Time and time again, it has been the same story. Primary elections long expected to produce record turnouts quickly ground to a halt by malfunctioning machines and a lack of ballots. Every national election, politicians express outrage only to have the same cycle repeated. New Yorkers are saying that they are facing the same barriers to voting from long lines to broken machines.
Continue reading “Voters Face Broken Machines And Closed Polling Places In New York”
As if to leave no doubt about the evisceration of free speech in Germany after the decision to prosecute comedian Jan Boehmermann for insulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the founder of Germany’s anti-Islamic PEGIDA movement will appear in court on hate speech charges for branding refugees “cattle” and “scum” on social media. The views of Lutz Bachmann, 43, founder of the far-right “Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident” movement, are obnoxious and hateful but his views of migration generally and migrants in particular should be protected speech.
Continue reading “German Right-Wing Politician Stands Trial For Anti-Immigrant Comments”
A new poll captures just how dysfunctional our elections have become under the duopoly exercised by the two parties. Over half of the public say that they cannot support Trump, Cruz, or Clinton in the general election. Indeed, the two frontrunners, Trump and Clinton, have the highest negatives in their respective parties. The system has produced frontrunners that 6 out of 10 voters say they cannot support. If that is not an indictment of our current system, I am not sure what it takes to push toward reforms.
Continue reading “POLL: Over Half Of Voters Will Not Support Trump, Cruz, or Clinton”
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to first apologize to authoritarian Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for a satirical poem and then approve the prosecution of the comedian is a shocking and chilling disgrace. Merkel, who hails from the former Communist East Germany, has never been a reliable ally to free speech but the crackdown on comedian Jan Boehmermann has shocked the West. Even with the recent rollback of free speech rights in Europe, Merkel’s actions (and the cringing response of ZDF television) has been wake up call for all civil libertarians.
While the level of protection afforded Saudi Arabia in Washington is hardly a secret, the level of that support was on display this month when officials pushed the Obama Administration to release long-withheld pages from the 9-11 report, as we previously discussed. Those pages reportedly implicate Saudi Arabia in the 9-11 attacks. Saudi Arabia response with an express threat to sell off hundreds of billions of dollars of assets if Congress were to pass a bill allowing the Kingdom to be held liable for the attacks. One would think that the response would be outrage at the threat. After all, the bill would only allow citizens to sue and a bipartisan group of Senators have joined to support the 9-11 families. Saudi Arabia could still defend itself (and according to its government, vindicate itself) in a court of law. Of course, the United States has a real court system as opposed to the government controlled, Sharia “courts” used in the Kingdom to mete out medieval justice.
We have another shocking case involving a passenger who was removed from a flight because his presence made other passengers nervous.
The student, Khairuldeen Makhzoomi, a senior at the University of California, Berkeley, was merely speaking in Arabic to his uncle in Iraq and recounting an exciting speech that he attended by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. After his call, he was told that he was making passengers nervous by speaking in Arabic and removed from the flight.
Continue reading “Berkeley Student Removed From Plane After Speaking Arabic”
I am of course wearing my Hawks jersey in anticipation of game 3 against the Blues today (I will be hiding upstairs while my wife throws a baby shower for one of our kid’s elementary teachers). However, I love the controversy in St. Louis where residents are a bit put out when they bought their coffee at their local Dunkin’ Donuts only to be given cups decorated with the Blackhawks logo and “The official coffee of the Chicago Blackhawks.” It is divine intervention and an omen for all to contemplate.
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
In a rarely seen demonstration of unity in an otherwise strongly divided political environment, the Washington State Legislature unanimously voted to allow cancer patients to donate expensive medications to other patients who are underinsured. As expected, the governor signed the measure into law.
It is a welcome first step in allowing access to drugs otherwise unaffordable and potentially economically bankrupting to patients and their families. In addition to its obvious health benefit, the law surely will provide reassurance and a small amount of respite during stressful times for those in need.
Continue reading “New Law Allows Cancer Patients To Donate Unused Medicines To The Underinsured”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
Free speech rights in Germany took another worrying turn for the worse when German Chancellor Angela Merkel personally approved an investigation of a German citizen accused of insulting Turkey’s President Recep Erdoğan, a world leader personally responsible for the erosion of free speech in this NATO member state.
The timing and enthusiasm, despite proffers to the contrary, of the German government’s persecution of satirist Jan Böhmermann for his broadcast of a poem critical of President Erdoğan coincides directly with the German Government trying to reach a re-settlement agreement with Turkey to address the refugee crisis besieging many European nations–a situation politically damaging to Merkel’s image.
We featured numerous articles relating to President Erdoğan’s attacks on newspapers, individuals, internationals, and any critics of him who are within reach of this grasp, citing a bizarre form of Lèse majesté laws as justification. Now, Merkel is demonstrating a willingness to use a rather dusty remnant of such a statute in Germany as a tool to preserve the ego of a foreign head of state, to accomplish a domestic political goal.
For his part, Mr Böhmermann risks five years incarceration for the act of reciting poetry. In several day’s time, he became a convenient scapegoat to placate a foreign leader bent on resurrecting a Neo-Ottoman-Empire, with Erdoğan as its sultan.
Continue reading “Scapegoats Of The Ottoman Empire: Merkel Sacrifices German Satirist To Placate Turkey’s Erdoğan”
There is an intense controversy at Tulane University (where I began my teaching career) in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Kappa Alpha fraternity members built a wall made of sandbags with the message “Make America Great Again” and “Trump” plastered across it on their off-campus house. What is astonishing is that university groups and members have rallied to support alleged members of the football team who tore down the wall in a denial of free speech and an act of trespass.
There is an interesting lawsuit against a US sperm bank Xytex and its Ontario distributor, Outreach Health. At the center of the case is Donor 9623, James Christian Aggeles of Georgia, who claimed an IQ of 160, an undergraduate degree in neuroscience and a master’s degree in artificial intelligence. He also claimed that he was pursuing a PhD in neuroscience engineering. In reality, he was a formal mental patient with a felony conviction. His sperm was used to conceive at least 36 children in Canada, the US and Britain. The result is a $12 million lawsuit against the companies.
There is a surprising report out of California that UC Davis contracted with consultants for at least $175,000 to”scrub the Internet of negative online postings following the November 2011 pepper-spraying of students. Equally disconcerting is that UC Davis paid to have these consultants improve the reputation of Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi (right). I consider giving state money to consultants to improve your image as Chancellor to be a shocking misuse of money that should go to educational programs and expenses.
We have previously discussed how people seem incapable of resisting selfies even at the scenes of disasters or while driving (before accidents) or during environmental tragedies but some selfie are not just inappropriate but incriminating. That is the case with Wayne Huntsman who was sentenced to 20 years in prison Friday after pleading guilty to starting the King Fire in 2014, which burned a dozen homes and nearly 100,000 acres in the central Sierra Nevada. The key evidence was the selfie taken above at the origin of the fire.
Continue reading “Selfie Leads To A Conviction For Arson in California’s King Fire”
I have previously written about the increasing monitoring and discipline of teachers for conduct in their private lives. A new case this week highlights this trend. A Mexican elementary teacher has been fired after she was seen on a video twerking in a dance contest in Cabo San Lucas. The 24-year-old identified only as “Miss Clarissa” on the film won the top prize of $260 but then lost her job. The teacher won the contest to the beat of Daddy Yankee’s “Rompe.”
Continue reading “Risqué Rompe: Teacher Fired After Winning Dance Contest While On Vacation”
We regularly discuss horrific reports from Saudi Arabia of beheadings and floggings under its medieval Islamic Sharia law system. Finally, there is a chance to report on a positive development out of the Kingdom. The Saudi cabinet has approved a major change related to the infamous religious police, or Mutawaa. The religious police will now longer have the power to arrest citizens and must report all alleged crimes to the police instead. Of course, the reform falls short of the obvious and most meaningful reform: getting rid of the roaming religious police entirely.
Continue reading “Saudi Religious Police Stripped Of Power To Arrest”
