There is an interesting controversy in Brooklyn after the city yielded to the Hasidic community in sandblasting off bike lanes on roads. Hasidic leaders complained that they are having trouble obeying their religious law forbidding them from staring at members of the opposite sex with women biking around in shorts. Bicycle advocates have been trying to repaint the lanes.
Continue reading “New York City Erases Bike Lanes to Appease Hasidic Men Who Object to Seeing Women in Bike Shorts”
Category: Politics
John Yoo is being defended in court this month by the Administration. Not the Bush Administration. The Obama Administration. As with the lawsuits over electronic surveillance and torture, the Obama administration wants the lawsuit against Yoo dismissed and is defending the right of Justice Department officials to help establish a torture program — an established war crime. I will be discussing the issue on this segment of MSNBC Countdown.
Continue reading “Nuremberg Revisited: Obama Administration Files To Dismiss Case Against John Yoo”
It is billed by the London Police Department Chief as “the best (shooting) range in Ontario.” At $22 million, it is certainly modern but one of the features might sit poorly with judges and civil libertarians.
Continue reading “Canadian Police Department Builds New Firing Range That Helps Train Officers How To Shoot Fleeing Suspects”
D.C. Police Union Chief Kristopher Baumann joined the call from city council members for a criminal investigation into the destruction of evidence in the World bank/IMF protest case where hundreds of people were arrested without probable cause and many hogtied by police. The New York Times has also run an article on the recent report by former Judge Stan Sporkin finding that the evidence was presumptively destroyed on purpose.
Continue reading “Police Union Chief Calls For Federal Criminal Investigation in World Bank Protest Case”
The costs of prosecutorial abuse or invalid convictions are rarely explored in depth by the media (here). Canada has one case that everyone should read. As with some recent scandals involving incompetent forensic prosecution experts in the United States, Canada is dealing with the legacy of disgraced forensic pathologist Charles Smith, who sent people to jail with flawed science and false conclusions. However, few are so unsettling as what happened to Sherry Sherret-Robinson, 34.
We previously saw a Fox News pie chart that had a couple extra slices (here). Now, fair and balanced math adds up to 120 percent of voters indicating that they view the science on global warming to be rigged.
Continue reading “One Hundred and Twenty Percent of People Can’t Be Wrong: Fox News Shows People Are Dubious About the Accuracy of Global Warming Science With a Poll of 120 Percent of People”
Christians are now organizing a boycott against businesses that fail to wish everyone “Merry Christmas” or use that offensive greeting “Happy Holidays.” Stores are being monitored and blacklisted for just wishing everyone “Happy Holidays” instead of referencing Christmas specifically.
Some people in Asheville, North Carolina are up in arms about a man just elected to the city council. No he is not corrupt or an adulterer. Those are virtually qualifications in today’s politics. The problem is not what Cecil Bothwell is but what he is not: God-fearing. Opponents are opposing his election on the basis of a provision of the North Carolina Constitution that bars atheists from public office. One is the former head of the NAACP. It is clearly unconstitutional and would make for a wonderful (and educational) challenge for North Carolina.
The former Missouri House Speaker and major Republican political figure Rod Jetton has been charged in an alarming series of crimes after a woman accused him of punching, choking, and assaulting her. She also appears to elude to the possibility of a date rape drug, claiming that she blacked out after drinking a glass of wine. Jetton ran for office on a family values platform.
We recently saw how a taser was used on a ten-year-old girl who refused to take a bath in Arkansas, here. Now, police in Pueblo, Colorado have tasered a 10-year-old boy who threw a stick at an officer and was holding a pipe. Captain Jeff Teschner defended his deputies by saying that the use of pepper spray would have put the officers in danger with an unruly ten-year-old boy.
A Harvard professor has concluded that CNN Headline New’s rabid host, Nancy Grace, contributed to the death of a mother, Melinda Duckett, who committed suicide three years ago after being savaged by Grace.
Continue reading “Fall From Grace: Expert Finds Nancy Grace Contributed to Suicide of Mother”
Hiram Monserrate attracted statewide attention in New York as one of the Democrats who defended “traditional marriage” and “family values” in recently voting down a bill that would have made same-sex marriage legal the state. His concept of family values was questioned after he was sentenced for assaulting his girlfriend Karla Giraldo. Monserrate slashed Giraldo’s face and dragged her through the lobby of his Queens apartment building. Good old family values from the Paleolithic Period.
Continue reading “Prehistoric Family Values: Senator Who Defended Traditional Marriage Is Sentenced for Slashing Face of Girlfriend and Dragging Her Through the Apartment Lobby”
The voting continues with the ABA. Some would say that we are outmatched in second place with 66 votes to The Legal Satyricon with 106. But every great movie from Rocky to Star Wars has the underdog struggling before a thrilling victory. Yea, that’s us. Part Rocky, Part Jedi. Worse yet, that means a planet will be destroyed (who needs to threaten kittens) if we lose. By the way, the low numbers over all are the result of a weirdly rigid and awkward voting system. The result is that it suppresses the votes overall and requires people to go through a couple of steps. Below is your weekly inspiration to get the vote out.
Continue reading “We Few, We Happy Few . . .”
In Montana, Rabbi Chaim Bruk has found a calling. There are horse whispers and bird callers. Rabbi Bruk is a dog translator. His new position with the Helena Police Department involves a certain German Shepard named Miky and a group of confused goyum officers.
For those following the World Bank/IMF litigation, the Attorney General of the District of Columbia has been repeatedly referencing the forthcoming report of his adviser, former Judge Stan Sporkin, on the allegations of the destruction of evidence in the case. Judge Sullivan has previously indicated that he is considering a criminal referral and would wait for the Sporkin Report. The District waited until after 6 p.m. on a Friday night to file the report.
Continue reading “Sporkin Report Finds the Destruction of Evidence in World Bank Case Was Presumptively Neither Innocent Nor Accidental”