Annika Eriksson is not your usual lunch lady. The Swedish lunch lady often served fresh bread and vegetables to the children at her school in Falun, Sweden. The school district soon heard of the rave reviews from students and teachers alike. It moved quickly to stop Eriksson — telling her to serve the same fare as other schools so not to give her students a better meal than other students. It is managing a school to the lowest common denominator. Rather than striving for all schools to serve better food, it was easier to reduce the quality at the leading school.
Category: International
Despite widespread protests and international condemnation over his authoritarian policies, Vladimir Putin is back to his unrelenting efforts at self-aggrandizement and deification. His aides have organized national celebration of Putin turning 60 this week with fawning politicians like St. Petersburg Governor Georgy Poltavchenko proclaiming “Your name is a symbol of a wise politician and a strong leader in Russia and the world.” Yeah, that’s how the world views Putin. In Moscow, an exhibition dedicated to Putin is running at the art center entitled “A Man of the Kindest Soul.” Nevertheless, even if Putin has not succeeded in winning over the world or freedom loving Russians, he has appeared to win over Russian women: one in five Russian women say they want to marry the wannabe dictator. Who needs eHarmony when you can land the perfect dictator on eTyranny?
Continue reading “eTyranny: One Out Of Five Women Want To Marry Putin”
Respectfully Submitted by Lawrence Rafferty-(rafflaw)- Guest Blogger
A short time ago, our country and its military reached a sad milestone in the war in Afghanistan. We have now lost 2,000 members of our military during our almost 12 year war in Afghanistan. In light of that sad news, a Republican Congressman, Rep. Bill Young of Florida, received a letter from an Army soldier on his third tour in Afghanistan that caused him to change his mind about our continuing involvement in Afghanistan. That soldier, Staff Sgt. Matthew Sitton wrote the letter to the congressman, shortly before he and a comrade were killed by an IED that journalist Bill Moyers recently discussed. Continue reading ““Why Are We Killing Kids That Don’t Need to Die?””
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
In my Social Work career I spent 37 years working primarily with people in poverty, whether from Race, ethnicity, economic situations, criminal history and/or addiction. In my Psychotherapy practice (part time) my patients were middle to upper class economically and yet as the years have passed my memory of them has faded. Still remaining though, burned into my memory, are the lives of those I met who lived in poverty. We see in this current Presidential election a sharp contrast between the philosophies of the two candidates. One believing in lowering peoples expectations for and the receipt of, what he deems “entitlements”. The other who defends what he calls self-funded programs and championing the Federal Government’s intervention to make health care more accessible. There is, however, one economic/social area where both candidates fully agree and this agreement represents exactly what is wrong with our country.
Mitt Romney and Barack Obama, by their words and deeds, both believe fervently in the notion of the “American Dream”. If we look at the history of their lives we can understand how from their perspective, their lives have typified the “America Dream”. Romney was born wealthy, went to the best schools and came from a family that was highly prominent in his community. Obama, though born the child of an unwed mother, had the benefit of her intelligence, in addition to Maternal Grandparents who were relatively well to do. Their lives, though having different arcs, led them both to the point where they are competing for the highest office in the land. Neither man is lying when they extol America as the world’s shining light of opportunity for all, because their own lives bear that out. To me the problem is that reality shows that they are wrong in their belief and in their clinging to the myth of the “American Dream”, they ignore the most important issue of our time, American inequality of opportunity. Continue reading “American Dream Not American Reality”
Reading University Atheist, Humanist and Secularist Society was forced to remove a “blasphemous pineapple” named Mohammed as a form of hateful or discriminatory speech. The pineapple was intended to spark debate over whether
The Reading University Atheist, Humanist and Secularist Society (RAHS) took part in the fair on Wednesday, in order to to “encourage discussion about blasphemy, religion, and liberty.”
Continue reading “Student Group Forced To Remove “Blasphemous Pineapple””
Police in Alberta Canada announced a major drug bust in ripping up 1,600 marijuana plants from the back yard of Ryan Thomas Rockman. It was the work of the Law Enforcement Response Team (ALERT), which has dropped the charge of producing a controlled substance after they found that they had pulled up the man’s drugs daisies.
This video from a Mexican rodeo is like a training film for torts lawyers. She may not have won the bull riding contest but she certainly should win the litigation contest with a dazzling display of gross negligence on the part of the rodeo.
Continue reading “Video: Mexican Rodeo Takes Title For Most Negligent Public Display”
The Space Station will not be moved out of orbit after all due to space debris. The Russian space program’s Mission Control Center had announced that it will move the International Space Station into a different orbit to avoid possible collision with space junk. We just discussed debris in space in my legal theory class as an example of Garrett Hardin’s Tragedy of the Commons. The debris has passed, but the potential crisis highlights the increasing problem with space junk.
The scourge of sex texting has continued to spread. This week, Swiss scientists announced that dairy cows will now text farmers to tell them when they are in heat. Sensors have been implanted in cows to detect and report shifts in heat and will then send text messages in German, French or Italian as well as English or Spanish. The Jersey cows tend to be the most crude. I believe the message reads simply “I’m horny.”
Continue reading “WYWH XOXO: Bovine Sextexting Hits Switzerland”
People looking at the IKEA catalogue in Saudi Arabia thought that there seemed something was missing: women. IKEA decided to airbrush out every picture of women in the catalogue while leaving men and children. In one example of the deletion the father, daughter and son are still shown in a bathroom scene but the mother has been removed. The ultimate symbol of women being invisible in the Kingdom.
Continue reading “IKEA Deletes The Images Of Women From Catalogue In Saudi Arabia”
An Ethiopian woman working as a maid in Dubai was left homeless and penniless after her employee threw her out of the house without paying her for three months work. Destitute and depressed, the woman, 24, known only as AM, stood in the middle of a road to be hit by a car. The government promptly acted in the tragic act. The woman was gently moved to the side the road and arrested. She will now face a fine of Dh1000.
We have yet another rampage by Muslims protesting religious intolerance. Muslims claimed that a Buddhist man posted a picture deemed insulting to Islam. They responded by promptly burning down at least four Buddhist temples and then burning down the homes of at least 15 Buddhist families. That should show people not to be religiously intolerant.
Shaaban Ali is an honest taxi driver in the UAE. The Pakistani driver found Dh36,000 ($10,000), a passport and some other documents left by a Saudi passenger in his cab. He worked to track down the owner and soon found his office number. He then contacted the man and waited more than an hour for the man to arrive to pick up the money. The Saudi then gave him a $3 tip for returning the papers, his passport, and the cash.
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
We are so kind to ourselves. John O. Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, repeats the Obama narrative that touts the “surgical” precision and minimization of collateral damage of “targeted killing” using drones. Minimal collateral damage would be zero, however, a study by NYU School of Law and Stanford Law School puts the number of civilians killed between 474 and 881, including 176 children.
The study calls Obama’s narrative “false.”
One of the things that we teach law students is how to address a jury in understandable terms without talking down to them. It is sometimes a delicate balance in dealing with complex questions or fact patterns. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu showed how not to strike that balance when he took the entire United Nation’s General Assembly through a “this is a bomb, this is a fuse” demonstration that instantly became a mockery around the world. That was a real missed opportunity when following Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who never fails to offer a clownish, absurd performance. It is one of those debates that you win by showing up and just stating your case . . . until you pull out cutout from the Rocky & Bullwinkle Show.
Continue reading “Yes, Indeed Mr. Prime Minister, This is a Bomb”