Below is my column today in USA Today on the torture report. This is the slightly longer version that ran on the Internet.
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Continue reading “TRUTH WILL OUT: THE SENATE REPORT CONTAINS SOME INCONVENIENT TRUTHS”
Category: Society
We have been seeing leading Democrats going public recently with their views that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or “Obamacare” was a political blunder or a simply poorly drafted mistake. This included the third-highest ranked Democrat, Chuck Schumer, who said that it was a mistake to even try to pass the legislation in the first term when most Americans did not place health care as a priority for action. Now the highest ranked Democrat, Senate majority leader Harry Reid, is saying that the Obama Administration may have doomed Democrats in Congress with its poor management and blunders in the rollout of the program.
Continue reading “Reid: Administration’s Mismanagement Of Obamacare Rollout Cost The Election”
Columbia Law School has decided to delay exams for law students to overcome “trauma” of Ferguson, Garner decisions. It is the first such delay of exams for such decisions that I have seen at a law school and it has attracted criticism from both academics and lawyers as a poor preparation for real life as lawyers. Nevertheless, students at Harvard and Georgetown are now demanding the same right to delay their exams. Columbia has brought in a A “trauma specialist” to work with students. The University of California-Irvine has also offered such counseling to facilitate “healing, grieving and support.”
This rather stern looking gentleman in the booking line is John H. Przybyla , 75. If he looks a bit ticked, it may due to his falling victim to that siren’s call of dinner plates: beer-battered fish. When Przybyla was pulled over on what would be his 10th DUI, he allegedly told the deputy that the alcohol that he smelled was just his classic Wisconsin dinner. Unfortunately for him, the officer did not buy the blue plate special defense.
There is a highly disturbing case out of New York where a Hudson Valley anesthesiologist, Thomas Pfeiffer, 44, had been charged with strangulation, abortion and assault after he allegedly choked a woman and forced her to swallow a “morning after” pill after she told him she was pregnant. The abortion charge is relatively rare in criminal cases.
We recently discussed a horrific case where 10 women died and dozens were injured in India after a mass sterilization. Now, authorities are investigating a case where over 24 poor and elderly people went blind following cataract surgeries performed at a free medical camp in northern India. Continue reading “Over Two Dozen Poor People Reportedly Left Blind After Free Cataract Surgery In India”
There are two separate controversies this week over rape stories that have been challenged by critics. Both stories involve leading U.S. universities. Unlike the Duke Lacrosse controversy, neither school is accused of wrongdoing. Rolling Stone magazine has apologized for shocking failures in reporting a sensational rape story where a woman named Jackie alleged that she was gang raped at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house, but the Washington Post reported on discrepancies in the account, including the fact that no party was held at the fraternity on the day in question. In the meantime, Lena Dunham’s story of being raped in college has been challenged as containing discrepancies and the man who has faced the most accusations is now considering a libel lawsuit against the author and director.
Last November, questions were raised over a decision of prosecutors to drop all charges against 13th Court Justice of Appeals Nora Longoria for alleged drunk driving. There were concerns of special treatment but prosecutors insisted that they simply lacked sufficient evidence. Now it appears that there was a dash cam video that clearly shows Longoria unable to complete sobriety tests. It would seems a fairly easy case for prosecution.
Brandon Ancell, 19, and Brandon Chait, 18, probably thought that the Grinch made it look so easy in Whoville. You just wait for Christmas gifts to arrive at houses and steal them. The problem arises when a neighbor plays the role of Cindy Lou Who with a camera.
Continue reading “Trouble In Whoville: Two Men Caught Stealing Holiday Presents”
Respectfully Submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw) Weekend Contributor
The Banksters are at it again. You may recall an article that I wrote in March of 2013 which detailed a plan agreed to by the Bank of England and the FDIC which would allow banks to grab depositors funds in order to avoid a bank failure. The prime example given in that article was a similar plan that was put into action in Cyprus. Similar plans were on the books elsewhere, but the Cyprus grab had actually been activated.
Now it seems that the joint FDIC-Bank of England agreement from December of 2012 was not enough to make the Banksters whole in the event that their derivative gambling went south. The idea has gone global and it puts all of our deposits, and even our pension investments at risk! Continue reading “Bail-Ins and Empty Pockets”
Submitted by Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
An auction for the largest known White Truffle, considered a high delicacy in culinary circles fetched about six percent of its estimated auction price of over one million dollars. This is based upon speculation with previous pre-auction inquiries from Asia and experience from previous auctions of record breaking examples.
The situation is perhaps a small echo from the Tulip Mania market speculative bubble that caused the crash of a segment of the tulip bulb industry in 1637 in the United Provinces (now The Netherlands).
This video below shows the ultimate flash mob . . . by the Air Force band. It is a great idea and done perfectly at the Air and Space Museum. It also highlights the incredible talent of our military bands.
I am very sad to report the death of a GW law student and one of my past students, Mark Edwin Lee. Mark appears to have died on November 29th at his home in Washington, D.C. and the cause of death is not yet known.
To lose someone at such a young age is always a tragedy, but Mark was something truly special. He seemed to find the positive in any situation and any person. There are some people who can reduce stress and strife by just being themselves. Mark was one of those people. He was that rare combination of someone with a brilliant intellect and a warm and engaging personality. I saw Mark as the quiet type; a confident professional who would rise quickly in our profession. I not only thought the world of him but expected the world from him. His loss is truly our loss.
I was on BBC yesterday talking about the Stolen Valor Act and the video below that has gone viral after a man was confronted in a mall on Black Friday by a veteran who called him out as a fake. (Warning: the video contains bad language). The man, identified as Sean Yetman, 30, walked by a real veteran from the famed 101st Airborne Division who was not buying the uniform or claim that Yetman is an Army Ranger. He spotted problems right away, starting with the multiple Combat Infantry badges.
We recently discussed the stinging criticism of Sen. Chuck Schumer who called Obamacare a colossal political mistake and something that was not a priority for the American people. It was a remarkable admission from the third ranking and one of the most liberal Senate Democrats. Now, perhaps the most liberal departing member has given his own departing shot at the White House and Democratic Leadership. Retiring Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa has gone public with criticism that the Affordable Care Act was badly written and should not have been passed. Like Schumer, he is not questioning the value of health care but said that the current law was not worth doing because of its inherent flaws.