Category: Bizarre

Terror Tots: Colorado Second Grade Student Suspended For Throwing Pretend Grenade And Saying “Pshhh”

grenade6n-3-webIn Loveland, Colorado, school officials at Mary Blair Elementary School have suspended a second grade student for throwing a make believe grenade.  That’s right, an invisible, pretend grenade followed by a reported “pshhh” sound. It is the latest in the sheer lunacy of “zero tolerance” policies that continue to be applied in this ridiculous manner because school officials are never disciplined for these decisions (here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and and here). For a prior column, click here.
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Cleveland Police Under Investigation After Unarmed Couple Killed In Hail Of 140 Bullets

196px-ClevelandpdPolice are investigating a bizarre case of police panic where 115 police officers may have been involved in a car chase and mass shooting incident where two unarmed individuals were killed in a hail of 140 bullets in Cleveland. Police reports contained erroneous or false information on the scene that led to the deaths.

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Prominent Saudi Cleric Released After Paying “Blood Money” In The Alleged Beating Death Of His Five-Year-Old Daughter

article-2273171-1755D803000005DC-483_634x387Saudi preacher gets fine and short jail term for raping and killing daughterThe Saudi legal system has a new outrage for the world. This case involves a prominent cleric who confessed to beating his 5-year-old daughter to death. Reports say that Fayhan al-Ghamdi doubted the girl’s virginity. Various sources reported that she had a crushed skull, broken ribs, broken back, burn marks, and had been repeatedly raped, while others reported that Lama al-Ghamdi was raped and burned. Fayhan al-Ghamdi often appears on television to discuss Islamic and moral questions. He was freed after paying just $50,000 in “blood money” under the primitive Saudi legal system.

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Florida Disciplines Officers Found To Be Ignoring Emergency Calls To Finish Lunch, Coffee, or Just Chat With Friends

aircheckMyriamMiamiDadeofficers_8627079_722x406_17394243614Miami has fired or disciplined officers found to ignored emergency calls. In one case, an officer ignored an emergency call about an unconscious 5 month year old child so that he could finish his coffee in chatting with other officers, including his sergeant.

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Prince George’s School Board Considering Claim of Copyright Over All Work Produced By Students and Teachers

250px-PGCPS_Logo_2011220px-Finger_PaintingWe have had a running discussion of the expansion of copyright and trademark laws in this country. Now, the Prince George’s County Board of Education is moving toward claiming copyright to work created by staff and students that would include everything from a teacher’s lesson plan to a toddler’s finger painting project. This would make the county the first to claim such ownership over the work of students and teachers. It is part of the ever-expanding balkanization of work in this country into propriety material — backed up by draconian civil and criminal penalties.

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City Workers Paint Disabled Parking Box Around Woman’s Car And Then Tow The Car As Illegally Parked

494px-Handicap_parkingThis is an extraordinary video below out of Tel-Aviv where a woman parks legally. City inspectors then appear and paint a handicap parking box around the car. They then tow away the car because it is illegally parked in a disabled parking spot.

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Illinois Judge From Not Guilty By Reason of Insanity . . . And May Now Return To The Bench

We previously discussed the bizarre case of Cook County Judge Cynthia Brim, a judge in Markham, Illinois who has been barred from entering the courthouse without police escort and has a prior arrest for assault. Despite long opposition from bar groups and her claiming insanity as a defense to the charge, Cook County voters returned her to the bench in a recent election. Now, Brim has been cleared of the criminal charge by reason of insanity and can now be cleared to resume judging other people in Cook County . . . thanks to voters who clearly reelected her on a basis other than competence, record, or sanity.

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YouTube Video Raises Outcry Over Alleged Elder Abuse

A video released on YouTube has lead to calls for an investigation in elder abuse after a man was confronted at 2am in the morning picking up his elderly mother after allegedly forcing her to beg for money for several hours in the cold. This confrontation occurred at the UCI Town Center shopping center in Irvine California and the man becomes increasingly unhinged an irate.
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Lewis: God Cleared Me Of The Double Murder Charges

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I enjoyed the Superbowl yesterday, which proved a classic game with the 49ers roaring back in the second half for a close game. However, the thing that most captured my attention was an interview shortly before the game by Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis. Lewis is the face of the Baltimore Ravens and many have complained that he is hardly an inspiring figure given his prior indictment for a double murder. Lewis was asked about this continuing controversy and he came up with a curious claim of proven innocence: God cleared him. It appears that in sports and morality, nothing succeeds so much as success.

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Man’s [Next] Best Friend?

MJ3d24TFor weeks, my son Jack has been demanding why our blog has not covered one of the most important scientific breakthroughs of our generation: the domesticated fox. Despite skeptical siblings, Jack insisted that foxes have been domesticated and may be purchased as pets. Finally, our crack team of researchers was assigned to the question and sure enough mad scientists in Russian have developed a domesticated fox out of the Siberian white fox (the picture above is just a red fox someone met and put on YouTube). The real pets are shown below and they are awfully cute.

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Twenty-Five Years Later, Tawana Brawley Tracked Down In Virginia And Hit With Roughly $500,000 Bill

250px-al_sharpton_by_david_shankboneTbrawleyWe have periodically discussed the infamous case of Tawana Brawley and Al Sharpton, now a MSNBC host. In 1987, Brawley, a black teenager, falsely accused a prosecutor, a New York police officer and a state trooper of a racist attack and rape. The racial animus was fueled actively by Al Sharpton who sued the case to propelled himself into national fame or infamy. She later recanted and a court ordered damages to be paid by both Brawley and Sharpton — neither of whom paid. Now the falsely accused former Dutchess County prosecutor Steven Pagones has tracked down Brawley living in Virginia and working as a nurse. It is 25 years after the sordid affair was in the national spotlight. He is seeking $190,000 in damages against Brawley, now 40. She is now beginning to pay back the amount due to Pagones.

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Georgetown Law Student Sentenced For Drug Dealing

LAWSTUDENT0011359675490This morning we have a sad story of a young man with limitless potential who is now heading to jail. Georgetown law student Marc Gersen was Phi Beta Kappa at Georgetown and a champion debater who secured a scholarship to study at the University of California, Berkeley. He then entered Georgetown law school and worked with prisoners in the D.C. jail. That work however may have been a bit too close. Gersen was arrested and accused of using a social network to sell methamphetamine.

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Beyoncé’s Othello Moment: It Was Not That I Did Not Care, I Cared Too Much

220px-Beyonce_Knowles_with_necklacesI know that many people are not bothered by the lip-syncing of the national anthem at the Inauguration — or at least not as much as some of us. I must confess that I am still ticked about the deception at a ceremony with a great deal of symbolism for the country’s democratic traditions. For constitutionalists, the ceremony represents the fulfillment of our commitment to peaceful transfers of power. For that reason, I was less than thrilled with Beyoncé’s effort (after weeks of silence) to rehabilitate herself at a press conference yesterday. Her public relations people appear to have read Othello and adopted the defense that Beyonce is not lazy or spoiled but “one that lov’d not wisely but too well.”
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