Category: Things That Tick Me Off

Bizarre, Society, Things That Tick Me Off

“Right To Life” Claims 16-Year-Old Victim

By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger

Rosa Hernandez

The Dominican Republic’s church-inspired ban on all abortions has cost the life of a pregnant 16-year-old according to her mother, Rosa Hernandez. The teen, who suffered from leukemia, was unable to undergo life-saving chemotherapy until it was too late. The DR’s ban prevented a therapeutic abortion of the 13 week fetus as doctors were unwilling to make an exception.

A blood transfusion on Thursday was unsuccessful, and the postponed chemotherapy was likewise ineffective. The teen miscarried on Friday but died from complications including cardiac arrest.

Continue reading ““Right To Life” Claims 16-Year-Old Victim” →

Society, Things That Tick Me Off

Things That Tick Me Off: Breezewood, Pa.

We returned from Chicago last night after a wonderful visit to my home town to celebrate my mother’s 85th birthday. On the way back, I found another entry in my list of “things that tick me off” – list of those things everything in life that I find extraordinary frustrating or moronic. I created this list as a cathartic exercise to keep me from spontaneous explosions or psychotic episodes. When I encounter something like this, I simply say “I’ll add it to the list.” This week’s addition is Breezewood, Pennsylvania.

Continue reading “Things That Tick Me Off: Breezewood, Pa.” →

Congress, Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, Justice, Military, Politics, Society, Things That Tick Me Off

Just Who Gains From Voter ID Laws?

Respectfully submitted by Lawrence Rafferty (rafflaw)- Guest Blogger

It seems that almost everywhere you look, some State is trying to reduce the number of early voting days, purging the voting rolls and making it harder for citizens to cast their votes.  The State of Florida has recently attempted to remove legitimate voters off its voter rolls and the State of Georgia recently attempted to restrict the time when a military absentee ballot can be counted as I wrote about earlier on this blog. Georgia  Now, we have some hard evidence of just who is getting removed or impacted by the various State’s attempts to cure the imagined Voter fraud problem! Continue reading “Just Who Gains From Voter ID Laws?” →

Academia, Bizarre, Justice, Lawyering, Society, Things That Tick Me Off

Down In The Valley V: Spanier’s Culture of Secrecy And Penn State’s Other Ignored Child Sexual Abuse Scandal

By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger

Author note: This is the fifth in a series about the child sexual abuse scandal at The Pennsylvania State University that helped bring down iconic football coach Joe Paterno and three top officials at the premier public college in Pennsylvania.  

The Magician

Penn State’s ousted president and amateur magician, Graham Spanier, enjoyed a well-deserved reputation for secrecy while leading the state’s flagship public university. In one instance, Spanier became incensed when he learned that the Harrisburg Patriot-News had obtained the salaries of the top PSU officials —  including Joe Paterno  — from the state pension board.  (Paterno had consistently made mention of the fact that he received around $500,000 per year as a coach, donating much of it back to PSU. Many prominent FBS football coaches make up to ten times that amount and it appears Paterno was fudging a bit on his salary.) Spanier embarked on a five-year fight to block publication of the salaries, taking the case through the entire appeals process and up to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Spanier lost at every level. Undaunted and against the odds, he successfully lobbied Pennsylvania state lawmakers to reject closing the loophole which exempted college employees salaries from the state’s “right-to-know” law. With that legislative prestidigitation, he just made the problem disappear.

Continue reading “Down In The Valley V: Spanier’s Culture of Secrecy And Penn State’s Other Ignored Child Sexual Abuse Scandal” →

Justice, Society, Things That Tick Me Off

Down In The Valley IV: King Football

By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger

Around the mid 19th Century, Southern separatists coined a name for the commodity that guaranteed their region’s prosperity and defiantly signaled their immunity from the control of the despised central government controlled by Northern industrialists – “King Cotton.” “King Cotton” became a reason and a battle cry, emboldening the separatists to strike out at Fort Sumter against perceived injustices. The slogan served as a wedge between two regions whose cooperation just two generations earlier had forged a new nation. King Cotton was deposed at Appomattox Courthouse in 1865 and the country was spared his influence for the time being.

A new king arose on those same Southern cotton fields,  now perfectly re-invented as measured, marked, and manicured line-bound rectangles with iron posts commemorating each end.   King Cotton was replaced in the Southern psyche with a sport borrowed from the ivy-covered walls of the Northeast colleges. In places like  Tuscaloosa and Baton Rouge and Knoxville and Athens, a new king was born, and his open-air castles holding 75,000+ subjects spread through the “fly-over states,” into towns with funny names, and even to the tiny central Pennsylvania town of State College. King Football reigns supreme in the minds of  many today — it’s the nation’s most popular and lucrative sport, if combined with the professional ranks, or merely in second place if you’re talking about the game played on the campuses.

Continue reading “Down In The Valley IV: King Football” →

Bizarre, Criminal law, Justice, Things That Tick Me Off

Down In The Valley III: Justice Is Mine (Updated)

By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger

One of the most enduring questions of the child rape scandal  at Penn State is what role did head football coach Joe Paterno play in the decision to grant his ex-right-hand man, Jerry Sandusky, carte blanche to prey on children. In a statement immediately after the scandal broke last November, Joe Paterno claimed that he reported what little he knew, did what he could, and that he wasn’t fully aware of the gruesome particulars:

Continue reading “Down In The Valley III: Justice Is Mine (Updated)” →

Academia, Criminal law, Justice, Society, Things That Tick Me Off

Down In The Valley II: What Did They Know And When Did They Know It?

By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger

The conviction of former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky on 45 counts of child molestation and abuse seemed like the worst storm residents of Happy Valley could have endured. Now it seems that was just the opening gust of the hurricane. A series of emails recently turned over to investigators from a secret file in AD Tim Curley’s office suggests that university president, Graham Spanier, was more involved in the cover-up that previously thought and that former PSU head coach, Joe Paterno, was just as involved as many of us thought. Just 16 days after grad student, Mike McQueary, walked into the showers at the Penn State’s football temple athletic facility to find Sandusky behind a ten-year-old making “slapping noises,” an email issued from university vice president, Gary Shultz, to Spanier setting forth the agreement to report Sandusky’s actions. On February 26, 2001, Shultz wrote the three-part plan was to “talk with the subject [Sandusky]… contact the charitable organization [Second Mile]… and contacting the Department of Welfare.” In Pennsylvania, the Department of Welfare is required to investigate all allegations of child abuse. It works hand-in-glove with the law that requires educators and those working with children to report allegations of child abuse.

Continue reading “Down In The Valley II: What Did They Know And When Did They Know It?” →

Congress, Constitutional Law, Courts, International, Justice, Military, Politics, Things That Tick Me Off

Georgia On My Mind

Respectfully submitted by Lawrence Rafferty (rafflaw)- Guest Blogger

With apologies to the writers of the famous song by the same title, I came across a small news item that didn’t make the big headlines this past week.  Our friends in Georgia just don’t seem to get the idea that their citizen soldiers deserve the same right to vote that on military members enjoy.  In the upcoming primary elections and general election cycle, Georgia has violated the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) by not providing military members the minimum amount of time between elections in order to assure that their absentee ballots arrive in time to actually be counted in the respective elections.  At least the Justice Department thinks Georgia does not have the military on its mind! Continue reading “Georgia On My Mind” →

Free Speech, Religion, Society, Things That Tick Me Off

The Vatican Goes to War Against the Nuns over the “M” Word

Respectfully submitted by Lawrence Rafferty (rafflaw)-Guest Blogger

We have discussed the alleged War on Women in past blog articles here on Prof. Turley’s blog, as well as the Roman Catholic Church’s attempts to silence the Nuns over their support of Obamacare.  The Vatican is now battling the good Sisters over the alleged evilness of Masturbation!  The Vatican’s watchdog office called “The Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith” has come out against a book written by Sister Margaret Farley’s  in 2006 titled, Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics, because, among other evil statements,  the female author states that masturbation never hurt anyone.  Such heresy! Continue reading “The Vatican Goes to War Against the Nuns over the “M” Word” →

Things That Tick Me Off

Things That Tick Me Off: Water Billboards

It is time for another addition of “Things That Tick Me Off”– the category that allows me to regain my composure by venting at annoying things in life. (It is far cheaper than therapy). This week’s winner is water billboards. I am in Ocean City, Maryland to speak on the Supreme Court as part of the Maryland State Bar Association‘s annual meeting. The conference is being held at the Clarion Resort on the beach. I arrive last night and took the kids to the beach. It was an amazing scene with huge waves and blue skies. As we took in the beauty, we were suddenly on confronted by a massive water billboard that moves slowly across the beach front, blocking the view and destroying the enjoyment of the beach. I must confess that this is the first time I have seen one of these monstrosities up close and I was appalled.

Continue reading “Things That Tick Me Off: Water Billboards” →

Bizarre, Constitutional Law, Free Speech, Media, Religion, Things That Tick Me Off

Free Speech Versus Facts

Respectfully submitted by Lawrence Rafferty (rafflaw)-Guest Blogger

I am sure you have all seen the comments and political advertisements and articles calling President Obama a Communist, a Socialist, a Kenyan citizen and various attempts to claim that he is a secret Muslim. I had thought I had seen them all when I came across the latest affront to reality.  A Gannet newspaper in Louisiana has agreed to run an “interesting” advertisement from an organization calling itself the SOAR Project.  SOAR stands for Save Our American Republic.

In my humble opinion, this advertisement goes far beyond any level of reasonableness when it leads with the question, “Will Obama and the Democrats Shoot Catholics and Christians “?  Continue reading “Free Speech Versus Facts” →

Free Speech, Justice, Religion, Things That Tick Me Off

American Nuns Reprimanded For “Radical Feminism” By Vatican

By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger

Well, Sally Field must be aghast. How could even her bird’s-eye view have predicted the over the top report from the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith? Once the province of current Pope Benedict, the watchdog of orthodoxy that took such a hands-off approach to the child sexual molestation within the priesthood, has issued a stinging reprimand to all American nuns for “certain radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith.”

Headed by American Cardinal William Levada, the crowd that  gave us the Inquisition and who tried Galileo,  has ordered a crackdown on all U.S. nuns.  Overseen by three middle-aged white men American bishops, the Vatican wants the good sisters to toe the Vatican’s increasingly fundamentalist line. And what was the doctrinal crime that got the nuns in trouble? Why, their apparent heretical support for such outlandish positions  as supporting universal health care under Obama’s plan, sensitivity to marriage rights for gays, and –God forbid it — advocating females for admission to the priesthood. They are even under scrutiny for praying for Girl Scouts.

Continue reading “American Nuns Reprimanded For “Radical Feminism” By Vatican” →

Free Speech, Justice, Media, Politics, Society, Supreme Court, Things That Tick Me Off

The Clout of the Chicago Cubs

Respectfully submitted by Lawrence Rafferty (rafflaw)-Guest Blogger

As a die-hard White Sox fan (sorry Professor Turley!), it was nice to see the White Sox beat the Cubs in the first two games of the 3 game series at Wrigley Field.  Now, I am not writing this article to rub Cub fan’s noses in it, but rather to discuss one of the Cub’s owners Super Pac political activities and the Cubs ownership that is looking for corporate welfare to help renovate venerable Wrigley Field.  I understand that many ball parks are subsidized by the voters, including beautiful Cellular Field on the South Side of Chicago.  However, there is a big difference in what the Cubs organization wants to do and how they are going about it. Continue reading “The Clout of the Chicago Cubs” →

Congress, Constitutional Law, Courts, Justice, Lawyering, Politics, Society, Supreme Court, Things That Tick Me Off

Shame on Yoo

Respectfully submitted by Lawrence Rafferty (rafflaw)-Guest Blogger

We haven’t heard his name for quite some time now, but former Bush-era Office of Legal Counsel attorney, John Yoo is in the news again.  The United States 9th Circuit Court of Appeals threw out an appeal by convicted terrorist, Jose Padilla attempting to hold Yoo liable for the torture used on Padilla while in U.S. detention centers.

Believe it or not, the Justices stated that the law on what constituted torture was not clear when Padilla endured the Bush Enhanced Interrogation methods. “A three-judge panel of the court said laws governing combatants and the definition of torture were unclear during the years policies were crafted.  Padilla alleged he was subjected to death threats, given psychotropic drugs, shackled and manacled for hours at a time, denied contact with family or a lawyer for 21 months and refused medical care for potentially life-threatening conditions. “That such treatment was torture was not clearly established in 2001-03,” Judge Raymond C. Fisher, a Clinton appointee, wrote for the court.” LA Times Continue reading “Shame on Yoo” →

Society, Things That Tick Me Off, Travel Blog

Things That Tick Me Off: Wi-Fi Charges At Hotels

It is time again to vent as part of the “Things That Tick Me Off” series — an arbitrary list that helps keep me sane by periodically raving at the world. This week’s addition is wi-fi charges, particularly at high-end hotels (though this remains the case with some mid-range hotel chains as well) I am staying this week at the Waldorf-Astoria while I speak at the ABA’s Legal Malpractice conference. Not only does the hotel charge $15 bucks for wi-fi in the rooms but $15 for each and every device such as iPads. The Waldorf-Astoria is a beautiful and historic hotel and it is certainly not alone in this practice. However, it is irritating to be clipped for such costs after checking in. This is less common in Canada and Europe hotels.

Continue reading “Things That Tick Me Off: Wi-Fi Charges At Hotels” →