There is an interesting torts lawsuit in Los Angeles where Amber Duick has filed against Toyota for a weird advertising campaign that she said “punked” her and convinced her that she was being stalked by an English man called Sebastian Bowler. She is demanding $10 million.
Continue reading “Duick Blind: California Woman Sues After Being “Punked” by Toyota”
An Italian couple has filed a provocative lawsuit seeking damages from a cruise that took them from Italy to Spain. After setting sail, the couple found out that they were on the “Revuelta” (“Revolution”) cruise for gay couples. They insist that it was a breach of their agreement not to inform them of the “theme” of the cruise while others are charging that they are homophobic.
Continue reading “Italian Couple Files Suit After Setting Sail on a Gay Cruise”
In light of the recent disclosure that President Obama was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize just 12 days after taking office and was initially opposed from the majority of the Committee (here), there is some interest on who was stepped over for the honor. The most striking “loser” in the competition was Dr. Sima Samar, an amazingly brave Afghan woman who has risked her life to fight for the rights of women and girls in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Continue reading “Meet Dr. Sima Samar — The Person Obama Beat Out for the Nobel Prize”
President BarackN Obama, the world’s newest Nobel peace laureate, is again expanding on the policies of former President George Bush and fighting to conceal evidence of U.S. torture and abuse. As did the Bush Administration, the Obama Administration is seeking to change the law after courts rejected its absurd argument that the President can withhold photos of detainee abuse simply because they are embarrassing to the United States. Democrats in Congress are assisting in the effort to try to stop the Supreme Court from considering the issue by preempting the litigation.
First there was Al Qaeda, then Swine Flu, and . . . now that you think you are over the worst of it . . . here come the Gnome Nazis.
School officials in Newark, Delaware have given the nation another example of mindless “zero-tolerance” abuse. In this case, officials suspended 6-year-old Zachary Christie because the boy brought his new cub scout camping utensils to school to eat his lunch. Because the utensil had a small knife, he was suspended and ordered to spend the next 45 days in the district’s reform school.
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Nicolas Cage has been hit by a lien for over $6,257,005 in unpaid income tax for 2007. It is not known if the IRS has started digging near Mount Rushmore.
Continue reading “National Treasure: Nicolas Cage Owes IRS Over $6 Million”
Richard Strandlof lived a life of distinction. He spoke to children and the media as a survivor first of the attack on the Pentagon on 9/11 and then survived a roadside bomb that killed four fellow Marines. He will now add a further distinction as a defendant in a rare “stolen valor” prosecution after his claims of service were proven false.
Here is this week’s column from Roll Call. It explores the interesting selection of cases this term for the Supreme Court. Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s colleagues could not have selected cases more carefully to address areas of uncertainty from her confirmation hearing. Whether by accident or design, this docket is front-loaded with cases that will force Sotomayor to show her true colors in the first few months of her tenure as an associate justice.
Continue reading “Simply Sonia: Sotomayor’s Colleagues Pick Docket Virtually Tailored To Force Her To Choose Sides”
It appears that when I suggested Woody Allen was the last person Polanski who want as an advocate (here), I spoke too hastily. As the French continue their campaign to force the return of Roman Polanski to their country (and avoid extradition to the United States for his rape of a 13-year-old girl in 1997), a new controversy has emerged from the Sarkozy government. The culture minister advocating for the famed director is the nephew of the late Socialist French president Francois Mitterand — Frédéric Mitterrand. Mitterrand appears to have more than a platonic interest in the underlying controversy.
Management consultant Jackie Slater is over fifty and wanted to buy two bottles of wine when she was stopped at a store counter in England. The Morrisons clerk told her that she could not purchase wine because she was accompanied by her 17-year-old daughter Emily. In a London library, Lorna Watts, 26, asked to borrow some scissors and was refused by a librarian who explained that she “might stab a member of staff”. These are stories from what many of our English cousins are calling the evolution of a “nanny state” where the government and companies dictate an ever-widening range of rules for citizens who are treated as little more than errant children.
Criminal law attorney Constantine “Connie” Xinos bagged a trophy worth bragging about: nailing 11-year-old Sydney Sabbagha for trying to defend the staff of the public library of Oak Brook, Illinois. This Pediatric Perry Mason moment was a matter of some pride for Xinos, who told a reporter “I wanted that kid to lose sleep that night.”
Continue reading “The Pediatric Perry Mason: Illinois Attorney Nails 11-Year-Old Who Tried to Save Public Library Staff”
It turns out that the correct meaning of ‘Stalinistic” is kind, family-oriented, and greatly loved. Or, at least that is the view expressed in a Russian court by Joseph Stalin’s grandson, Yevgeny Dzhugashvili. (Stalin’s given name was Joseph Dzhugashvili). He is suing opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta for publishing declassified death warrants from the period and offering an unvarnished account of the atrocities under Stalin.
Continue reading “Defaming Uncle Joe: Stalin Family Sues Newspaper for Portraying Stalin as Stalinistic”
Meleanie Hain, a soccer mom who became a national advocate for second amendment rights, has been killed in an apparent murder-suicide with her husband in Lebanon, PA. The murder occurred within a week of a published study showing that the odds of being killed or injured increased dramatically if you carry a gun.
Continue reading “Melanie Hain, Gun Rights Advocate, Shot Dead in Apparent Murder-Suicide”
President Barack Obama has won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. It is a great honor for this country and for the President. For civil libertarians, however, the prize is a bit of a mixed message. Obama has blocked any investigation of war crimes or torture in violation of international law. He has also supported the limitation of free speech to allow the criminalization of criticism of religion. With less than a year in office, the selection may send the wrong message to Obama that personality rather than principles succeed in both domestic and international politics.
Continue reading “Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize”