Lawyers often try to take a bite out of the evidence but one Russian lawyer takes that expression to a literal degree. This Russian lawyer was caught on CCTV actually eating the report showing the level of alcohol in his client’s system at the time of an automobile accident. The video is below.
Continue reading “Disgorging The Record: Russian Lawyer Caught Eating Evidence In Judge’s Chambers”
In Italy, there is a term “bamboccioni” or chubby child or big babies to refer to children who are staying with their parents for longer and longer periods into their adult years. One decision however has shocked many Italians in Modena in Northern Italy where a court ordered a middle-aged father to keep supporting his 28-year-old son financially. The son wants another academic degree and the court held that the father remains liable for the costs.
We have another bizarre case of child welfare overreach on the same week as a story where child welfare officials appear to have ignored one of the worst cases of child abuse in recent memory in Washington state. In Winnipeg, Jacqui Kendrick, a stay-at-home mom, was called out by Child and Family Services because she let her children play in her fenced-in backyard. That’s right, a neighbor called to complain that children were playing on their own in their own fenced-in backyard.
There is a notable sentencing in Washington of two parents who received 20-year prison terms for child abuse. The sentencing of Christopher Sefton, 30, and Lori Lloyd, 31, is unusually high due to the shocking level of abuse of their young children including beatings and making them eat disgusting hot dog-and-cooking oil smoothies. What is bizarre is that we read of parents who face senseless child wellfare actions for letting their kids play in their fenced in backyards or honest mistakes made at sporting events. Yet these two people were the subject of repeated complaints of abuse and their kids came to school bruised and under-nourished without any serious action taken.
At times Saudi Arabia and its medieval Sharia system seems a bad parody of itself. That is the case with this video of a leading Saudi family therapist inexplicably sitting on a chair in the middle of the forest discussing calmly the Islamically correct way of beating your wife. What is even more unnerving is this guy, Khaled Al-Saqaby, is not only viewed as sane and learned but is probably viewed as a moderate on the subject.
Continue reading “Saudi Family Therapist Explains The Islamically Correct Method Of Wife Beating”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
Tehran Iran’s police chief, Hossein Sajedinia announced and defended a controversial decision to form a seven thousand strong undercover police service charged with enforcing morality codes and, reportedly, assisting regular police forces with criminal matters.
Domestic and international civil libertarians project an Orwellian abuse about to unfold in that a largely unseen monitoring system will encompass the Iranian capital and generate the continual worry of being arrested for ordinary acts the government deems objectionable.
I suspect that if the powers to be view this program to be successful, other municipalities throughout the Islamic Republic of Iran will soon follow, further repressing whatever freedom currently remains in their country.
Continue reading “Tehran Announces Creation Of Undercover “Morality Police” Force”
There is a rather bizarre case out of Texas where Whole Foods was sued by Pastor Jordan Brown of Austin’s Church of Open Doors. Brown said he ordered a cake from Whole Foods meant to read “Love Wins” — a slogan associated with the movement to legalize same-sex marriage — but the store instead wrote “Love Wins. Fag.” The very notion of Whole Foods, an iconic brand for liberals, producing an anti-gay cake is news in itself. Indeed, Whole Food was initially apologetic and shocked by the news. That soon turned to a more confrontational and angry reaction after the store reviewed the security tape. The store has countersued and suggested that Brown added the offensive language.
The Michigan Court of Appeals has handed down an interesting ruling this week that a man arrested for driving drunk in his own driveway cannot be pros in favor of a man who was charged with operating a vehicle while intoxicated . . . in his own driveway. In a 2-1 opinion, the court ruled that Gina Robert Rea’s driving 25 feet in this driveway did not constitute “operating his vehicle in an area generally accessible to motor vehicles.”
There are bad days and then there are days like this. A 43-year-old Wisconsin man first ran his car right into fresh cement in swerving around another car. That is bad. What is worse is when police get you out only to discover that you have an outstanding warrant.
There are Oxford dons and then there are Oxford cons. Nicola Boardman, 34, was the latter after bilking her parents of more than £250,000 by convincing them she was a student at Oxford University. She continued to hit them up for money for research and travel that prosecutors allege was used for drugs, holidays and a secret wedding. Adding insult to injury, her parents, Frank and Marilyn, were not even invited to the wedding.
There is another controversy over the punishment of a teacher for statements made on his private time on social media. In this case, University of Sydney tutor Wu Wei, the business school’s head corporate finance tutor, used the pseudonym Pekojima and did not speak at a faculty member. However, his students found him out and exposed such statements like Wu calling Chinese students “pigs” (using the symbol “tun”) and accusing them of cheating “due to low IQs.” The comments appeared on the Chinese micro-blogging site Weibo and caused a firestorm.
It appears that Americans are not the only voters aggrieved what is viewed as a rigged political system. We recently discussed the groundswell of support for the naming of Britain’s new $300 million research ship. The English voted overwhelmingly for “Boaty McBoatface,” which I also viewed as brilliant. The tee-shirt sales alone could fund another sister ship. However, those stodgy, killjoys in the English government have scuttled “Boaty McBoatface” — showing both a lack of democratic values as well as any cognizable sense of humor.
Continue reading “British Minister Scuttles Boaty McBoatface”
Time and time again, it has been the same story. Primary elections long expected to produce record turnouts quickly ground to a halt by malfunctioning machines and a lack of ballots. Every national election, politicians express outrage only to have the same cycle repeated. New Yorkers are saying that they are facing the same barriers to voting from long lines to broken machines.
Continue reading “Voters Face Broken Machines And Closed Polling Places In New York”
A new poll captures just how dysfunctional our elections have become under the duopoly exercised by the two parties. Over half of the public say that they cannot support Trump, Cruz, or Clinton in the general election. Indeed, the two frontrunners, Trump and Clinton, have the highest negatives in their respective parties. The system has produced frontrunners that 6 out of 10 voters say they cannot support. If that is not an indictment of our current system, I am not sure what it takes to push toward reforms.
Continue reading “POLL: Over Half Of Voters Will Not Support Trump, Cruz, or Clinton”
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to first apologize to authoritarian Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for a satirical poem and then approve the prosecution of the comedian is a shocking and chilling disgrace. Merkel, who hails from the former Communist East Germany, has never been a reliable ally to free speech but the crackdown on comedian Jan Boehmermann has shocked the West. Even with the recent rollback of free speech rights in Europe, Merkel’s actions (and the cringing response of ZDF television) has been wake up call for all civil libertarians.