We have previously discussed acts of heroism in the face of terrorism, including acts by Muslims who reject the violence and claims of morality by ISIS and others such as the Muslims who formed a human shield around tourists in Tunisia. We have another such case out of Kenya where Muslim passengers refused to identify non-Muslims when their bus was seized by the Islamic extremist group Al-Shabaab. The passengers reportedly told the terrorists that they would have to kill them all or let them all go.
Category: Society
I have previously written about my disagreement with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office decision to rescind federal trademark protections for the Redskins as a racially disparaging name as well as the underlying law used to strip the team of its trademark protection. The law allows for a small administrative office to effectively dictate the outcome of a long simmering societal debate over the team name. More importantly, the standard for determining what names or words are disparaging remains dangerously undefined with striking contradictions as we have previously discussed in permitted and disallowed trademarks. One of the cases that I have discussed involves an Asian-American rock band called The Slants, which was also barred by the office. Now the band has won a major victory not just for itself but also the first amendment in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C. The Court struck down the part of the law allowing the denial of the registration of offensive trademarks. The case, which is likely to appealed to the Supreme Court, will have a major impact on the Redskins controversy.
There is a truly bizarre case out of London where a former Ernst & Young manager was sentenced in what is viewed as largely voyeur case in the country’s history. Some 3,500 people were filmed by George Thomas, 38, who installed cameras in bedrooms and bathrooms in his own home, shower rooms and lavatories at his work place and bathrooms in a large number of coffee shops in central London.
Continue reading “Former Ernst & Young Executive Arrested In Largest Voyeur Case in English History”
We have been discussing the criminalization of Christmas celebrations by the Sultan of Brunei. Now, as if to show that Muslim extremists have no monopoly on crazy, Benzi Gopshtain (also reported as “Gopstein”), who heads the far-right Lehava organisation, has called for the same prohibition in Israel. Indeed, the statement of Gopstein and those of the Muslim clerics in Brunei seems almost indistinguishable.
There is a bizarre story out of the New York Times where the newspaper printed an astonishing statement by President Obama that was immediately picked up by journalists and then removed by the newspapers under a claim that it was trimmed for space. The newspaper said that President Obama defended his criticized laid-back response to the Paris and San Bernardino massacred to not watching enough cable television. It was the most newsworthy part of the fairly generic article and yet it quickly disappeared as social media lit up with criticism of the President.
A poll by the Democratic Public Policy Polling outfit found that 30 percent of Republicans support the bombing of Agrabah. The only problem is that agrabah is the fictional home of Aladdin. Of course, few would sympathize with Jafar, Grand Vizier to the Sultan of Agrabah (particularly after his horrible conduct in the Cave of Wonders), there are other rather cute cartoon characters in Agrabah who should not be vaporized in the war on terror. Yet, the bombing of Agrabah seems almost tame when candidates are calling for the killing of the families of terrorists or pledging that, if they are allowed to go back in time, they would strangle the baby Hitler.
Continue reading “Magic Carpet Bombing? Poll Shows Surprising Number of People Want To Bomb Agrabah”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
Following his arrest this week for alleged securities fraud, Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli resigned his office.
Turing garnered infamy for the 5000 percent price increase of Daraprim, a $13.50 medication indicated for patients requiring treatment of Toxoplasma gondii–an opportunistic pathogen afflicting the immune-compromised such as AIDS patients. Monthly treatment cost now associated with the drug can be upwards of seventy-five thousand dollars. See previous articles HERE and HERE.
Interim CEO Ron Tiles thanked the 32-year-old for “helping us build Turing Pharmaceuticals into the dynamic research-focused company it is today.”
Continue reading “Embattled Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli Resigns”
Rabbi Mendel Epstein, 70, of Brooklyn was convicted this week in a bizarre series of crimes where he and others kidnapped and beat Orthodox Jewish men who refused to grant their wives religious divorces or “gets.” He was to 10 years in prison, a relatively light sentence given multiple kidnapping and beatings ordered by Epstein. The attackers were paid by women to force “gets” out of their husbands. That makes this a religious-based form of organized crime.
For months, Martin Shkreli, a former hedge fund manager who took over a pharmaceutical company and raised the cost of a critical drug more than fiftyfold, has been the face of corporate greed and immoral business practices. He may soon has a record to go along with his well-earned reputation. Shkreli was arrested on a seven-count indictment alleging that he fraudulently induced investors to invest in two separate funds and misappropriated Retrophin’s assets to satisfy Shkreli’s personal and professional debts. Presumably, if convicted, the judge will not (despite natural temptations) enhance his sentence 50 times simply because he want a higher profits penalty curve.
While it will not sit well with those creationists who reject evolution and believe the Earth is only a few thousand years old, a new study may interest the rest of mankind. The study at the Royal Institute of Technology in Solna, Sweden from that the relationship between man and dog goes back more than 33,000 years ago and appears to have originated in south east Asia. The study shows domestication much earlier than the prior estimate of 10,000 years.
Continue reading “Study: Dogs Were Domesticated More Than 33,000 Years Ago”
The University of Maryland has launched a campaign educating students and faculty about how to refer to people and asking them to “think before you speak” to avoid insulting others. One of the lexicon lessons has caused a controversy. The campaign by UMD’s Multicultural Involvement and Community Advocacy office tells people not to use terms like “illegal alien” but rather “undocumented citizens.”
Civil libertarians have long been critical of the German speech crimes, including the prohibition on any Nazi symbols. Not only have the laws not had any discernible impact on the neo-Nazi movement but they actually make these extremists into victims and force them further underground. The laws also lead to bizarre cases like the arrest of a German man for a cellphone ringtone of Hitler. The latest case is out of Oranienburg where German politician Marcel Zech was arrested due to a tattoo spotted on his back at a pool.
Continue reading “German Politician Arrested After Being Spotted At Pool With Death Camp Tattoo”
Juries generally comes to reasonable results in my view and tend to get cases right despite the criticism that one reads in the media or popular culture. However, there are cases that leave me baffled. Often this is due to the fact that not all facts have been reported accurately, but some are left a mystery. One such case is out of London this week where a jury spent just 30 minutes to acquit Saudi millionaire Ehsan Abdulaziz, 46, of rape. Abdelaziz’s defense? he accidentally tripped, fell on her, and may have penetrated her by mistake.
President Obama once pledged that his government would be the most transparent in history — a claim that is often mocked by civil libertarians and other critics who accuse him of almost Nixonian secrecy policies and inclinations. That troubling record is playing out again before U.S District Court Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The Administration continues to fight to withhold over 2,000 images of torture and abuse of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan simply because it would make the United States look bad. Ironically, there is a transparent element to this case. Few Administration have been so transparently obvious in their use of classification rule to simply bar the disclosure of information that would be embarrassing to officials or the government. Usually, the Justice Department attempts to spin a tale of some other national security rationale for non-disclosure. Here, however, there is nothing even plausible to come up with. The Obama Administration simply wants to deep six the photos because people would be really angry if they saw what the government did, including photos that are believed to be far worse than those Abu Ghraib (like the one above).
Below is my Sunday column in the Washington Post on Donald Trump’s proposal to ban Muslims from entry into the United States. Trump’s rhetoric has shocked many in his promises to unilaterally force sweeping changes regardless of Congress. Yet, Trump’s criticism of Congress and pledge to go it alone should be vaguely familiar for many. Both Obama and Trump advocate to use unilateral powers to change the immigration laws as a rejection of a “do nothing” Congress. Faced with opposition in Congress, President Obama insisted that he would order many of the very changes rejected by the legislative branch. Despite my agreement with President Obama on many of his policies, it is a dangerous and destabilizing legacy or a system based on the separation of powers. While these men may differ on their policy choices, the powers are the same. President Obama has been asserting many the powers referenced by Trump despite constitutional objections and losses in court like the Canning decision. For this reason, the objections from Obama supporters may ring a bit hollow for Trump supporters. While Trump may have coined “You’re fired” as an entertainment tag line, it was President Obama who fashioned it into a political doctrine in his rejection of Congress. This has been a role that Trump has spent years cultivating on reality shows. It is reality TV meets realpolitick. Below is the column.