It was like watching Master Sergeant Hans Georg Schultz suddenly appear in back-to-back performances in the New England Patriots headquarters. Coach Bill Belichick insisted that he not only had no idea how the balls in the game with the Colts were deflated, he claimed utter ignorance about virtually anything to do with the subject of air pressure and footballs. He was followed by quarterback Tom Brady who, despite previously saying that he preferred underinflated balls, said that he could not tell that the balls were deflated (even when a Colts employee could immediately feel the difference and report it). It is the immaculate deflation. It just happened by some cosmic coincidence over(1) and over(2) and over(3) and over(4) and over(5) and over(6) and over(7) and over(8) and over(9) and over(10) and over(11) again.
Category: Bizarre
The St. Louis Police Department have released an extraordinary video this week showing how one of the many stores were looted in Ferguson, Missouri after a grand jury declined to vote indictments in the Michael Brown case. The criminals are clearly shown and the police are seeking their names to arrest them.
Master Cpl. Jeff Davis of the Dover Police Department has become a virtual sensation with his lip-syncing to Taylor Swift’s “Shake it Off” has now gotten more than 20 million views on YouTube, a trip to Good Morning America in New York, and even received a “LOLOLOLOL THE SASS” tweet from Swift herself. My kids loved the video so I thought I would share it in case you have not seen it.
For many NFL fans, the Patriots are like the “Cobra Kai” team from Karate Kid and coach Bill Belichick could well be sensei, John Kreese, screaming “sweep the leg” at NFL games to Tom Brady. That image was reaffirmed this week with the reported finding that the Patriots, again, cheated in the game against the Indianapolis Colts to secure a position in the Superbowl. The NFL has reportedly claimed that the Patriots under inflated 11 out of 12 balls in clear violation of NFL rules to give Brady and his receivers an edge. If there was intentional deflation, it warrants punishment since the team is responsible under the rules. However, there is an even more serious question of intentional deception, particularly after the deflation was noticed in the course of the game. The question is whether Belichick and Brady were aware of the violations, particularly after Brady called the accusations “ridiculous.” If the Colts and the refs immediately could tell the difference, it is hard to believe that Brady could not. After all, it was Brady who once said that he preferred under-inflated balls.
We have previously discussed (here and here) the growing conflicts over businesses that decline to accommodate same-sex weddings and events in a clash between anti-discrimination and free speech (and free exercise) values. Despite my support for gay rights and same-sex marriage, I have previously written that anti-discrimination laws are threatening the free exercise of religion. Some of these cases involve bakeries that insist that making wedding cakes for same-sex couples violates their religious principles. Now we have a twist on this trending litigation. The Azucar Bakey has been found to have broken discrimination laws by refusing to make an anti-same-sex cake. The bakery was asked to make a Bible-shaped cake with an anti-gay slur and owner Marjorie Silva refused. The customer brought a complaint to the Colorado Civil Rights Commission and won.
Continue reading “Cake Wars: Bakery Under Investigation After Refusing To Make An Anti-Gay Cake”
The intense animosity between Israel and its Arab neighbors was put into sharp relief last week when a simple selfie at a beauty pageant triggered a full fledged criminal investigation. Miss Israel Doron Matalon (first from left) snapped a selfie at the pageant and posted it. Someone noticed that the smiling contestant next to her was Saly Griege, this year’s Miss Lebanon (second from left). The reaction was seismic and sad. It appears that fraternization, like beauty, remains in the eye of the beholder.
We often discuss the short time allowed to react in auto accidents and this video illustrates the point. In this case, the accident may be part of the result of the recent black ice conditions in New Jersey where a rapid and sudden freeze led to multiple deaths in various states.
Continue reading “Video Captures Black Ice Accident Of Truck On Interstate In New Jersey”
Tyndale House, a major Christian publisher, has announced that it will stop selling “The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven,” by Alex Malarkey and his father, Kevin Malarkey. It turns out that the book is a bunch of . . . well . . . malarkey. Published in 2010, the book is an account of how Alex fell into a coma when he was six years old that lasted for two months. Alex said that during the coma he went to heaven and encountered the angelic aftermath awaiting the faithful. Alex however has now recanted the book and said that none of the heavenly account is true. Tyndale House has announced that it will no longer print the book.
Continue reading “Malarkey: The Boy Who [Did Not Come] Back From Heaven”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
A Manatee County Florida Sheriff’s Detective solved what could have been one of the greatest heists of recent memory.
Crime solver, Detective Todd Zink, caught a recently released inmate red handed; saving John Q. Taxpayer and the state treasury a tidy fortune.
Suspecting that this sly cad might have lifted something before she was released from jail, Detective Zink showed an impressive level of clairvoyance when his tough, streetwise diligence tracked her down before she could fence the loot to the underworld. The theft of this treasure, as with other fine works of art and antiquities to the illicit international art market, would represent an unparalleled loss to the culture of our great republic.
We invite you to read on, for another exciting chapter of Detective Zink, the Eliot Ness of Florida.
Continue reading “CRIME OF THE CENTURY FOILED BY INTREPID FLORIDA DETECTIVE”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
Only several days after world leaders converged on Paris to express solidarity with the French People and remorse for the victims’ families of recent terrorist attacks there, Turkish President Recip Erdoğan provided the world another gaffe that nested between the bizarre and the mysterious.
Though Turkey’s Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu attended the memorial led by numerous heads of state in a parade rally, a significant step backwards occurred when President Erdoğan later proclaimed that Muslims have never taken part in terrorist massacres.
This scary video captures how little time a driver can have in avoiding a wreck when a tire flies over a median at the approaching car. We often deal with accidents in torts but it is hard for a jury to sometimes understand the very limited time for reaction. Indeed, one of the tricks of litigators is to give a sense of greater time by breaking up the period in a series of decisions or actions.
Continue reading “Driver Captures Moment of Collision With Flying Tire”
As a Bears fan, I am used to turnover passes at critical moments but this is ridiculous. Kissimmee (Florida) officer Christopher Breuer was trying to pull over a gold Acura at 2 am after the car allegedly slammed into his cruiser. However, the car kept going after Breuer put on the lights. Trailing the car with this spotlight on the occupants, he then saw the sun roof open and a hand threw out a bag of cocaine . . . which landed on the hood of his police cruiser. Luis Vazquez, 30, (left) and driver Jose Vales, 38,(right) are now under arrest.
This story hit all of my buttons: national parks; vintage guns; history; hiking. Recently, a Parks employee was hiking in a remote part of the Great Basin National Park when they spotted something leaning against a juniper tree. It was a 132-year-old Winchester rifle and appeared to have not moved since it was leaned against an old tree — eventually weathered to the point that it virtually blended into the tree unless you were close by. For a rifle that produced the famous “One in One Thousand,” this is truly a one in a million.
Ok, I admit that I can be a broken record about snow phobia in Virginia and the inability of drivers to cope with a single flake of the white stuff without creating piles of burning wrecks. However, my four children will be staying home today because of the snow. I had to actually go outside to see it but it is there — a dusting of the stuff but enough to shutdown one of the largest school districts in the country.