We have been discussing the crackdown on “fake news,” including my view that this has become the latest rationale for various countries to rollback on free speech, including most recently top lawyers in Italy. This includes the question yesterday of whether newspaper like the Washington Post could be charged as the purveyors of “fake news.” Now that speculation appears to be reality in China where Apple took down the App for the New York Times, a move assumed to be part of China’s transparent campaign against what it deems “fake news” — which obviously means real news revealing truths about the authoritarian regime. Critics have charged that Apple has agreed to be the agent of censorship in order to pursue business in China. In the meantime, government controlled newspapers have invited the New York Times to “reflect” on it being barred from the App store. Not surprisingly, the Obama Administration’s effort to limit free speech has not gone unnoticed by the Chinese, who are citing the Obama policies (and new propaganda office) as support for its own legitimacy as an authoritarian system.
Category: Bizarre
As a torts professor, I admit to ranking new products by their likely litigious profiles. Amazon’s Alexa is a particular favorite. First there are the privacy concerns over the security of data on the devices. Then there was the constitutional criminal procedure concerns in a murder case in Arkansas. Alexa is an example of new technology potentially outstripping existing legal doctrines. The company is certainly making good on its final pledge of its slogan: “Work hard, have fun, make history”
When one thinks of the countries without a separation of church and state, countries like Israel, Iran, Saudi Arabia and others come readily to mind. It is often easy to forget that India struggles with the same issue as many call for the enforcement of core Hindi values. That was on display in Mewat, India when police raided roadside food stalls to confiscate beef and arrest anyone guilty of slaughtering a cow or selling the meat. This is a new local ordinance and violators can face 10 or 5 years respectively in jail.
Continue reading “India Cracks Down On Cow Slaughtering And The Sale Of Beef In Latest Attack On Secular Government”
Let’s just say Joseph Murphy, 20, is not a Trump fan and decided to expose himself to politics . . . and a Lake Buena Vista (Fla.) police officer.
Continue reading “Can You Guess What This Person Was Charged With?”
We have previously discussed how some criminal cases highlight the porous border that we share with Mexico. The most recent example is Tomas Martinez-Maldonado, 38, who is accused of raping a 13-year-old girl. Martinez-Maldonado has been deported 10 times and voluntarily removed from the U.S. another nine times since 2003.
It is all too common to see drunk folks who celebrated the end of the year to an excessive degree. It is more chilling when those people are pilots. In two separate incidents, pilots were caught in the cockpits about to take off more loaded than their cargo bays. In the case of an Indonesian pilot, he was caught on videotape stumbling through security and staggering on to the plane.
Continue reading “Drunken Pilots Found In Cockpits In Two Separate Incidents”
Like many my family watched the Dick Clark New Year’s celebration on Saturday night (we watched CNN in past years but the inexplicable return of the always vulgar Kathy Griffin finally led us elsewhere this year). Instead we caught the disaster surrounding the performance (or lack thereof) of Mariah Carey. Not only did Carey show the world that she is the worst lip sync artist since Milli Vanilli, but she went on a tirade against Dick Clark Productions about technical problems that DCP says did not exist. Now, 2017 is starting with our first alleged defamation (a promising start) from DCP over her comments. DCP made it clear that Mariah is all wind and that it was her not the equipment that was out of whack on New Year’s Eve.
We previously discussed the demise of my favorite New York deli, Carnegie. After roughly 80 years, the deli closed despite a huge following of supporters. It was a New York icon ruined by the daughter of its late owner and her truly repellent husband. The result is that the now divorced couple ran one of the most successful restaurants into the ground — and with it the vision of her father (and arguably the best Matzo Ball Boup in the city).
There is an interesting case out of Austin Texas that raises the now defunct “coming to the nuisance” doctrine. There was a time that a defendant could move to dismiss a nuisance case on the basis that the plaintiff moved to the existing nuisance only to challenge it in court. That doctrine fell into disfavor, but there continue to be cases where the underlying rationale seems compelling. Take the Westin in Austin. The company built a large hotel right next to the Nook Amphitheater — a huge draw in the city for music. The hotel then objected to . . . you guessed it . . . the music. The hotel is seeking to enjoin the music as harming their business.
As Afghanistan continues to reach accommodations with Taliban forces, another case illustrates vividly the extremist Islamic values advanced by the group. In the village in the Northern province of Sar-e pul, a 30-year-old woman was reportedly beheaded in the market by Taliban fighters. Her crime? She “went to the city alone without her husband.” Of course, as we discussed in another story today, our long-time ally Saudi Arabia continues to maintain the same medieval Islamic abuses in the treatment of women.
Continue reading “Woman Reportedly Beheaded In Afghan Market For Shopping Without Husband”
Our close ally Saudi Arabia has again proven that it imposes the same type of extreme and arbitrary justice as nations like Iran. The latest outrage out of the Kingdom was the jailing of a man for campaigning against the nation’s repressive state control over women. For merely speaking up for women, the man is now reportedly in jail for a year.
We have previously discussed the total meltdown in the Philippine’s with the election of Rodrigo Duterte, a man whose hostility toward civil liberties is match only by the uncertainty over his sanity. 
We have previously discussed Duterte’s foul-mouthed tenure in office, including profanities directed at the Pope, President Obama, and anyone else objecting to his evisceration of human rights and the rule of law. Recently Duterte bragged about how he personally murdered suspects as an example for police who were a bit more reluctant to engage in extrajudicial murders. Now, Duterte has bragged that he personally threw suspect to his death from a helicopter. Duterte continues to brag about his extrajudicial murders but there remains no action taken against him.
Continue reading “Duterte Brags About Throwing Criminal Suspect From A Helicopter”
Honolulu’s Café 8 ½ appears to be serving dishes with an anti-democratic relish after the election. To the delight of many of its customers, it has barred anyone who supports President-elect Donald Trump from eating at the Hawaiian restaurant. The sign on the front door reads “If you voted for Trump you cannot eat here! No Nazis.” The sign has caused a firestorm of controversy for the relatively small restaurant.
We recently discussed how rabbis have issued warnings to hotels and other businesses not to display Christmas trees as offensive to Jewish values, even threatening to pull the kosher certification from businesses. Now, a leading Muslim authority has declared that even wishing neighbors a “Merry Christmas is worse than murder. It is “haram” or forbidden. The view of Dr. Zakir Naik is not new (and he stated this view years earlier), but there is an interesting alternative take on the issue in The New York Times by a Muslim writer on the shared traditions between Christianity and Islam.
Drexel University professor George Ciccariello-Maher has caused a firestorm of controversy by tweeting how “All I Want for Christmas is White Genocide.” He then followed up with a taunting clarification that “To clarify: when the whites were massacred during the Haitian revolution, that was a good thing indeed.” Drexel has said that it respects the professor’s right to free speech but has called him into for a meeting. Ciccariello-Maher maintains that he was using satire to taunt white supremacists.