GoFundMe’s suspension of millions to support protesting truckers in Canada shocked many, particularly when the company initially announced its intention to distribute the money to other charities. It was less of a surprise for those of us who have criticized the company for years over its use of the platform to target and block funds for conservative and libertarian causes. Indeed, the company has revised an old practice known as the “Nag’s Head light” in luring the unsuspecting into what has become a liberal lockbox on funds. Continue reading “GoFundMe and the Nag’s Head Light: How Crowdfunding Has Become The Latest Battleground Over Free Speech”
Category: Society
A new study from Johns Hopkins University found that the lockdowns in 2020 did little to combat Covid-19 mortality. Given the huge economic and personal costs of these lockdowns, the study obviously raises questions about the basis for these extreme measures. However, as will come as no surprise to anyone on this blog, I view the study as much a statement against the censorship of commentators and researchers who were banned or attacked for questioning the lockdowns. Once again, it would have been better for public health to have this debate than to shut down any opposing views in the name of science.
Continue reading “Study: Lockdowns Did Little to Combat Covid Mortality”
Below is my column in the Hill on the defamation lawsuit facing actor Alec Baldwin. Where Baldwin famously adopted the persona of Trump for Saturday Night Live, he will now likely adopt his actual legal defense to fend off the family of a Marine killed in Afghanistan. If you found it hard to tell the difference between the two personalities, it is going to get a lot worse in McCollum v. Baldwin.
Here is the column:
Prince Andrew lost a major ruling in his litigation with Virginia Giuffre (née Roberts), who claims that the Duke of York sexually assaulted her as part of the sex trafficking crimes of the late Jeffrey Epstein. In his 46-page decision, Judge Lewis A Kaplan of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York adopted an extremely narrow reading of the settlement and eschewed the defense arguments on threshold barriers to any lawsuit. Kaplan declared the “defendant’s motion to dismiss the complaint or for a more definite statement is denied in all respects.” Continue reading “Royally Eschewed: Court Rejects Prince Andrew’s Motion to Dismiss Giuffre Lawsuit”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
Our host on numerous occasions makes a strong case in labeling today’s zeitgeist as “The Age of Rage”. It would certainly seem to be so if one focuses on what stereotypically comes out of the news media and political figures we lend our ears to. Yet I would go a step further and suggest the root cause of some of this rage is composed of two elements: power-lust and simple human stupidity.
I believe many people fail to recognize how intertwined is the lust for power and the enabling forces of stupidity. Stupidity can be manipulated to achieve that power. It is said that money is the blood of the powerful. Yet, why spend money when too many can be so easily controlled or recruited for free simply by instead appealing to ignorant or stupid individuals.
Both sadly and obviously however, ignorance and stupidity is not limited to the news or politics, it is manifest in human society generally. The trick is to recognize and extricate it from our lives whenever possible. So in a mostly cynical and possibly comical study of the problem, I propose there are levels and flavors of both ignorance and stupidity and to apply such a study is a first step toward minimizing its damaging potential.
Continue reading “The Eight Degrees of Ignorance and Stupidity”
Below is my column in The Hill to help readers survive this year’s the holiday dinners with friends and family. The cards below can be printed and cut down for easy palming or secreting in a napkin for reference during meals.
Here is the column: Continue reading “Your 2021 Holiday Dinner Political Survival Guide”
We recently discussed the struggle at all-women schools like Hollins University in stopping the use of gender as a defining characteristic. Mount Holyoke previously ordered faculty to stop referring to students as “women.” It is a difficult transition for schools that remain gender exclusive in avoiding gender references. Now, Boston’s all-girls Winsor School, has adopted a diversity/equity/inclusion (DEI) plan to drop references to gender such as “she, her, hers’’ and “your daughter.” Continue reading “Boston All-Girls School Bans References to Girls”
Madeleine Turley*
Guest columnist
For most teenagers, jacking up your car is usually a matter of adding a huge stereo system or an over-sized pair of fuzzy dice. For Dillon Prestidge, it involved an eleven-foot Christmas tree and enough lights to recreate the aurora borealis. The curious sight of Prestidge’s tree-laden truck has thrilled and confused many in McLean, Virginia. However, it was first and foremost intended for an audience of one: his 80-year-old grandmother who he wanted to cheer up in this pandemic-driven holiday. Continue reading “A Boy, A Grandma, and a Really Big Tree: A Christmas Story”
Former Covington Catholic High School student Nicholas Sandmann has reached another settlement with a major news organization over the widespread false reporting of his encounter with a Native American activist in front of the Lincoln Memorial on January 18, 2019. Sandmann previously settled with the Washington Post and CNN. He has now settled his $275 million defamation lawsuit against NBC. Unfortunately, such damages have become the cost of doing business for many in the media in the age of advocacy journalism where the narrative is more important than the news. Having a MAGA-hatted, racist, pro-life high school student abusing an elderly Native American was a fact too good to check — even when it required as little as watching the unedited videotapes. Continue reading ““Our Pride is Showing”: NBC Settles With Nicholas Sandmann”
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. We started the day with our annual Turley Turkey Bowl — running over 50 years of unbroken tradition. I have two turkeys cooking: a 24-pounder on the grill being smoked and a 27-pounder in the oven. We are, of course, watching the Bears play the Lions.
The Aspen Institute has issued the results of its much heralded 16-person Commission on Information Disorder on how to protect the public from misinformation. The commission on disinformation and “building trust” was partially headed by Katie Couric who is still struggling with her own admission that she edited an interview to remove controversial statements by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The Aspen recommendations however are a full-throated endorsement of systems of censorship. Continue reading “Fighting “Information Disorder”: Aspen’s Orwellian Commission on Controlling Speech in America”
Below is my column in The Hill on the growing “Let’s Go, Brandon” movement, which is a unique response to what many people view as a bias media. It is the modern equivalent of the adoption of “Yankee Doodle Dandy” by colonists in using what was a contemptuous expression as a rallying cry of defiance.
Here is the column: Continue reading “Yankee Doodling the Media: How ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Became a Rallying Cry Against News Bias”
Halloween appears to be back! Despite the ongoing pandemic, the kids were back this evening — a testament to the healing power of candy. We bought a dozen bags of candy and we have had to run to the store twice due to the crowd. There are hundreds of kids outside. It is Halloween with a vengeance!
Here is my annual list of Halloween torts and crimes. Halloween of course remains a holiday seemingly designed for personal injury lawyers around the world and this year’s additions show why. Halloween has everything for a torts-filled holiday: battery, trespass, defamation, nuisance, product liability and more. This year, we have the usual fun frights caught on camera, nuisance complaints from “triggered” neighbors, and the occasional misdirected murder investigation. However, there are still some notable additions that raise more legal frights.
So, with no further ado, here is this year’s updated list of actual cases related to Halloween. Continue reading “Spooky Torts: The 2021 List of Litigation Horrors”
Common Pleas Court Judge Paula Patrick issued an order on Friday that Mayor Jim Kenney and the city of Philadelphia must remove the plywood box covering a statue of Christopher Columbus. The 144-year-old statue was covered up due to protests that the explorer represents racial injustice and abuse. Other Columbus statues have been destroyed, including one in Baltimore. When asked about that destruction, Speaker Nancy Pelosi shrugged and said “people will do what they do.” For his part, Kenney has announced that his administration will appeal the ruling in an effort to keep Columbus covered from public view. Continue reading “Judge Orders Philadelphia to Remove Plywood Box Covering Columbus Statute”