The Gettysburg Address was 272 words and yet stands as one of the most iconic writings in history. We now have a type of Gettysburg Address of our generation. In just 137 words (almost 40 fewer words than Lincoln), this elementary student writes a moving call to arms coupled with a sense of deep sorrow. Like Lincoln, the student expresses profound pain of a nation with simple penetrating prose.
Category: Bizarre
Every Friday after Thanksgiving, stores demonstrate that claims of human evolution may be greatly overstated. From gunshots to smashed doors to stampedes to riots, shopping was again reduced to the lowest common denominator of humanity. The display of conspicuous (and chaotic) consumption is taking place at Walmarts as workers picket for fair wage and treatment outside.
Police are searching for former assistant attorney general James Cameron, 50, in Maine after the former prosecutor cut off his electronic monitoring bracelet and disappeared. The flight occurred after a federal appeals court upheld his conviction on seven of 13 counts for sending and receiving child pornography.
Cornelio Garcia-Mata, 45, has the rare distinction of being sentenced to life in prison for drunk driving. Garcia-Mata has been arrested eight times for drunk driving and has been sentenced as a repeat offender to spend the rest of his days in prison.
Continue reading “Houston Man Given Life After Eighth Conviction For DUI”
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. This is my favorite holiday with all of the essential elements of joy: food, friends, and football. Continue reading “HAPPY THANKSGIVING!”
In celebration of Thanksgiving, I give you our annual Turkey Torts of a few potential and actual lawsuits from this holiday. Putting aside the regular murders occurring on this holiday by family members, the holiday continues to be replete with torts from deep-fried Turkeys to salmonella salads. The holiday gives personal injury lawyers a great deal to be thankful for.
We appear to have another judge acting as a little Caesar from the bench and meting out his brand of justice. In Ohio, Stark County Common Pleas Judge Frank Forchione has sentenced Valerie Rodgers, 46, to making Thanksgiving dinner for three police officers on leave or unable to work. In addition to the dinner, she will be on one-year probation for felony assault and three misdemeanors. This follows another judge who sentenced a teen to ten years of church.
Continue reading “Ohio Judge Sentences Women To Cooking Thanksgiving Dinner For Police Officers”
One of our readers in England sent me the video below showing this man attacking a 16-year-old girl in Plaistow in East London. Police are seeking the man in the attack which is both vicious and arbitrary. It is astonishing that the girl did not receive more serious injuries in hitting the sidewalk. She woke up in the ambulance. The man is obviously needs to be found before he attacks another victim.
Continue reading “Police In East London Seek Man Who Attacked Teen In Unprovoked and Savage Attack”
We have seen a number of cases (here and here) involving stars going to prison for life in inexplicable falls from celebrity status. Shelley Malil will now be added to that rogue’s gallery of fallen stars. The actor appeared in movies like “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” but has been sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. Malil, 45, stabbed his girlfriend, Kendra Beebe, 20 times after finding her having a glass of wine with a man at her home.
Continue reading ““40-Year-Old” Virgin Actor Sentenced To Life In Prison For Stabbing of Girlfriend”
We have another judge who has decided to create his own system of criminal punishment with novel sentencing. Oklahoma judge Mike Norman has magnified this increasingly common form of judicial abuse by adding compelled religious observance to sentence. Norman deferred a prison sentence for Tyler Alred, 17, in exchange for his agreement to attend church for 10 years. Norman observed “[t]he Lord works in many ways,” including it appears through him and his court. While many would view the imposition of religious observance in a criminal sentence as something akin to an American Taliban court, Norman insists that he has judicially ordered religious practices in the past.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has already started the process for running for president in 2016 with an appearance in Iowa. He has begun in classic form. In 2008, many people were shocked when most of the GOP candidates said that they did not believe in evolution. Rubio has now added his voice as denying scientific reality to court evangelical votes. Rubio insisted in an interview with GQ that the age of the Earth remains “one of the great mysteries.” Of course, the age of the Earth is about as much of a “mystery” as whether the Sun revolves around the Earth or the Earth revolves around the Sun. The age is roughly 4.5 billions years — an inconvenient fact to be sure, but a fact.
Continue reading “Rubio: Age of Earth Remains “One of the Great Mysteries””
Geoffrey McGann, 49, is an artist and the creative director of a media production company called Generator Content. It appears that he was too creative for those folks at TSA. The California artist was arrested at Oakland International Airport because security officers did not like his unusual watch which they said looked too much like a timing device for a bomb. The watch had ornate switches, wires, and fuses so the bomb squad was called and the security checkpoint shutdown. Even after the bomb squad determined it was not a bomb within five minutes, however, McGann was arrested and charged by Alameda County Sheriff’s Department with possessing materials to make an explosive device.
Continue reading “The Watchmen: California Artist Arrested After TSA Spots Curious Watch”
It truly sounds like something out of Saturday Night Live: the Taliban inadvertently revealed their contacts when someone hit the “reply all” button on an email which showed their entire mailing list. The Taliban are known as cave dwelling Troglodytes who destroyed ancient artifacts and pushed much of Afghanistan back into the dark ages. Thus, it could not happen to a more deserving group of guys.
Continue reading “Taliban Spokesman Inadvertently Discloses Whole Mailing List In Email”
David Cooper, 26, is an example of how dangerous a little legal knowledge can be. The Texas man was arrested after squatting in a $405,000 Arlington home after the family left for Houston so that the mother could receive cancer treatment. Cooper said that he read about adverse possession in the law library at Southern Methodist University. He drew up an affidavit stating that he was asserting ownership by adverse possession and that was enough during an initial visit by the police. When the family arrived, however, the police finally put an end to the claim and criminally charged him with felony theft and burglary. His wife, Jasmine Williams Cooper, was charged with burglary. A jury convicted Cooper but acquitted his wife (after Cooper insisted that she did not stay at the house with him).
Continue reading “Adversity or Burglary? Texas Man Convicted In Bizarre Squatting Case”
Jonathan G. Ngarambe might want to be more careful with where he is looking in the future. In a trial of a gang-rape case, a prosecutor thought that he saw Ngarambe catch the eye of one of the defendants. After an investigation, Ngarambe admitted that he lied to the court in denying that he had any relationship with any of the parties in the case. Ngarambe, 23, in fact knew two of the defendants and also had prior contact with the alleged victim, who was a high school classmate. Ngarambe has now pleaded guilty to perjury and Judge John Lu has sentenced him to an impressive two years in jail.