We have been following the bizarre case of the once leading national Orthodox rabbi and powerful local figure, Barry Freundel. Freundel (shown above from a YouTube clip), is now criminally charged with using a secret camera to film Jewish women engaged in the ritual bath known as a Mikva. There is now another front in the battles for Freudel’s future. He has refused to move out of a house owned by his former synagogue and will face proceedings in a jewish court or beth din.
Category: Bizarre
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had become a perpetual gaff machine. He would be funny if he were not so menacing in his effort to roll back on civil liberties and break down the secular traditions of Turkey in favor of Islamification of the government. He is facing growing criticism internationally and last week responded to allegations that he was trying to establish himself as a new Sultan. No, Erdoğan insisted, he really just wants to be more like Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II. As shown in other embarrassing moments recently, Erdoğan’s’s knowledge of history is even worst than his appreciation for human rights.
Continue reading “Erdoğan: I Don’t Want To Be A Sultan . . . I Want To Be A Queen”
North Carolina driver Kristen Leigh Phillips, 40, is facing misdemeanor charges after she was caught on videotape in a bizarre road road incident that left a small child screaming and a mother driver in shock. The video of the victim is below.
Continue reading “North Carolina Woman Charged In Road Rage Incident Caught On Tape”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
In keeping with an ancient American proverb: “If it can be driven, it can be driven under the influence,” Fargo police arrested Steven Anderson for allegedly driving a Zamboni ice surfacing machine while under the influence.
In a Twitter post with the hashtag “bumperzamboni,” a spectator at the arena reported that, “I’ve never seen a zamboni have so much trouble around the edges.” The incident offered a refreshing nuance to what would otherwise have been a rather ordinary and languishing youth hockey game.
Continue reading “ZUI: North Dakotan Arrested for Allegedly Driving Zamboni Under The Influence”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
In another case of police wannabes acting on impulse and getting themselves arrested, Shawn Robinson of Alexandria, Virginia is alleged to have pulled over a driver and announcing he was a police officer. The joke was apparently on him when the suspect he pulled over was an actual police officer who gave chase.
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
Police in Everett, Washington made multiple arrests after a social medial linked crime spree at an elderly woman’s home while she was out of state seeking treatment for emphysema and heart disease.
Thieves waited after each other to burglarize the residence then pilfered and ransacked the house retrieving whatever remained. But police soon discovered the game and offered their response in kind.
Continue reading “Police Arrest Ten For Allegedly Burglarizing Sick Woman’s Residence Eight Times”
High school teacher Jesse Hagopian is reportedly planning to sue the city of Seattle after a police officer sprayed him with chemical irritant as he left a rally on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. He was simply walking away while speaking on a cellphone, as the video below captures.
Continue reading “Video: Seattle Officer Pepper Sprays Man Brandishing . . . A Cellphone”
There is an interesting case out of Pittsburgh public defender Andrew Capone, 29, has been criminally charged for allegedly given inaccurate information to a judge’s staff about whether his client had appeared for trial in a sex assault case. The case is troubling because, based on what has been released, it is difficult to see where the line was drawn between criminal and noncriminal conduct for counsel.
We have been discussing for years how China has allowed pollution contaminate the soil, water, and air of its country to a shocking degree. That is no more apparent (literally) than the air in Beijing (here and here and here and here). Now the city is being called “unliveable.” That is nothing new except this is Beijing’s own mayor, Wang Anshun.
Continue reading “Mayor: Beijing Is Now “Unliveable” Due to Pollution”
Alabama’s first openly gay state legislator, State Rep. Patricia Todd has created a stir this week by declaring that she intends to publicly reveal the adulterous affairs of colleagues who oppose same-sex marriage on the basis of family values. The threat raises the prospect of potential tort liability and some interesting questions of privilege.
For teachers, there is nothing more sacred than the space of a classroom. While the sanctuary of rooms are sometimes shattered by violence, it remains thankfully rare. That makes the video this week particularly disturbing as physics teacher at John F. Kennedy High School in Paterson, New Jersey is attacked by one of his students. The other students do not come to the aid of the 62-year-old physics teacher as he is thrown to the ground by a sixteen-year-old student, though one student eventually comes over to tell the attacker to break off the attack. The teacher had taken the teenager’s cellphone.
This week has continued the on-going conflict between the the National Football League (NFL) and Seahawks Running Back Marshawn Lynch. This is not about what Lynch has said but what he refuses to say.
Lynch was recently fined for a crotch grab on national television. However, he is more reticent off the field where he avoids media. The NFL has fined him to force him to speak with media — a rule that in my view is moronic and counterproductive. Rather than just encouraging players to speak with media (some cannot be kept away from the cameras and social media like Lynch’s teammate Richard Sherman), the NFL actually fines players who simply have nothing to say. Now Lynch is being criticized for going to the compelled press conference and just repeating the same line over and over: “I’m here so I won’t get fined.”
Continue reading “Seahawks Running Back Facing New Threat Of Fines After Taciturn Press Conference”
I have been a long critic of copyright and trademark claims that seem to be growing exponentially with companies claiming ownership over basic words and images in a feeding frenzy of claims. The latest example of just how ridiculous this has become is the lawsuit by owners of “Chubby Noodle” restaurants in the San Francisco area who are suing a rival opening a restaurant called “Fat Noodle.” Too confusing, they insist. It appears that any Rubenesque reference to a noodle is taken.
Continue reading “Noodle Wars: San Fran Restaurant Claims Trademark Protection On Portly Noodles”
If the Seattle Seahawks are known for their aggressive offensive line, their players are nothing when compared to the aggression of their lawyers. Outdoing even the brutish NFL lawyers who claim copyright to terms like “Super Bowl,” the team has filed two dozen trademark applications in a little over a year to claim ownership to such terms as “boom” and “Go Hawks.” The team is also claiming ownership to the number 12 in a font like the one used by the team. It had to settle a prior lawsuit over its use of “The 12th Man” phrase (referring to the fans) — a phrase claimed by Texas A & M where it was forced to pay a licensing fee for the limited use of this common term. Now it is trying to the do the same in claiming parts of the English language as owned by the team (I am waiting for the Patriots to trademark “Deflate-gate”). It is all perfectly bizarre but Congress has done little to stop the frenzy to claim common terms and phrases. Too bad there is not anyone willing to throw a flag for encroachment to protect citizens.
Continue reading “Offensive Holding: Seahawks Move To Trademark The Word “Boom” and the Number 12″
There was a curious confrontation between the New Zealand navy this month and three notorious boats illegally poaching in the waters near Antarctica. The Navy caught the boats red-handed poaching and using illegal nets. The Navy called over for the three rust buckets to stop the illegal operation and the boats simply refused. The Navy called over again that it wanted to board to check their documentation and the boats said know. They simply continued to poach in front of the Navy and then the New Zealanders let them leave without firing a shot. This was called a victory by the New Zealand Navy but I am not sure why.