In this new book, Speechless: Tales of a White House Survivor, Matt Latimer has an interesting insight into the presidency of George W. Bush. When author J.K. Rowling was proposed as a recipient for the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Bush nixed the idea because Rowling’s Harry Potter series “encouraged witchcraft.” While many of us may be unaware of the outbreak of witchcraft, this was no doubt contained in one of those biblically laced briefing books of the President. What is strange is that the President already honored another author of pure fiction — CIA Director George Tenet — for producing false evidence to justify the invasion of Iraq. It must simply be the genre.
Category: Politics
Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist William Safire died today at 79. Bill was a friend and often encouraged me through the years as a columnist and commentator. He was one of the most interesting men that I have known in my life and, like millions, I will miss him.
A Christian group in Calgary has organized a campaign to protest an elephant statue in the zoo that resembles Ganesh, the Hindu God. The group is challenging the three-meter statue as “selective religious partiality.”
Continue reading “Christians Protest Placement of Ganesh (Elephant God) Statue at Calgary Zoo”
The Illinois Supreme Court has upheld the so-called “Jewish Clause” in a will of a deceased Chicago dentist who wanted to disinherit any children or grandchildren who failed to marry a Jew. Max Feinberg’s will will result in four grandchildren being disinherited.
Continue reading “Bring Home A Nice Jewish Boy . . . or Else: Illinois Supreme Court Upholds “Jewish Clause””
Orly Taitz, the lawyer and de facto leader of the “Birther” litigation, has filed a motion to withdraw from further representation of Dr. Connie Rhodes after Rhodes accused her of filing new papers in Rhodes v. MacDonald without her approval and after she agreed to be deployed by the military. Taitz is also facing a possible $10,000 fine from United States District Court Judge Clay D. Land, who previously dismissed the action. Taitz declared in one filing: “This case is now a quasi-criminal prosecution of the undersigned attorney.” She is already facing a California bar complaint and Rhodes is promising to file a new complaint against her for her “reprehensible” representation.
Continue reading “Client Fires Orly Taitz and Threatens Bar Complaint Against Her As Judge Explores Sanctions”
Lisa Snyder has been finally stopped. Because some parents in her neighborhood have to go to work before the bus picks up their kids in front of Snyder’s house, Snyder watches three children in Middleville, Michigan for the 15 or so minutes while they wait. The Michigan Department of Human Services has now filed a complaint against her for illegally operating a child care home.
Continue reading “The Menace of Middleville: The Michigan DHS Files Complaint Against Woman Who Watched Neighborhood Kids While They Waited For Their School Bus”
Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi (Moamer Kadhafi) shocked many in refusing to use the vaunted United Nations interpreters and instead brought his own. However, in the course of his rambling, stream-of-conscious speech this week, the interpreter was heard saying into a live microphone, “I just can’t take it any more” and reportedly collapsing. Many of us who listened to the speech had the same sensation.
Continue reading “Lost in Translation: Muammar Gaddafi’s Rambling UN Speech Smites Interpreter”
In what may be the most dangerous and potentially explosive act since the storming of the Bastille, French leaders are taking on French models and declaring war on airbrushing. The French Parliament (and members of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s UMP party) is proposing to force magazines and other publishers to print a warning for photographs that have been touched up or photoshopped. It appears that while President Nicolas Sarkozy can insist on only short people appearing behind him to appear taller, the French politicians say “staging Oui, brushing non!” The new campaign for realism has already taken its toll with the untouched up picture on the right of Marianne in La liberté guidant le peuple (Liberty Leading the People).
Continue reading “Sacrebleu! The French Move Against Air Brushing and Photoshopping of Magazine Pictures”
Carol Hill was fired at the Great Tey Primary School in Essex after she told Scott David that his seven-year-old daughter Chloe had been tied to a fence and whipped with a skipping rope by bullies. The school had only mentioned “an incident” and did not reveal the names of the boys.
Continue reading “School Fires Lunch Lady For Telling Parents That Boys Tied Daughter to Fence and Whipped Her”
A Polish court has awarded Alicja Tysiac $11,000 against a Catholic magazine, Gosc Niedzielny, after the magazine compared her to a child killer and a Nazi. While it is impressive to see a court levy such damages against a Catholic publication in this very Catholic nation, the ruling does raise freedom of speech issues.
Continue reading “Polish Court Awards Damages to Woman Who Was Compared in Article to the Nazis for Trying to Obtain an Abortion for Health Reasons”
This video raises an interesting question for educators and lawyers alike. These students at B. Bernice Young Elementary School in Burlington, NJ are being taught to chant and sing praises of President Barack Obama. Is that an appropriate exercise in a public school or does it smack of the type of cult of personality that we see in other nations?
Continue reading “Video: New Jersey Children Taught to Sing Obama’s Praises”
As we discussed earlier, ACORN has decided to move forward with a lawsuit against the independent filmmakers who showed its employees engaged in potentially unlawful conduct. While insisting that it is terribly sorry for the actions of its employees, ACORN is pursuing the people who forced the misconduct into the open: filmmakers James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles. It is curious method of contrition but ACORN is seeking massive damages for nonconsensual surveillance.
Continue reading “Contrition Through Aggression: ACORN Sues Filmmakers While Claiming Regret Over Misconduct of its Employees”
There is an interesting case developing in Florida where Robert Brayshaw is facing a year in jail under a law that makes it a crime to post a local police officer’s phone number and address. The law raises serious constitutional questions under the first amendment. Brayshaw posted the information on a site called ratemycop.
Continue reading “Florida Man Challenges Law Criminalizing the Publication of Address and Telephone of Police Officers”
Below is today’s column on the aftermath of the Joe Wilson controversy. The threat of the Democrats to punish members using certain words to criticize the President raises some novel and unresolved constitutional questions.
There is an incredible story in the Los Angeles Times about a new scourge of corruption in China: the removal and selling of babies against the wishes of their parents. The officials are first finding families in violation of child care laws and then, instead of imposing a fine, they are taking the babies to get $3000 in adoption fees.