Former Contra Costa County sex crimes prosecutor Michael Gressett has been accused of a sex crime in the raping of a colleague. The California lawyer is free on bail after being indicted on the charges, which he denies through counsel. While Deputy District Attorney, Gressett has run three times for district attorney.
Continue reading “California Sex Crimes Prosecutor Accused of Raping Another Prosecutor”
Category: Media
There’s the “old ball and chain,” “the old lady,” and my personal favorite “she who must be obeyed.” However, a Saudi Arabian woman has filed for divorce after discovering the nickname that her husband gave her on his cellphone: “Guantanamo.”
Continue reading “Losing the Old Ball and Chain: Saudi Wife Files for Divorce After Learning Her Nickname in Husband’s Cellphone is “Guantanamo””
When I first read this story, I was sure it was a hoax, but now I am not sure. According to wine sites, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has denied a permit to import Château Haut Gay (AOC Bordeaux Supérieur) because the label is “an incentive to debauchery.” The wine’s bright orange label featured two verses of the poem “L’Ame du Vin” (“The Soul of Wine”) by 19th-century poet Charles Baudelaire. While I have few remaining illusions as to government work, this one remains unbelievable. If this is a hoax, it is brilliant. If it is true, it is a national disgrace.
Continue reading “Report: ATF Bans French Wine Over Saucy Poem on Label”
Prosecutors in Minneapolis have a fascinating case involving assisted suicide and free speech. Nurse William Melchert-Dinkel, 47, is accused of using Internet chat rooms to convince people to commit suicide, giving them step-by-step instructions on how to kill themselves — preferably so he could watch. At least two people are believed to have fed Melchert-Dinkel’s fetish with their deaths: Nadia Kajouji, 18, and Mark Drybrough, 32 (shown here).
Continue reading “Suicidal Speech: Minnesota Case Raises Difficult Questions Over Assisted Suicide and Free Speech”
Today’s column on blasphemy laws may be too narrow. In San Francisco and London, activists are demanding that denigrating someone as fat should be treated as a hate crime like race, age, or faith. “Fatism” is already banned in San Franscisco in housing and workplaces.
Continue reading “Rights of the Rubenesque: London Considers Making Fatism a Form of Hate Speech”
Sheriff Jim Alderden of Larimer County appears on the verge of charging Richard and Mayumi Heene with a criminal hoax after their six-year-old son Falcon made a revealing statement during an interview on CNN. In the meantime, Falcon is saying a bit too much in another forum: the video below where he raps about “killing the faggot.”
Continue reading “From the Mouths of Babes: Balloon Boy’s Statement May Lead to Charges For Parents”
We have yet another “honor killing” in the Middle East. An unnamed Jordanian man was charged on Sunday with murdering his 22-year-old daughter after finding out that she was pregnant. He killed her and her unborn child with a sword to preserve the honor of his family.
Continue reading “Father Kills 22-Year-Old Pregnant Daughter in Honor Killing”
In American politics there are few more polarizing figures than Al Sharpton and Rush Limbaugh. Now, in what will be a spasmodic moment of euphoria for many, Sharpton and Limbaugh may be going to court with the former suing the latter for defamation. Putting aside the sheer joy of the moment for many, the case could present some interesting questions over whether Limbaugh defamed Sharpton in a Wall Street Journal Op-ed.
Continue reading “Polar Attraction: Sharpton Threatens Limbaugh With Lawsuit”
Here is today’s column in USA Today on the Obama Administration’s decision to join the U.N. Human Rights Council and support Egypt in recognizing limits on free speech for those who insult or denigrate religion. While the exception was included in a resolution heralding free speech, it was viewed as a major victory for Muslim countries seeking to establish an international blasphemy law.
Continue reading “Just Say No To Blasphemy: U.S. Supports Egypt in Limiting Anti-Religious Speech”
Below is today’s brief column in the Los Angeles Times where I joined other writers on how each of us believes President Obama can earn the Nobel Prize, here. For civil libertarians, Obama’s selection is the ultimate triumph of hope over experience. My suggestion is probably predictable for people on this blog.
There are some who remind us of the virtue of restraint.
Professor Ellen van Wolde, a world acclaimed Old Testament scholar, may have introduced a considerable problem for creationists. What if the Bible never actually said God “created the Heaven and the Earth”? Van Wolde has issued an intriguing paper suggesting that a mistranslation is responsible for an error in the first sentence of Genesis and that in reality the Bible says that God merely rearranged things on the pre-existing Earth. Much of this turns on the Hebrew verb “bara”, which she says did not mean “to create” but to “spatially separate.” That would require Creationists to rename themselves as “separatists.” “Baristas” may cause trademark issues with Starbucks.
Continue reading “Creationism to Be Renamed Separatism After New Interpretation Released of Genesis”
Target is under attack for one of its new Halloween costumes: the illegal alien. The space alien is dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit with “illegal alien” blazoned across its front and holds a large card reading “green card.”
Continue reading “Off Target: Store Under Attack of Illegal Alien Costume”
In light of our disturbing Bunny Briquettes story, this video shows that rabbits are useful for many things beyond combustible fuel. Indeed, Sweden may want to consider dispersing its excess rabbits to offices as letter openers.
Continue reading “Letter Leporidae: Rabbits Are Not Just For Fuel Anymore . . .”
The Halloween-related crime and tort stories have begun early this year. A 75-year-old man, Mostafa Mahmoud Zayed, was left decomposing on a balcony in Los Angeles for days because neighbors thought he was a Halloween display.
Continue reading “Dead Man Left for Days on Balcony After Neighbors Assumed Body Was Halloween Decoration”