There is something fundamentally creepy about this animal . . .
Category: Bizarre
Shortly after Christmas, the Eleventh Circuit barred an appeal from Ronald B. Smith, a death row inmate in Alabama, due to his failure to “properly file” a document by the court deadline. The filing was actually timely but his lawyer failed to include a $154 filing fee or, in the alternative, file a motion that his client was indigent. He was indigent but that did not stop the Eleventh Circuit from barring the death row appeal. The Supreme Court has twice rebuked the Eleventh Circuit for its draconian treatment of such minor rules in capital cases but the judges on that court continue to dispense with notions of equity and proportionality (and justice) in barring such appeals. It turns out that his lawyer was under probation at the time and later committed suicide.
Jason Earl Dean was a man who believed that he had found his soulmate at work at Taco Bell in Ringgold, Georgia. However, instead to turning to eHarmony or ChristianMingle.com, Dean, 25, turned to a pair of handcuffs and a unpromising plea for companionship. He was convinced to let the 18-year-old woman go and then “made a run for the border.” He was arrested two days later by Dalton State College campus police. He was sentenced this week to ten years with four years of actual prison time for false imprisonment.
I was interviewed this week for an article today on ChristianMingle.com. I previously published a blog article on the precarious line between false advertising and faith-based pitches at the company. My favorite fact from Paul Farhi’s article below is that ChristianMingle is an outgrowth of a Jewish dating site that has now branched out into other faiths and made a killing by bringing the goyim together.
In Norfolk, police deployed to deal with a surprising series of emergency calls about a lion on the loose. They soon found not a lion but Charles the Monarch — a groomed labradoodle.
Continue reading “Norfolk Police Deploy After Lion Sighting And Find Groomed Labradoodle”
We have seen virtual adultery lead to real divorces. The question is whether a virtual murder can generate an actual homicide charge. The answer appears to be no after a Chinese father, Mr. Feng, hired professional “assassins” to hunt down and kill his son in his online game. The son was unemployed and the father feared that he was spending too much time in his virtual world.
Continue reading “Father Hires Assassins To Kill Son . . . Virtually”
Ever wonder what dogs dream about? This one seems to involve being devoured in a tooth-by-tooth fight with a band of dingos.
We have a development in the latest case of a student being suspended for using a finger gun. Previously, Montgomery County suspended a six-year-old boy for making a finger gun with his hand and saying “Pow.” Now school officials have rescinded the suspension of a 6-year-old Silver Spring boy who they said pointed his finger like a gun and said, “Pow.” However, once again, there is no action to be taken against school officials for ordering such an absurd punishment in a mindless “zero tolerance” policy. Continue reading “Terror Tots III: Maryland Officials Reverse Suspension Of Six-Year-Old For Making Gesture Of Finger Gun And Saying “Pow””
Saudi Arabia has another case of a pedophilia dressed up as marriage. In the latest case, a 70-year-old man paid a family $17,500 in a dowry to purchase a 15-year-old girl as a bride. The girl proceeded to lock herself in the bedroom for two days in fear on their wedding night and then fled home to her family. The groom is now demanding that the girl be handed over to him or to get a refund from the family. [Update: a divorce has been issued in the “marriage” and the articles now report the man as 70 years old rather than 90 years old]
Continue reading “Seventy-Year-Old Saudi Man Marries 15-Year-Old Girl [Updated]”
Huge ball, snowy hill, and a cliff . . . what could possibly go wrong for these Russians at play?
[Update: it appears one of the Russians died and the other was seriously injured]
Continue reading “Two Russians Roll Down Ski Slope in Huge Ball And Then Careen Off Nearby Cliff”
The Second Circuit has reinstated a civil rights lawsuit by former airline pilot John Swartz, a Vietnam veteran who sued after he was arrested in New York for disorderly conduct. Swartz, a Vietnam veteran, says that he was arrested after he signaled his displeasure with a speed trap by extending his middle finger in a universal sign of contempt. The officer however insisted that he took the gesture as a cry for help and followed Swartz. The case is Swartz v. Insogna, 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 186 (2d Cir. 2012).
Continue reading “Second Circuit Rejects Middle Finger As A Cry For Help”
Brazilian jail guards nabbed the ultimate cat burglar last week at the northeastern Brazilian jail in Alagoas. The cat was found to be smuggling in escape tools after being trained by inmates who where digging out of the prison. It is not clear if the cat will now receive nine consecutive life sentences.
There is a bizarre case involving a well-known race jockey, Paul Quinn, in England who urinated on woman after struggling with her for possession of her cell phone. Quinn was drunk and wanted to make a call. When the woman resisted, he grappled with her and then inexplicably urinated on her. However, it was not the act (which even celebrities have been known to do in close quarters) but the charge that caught my attention: sexual assault.
by Gene Howington, Guest Blogger
While touring about America’s roadways, it’s not unusual to see a vanity plate or bumper sticker that says “God Is My Co-Pilot”. It’s not unusual to see someone with a dog as a co-pilot. Can a corporation be your co-pilot?
We’ll soon find out thanks to Citizens United and Jonathan Frieman of San Rafael, California. Mr. Frieman was pulled over for driving alone in the carpool lane. He argued to the officer that he did actually have a passenger. In the form of articles of incorporation. Upset (and reasonably so) over the Citizens United ruling, Frieman says he had been trying for years to get pulled over, ticketed and get a chance to take his argument to court that corporations and people are not the same. His mission was accomplished in October when he was pulled over for driving alone in an HOV lane, ticketed and slapped with a $481 minimum fine.
It’s a common sense argument based in the reality that corporations are a legal fiction and not a real person. We’ve seen this argument in play here and in other media since the controversial – many if not most might say ridiculously bad – decision of Citizens United was rendered in 2010. But will it work in traffic court?
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
It was brutally cold in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, on 23 December 1776 when Thomas Paine released the first in a series of sixteen papers entitled The American Crisis. The first paper, which starts out “These are the times that try men’s souls,” inspired a despondent George Washington who ordered it read to his entire army on Christmas night. Later that night the army crossed the Delaware River and the next day won a small but psychologically important victory at the Battle of Trenton. This was the first time Washington’s forces had defeated a regular army in the field and the victory helped secure Washington’s command.