We have another controversy over the regulation of speech on college campuses this week. Thaddeus Pryor has been suspended and banned from Colorado College for two years after he sent an anonymous reply on social media that was meant as a joke. Regardless of the fact that the joke was insulting and decidedly unfunny, it was an anonymous comment made by a student on the social media site Yik Yak without the use of university equipment or involvement. As such, it raises serious free speech implications in my view.
Tis the season for holiday display litigation. In Sycamore, Ohio, Jasen Dixon has been cited for putting up a Nativity scene in the front of his house. Dixon’s vision however has a zombie baby that many find offensive. The citation raises serious first amendment questions in the application of a code provision barring “accessory structures” in a front yard. That seems a vague concept and one that is prone to arbitrary or capricious applications. The question is whether other, more conventional holiday displays have been allowed.
Continue reading “City Orders Removal of Ohio Man’s Zombie Nativity Scene”
There is a bizarre tragedy in a criminal matter out of Florida where suspected burglar Matthew Riggins, 22, allegedly was fleeing a crime scene and hiding from police in Barefoot Bay, Florida. He chose unwisely. He hid in a lake where he was eaten by an alligator.
In a truly shocking and facially unconstitutional plan, Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump is calling for a “total and complete shutdown” of Muslims entering the United States. The plan would violate a host of domestic and international protections, as I discussed today with the Washington Post.
We have often discussed how Islamic extremists seem to recruit mentally ill candidates for terrorist operations. What is most unnerving about the history of the couple is that they appeared to be fully functioning and relatively successful people. However, exposure to extreme elements on the Internet and in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan seemed to unleash a deep hate and latent violence within them. If that is now clear is that San Bernardino gunman Syed Farook came from a family and married a woman with extreme views on Jews and Islam. An Italian newspaper interviewed Farook’s father who offered his own bizarre take on the world. In the meantime, more is being learned about the entry of Tashfeen Malik, who married Syed Rizwan Farook after meeting him online and coming to the U.S. on a fiance visa – including this entry photograph.
Continue reading “The First Glimpse Into The Farook Family Confirms Twisted and Hateful Views”
We have another dispatch from the Worker’s Paradise. Beijing has issued its first ever “Red Alert” due to the city’s smog– forcing the capital into virtual shutdown.
We often discuss the transformative role of video technology on the prosecution of police abuse, particularly the ubiquitous presence of cellphones with video capability. However, this is not a one way street. The technology also clears some officers rather than implicates them in crimes. One such case is the controversy at a traffic stop in New Jersey after Hyacinth Peccoo, 50, of Irvington, accused Officer Daniel Caffrey of yelling and pulling a gun on her. A dash cam video not only showed that Caffrey not only did not do so but actually appeared to cut her a break on a violation.
Alaska Airlines in San Jose International airport has a bit of a problem after its employees were filmed throwing suitcases on a concrete war in a contest akin to tossing the caber. In this case it was a rolling bag, but the concept appears the same.
Continue reading “Alaska Airline Employees Videotaped Tossing Bags In Caber-Like Competition”
Monte Leon Hanson, 59, has a curious concept of a pious life. Hanson ordered a “red beer” (a mixture of beer and tomato juice) from his neighbor, Joe Lewis, who works as a bartender at the Rainbow bar in Hamilton, Montana. After drinking the red beer, Hanson learned that Lewis used Clamato tomato juice made from clam broth. He became irate that he did not use straight tomato juice because the Clamato juice was not kosher for his Jewish faith.
Continue reading “Jewish Montana Man Shoots Neighbor And Dog Over Serving Non-Kosher Drink”
Continue reading “Cosmetic Surgeon Removes Model’s Ribs To Look More Like Jessica Rabbit”
By Cara L. Gallagher, weekend contributor
This year, Groundhog Day will be celebrated on Wednesday, December 9th. That’s the day Fisher v. The University of Texas at Austin – a case that tests the use of race in admissions processes – returns to the U.S. Supreme Court. The case heads back to the SCOTUS Wednesday only two years since Fisher I. The University received a warning shot last time when a 7-1 majority remanded the case back to the lower court ordering the UT prove the only way to achieve a “critical mass” of diverse students was to do so using race as a factor in their admissions process.
That was in June of 2013. Since then UT hasn’t changed its admissions processes and the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled again last summer that the school’s use of race passed constitutional muster.
So what does this mean? It means the SCOTUS was being conciliatory last time and likely won’t be so understanding this time.
UT is going to lose this case, sending affirmative-action policies on college campuses across America into a tailspin. But not a death spiral.
Continue reading “What happens after race-based admissions policies lose in the Supreme Court?”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
Chelan County resident Martin Hoyer will not be enjoying this holiday season. He might also want to consider a new year’s resolution of finding a new illicit drug.
Hoyer admitted to smoking meth for two consecutive days and began hallucinating, hearing voices through a vent to his neighbor’s apartment. He convinced himself that the neighbor and “A bunch of Mexicans and White Guys” were conspiring to rob him.
You can only imagine how quickly things devolved from there.
Continue reading “2015 Was A Very, Very Bad Year For Chelan County Meth User”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
Seattle Police reportedly stopped a seventy-three-year-old man for driving without his headlamps on during hours of darkness. It could have been just a warning for the driver but after the officer returned from checking the driver’s status and vehicle registration he found something truly unexpected–the driver snorting cocaine.
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
It was nearly two years ago that I featured strong showing of just how uncaring and incompetent DSHS/CPS in Washington can aspire to with a terrible case of child abuse mentioned HERE.
In my previous article I wrote how in March of 2013 the children’s parents Sandra and Jeff Weller of Vancouver were each sentenced to twenty years in prison after having been convicted of fourteen counts of child abuse; double the statutory determinate maximum sentence. Clark County Superior Court Judge Barbara Johnson levied the exceptional sentence due to the severity of the crimes.
The claim against the state on behalf of five children alleges nearly ten years of abuse of the children by the parents where little to no action was taken by Child Protective Services to address the issues and protect the children from further crimes by the parents.
Now we have another example of the incompetence, indifference and permissible atmosphere the Washington Department of Social and Health Services, allowed for what reportedly amounted to a fiendish and unconscionable maltreatment of a blind, developmentally disabled child afflicted with cerebral palsy. This person suffered torturous neglect over another ten year period–despite ample amount of complaints and reports that should have directed the agency to find another foster home for the child.
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
There are times when I feel I like an analog man trapped in a digital world.
While I have worked in the past immersed in technology, including working on prototype hardware and pre-release software, I am increasingly realizing that the disposable, non-tactile, vaporware nature of life’s latest consumer purchases are trivializing life.
Several years ago when I bought my current house it came with an old Magnavox Hi-Fidelity stereo–the kind that is more a piece of woodwork furniture than anything. It is of course, very heavy, and hence the “free” nature of coming with the house, which made it at the time at least “interesting”. It seemed to be a copy of the one my parents had when I was growing up back in the 1970’s.
For the first couple of years it performed remarkably as an efficient collector of ambient dust. But, I decided should at least put it to work and make use of it. Now, it is just one of the more reasons to go back living the analog life.
Continue reading “Why I Fired My Media Player And Went Back To Basics”