Former Prime Minister Tony Blair used a speech at Georgetown University to warn of the threat against the West that is growing at alarming rate. No, he wasn’t talking about terrorism, the recession, or even Swine Flu. He was talking about atheists and the menace they present to the world. Not since leaders tackled the dangers of witches in our midst has a politician sounded such an alarm. This politician happens to be the leading contender for the first “president of Europe.”
Continue reading “The Blair Witch Project: Former Prime Minister Warns of Atheists Among Us”
Category: Media
We have been following the bizarre case of former Mobile County Circuit Judge Herman Thomas who is accused of ordering the male inmates be brought to his chambers where he would spank them and have sex with them. With the judge facing trial on various criminal charges, the case took another strange turn when a former inmate charged in a lawsuit that his former attorney coerced him into testifying against the judge. The case of Willie Pearson was dropped after he accused attorney Joe Kulakowski of threatening him. However, the prosecutor insists that the other cases will proceed as planned for trial.
Continue reading “Former Alabama Judge Faces Trial This Week For Allegedly Spanking and Sexually Assaulting Inmates in Chambers”
As if by divine intervention, the debate over the separation of church and state was answered today — even as the Supreme Court took up the case of Salazar v. Buono ( 08-472). This picture clearly shows Jesus giving the Constitution to the drafters — resolving any suggestion that the original framers envisioned a separation. It came directly from Jesus and should moot the case heard by the Court today.
Continue reading “The Case Against the Separation of Church and State”
First, there was the departure of Mikhail Baryshnikov from the American Ballet Theatre in 1978. Then there was the retirement of Tommy Tune. Now, the art and dancing worlds are reeling from the announcement that former Republican Majority Leader Tom DeLay is leaving “Dancing With the Stars” due to foot injuries.
Continue reading “Dancing DeLayed is Dancing Denied: Tom DeLay Pulls Out of Dancing With the Stars”
We recently saw the outrage among fundamentalists when questions were raised whether a creationist can be a good mayor at St. Petersburg, here. Now Albuquerque City Councilor Don Harris is mailing voters to warn them that his opponent is . . . wait for it . . . an atheist. It appears that atheists cannot be good city council members since one cannot fill a pothole if your soul is empty of the Lord. The Godless office seeker, David Barbour, is shown on the right.
Continue reading “Keeping Albuquerque Atheist Free: City Council Member Runs On The Lack of Faith of His Opponent”
The Obama administration has shocked many in the civil liberties community with the tacit endorsement of limitations of free speech in the United Nations. We have been following the international trend (here and here and here and here) to criminalize criticism of religions, including this prior column. The Administration has joined the UN Human Rights Council and has agreed to create a “new” standard balancing speech and respect for religion. These new standards are merely thinly disguised blasphemy laws that are spreading throughout the world, including the West.
Do these apples look alike? Computer giant Apple appears to believe so. It is suing Australia’s Woolworths for trademark infringement over the use of the new logo.
Continue reading “And Apple Commanded: “You Must Not Take of the Apple Tree . . . For You Will Surely Be Sued””
Whatever David Dewees did or did not do, he was not accused of what The Toronto Star printed before he committed suicide by laying across railroad tracks: molestation of young boys. Yet, the newspaper (the largest in Canada) published a story on his death that can only be described as remarkably cold and callous.
Continue reading “Man Commits Suicide After Newspaper Wrongly Says He Was Charged With Molestation of Boys — Then Issues a Remarkably Callous Account of Suicide”
Below is today’s column on the first day of the October Term for the Supreme Court. It specifically explores the first amendment cases on the docket. There are four major such cases thus far on the docket and, most importantly, two free speech cases that will be strong indicators of the views of Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
Continue reading “Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s Free-Speech Tests”
Elliot Madison, 41, is the subject of an intriguing — and in my view compelling — constitutional fight with both federal and state authorities. A self-described anarchist, Madison was arrested for using Twitter to send messages on the location of police during the G20 protests. Pittsburgh has been accused of excessive measures and this case appears to be one such case.
Continue reading “Criminal Tweets: Man Arrested for Twitter Messages During G20 Protests”
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.
Continue reading “Polanski Agreed to Pay Victim $500,000 in 1993 Despite Professing His Love for Young Girls”
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”
Judge Charles J. Markey is asking for a public rehearing. The New York Law Journal and the ABA Journal ran a story detailing how Markey allegedly denied a motion or dismissed a case due to improper stapling. The story was picked up on various legal blogs, including this blog. However, Markey has written a letter to the editor insisting that the facts have been distorted and that this was no “case of first impression” of dismissal for negligent stapling. He seems to have a case.
Continue reading “Decoupling the Staple Story: New York Jurist Challenges Account Over Negligent Stapling Story”
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.