Hollywood stars appear to be yearning for some authoritarian relief. This week, Oliver Stone proclaimed his deep admiration of Hugo Chavez, who has stifled dissent and cracked down on journalists in his country. In the meantime, Woody Allen stated that Obama should be given dictatorial powers.
Continue reading “Hollywood Goes Authoritarian: Stone and Allen Long For a Dictator With the Right Stuff”
Category: International
New Zealand’s new Animal Welfare (Commercial Slaughter) Code has banned kosher slaughtering by requiring that all animals slaughtered commercially be stunned prior to killing. The law still allows kosher meat to be imported from other countries.
Continue reading “New Zealand Bans Kosher Slaughtering”
In a little reported story, scientists have made a breakthrough in the fight against Ebola — the often fatal “bleeding disease.” Thomas Geisbert of Boston University and a team of researchers have developed an experimental drug that appears to protect monkeys from the most lethal strain of Ebola.
Continue reading “Scientists Announced Breakthrough in Ebola Drug”
Two Israeli activists were arrested for shouting insults at White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel in Israel this week. The activists spotted Emanuel in Jerusalem’s Old City with his family and shouted “Jerusalem is not for sale.” Heck, Rahm Emanuel is known to say worse stuff in a shower, here. That would be protected speech in the United States, but it appears that you can be arrested for shouting at celebrities and high-ranking officials in Israel.
Continue reading “Israel Arrests Activists Yelling Insults at Rahm Emanuel”
There was a time when we got things like the Beatles and Monty Python from our British cousins. The most recent import from England, however, is far less redeeming: vodka eyeballing. Upset that vodka shots took too long to be absorbed into their blood streams, British drinkers have discovered that pouring vodka directly into your eye socket results in a faster avenue to inebriation.
Continue reading “Coming to a College Campus Near You: Vodka Eyeballing”
The legal situation over the Deepwater Horizon explosion appears to be getting more serious as accounts emerged that there was a serious argument between Transocean and BP officials shortly before the blast — with references to the possible use of the blowout preventer. One BP official, Robert Kaluza, has become the first known person associated with the blast to invoke the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination to refuse to answer questions.
It appears 0888 888 888 is the cellphone version of the monkey’s paw — bringing disaster to all those who acquire it. The Bulgarian mobile phone company has removed the number from circulation after all of its previous owners died within the last ten years.
Amnesty International (winner of the Nobel Peace Prize) has issued a 430-page report accusing both Israel and Hamas of war crimes. While few have any illusions about Hamas and its violation of international law, the accusations against Israel are quite damaging and join those of the United Nations investigation by the Goldstone Commission.
Continue reading “Amnesty International Issues Report Accusing Israel of War Crimes”
Bank robbers in Germany went a bit overboard with the explosives in trying to break open a cash machine in Malliss. They destroyed the bank. The only thing remaining intact was the bank’s cash machine.
Continue reading “Bank Robbers Destroy Bank, Leave Cash Machine”
A 58-year-old British transsexual identified only as “C” lost a unique claim in England when Judge David Bean ruled that the state-funded health service’s refusal to pay for a breast enlargement was not a violation of her human rights.
Continue reading “English Court Rules Breast Enlargement Not a Human Right”
AFP is reporting that Sharia police in Indonesia’s Aceh province have been armed with 20,000 skirts in its battle against unIslamic figure-hugging or short outfits on women. Women will be told to put on the skirts to adhere to Islamic values.
Continue reading “Sharia Police in Indonesia To Issue Islamic Skirts To “Offending Women” on Street”
The man who shot this video at a Japanese Zoo insists that this is the original and was not altered in any way. You be the judge.
Continue reading “Kung Fu Bear”
While religious police in Saudi Arabia are herding Emo girls (here), gunmen in the Gaza Strip have burned down a U.N.-run summer camp for children for educating girls and playing hip hop music.
Continue reading “School’s Out: Gaza Gunmen Burn Girl’s U.N. School for Teaching “Dancing and Immorality””
Saudi religious police have declared war on the emo girls. Ten “emos” were rounded up at a coffee shop at the King Abdullah University.
Continue reading “Herding Emos: Saudi Religious Police Round Up Emo Girls”
Rape shield laws have always been controversial with defense counsel and some civil libertarians because they shield the identity of the alleged victim but not the alleged attacker. Now, the coalition government in England appears ready to address that controversy by banning the identification of both alleged victims and criminal defendants in rape cases.
Continue reading “England To Shield Identities of Alleged Rapists”