The Obama Administration has again yielded to a powerful lobby over objections from citizen groups. We have been following the increasing draconian and excessive copyright claims made in the United States. Now, President Obama wants to make it a crime — a change long sought by the Chamber of Commerce and so-called “copyright hawks.”
Continue reading “Obama Yields To “Copyright Hawks” and Lobbyists To Seek Criminalization of Copyright Violations”
Category: Society
We have been following the trend toward using criminal penalties to handle pranks and simple misconduct by students in our schools. Now, three high school students in New Jersey are facing criminal charges for a simple senior prank of releasing chickens at the school. They may also be barred from graduation. It is part of the criminalization of our society where we are turning our children into little felons because school officials blindly call police at every little infraction.
Continue reading “Fowl Play: New Jersey Teens Criminally Charged With School Prank”
This red Tibetan mastiff is quite a looker but the question is whether it is a $1.5 million looker. Big Splash (or Hong Dong in Chinese) was purchased by a Chinese coal baron for 10 million Chinese yuan.
Continue reading “Meet Big Splash — The World’s Most Expensive Dog”
Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all of the leprechauns of the blog from the Turley Clan.
Continue reading “HAPPY ST. PATRICK’S DAY”
A judge in Minnesota has handed down a controversial verdict of guilty in the case of former nurse, William Melchert-Dinkel, 48, who encouraged people to commit suicide online. Civil libertarians and right-to-die advocates have criticized the prosecution as an assault on free speech. I share those concerns and believe that there is a strong basis for appeal in this case.
Continue reading “Minnesota Court Rules Against Ex-Nurse in Assisted Suicide Case”
Iowa lawmakers have introduced two bills (SF 341 and HF 431) that would make it a crime for activists to procure evidence of animal abuse by factory operations. Many of the past disclosures of abuse by circuses and industry have been the result of activists gaining access to factory operations through employment (as here). This law would specifically target such investigations to protect these companies.
As entrance in top schools has become more and more competitive, parents are becoming more aggressive in seeking to guarantee every advantage for their children. In the case of Nicole Imprescia, this means going to court to sue a school over its failure to prepare her daughter for the Ivy League. Her daughter, Lucia, is four. The school is the York Avenue Preschool. It seems that there are “Tiger Moms” but then there are “Tiffany Moms.”
Alexandra Wallace has caused a firestorm of controversy and recrimination after she posted a Youtube video denouncing “Asians in the library.” The original video is below. The tirade attacks Asian students for talking on cellphones and even having their elderly parents show up on weekends to do their clothes and cook their food. The question is whether Wallace should be punished by UCLA, which is looking into the matter.
Continue reading “UCLA Students Triggers Firestorm With Anti-Asian Video”
In a little discussed release, National Public Radio has identified some alarming edits in the video footage released by James O’Keefe III — purportedly capturing NPR officials slamming conservatives and seemingly agreeing with radical Islamic funders. The analysis linked here shows a series of edits that produce a highly distorted picture, including the removal of statements defending conservatives and expressly warning that NPR’s coverage could never be influenced by financial support.
Continue reading “NPR Fires Back: Analysis of O’Keefe Video Shows Highly Distorting Edits”
The Obama Administration has finally responded to the international outcry over the abuse of Bradley Manning. After State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley acknowledged the abuse, the Administration fired him with the apparent approval of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Now, everyone is in agreement: there is no problem in how Bradley Manning is being abused. That is particularly the case with former White House aide Mike Hammer who will replace Crowley. There’s a nice way to start a job — the replacement for the guy who dared to admit concerns over a human rights case.
There is a controversy in Dayton over the decision of the police department to lower its testing standards under pressure from the Obama Administration to allow for more minority officers.
Even those people used to the unhinged diatribes of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were left in stunned silence when he denounced the use of force against demonstrators in Libya as “grotesque” — adding “it is unimaginable that there is someone who kills and bombards his own people.” Now, in addition to Iran’s shooting and killing protesters, the International Campaign for Human Rights says that the Iranian government is trucking in children between 14 and 16 to beat protesters in violation of international law.
Continue reading “Iran Reportedly Recruits Children To Beat Protesters in Tehran”
We have all been watching the Japanese reactors closely after the reported cooling failures and risk of meltdown.This short video concerns the prior disaster at Chernobyl and the last film of Vladimir Shevchenko. He died from his exposure to the site.
Continue reading “The Chernobyl Disaster and The Last Film of Vladimir Shevchenko”
Submitted By Lawrence Rafferty, (rafflaw), Guest Blogger
I actually thought that I had misread the article when I first read it. It described the horrific gang rape of an 11-year-old in the Texas town of Cleveland. Eighteen young men and teenagers have been charged with the rape that is alleged to have started in a house and eventually moved to a deserted trailer nearby. I am sure that this kind of vicious crime occurs all too often in our country, but there is one thing that makes this crime a little different. Many of the townspeople are blaming the eleven year old girl for her own gang rape! Continue reading “In One Texas Town, There is No Such Thing as Rape!”
Canadians are debating where to draw the line between rough sports and criminal conduct after Montreal Canadiens forward Max Pacioretty (left) was hospitalized due to a bodycheck by Boston Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara (right).
Continue reading “Hockey Injury in Canadians-Bruins Game Raises Calls For Criminal or Disciplinary Action Against Bruin Zdeno Chara”