Bizarre, Constitutional Law, Politics

Washington State: Hunting Bear and Turkey Spreads Corona Virus

By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

The Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife has once again submitted to absurdity, this time by declaring that the hunting of bear and turkey presents a threat to public safety.

No, it is not that bears and their natural allies–the gobblers of Washington–have formed an alliance and threatened retaliation against suburbia if hunters invaded their lands. It is more insidious. Hunting outdoors spreads COVID-19 among the human population.

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Columns, International, Society

Stay Calm and Pasty On: How A Small Virginia Shop Is Keeping The Lifeline Of Cornish Pasties Flowing

Below is my column in BBC.com on The Pure Pasty, a lifeline for many of us who love the Cornish pasty and English items like Digestives. When this column ran, I heard from many readers in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan noting that they also have a tradition of pasties. I have personal knowledge of those Michigan pasties from my youth. They were in fact the first pasties that I ever tasted. I would regularly go backpacking at Isle Royale in the Upper Peninsula and I would stop in Hancock for pasties on the way to the island. I believe the establishment was called Jean Kays. The embracing of pasties in the Upper Peninsula was no accident. In Cornwall, pasties were developed by miners as an easy way to bring lunch meats into the mines. The notes from folks in Michigan brought back a flood of crusty but still warm memories.

Here is the column:

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Politics

Trump Fires Intelligence Community Inspector General Who Informed Congress Of The Ukraine Whistleblower Complaint

President Donald Trump has fired the CIA Inspector General who was responsible for informing Congress of the whistleblower complaint on the Ukraine scandal. Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson will leave his job in 30 days and, in the interim, will be on interim leave. No successor has been named. I previously stated that I believe Atkinson was wrong in his interpretation of the law (as later found by the Justice Department). However, I believe that this is a mistake and undermines the system of whistleblower protections as well as the Inspector General system. Without a specific basis for the action, it appears retaliatory and it is certainly unnecessary. As noted below, there could be a legitimate concern over the interpretation of this law in the future if Atkinson was defying the Justice Department’s conclusions. Yet, that was not cited as the basis for the termination.

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Bizarre, Religion

“Jesus Died With COVID-19”: Arkansas Church Refuses To Close During Pandemic

We have been discussing churches holding mass services in defiance of orders for people to stay at home and avoid groups of larger than 10 people. Some of the churches insist that faith alone can protect against the virus. Now, the Awaken Church in Jonesboro, Arkansas has not only announced that it would remain open for services but assured the faithful that “Jesus died with COVID-19 so you didn’t have to bear it.”

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Bizarre, Politics

No, Jared Is Not Going “To Get Us All Killed”, But He Shows The Value Of Familial Distancing In A Pandemic

The New York Times ran a column this morning with the sensational headline “Jared Kushner Is Going To Get Us All Killed.” The sudden appearance of Kushner as a main player in the task force on the Covid-19 was highlighted with his appearance at yesterday’s press conference. He was preceded by a formal thank you to Ivanka Trump for her efforts. While many have criticized statements made by Kushner in the press conference, I thought his points were well taken like noting that some mayors and governors have failed in this crisis while others have excelled. Nevertheless, I have been a critic of the inclusion of Kushner and Ivanka Trump on the White House staff since it was announced because it is a form of raw nepotism. (See here, here, and here and here) I have also been a long critic of such nepotism by members of Congress. The sudden thrusting of the two to the forefront of this crisis is remarkably harmful to the Administration and its efforts. I have been highly impressed, and relieved, by the superb team assembled by the task force. I believe that they have been doing an outstanding job.

For that reason, I have no idea why it was necessary to suddenly put the President’s family into the mix and rekindle the long controversy over nepotism. With some polls showing the majority of the public opposed to the White House response, this was a critical press conference where impressive data was to be disclosed on the federal distribution of essential materials. Rather than ride that possible news, Trump threw Kushner into the mix and his role promptly washed out the coverage on the success of the task force.

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Bizarre, Criminal law

Texas Case Could Produce One Of The First Corona Hate Crime Charges
Jose L. Gomez, 19, was charged with three counts of attempted capital murder and one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. (Midland County Sheriff's Office)

Jose L. Gomez, 19, may have the dubious distinction of being the first person charged and convicted of a Corona hate crime. Gomez is accused of stabbing three members of a family of four inside a Sam’s Club. The family is Asian and police say that he was trying to stop them from spreading the virus. His victims included a 2-year-old and 6-year-old child. While other anti-Asian hate crimes have been reported in the pandemic, this one could result in an early plea or conviction.

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Bizarre, Criminal law

“Eddie Isn’t With Us At This Time”: Engineer Charged With Train Wrecking In Alleged Attack On The USNS Mercy

There are many surreal aspects to this pandemic but Eduardo Moreno is still something of a stand out. The California engineer attempted to ram his locomotive into the USNS Mercy because he was suspicious of its real purpose in Los Angeles. His effort took the train off the rails and across a remarkable distance before stopping short of the ship. The family has started a GoFundMe page that cryptically says “Eddie is not hurt physically but isn’t with us at this time.” The case has resulted in a relatively rare federal charge of training wrecking. By handing Moreno over to the federal prosecutors, state authorities minimized his defense options and maximized the potential sentencing.

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Bizarre, Criminal law

That’s Not A Sword . . . THIS Is A Sword: Robber Pulls Sword So Store Clerk Pulls Bigger Sword

This is something one certainly does not see everyday. In Pittsburgh, a man pulled a sword on a store clerk but ran from the store after the clerk pulled an even bigger sword on the robber. The only thing missing was Doug Marcaida saying “It will cut . . . It will kill.”

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Academia, Bizarre, Free Speech

No Joking Matter: Survey Finds Six Out Of Ten Students View Offensive Jokes As “Hate Speech”

We have been discussing the growing intolerance for free speech on our campuses and the ever-expanding scope of both hate speech and “microaggression” definitions. Now, College Pulse has released a survey of 2,000 college students that finds six out of ten view offensive jokes to be hate speech — a view shared by many European countries which now regularly prosecuted people for such jokes.

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Bizarre

Nancy Pelosi and Artist “Banksy” Cause Stir with Latest Art Project

By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently collaborated with the reclusive European artist known as “Banksy” to create “Kinetic Art with a Shred of Decency” in their latest project promising to combine political intrigue with a slap in the face to the billion dollar art auction industry.

Matthew Ruhrapentay, a NYC based critic, praised the “inherent irony that these two artists could achieve such synchronicity” in composing their latest contribution, saying: “A Speaker who shreds the President’s Speech at the closing gavel of the House of Representatives, who better than to partner with a reclusive artist who shredded a million dollar painting just as the gavel dropped at an auction house? Magnifico!”

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Bizarre

Linguists Successfully Decipher Ancient Minoan Language “Linear A”

By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

In what might surely be viewed as one of the potentially great breakthroughs in linguistics in recent years, scientists have finally deciphered the ancient Minoan Language known as “Linear A“, a previously untranslated ancient writing system used from 1800 to 1450 BCE. A new technique using, of all things, a vast collection of commerce related email of today provided a template for the discovery.

Partially due to this lack of translation, the Minoan culture remained obscured and cloaked in mystery. But linguists found much more than expected when they concurrently discovered the proximate cause of the abandonment of Linear A by the Minoans and its replacement with Linear B, the language of Mycenaean Greece.

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Academia

Prisoner’s Dilemma: Harvard Tells Professors Not To Proctor Exams To Reduce Stress For Students Working At Home

There is an interesting article in the Harvard Crimson where professors are being encouraged to trust students in taking exams rather than attempt to proctor to avoid added stress. The approach however raises a type of prisoner’s dilemma where students who might not be inclined to cheat must factor in the expected cheating of other students in their calculus of risk.

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Bizarre, Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Religion

Laying Hands On Religious Super-Spreaders: Florida Police Arrest Megachurch Pastor

We recently discussed defiant ministers who have refused to end large-scale services like Pastor Tony Spell in Louisiana. Now Florida police have criminally charged Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne of The River at Tampa Bay Church for defying pandemic orders with a mass service.

Fox 29 reports that law enforcement tried to dissuade Howard-Browne but the minister refused to yield and exposed his congregation and their neighbors to spreading the virus. He is charged with “unlawful assembly” and “violation of public health emergency order.”

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Congress, Criminal law, Media, Politics

No, Sen. Burr Is Not Likely To Be Charged With Insider Trading (and Even Less Likely To Be Convicted)

The FBI has reportedly begun an investigation into the stock sales of Sen. Richard Burr before the crisis over the coronavirus. As I discussed in my recent column, such prosecutions are exceptionally difficult to bring by design. Like ethics investigations, these investigations often serve to simply “clear” a politician who is allowed under lax ethical rules to trade in areas of their legislative and committee work. The only real reform is not investigations but either a ban on stock ownership or, more appropriately, a requirement of a blind trust (with criminal penalties for steering trades). Moreover, if he were to be charged, I would likely be the first to object to a prosecution for trades that Congress has kept lawful for decades despite some of our calls for reform. [This article was updated]

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Academia, Bizarre, Politics

University of California Tells Students “Do Not Allow Others” To Refer To “Chinese Virus”

The Council of Chief Diversity Officers at the University of California has issued a “guidance document” to reject racism, sexism, xenophobia and all hateful or intolerant speech, both in person and online” during this crisis. Specifically, it tells students to stop others from referring to the “Chinese virus” or “Wuhan virus.” The guideline raises renewed questions over the use of diversity rules to restrict or regulate free speech, particularly terms that have strong political or social meaning for students.

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