We have yet another case of an officer threatening to arrest a citizen for filming him in public. In the perfect libertarian nightmare, the officer was threatening a Ron Paul supporter who he had accused of distracting traffic with his sign in Exton, Pennsylvania.
Continue reading “Pennsylvania Officer Threatens Ron Paul Supporter With Arrest for Filming Him in Public”
Category: Society
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
Republicans want to raise taxes on the poor to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy. CEOs are using taxpayer funded bailouts to rake in obscene salaries and bonuses. The wealthy fund play-for-pay think tanks that spit out position papers that support their benefactors’ desire to get wealthier. Certain media enterprises push messages such as corporate tax holidays and corporate deregulation that enhance the wealth of the few at the expense of the many.
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
In the Hasidic neighborhood of South Williamsburg in Brooklyn, New York, persons unknown has been putting up signs in Yiddish that translate to: “Precious Jewish daughter, please move to the side when a man approaches.” City workers have removed the signs, not based on the message but because it’s illegal to affix signs on street trees.
Rep. Brad Drake (R., Eucheeanna) wants to put the pain back into executions. The Florida Republican has filed a bill to require the use of electrocution or firing squads to execute people — saying that lethal injection is simply too easy a way out for convicted murderers.
Continue reading “The Politics of Pain: Florida Legislator Seeks To Bring Back Electric Chairs and Firing Squads For Executions”
As I and others were celebrating last night at the home of Irish Ambassador Michael Collins, there was one Irish lawyer who could not attend: Pat Finucane. Finucane was gunned down in front of his wife and three children in a savage murder in in Belfast in 1989. His family was crushed this week in a meeting with British Prime Minister David Cameron when he told them that he was blocking a public inquiry into the death — linked to a police informant. Instead, Cameron said he would ask a lawyer to look into the matter.
Continue reading “PM Cameron Blocks Inquiry Into Killing of Irish Lawyer Pat Finucane”
The annual selection of the Top 100 Irish Lawyers in the World has been released by The Irish Voice and I am honored to be included again among the honorees this year. Last night, I received the award with fellow honorees from around the world at the residence of the Irish Ambassador, Michael Collins and his wife Marie. Despite a downpour that left some of us dripping like we had just swum across the River Shannon, Collins greeted us with a towel and a warm welcome. He is a great credit to Ireland and turned out his home to lawyers from around the world for the evening.
We may be watching civil liberties and federal programs fall like leaves in Montpelier, but Senator Patrick Leahy (D, Vt.) is moving aggressively to address the need for yet another federal crime . . . the crime mislabeling products as containing maple syrup. That’s right, despite criticism of the over-criminalization of America (here and here and here), we need to add a federal law on maple syrup mobsters.
Continue reading “Ending Molasses Mayhem: Leahy Moves To Make False Labeling of Maple Syrup A Crime”
We have yet another grotesque pension story involving a city struggling with financial woes. This one is out of my home town of Chicago. Charles LoVerde III, a former trustee of the city laborers’ pension fund, will receive three pensions for the same time period totaling nearly $500,000 a year — that’s right, three pensions for the period. The triple crown of pensions was also won by union official, Liberato “Al” Naimoli, would will receive $438,000 a year. Since he is only 59 years old, he stands to rake in at least $9 million over his expected lifetime.
Continue reading “Pension Trifecta Winners: Chicago Labor Officials Set To Receive Pensions As High As $500,000 a Year in “Charitable Interpretation” of State Law”
. Joseph Sun, the actor who played Random Task in the first Austin Powers film, Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery, has outdone himself. Serving for life for one felony count of torture, Sun is now accused of murdering his prison cellmate, a sex offender at the Wasco State Prison.
Continue reading “Random Task: Austin Powers Actor Charged With Murder of Cellmate”
Why does this sign seem to capture the current state of American politics?
Continue reading “End of the Road?”
A Georgia teacher, Ashley Payne, has lost her lawsuit seeking damages after she said she was forced out due to a Facebook picture taken of her drinking in Europe. A teacher or parent had filed an anonymous complaint against Payne for photos showing her holding drinks in Europe — not normally a shocking image.
Continue reading “Georgia Court Rules Against Teacher Who Lost Job After Posting Facebook Pictures Drinking in Europe”
This is an amazing video that one of our regular readers sent to me. It shows a boy falling from a high escalator only to be caught by a passing man in what could have been a crippling or fatal fall.
Continue reading “Video: Man Catches Boy In Fall From Escalator”
Florida Governor Rick Scott is messing with the wrong people. Recently, Scott used anthropologists as an example of the type of degree that the state could do without. Anthropologists have reacted across the country, suggesting that Scott should be re-classified as a Homo Moronus. I would be careful before you tick off people (in the case of forensic anthropologists) who dig up bodies for a living. In the academy, we have long viewed our anthropologist colleagues with a certain fear and intimidation. When you confront one of these guys at a faculty senate meeting, they make it clear that there are “a lot of still active tar pits around the country where mammals can disappear for thousands of years.” When a critic for another department disappears, they just shrug and say, “Louie, is sleeping with the aquatic vertebrate.”
Continue reading “Florida Governor Campaigns Against . . . Anthropologists”
As complaints rise over mass arrests by Boston police in the Occupy Boston protests, Mayor Thomas Menino decided to add a rather draconian note by announcing ” “Civil disobedience will not be tolerated.” It was a moment reminiscent of former Chicago Mayor Richard Daley announcing in the 1968 Democratic Convention protests that “the policeman isn’t there to create disorder; the policeman is there to preserve disorder.”
Continue reading “Boston Mayor: Civil Disobedience Will Not Be Tolerated”
You know the economy is in a free fall when repo men are taking away city property for failing to make their bills. That was the scene this week when DTE Energy officials ordered the repossession of street lights from the city of Highland Park due to overdue bills.
Continue reading “City Lights Repossessed For Failure To Pay Utility Bills”