Continue reading “Couple Call Police After Wife is Squirted By Toy At Japanese Steakhouse”
Category: Uncategorized
I have been writing about the increasingly hostile environment for conservatives and libertarians on our campuses as professors and activists shutdown events and censor or sanction unpopular views. The latest such case can be found at Cal State LA where officials canceled a speech by conservative journalist Ben Shapiro after students complained that they feared for their safety due to the mere fact of a conservative speaking on campus. Activists further compared the event to an “undercover KKK meeting.” Emails obtained by the site Heat Street through the Freedom of Information Act showed both the successful campaign to bar Shapiro as well as the backlash from people who believe in free speech.
Continue reading “Cal State Cancels Ben Shapiro Speech After Activists Compared It To A KKK Meeting”
We have followed the rapid destruction of the secular government and civil liberties in Turkey under the authoritarian rule of Recep Tayyip Erdogan — assisted by the long-standing and continuing support of the Obama Administration of Erdogan. Erdogan used the recent failed coup to push his effort to create a de facto Islamic regime and to complete his work in arresting his critics, including forcing the resignation of thousands of secular academics, and suspending all civil liberties in a proclaimed state of emergency. Recently, Erdogan threatened the United States that he wants his greatest critic, US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, delivered to him and that a failure to yield to his demands would be a “big mistake.” Now, he has ordered the round up of journalists despite the fact that journalists helped him stay in power during the coup by bravely continuing to broadcast during the coup. In addition, his government is now arresting people who express doubt (with many internationally) about the coup. Erdogan has been known to use trumped up events to expand his power and many believe that he is not only using the coup as an excuse but engineered the coup. His government now says that anyone raising such concerns is likely a coup plotter and should be arrested.

Former Democratic Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz was booed of the stage by the Florida delegates today as anger continued to rise over emails showing that the DNC actively undermined Bernie Sanders and sought to rig the primaries for Hillary Clinton. Yet, in coming DNC interim chair (and Clinton supporter) Donna Brazile is calling for Wasserman Schultz to have a role at the convention as a reward for her past work. In an equally tone deaf response, Clinton has given Wasserman Schultz a formal job with her campaign — as opposed to the informal job that her critics have long alleged. The fact is that Wasserman Schultz has from the start been the most controversial DNC chair in the party’s history — well before the entrance of Bernie Sanders. Her tenure has been divisive and destructive for the party. The effort to reward her by party insiders like Brazile and bring her into the Clinton campaign only reaffirms the disconnect with voters.
The infamous Iranian Basij militia cracked down on the use of satellite dishes by confiscating 100,000 dishes in Tehran. Iranian prosecutors insisted that dishes expose families to UnIslamic influences and are “morally damaging.” The dishes were destroyed in a triumphant ceremony before General Mohammad Reza Naghdi, head of Iran’s Basij militia. Most people view Naghdi’s crackdown as a pathetic and laughable example of religious orthodoxy that still strangles Iranian society. However, Naghdi heralded the latest achievement of his extremist forces.
Continue reading “Iranian Police Confiscate 100,000 Satellite Dishes To Protect Public Morality”
We have followed the rapid destruction of the secular traditions of Turkey by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has succeeded in creating a new Islamic authoritarian regime. With the support of Islamic parties, Erdogan used the recent failed coup to complete his work in arresting his critics, forcing the resignation of thousands of secular academics, and suspending all civil liberties in a proclaimed state of emergency. The United States helped create the tyranny rising in Turkey in its support of Erdogan as he systemically dismantled the only secular, free country in the Arab world. Recently, Erdogan threatened the United States that he wants his greatest critic, US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, delivered to him and that a failure to yield to his demands would be a “big mistake.” Now, one of Erdogan’s extremist followers, Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek, has suggested that U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen uses genies to “enslave” people. That’s right, genies.
Continue reading “Ankara Mayor Accuses Erdogan Critic Of Using Genies To Control the Masses”
Australian customers should have some legitimate questions about the sanitization of the Hungry Jack restaurant outside of Perth. It appears that a man died of a drug overdose in a toilet but was not found for roughly three days by the Australian franchise of Burger King. In a remarkable statement, the police have said that finding a man dead after three days in a toilet is “not being treated as suspicious.” I certainly understand the lack of a suspicion of a crime but at least we could agree that it is a bit curious.
Continue reading “Corpse Left For Three Days In Hungry Jack Restaurant Bathroom”
Kayla Renee Dubois, 24, and Christopher Wimmer, 33, have the dubious distinction of creating a new category of crimes for illicit selfies. The two Florida paramedics allegedly competed in a “selfie war” in vying to take the most graphic pictures with incapacitated patients. They are charged with multiple counts of interception and disclosure of oral communications.
Continue reading “Can You Guess What These People Were Charged With?”
For months, critics and candidates have been publicly denouncing what they view as open favoritism of the Democratic National Committee (and particularly DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz) toward Hillary Clinton. Even DNC members have objected to the role of the DNC and the view that it is trying to guarantee that Clinton is the nominee. Despite fairly universal criticism of the favoritism showed Clinton (and opposition showed Sanders), Wasserman Shultz and DNC officials publicly denounced any such suggestions of working against Sanders. Now, with the Wikileaks postings, various emails prove that the DNC has been actively working to undermine Sanders and advance their chosen candidate of Hillary Clinton. What continues to shock me is the unblinking dishonesty of Washington. Absent this Wikileaks disclosure, officials would have continued to deny that they secretly undermined all challengers to Clinton. It is sheer mendacity of the power elite in this city that is so chilling.
Continue reading “Emails Show Democratic National Committee Officials Actively Undermined Sanders And Sought To Guarantee Clinton’s Nomination”

Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has issued an apology over her tirade against GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump. A statement was issued today stating
“On reflection, my recent remarks in response to press inquiries were ill-advised and I regret making them. Judges should avoid commenting on a candidate for public office. In the future I will be more circumspect.”
Continue reading “GINSBURG ISSUES STATEMENT OF “REGRET” FOR TRUMP ATTACK”
There is a fascinating case in in Chicago where famed artist Peter Doig is being sued for millions of dollars. The reason? He had the audacity of denying that a painting is his own. That’s right. Doig denied that a painting of a landscape was done by him as a young man in Canada. With past Doig paintings going for as high as $25 million, a former correctional officer Robert Fletcher, 62, wants a legal determination that Doig either can’t or refuses to acknowledge his own work. Fletcher, who bought the painting for $100 in 1975, is pulling Doig into court and a federal judge has scheduled the matter for adjudication. I have never seen such an attempt at authentication-by-litigation lawsuit.
We have been discussing the crackdown on free speech on college campuses as administrators punish any speech deemed insensitive or the still ill-defined category of “microaggressions.” One of the greatest concerns is the double standard showed to different speakers based on their content. The University of California at Berkeley is the most recent example of this controversy. In columns for the Daily Californian titled “Speaking Out”, “Fucking White Boys,” and “Choosing Myself Over White People”, Maggie Lam mocks and ridicules white people. A column using such language mocking people of color would instantly trigger demands for expulsion. It is not that I believe that Lam should be punished, to the contrary, I believe that it is far better to have the exchange of such views on campus than to regulate speech, particularly inconsistent regulation.
Continue reading “Berkeley Columnist Renews Debate Over Speech Codes On Campus”
I have previously written (here and here) about how free speech is dying in the West, including the sanctioning of speech among our closest allies in France and England and Canada. The most recent case is out of Canada where a feminist author is facing a slander trial for merely expressing her contempt for an Islamic school. Djemila Benhabib, an award-winning author and past candidate for office in Quebec, is facing a demand for $95,000 from her for “greatly tarnishing” the image of the Muslim Schools of Montreal, a private institution that teaches elementary and high school. Her remarks occurred during a radio interview.
Continue reading “Quebec Feminist Faces Trial Over Criticism Of Islamic School”

By Cara L. Gallagher, weekend contributor
In the first line of his 51-page dissent in Fisher v. The University of Texas at Austin, Justice Alito wrote that “something strange is going on at the Supreme Court.” Indeed, it was. I think it’s safe to say no one thought race-based admissions processes would survive after the first Fisher case in 2013. The four conservative Justices (Scalia included) have long been chomping at the bit to quash it, believing instead that the way to end race-based discrimination is to “stop discriminating on the basis of their race.” Universities have no less continued to try different ways to diversify campuses but have ostensibly been told by the SCOTUS: You’re doing it wrong.
Certainly Justice Kennedy, who authored the 4-person majority opinion in Fisher last week, seemed poised to tell the University of Texas at Austin they too were doing it wrong. Continue reading “A view from inside the SCOTUS: The affirmative action decision explained”

Cara L. Gallagher, Weekend Contributor
Backsliding. Justice Ginsburg warned of this in her famous Shelby County v. Holder dissent in 2013. Eliminating Section 4 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the pre-clearance requirement for states that had a history of suppressing minority votes, would result in a return to racial discrimination and disenfranchisement, Ginsburg said. Prior to Shelby, states with such records had to get approval from either the Department of Justice or the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals before changing any voting laws under Section 5 of the VRA.
Was her warning heeded?
Not in North Carolina. This is a state that didn’t even wait to read her dissent, or likely the entirety of the majority decision, as they radically changed voting laws on the same day Shelby was decided. Continue reading “Backsliding & voting rights post-Shelby”
Many of us have been in Japanese Steakhouses when the chef pulls out and squeezes the little rubber toy of a boy. The result is a stream of water that makes it look like the boy is peeing. I have seen it happen a dozen times to the delight of kids. Isabelle and James Lassiter clearly did not get the joke. Instead, Isabelle exclaimed “It peed on me!”and the couple called police and claimed that