UC Berkeley Professor Harley Shaiken probably did not expect to be denounced as a tool of the racist establishment when he came to class recently. After all, he was simply giving a midterm exam when protesters appeared to demand that he checked his “privilege” and cancel his exam due to the stress that it was causing for students. Instead, the students demanded that he assign a “take-home essay with significant time to prepare.” The scene was truly Felliniesque but whatever humor might be found in the moment was lost by the fact that this is not an isolated occurrence on our campuses, as we have previously discussed.
Category: Bizarre
Feminist attorney Lisa Bloom is under fire from all sides over her work on behalf of Harvey Weinstein, a producer who is accused of breathtaking attacks of sexual harassment against those under his control or influence. Much of the criticism has accused Bloom as well as Clinton advisors like Lanny Davis. However, there appears to have been push back from her actual clients at the Weinstein company, particularly after Bloom’s television appearances where she seemed to struggle with defending Weinstein. Bloom called Weinstein “an old dinosaur learning new ways,” as if calling women to your room in a bathroom and demanded massages was an acceptable old way in the last two centuries. Bloom also said publicly that her media client engaged in “illegal” conduct — a surprising admission for someone serving as a spokesperson who happens to be a lawyer. Critics raised the hypocrisy in Bloom’s past attacks on accused harassers and her awkward defense of Weinstein. Now reports suggest that company board members raised not only a possible conflict of interest in the case but some remarkably ill-conceived advice from Bloom in managing the scandal. Weinstein himself was fired yesterday. Bloom has responded to conflict issues raised in her Weinstein contracts by distinguishing legal from non-legal conflicts of interests.
Continue reading “Bloom Out As Weinstein Adviser Amidst Questions Over Conflicts and Tactics”
The massacre in Las Vegas has brought out the best of our country in response to the savage and senseless attack by Stephen Paddock as strangers rush into danger to save the wounded. It has also unleashed pent up political passions from Hillary Clinton immediately blaming the NRA (for opposing silencers) to a professor blaming the attack on Trumpism to “white privilege.” Others sounded like the relished the deaths or at least refused to be sympathetic for the victims. Now, a vegan food truck owner, Delinda Jensen, 60, in Wilkes-Barre, Pa, is under fire for a Facebook post saying that she doesn’t care how many people died because they are all “meat eaters” and “carnists.” She later deleted the posting and apologized. Jensen runs the Mother Nature Vegan Cuisine Food Truck with her son.
This is not going to look good on Lily B. Bodenlos’ resume. Bodenlos, 29, (left) and Melissa Mimitz, 37, are accused of an armed home invasion in Springfield, Massachusetts. Bodenlos made police work a tad easier by leaving her resume at the scene.
Keevonna C’Ante Wilson, 24, is a model and actress who, if guilty, is proof that beauty is only skin deep. I am not sure what it is like being her photographer or her manager but you sure do not want to be her pet, Chasity. She is charged with animal cruelty after stomping on the puppy. Appropriately, she appears on the Model Mayhem site, where she refers to her as “The Flawless Beauty.” Wilson Warning the video below show violence that will be disturbing to many viewers.
Continue reading “Model Mayhem: Florida Model Arrested After Stomping and Beating Puppy”
Scott Fitzgerald once said “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” If so, Republican Rep. Tim Murphy of Pennsylvania is a certifiable genius. However, in this case, Murphy’s two opposing views have cost him his seat in Congress. Murphy, who has run on a pro-life platform in securing eight terms in Congress, has struggled to explain emails where he asked his mistress to get an abortion. He has now announced his retirement from Congress to “take personal time.” The story is credited to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Kelsie Laine Marie Mast, 23, and Samantha Faye Toope, 20, should have probably stopped with one escape. The two prisoners escaped from jail in Edmonton, but later visited an escape room called “SideQuests Adventures.” They never made it out of the escape room before police arrived and took them back to their first room at the Edmonton Institution for Women. The business slogan is “How Will Your Quest End?” The answer for these two offenders is badly.
We previously discussed the controversies swirling around Associate Professor George Ciccariello-Maher when he tweeted in 2016 that “all I want for Christmas is white genocide.” Now he is again in the news with tweets that blame the Las Vegas massacre on “Trumpism” and “white victimization.” There is still no confirmation of any motivation of Stephen Paddock but that does not appear to be relevant to Ciccariello-Maher. It is part of a torrent of comments using the massacre to amplify political or social views. Recently, Pat Robertson blamed the massacre on disrespect for Trump and the flag in society.
Continue reading “Drexel University Professor Calls Las Vegas Massacre An Outgrowth Of “Trumpism””
We have previously discussed the difficulty in dealing with recidivist drunk drivers. However, Danny Lee Bettcher, 64, is something of an over-achiever. He was arrested for the 28th time for driving while intoxicated. That is believed to be a state record — a dubious achievement made worse by what you stated to court after his prior arrest.
Continue reading “Minnesota Man Arrested For 28th Times For DWI”
CBS has fired Hayley Geftman-Gold, the network’s vice president and senior counsel, after a bizarre and disgraceful tweet saying that she is “not even sympathetic” to victims of the Las Vegas shooting because “country music fans often are Republican gun toters.” We have been discussing the free speech concerns over employees being disciplined for expressing their political or religious viewpoints on social media. However, this is a news network that contractually reserves the right to terminate employees for conduct deemed inimical to its journalistic image or mission.
As is often the case, politicians and commentators were fast to draw political meaning from the latest massacre. Of course, the most obvious explanation is that this was an attack by a demented and hateful individual. At the base of this massacre seems utter madness — untractable and unfanthomable madness. However, after saying that this was no time for politics, Hillary Clinton immediately denounced the National Rifle Association. At the same time, televangelist Pat Robertson cited the disrespect for Trump and our flag.
Okay this might get a bit confusing but there is an interesting legal issue here. Wales hooker Scott Baldwin missed playing for the Ospreys after he was bitten on the hand by a lion. The result was that the Cheetahs won the match. What is interesting is that Baldwin’s injury was due to utter stupidity after the reached into a lion’s cage in South Africa to pet the lion. That’s right, a grown man reached into a lion’s cage to pet a lion. The question is when a professional team can penalize a player for injuries due to simple stupidity.
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
In our criminal justice system, appellants tend to fall into three categories: Those who ultimately prevail in their arguments; those who are unable to convince justices of their case’s merits; and those who fall off a cliff and strike every sharp rock on their way to the bottom. Steven Canha apparently suffered the fate of the last category.
After extensive appeals, one of which was to the U.S. Supreme Court, Mr. Canha lost what could be his final personal restraint petition before Washington’s courts of appeals and now the state’s Supreme Court halted the years long contention for his release from prison.
Mr. Canha argues, in short, for a resentencing based on Washington’s determinate sentencing grid by reason of incompatibility of foreign laws to Washington’s and argues for removal of prior convictions to reduce his prison term. But being probably the most unfortunate man in recent memory, a unanimous Court determined applicability of prior violations based largely upon obsolete laws (effective at the time) and time/date dictated ultimately how long his imprisonment occurred.
I am still basking in the glory of my Chicago Cubs clinching the Central Division title this week (a division title by a returning World Series champion that has not happened in over a decade). I have been invited by a friend to attend the first game against the Nationals next Friday in Washington. I will be sitting near home plate in the seats of my friend (who I have promised one of my kidneys in return). It appears however that I will have to refrain from advising the Cubs on throws. I was surprised to read this week that a Yankees fan was ejected for yelling information on the expected location of the pitches to the Rays’ catcher, Wilson Ramos. Yankees’ Gary Sanchez was at bat. This is the first that I have heard of fans being barred from predicting throws as opposed to the disgraceful practice of the Boston Red Sox in using Apple watches to improperly communicate throw info to their batters.
Continue reading “Baseball Fan Thrown Out Of Game For Calling Throws”
We have previously discussed protests against literature and philosophy courses due to their reliance on white male authors from ancient Greece to the Enlightenment. The latest such protest is occurring at Reed College where students called “Reedies Against Racism” are protesting a required humanities class that explores founding works from ancient Greece and Rome. Requiring freshman to read such works is being denounced as “really harmful.” I have long been an advocate of the core curriculum and Western Civilization works (a love for these works that began as an undergraduate at the University of Chicago which helped establish the core curriculum or great works model).