Category: Society

International, Military, Politics, Society, Uncategorized

Taliban Reportedly Holds Huge Meeting To Select New Leader . . . in Pakistan

Flag_of_Taliban.svgFlag_of_PakistanPakistan continues to defy the United States and the Western world in harboring Taliban fighters and lying publicly about the collusion of its intelligence services with the terrorist organization. There is no greater example that a meeting of hundreds of Taliban leaders to select their new leader. That would seem an ideal time for an attack by the United States and Afghanistan, but the meeting is being held in Pakistan and reportedly with the knowledge of the Pakistani government. The “Unity shura” will be brought to the Taliban by the country that we have given billions of dollars to in the war on terror.

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Academia, Bizarre, Media, Military, Politics, Religion, Society

West Point Law Professor Resigns In Wake Of Controversy Over Article On Combatting “Pernicious Pacifism”

635767224944016792-f40d384b-0872-441b-bcf9-4e11d11f8955-bestSizeAvailableThere is a truly bizarre story this week involving a former Indiana University law professor who resigned from West Point Military Academy’s law department as a disturbing article was published where he denounces other scholars who exhibit “pernicious pacifism” as aiding and abetting terrorists. The case raises free speech and academic freedom issues in handling controversial writings of academics. However, it also raises the poor standards for selecting faculty at West Point, a concern that I have had in the past with regard to its legal studies as well as those at other military educational programs. Not only does Bradford have extremist and disturbing views but he has been previously accused of exaggerating his credentials.

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Academia, Science, Society

Italian Study Finds Two-Thirds of People With Gluten Sensitivity Had No Negative Effects From Digesting Gluten

290px-Gluten_SourcesThere has continued to be a great debate over the rising number of people claiming to be gluten sensitive with some experts claiming the trend is based on social rather than scientific sources. Now a study in Italy has found that two-thirds of people claiming gluten sensitivity experiences no adverse side effects when they digested gluten.

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Bizarre, Lawyering, Society

Arizona Lawyer Seeks To Vacate Bar Sanction After Profanity Laden Email

220px-Deliverance_posterThere is a bizarre case out of Arizona where lawyer Dennis Wilenchik has been given a formal sanction of admonishment from the bar after he sent profanity laced emails to a client who he accused of failing to pay his bills. The emails also included a reference to the movie Deliverance and its notorious rape scene. After accepting the discipline, Wilenchick now is seeking to set aside the discipline in light of new evidence. The discipline included a one-year probation period during which Wilenchick would have to continue with anger management treatment.

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Bizarre, Criminal law, Society

Ohio Police Officer Caught On Tape Telling Driver He Was Pulled After He Looked The Officer In The Eye

daytonpolice220px-Eye_irisIt is common to get advice like “never look a polar bear in the eye.” The same appears to be true with Dayton police officers. Driver John Felton has posted a video of a pull over by a police officer who told him that he was pulled over because he “made direct eye contact” with him while driving by.

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Bizarre, Constitutional Law, Free Speech, International, Media, Politics, Society

Shooting the Messenger: Reporter Forced To Confess To Contributing To Fall of Chinese Market

400px-Chineseart_ExecutionpaintingThe Chinese regime followed its recent market meltdown in true Maoist fashion this week. It dragged out a journalist, Wang Xiaolu, to confess that he helped start the crash. It cannot be the centrally planned, artificially dumped up system itself. No, it was a journalist.

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Bizarre, International, Politics, Society

Mugabe Insists “No Suffering” in Zimbabwe

200px-mugabecloseup2008 President Robert Mugabe, 91, has long been one of the world’s most heartless and merciless dictators, but he seems also on a quest to show that he is also the most clueless. This week Mugabe expressed utter surprise that his people were starving as he and his notorious and corrupt family live like emperors. He assured that there is “no suffering” in Zimbabwe.

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Bizarre, Environment, Politics, Society

Nestlé Under Fire For Drawing Tens of Millions of Gallons Of Water For Sale While Paying Only $524 Under An Expired Permit

250px-Nestlé.svg220px-Drinking_waterThere is an interesting controversy brewing over the continued removal of water by Nestle from California’s water supply during the record drought in that state. Nestle continued to remove millions of gallons of water from the San Bernardino National Forest to sell as part of its Arrowhead bottled water brand. While the rest of the state is facing stringent water reductions, Nestles has been criticized for removing 27 million gallons of water from 12 springs in Strawberry Canyon under a permit that expired in 1988. The expired permit’s fee for the water, according to critics? $524.

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Bizarre, Criminal law, International, Politics, Religion, Society

Indian Village Council Sentences Two Sisters To Be Raped As Punishment For Brother Running Away With Woman From Higher Caste

1024px-Flag_of_India.svgAccording to various media reports and Amnesty International, an all-male village council in India sentenced two sisters, including a 15 year old girl, to be raped as punishment for their brother running away with a married woman from a higher caste. The accounts state that Meenakshi Kumari, who is 23, and her younger sister, will then be paraded naked with their faces blackened through the streets as part of this disgraceful, primitive sentence.

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Bizarre, Society, Torts

Lamp Post Crushes Car In San Francisco In Bizarre Consequence of Public Urination

170px-Los_Angeles,_California,_street_lamp_with_Ritz-Carlton_HotelThere is a terrible death in San Francisco that reads like a perverse torts exam question on factual and legal causation. Barber Luis Gomez, it can be argued, was almost killed by permissive public urination in the city (an issue that we recently discussed with regard to the effort to decriminalize public urination in New York). Gomez, 40, was killed during his commute from a suburb into the city. Because the BART was done, he drove his 1994 Honda Civic into the city. He was then crushed by a falling light pole that officials blamed on human and animal urine corroding its base.

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Bizarre, Politics, Society

Garbage In, Garbage Out: San Jose Considers Installing License Plate Readers On Garbage Trucks

By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

garbage-truck-scaniaSan Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo and Councilmen Johnny Khamis and Raul Peralez proposed installing license plate readers on garbage trucks. If there is one thing apparently that is important to the collection of your trash and rubbish it is reading every license plate in the neighborhood it seems. The city officials believe it will make a strong dent in the number of stolen and wanted vehicles left out in the street around garbage day.

The proposal involves installation of the readers and feeding the license data to the central computer system that serves the police department’s LPRs installed on patrol cars. It promises to be a monumentally cost inefficient system despite what city officials might claim. The civil liberties implications notwithstanding.

Psst, car thieves of California: be sure to take in your stolen car when you take out the trash.

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Academia, Society

University of Tennessee Considers Adopting Gender Neutral Pronouns Like “Ze,” “Hir,” and “Xyr” To Avoid Discrimination

150px-UT_Volunteers_logo.svgWhile this may be just another “he said, she said” situation, a document released at the University of Tennessee suggests that it may be actually a “ze said, xe said” situation. Donna Braquet the director of the university’s Pride Center is asking faculty and students to drop using “he” and “she” in favor of using “correct pronouns” for particular students like ze, hir, zir, xe, xem and xyr to reflect a broader array of gender identifications. We recently discussed how the University of California has adopted six different gender categories for students. Braquet is now suggesting that faculty adopt the new array of pronouns (“dozens of gender-neutral pronouns”) and use whatever the student feels is appropriate.
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Bizarre, Society, Torts

Baba Fide: New York Court Rules Mother Owes Son $5000 For Undelivered Bar Mitzvah Gift From Grandmother

316968_10150404626159254_1572956963_nNew York has a rather bizarre case this week where Jordan Zeidman, 20, sued his own mother, Shirley Zeidman, 54, to recover $5,000 that his grandmother gave him as a bar mitzvah gift. Shirley Zeidman has now been found liable for conversion and unjust enrichment. It might not have been a bona fide but it was a baba fide transaction according to the court. The case is Zeidman v. Zeidman, CV-011924-14.

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Bizarre, Courts, Criminal law, Lawyering, Media, Society

“Judge” Brown Goes To Jail Over Contemptuous Encounter With Real Judge

082715-celebs-judge-joe-brown-mugshot-e1440765709108Former TV judge Joe Brown, 66, has surrendered to Tennessee deputies to begin serving a five-day jail term for contempt of court. Brown was held in contempt by Magistrate Judge Harold Horne for an outburst in Juvenile Court in March 2014. He took the issue all the way up to the Tennessee Supreme Court, which denied Brown’s application to appeal a Court of Appeals upholding the ruling. Brown called the court a “circus” and a “sorry operation.” Of course real judges do not have producers and set designers. When Horne told him to stop, Brown did not. He gave him a day in jail but Brown continued until he had five days in jail.

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