Category: Society

Academia, Free Speech, Media, Politics, Society

University of Rochester Professor Under Fire For Blog Post

SLandsbuUniversity of Rochester economics professor Steven Landsburg is under fire this week for his discussion of rape in a blog post. UR students have demanded his censure and are planning protests while UR has correctly refused to discipline Landsburg for an exercise of academic freedom. Indeed, these students (like the French students discussed earlier on the subject of free speech) have lost their bearings in demanding punishment for the expression ideas or opinions by a faculty members in my view.

Continue reading “University of Rochester Professor Under Fire For Blog Post” →

Bizarre, Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Politics, Religion, Society

Virginia Is For [Some] Lovers: Cuccinelli Continues Fight To Save Crimes Against Nature Law

virginia%20is%20for%20loversVirginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has decided to continue the fight to preserve the state’s “crimes against nature” law that bans both oral and anal sex in both heterosexual and homosexual relations. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (considered by many to be the country’s most conservative circuit) struck down the law on obvious constitutional grounds. However, Cuccinelli has filed a motion for reconsideration to try to get that decision reversed. The current attorney general and likely GOP gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli wants to keep anti-sodomy laws on the books in Virginia.
Continue reading “Virginia Is For [Some] Lovers: Cuccinelli Continues Fight To Save Crimes Against Nature Law” →

Animals, Bizarre, Religion, Society

Pat Robertson Explains Miracles More Likely In Africa and Other Countries Where People are Less Educated, Simple, and Humble


Rev. Pat Robertson appears to have isolated the reason for the decline in miracles and faith in general — education. In a recent answer to why there are more miracles in places like Africa, Robertson explained that in places like Africa people are “simple, humble” and just accept what you tell them.

Continue reading “Pat Robertson Explains Miracles More Likely In Africa and Other Countries Where People are Less Educated, Simple, and Humble” →

Criminal law, Justice, Lawyering, Society

Federal Prosecutor Reportedly Withdraws From Major Gang Case Out Of Fear For Safety

DeptofJusticeThe murders of two prosecutors in Kaufman County, Texas has caused heightened security measures to protect court staff and prosecutors. However, few expected those concerns to lead to the withdrawal of a federal prosecutor in Houston. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Hileman has reportedly announced that he will withdraw from a case out of personal safety concerns. If true, it is a rare case for a federal prosecutor to refuse to litigate a case out of fear.

Continue reading “Federal Prosecutor Reportedly Withdraws From Major Gang Case Out Of Fear For Safety” →

Criminal law, Media, Politics, Society

Justice Department Seeks To Keep Secret The Names Of Prosecutors Of Aaron Swartz

Carmen-Ortiz-144x150The Justice Department was once all too eager to announce its prosecution of Aaron Swartz and issue press releases on how they piled on additional counts against him. However, after Swartz committed suicide in response to its unrelenting prosecution, U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz and the Justice Department now want to keep the names of prosecutors in the case a secret so that they will not be held accountable for the abusive case. The Justice Department routinely holds press conferences in which prosecutors crowd stages to take credit for indictments. However, when a prosecution is denounced globally as excessive and cruel, the Justice Department wants to prevent the public from knowing the identities of the prosecutors responsible.

Continue reading “Justice Department Seeks To Keep Secret The Names Of Prosecutors Of Aaron Swartz” →

Constitutional Law, Free Speech, Media, Politics, Religion, Society

North Carolina Legislation Would Allow Establishment Of State Religion

644630Republican North Carolina state legislators have proposed a bill that would allow the state to establish a state religion and further declares the state exempt from the Constitution and court rulings. What is astonishing is that eleven GOP members are pushing the law, which rejects not just the core principles of our country but would move the state closer to the model of government currently ripping Egypt and other nations apart in mixing religion and government. The main sponsors, state Reps. Carl Ford (R-China Grove) and Harry Warren (R-Salisbury), seem to have little more judgment than they do knowledge of our Constitutional system. Obviously, the law is facially unconstitutional but it is the contempt for our separation of church and state that is truly unnerving in these members.

Continue reading “North Carolina Legislation Would Allow Establishment Of State Religion” →

Politics, Society

Obama Administration Pressures Banks To Give Loans To People With Weak Credit

President_Barack_Obama220px-ForeclosedhomeThis seems vaguely familiar. The Obama administration has started a full court push to get banks to make more home loans available to people with weaker credit. After the housing collapse leading to the tanking of economy, many experts pointed out in congressional hearings on the problem of loans to unqualified owners and that Congress spent years demanding more and more loans to low income families with bad credit. However, President Obama has pledged that low income families would again be able to enjoy home ownership in his recent State of the Union address. I tend to resist such government moves in the market on economic grounds. This is a market that favors granting loans. There is already considerable incentive to find such business and the economy is finally limping back with home values going up. It would seem a bad time to pressure banks to grant loans to high risk home owners — as it is for high risk home owners to commit to such purchases.

Continue reading “Obama Administration Pressures Banks To Give Loans To People With Weak Credit” →

Bizarre, Criminal law, Religion, Society

Something’s Not Kosher: Jewish Market Under USDA Investigation Over Selling Non-Kosher Meat

220px-VengeanceIsMineIn Los Angeles, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has launched a rare investigation into the Doheny Glatt Kosher meat market after a council of rabbis withdrew his Kosher certification. The USDA is looking into allegations that the owner of Doheny, Michael Engelman, served meat that did not meet Jewish dietary standards. The investigation places the federal government in the awkward position of enforcing a religious practice. At issue is whether the meat was not adequately certified by rabbis. However, the tale has more turns than a Mike Hammer movie with a gumshoe, a mysterious rabbi, and boxes of meats carried out of car trunks and warehouses.

Continue reading “Something’s Not Kosher: Jewish Market Under USDA Investigation Over Selling Non-Kosher Meat” →

Academia, Bizarre, Society

Wrong With Wright: Smithsonian Under Fire For Wright Brothers Contract

Wright_Flyer_First_Flight 660There is an interesting contracts controversy brewing over at the Smithsonian. Yes, it is possible to have an interesting contracts controversy. In this case, the contract was signed in 1948 between the estate of Orville Wright and the Smithsonian. The contract required that, in exchange for the famed Wright flyer, the Smithsonian would never recognize that anyone else was first in flight. That does not sit well with historians who believe that the first in flight was actually German immigrant Gustav Whitehead. Putting aside the historical debate, a contract requiring the museum legally to deny historical claims is plainly unethical. Is it an unenforceable unconscionable contract?

Continue reading “Wrong With Wright: Smithsonian Under Fire For Wright Brothers Contract” →

Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, Media, Politics, Society

Fox Reporter Faces Potential Jail In Protection Of Her Sources

jana-winterPrisonCellA classic confrontation is occurring in Arizona over the freedom of the press. FoxNews.com reporter Jana Winter is standing by fundamental principles of journalism in refusing to disclose who gave her a notebook that a judge had put under a protective order in the case of Colorado shooter James Holmes. Arapahoe County District Judge Carlos Samour is pursuing other avenues for the time being in trying to find out who leaked the notebook, but Winter could still be put on the bench and held in contempt for a failure to disclose her source.

Continue reading “Fox Reporter Faces Potential Jail In Protection Of Her Sources” →

Bizarre, Criminal law, Politics, Religion, Society

Saudi Man Faces Paralysis Under Sharia “Eye For An Eye” Sentence

200px-Coat_of_arms_of_Saudi_Arabia.svgA Saudi court is prepared to carry out a sentence to have Ali Al-Khawahir surgically paralyzed in conformity with Sharia law’s “eye for an eye” traditions. Al-Khawahir was only 14 when he stabbed a friend and left him paralyzed. Now, his family has failed to pay the victim “blood money” to be released from jail. After ten years of negotiations over the blood money, Al-Khawahir faces total paralysis under the Kingdom’s medieval legal system.

Continue reading “Saudi Man Faces Paralysis Under Sharia “Eye For An Eye” Sentence” →

Bizarre, Courts, Lawyering, Society

Detroit Judge Faces New Ethics Charges After Repeatedly Having Sex With Witness In Chambers And Texting About “Skank Hoes” In His Courtroom

mccree-and-mottYou may recall Wayne County Circuit Judge Wade McCree found our earlier discussion of his sending court personnel revealing pictures of himself. He was sanctioned for that little episode. McCree is back before a judicial ethics panel for allegedly making a false report of a felony, misrepresentations to the commission and engaging in improper bench conduct and demeanor. The latter charges involve having sex with a witness in his chambers, a relationship that he insisted did not affect his judgment in any way in the child-support case. He also allegedly impregnating Geniene La’Shay Mott (left with McCree). Despite his continual bizarre and improper conduct, McCree has remained on the bench in an indictment of the entire political and judicial system in Wayne County in Michigan.

Continue reading “Detroit Judge Faces New Ethics Charges After Repeatedly Having Sex With Witness In Chambers And Texting About “Skank Hoes” In His Courtroom” →

Congress, Politics, Society

Forever Young: Alaskan Member Apologizes After Discussing How His Family Used To Have “Wetbacks” To Do Their Work

220px-Don_Young,_official_photo_portrait,_color,_2006On the very heels of the GOP pledging to reach out to hispanics and repair the damage of the last election after an array of anti-women and anti-hispanic comments, Alaska Rep. Don Young stepped forward to show that such a face lift is not likely to occur with party leaders speaking from the eighteenth century. Young has long been a liability for the GOP with a long line of allegations of unethical and corrupt practices.

Continue reading “Forever Young: Alaskan Member Apologizes After Discussing How His Family Used To Have “Wetbacks” To Do Their Work” →

Criminal law, Free Speech, International, Politics, Religion, Society

Egypt Arrests Popular Satirist For Blasphemy

mq1Satirist Bassem Youssef has sometimes been called Egypt’s Jon Stewart — a refreshing uninhibited commentators in the increasingly restricted Egyptian public discourse. That ended last week as Egypt’s Islamic government added him to the spate of blasphemy arrests in defense of Islam.

Continue reading “Egypt Arrests Popular Satirist For Blasphemy” →

Bizarre, Politics, Society

Hollande Moves To Impose Another 75 Percent Tax For High Earners

220px-François_Hollande_(Journées_de_Nantes_2012)200px-Exécution_de_Marie_Antoinette_le_16_octobre_1793I have been a critic of the tax policies of French President Francois Hollande, including his disastrous 75% tax on the rich. The tax, as expected, has resulted in an exodus from the country of many top earners and a reluctance of others to move to France. However, with his poll numbers at a historic low, Hollande is continuing his “eat the rich” campaign. Last week, he announced a desire to impose a 75% tax on companies for salaries above 1 million euros. It is yet another blow to the French economy and will further deter new business for the struggling nation.

Continue reading “Hollande Moves To Impose Another 75 Percent Tax For High Earners” →