As Afghanistan quickly unravels and the Taliban resume control over large areas of the country, the Obama Administration appears to be rushing to spend as much money as possible before we are kicked out. The latest example is the Pentagon moving forward with a $772 million purchase of aircraft that the Afghan army “cannot operate or maintain,” according to a Special Inspector report. It is understandable of course. We cannot wait any longer with the rise of anti-American sentiments. We need to get this equipment in place before the Taliban and their allies take over.
Category: Bizarre
We have been following the effort by countries like Iran and China to block access to particular sites viewed as anti-Islamic or anti-social. However, I have heard from a couple U.S. government employees that, since the Snowden disclosures, their agencies have blocked access to the Guardian website. When they try to get on to the site at the Energy Department for example it is simply blocked. I am trying to get answers from the Administration but wanted to ask some of our regulars for help on these reports.
Continue reading “Is The Administration Blocking Access To The Guardian?”
Millikin University is facing a challenging controversy over one of its faculty, Professor James St. James. It turns out that James St. James is not his original name which was James Gordon Wolcott. The problem is that Wolcott is a former state mental patient who killed his family in 1967. St. James effectively reinvented himself with remarkable (and commendable) success — ultimately not just teaching but heading the university’s Department of Behavioral Sciences. The university is standing by him as people call for his removal from the faculty.
I guess some jurisdictional questions are easier than others. Prosecutors often look at whether an interstate road was used in a crime, but what is the crime is the interstate road? It may sound like a Yakov Smirnoff skit (“In Russia, you don’t steal away on the road, the road . . . “) but in Syktyvkar, Russia a man was arrested for stealing 82 reinforced concrete slabs that made up a road outside of a city.
Continue reading “Highway Robbery: Russian Man Arrested For Stealing Road”
We have previously followed government officials who are ordering the removal of basic words that they deem offensive. Thus, we saw how “hold down the fort” have been declared unacceptable by Obama Administration officials as racist. In Seattle, the language police have added terms like “citizen” and “brown bag” as racist or offensive. They are to be banned from public documents and discussions by order of the Seattle officials in the city’s Office of Civil Rights. By the way, they might want to start with the city council, which routinely holds “brown bag” lunches.
Continue reading “Seattle Workers Told Not To Use Offensive Terms Like “Citizen” Or “Brown Bag””
A family and animal shelter in Wisconsin is raising questions about the response of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to a fawn being dropped off at the shelter. An Illinois family found the fawn and brought it to the the Society of St. Francis shelter a couple weeks ago. The shelter planned to take the fawn named Giggles to a wildlife shelter. However, the DNR learned of the plan and, according to the shelter, raided the facility and killed the fawn.
Last week, there was a bizarre and tragic accident killing Amy Stiner, 37, and Melissa Moyer, 38. The two women were hiking in Maine when they became lost. They were rescued only to get into their car and drive of a boat ramp and drown. Adding to the tragedy, Stiner was four months pregnant. Moyer left behind a 12 year old son.
Continue reading “Two Women Are Rescued On Hike Only To Die After Driving Off Pier In Maine”
Russian Lawmaker Vitaly Milonov is promising to arrest Olympic athletes found to be in violation of the country’s new abusive anti-gay law. The “gay propaganda” law has led many to call for the games to be shifted from Russia since the host country would arrest athletes who are openly gay. In the meantime, a boycott of Russian vodka has picked up steam around the world in protest of the crackdown on gays and lesbians.
Continue reading “Russian Legislator Promises To Arrest Gay Olympic Athletes Under New Anti-Gay Law”
We have seen the reaction of police in the United States to being videotaped by citizens in arrests and destruction of equipment. It may therefore be instructive to see how police in other countries respond to such videotaping like this officer in Sweden.
Continue reading “Videotaping Police Is Not Always A Crime . . .”
There is a tragedy in California that has led to a particularly challenging question of proximate causation. It appears well established that Arman Samsonian, 19, was driving recklessly when he slammed his SUV into a utility pole and a fire hydrant. It was a bad combination. When two individuals ran over to help, they were both electrocuted to death by the electrified water from the hydrant in contact with a fallen wire. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Karen Nudell last week approved charges of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence for the deaths of good Samaritans, Irma Zamora (right) and Stacey Schreiber (left). The defense insists these were unforeseeable intervening acts that should not be the basis for criminal charges.
Ok, after seeing these high resolution pictures of narcissism on parade, I have decided that Anthony Weiner and Sydney Leathers are made for each other. Leathers is now reportedly considering a porn career. In the meantime, there appears one group that remains enthusiastic about Weiner. Believe it or not, it is women aged 18-36 which give him a 78 percent favorable rating according to a poll by a dating site. Putting aside the skewed population for the poll, it is still pretty disheartening.
Continue reading “Just When You Thought The Weiner Scandal Could Not Get Creepier . . .”
There has long been a controversy over the use of snitches and informants by police who are willing to say or do anything to avoid jail time for their own crimes or simply make some money framing another person. Many cases are built virtually entirely on such testimony of jailhouse confessions or stings using such unreliable individuals. To see just how easy it is to frame someone, look at the video below where an informant is caught planting drugs at a “smoke shop” to allow for the arrest of its owner, Donald Andrews Jr.
Continue reading “New York Informant Caught Planting Crack Before Arrest Of Businessman”
Last Saturday, Roy Middleton went out to get a cigarette out of his mother’s car. A short time later, he would end up shot and bleeding on his driveway. Not the victim of a drive by or mugging mind you. The unarmed man was shot by police responding to a call of a man reaching into a car.
I must admit to being a bit depressed this day about our country and what has come of principles and ethics among both our politicians and citizens. There seems to be a corruption not just of power but of spirit. The Weiner scandal this morning captures my angst perfectly. There literally does not appear a single redeeming character. You have Anthony Weiner aka Carlos Danger. Then you have the other half of the power couple, Huma Abedin, who assured everyone that she still believes in him while recent reports show a questionable salary arrangement with a Clinton-connected company. Then you have Ms. Leathers, one of the other women, who is actually denouncing Weiner as betraying her when she was helping him betray his wife. Then you have Democratic voters who still have Weiner in a close second place to be elected mayor of New York. If you wonder why our politicians treat us like chumps, just take a look at the Weiner scandal.
Continue reading “The Weiner Scandal: The Morality Play Without A Moral Or Redeeming Character”
Attorney Robert Michael Hoffman is a free man. Hoffman has been at the center of a bizarre case where multiple women accused him of sexual assaulting them. The complication in the case was that the women had answered his Craigslist invitation for rough sex. He insisted it was merely rougher than they anticipated while they said it was forced sex. The case began to unravel in September 2011 when six of nine counts were tossed by Judge Bruce Chan after a secret tape contradicted the testimony of two of the women. Now the remainder have been dismissed against the San Francisco attorney. Hoffman specializes in sexual harassment cases.