Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has continued his assault on basic freedoms in his country with an assault this month on the decision of the Constitutional Court. The Court had the temerity to disagree with Erdoğan and rule that the imprisonment of two prominent journalists for a report on alleged illegal arms transfers to Syria was a violation of their rights. Erdoğan has announced that he will simply ignore the ruling of the court because he disagrees with it. Erdoğan has become increasingly bold in his crackdown on opponents and civil liberties — relying on his base of Islamic organizations.
Category: Bizarre
Renee Rabinowitz, a retired lawyer with a Ph.D. in educational psychology who lives in Jerusalem, has finally had enough with having to deal with sexist rules imposed by Orthodox men. The 81-year-old woman has filed a discrimination lawsuit against Israeli airline El Al after she was allegedly forced to move seats after an Ultra-Orthodox man complained about having to sit next to a woman. As have previously discussed such cases where religious men have forced delays and movement of women without penalty from El Al — requiring everyone else to accommodate their extreme religious views. Even Delta airlines did nothing after ultra orthodox men prevented a flight from taking off until women were moved from the seats that they rightfully purchased.
Daniel and Samuel Sledden have again shown how the combination of a demonstrably low intellect and access to social media can be a terrible combination. The two drug dealing brothers were pulled back into court in England by Judge Beverley Lunt after they posted abusive remarks — mocking her for giving them only probation. That directly contradicted the expressions of remorse that the brothers had just made as the basis for suspended sentences.
Three black female college students in Albany have been accused of assault after originally claiming they had been the victims of a racist attack from “10-12 white men” on a city bus. The alleged attack happened on January 30th and Ariel Agudio, Alexis Briggs and Asha Burwell (all 20) claimed that they were the victims of a racist attack. However, after the videotape was reviewed the police found that it was the three students who allegedly initiated the attack and then participated in rallies denouncing racism in America. Hillary Clinton tweeted support for the women in their claim as victims of racist.
I have long been critical of the criminalization of American society, particularly at our schools We have seen school pranks charged as crimes in high school (and here). Now three 12-year-old girls at Deltona Middle School in Volusia County in Florida have been charged for the prank of putting pepper in the soft drink of their teacher. The question is why these cases (which used to be handled as a disciplinary matter for the school) had to be handed over to the police and prosecutors. There are heavy penalties that can be meted out like barring the student from graduation.
We deal with so many truly horrible crimes on this blog that it is often difficult to be truly shocked by the actions of some felons. However, if the allegations are proven, Kimberly Bradford, 41, may be a true stand out. Bradford is accused of stealing money from Christmas cards sent to Sa’fyre Terry, the badly burned 8-year-old survivor of a 2013 arson. Volunteers were used to sort through the outpouring of cards and gifts for Sa’fyre sent to “Safyre’s Angels.” As one of those “angels”, Bradford was one of a number of volunteers suspected of pocketing money and gift cards.
Yesterday I had the pleasure of addressing the American Association of Clinical Urologists on recent developments in law and medicine as well as the controversy over the Supreme Court vacancy left by the passing of Associate Justice Antonin Scalia. I walked past the White House to the speech at the Willard Hotel and was stopped in my tracks by a state funeral in the making. The gun carriage and white horses seemed eerily familiar. It turned out to be the shooting of a scene for a movie called “Jackie,” which I gather is a reference to the former first lady. The procession was meant to reenact the JFK processional.
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
We previously featured beleaguering Missouri Professor Melissa Click who generated controversy by obstructing a student journalist and calling in “muscle” to push him away; denying his first amendment rights. She was later videotaped in another incident yelling at police officers while blocking a protest at a homecoming parade.
After the former incident, she was charged with assault.
Now, the Missouri Board of Curators voted 4-2 to terminate Assistant Professor Click’s employment. Since late January she was on paid administrative leave
Continue reading “Embattled Missouri Communications Professor Sacked”
There was a gut-wrenching moment in the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration this week as Leo Perrero, former Disney IT worker, broke down in tears as he recounted how the company fired him and his colleagues despite record profits so that the company could give their jobs to cheaper foreign workers. The video is below. The company then ordered them to train their replacements or lose their severance pay. At the same time, Disney CEO Bob Iger sent a letter to the remaining company’s employees, asking for them to donate money to support the company’s lobbyists in Disney’s political action committee, DisneyPAC. Disney has been at the forefront in securing draconian copyright laws and protections from Congress.
Academics often get a raw deal when people question public accounts of research that seems frivolous or obvious. Often it is not. That may be the case with the research of Professor Astrid Willener and the team from the University of London. The team studied fat and svelte penguins and discovered that fat King penguins are unsteady on their feet while waddling. Fat penguins were also found to be caught more easily. While the films of fat penguins on a treadmill were worth watching just for the novelty, some may be less surprised by the finding that fat penguins are easier to catch and less likely to find mates. The study does show that some realities cross species lines.
If you said “Rogaine Theft” you nailed it. According to police in Ohio, the bald suspect is being pursued in a series of Rogaine thefts from a Walgreens and other stores in Mt. Healthy, Ohio (outside of Cincinnati). If the Rogaine works, they may want to post a before and after picture to help with identification.
Continue reading “Quick: What Crime Is This Man Suspected Of Committing?”
The Malaysian High Court has issued a ruling that confirms the virtual eradication of free speech rights in that country, one of our closest allies in Asia. The Court upheld an absurd edict from Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi banning T-shirts with the word “clean” in Malay as a national security threat. That’s right. A t-shirt calling for clean government has been declared a threat to national security and High Court Judge Muhammad Yazid Mustafa has declared that there is nothing preventing the government from barring such speech. The t-shirts were a response to reports that nearly $700 million had been deposited in the personal bank account of Prime Minister Najib Razak (left).
Federal and state courts have handed down a virtually uniform line of rulings protecting the right of citizens to film police in public. That is until the February 19th decision of U.S. District Judge Mark Kearney. Kearney was only put on the federal courts in 2014 by President Obama but has written his first major ruling in curtailing the rights of citizens under the First Amendment. Kearney used that there is no First Amendment right to film police unless they can show that they are challenging or criticizing the police conduct.
After excerpts from Ahmed Naji’s novel Istikhdam al-Hayat, or Using Life, were published in a literary newspaper, a reader brought charges against the author and said that reading sexually explicit passages caused him distress and heart palpitations. An Egyptian court has now sentenced the author to two years in jail for public indecency. Notably, Naji was first acquitted by a court in Egypt on the basis of free speech, however the prosecution appealed. He was retried and convicted.
We recently discussed the difficulty faced by the lawyers for Curtis James Jackson III (aka 50 Cent). While claiming bankruptcy, 50 Cent posted an image of himself with piles of money spelling out the word “broke.” Just to make sure that the court did not miss the disconnect, 50 Cent also posted himself on a bed covered with piles of money. Judge Ann Nevin responded by ordering 50 Cent to appear in court to explain. Despite the court order, 50 Cent published a new picture that shows him in front of a tower of money while referencing his song “Too Rich for the B—h.”