Game 1 of the Stanley Cup was interrupted by a bizarre act of a fan throwing large catfish on to the ice. Jacob Waddell, 36, is charged in the incident though one of the charges may surprise you.
Continue reading “Tennessee Man Charged With Throwing Catfish On Ice In Stanley Cup Game”
As some on this blog know, I have never been a fan of comedian Kathy Griffin. I have found her crude humor to be juvenile and never understood why CNN and Anderson Cooper continued to use her during New Year’s Eve programming. As I previously stated, Griffin often seems to substitute an increasingly obvious lack of comedic talent with a rising level of obscenity. Now, she has shocked even many of her many enablers with a picture holding the bloody severed head of President Donald Trump. Griffin clearly must have known that a firestorm would result from the disgusting and deeply disturbing image. That buzz however seems to be turning into a buzz saw with even her former supporters are expressing outrage at the image. Update: CNN finally cut Griffin after two days of fierce criticism.
Continue reading “Kathy Griffin Channels Her Inner ISIS [Updated]”
A If Reece Park could not quite remember how he made it home after his bender the night before, this helpful selfie might refresh his hazy memory. Tasmanian Constables Natalie Siggins and Jeremy Blyth decided to take Park home and put him to bed after spotting him drunk on the street. They memorialized the moment for the morning after.
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Yale has been the focus of rising concerns over academic freedom and the treatment of faculty after the appearing of a disturbing videotape showing Yale students abusing Professor Nicholas Christakis who sought to have a civil conversation over an email written by Christakis’ wife. Two of the students who were most vocal in this controversial confrontation have now reportedly been honored with the Nakanishi Prize selection committee deemed most deserving of a prize for “enhancing race and/or ethnic relations” on campus. Various cites have stated this year’s recipients Alexandra Zina Barlowe and Abdul-Razak Mohammed Zachariah were featured prominently in the controversy. However, the protests are not mentioned in the citations.
Joseph Andrew Floyd Jr., 20, and Zachary Lloyd Brown, 21, are the poster boys for increasing penalties for animal welfare. The two South Carolina men thought it was uniquely funny to catch a small alligator and then tape themselves pouring beer down its throat. They now face harassment charges though the penalties are minimal.
Continue reading “Two South Carolina Men Charged After Forcing Alligator To Drink Beer”
There was a disturbing story out of South Orange, New Jersey recently where a group of middle school students who walked out of an event rather than take a picture with the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Paul Ryan. It is a sad statement about our country that children are raised to despise those with whom they disagree. Ryan is third in line for the presidency. Teaching your children to show contempt for our national leaders brings a terrible cost for the country in terms of the civility and dialogue.
We have been discussing the erosion of free speech in England with an ever expanding range of criminalized speech. Individuals and groups now regularly call police to charge people who say anything deemed offensive or insulting to a race, religion, or group. It appears suicide bomber Salman Abedi was among the outraged insulted and filed a complaint with his school over an “Islamaphobic” statement of his teacher in class about . . . you guessed it . . . suicide bombers.
There are some people who talk about exposing themselves to art and then there is Ronald Thompson, 47. Thompson was arrested after a surveillance video in Lakeland, Florida showed him driving away from a storage center with a large stolen swan art piece. Oh, yes, I forgot . . . he was driving a stolen truck . . . and he was buck naked. Indeed, but for the modestly placed white bucket, the images would not be fit for a family blog like ours.
One of the most damaged individuals from the various controversies surrounding President Donald Trump has been his National Security Adviser, General H.R. McMaster. McMaster of course replaced the most damaged individual, General Michael Flynn who is now the subject of multiple investigations. McMaster was brought in to bring professional and credibility to the position. He was an excellent choice. However, the use of McMaster to try (unsuccessfully) to deflect concerns of Trump’s disclosure of highly classified information to the Russians destroyed much of his reputation in Washington. Now, what remains of that reputation seems to be rapidly evaporating with McMaster’s dismissive “not concerned” response to a high-level advisor (Jared Kushner) reportedly asking the Russians to create a secret, secure communications line through their embassy or other location. While that allegation does not appear a criminal violation in and of itself, it would a highly disturbing addition to an already troubling story on the close relations between the Trump officials and the Russians. The former head of the NSA and CIA under Bush said that such a back channel would be both uncommon and dangerous.
The sister of Manchester bomber Salman Abedi came to the defense of her dead brother. The words of Jomana Abedi fell considerably short of reassuring the public about her family and its association with Islamic extremists. It is now known that Abedi spoke to his brother only 15 minutes before he savagely murdered dozens of young girls.
The Washington Post released a bombshell story on Friday that alleges that senior White House aide (and presidential son-in-law) Jared Kushner met withSergei Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to Washington to set up a private communications channel with the Kremlin. The channel reportedly was sought for secret and secure and direct communications with the Russians. Once again, there is nothing on its face unlawful about either the meeting or the desire for a secure communications line. However, the allegation (if true) would deepen the unease over the associations between the Trump camp and the Russians. The increasing number of meetings has raised questions over why Trump officials were so solicitous to the Russians — a concern that reached its apex with Trump’s bizarre decision to entertain Kislyak and the Russian Foreign Minister in the Oval Office the day after firing former FBI Director James Comey. Update: After two days, the White House has been conspicuously silent.
There is another controversy on an American campus after a professor objected to a plan that involved excluding whites from campus. Evergreen State College biology professor Bret Weinstein made a reasoned objection to the plan for this year’s “Day of Absence” on campus. In prior years, people of color would leave the campus to highlight their contribution to the school. This year, it was proposed that whites should leave campus and Weinstein objected to the obvious unfairness of such a race-based exclusion. The result, as shown in the videotape below, was a mob scene around Weinstein as students called him a racist and called for his resignation. Protests have denounced his “anti-blackness” and demanded his removal from teaching.
President Donald Trump is being widely quoted by European allies as making a rather disturbing statements about Germany to EU Commissioner Jean-Claude Juncker and European Council president Donald Tusk. German news magazine Der Spiegel is quoting multiple sources that Trump went off on Germany over the trade surplus and said that “The Germans are evil, very evil.” (Other translations have “bad, very bad”). If true, it would not exactly be a diplomatic or even comprehensible approach. Trump also reportedly said that he would end the German car sales in the United States behind the surplus. Der Spiegel is a widely respected publication. However, this would be as big a story if the statement was not made. The article describes almost open hostility and shock toward Trump. If the statement was not made (and Juncker has not denied it), it would be evidence of an open effort by top European diplomats to portray Trump as unhinged and unstable. The White House, of course, should be able to confirm or deny the story. I truly hope that this is a fake news story because the alternative would be unnerving. [Update: The White House denies that Trump made the statement] However, the White House does not deny the car statement and only says that Trump was referring to “bad” trade policies. That would be a considerable “lost in translation” moment.
If Sami Adel Ammar, 22, is a criminal hacker, you have to hand it to him: he was modest. Ammar is a student at the University of Central Florida and is accused of going into the computer system to change his “F” grade to a “B.” While the B is a modest grade, the F was a stand out and the professor noticed when it went missing on his grade roster.
We previously discussed the alarming breach of an intelligence sharing agreement with the U.K. after U.S. officials released details given to them from British intelligence on the Manchester bombing, including the identity of the bomber. Now, British police have stopped sharing information with U.S. authorities after a series of leaks to American media. In the meantime, after Trump’s rational odd denial that he mentioned Israel in his giving highly classified intelligence to the Russians, Israel has acknowledged it was indeed their intelligence and they had to implement a “fix” and “clarify” their position with the U.S. on intelligence sharing after Trump’s disclosure. Update: Trump denounced the leaking of the information. Some have noted that the statement was rather belated and others have noted that it is equally ironic (given Trump’s personal disclosure of the highly classified Israeli intelligence to the Russians). Nevertheless, Trump is right to call for the FBI to investigate the leaking of the shared intelligence.