We made it home last night from Vermont after having a glorious time. I have always said that, if I ever left Virginia, I would go to Vermont. No state has worked so hard to protect the environment and preserve the natural beauty of the land. Vermont legislators basically work for free (with a small stipend for travel) and every citizen seems connected to the local and state political system.
Category: International
We have for years been following the rising number of blasphemy prosecutions not only in the Muslim world but, even more worrisome, in the West. Now, an Egyptian court has added a new outrage in sentencing a 17-year-old Christian boy to three years in jail for publishing cartoons on Facebook deemed mocking of Islam and the Prophet Mohammad. It is the latest example of the abuses of Sharia law and the danger of intermingling religion and government.
The Turleys left Quebec with great reluctance yesterday after four wonderful days to go to Vermont, our next stop. Before leaving, however, we went to the beautiful falls outside of the city.
Our Canadian excursion continued with our final days in Quebec. Yesterday, we went to the Plains of Abraham, the site of the key battle in the Seven Years War. We then walked around Quebec experiencing the shops and cafes. It was a huge amount of fun, though I had to Shanghai the kids into more military historical sites. They proved far more committed in searching for new crêperies and croissants.
We have discussed our share of car chase chases on this blog — often debating the wisdom of high-speed chases or issues of liability. This chase by Czech officers is a stand out. They are traveling at 60 mph (100 km/h) in a chase with a guy on a bike. That’s right, a guy is moving at 60 mph and racing a cruiser on the highway.
Continue reading “[Not] Breaking Away: Police Capture Bicyclist After High-Speed Chase”
As I have discussed previously, I often speak about the cultural defense with a group of experts around the country, including judge Delissa Ridgway. This defense is used in both criminal and civil cases to argue that an individual did not have true intent to commit a crime or should have a mitigated sentence due to a cultural motivation or belief. There are limits however as a father discovered last week in Rome, Italy.
Over the years, I have not hidden my opposition to Sharia-based legal systems and the types of grotesque forms of justice that they mete out to their citizens. There is little good news from this area of the world as revolutions in Libya and Egypt go careening toward Islamic states. However, this week we have a modicum of good news. Tunisia’s governing Islamist party has decided to oppose a move to make sharia law the main source of legislation in a new constitution. They appear to be doing better than our allies in Iraq and Afghanistan who are increasingly applying harsh Islamic principles.
Continue reading “Tunisia Rejects Sharia As Basis For New Constitution”
I am traveling on business this week in Canada and Vermont. I decided to bring the family and, as in the past, I thought I would share some of what we saw and experienced from any of our blog regulars traveling in this direction. We began the journey by driving up to Montreal from Virginia (11 hours). While this is a working trip for me, we are packing in a lot of sight-seeing and, when I am working, Leslie and the kids are out and about with their iPhones at the ready.
Talk about an attractive nuisance. This week a currency truck spilled Canadian “loonies and toonies” all over a highway. The accident then caused a candy truck to crash and spill candy on top of the money. I can just picture two Canadian guys saying “Give it a second, eh, there has got to be a Moosehead Beer truck coming along.”
Continue reading “Pinch Me: First Truck Spills Millions of Coins All Over Highway, Second Truck Covers The Money In Candy . . . Men Wait Anxiously For Moosehead Beer Truck”
Sgt. Dennis Weichel, 29, gave the world a measure of the bravery and humanity of our soldiers serving abroad this week. Weichel, a father of three from Rhode Island, gave his life to save an Afghan girl from being run over by a 16-ton armored fighting vehicle this week. While Afghan President Hamid Karzai has called all Americans “Demons” , Weichel did not hesitate to give his life for a little girl in danger.
While our troops are being gunned down by Afghan allies and the President of Afghanistan is calling Americans “demons,” the Administration remains committed to spending billions in that country and keeping U.S. troops in harm’s way. The solution? Have U.S. troops serve as “Guardian Angels” to protect other U.S. troops so our allies do not kill them while they sleep.
Hazrat Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi has a blockbuster on his hands. The Islamic writer has a book that has sold out in many bookstores in India. The book lays out in detail how Muslim husbands should beat their wives.
Continue reading “How-To Beat Your Wife: Book Details The Need and Method For a Proper Beating Of A Muslim Wife”
This foreign news segment has gone viral and frankly it is pretty embarrassing. If you wonder why other countries view us as insincere and artificial, just listen to these clips of President Obama complimenting a series of “little countries” for “punching above their weight.” It is insulting on so many levels but Obama appears entirely clueless.
We have previously discusses alarming moves in France to limit or deny speech through blasphemy prosecutions to hate speech to barring “antihistorical” speech. Now, in the wake of the recent killings by a Muslim extremist, the government of President Nicolas Sarkozy is proposing a new law that would jail repeat visitors to extremist web sites. It is a measure that strips away core free speech rights of citizens and gives the government a new ambiguous power to arrest people for the things that they read.
Continue reading “Sarkozy Proposes To Arrest People Who Visit “Terrorist” Websites”
It is time again for me to vent and add another item to my “Things That Tick Me Off” list. Today’s gripe is excessive celebration. I started thinking about this recently as the father to two fencers. In attending fencing competitions, I have been shocked by the practice of some to scream after scoring a point. I will return to that practice is a second. Then I saw this click of Pete Weber winning his fifth PBA U.S. open title — screaming at the crowd. I realize that this is (hopefully) an unguarded moment of someone caught in the euphoria of his win. However, it raised again for me the concept of excessive celebration in football (my favorite sport) and the need for such a rule in fencing (below). I believe all sports should have rules like the NFL’s, but fencing (with so many young players) should make it a priority to establish a rule against screaming celebrations as shown below.
Continue reading “Things That Tick Me Off: Excessive Celebration”