Category: Bizarre

Academia, Bizarre, Society

New York Principal Bans Playing Of “God Bless The USA” At School Ceremony

Greta Hawkins, principal of PS 90, the Edna Cohen School, in Coney Island is at the heart of a controversy over her decision to ban the singing of “God Bless the USA” by the students at their end of the year ceremony. While the kids have been practicing the song for months as their finale, Hawkins reportedly walked into one of their last practices and promptly forbid the singing of the song as potentially insulting to some people. Justin Beiber however is considered perfectly fine.

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Bizarre, Politics, Religion, Society

Report: Muslim Cleric Describes Gay Worm And How Satan Makes All Non-Shiites Passive Homosexuals

Once again, I find myself reading a translation of a Muslim cleric and trying to confirm that this is not a hoax. London-based Kuwaiti Shiite Cleric Yasser Al-Habib is shown on the video below reportedly saying that Satan turns certain babies by sticking his finger in the anus of babies and that gays crave “penetration” due to a “worm.” As with the recent Christian minister calling for death camps of gays, I am often left skeptical on such hate-filled nonsense could be espoused by even the most extreme religious figures. However, this translation is appearing on various websites.

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Bizarre, Congress, Society

Congress Spending Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars Each Year To Declare Days For Everything From Beverages To Pi

Many of us have long mocked the effort by members of Congress to curry favor with different groups by declaring every day to be observances for everything from National Pi Day to Education and Sharing Day to National Child’s Day (a May day not to be confused with Child Health Day in August). I recently cringed with the announcement of National Beverage Day. That’s right, not any particular beverage. Any beverage. Congress has gradually created a type of value ranking to deliver the goods for such groups. Some warrant only a day while some warrant a month like “National Safe Digging Month” while others get a whole year like “Year of Water.” Now, someone has bothered to track the costs of all of the pandering. In the 112th Congress alone, the Senate has passed or agreed to 318 simple resolutions and introduced over 100 more — costing taxpayers $381,600. This does not include staff time and other costs.

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Bizarre, Criminal law, Society

Nightmare Defense? Connecticut Man Claims To Have Sleepwalked Through Attempted Robbery

An attempted purse snatching of an 81-year-old women in a elevator would appear a rather everyday crime at a casino in Connecticut. However, the lawyer for Winston A. Riley, 27, says that his client lacked the requisite intent because he was sleepwalking when he allegedly brandished the knife and tried to pull away her purse at the Mohegan Sun casino.

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Bizarre, Criminal law, Society

New York Officer Allegedly Attacks Jeering Crowd . . . Hit New York Judge

New York police in Queens are investigating an allegation that a police officer struck a New York Supreme Court justice in the throat. State Supreme Court justice Thomas D. Raffaele, 69, says that he was moving some furniture from his parents’ home when he stopped to see why a crowd had formed on the street. The crowd was jeering an officer who was arresting a man and was being criticized for being too rough. Raffaele says the officer became irate and charged the hecklers — hitting people with his baton including the judge.

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Bizarre, Environment, International, Politics, Society

China Reports New Epidemic Of Drug-Resistant TB

An antiquated system and poor management in China may have created a potentially disastrous epidemic for the world: a drug-resistant form of tuberculosis. A combination of poor testing and treatment appears to have created both a multidrug-resistant or MDR tuberculosis. Of million TB patients, 110,000 now have MDR TB.

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Bizarre, Criminal law, Society

Fallen Angel: Kansas Woman Insists Bomb Threats Against Abortion Doctor Were Divinely Inspired

Angel Dillard insists that she is merely a God-fearing woman doing the work of the Almighty.  That is her defense after being sued after sending a threatening letter to Wichita doctor Dr. Mila Means.  She insists that her threats were “divinely inspired” and thus protected by the first amendment.

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Bizarre, Criminal law, Society

Actress Asks Obama To Fire Officer Who Arrested Her For Alleged DUI Violation

It is not clear which actress Amanda Bynes is in greater need of: basic driving or constitutional law lessons. After being arrested for drunk driving, Bynes took to Twitter to ask that President Barack Obama “fire the cop who arrested me.” While Obama may be willing to break away from an emerging civil war in Syria and a worsening economy to address the pressing problems of the starlet, he may find it difficult to fire the officer who is a state employee. However, according to the Justice Department, he does have the ability to declare the officer a threat to the nation and have him summarily executed. After all, if arresting a starlet is not an act of terrorism in our celebrity-driven society, I do not know what is.
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Bizarre, Lawyering, Society, Torts

Oregon Jury Awards Woman $900,000 In Herpes Case After Defense Counsel Compares Claim To Spilled Coffee

It is apparently not a good argument to compare contracting herpes to spilled coffee.  It took just two hours for a jury to find a 69-year-old Oregon dentist liable for giving a nurse herpes.  It was however the attorneys arguments in court that raises eyebrows.  Defense attorney Shawn Lillegren attacked the nurse as a liar who said that she was just trying to be the next spilled coffee litigant to win the litigation lottery and that she needs to grow up. If so, she got it. The jury awarded her the full amount demanded in damages: $900,000 for her pain and suffering

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Bizarre, International, Society

Report: Workers At Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Forced To Sleep Under London Bridge Under Medieval Conditions

The celebration of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee was filled with traditions going back hundreds of years — including, it appears, the use of serfs. The Guardian is reporting that the government bused in dozens of unemployed citizens to work at the Jubilee from out of town and then directed them to sleep under the London Bridge without access to bathrooms or changing areas. It was a good ole fashioned Jubilee with a diamond-encrusted sovereign floating by in splendor with yeomen and “villeins” working in their menial existence. Some radicals (and suspected Jacobites) are questioning the conditions for the workers and calling for an investigation.

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Bizarre, Religion, Society

Leatherman: I Long To Kill Gays “In A Fleshy Way”

We have another preacher who is holding forth on homosexuality with some pretty shocking rhetoric. Dennis Leatherman of the Mountain Lake Independent Baptist Church in Oakland, Maryland can claim to be more merciful because, while he says that he positively aches to kill gays “in a fleshy way,” he cannot actually kill because of the Bible. That means that he cannot build the death camps of Rev. Worley — as much as he might want to.

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Bizarre, International, Society

Wedding Crasher: Canada To Impose Retroactive Charges For Playing Songs At Weddings

I have repeated complained about the runaway copyright and trademark laws — and the failure of politicians to protect the public from draconian penalties and thug-like actions by the industry. Now, the industry is targeting weddings — retroactively — to impose fees for playing that rendition of “Because You Loved Me” to be sure that Celine Dion gets her cut from the happy couple.

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Bizarre, Criminal law, International, Politics

Saudi Princess Stopped Trying To Sneak Out Of Five Star Hotel Without Paying $7.4 Million Bill

The Saudi Royal family has long been accused of not paying their bills, but few have acquired the reputation of Maha al-Sudani, the former wife of Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Nayef ben Abdel Aziz.  The princess was stopped trying to flee the  Shangri-La hotel in Paris at 3:30 am without paying her  six million euro ($7.4 million) bill.  It is hard to sneak out of a hotel with an entourage 60 people.

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Bizarre, Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Free Speech, International, Politics, Religion, Society

Spanish Artist Faces Prison For Insulting The Catholic Faith

We have previously discussed the trend in the West toward an international blasphemy standard and prosecutions for insulting religion (here, and here, and here and here and here and here and here and and here and here and here and here). Now, one of Spain’s best known underground artists is facing a year in jail for a 54-second film that he did in 1978 that a Catholic group charges is insulting to them and their faith. Javier Krahe’s “how to cook Jesus Christ” was a brief satire based on a cooking show.

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