Recently, a study from one of my former colleagues at Tulane Law School attracted national attention, including on this blog. The study by Tulane Law Professor Vernon Palmer and Loyola assistant professor of economics John Levendis found a disturbing correlation between contributions and voting on the Court. The Louisiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Pascal F. Calogero Jr., has now released a letter from Tulane Law School Dean Lawrence Ponoroff apologizing to the Court for errors in the study.
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Category: Bizarre
Not to be outdone by extremists in Israel today, leading Saudi cleric Sheikh Saleh al-Fozan in Riyadh has called for the execution for people who read horoscopes on television as “sorcerers.” This follows another leading cleric, Sheikh Saleh al-Lohaidan, calling for the death of television station owners for unIslamic programming in the form of comedies and soap operas.
Taking a lead from Muslim religious police and extremist gangs in countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran, orthodox Jews have created their own “modesty squads” to beat and terrorize residents who do not adhere to their own extreme religious views in ultra-Orthodox Maalot Dafna neighbourhood in Jerusalem. This includes throwing acid on girls who are not sufficiently modest. The government’s policy of carving out special neighborhoods for sects like the Haredi clearly contributes to this religious-based thuggery.
Continue reading ““Modesty Squads”: Orthodox Jewish Vigilantes Terrorize Israeli Citizens”
A rumor that a soccer player was using witchcraft in Kinshasa, Congo led to a stampede in which 13 people were killed. All of the victims were aged between 11 and 16.
Continue reading “Witchcraft Rumor Causes Stampede at Soccer Match — Killing 13 People”
The Orange County Sheriff’s Office has released tapes from the interrogation of Casey Anthony in the investigation of the suspected death of her daughter Caylee. The tapes from July 16th not only show the disbelief and suspicion of the police, but also the perils of participating in such interrogations without counsel.
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Police in Urbana, Illinois The Reverend Christopher Layden who is accused of selling cocaine from his church office and rectory. The 31-one-year old priest faces three criminal counts and has been suspended by the church.
The American Civil Liberties Union has an interesting challenge on behalf of the Echota Cherokee Indian Tribe: contesting the need for a permit for a Powwow from Santa Rosa County for a ceremony on private land.
Hilton Head Island International Baccalaureate Elementary School officials have supplied yet another example of blind mindless application of policies. They has suspended a student for having a broken pencil sharpener.
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Italian comedienne Sabina Guzzanti is facing a criminal charge for a bad joke. In Italy, it is a crime to insult the Pope or “offending the honour of the sacred and inviolable person” . Guzzanti is accused of crossing the line between comedy and crime in saying that Pope Benedict XVI would go to Hell and be tormented by homosexual demons. The joke could cost her is a prison term of up to five years.
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Now, this makes for an interesting torts case. Andy Lees, 72, was toward that he was dying with little time left by St. Johns’s Hospital. The Scottish man proceeded to give away all that he owned to friends and relatives — except for money spent on the funeral. Then he not only failed to die of cancer, but it turns out that he does not have lung cancer at all.
Continue reading “Good News, Bad News: Scottish Man Gives Away All of His Wealth After a False Diagnosis of Terminal Cancer”
Just when you thought you had heard everything to worry about as a parent, Neil Havens Rodreick II comes along (pictured on the left). The 30-year-old sex offender was able to pose as a 12-year-old boy in Arizona schools for two years. He has been criminally charged. However, he is not unique. In England, James Chester, 22, posed as a teen schoolboy to have sex and eventually flee with a 13-year-old girl.
The arrival of the famous Alvin Ailey dance troupe in Jerusalem has resulted in a growing controversy over the treatment of a black dancer with a Muslim name. Abdur-Rahim Jackson was told twice to dance before security personnel before he was eventually released. When he successfully danced for his freedom, one security agent reportedly suggested that he might want to change his name.
Tort law has long treated the mishandling of a corpse harshly due to the obvious emotional distress caused by such negligence. When Miguel Olaya’s wife of 26 years died of cancer, he probably thought the worst was over. That is before he gave her body to American Airlines to ship to Ecuador. The airline allegedly lost his wife Teresa for four days and could not tell him where she was.
Prosecutors were heralded recently for their prosecution of James Ford Seale for the kidnapping of two black teenagers in Mississippi in 1964 that led to the deaths of Charles Eddie Moore and Henry Hezekiah Dee. The former klansman was tried over 40 years after the crime, but a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has ruled that the prosecution violated the five-year statute of limitations for such crimes.
Continue reading “Court Overturns James Ford Seale’s Conviction for 1964 Murders”
Thailand’s prime minister Samak Sundaravej was found guilty of violating the countries constitution and forced to resign along with his Cabinet on Tuesday. His offense? He hosted a cooking show. It appears to take a bit more in this country and Speaker Nancy Pelosi is expected to defend Samak that his regular appearance on the show is no evidence that he had a cooking show.