There is an interesting story out of London where banker Jonathan Burrows has been banned from working in the financial services industry. Another cases of fudged books or fraudulent earnings reports? No, Burrows was nabbed skipping the full fare on his commutes to work from Stonegate to London — paying roughly 7 pounds instead of 21 pounds for the daily trips.
Continue reading “London Banker Loses Job And Is Banned From Working In Industry Because . . .”
Many of us watching the Patriots-Packers game so Tom Brady throwing a fit on the sideline after a bad play. He clearly was saying “f–k” over and over again but there was no audio. Those silent F-bombs however are now the basis for a series of complaints to the Federal Communications Commission from people who said that they, even if they could not hear what he said, they knew what he said and were left shocked and angry. It creates an interesting basis for a FCC: the silent F-Bomb. It is almost a Zen-like Administrative Law question: Little Grasshopper, if a silent F-bomb explodes on a sidelines and no one is around to hear it, did it make a legal sound?
Continue reading “The Brady Bunch: Tom Brady Accused Of FCC Violation For Silent F-Bombs”
As I watched the Bears ground into a fine dust by the New Orleans Saints last night, I felt that long-standing sick sensation that has been around all season in watching Jay Cutler — our $127 million franchise quarterback — continue to blow little things like foot work, telegraphing throws, and waiting too long in the pocket. It then occurred to me. I was not watching another crushing defeat but a towering victory. As an attorney, I was watching the ultimate triumph of a fellow lawyer: Cutler’s agent Bus Cook who sold the Bears on $54 million guaranteed contract for a quarterback who has literally never had a true winning season from Vanderbilt to Denver to Chicago (he was as some have noted good for a 10-5 season that fell short of the playoffs). I was watching the work of a genius and I felt a tad better. For the rest of the season, I intend to cheer for Bus — the Monster of the Midwest.
Lauri Parks appears to have more zeros in her complaint against the city of Grand Rapids than arguments. Lauri is suing the Michigan city for $1 billion after she was fired as city clerk. She alleges racial discrimination despite that fact that the city went to the unprecedented step of hiring a “personal coach” to help her improve her performance and then offered to move her to an $80,000 position. When she refused, she was fired and sued the city for racial discrimination. It is a more difficult claim to make given the fact that her replacement, Darlene O’Neal, is African American.
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw)-Weekend Contributor
This past week’s news reports of the Senate report on the CIA Torture program were both distressing and enlightening. I was dismayed to not only read what the full extent of the CIA’s Torture program was, but also when I read pundits and former CIA officials claim that rectal rehydration was merely a medical procedure! I was further discouraged when commenters on this blog made claims that waterboarding and other torture tactics were either necessary or what the devils deserved.
Very few pundits or commenters seem to care if the so-called Enhanced Interrogation techniques were legal or ethical when the CIA resorted to them shortly after 9/11. This “debate” over the actions taken in our name by the CIA has gone from a report based on the CIA’s own words to denials that the techniques were torture, to claims that great intelligence value was gained using the torture and claims that it was a biased report written by Democrats. Continue reading “The CIA Lost Its Soul and Took Ours With It”
We have another story of a thief likely to receive a lump of coal for Christmas. This time the Whoville is located in Saco, Maine where a video shows a woman allegedly stealing a Christmas Wreath from a headstone in a cemetery.
Police reports indicate at least fifteen wreaths stolen from various graves at Laurel Hill Cemetery. After a previous incident, a family member of one of the deceased placed a wildlife camera on a tree to record any future thefts. The camera proved worthy in its capture of a Grinch in the act.
But that was not the ending of this Christmas Story.
Continue reading “Trouble in Whoville III: How The Grinch Grave Robbed Christmas”
We have yet another crackdown on free speech in the name of religion. A New Zealand bar manager in Myanmar was arrested with two Myanmar employees for “insulting Buddha” by posting an advertisement showing a psychedelic image of Buddha wearing headphones. Philip Blackwood was arrested with the bar’s owner, Tun Thurein, and an employee. The men could be sent to prison for two years because the image insulted Buddhists.
There is a highly disturbing, and disgusting, story out of Tanzania involving the systemic killing of albinos to eat their hair and flesh as part of African medicines. What is most striking disclosure is that witch doctors are behind the murders and have been found to pay $600, in one case, for the severed arm of a young girl. Yet, despite over 70 such murders, only 10 have resulted in charges because (according to some in the country) powerful families believe in and use albino medicines prepared by witch doctors.
Continue reading “Report: Tanzanian Albinos Being Killed And Eaten In Folk Medicines”
There is a highly disturbing case out of New York where a Hudson Valley anesthesiologist, Thomas Pfeiffer, 44, had been charged with strangulation, abortion and assault after he allegedly choked a woman and forced her to swallow a “morning after” pill after she told him she was pregnant. The abortion charge is relatively rare in criminal cases.
Yesterday, we discussed the story of two men who celebrated the holiday by ruining it for everyone else. Brandon Ancell, 19, and Brandon Chait, 18, followed a UPS truck and stole gifts arriving at homes. Now, a Massachusetts woman has joined this ignoble list after she was captured on security cameras stealing several hundred dollars of holiday wreaths from the Sunshine Farm in Sherborn, Massachusetts. She does not appear to be too hard up for cash since she pulled up in a Range Rover. Well, at least it was not a small dog with antlers tied to its head.
We previously discussed the best and worst of mugshots. There is a curious trend developing after the publication of mugshots on the Internet: some are finding that their mugshots have made them overnight sensations. Alysa Suguro Bathrick, 18, is the latest of these mugshot mavens. Her mugshot has gone viral following her arrest on drug charges.
Continue reading “Mugshot Maven: Another Booking Shot Goes Viral”
I was on BBC yesterday talking about the Stolen Valor Act and the video below that has gone viral after a man was confronted in a mall on Black Friday by a veteran who called him out as a fake. (Warning: the video contains bad language). The man, identified as Sean Yetman, 30, walked by a real veteran from the famed 101st Airborne Division who was not buying the uniform or claim that Yetman is an Army Ranger. He spotted problems right away, starting with the multiple Combat Infantry badges.
Below is the new “Stand By Hillary” song that appears an attempt to bridge the rather wide gap between Hillary Clinton (and Democratic candidates generally) and males, particularly white males. At first, I honestly thought this was a joke. I am still a bit unsure, but people are reporting that this is a real effort at reaching country music fans. My issue is not the candidate, but the music. To the constant complaint of every member of my family, I listen to country music and this is just really, really bad country music.
We have seen a trend in criminal charges where police are defining virtually any object as a weapon to elevate the potential penalties in a given case. The charges in Des Moines against Marvin Tramaine Hill II, 21, appear to be such a case. He is charged with attacking his pregnant wife with a weapon. The weapon? A McChicken sandwich from McDonald’s.
A series of videos of Baptist pastor Steven Anderson of the Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona have gone viral as he talks about the solution of AIDS being the exterminations of all homosexuals and bisexual citizens. He explained that AIDS could be solved by Christmas with a simple holocaust for homosexuals. The videos are below.