Game 1 of the Stanley Cup was interrupted by a bizarre act of a fan throwing large catfish on to the ice. Jacob Waddell, 36, is charged in the incident though one of the charges may surprise you.
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As some on this blog know, I have never been a fan of comedian Kathy Griffin. I have found her crude humor to be juvenile and never understood why CNN and Anderson Cooper continued to use her during New Year’s Eve programming. As I previously stated, Griffin often seems to substitute an increasingly obvious lack of comedic talent with a rising level of obscenity. Now, she has shocked even many of her many enablers with a picture holding the bloody severed head of President Donald Trump. Griffin clearly must have known that a firestorm would result from the disgusting and deeply disturbing image. That buzz however seems to be turning into a buzz saw with even her former supporters are expressing outrage at the image. Update: CNN finally cut Griffin after two days of fierce criticism.
Continue reading “Kathy Griffin Channels Her Inner ISIS [Updated]”
Hershey company just made a novel, if unsuccessful, defense against a lawsuit claiming that it routinely underfilled boxes of Reese’s Pieces and Whoppers. We have all experienced that moment of irritation when we opened a box of candy to find it half full. After Robert Bratton sued, the company argued that the “audible rattle” was sufficient warning for consumers. That did not prove enough for U.S. District Judge Nanette Laughrey of the Western District of Missouri, at least for the purposes of pre-trial dismissal. Laughrey has green lighted the case for a full trial.
A If Reece Park could not quite remember how he made it home after his bender the night before, this helpful selfie might refresh his hazy memory. Tasmanian Constables Natalie Siggins and Jeremy Blyth decided to take Park home and put him to bed after spotting him drunk on the street. They memorialized the moment for the morning after.
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Yale has been the focus of rising concerns over academic freedom and the treatment of faculty after the appearing of a disturbing videotape showing Yale students abusing Professor Nicholas Christakis who sought to have a civil conversation over an email written by Christakis’ wife. Two of the students who were most vocal in this controversial confrontation have now reportedly been honored with the Nakanishi Prize selection committee deemed most deserving of a prize for “enhancing race and/or ethnic relations” on campus. Various cites have stated this year’s recipients Alexandra Zina Barlowe and Abdul-Razak Mohammed Zachariah were featured prominently in the controversy. However, the protests are not mentioned in the citations.
Joseph Andrew Floyd Jr., 20, and Zachary Lloyd Brown, 21, are the poster boys for increasing penalties for animal welfare. The two South Carolina men thought it was uniquely funny to catch a small alligator and then tape themselves pouring beer down its throat. They now face harassment charges though the penalties are minimal.
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With Harvard holding its first black-only graduation this year and various schools creating black only dorms and safe spaces, “separate but equal” seems to be on the resurgence in America (something I wrote about ten years ago). However, Paris mayor, Anne Hidalgo, has stood firm against all forms of discrimination and barred the black feminist festival in the French capital because it is “prohibited to white people.” She said that racial discrimination in any form or for any purpose will not be tolerated.
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There was a disturbing story out of South Orange, New Jersey recently where a group of middle school students who walked out of an event rather than take a picture with the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Paul Ryan. It is a sad statement about our country that children are raised to despise those with whom they disagree. Ryan is third in line for the presidency. Teaching your children to show contempt for our national leaders brings a terrible cost for the country in terms of the civility and dialogue.
We have been discussing the erosion of free speech in England with an ever expanding range of criminalized speech. Individuals and groups now regularly call police to charge people who say anything deemed offensive or insulting to a race, religion, or group. It appears suicide bomber Salman Abedi was among the outraged insulted and filed a complaint with his school over an “Islamaphobic” statement of his teacher in class about . . . you guessed it . . . suicide bombers.
There are some people who talk about exposing themselves to art and then there is Ronald Thompson, 47. Thompson was arrested after a surveillance video in Lakeland, Florida showed him driving away from a storage center with a large stolen swan art piece. Oh, yes, I forgot . . . he was driving a stolen truck . . . and he was buck naked. Indeed, but for the modestly placed white bucket, the images would not be fit for a family blog like ours.
One of the most damaged individuals from the various controversies surrounding President Donald Trump has been his National Security Adviser, General H.R. McMaster. McMaster of course replaced the most damaged individual, General Michael Flynn who is now the subject of multiple investigations. McMaster was brought in to bring professional and credibility to the position. He was an excellent choice. However, the use of McMaster to try (unsuccessfully) to deflect concerns of Trump’s disclosure of highly classified information to the Russians destroyed much of his reputation in Washington. Now, what remains of that reputation seems to be rapidly evaporating with McMaster’s dismissive “not concerned” response to a high-level advisor (Jared Kushner) reportedly asking the Russians to create a secret, secure communications line through their embassy or other location. While that allegation does not appear a criminal violation in and of itself, it would a highly disturbing addition to an already troubling story on the close relations between the Trump officials and the Russians. The former head of the NSA and CIA under Bush said that such a back channel would be both uncommon and dangerous.
The sister of Manchester bomber Salman Abedi came to the defense of her dead brother. The words of Jomana Abedi fell considerably short of reassuring the public about her family and its association with Islamic extremists. It is now known that Abedi spoke to his brother only 15 minutes before he savagely murdered dozens of young girls.
The Washington Post released a bombshell story on Friday that alleges that senior White House aide (and presidential son-in-law) Jared Kushner met withSergei Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to Washington to set up a private communications channel with the Kremlin. The channel reportedly was sought for secret and secure and direct communications with the Russians. Once again, there is nothing on its face unlawful about either the meeting or the desire for a secure communications line. However, the allegation (if true) would deepen the unease over the associations between the Trump camp and the Russians. The increasing number of meetings has raised questions over why Trump officials were so solicitous to the Russians — a concern that reached its apex with Trump’s bizarre decision to entertain Kislyak and the Russian Foreign Minister in the Oval Office the day after firing former FBI Director James Comey. Update: After two days, the White House has been conspicuously silent.
There is another controversy on an American campus after a professor objected to a plan that involved excluding whites from campus. Evergreen State College biology professor Bret Weinstein made a reasoned objection to the plan for this year’s “Day of Absence” on campus. In prior years, people of color would leave the campus to highlight their contribution to the school. This year, it was proposed that whites should leave campus and Weinstein objected to the obvious unfairness of such a race-based exclusion. The result, as shown in the videotape below, was a mob scene around Weinstein as students called him a racist and called for his resignation. Protests have denounced his “anti-blackness” and demanded his removal from teaching.
With the steady stream of controversies swirling around the White House, there has been little attention given a highly disturbing report that the Obama Administration engaged in previously undisclosed and violations of the Fourth Amendment. Just a few days from the 2016 election, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) reportedly raised a highly unusual alarm over the creation of “a very serious Fourth Amendment issue” by possibly unconstitutional surveillance conducted under President Barack Obama. If true, this should be given equal attention to the other stories crowding our front pages and cable coverage. The Obama Administration has a well-documented history of abuse of surveillance and stands as one of the most antagonistic administrations toward privacy in our history. Indeed, if true, many of the former Obama officials currently testifying against the Trump Administration were responsible for a far broader scope of abusive surveillance programs.