Category: Society

Bizarre, Criminal law, Justice, Society

Holiday Gift For The Assassin With Everything: Oswald’s Coffin At Auction

Sometimes a story just makes you put down the newspaper, take a deep breath, and scream. The Warren Commission’s man-you-love-to-hate, JFK assassin, and subject of all manner of conspiracy theories, Lee Harvey Oswald, is the gift that keeps on re-gifting.  A LA auction house has the badly damaged  pine box, sans body of course, on the block. The coffin was exhumed by Oswald’s widow, Marina, to test yet another conspiracy theory that a body double was actually in the box and not the man with the magic bullet. No dice. The body was that of  Oswald.

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Bizarre, Constitutional Law, Politics, Society

Christmas Klansman: Does an Idaho Man Have The Right To A Hateful Noose-Dangling Snowman?

In Hayden, Idaho, one family has a unique way of spreading the holiday cheer . . . or fear. A family has displayed a Klansman snowman with a dangling noose in front of their home and neighbors are calling for action to remove the offensive display.

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Congress, Constitutional Law, Criminal law, International, Politics, Society

Is the United States Engaging In Unlawful Cyber Attacks Against Carriers of Wikileaks?

A day after Amazon was forced to block Wikileaks, the site is again offline in an alleged campaign by the United States to prevent the public from seeing the whistleblower material. This includes a disclosure, discussed last night on Countdown, that the Obama Administration has been misleading the public and actually moved to force Spain to drop its prosecution of American officials for war crimes and torture.
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Bizarre, Criminal law, Society, Torts

Mother Arrested After Funeral For Daughter Whom She Falsely Claimed Was Raped and Murdered

In Indiana, Angela J. Boyd, 38, was in the midst of a moving eulogy at her daughter’s funeral when it was interrupted by her brother in a truly soap-opera moment. The brother stood up to say that his 15-year-old niece was very much alive.
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Congress, Constitutional Law, Criminal law, International, Media, Religion, Society

Amazon Facing Growing Calls For Boycott After Cutting Off Wikileaks

Joe Lieberman, chairman of the senate homeland security committee, may be delighted with Amazon for cutting off access for Wikileaks, but its customers are not. There are growing calls for a boycott of the company — particularly as a review of the Wikileaks material has disclosed important information such as the efforts of the Obama Administration to block investigations into torture.
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Criminal law, International, Justice, Lawyering, Politics, Society

Wikileaks: Obama Administration Secretly Worked To Prevent Prosecution of War Crimes By The Bush Administration

One of the little reported details from the latest batch of Wikileaks material are cables showing that the Obama Administration worked hard behind the scenes not only to prevent any investigation of torture in the United States but shutdown efforts abroad to enforce the Geneva Conventions and the Convention Against Torture. This includes threatening the Spanish that, if they did not derail a judicial investigation, it would have serious consequences in bilateral relations. I discussed these cables on Countdown.
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Bizarre, International, Politics, Society, Things That Tick Me Off

Things That Tick Me Off: Versailles

It is time for another entry in the series “Things That Tick Me Off” where I mindless vent my anger or frustration in a theraputic rage. The winner this time is Versailles and its director, Jean-Jacques Aillagon. I recently visited Versailles for the first time and was shocked to find that the director had placed the art of Takashi Murakami through the palace. I will not hide my general dislike of Murakami’s art which seems a mix of Disney and Pez art, but the placement of the large pieces entirely destroyed the historical context and experience for visitors at Versailles.
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Bizarre, Courts, Lawyering, Media, Society

U.S. Copyright Group Sues Attorney Who Published Self-Help Guide For Laypersons Defending Themselves in Copyright Cases

The U.S. Copyright Group has long been criticized for its tactics in pursuing people for copyright infringement of movies or music. Critics charge that USCG coerces people to settle for thousands of dollars to avoid high litigation costs and penalties. USCG sues thousands of people in a given year to force such settlements in what is legitimately described as a factory operation by Dunlap, Grubb and Weaver. One attorney, Graham Syfert, says he tried to even the playing field by publishing a “self-help” guide on how laypersons can fight USCG. The attorneys at USCG reportedly responded by suing Syfert.

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Bizarre, Criminal law, Society

Louisiana Man Sentenced To Five Years in Jail For Beating Calf To Death To Vent After Loss of Saints to Cowboys

David J. LeBlanc Jr. will be going to jail for five years for a horrific crime of beating a newborn calf to death in front of friends after the New Orleans Saints lost to the Dallas Cowboys last season. Also convicted in the case were Dwayne J. Jenkins, 36, Christopher R. Murphy, 27 and Carnie B. Smith, 29. Smith stole the calf to be beated to death by LeBlanc.

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Bizarre, Criminal law, Politics, Society

San Francisco Passes Law Criminalizing Sitting or Lying on Public Streets

Recently, we have following laws targeting homeless persons — laws that could apply to a wide range of conduct but enforced only against this one group. San Francisco has now joined this group with a law barring people from sitting or lying on public sidewalks from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. This is why the two men on the San Francisco seal are shown standing. There were three but one made the mistake of sitting down.
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Academia, Bizarre, Society

Not Coming Soon To An Episode on Sarah Palin’s Alaska

We usually do not track the latest STD data, but this one is quite remarkable. Alaskan officials are reporting a 69 percent increase in gonorrhea in just one year — 2008 to 2009. This is one area where viewers might not want to “follow me there” to Alaska, as touted on the Sarah Palin’s Alaska.
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Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, Media, Politics, Society

D.C. Council Unanimously Criminalizes Wearing Masks During Residential Protests Over Objections of Civil Libertarians

The D.C. Council has unanimously approved a law that makes it a crime to wear a mask while protesting outside of a resident. This bizarre law was passed because animal rights activists have been protesting outside of residences in Washington. The problem is that the law could be used to curtail free speech and gives the police another arbitrary basis to arrest protesters.
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