Two prominent art curators in Moscow, Yury Samodurov and Andrei Yerofeyev, are facing three years in prison for showing art that insulted the Russian Orthodox Church. It is the latest example of blasphemy prosecutions, a growing trend in the West and industrialized nations.
Continue reading “Criminalizing Art: Two Prominent Art Curators Face Three Years in Jail for Offending Orthodox Church”
Category: International
Below is today’s USA Today column on the arrest of individuals for telling obvious jokes on airplanes and at airports.
Continue reading “Airlines Should Go After Hoaxers, Not Jokesters”
What do you do when you hand over all your money before a promised Doomsday, but Doomsday never comes? You go find the next best thing: a lawyer. That is the situation in Australia where a court has frozen the assets of Pastor Rocco Leo and his associates at Agape Ministries after followers demanded their money back. While there appears to have been no written contract, this appears a novel inverse of a force majeure claim: the act of God never came.
Continue reading “Followers Sue Church After Doomsday Fails To Come”
Picture this scene out of Midnight Express, police surrounding a nervous man late at night on an airport tarmac. Pulling away his shirt, they find taped to his body . . . steaks. A beef mule. That could be the scene in Karnataka, India where the government is about to make the possession of beef a criminal offense. Presumably, possession of beef with intent to distribute will receive a higher sentence.
Continue reading “Do The Prime, Do The Time: India Legislators Move To Criminalize Beef Possession”
A group of 15 monkeys at Kyoto University’s primate research institute escaped from a high-security research center by learning how to use tree limbs to catapult themselves over a 17ft high electric fence. One of them was named Dr. Zaius. Ok, I made that last part up but it is clear that our monkey overlords are gathering.
First there was the scandal in the hot dog eating world. Now, scandal rocks the Sumo world. Is nothing sacred? Sumo star Ozeki Kotomitsuki, 34, has been implicated in a gambling scandal and has been dismissed by the Japan Sumo Association.
Continue reading “Say It Ain’t So, Oze: Scandal Rocks Sumo World”
We often run Iranian blogs to show clown-like policies such as requiring Islamic haircuts or mannequin mascetomies. However, it is important to remember the plight of women and dissidents under Iran’s medieval Sharia system. There is no more frightening example than the scheduled stoning of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, 43, for conducting an “illicit relationship outside marriage.” Convicted in May 2006, Ashtiani has already been given 99 lashes under her Sharia sentence.
Continue reading “Iran Set to Stone Woman To Death — After Giving Her 99 Lashes — For Adultery”
Now you can finally have hair like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The Iranian government has released the results of a list of acceptable and banned hair styles for men.
College lecturer TJ Joseph was attacked on a roadside in India by Muslim extremists who stabbed him and cut off his hand for insulting Mohammed in a question for a class paper.
Continue reading “Publish and Perish: Muslim Extremists Chop Off Hand of Professor For Blasphemy in Class Question”
We have previously followed the dangerous things that drivers do in their cars while driving. An Ontario truck driver, however, added the unique category of dental work.
Continue reading “Truck Driver Arrested For DWD (Dentistry While Driving)”
Vice President Joe Biden was in Baghdad this week to praise the success of the U.S and Iraqi forces in the battle with the Taliban. His speech was delayed in part by the mortar attack on the U.S. embassy compound.
Continue reading “Biden: We Are Winning . . . Now Everyone To the Bomb Shelter”
Professor Karol Sikora describes the situation as a bit “embarrassing.” Sikora was hired by the Libyan government to find that terrorist Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi had less than three months to live. While other doctors refused to make such a finding, Sikora did so. The Scottish government decided to release Megrahi, 58 — the only person convicted of the 1988 bombing of a US Pan Am jumbo jet over Lockerbie killing 270 people. He was released on compassionate grounds in August 2009.
Continue reading “Doctor Who Found Pan Am Bomber To Have Less Than Three Months To Live Now Says He Could Live Another 10 Years”
There is a shocking case out of Siberia this week after a mayor was arrested for questioning the legality of a secret resort run by the the F.S.B., the main successor to the Soviet-era K.G.B. Tatyana Kazakova called for criminal charges after finding that the resort was endangering the village. Instead, the FSB had her arrested.
Continue reading “Russian Mayor Arrested for Questioning a FSB Resort Endangering Her Town”
Leaders of the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir met in Australia this week to call on Muslims to reject Democracy and moderate Islam as “haram” or forbidden under the Koran (Qur’an). British Hizb ut-Tahrir leader Burhan Hanif told an audience that Democracy is a lie and that no laws but those in the Koran could govern mankind.
Continue reading “Islamic Leaders In Australia Denounce Democracy and Call on Muslims to Accept Only Sharia Law”
The hot dog eating world has its buns in a knot today after scandal hit the sacred stage at the Nathan’s annual contest in Coney Island. As three-time world hot dog–eating champion Joey Chestnut took the prize over 15 rivals, former champion Takeru Kobayashi rushed the stage and was arrested for trespassing and resisting arrest. That is nothing to relish.