Recently, the public was outraged by undercover videos taken in factory farms showing abuse of animals. While many legislators would see such videos and think of ways to force better conditions for animals, state Sen. Travis Holdman, a Republican from Markle, Ind., had a different reaction: make such videos by whistleblowers and journalists a crime.
Many emergency medical workers were visibly upset after prosecutors reduced charges for Michael Jaccarino, a prosecutor in the Brooklyn district attorney’s office, who attacked a female EMT in a drunken rage. Jaccarino was given just a 10 day community service sentence for his guilty plea to assaulting the ambulance worker while he was being taken to a hospital. Prosecutor Sherita Walton insisted that his drunkenness was a complete defense to intent since it was not clear if he actually intended to hurt the victim,Teresa Soler. EMT workers cried foul and suggested that prosecutors were being far more lenient on one of their own in the plea arrangement. We previously discussed the case.
The legal world is mourning today the loss of one of its intellectual leaders, Ronald Dworkin. Dworkin died in London at age 81 of Leukemia. Ironically, I received news of Dworkin’s death by a reporter with the Washington Post as I was working on a law review article discussing his theory of constitutional interpretation. [Update: Here is the Washington Post article on Dworkin]
Georgetown graduate Soma Sengupta may have been undone by sheer vanity. Sengupta had secured a position practicing in London based on a series of false documents and claims of her professional and educational history. However, it was her claim to be eight years younger than she is that caught the eye of a female clerk. The clerk raised the alarm over the misrepresentation and soon discovered the application to practice in England was riddled with false documents, including a letter of recommendation signed by Professor Robert Drinan a year after his death.
Rep. Earnest Smith has a curious understanding of the First Amendment. Smith is upset that someone photoshopped his picture by placing his head on the body of a porn star. He has responded by seeking to make such photoshopping a crime and insisting that “No one has a right to make fun of anyone. It’s not a First Amendment right.” That is news to many of us.
Professor Peter Frölich at Johns Hopkins University has always had an idiosyncratic grading curve. he would take the highest grade of his class and designate it as an A and then adjust every lower grade accordingly. Thus, if the highest score is 60 out of 100, 60 points is treated as 100 percent. It is an elegant curve until students discovered a sure fire why of guaranteeing perfect scores for everyone — they simply declined to answer any question making the top score 0. Notably, the professor (shown here) includes gaming as his academic focus.
Continue reading “Curve Breakers: Professor Gives As To Entire Class for Not Taking Exam”
Rev. Edward Fairley, a New Jersey Minister, is representing himself in a bizarre murder case where he stands accused of the attempted murder of his long-time mistress and fellow minister the Koinonia and Christian Ministries. Fairley, 59, is not denying that he viciously stabbed Simone Shields, 52, while she was getting her hair done. He is arguing to the jury that he should only be convicted of aggravated assault rather than attempted murder because he lacked premeditation.
We have previously discussed how President Obama has repeatedly yielded to the “copyright hawks” who have steadily increased the penalties for copyright and trademark violations, including criminal penalties. Despite the abuse of average citizens by thuggish law firms and prosecutors, the Obama Administration continues to support draconian measures against citizens. Even after the abuse and death of Aaron Swartz by the Justice Department, the Obama Administration has decided to double down in a case of a young mother in Northern Minnesota who was hit with grotesque penalties for simply sharing 24 songs. She was told to pay $222,000 — over 100 times the actual damages for the songs. The Obama Administration has intervened before the Supreme Court to ask for it to allow the penalty to stand as lawful and correct.
Chicago has announced that it would not renew its contract with its red-light camera vendor, Redflex Traffic Systems, part of an Australian company. The decision follows shocking disclosures of how the company showered a former city official with gifts and shared information with law enforcement.
Continue reading “Chicago Red-Light Camera Company Accused of Giving Gifts To Officials”
One would think that Iran would have its share of pressing social and political issues from the torture of prisoners to the denial of free speech to the development of nuclear weapons. However, Iran is aghast this week because of this video showing its U.N. ambassador, Ali Reza Sheik Attar, actually touching the hand of a woman. Yes, that is Attar giving a high five to Claudia Roth — a video that sent Muslim clerics in Iran scrambling to determine if he could be forgiven for such a public act of immorality. By the way, they are working on nuclear weapons.
We previously discussed how a man recently died while eating a 6,000-calorie Triple Bypass burger at the infamous Heart Attack Grill. That death followed the death of Blair River (a 572-pound obese 29-year-old man) as their spokesman. Now the restaurant’s second unofficial spokesman, John Alleman, has died of a heart attack in front of the restaurant.
Continue reading “Second Spokesman For Heart Attack Grill Dies . . . Of A Heart Attack”
Morning glories, time to shine!
Today is the birthday of Charles Darwin. Despite those intellectuals like Sarah Palin who believe that Earth is only a few thousand years old and deny evolution as a “theory,” Darwin continue to rack up proof of his work. With perfect timing for the great man’s 205th, American and European researchers have confirmed the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction during which roughly 75% of the planet’s species were killed, including almost every dinosaur, by an asteroid impact. The result was the evolution of species best suited to deal with the aftermath of the explosion 66 million years ago. Of course, for creationists, the dating of material from 66 million years ago may be rejected as simply biblically inaccurate (if not immoral), but for the rest of us it is an important new development. While Darwin did not know of the asteroid theory or the demise of the dinosaurs, he knew a lot about adaptation and survival of the fittest. Dinosaurs went from being the dominant creatures to the least competitive in the new environment.
I have previously written about the myth created by TSA that jokes at an airport security point about bombs constitute a crime. Now we have another case for this ignoble list involving Frank Hannibal, 50, who was arrested for making a simple joke to his wife and family about the ruckus caused by his jar of Crazy Richards peanut butter. He is now rightfully suing the TSA for $5 million and a verdict in his favor would do wonders to rein in this runaway agency.
This photo shows that dogs have Perry Mason moments as well — as when a dog is confronted with evidence that he chewed threw his leash.