I have often written about my love for traveling in Canada. This video reminds me why I love Canadians. At the November 18, 2014 Maple Leafs game against the Nashville Predators, the mic cut off during the singing of our national anthem so the Canadians finished singing the song for us.
Category: International
We have previously discussed how filmmakers are releasing fake videos such as the recent profiling video out of New York — a practice that is not only dishonest but highly counterproductive for groups seeking to address such abuses. Now it appears that a moving video of a Syrian boy heroically rescuing a little girl under fire is a fake, but director Lars Klevberg, 34, is heralding his hoax as a wonderful success and is entirely unapologetic for misleading millions of people.
Authorities in Thailand have asked for the help of the U.S. and Interpol to arrest two Americans who are accused of trying to mail body parts of infants and three adults to the United States. The two men accused of this disgusting crime may not come as much of a surprise to some people already familiar with their names: Ryan Edward McPherson, 31 (aka “Ryen McPherson”) and Daniel Tanner, 33. The two are producers of the infamous “Bumfights” video series where they paid homeless men small amounts of money to fight each other and have “Bumfights” tattooed on their foreheads. They reportedly made millions of the films. In this case, they are accused of buying such items as an infant’s head with its scalp sliced off as a fun gift to take home. The humor may be lost on McPherson and Tanner if they find themselves entertaining in a Thai prison. It expect they are two exports that most officials would gladly like to send to Thailand for good.
The Human Rights Watch has issued a rather shocking report that Indonesia continues to require medical exams for female police recruits to confirm that they are virgins. It is the latest example of the abuses and challenges facing women who try to find work in some countries. Other countries with such virginity tests include our erstwhile allies Egypt, India and Afghanistan.
Continue reading “Human Rights Watch Demands That Indonesia End Virginity Tests For Female Officers”
There is an interesting study out this week on cheese consumption that shows some surprising statistics on the consumption of food around the world. For anyone who has been to France, it will hardly surprise you that the French lead the world in cheese consumption but the amount is staggering? How much cheese do you believe that average French person eats a year?
Continue reading “Report: Cheese Consumption Rises But No One Does Fromage Like The French”
The polar bear has become the symbol of the plight of animals in the face of global warming. A new report appears to reaffirm the plight of these incredible animals. A study in the Ecological Applications journal reports that the number of polar bears in eastern Alaska and western Canada has declined by 40%. Perhaps the most unnerving disclosure is that just two of 80 polar bear cubs that the international team tracked between 2003 and 2007 have survived.
Continue reading “Report: Polar Bear Numbers Decline By 40 Percent In Canada and Alaska”
We have been discussing the ever-expanding copyright and trademarks claims on what seems every object and observation in modern life, including such things as pictures taken of public scenes in London and in New York. Now one of the most iconic public images is being claimed as protected: the Eiffel Tower at night. Under EU law, the tower light display constitutes an “art work” and is therefore copyrighted. Thus, you can take a picture during the day but at night the copyright lawyers come out and roam the streets to see if you are taking pictures of the lights of the city of the “City of Lights.” (To show my innate sense of legality, I took this cunning picture just before the lights came on at dusk in Paris a few years ago. Ha!)
Of all the victims of the Islamic State, none are more horrific than the girls captured by the jihadists and treated as sex slaves or forced to “marry” fighters. That is the fate of girls from the minority Yazidi towns and we have first-hand accounts from girls who recently escaped from IS forces. What is most striking is that clerics have justified their rape and slavery as consistent with the Koran and expressly justified under the extremist views of Islam and Sharia law. The girls are being declared “chums” or war spoils and their rape is being defended as allowing pure Islamic fighters from committing adultery. Kidnapping and raping thousands of girls is considered a better alternative than the scourge of adultery to these clerics.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan appears to have the same fluid understanding of history as he does civil rights. Erdogan became the latest — and certainly highest ranking — person to proliferate the myth that Columbus not only found that Muslims had discovered the New World before him but that there was an actual mosque left on a mountain in Cuba to greet the explorer.
Continue reading “Erdogan: Muslims Discovered America Before Columbus”
I have previously written about the array of added fees and costs associated with every aspect of air travel from seats with minimal leg room to meals to even bathrooms on some flights. One of the most profitable however is to charge for wifi. Like high-end hotels (another pet peeve of mine), airlines charge for this basic service. However, Jeremy Gutsche, a Canadian entrepreneur, never imagined how much when he received a $1,200 bill from Singapore Airlines for exceeding his wifi package. It appears that it does not simply cut off but continues to charge you — a useful glitch if you want to fleece customers.
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw) Weekend Contributor
In the past, I have written about the Big Banks continued unlawful actions that only result in “slap on the wrist fines” that in many cases are passed on to the shareholders and/or used as a tax deduction. It seems that Wall Street and the Banksters have not learned a thing. Or have they?
The latest wrinkle in Banksters taking advantage of American citizens is noted in a Crooks and Liars report which detailed an investigation into several Big Banks and their alleged refusal to honor the orders of Bankruptcy judges across the country. Of course, the “usual suspects” have been named in the latest investigations. Continue reading “Banks Ignore the Bankruptcy Laws”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
Congress is drafting legislation to deny Social Security benefits to those accused of participating in persecutions of others by the Nazis. HR 5706 directs the Justice Department to provide names of individuals suspected as such to the Social Security Administration which would then terminate all social benefits to these individuals. This could occur despite payments by these individuals into the social security system and who are presently receiving such benefits.
The Bill, titled the “Nazi Social Security Benefits Termination Act of 2014,” came into being after the Associated Press reported that millions of dollars in benefits have been provided to those beneficiaries, many of whom the AP claims received the promise of social benefits on the condition they removed themselves from the United States. The Justice Department disputes this claim.
While there is no question that those who participated in genocides should be held accountable for their actions, the steps Congress is taking has substantial long term risks to due process rights, entitlements, and using retirement benefits as a form of collective punishment to individuals deemed undesirable by the U.S. Government.
Adrian Acevedo-Hernandez, 36, Jose Luis Montufar-Canales, 31, Jose Manuel Ortega-Torres, 30, and J. Nemias Reyes Marin, 31, are in need of some “friends” after their Facebook postings led to their arrest. The men were shown on pictures with an assortment of dead animals. One picture from Hiko, Nevada below shows Ortega-Torres carrying off a mule deer in Nevada but game officials were struck by the background of the picture that was clearly not in the hunting season. That prompted a 16-month state and federal probe that finally led to the arrest of the men who are described as carrying out “a systematic killing, illegal killing, of wildlife.” Authorities believe that Acevedo-Hernandez, Montufar-Canales and Marin are illegal immigrants.
Continue reading “Bagged: Four Men Arrested After Posting Pictures Of Poached Deer On Facebook”
There is a truly disturbing report out of Chicago that highlights the massive wealth gap in our country. The Springleaf Financial Strength Survey, found that 33 percent of Chicagoans are living paycheck-to-paycheck and have less than $250. Nationwide 43 percent of families are living paycheck to paycheck.
Indian officials are investigating a shocking case where 10 women have died and dozens of others hospitalized after participating in a state-run mass sterilization. The over 80 women underwent sterilizations by a single doctor in a single day in the central state of Chhattisgarh on Saturday. The most remarkable statement came below from the chief medial officer who promised an investigation.