This story is one of the saddest statements of the reality in our public schools. Jake Balthazor, 15, of Coon Rapids, Minnesota was told to take off a rosary that he wore as a sign of support of his cancer-ridden grandmother. The reason? No, not the separation of church and state. It is because a gang uses the rosary as a gang symbol and teachers did not want any trouble.
Continue reading “Minnesota Student Ordered To Remove Rosary As Gang Symbol”
By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
I should have a right to destroy that which threatens me with destruction: for, by the fundamental law of nature, man being to be preserved as much as possible, when all cannot be preserved, the safety of the innocent is to be preferred: and one may destroy a man who makes war upon him, or has discovered an enmity to his being, for the same reason that he may kill a wolf or a lion; because such men are not under the ties of the commonlaw of reason, have no other rule, but that of force and violence, and so may be treated as beasts of prey, those dangerous and noxious creatures, that will be sure to destroy him whenever he falls into their power.
~John Locke, Second Treatise on Government, Ch. III, (kudos to Bron)
On the night of February 13th, 773 RAF Avro Lancaster bombers swept in low and fast on the Saxony railway town of Dresden. It was early 1945, The Third Reich was collapsing and some 600,000 people had taken refuge in the city to avoid the Allied onslaught. The presumed target was the military complex on the outskirts of town known as the Albertstadt. Dresden, itself, was riddled with military garrisons intermingled among the civilian population. In two waves, the RAF dropped 650,000 incendiaries and 8,000 lbs of high explosives and hundreds of 4,000 pounds bombs on the city center, all with little to no resistance. The entire city was ablaze. RAF crews reported smoke rising to a height of 15,000 ft. Fires were seen 500 miles away from the target.
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
My father had a favorite saying with which was to excoriate me on the many occasions when I had misbehaved. “The Road to Hell is paved with Good Intentions”. He used this to chastise me for some bad behavior, but more importantly to give me guidance of the “slippery-slope” that I was on when I behaved badly. Although it’s been 50 years since his death his words have remained with me even though I’ve aged into a man who’s lived far longer than he had. It’s been my observation that there is truth to this cliche, yet it does represent a form of logic, the “slippery-slope”, which can often also be specious. When I read this New York Times Article: “Slippery-Slope Logic, Applied to Health Care” by Economist Richard H. Thaler, Published: May 12, 2012http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/business/economy/slippery-slope-logic-vs-health-care-law-economic-view.html , I was again reminded of my Father’s admonitions and began to think about the use of “slippery-slope” logic. As it relates to SCOTUS and health care Mr. Thaler’s critique of the “slippery-slope” logic being applied by Justice Scalia did ring true:
“Consider these now-famous comments about broccoli from Justice Antonin G. Scalia during the oral arguments. “Everybody has to buy food sooner or later, so you define the market as food,” he said. “Therefore, everybody is in the market. Therefore, you can make people buy broccoli.” ”
“Justice Scalia is arguing that if the court lets Congress create a mandate to buy health insurance, nothing could stop Congress from passing laws requiring everyone to buy broccoli and to join a gym.”
“Please stop! The very fact that a slippery slope is being cited as grounds for declaring the law unconstitutional — despite that “significant deference” usually given to laws passed by Congress — tells you all that you need to know about the argument’s validity. Can anyone imagine Congress passing a broccoli mandate law, much less the court allowing it to take effect?”
These are excepts from Mr. Thaler’s article. His short column is well worth reading for his examples of the problem with “slippery-slope” logic. My piece though, is neither about health care, nor SCOTUS. I’d like to explore the question of the validity of “slippery-slope” arguments that have been commonly used in public discourse and whether we would be better off as a society if we ignored them. Continue reading “The Slippery Slope”
Many of us have long mocked the effort by members of Congress to curry favor with different groups by declaring every day to be observances for everything from National Pi Day to Education and Sharing Day to National Child’s Day (a May day not to be confused with Child Health Day in August). I recently cringed with the announcement of National Beverage Day. That’s right, not any particular beverage. Any beverage. Congress has gradually created a type of value ranking to deliver the goods for such groups. Some warrant only a day while some warrant a month like “National Safe Digging Month” while others get a whole year like “Year of Water.” Now, someone has bothered to track the costs of all of the pandering. In the 112th Congress alone, the Senate has passed or agreed to 318 simple resolutions and introduced over 100 more — costing taxpayers $381,600. This does not include staff time and other costs.
An attempted purse snatching of an 81-year-old women in a elevator would appear a rather everyday crime at a casino in Connecticut. However, the lawyer for Winston A. Riley, 27, says that his client lacked the requisite intent because he was sleepwalking when he allegedly brandished the knife and tried to pull away her purse at the Mohegan Sun casino.
New York police in Queens are investigating an allegation that a police officer struck a New York Supreme Court justice in the throat. State Supreme Court justice Thomas D. Raffaele, 69, says that he was moving some furniture from his parents’ home when he stopped to see why a crowd had formed on the street. The crowd was jeering an officer who was arresting a man and was being criticized for being too rough. Raffaele says the officer became irate and charged the hecklers — hitting people with his baton including the judge.
Continue reading “New York Officer Allegedly Attacks Jeering Crowd . . . Hit New York Judge”
An antiquated system and poor management in China may have created a potentially disastrous epidemic for the world: a drug-resistant form of tuberculosis. A combination of poor testing and treatment appears to have created both a multidrug-resistant or MDR tuberculosis. Of million TB patients, 110,000 now have MDR TB.
Continue reading “China Reports New Epidemic Of Drug-Resistant TB”
A disturbing lawsuit has been filed against the Baltimore County Police Department by Linda Johnson over the death of her husband, Architect Carl D. Johnson on May 27, 2010. Johnson was pepper sprayed, tasered, and beaten before his death on the way home from Bible study class.
In May 2009, a mentally disturbed man, James Bayliss, then 21, was beaten at a traffic stop in Warren County, New Jersey. While the family and other demanded answers, the police said little. Now, a long withheld police video has surfaced that shows troopers severely beating Bayliss who was thrown to the ground and pummeled by multiple officers. Critics are now demanding to know why the film was withheld and why the actions taken by the police was also withheld from the public.
Angel Dillard insists that she is merely a God-fearing woman doing the work of the Almighty. That is her defense after being sued after sending a threatening letter to Wichita doctor Dr. Mila Means. She insists that her threats were “divinely inspired” and thus protected by the first amendment.
In a letter sent last night, the Director of the Idaho State Liquor Division agreed to lift the ban on special orders of Five Wives Vodka after barring sales of the product by Ogden’s Own Distillery as offensive to Mormons. In the letter below, John Anderson apologizes for his past statements and those of his agency in an effort to avoid the litigation announced by my office earlier. We will be watching the reconsideration of the general listing application closely in July. We will keep the team intact during this period. In the meantime, bars in Idaho can order the product through special orders — an inconvenient but hopefully a temporary process.
Continue reading “Idaho Lifts Ban On Five Wives Vodka And Apologizes For Prior Statements”
For years, the United States has danced around the fact that it has repeatedly enter the sovereign territory of other countries with drone attacks and in some cases small unit attacks without the permission of countries like Pakistan. Such acts violate international law and would be viewed by the United States as an act of war if committed on U.S. territory. This week,Defense Secretary Leon Panetta finally responded directly to those objections and said that the attacks would continue unabated. Panetta essentially stated that we can invade other nations because we can and that countries will have to come to accept that — using the same concept as “floggings will continue on ship until morale improves.”
Continue reading “Panetta: The Drone Strikes Will Continue Until Morale Improves”
It is not clear which actress Amanda Bynes is in greater need of: basic driving or constitutional law lessons. After being arrested for drunk driving, Bynes took to Twitter to ask that President Barack Obama “fire the cop who arrested me.” While Obama may be willing to break away from an emerging civil war in Syria and a worsening economy to address the pressing problems of the starlet, he may find it difficult to fire the officer who is a state employee. However, according to the Justice Department, he does have the ability to declare the officer a threat to the nation and have him summarily executed. After all, if arresting a starlet is not an act of terrorism in our celebrity-driven society, I do not know what is.
Continue reading “Actress Asks Obama To Fire Officer Who Arrested Her For Alleged DUI Violation”
This morning, the Idaho Attorney General and Director of the Idaho State Liquor Division was informed that Ogden’s Own Distillery has retained my services to challenge the decision to block sales of “Five Wives Vodka” in Idaho. The businesses in Idaho were denied the right to “special order” the vodka because it was viewed as offensive to the large Mormon population in the state. The state also denied “general listing” to allow stores to sell the product. As on our other cases, I have to be circumspect on what I can say about the case in light of the pending litigation.
Continue reading “Utah Distillery To Challenge Idaho Ban On “Five Wives Vodka””
It is apparently not a good argument to compare contracting herpes to spilled coffee. It took just two hours for a jury to find a 69-year-old Oregon dentist liable for giving a nurse herpes. It was however the attorneys arguments in court that raises eyebrows. Defense attorney Shawn Lillegren attacked the nurse as a liar who said that she was just trying to be the next spilled coffee litigant to win the litigation lottery and that she needs to grow up. If so, she got it. The jury awarded her the full amount demanded in damages: $900,000 for her pain and suffering