Indiana homeowner Billy Swaggerty has a simple piece of advice for his fellow citizens after sixteen guns were stolen from his home: “don’t let strippers into your home.” To clarify matters for Swaggerty, he did not know the woman was a stripper when he agreed to let her into his home on a cold night. He now accuses the woman of returning to steal his collection of guns.
We have previously discussed how environmental dangers remain something of an abstraction for most people who fail to recognize that changes in air or water pollution standards results in high and quantifiable rises in death rates. Even changes in areas like shipping fuels can translate to thousands of deaths. However, since these deaths are not immediate and borne privately, the true costs of pollution are often dismissed. I have been highly critical of the environmental record of the Trump Administration for this reason in rolling back on protections in a variety of areas as well as appointing regulators with anti-environmental records. Now a new major study has found that environmental pollution kills more people every year that all of the wars. It exceeds the death tolls for smoking, hunger or natural disasters combined. It kills more than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. Yet, unlike these causes of death, pollution remains a policy concern that is often pushed to the side for more immediate goals like job creation. This is not to say that environmental protection would trump all other concerns but rather the real costs of such pollution are rarely discussed in real terms of premature deaths by politicians.
If airlines do not have enough on their hands with Al Qaeda and changing weather patterns, it now has to face a new threat: superstitious elderly Chinese travelers. For the second time in weeks, a flight was suspended after an elderly Chinese woman threw coins into an airplane engine for good luck . . . and engine failure. The Lucky Air flight was fortunately halted after other understandably alarmed passengers asked for the metal debris to be removed from their engine.
Continue reading “New Aviation Threat: Superstitious Elderly Chinese Travelers”
There was another incident of student protesters preventing a meeting or class from occurring, though this incident has a welcomed conclusion: arrests. At the University of California, Santa Cruz, students found out that fellow students were meeting in the library as part of the College Republicans. That was unacceptable to them, so they put out a posting on Facebook to stop the meeting. They succeeded. The protesters entered the room denouncing their fellow students as “fascists,” “racists” and “white supremacists.” One student protester reportedly told a Young Republican: “Your existence is a disturbance to every marginalized person in this country.” It was a telling comment. The very existence of a young Republicans is viewed as an offense like some type of human microaggression.
Below is my column in the Hill Newspaper on latest statement on the cause of her electoral defeat . . . other than herself. Clinton’s use of prison lingo is only marginally better than her curious decision to compare herself to Cersei Lannister,the murderous, incestuous queen in Game of Thrones. Notably, after the column posted, it was confirmed that there were roughly 3000 government communications found on Weiner’s laptop — leading to the re-opening of the investigation. As noted below, the belated discovery (and the delay in resolving the controversy) can be laid at the feet of Clinton and her staff. The Clinton team delayed turning over material and participating in interviews. Their disclosure of material was incomplete and ultimately lead to the “shiv” referenced by Clinton.
Here is the column:
Continue reading “Orange is the New Black: Clinton Complained Of Being “Shivved” By Comey”
In one of the most reckless and chilling attacks on free speech, the 
It appears that the Senate race in Alabama between Republican Roy Moore and Democrat Doug Jones is now a dead heat. The tie in the normally reliable red state reflects controversial views of Moore who was twice removed from his job as chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court for defying federal court orders. One of his most alarming recent statements concerns the Supreme Court. Moore told followers that he would support the impeachment of any justice voting in favor of same-sex marriage, a position that would destroy the integrity and traditions of our legal system.
In To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout says early on in the story that she only heard her father Atticus say that one thing was a “sin.” Atticus said “remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” The Biloxi School District appears to repentant sinner this month after it axed the Harper Lee classic because some parents complained about the book’s language. Despite being one of the most powerful works in history against racism, parents could not overcome the authentic Southern and racist lexicon of the period. News reports indicate that the problem was the use of the “n-word” in a Southern period where that word widely used.
Senator Robert Menendez and his close friend Salomon Melgen, a Florida eye doctor, are heading to a jury decision after U.S. District Judge William Walls ruled that the indictment against them for public corruption would stand. Menendez not only stands in considerable jeopardy for his highly questionable relationship with Melgen but his conviction could flip the seat in the Senate since Governor Chris Christie would appoint his successor. ( A new governor will be elected for January).
The crime charged against Christopher Wilson, 37 was tragically all too obvious . . . as it is likely to be for the jury. Wilson is an Ohio man charged with sexual imposition and assault.
Continue reading “Ohio Man’s Tattoo Could Raise Issue Of Prejudice In Trial For Sexual Assault”
There are now eighteen states and the District of Columbia lined up to challenge the executive order by President Donald Trump to rescind the Obama order giving insurance companies billions in subsidies . . . without an appropriation of Congress. As explained below, this challenge advances a rather curious claim that Trump cannot rescind an earlier order found to be flagrantly unconstitutional by a federal court. In most high-profile litigation cases, counsel spends considerable time exploring whether a challenge will allow a bad case to make bad law on appeal. That would seem the most likely outcome here but much of the litigation by Democratic Attorneys General have been driven more by political than legal calculations. Voters now expect every act of Trump to be challenged and no Democratic AG wants to be the only one to sit out a challenge to an unpopular order. The result is a type of perpetual litigation machine where bad precedent is being cranked out because it is viewed as good politics.
Here is the column:
We have been discussing the increasing scrutiny being applied to teachers and professors over their political views and social media commentary. A particularly problematic case has been taken up by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) involving Kansas teacher Esther Koontz. The long-time math teacher (and something called a “curriculum coach”) at Horace Mann Dual Language Magnet School in Wichita, Kansas, Koontz was barred from renewing her contract as teacher because she supports the boycott of Israel over the occupation of Palestinian territories. This is not simply reflective of her political views but a religious based obligation as a member of the Mennonite Church USA. The church in July voted to divest itself from American companies that profit off of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories. The Kansas law therefore collides head on with the rights of free speech, free exercise, and free association.
Continue reading “Kansas Teacher Barred From Employment Due To Her Support For Boycott Movement”
Pakistan’s Senate has struck down legislation last week that would have increased the minimum age girls to marry from age from 16 to 18. We have previously discussed various cases of child brides being forced into marriage under the medieval Islamic traditions and laws governing much of Pakistan. However, there was hope that the legislature would be more supportive of the basic rights of these girls. That hope was dashed when the chairman of the Senate Standing Committee, Rehman Malik, explained that such an age limitation on marriage was deemed “Un-Islamic” by clerics who control much of the legislative agenda in Pakistan.Continue reading “Pakistani Senate Rejects Age Limit For Marrying Girl As Un-Islamic”
Kyle Adam Maraghy has been arrested after a viral videotape shows him beating a 62-year-old man who simply asked him to sit down at the recent Panthers-Philadelphia game. Maraghy and his girlfriend represent the worst of fans today at stadiums. As we have previously discussed, I do not go with my family to football games because of all of the loud and obnoxious drunks in the stands. In this case, however, Maraghy, 26, is facing jail time for his unprovoked and brutal assault, though not nearly as much as he should be facing.
Continue reading “Panthers Fan Arrested After Viral Video Of His Assaulting 62-Year-Old Man”
A twenty-eight-year British man experienced cardiac arrest this week after he accidentally swallowed a 6-inch long Dover sole that he caught on a fishing trip in Boscombe, England. The man was dangling the fish over his mouth as a joke when it broke free and went right down his throat. Fortunately, paramedics arrived within minutes and saved his life by removing the fish with forceps.