A senior United Nations official is condemning a country’s refusal to allow the UN to speak to an alleged whistleblower being abused by the government. The same government recently fired a high-ranking official who denounced the treatment of the whistleblower and has openly defied international treaties requiring the prosecution of officials responsible for a torture program. Syria? Iran? China? Of course not. It is the United States of America and the administration of Barack Obama.
Category: International
The hate speech trial of Dutch politician Geert Wilders has resumed today amid some serious questions over the impartiality of the judge who overruled the prosecutors and a trial judge who had decided to drop the case. I have long been a critic of these blasphemy prosecutions, particularly in the West. However, these concerns are even greater in light of the actions of appeals judge Tom Schalken.
Continue reading “Blasphemy Prosecution: Wilders Trial Resumes Over Limits On Free Speech”
Teachers cannot always guarantee to keep the students on the edge of their seats. An occasional yawn is an occupational hazard. However, one teacher at Northampton School for Girls in England has the dubious distinction of causing a yawn so great that it sent a girl to the hospital.
Continue reading “The Perils of Pedagogy: Student Yawns So Widely In Class That She Has To Be Rushed To Hospital”
An Indonesian member of the Islamic Prosperous Justice Party known only as Arifinto has become the latest religious hypocrite who does not practice what he preaches. Arifinto, 50, is one of the leaders of the staunch Islamic party and helped lead the fight to pass a tough anti-pornography law. Arifinto, however, is shown in the articles below, watching sexually explicit videos on his computer on the floor of the Parliament during a debate.
We are now officially number one in the wine world. The United States has finally passed France as the top consuming wine nation with 330 million cases to France’s 321 million cases.
Continue reading “Au Revoir, Bon Ami: United States Passes France As Top Wine-Consuming Nation”
I always seem to sit next to this guy on the plane or bus. Police in Argentina arrested a man with 600 snakes and other reptiles, including some endangered species.
Continue reading “Snakes on a Bus: Argentinian Man Caught With 600 Snakes and Reptiles”
Rear Adm. Russell Harding, the deputy commander of NATO forces in Libya, admitted today that NATO killed over a dozen rebel soldiers but refused to apologize. What struck me as the most odd was his statement that NATO did not know rebels had tanks when I have seen numerous pictures in the popular press of rebels driving tanks. It is a bit disconcerting that NATO intelligence is worse than mine.
Continue reading “We’re NATO and We’re Here To Help You: General Admits It Killed Over Dozen Rebels But Says It Had No Idea They Had Tanks”
The radical art collective Voina is facing charges for hooliganism after the group painted a 210-foot penis a drawbridge in St. Petersburg. The group, however, will also receive an art prize from the Ministry of Culture and the National Center for Contemporary Art.
Continue reading “Russian Ministry Awards Art Prize To Group That Painted 210-Foot Penis on Drawbridge — While Criminal Charges Are Pending”
In Canada, Const. Geoff Mantler has racked up quite a record of assaulting citizens. The officer now stands accused of three separate assaults on citizens, including one assault caught on camera. The government, however, has decided not to press charges in the third case.
Continue reading “Canadian Police Officer Accused of Series of Assaults On Citizens”
China has continued its effort to avoid the type of protests for freedom seen in other authoritarian regimes. By permitting free speech or association? No, a more classic approach. The Chinese are rounding up bloggers, lawyers, activists, and anyone who has expressed free thought in the last few years. The latest is prominent artist Ai Weiwei, who was arrested trying to board a flight to Hong Kong.
Continue reading “China Arrests Leading Artist in Crackdown on Free Speech”
Submitted by Lawrence Rafferty, (rafflaw), Guest Blogger
A couple of months ago, my daughter recommended that I take a look at an adoption case that was just ruled on by the Missouri Supreme Court. I did not have a chance to look at in-depth until recently and it is both interesting and heart wrenching. It involves a Guatemalan immigrant mother whose baby was born in the United States while she was in the country illegally and the baby was adopted while the mother was in prison. Thankfully, the Missouri Supreme court ordered a new adoption hearing which could still be another hurdle for the biological mother, but she now has a chance at regaining custody of her son. Missouri Supreme Court Continue reading “Adoption Nightmare for Guatemalan Mother”
Submitted by Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
Spanish police are still trying to figure out how alleged kidnapper Jose Carlos Serna twice escaped from jail on the authority of a fax. Serna was arrested after police discovered him hiding in a carved out sofa in his home in a Madrid suburb. The reputed head of a kidnapping gang, Serna was freed after jailers received a bogus fax purportedly from the regional court ordering his release. A call was even placed to the jail confirming the fax. Jail officials tried to verify the order with the court but their calls went unreturned.
The Old Bailey appears to have radically changed notions of punishment in the criminal justice system. Satpal Kaur-Singh, 44, confessed to forcing his autistic son, Ajit Singh-Mahal, 12, to drink bleach to kill him. She succeeded in Barking, England. Her sentence: seven years — less than what you get in this country on some burglary charges.
Indian legislators in Gujarat have banned a book by Pulitzer-Prize winner Joseph Lelyveld because it reportedly suggests that Mahatma Gandhi was gay. The book discusses Gandhi’s relationship with a German man named Hermann Kallenbach (who is shown here on the right with Gandhi). Lelyveld insists that the legislators are misreading the book, “Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India,” but the legislators want the book banned. Of course, Candhi was a champion for free speech but the legislators see no contradiction.
Continue reading “Indian Province Bans Book on Gandhi Over Suggestions That He Was Gay”
A vegan couple in France has been charged with criminal neglect after the death of their 11-month-old daughter. Sergine and Joel Le Moaligou were charged after their daughter died from vitamin deficiency due to the fact that they only fed her mother’s milk. In a prior column, I wrote about the disparate treatment given parents who kill their children for religious reasons as opposed to non-religious neglect.
Continue reading “French Vegan Parents Charged With Death of Their Malnourished 11-Month Baby”