There is an interesting controversy brewing in Chicago that few folks outside of the Windy City or perhaps Green Bay would understand. Like most of my family and friends in Chicago, I was shocked recently to see former Bears coach Mike Ditka putting on a Packers sweater to get free French fries for four whole weekends. Of course, Ditka was not doing it for French fries but another cash in on his relationship with the Chicago Bears. The problem is that there are some things that a Bears coach is never expected to do. There is the killing of a child. Then there is the bombing of a place of worship. And finally there is wearing a Packers sweater. To make matters worse, Ditka’s number was just retired and he has been honored repeatedly by fans. He is even put on television despite being truly dreadful in any conversational setting beyond monosyllabic responses. Ditka says that he has no problem is donning a Packers sweater if it will get him fries. That is hard to swallow for fans that have stuck with the team through both good and bad seasons. Making it worse is Ditka’s later response to the outcry where he seemed to blame the Bears for not getting him sufficient love. So, Ditka is dead to me. Enjoy the fries.
Continue reading “DITKA IS DEAD TO ME”
Just when you thought the tragic death of Fox Lake Police Lt. Charles Joseph “Joe” Gliniewicz could not get any sadder. It does. Police now believe that Gliniewicz staged his own death to avoid being exposed as an embezzler of thousands of dollars from a youth program. Police say it was a “carefully stage suicide” that led to a massive manhunt for the assailants. To make matters worse, his wife and son who appeared devastated by the murder of Gliniewicz by unknown assailants are now under investigation themselves. There is even an allegation that he might have sought out a hitman to kill the official who was close to uncovering the the embezzlement.
Ella Fishbough, 14, is now an eighth grader with a record. Ella was given suspension by Jackson Heights principal Sarah Mansur-Blythe (left) for a hug. That’s right. She hugged a friend who was having a bad day and was immediately reported for discipline under a hopelessly undefined prohibition on “inappropriate or obscene acts.” As with the other story today of the student suspended for playing Power Rangers, this is a case of blind application of rules without any sense of judgment or fairness. It is part of the zero tolerance culture that has taken hold in our schools.
Continue reading “Eighth Grader in Florida Disciplined For Giving Hug To Friend At School”
We have another absurd enforcement of the zero tolerance rule at our schools. This one occurred in Cincinnati, Ohio where Principal Joe Crachiolo, (left) at Our Lady of Lourdes School (a Catholic Elementary School) suspended a first grader who was caught playing a Power Ranger and used an imaginary bow and arrow in play. Just to repeat. This was a first grader and an imaginary bow and arrow.
This picture of actress Sadaf Taherian would seem like most any such photo appearing on social media (beyond the fact that she is obviously especially striking). However, the government in Iran immediately spotted something missing. That’s right, a veil or hijab. As a result, Taherian has fled to the United Arab Emirates to avoid an arrest. In addition, leading actress Chekame Chaman-Mah has fled Iran after committing the offense of defending the right of an actress to post an unveiled image. Iranian officials have declared both women to be in violation of Islamic morality and laws.
Paul Armand Rater, 53, is facing two counts of felony child abuse and one count of felony child endangerment after he gave a loaded and cocked .45-calibre handgun to his 5-year-old granddaughter and left her in the desert. I told her to “shoot any bad guys.”
Yesterday morning a dawn, I walked one of my favorite trails — Billygoat trail in Maryland. There was a thick fog along the Potomac and it created the feeling of hiking through a Monet.
A Texas woman, Susan Cammack, has been fined $500 and sentenced to two years of probation for her role in serving bogus court orders on a judge and lawyer involved in a foreclosure case against her. Comic claims to be a representative of the sovereign nation of Texas was convicted of issuing fraudulent court papers ordering a judge and lawyer to appear before an “international common law court.” What is interesting about this case is that Cammack received a two year sentence of probation for serving what were clearly meaningless and ineffectual papers. She was little more menacing than someone speaking to herself on a subway platform. Yet, her punishment is roughly the same as former Ohio prosecutor Jason Phillabaum of Cincinnati who was given no jail time and had his law license suspended for just a year for filing a false indictment in an actual criminal case. As I said earlier, the treatment of Phillabaum was shockingly light in comparison to what non-lawyers face in less serious cases. It is not that Cammack’s sentence was excessive. The question is how we deal with the most serious forms of prosecutorial misconduct.
We have followed the continuing failure of the public school systems in cities like Detroit and Washington D.C. where students are graduating without basic skills or ability to compete in the new economy for valuable jobs. Instead, they are left without any meaningful chance to break the cycle of poverty that often holds them in a stagnant social strata. The most recent review of Detroit demonstrates just how badly we have failed these children. The 2015 National Assessment of Educational Progress tests published by the Department of Education’s National Center for Educational Statistics shows that 96 percent of eighth graders are not proficient in mathematics and 93 percent are not proficient in reading. This is the result despite spending approximately $14,743 per student in the school system.
I have previously written about the waste of billions of dollars by the government without any significant discipline for government officials. We have become accustomed to reports of unimaginable corruption and waste in Afghanistan from bags of money delivered to officials to constructing huge buildings to be immediately torn down to buying aircraft that cannot be used. Yet even with the disclosure of our useless campaign against poppy production where we continued to spend billions because no one had the courage to end or change the program, no action was taken against a single individual. Billions simply evaporate and nothing happens, even with public outcry. Now, the John Sopko, special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction (SIGAR), has revealed that the government spent $43 million to build a gas station in Afghanistan that should have cost roughly $500,000. As before, it is not clear why there has not been a long list of federal officials suspended pending both potential criminal and civil charges.
I have been writing for years about the alarming decline of free speech in France where citizens are routinely investigated and prosecuted for criticism groups or religions. We discussed this trend most recently with the prosecution of far right politician Marine Le Pen for her exercise of free speech against immigration. Now, France’s Supreme Court (the Court of Cassation) has upheld the shocking prosecution of twelve anti-Israel activists for protesting Israel and supporting the global boycott movement of Israeli goods. It is an appalling moment for a nation that once embodied the very essence of Western Civilization and freedoms.
Continue reading “French High Court Upholds Convictions Of 12 Protesters Who Called For Boycott Of Israel”
The Islamic extremist attacks appear to be continuing unabated in Bangladesh where Muslim extremists are targeting the free speech community. The latest victim is publisher Faisal Arefin Deepan of the Jagriti Prokashoni publishing house, a truly courageous voice for free speech and human rights. Deepen was murdered in his office, the latest in a campaign of terror launched against writers and publishers. Earlier publisher Ahmed Rahim Tutul and two writers were shot and stabbed by three men in the office of the Shudhdhoswar publishing house.
It looks like we already have an entry for the 2016 Spooky torts listing. Assistant Prosecutor Chris White clearly does not like spiders, even fake ones. That much was clear given his response to finding fake spiders scattered around the West Virginia office for Halloween. White pulled a gun and threatened to shoot the fake spiders, explaining that he is “deathly afraid of spiders.” It appears that his arachnophobia (fear of spiders) was not matched by a hoplophobia (fear of firearms).
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
Most DUI arrests are rather uninteresting, others have some rather bizarre circumstances, as is the case where the Washington State Patrol arrested Everett, WA Police Lieutenant Jimmy Phillips for suspected DUI. This in itself was not extremely inordinate but what truly struck me as odd were a number of particulars alleged during the incident that made me wonder, “What were you thinking!”
There are certain commonalities manifest in the run of the mill drunk. Every law enforcement officer has heard these excuses and they oddly seem to be taught by a common teacher in Drunk Driving 101, but we would hope that the very ones who see such graduations would not enroll in the course themselves.
Continue reading “Career Limiting Moves: WSP Arrests Everett Officer For DUI”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
I thought I would share something a little different this weekend, a suggestion that might help each of us in deciding how to go about living healthy lives and returning to what we were given, and respecting who gives it to us. I refer today with one of the most basic elements of the gifts of the Earth–our food.
In my middle age, I have seen how we as Westerners have slowly but resolutely removed ourselves from nature into a humanity centric focus and perspective. We need to begin to devote ourselves to starting a little retrospective about how we used to live, and that somehow we still managed to get by.
Continue reading “Returning To Basics: Thinking Of Food As Life”