Bizarre, Torts

Women Go To Barber For Cosmetic Surgery . . . Well You Know The Rest

Barbershop owner Young Hwan Choi, 72, allegedly had a side business of doing cosmetic surgery and the results were as predictable as their were criminal. Various women suffered facial scars from the laser surgery. What is striking is that the police released images of his barbershop, suggesting that the women may have actually gone to the barbershop for the surgery as opposed to some fraudulent surgery center. If true, the bizarre decision of these victims could factor into any tort damages as plaintiff’s conduct questions.

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Congress, Criminal law, Politics

Report: Blocked Caller Connected To Trump Jr. Was Not President Trump
YouTube Screengrab

For over a year, many of the theories of Russian collusion have highlighted a mysterious call to an unpublished number by Donald Trump Jr. in the critical period of the infamous meeting with Russians in Trump Tower. Democratic members apparently received the disappointing news this week that the number has been tracked down and did not belong to President Donald Trump but business associates of his son.

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Bizarre, Criminal law

California Man Surrenders After Video Of An Attack On Two Women At Hot Dog Stand

The Los Angeles police department has been looking for a man who beat two women at a hot dog stand and then ran off — all captured on a videotape later distributed by the LAPD. He turns out to be Arka Sangbarani Oroojian who turned himself in to the LAPD.

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Bizarre, Society

Tattoo Taboo? Ariana Grande’s Botched Tattoo Triggers Debate Over Cultural Appropriation
YouTube

In what many view as a hilarious example of affected celebrity styling, Ariana Grande showed fans a new tattoo in Japanese Kanji writing that she said meant “7 Rings.” In reality, a missing character left a tattoo reading “BBQ Grill.” Some however did not miss the opportunity to be outraged and have claimed that any Kanji writing is cultural appropriation.

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Bizarre, International, Justice, Media, Religion, Society

“That Hero Lies In You”: Saudi Feminist Leader Reportedly Tortured In Saudi Arabia While Saudis Enjoy Mariah Carey Concert

Saudi Arabia is full of contradictions as a nation imposing medieval Islamic laws while striving to portray itself as a modern country. We have routinely discussed the incredible bravery of women in the Kingdom who have risked everything to demand the most minimal rights of human beings from freedom of speech to freedom of travel to associational rights. One of these heroes is Saudi activist Loujain Alhathloulwho remains incarcerated and is being reportedly tortured for her advocacy of equal rights. For all of the women being abused in the Kingdom, many objected to Maria Carey holding a concert when this repression continues. Carey, who loves to sing about that “hero inside you,” took the money and will be holding the concert today. It appears that Carey’s commitment to women does not extend as far as turning down one concert from her already burgeoning fortune.

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Academia, Free Speech

Stanford Professor Stops Teaching Course On American Indian Mythologies After 50 Years Due To Protest

For 50 years, Stanford Professor Kenneth Fields has taught the course “American Indian Mythology, Legend and Lore,” Professor Fields has agreed to stop teaching the course. A nationally recognized academic and poet, Fields dropped the course after some students accused him of being “insensitive and inappropriate” and circulated a petition requesting to “improve” the course. The bases for the protest raise serious issues of academic freedom and the lack of of support for faculty in such disputes.

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Bizarre, Criminal law

Florida Man Held For Over 40 Days Before Police Test Bag Of “Heroin” And Find Tide Detergent

For six weeks, Matt Crull, 29, sat in a Florida jail on a charge of trafficking heroin. The state finally got around to test the bag of heroin that was found at the time of the arrest to have tested positive for the drug. It turns out that it was Tide laundry detergent and the officer who made the arrest was fired after a series of arrests of innocent people.

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Congress, Military

“Passive and Naive”: Trump Attacks His Own Intelligence Chiefs After They Contradict His Statements On Iran, North Korea, and Syria

President Donald Trump attacked his own intelligence chiefs today after they contradicted his statements about the status of threats posed by Iran, North Korea and other countries. Trump called the intelligence chiefs “wrong” and “passive and naive.” He also said that these seasoned intelligence officials might need to go back to school. It is worth noting that the testimony of these officials were not only quite measured but widely shared by experts in the field.

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Media, Politics

Duopoly Distemper: Media and Democrats Attack Schultz For Even Considering A Third Party Run

The exploration of former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz of a possible third party candidacy has been welcomed by many who have long seen our dysfunctional politics as a result of the duopoly of power in the country in the hands to just two parties. People want change and that is highly unlikely to occur in our current system. That is precisely why Schultz has been met with a torrent of criticism by the media and Democrats for even suggesting a third party run. The spin is that he is handing the election to Donald Trump by splitting the anti-Trump ticket. However, this has been the same mantra for every third party candidate in my lifetime. The problem is that he could win and there is no danger that more threatens the establishment in Washington. So we are back to the same refrain — eagerly repeated by the media — that the country simply cannot handle more choice than the two offered by the party elites.

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Politics

Poll: Fifty-Six Percent of Voters Say They Will Definitely Not Vote For Trump

One of the most perplexing aspects of the White House strategy over the last two years is the total focus on Trump’s base with little apparent concerns for independents and moderate Republicans who have reacting poorly to the confrontational politics. A recent poll shows just how precarious this is becoming for 2020. A new ABC News/Washington Post poll this week shows that 56 percent of Americans said they would definitely not vote to re-elect Trump in 2020. Only 28 percent said they definitely will vote for him. Thia mirrors a previous NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll which found that 57 percent of voters will not back Trump in 2020. Citing the President’s polling numbers, the Texas Republican Party is reportedly now concerned that they could lose the state in 2020.

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Environment, Politics

Trump Again Wrongly Suggests That Cold Weather Disproves Climate Change

We have previously discussed the continued statements of President Donald Trump questioning the overwhelming science behind climate change. Yesterday, President Trump was again mocking the notion of climate change by pointing at the polar air hitting the Midwest. It is part of a long history of Trump transposing weather with climate change — a point repeatedly made by experts but ignored in these tweets. Notably, recent polls show less division among the public, including Republicans, who overwhelmingly agree that we are experiencing climate change.

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Bizarre, Torts

New York Woman Sues Hospital After Terminating Life Support on A Stranger

There is a bizarre torts case in New York city where Shirell Powell is suing St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx after he mistakingly authorized the termination of life support for a stranger. She had been told that the man was her brother, Frederick Williams. The family later found out that it was a Freddy Clarence Williams, who was no relation.

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Congress, Politics, Society

Debtor Nation: Treasury Quietly Adds Another $1 Trillion In Debt

As many on the blog are aware, I am a fiscal conservative and social liberal (the profile of many a libertarian). I have previously railed against our soaring debt and the continued inability of our presidents and members of Congress to exercise a modicum of fiscal responsibility. This is a new low with the Treasury Department taking on $1trillion in more debt — for a second year in a row. We are saddling our children with this crippling level of debt to avoid our politicians to escape their responsibility to make tough decisions. With the start of the 2020 presidential election, politicians are lining up with expansive new spending proposals to entice supporters as our government plunges deeper into debt.

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Columns, Criminal law, Media

Mueller’s Roadkill Trophy: A Hunt For Collusion Bags A Circus Clown

Below is my column in The Hill newspaper on the Stone memorandum and the specific counts indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Notably, after investigating Stone for much of two years, Mueller ended up indicting Stone overlapping false statements from a transcript that he secured just weeks ago from Congress. The coverage has been wildly out of sync with the substance of the indictment. There were many people, including journalists, who were trying to review the Wikileaks materials. That is not a crime. The stated desire to see any Wikileaks material is neither surprising nor illegal. Moreover, we already knew that Stone wanted to see the Wikileaks material and that he was seeking information from Wikileaks. He stated so publicly.

Here is the column:

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Criminal law, International

Report: Saudi Arabia Has Systematically Helped Saudi Felons To Flee The United States

There is a disturbing account in The Oregonian/OregonLive that raises a long-standing issue that few people want to talk about in Washington: the long record of Saudi Arabia in violating our laws and helping felons flee the country before trial or sentencing. The article addresses just a few cases but it is a problem nationwide as Saudi Arabian nationals kill or injure Americans only to have the government help the culprits post bond and then flee. For example, Abdulrahman Ali Al-Plaies was accused of killing a 79-year-old woman in the center of Xenia, Ohio, a small Ohio town. Just days before trial, the Saudis allegedly sent a military officer to whisk him away.

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