Danny Kay, 26, will greet the New Year as a free man after being convicted of a rape that was based on altered evidence submitted by the alleged victim. His freedom is due not to police work but the work of his sister in law Sarah Maddison. Maddison decided to take a minute and look at the Facebook messages sent between Kay and the unnamed woman who accused him of rape. What she found was that the police used messages that were misleadingly edited by the woman and that the real messages directly contradicted her claims. The police revealed an utter incompetence in the investigation and the prosecutors have expressed no intent in looking at possible charges against the woman who is accused of changing the meaning of the messages from exculpatory to incriminating. This follows an equally shocking reversal where the police were found to have withheld 40,000 messages from the defense in another rape case.
Category: International
It has long been known that China has helped North Korea evade international sanctions while professing faithful compliance with United Nations resolutions. Now, U.S. spy satellites reportedly captured photos of Chinese ships illegally selling oil to North Korean boats on dozens of occasions. China has again professed innocence.
Continue reading “US Spy Satellite Captures Chinese Ships Illegally Selling Oil To North Korea”
A feminist activist from the extremist group Femen ran onto the Nativity scene in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican on Monday and tried to steal the baby Jesus. The woman screaming “God is woman” was tackled by Vatican gendarme. The group identified the culprit as Alisa Vinogradova and proudly declared her to be a “sextremist”. This is not the only effort his season to “jack” Jesus. These cases represent a convergence of the Corpus delicti and the Corpus Christi.
Despite a recent order from the Supreme Court lifting lower court injunctions on the travel ban, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that Travel Ban 3.0 is little more than a bad sequel with the same unconstitutional theme. I have previously written that I view the controlling precedent as favoring President Trump on the travel ban. While I respect this three-judge panel and their analysis, the opinion did little to change my mind on that legal point. The panel correctly put the ruling on hold pending a review by the Supreme Court, so we are not set for the long-awaited showdown in Washington on these legal issues.
Continue reading “Ninth Circuit Strikes Down Travel Ban 3.0”
Despite the threat that the Administration was “taking names” of any country that voted to condemn the move of the United States embassy to Jerusalem, Some 128 countries voted to do so. Only nine voted “no” with another 35 countries abstaining, including Mexico and Canada. Our allies of France and England joined in voting for the resolution. The nine negative votes came from US, Israel, Guatemala, Honduras, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau and Togo.
President Donald Trump recently entered into the national debate over the NFL protests by criticizing football players taking a knee before games during the national anthem. Some were enraged and called for his impeachment — a call that I previously discussed as unfounded and dangerous. I saw no reason why the President was out of line in giving his opinion on the controversy. There is however an even more pressing matter involving an American professional athlete that would warrant a strong and public statement from President Trump. He is New York Knicks player Enes Kanter who is the subject of an abusive charge in Turkey for allegedly insulting its blood-soaked authoritarian leader President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. President Trump should publicly support Kanter and his right to exercise free speech — a right that Erdogan has curtailed in Turkey in his crackdown on dissidents and journalists alike.
For two years, Liam Allan, 22, lived in fear after he was accused of 12 rapes and assaults by a woman. He was facing 20 in jail and put his life on hold as he insisted that he was innocent. What he did not know until recently was the police in England had possession of 40,000 messages from his accuser, including messages asking him for “casual sex.” Three days after the disclosure, all charges were dropped. Allan is now suing the Metropolitan Police.
As many on this blog know, I am a fan of good architecture. My father was one of the proteges and students of Mies Van der Rohe and I was raised in the Chicago circle of architects. Thus, when I heard that we were building a new embassy in London, I was truly hopeful of a unique American contribution that celebrated the history and architecture of London. Yet, in what seems a long-simmering payback for Bunker Hill (and perhaps Benny Hill), the United States just dumped a $1 billion blemish on the landscape of London. Given Prince Charles’ long (and justified) complaint of “monstrous carbuncles,” we just added a new and giant carbuncle for our English cousins.
Even if Mr. Bumble in Oliver Twist is right that “law is an ass,” it can at least be a romantic ass. While Bumble was upset at the statement of the court that “…the law supposes that your wife acts under your direction.” However, a 54-year-old man found a uniquely sensitive jurist in a Dublin court where a judge excused him from jury duty to pursue “the love of his life.”
Continue reading “Prospective Juror Lost But Prospective Love Found In Irish Court”
Lal Singh Arya, 53, is the minister for happiness in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. He is also a suspect in a murder and is now believed to be on the lam as police search for him. The victim is an opposition politician who was killed in 2009.
Continue reading “Indian Minister of Happiness Sought As Murder Suspect”
We have previously discussed the alarming rollback on free speech rights in the West, particularly in France (here and here and here and here and here and here) and England ( here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here). Much of this trend is tied to the expansion of hate speech and non-discrimination laws. Once allowed to criminalize speech, individuals and groups demand more and more prohibitions. England is in a free fall over free speech and this week is yet another example. The police have indicated that they are considering making wolf whistles the latest category of hate speech.
Continue reading “UK Moves To Make Wolf Whistles and Misogynistic Speech A Hate Crime”
We recently discussed how the leading Irish university has barred the use of “freshman” in favor of the gender neutral term “fresh.” The French government came to the opposite conclusion this month after French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe rejected the demand to make French more “female-friendly” by dropping masculine words. French, like English, often use the masculine forms as neutral terms. It will continue to do so.
Continue reading “France Rejects Gender Neutral Words As A “Mortal Danger” To The French Language”
Americans Joseph Dasilva, 38, and Travis Dasilva, 36, are facing well-deserved criminal prosecution in Thailand after taking “belfies” where they expose their butts in pictures at famous sites. This juvenile and disgraceful practice is viewed as funny by the Dasilvas, but it was hardly humorous for the Thais who saw the pictures at Bangkok’s Wat Arun, or Temple of the Dawn, as demeaning and insulting.
Continue reading “American Couple Arrested In Thailand After Taking “Belfies” At Sacred Temple”
Trinity College Dublin has dropped the word “Freshman” as sexist and offensive for women as well as people who do not identify with male or female genders. From now on, the 425-year-old institution will refer to students as “Fresh.” While that makes students sound that produce, it is meant to avoid term deemed by the “Equality Committee” to be a “concrete expression of the university’s commitment to gender equality.”
Continue reading “Trinity College Dublin Drops Use Of Freshman As Sexist”
Credit: Facebook
Earliest this year, we discussed the fate of Gavel, a German shepherd flunked out of police canine academy in Queensland, Australia, for being too friendly. For those of us who are ardent dog lovers, Gavel became an instant icon. He rejection occurred despite his “family bloodline” of top German Shepard police dogs. The problem is that Gavel just wanted to be friends . . . with everyone. Now Gavel has finally landed a job for which he is uniquely qualified: greeter.
Continue reading “German Shepherd Rejected As Police Dog For Being Too Friendly Is Hired As Greeter”