This is the quintessential French story. Anyone who has gone to France knows that you can expect that someone will be striking and shutting down parts of Paris. However, the Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité (CRS) police force is taking a stand on a matter of French privilege — the right to drink while on duty. After all, if the French cannot have a glass of wine while fighting terror, the terrorists have won.
Category: Society
The consumption of dogs in China has long been a point of disgust with many Westerners. Animal rights activists have a particularly difficult time in China, but succeeded this week in forcing action to save hundreds of dogs being sent to a slaughterhouse in terrible conditions on a truck from Henan province.
Continue reading “Taking Dogs For a Wok: Chinese Animal Activists Stop Truck Load of Dogs Sent To Slaughterhouse”
Now that Georgetown’s Washington Harbor complex has dug out and dried out after the “Great Flood of 2011,” there remains the question of the liability of MRP Realty, the company responsible for raising the flood walls at the complex. The walls were not raised despite forecasts of flooding.
President Barack Obama has been unabashed in his close association with General Electric CEO Jeffrey R. Immelt, including naming him to head the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. Obama has continued to shower such honors and attention on Immelt despite the fact that GE has avoided paying ANY taxes. Indeed, GE has demanded a tax benefit of $3.2 billion. Now, GE has posted a 77% increase in profits while paying less taxes than any of its factory workers.
Continue reading “General Electric Profits Up 77% But Company Avoids Paying a Penny in Taxes”
We have another controversy over a police officer shooting a pet. Sherronda Aycox’s 8-month old blue pit bull Capone was killed in a hail of bullets that also hit vehicles and houses, including one house with a family inside. This is only the latest in a long list of such cases.
Continue reading “Camden Police Reportedly Fired Over 30 Rounds To Kill 8-Month-Old Puppy — Hitting Homes and Cars in Terrified Neighborhood”
It is time for another entry in the category Things That Tick Me Off where I vent against absurdities or abuses that I have personally witnessed. (It is remarkably therapeutic). This week’s winner is American Airlines. Months ago, Leslie and I set out to arrange for a trip that would use our carefully saved frequent flier miles to go to England and France with the four kids. It was the trip we had been planning for years once the kids were old enough to appreciate it and we saved over 700,000 miles to achieve the dream under American’s SkyMiles program. What followed as a nightmare in dealing with American, which seems to have made the “bait-and-switch” a structuring corporate principle.
Continue reading “Things That Tick Me Off: American Airlines”
There is a bizarre story out of Florida where officials at an unemployment agency reportedly spent $14,000 to give 6,000 superhero capes to the unemployed. It was part of its “Cape-A-Bility Challenge” featuring a cartoon character, “Dr. Evil Unemployment.”
President Barack Obama previously drew criticism for his embrace of the controversial Al Sharpton in his re-election effort despite Sharpton’s history of race-baiting and alleged corruption. As if to make clear that his prior appearances with Sharpton were not fleeting mistakes, Obama invited Sharpton to a high-profile meeting on immigration reform and White House officials have pushed him to the forefront of supporters for the President. Putting aside the lack of responsibility shown in embracing a character like Sharpton, I am mystified (again) by the lack of political judgment by Obama and his aides. The President is already facing record low polls which so him as an increasing polarizing figure in American politics. The solution? The White House found one of the most polarizing figures in politics to stand by his side.
Continue reading “Obama (Again) Turns To Al Sharpton in High-Profile Immigration Meeting”
Frank Niceley (R-Strawberry Plains, TN) is one of the politicians leading the effort to introduce creationism back into schools to rival the teaching of evolution. He may, however, need a bit more time in the classroom on his intellectual sources. As noted on sites like Think Progress, Niceley has confused Albert Einstein with Francis Bacon in his insistence that Einstein discredited atheism and said that a truly thinking man will turn to Christianity.
Oscar Wilde once said that a cynic is “a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.” Ohio Gov. John Kasich would appear to be that cynic. He believes that he has found an easy way to dealing with high tuition costs in college — cut the college education itself. In a move that would be a disaster for the quality and standing of Ohio universities and colleges, Kasich wants schools to reduce college educations to three rather than four years to pump out more graduates in a shorter time.
Jay Carney says President Obama was never against signing statements, just when President Bush “abused” them. In the press conference, Jay Carney seems to morph with John Kerry, who believed he had found safe political ground by noting that he voted for something before voting against it. For his part, Obama morphed into George W. Bush a while back on civil liberties and constitutional issues.
Continue reading “Carney: Obama Was For Signing Statements Before He Was Against Them”
A former soldier in England has been sentenced to 70 days in prison for burning a copy of the Koran (Qu’ran) in public. While a detestable act, the prosecution of individuals for the exercise of free speech is equally detestable and part of a growing trend of such prosecutions in the West under blasphemy or hate crime laws.
Continue reading “England Continues Crackdown on Anti-Religious Speech: Former British Soldier Sentenced To Jail For Burning Koran”
In a surprise move for many critics, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed the bill that would have required President Barack Obama and other presidential candidates to prove they were born in the United States before their names could have been placed on the state ballot. We previously discussed the bill and the serious constitutional questions that it raised. A former Secretary of State, Brewer objected to one state imposing such conditions on candidates.
Continue reading ““A Bridge Too Far”: Gov. Brewer Vetoes Birther Bill”
An Oregon audience at open mic night were shocked after applauding what they thought was performance art of a teen pretending to kill himself at the Strictly Organic Coffee Company. It was not a performance, but a suicide. After playing a song called “Sorry For All The Mess,” Kipp Rusty Walker repeatedly stabbed himself in the chest with a six-inch knife.
Continue reading ““Sorry For All The Mess”: Oregon Audience Applauds As Teen Commits Suicide In Mistaken Belief It Was Performance Art”
U.S. Ambassador and former law professor, Douglas Kmiec, has stepped down after a State Department report criticized him for spending too much time writing and speaking about his religious beliefs. Kmiec (who I know and personally like) is a conservative who supported Obama in the election and was rewarded with the position. The report stated that Kmiec spent too much time writing and speaking about abortion and too little in being an ambassador. Kmiec’s appointment occurred at a time when Obama was turning away from growing criticism by liberals — a trend that has only increased with time. Kmiec was a law professor at Pepperdine University and legal counsel to President Reagan and George H.W. Bush.