Iranian “courts” have continued their attack on the rule of law by ordering the jailing of leading human rights attorney Mohammad Ali Dadkhah. Dadkhah has shown great courage in representing dissidents, including Youcef Nadarkhani, the Iranian pastor charged with apostasy and sentenced to death for leaving Islam and converting to Christianity. Dahkhah was actually in court defending an individual when the judge announced his own sentence to nine years in prison.
Category: Society
We previously discussed the controversy over the University of North Dakota’s Fighting Sioux nickname. The NCAA has banned the use of such tribal names and members of the Spirit Lake Sioux tribe and Standing Rock Sioux sued to try to restore the use of the name — something they find not insulting but complimentary to their tribe. I have been critical of the NCAA rule. A federal court has now thrown out the lawsuit over the use of the team’s name over standing.
We are now just 24 hours away from the greatest contest known in the Western jurisprudential world. On Friday, I will lead four brave torts students to a Virginia paintball field where we will battle Professor Gregory Maggs and four contracts students. Professor Maggs and I auctioned off the opportunity in the George Washington Law School public interest auction — raising almost $3000 to support public interest work by our students. Of course, that worthy purpose pales in comparison with the final showdown between contracts and torts.
Continue reading “Introducing The 2012 Torts Paintball Team”
You know those nut jobs in Times Square proclaiming the end of the world is coming? It appears they have company. A lot of company. According to a worldwide polls, nearly 15 percent of people believe the world will end during their lifetime while 10 percent believe that the Mayan calendar shows that it will end in 2012. Once again, I will simply note that sea otters appear far more advanced than humans in every meaningful way.
It appears that Congress is not the only branch with falling poll numbers. According to Pew Research Center, the Supreme Court now is viewed favorable by just roughly 50 percent of the public.
Continue reading “Supreme Court Hits Lowest Favorability Numbers In 25 Years”
North Carolina pastor Sean Harris is being featured on many gay rights blogs this week due to his lesson on parenting to his congregation, including his advice that parents should punch and slap the gay out of children.
Continue reading “Parenting 101 With Pastor Harris: Slap The Gay Out Of Your Children”
Well, at least China expects someone to apologize . . . just not itself. After keeping a blind Chinese legal activist in continual house arrest and denying him access to the outside world, China has demanded that the United States apologize for allowing him to enter its embassy after his inspiring escape. In the meantime, it has rounded up every Chinese person believed to have helped Chen Guangcheng. Chen has been allowed to go to the hospital and is expected to return home and presumably to his caged existence.
Recently, I have been seeing more commercials for Christian dating. We have previously discussed new dating companies offering racially correct matches and the implications of such trends. However, ChristianMingle.com raises an interesting legal question in telling subscribers that they can “find God’s Match for You.” When does such an appeal to consumers become deceptive advertising as opposed to hyperbole?
Dr. Terry Jones is back with his lighter fluid and Korans. In what he called a worldwide campaign of Koran burning, Jones torched the Islamic holy book and a picture of Muhammad in the name of fighting religious intolerance. He and his supporters claim that they are only trying to help Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani who was convicted of apostasy in Iran, a case that we have been following. Of course, the action will only harden the demand to put Youcef Nadarkhani to death by irate Muslims in Iran and other countries. But, few people believe that Youcef Nadarkhani is anything more than an excuse to engage in such hateful demonstrations.
We previously discussed the unease that many of us felt with the celebrations that occurred over the killing of Bin Laden and the later use of the killing to bolster the Obama campaign. This discomfort increased recently with an Obama commercial that unfairly suggested that Governor Mitt Romney would not have ordered the operation to go forward. Just in case anyone thought that was a tasteless and baseless campaign pitch by an overzealous Obama aide, the President himself just reaffirmed that message in a press conference with the Prime Minister of Japan this afternoon. It appears that, while the Administration will again bar the release of photos to the media and the public of the operation, they are eager to drag the body of Bin Laden behind the presidential limo to every possible campaign stop.
Dr. Anna Mackowiak is being accused of a horrific act of vengeance against her ex-boyfriend, Marek Olszewski. The Polish dentist had agreed to treat Olszewski for a toothache despite their breakup just days after they broke up. After being given a high dose of anaesthetic, Mackowiak ripped out every tooth in Olszewski’s mouth. It must be welcomed news for Dr. W.B. Galbreath that there is some other dentist who looks worse today.
Continue reading “Dentist Under Investigation After Removing Every Tooth From Mouth Of Ex-Boyfriend”
Dr. Arnold Smith, 70, an oncologist, has been arrested in a bizarre alleged conspiracy to kill the lawyer, Lee Abraham, who represented his ex-wife in their divorce in the 1990s. What is amazing is how the hit men were stopped in the act by two investigators visiting the lawyer at the most opportune time.
Continue reading “Mississippi Doctor Arrested For Allegedly Hiring Hit Men To Kill Lawyer”
The video below shows two bicyclists who were struck by a car in Berkeley, California — victims of a hit and run. That would normally be the end of it except that one of the bicyclists had a bike-mounted camera and put the video on YouTube. Later police identified the Black Acura Integra of suspect Michael Medaglia, who was arrested.
Continue reading “Bike-Mounted Video Camera Leads To Arrest of Hit And Run Suspect”
On our blog, we have all been enriched by the commentary and insights of Larry Rafferty. Larry is an attorney from Chicago and, despite being a White Sox fan, I asked Larry to be one of our weekend bloggers after reading his uniformly civil and insightful thoughts on legal and political issues. I was not aware until recently about Larry’s father and his disappearance after World War II. Last week, the Chicago Tribune ran a story about Larry’s father, Air Force Capt. Lawrence Rafferty, who was buried at Arlington this year. Mark Esposito and his wife were in attendance representing our community with the Rafferty family and friends. Larry’s mother, Frances, 89, (shown below) was present to see her husband given the honor that he so richly deserved. Captain Rafferty now has a place with other American heroes at Arlington and I wanted to share his incredible story with members of our blog.
Continue reading “In Memory of Captain Lawrence E. Rafferty — American Hero”
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
On September 16, 1962 Edward R. Murrow, who was the greatest TV Journalist and a particular hero of mine http://www.museum.tv/eotvsection.php?entrycode=murrowedwar, premiered the opening of Public Television on Channel 13 in New York City. You can watch that very short broadcast in this link so you can understand the mission of this station at its beginnings: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gr-QxU1Sz0
At the age of 17, I watched Mr. Murrow enthralled as he laid out the defined purpose of this station, which was to provide educational, non-commercial television, that would innovate new programming to educate/inform and amuse its’ listeners. This opening occurred two weeks after the death of my mother. My father (who would die a year later) and I watched this show together, bonded by the sorrow we shared and by the fact that Ed Murrow had been someone whose news shows we three had watched together for a decade. Given that he was a ninth grade dropout, my father was a man of intellectual depth who read Camus, Sartre and was a devotee of avante garde cinema. He passed his tastes on to me. So for us, this was a momentous event, given the inanity that characterized much of commercial TV with its’ intellectual paucity. This beginning initiated an emotional link with me to the concept of public TV that has lasted ever since.
In the years that followed Channel 13 would become an anchoring member of the Public Broadcasting System. I was a dedicated viewer and modest financial contributor via yearly membership. I could go into a litany of the presentations that informed me, moved me and entertained me through the years, but that is not my purpose here. Somewhere along the way from the beginning of non-commercial television until today, I became skeptical about contributing to it, while still availing myself of it’s’ services. I write about why this skepticism developed and why it remains. Continue reading “PBS: Why I Watch, But Don’t Contribute”