed “Lord, we ask you to deliver our president from any snare, any setup of the enemy, according to Ephesians 6:12. Any persons [or] entities that are aligned against the president will be exposed and dealt with and overturned by the superior blood of Jesus.” What troubles me most is the implied message that opposing Trump a sin or, at a minimum, an act that will bring divine retribution.
Continue reading “Trump Spiritual Adviser Accuses Trump Critics Of Using Sorcery and Evil Spirits”
I have previously written about the curtailment of free speech and the refusal of both faculty and students to allow opposing views to be heard on campuses. Northwestern University (one of my alma maters) has been particularly complicit in this trend against free speech. Now, protesters have blocked students and faculty from hearing remarks (and have a dialogue with) former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The incident at Northwestern follows a growing list of such conservative speakers barred from being heard by protesters.
Continue reading “No Free Speech For “Overtly Racist Old White Dudes”: Northwestern Protesters Force The Cancelation of Jeff Sessions Event”
The divide over President Donald Trump was vividly demonstrated by two comments this week. Fox host Lou Dobbs declared Trump to be “the greatest president in the history of our country” while former Trump associate (and Communications director) Anthony Scaramucci called him a “cult leader” in the vein of Jim Jones.
Continue reading “Jim Jones or George Washington? The Extreme Divide Over Donald Trump Widens”
This week, I taught (with our esteemed visiting Professor Luna) animal-related torts, including the “one-free-bite rule.” One question that came up in class was whether the size of the dog could be treated as knowledge of the vicious propensity of the animal. I explained that it did not correlate to viciousness and gave Great Danes as an example of a large but thoroughly gentle dog. Right on cue, a story ran that night of a woman in Ohio who was killed by her Great Danes. The case actually tracked some of the issues that we discussed in class with the notable exception of the breed commentary on my part.
Continue reading “Great Danes Kill Ohio Woman”
I still do not get the thrill of big game hunters, but a case in North Carolina shows that even the most one-sided hunts can take a bizarre twist.
Two hunters used dogs to force a black bear into a tree so they could stand below and shoot it. The bear tumbled out of the tree but was still alive and chased one hunter off a small cliff in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The hunter suffered bites and other injuries.
Continue reading “North Carolina Hunter Injured After Shooting Bear Out Of Tree”
The New York Times and various media outlets are reporting universal denials of the military that there was any evidence to support President Donald Trump’s repeated assertions that ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, died “whimpering and crying and screaming all the way” to his death. The embarrassing denials comes after a videotape contradicted Trump’s claim that “almost all” of farmers who attended his signing of an executive order were crying. The videotape shows no one crying. The statement on al-Baghdadi is particularly curious because al-Baghdadi ran down an alley and blew himself up with a suicide vest. Military sources say that there is no evidence of the whimpering and crying described by Trump.
Continue reading ““Something He Made Up”: Military Denies Trump’s Claim About Al-Baghdadi Death”
I recently presented my annual “Spooky Torts” powerpoint to my Torts class of the latest holiday litigation cases. At the time, I noted that the whole fear of razor blades in apples appears an urban legend. Well, give it enough time and someone will prove you wrong. That is the allegation of Waterbury, Connecticut police who say that Jason A. Racz, 37, put razor blades in candy bags of at least two trick-or-treaters.
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As many of you know, I love Halloween and we put on an embarrassingly excessive display each year at our house. It may be for that reason that I found a story in Yahoo News so disturbing. Children who came to the White House for the annual Halloween party were reportedly asked
to help “build the wall” by placing their own paper bricks onto a mural. If true, it was a remarkably low-grade move. Children should not be pulled into our politics or used for a prop.