We have previously discussed the lower criminal sentences handed down in England in comparison to the United States. Some such cases truly shock the conscience as in the case of Jordan Sheard (left). Sheard had long bullied Steven Simpson (right) for being gay as well as for his speech impairment and epilepsy. Sheard got Simpson to strip to his underwear and wrote gay slurs over his body which was covered with tanning oil. He then lit him on fire at his birthday party.
British businessman Jim McCormick is accused of a dangerous and despicable con. He is charged with making slight modification to cheap golf ball detectors and then selling them as bomb detectors at a “handsome but unwarranted profit.” McCornick allegedly would charge various governments up to £27,000 for the devices that were entirely useless. The ball finders can be purchased for just $20 in the states.
I woke this morning to find this Spring scene in my backyard. While I do not mind snow, it is a bitter pill for my kids who get a snow day while on Spring break when there is no school. At five this morning, I ran out to bring in the Spring plantings that we bought two days ago. I acted on the best of advice: Punxsutawney Phil assured me of an early Spring and once again the world’s most famous living rodent was wrong. The late Winter has already resulted in calls for beheadings and criminal charges for Phil.
Continue reading “Kill Phil: Calls For Justice For Punxsutawney Phil In The Face Of A Late Winter”
Brett Zorse, 50, (shown here in a photo from Facebook) reportedly had a curious defense when he was accused of fondling a female passenger next to him on a JetBlue flight with his 12-year-old son. The alleged victim told police that when she confronted him he told her crudely that at least he did not penetrate her. Not exactly the best criminal defense the New Yorker could stake out on a charge of assault. He told police that he thought he had “bonded” with the 32-year-old woman. However, the federal assault provision seems dangerously vague on the element of this crime.
Continue reading “New York Man Charged with Assaulting Woman on Flight With His Teenage Son”
By Mike Appleton, Guest Blogger
Lawyers who do commercial litigation are familiar with the concept known as “piercing the corporate veil.” A principal purpose for doing business in corporate form is to avoid personal liability for business debts. But the veil of protection afforded by the corporate entity can be lost under certain circumstances, exposing a controlling shareholder to personal liability. Although the application of the concept varies a bit from state to state, the general rule is that “courts will look through the screen of a corporate entity to the individuals who compose it in cases in which the corporation was a mere device or sham to accomplish some ulterior purpose, or is a mere instrumentality or agent of another corporation or individual owning all or most of its stock, or where the purpose is to evade some statute or to accomplish some fraud or illegal purpose.” Biscayne Realty & Insurance Co. v. Ostend Realty Co., 109 Fla. 1, 148 So. 460, 564 (1933).
In short, no majority shareholder would concede that his company is his alter ego. Right? Well, maybe not. Recently some shareholders have been arguing, and successfully, that their companies are indeed mere instrumentalities.
Continue reading “The Corporate Veil Meets the First Communion Veil”
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw)-Guest Blogger
Much has been written about New York City’s stop and frisk policies, but until now, the evidence of who the police were stopping and why was not a matter of public record. A recent class action suit has opened the door to learning the true numbers involved as well as the accurate demographics of just who is getting stopped by the NYPD. “New York police officers testifying before a federal court this week said that racist quotas imposed by ranking officers are behind the police department’s controversial stop-and-frisk program, confirming years of accusations made by civil rights and community advocates that the department’s tactics disproportionately target minorities. Continue reading “Probable Cause..Black, Latino and Young”
By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
Stung by the historic defeat in last year’s presidential election, the GOP has embarked upon a relaunch of its ideology. RNC chair Reince Priebus has approved a strategy paper (click to read) composed by Republican bigwigs Henry Barbour (Haley’s nephew) and Ari Fleischer that makes a remarkable discovery:
The Republican Party must be the champion of those who seek to climb the economic ladder of life. Low-income Americans are hard-working people who want to become hard-working middle-income Americans. Middle-income Americans want to become upper-middle-income, and so on. We need to help everyone make it in America.
In one of the truly moronic acts from a government official, the Department of Education posted a mangled quote of Chinese Communist Party leader Mao Zedong on its website as the saying of the day for children. It is clear that whoever approved it had no idea who Mao was or the atrocities that he committed, particularly during the Cultural Revolution when intellectuals were massacred. The quote was taken down after various sites pointed out the irony. It was replaced by a quote from Lincoln.
Continue reading “Reeducation: The Department of Education Pulls Mao Quote”
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
Al-Hayat al-Jadida, the official daily newspaper of the Palestinian Authority, published an Op-ed by Hassan Ouda Abu Zaher. The Op-ed states: “to the lie about Al-Qaeda and the Sept. 11 events, which asserted that Muslim terrorists committed it, and that it was not an internal American action by the Freemasons.” While there are many conspiracy theories about the Sept. 11 attacks, there are usually relegated to fringe websites. Unsurprisingly, no evidence is presented to support such a fanciful claim.
Continue reading “Palestinian Authority Newspaper: Freemasons Behind Sept. 11 Attacks”
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
This week’s proof of human intelligence can be found in the new phenomenon called “reverse graffiti” where artists remove dirt from walls to create their masterpieces.
Continue reading “Signs Of Human Intelligence: Reverse Graffiti”
We previously discussed how the number of dead pigs in Chinese rivers leading to Shanghai has increased from a few hundred to just under 1000. The number is now 16,000 and counting. Yet, Chinese officials insist they have no idea who dumped over 16,000 pigs into the water but that the rivers, used for drinking water, is completely safe.
Continue reading “16,000 and Counting: Chinese Continue To Pull Out Dead Pigs From River Used By Shanghai Residents”
We have been following (here and here and here and here and here) the worsening situation in England concerning free speech. As noted in a recent column, free speech appears to be dying in the West with the increasing criminalization of speech under discrimination, hate, and blasphemy laws. Now, a French Jewish student group is adding its name to the movement to curtail free speech rights. The Union of Jewish Students (UEJF) is demanding 38.5 million euros after Twitter has declined to turn over the identity of people responsible for comments deemed anti-Semitic by the group. The students appear to have no concept or at least concern for the loss of anonymity in free speech. Like others, they are focused only on their insular grievance with no appreciation for the harm caused by such court orders.
Austin Whaley may be barred from saying one word but he is luckier than Tyree Carter who is barred from all libraries anywhere in the world. In Racine, Wisconsin, Carter has been accused of engaging in lewd behavior in a library. He has been ordered to stay out of “all the libraries on the face of the earth.”
Continue reading “Wisconsin Man Barred From “All The Libraries On The Face Of The Earth.””
All professors have a pet peeve that can produce stern warning or even requests to leave a classroom. However, Professor Danny Lloyd may have the most unique. In his anatomy and physiology class at a community college, he will flunk anyone who asks about Stanley Kubricks “The Shining.” It turns out that Lloyd played the creepy kid, Danny Torrence, in the movie.
Continue reading “KNULF, KNULF: Professor Bans Students From Mentioning “The Shining” In Class”