Category: Society

Society

Meet Thomas Mooneyham, Chicago’s Hottest Bartender

10e2f63f65ce63ee8e1c306237cef2c0Through the years, I have taken great pride in the success of two of my nephews as leading bartenders in Chicago. Jason Turley was previously the subject of a blog entry and I cannot resist bragging about my nephew Thomas Mooneyham. Thomas Mooneyham has become the rage in Chicago as the hottest bartender in the city. He is the lead bartender at The Gage restaurant and he has been featured in variouspublications. Having heard about the rave reviews of Thomas’ new drinks, Leslie and I went to the restaurant last week to find out for ourselves. They were honestly some of the best cocktails that I have ever had. Truly.

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Academia, Free Speech, Politics, Society

Are You or Have You Ever Been a Member of the ASA? New York Legislators To Move To Ban Funds To Schools Associated With Israeli Boycott

Unknown-2Unknown-1We previously discussed how the American Studies Association joined a growing boycott of Israeli institutions, which is part of an even broader boycott of Israeli goods in many stores. There are good points to be made on both sides, including the absence of such boycotts for Chinese institutions and those of other abusive nations. However, we should all be able to agree that the response of New York legislator Dov Hikind is excessive and absurd. Hikind is showing his support for Israel by pushing legislation to cut off money to colleges involved in American Studies Association. He ignores the fact that the ASA resolution is non-binding and an expression of opposition to Israel’s policies as opposed to an enforceable ban. However, he wants to cut off whole institutions for even a loose association with a group that has condemned Israel. It is precisely the type of unhinged reaction that has distorted the debate over Middle East policies. He is being joined by Jeffrey Klein (right), another Democrat.

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Animals, Criminal law, Society

New York Shelter Worker Arrested For Allegedly Taking $500 To Care For Dog And Then Throwing Her Into Dumpster

3117659_GPapinimugshotFor animal rights advocates, Michael Papini, 30, could be the ultimate fallen angel is allegations against him are proven. The Suffolk County SPCA says that it was a videotape of Papini throwing a plastic bag into a dumpster that they say contained the female Lhasa Apso shown above. He is being charged with felony aggravated animal cruelty, animal abandonment, and other related charges.

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Academia, Bizarre, Criminal law, Society

Hare And Hype: Iowa Professor Resigns After Admitting To Faking AIDS Vaccine Research

IowaStateUniversitySeal220px-Whiterabbit86-300Iowa State University professor Dr. Dong-Pyou Han has resigned after admitting he falsely claimed results to suggest a breakthrough in a vaccine for the AIDS vaccine.  Han received a $19 million grant after reporting that rabbit blood could be turned into a vaccine. Turns out it was just hare and hype.

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Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Free Speech, Politics, Religion, Society

India Muslim Party Reportedly Calls For Homosexuals To Be Executed

India flagRainbowFlagWe recently discussed the Indian courts reinstating the criminalization of homosexuality in that country.  Now, the Indian National League, a Muslim political party, has reportedly launched a public campaign calling for all homosexuals to be killed under the nation’s death penalty. The posters appearing around the country also claims that freedom of expression is being abused by gays and lesbians in advocating their cause. This story has appeared on a couple of gay rights sites covering India but has not appeared in the mainstream press.

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Academia, Bizarre, Society

Scandal Rocks Utahans Utahns In Sister Wives Case

240px-sister_wives_tv_series_logoScandal gripped the Sister Wives case last week with the statement released on this blog. In my statement responding to the decision to appeal the decision striking down the criminalization of cohabitation, I included the following line: “these are not Utahan rights but American rights.” I consciously used “Utahan” rather than “Utahn” as preferred by many in the state. This results in a couple news sites running the quote with a correction for a misspelling: Turley wrote. “Nevertheless, these are not Utahan (sic) rights but American rights. It will be an honor to defend this decision, and the rights of the Brown family, in Denver.” I stand by my decision in the use of Utahan as correct despite the disagreement from many of my Utahn friends.

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Bizarre, Society

Bears Lose To An Undead Ball

Chicago-Bears-Logo2220px-Hammersmith_GhostWell, another Bears season ended short of the playoffs with the added ignobility of having the Packers deliver the coup de grace.  The most bizarre aspect was of course the fumble from Aaron Rodgers in the second quarter that everyone thought was a dead bar, including Packers receiver Brandon Boykin who was told to pick up the ball by the Packers sideline and score.  To lose with a dead ball, reminded me of a certain scene from an old Bogart movie.  Can you guess?

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Bizarre, Congress, Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, Justice, Lawyering, Politics, Society, Supreme Court, Uncategorized

Privacy’s Postmortem: Smith v. Maryland And How A Pen Register Became A Threat To Freedom

By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger

bigbroWhen the faceless analyzers locked deep inside the NSA finally get around to divining just how privacy died in this country they won’t start with Friday’s decision by Judge William Pauley, III  in  ACLU v. Clapper finding the NSA data mining of American’s communications perfectly constitutional or even go back to the horrible events of September 11, 2001 when fear ran freedom from the playing field. No, the truth is that privacy began to die farther back in an obscure case during the nation’s bicentennial year. As most of us were gathering up our red, white, and blue bunting, buying fireworks, and marveling at the first technological salvo of the commercial computer age known as The Cray-1 , a robbery case in Maryland would form the first cancerous cell in the assault on the body politic’s right to be left free from government snooping.

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Congress, Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, Free Speech, Justice, Politics, Society, Supreme Court

Hopes For the New Year

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Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty(rafflaw)-Guest Blogger

With the end of 2013 fast approaching, I have begun to wonder what the New Year holds for the country.  It looks like the Affordable Care Act is finally getting its website to function properly and the sign ups are now being counted in the millions.  Wall Street is still booming with the Dow Jones over 16,000, but yet unemployment is still too high and Congress is still trying to push austerity for the middle class and the poor, while doing everything in its power to prevent corporations and the wealthy from paying their fair share of taxes.  The Citizen’s United decision opened the money floodgates and needs to be curbed.  The military budget was spared in the recent Budget Deal, but yet unemployment benefits for millions have not been extended.

The gun lobby continues to prevent reasonable gun control legislation and needless scores of innocents continue to be slaughtered.  Instead of closing the gun show loophole or mandating reasonable and effective universal background checks, Congress did nothing.   Although there has been some recent movement from the Obama Administration to push Congress to allow the closing of the prison at Guantanamo Bay, the facility remains open after 12 years.  With all of the bad news or non-action on many fronts, is it possible to have hope that 2014 will bring better news for all Americans?  Continue reading “Hopes For the New Year” →

Justice, Politics, Society

Federal Cutbacks And A Failed Tax Levy Causes Major Shift In Application Of Criminal Justice in Josephine County Oregon

Submitted by Darren Smith, Guest Blogger

Josephine County OregonA worrisome situation has been created in a rural Josephine County Oregon. Approximately seventy percent of the land area in the county is owned by the federal government which provided millions in revenue from timber subsidies. That source of finding for the county stopped due to a termination of payments by the federal government and in an attempt to fill a budget shortfall of over $7,500,000 the county asked the voters to fund a tax levy. The levy, which was projected to assess $300 on a $200,000 home was defeated in a narrow election. The result of the loss of both revenue sources caused a routing of the sheriff’s office budget, personnel and services.

The effect of this has led to cuts in services and patrol that has effectively led to a major transfer of the traditional roles of county policing from local government to irregular citizen’s patrols and the farming out of what little remains in the sheriff’s office to private contractors and outside agencies. Could situations like this resurrect some of the nineteenth century practices necessary in the West that are no longer compatible with twenty first century American Society?

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

Video Game Banned In China Due To Cultural Invasion and for National Security Purposes

Submitted by Darren Smith, Guest Blogger

Flag of the Peoples Republic of ChinaThe Chinese Government banned the video game Battlefield 4, developed by Electronic Arts, claiming the video game casts China in a bad light and advocates political issues which make China appear to be a warlike society.

The game play plot takes place in the year 2020 where a military coup occurs in China resulting in a geo-political intrigue that could bring the US into a protracted war.  The US sends troops to Hong Kong to fight against the coup and the PLA.

The Chinese Ministry of Culture went as far as to ban all things related to the game including software, patches, and news reports.  It censored the topic of the game on China’s main social media website weibo.com.  On a link derived, according to ZDNet, from an official Chinese news publication, there was much worry over the video games:

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Congress, Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, Free Speech, International, Justice, Media, Military, Politics, Society, Supreme Court, Uncategorized

They Killed Him So Let’s Make a Buck

Submitted By: Mike Spindell, Guest Blogger

JFKRiceUniversityI’ve written before about the fact that the murder of JFK in Dallas was to me the most traumatic national experience in my life and the fact that I think it changed the destiny of our country in a negative fashion. I think that for many around my age this is also true, but it is now fifty years past and the majority of Americans have no real knowledge of it. The trauma of that day and the ensuing events of history have left me with an admittedly irrational repugnance towards the city of Dallas and I feel almost a shudder when I hear of Dealey Plaza, where the murder took place. These feelings are so intense that I doubt that I will ever visit Dallas in my lifetime, much less go to Dealey Plaza. When I got my weekly E Mail from my favorite investigative journalism website WhoWhatWhy.com I took note of an article about the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. The article was a humorous look at the potential for Christmas gifts that might be available at the museum’s gift shop and of course provided a link to the museum’s website, which I then followed. Going to the website and perusing it caused me to muse about the ability in our country to turn even our most solemn national events into commercial enterprises, while we pretend that they provide an educational service. Continue reading “They Killed Him So Let’s Make a Buck” →

Bizarre, Congress, Criminal law, Media, Politics, Society

Obama Task Force Member: Snowden Is A Criminal

Stone, Geof228px-Picture_of_Edward_SnowdenIn a previous column, I criticized the work of the White House Task Force on the NSA surveillance program as stacked with Obama loyalists with a majority of surveillance hawks. Later, one of the five members came out to say that the reforms were not significant and that he believes the program should be actually expanded not limited. Now, the only member without prior positions in the Administration and national security ties, University of Chicago Law School Professor Geoffrey Stone, has declared that the NSA is not a rogue agency and that Edward Snowden is a criminal.

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Constitutional Law, International, Religion, Society

Ḥalāl to the Left, Haraam To The Right: British Store Allows Muslim Employees To Refuse To Help Customers Buying Products With Alcohol Or Pork

200px-MARKS_&_Spencer_logo.svg170px-Burgundy_bottlesThere is an interesting controversy in England over a policy of U.K. retailer Marks and Spencer, which has allowed Muslim employees to refuse to help customers buying dishes with pork or alcohol. The result was long lines of shoppers who were told to wait for a non-Muslim employee to check them out. With huge numbers of people buying champagne for the holiday, customers are irate as they stood around for another cashier without religious objections to appear. There is now a Facebook page to boycott the store over the policy. However, the Obama Administration is supporting a similar claim in a U.S. case.

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Columns, Criminal law, Society, Torts

Holiday Hazards And The Hope For A Litigation-Free New Year

220px-Christmas_in_Dublin,_CA200px-New_Year_Ball_Drop_Event_for_2012_at_Times_SquareHere is today’s column in USA Today on the hazards of the holidays. While Halloween racks up an impressive array of torts, Christmas and New Year’s Eve produce a considerable number of accidents and crimes. The difference is that the accidents are often self-inflicted — many of which I have personally experienced. Indeed, my family shudders when I pull out the Christmas decorations in anticipation of some unforeseen disaster.

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