This is the quintessential French story. Anyone who has gone to France knows that you can expect that someone will be striking and shutting down parts of Paris. However, the Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité (CRS) police force is taking a stand on a matter of French privilege — the right to drink while on duty. After all, if the French cannot have a glass of wine while fighting terror, the terrorists have won.
Category: International
Helen Beard, an English tourist in Orlando, caught more than a tan in Florida this week. Beard showed that legendary English backbone when she caught a 2-year-old child who fell from a fourth-floor balcony of at the Econo Lodge on International Drive in Orlando. Beard is an inspiration to us all and a fine representative of that stalwart people of Britannia.
Continue reading “British Tourist Catches Falling Baby in Florida”
The consumption of dogs in China has long been a point of disgust with many Westerners. Animal rights activists have a particularly difficult time in China, but succeeded this week in forcing action to save hundreds of dogs being sent to a slaughterhouse in terrible conditions on a truck from Henan province.
Continue reading “Taking Dogs For a Wok: Chinese Animal Activists Stop Truck Load of Dogs Sent To Slaughterhouse”
And we thought pork belly politics were too much in Congress. In Kyrgyzstan, legislators have sacrificed seven sheep to drive out evil spirits out of the parliament chamber.
Continue reading “Kyrgyz Legislators Sacrifice Sheep To Rid Parliament of Evil Spirits”
It is time for another entry in the category Things That Tick Me Off where I vent against absurdities or abuses that I have personally witnessed. (It is remarkably therapeutic). This week’s winner is American Airlines. Months ago, Leslie and I set out to arrange for a trip that would use our carefully saved frequent flier miles to go to England and France with the four kids. It was the trip we had been planning for years once the kids were old enough to appreciate it and we saved over 700,000 miles to achieve the dream under American’s SkyMiles program. What followed as a nightmare in dealing with American, which seems to have made the “bait-and-switch” a structuring corporate principle.
Continue reading “Things That Tick Me Off: American Airlines”
A former soldier in England has been sentenced to 70 days in prison for burning a copy of the Koran (Qu’ran) in public. While a detestable act, the prosecution of individuals for the exercise of free speech is equally detestable and part of a growing trend of such prosecutions in the West under blasphemy or hate crime laws.
Continue reading “England Continues Crackdown on Anti-Religious Speech: Former British Soldier Sentenced To Jail For Burning Koran”
U.S. Ambassador and former law professor, Douglas Kmiec, has stepped down after a State Department report criticized him for spending too much time writing and speaking about his religious beliefs. Kmiec (who I know and personally like) is a conservative who supported Obama in the election and was rewarded with the position. The report stated that Kmiec spent too much time writing and speaking about abortion and too little in being an ambassador. Kmiec’s appointment occurred at a time when Obama was turning away from growing criticism by liberals — a trend that has only increased with time. Kmiec was a law professor at Pepperdine University and legal counsel to President Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
This video has people talking about whether Vaclav Klaus, the Czech president, knowingly used the five-finger discount to take a ceremonial pen during a state visit to Chile — as 5 million people watched. You be the judge.
Continue reading “The Czech is in the Mail: Czech President Accused of Palming Pen”
Well, it now appears we are at war for regime change after all. President Barack Obama joined British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy in a rare article appearing in International Herald Tribune, Le Figaro, and Times of London to say that they will not accept anything less than changing the government in Libya. We are now officially parties in a civil war to overthrow a government — without a declaration of war from Congress.
Continue reading “It is About Regime Change After All: Obama Changes Rationale for Libyan War Once Again And Demands Libyans Change Their Government As A Condition For Ending Combat Operations”
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.
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”