There are reports this week detailing a 1993 agreement of Roman Polanski to pay Samantha Geimer $500,000 in damages for raping her when she was thirteen. It is an interesting twist in the case because Geimer later said that she forgave Polanski and advocated that charges be dropped. The agreement came 16 years after the rape when Polanski was living as a fugitive and trying to come home.
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Category: International
The Iranians have faced rape charges recently in cases of women facing execution as well as the rape of protesters. Now, two protesters have come forward to publicly allege that they were raped as a form of extrajudicial punishment while in Iranian jails following the demonstrations over of the disputed presidential election.
Continue reading “Two Iranian Protesters Go Public With Allegations of Rape While in Custody”
There is a fascinating case in Ontario, Canada this week. Levi Shaeffer, 30, was shot dead by Peterborough police officers when he was camping near Pickle lake. He had not committed any crimes and was simply camping on an island. However, an investigation was terminated because the officers involved in the shooting did not write down contemporary accounts of the shooting after meeting with counsel. Chief Murray Rodd, however, insists on the department website that “[w]e are truly dedicated to our core values to be the best Police Service, providing the highest standard of professionalism in partnership with our community.” They might want to start with writing down accounts of shooting campers.
This is the only known video of Anne Frank that was just made available. While short, it adds an even more chilling aspect to her writings.
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Her name is Ardi and, while she may not have been much of a looker by modern standards, she had one remarkable skill. She walked upright. This find in Ethiopa pushed our evolutionary traces about a million years earlier than the famed Lucy found in 1974.
Continue reading “Scientists Find 4-Million-Old Hominid . . . Creationists Find 10,000 Year Old Talented Monkey”
The Vatican appears in need of a serious media consultant. Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican’s permanent observer to the UN, has issued a defense that boils down to insisting that implicated priests were not pedophiles but homosexuals who liked young boys — and besides no more than five percent of priests had sex with children . . . and Jews and Protestants do it more.
The high-end supporters of filmmaker Roman Polanski have been relying more on a documentary than documents in claiming his innocence, citing the film “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired” as showing that Polanski was railroaded. The film features former prosecutor David F. Wells confirming improper communications by the judge. He has now admitted that it was a lie and he was grandstanding in the film.
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An Afghan girl in Helmand province led a typically sheltered life of the strict Muslim culture in the area. To reach such inhabitants of the remote area, the British resorted to dropping leaflets and succeeded in reaching the girl directly. She was reportedly crushed by a box of public information leaflets dropped by the British Royal Air Force. The drops have been used to either warn residents of the dangers of unexploded bombs or as part of “psychops” missions to “win the hearts and minds” of the population. This includes the standard leaflet below asking girls to think about their future.
Continue reading ““Is This The Future You Want?”: Afghan Girl Crushed By Box of Leaflets Dropped by RAF”
Answer: Woody Allen. That’s right, Woody Allen who became something of a pariah over his relationship with Mia Farrow’s adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn is now calling for charges to be dropped against fellow filmmaker Roman Polanski for his sex with a thirteen year old girl in 1977.
Many endangered species are threatened by industry and urban sprawl. However, tourists have made something of a statement by going to Australia’s famed Ayers Rock, or Uluru, and pissed away a rare species of shrimp, Branchinella latzi.
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The United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict will issue a report today accusing Israel of “actions amounting to war crimes, possibly crimes against humanity” during its military incursion into Gaza from December 27 to January 18. The mission headed by respected South African judge Richard Goldstone is a major development in the controversy and could put the United States in a very difficult position.
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While France and Italy may claim to lead fashion, the English have spent over £544,000 to show English citizens what is a must in this year’s wear: a fingerprint. The government is trying to convince the English that only a nerd lives without a fingerprinted national identity card in a new campaign featuring a fingerprint proudly displaying his new national ID card to other jealous fingerprints.
The Space Hijackers pride themselves on creative and artistic forms of protest — often against police abuse. They were a bit surprised to learn that citizens can easily confuse a person in red high heels, frilly stockings, and a helmet for a police officer. It appears that English officers are far more adventuresome than our own police.
Continue reading “Question of the Day: Is This Impersonating a Police Officer?”
In this new book, Speechless: Tales of a White House Survivor, Matt Latimer has an interesting insight into the presidency of George W. Bush. When author J.K. Rowling was proposed as a recipient for the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Bush nixed the idea because Rowling’s Harry Potter series “encouraged witchcraft.” While many of us may be unaware of the outbreak of witchcraft, this was no doubt contained in one of those biblically laced briefing books of the President. What is strange is that the President already honored another author of pure fiction — CIA Director George Tenet — for producing false evidence to justify the invasion of Iraq. It must simply be the genre.
While justice delayed may be justice denied, but justice appears to have caught up with Roman Polanski — just 31 years delayed. To the surprise of his family and lawyers, Swiss authorities arrested the seventy-six-year-old famous director on the outstanding international warrant.
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