We often debate how to take the best mugshot. Rep. Greg Gianforte (Mont.) went with the smile option and the results are pretty good. Nevertheless, Gianforte fought mightily to block the release of the mugshot after he assaulted a reporter. He lost this week and a court ordered its release. This is the mugshot.
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We have been discussing how Dubai is trying to lure Westerners to the country while it is continuing to impose the medieval Islamic Sharia system with predictably abusive results, particularly for women. Recently we discussed how Dubai police arrested a 30-year-old Ethiopian woman after she gave birth to a child as an unmarried woman. The latest bizarre case involved Briton Jamie Harron, 27, who is facing a possible three-year jail sentence over claims that he touched a man on the hip in a bar. He has already been given a month long sentence for drinking alcohol and making a rude gesture.
A viral video from a Seattle coffee shop illustrates the growing tension between free speech and religious exercise values. In the Facebook video, Ben Borgman — the owner of Bedlam Coffee shop — threw a Christian group out of his shop while spewing vulgar and obscene comments about their views. There are a growing number of such conflicts as store owners assert their right to refuse to serve those with opposing religious or social values. On December 5, the Supreme Court will hear the argument in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Rights Commission. That case will determine if a cake shop owner could refuse to prepare a cake for a same-sex couple on the basis of his opposing religious values.
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.
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.
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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.