The second highest Episcopal minister in Maryland, Bishop Suffragan Heather Cook, is under fire for an alleged fatal hit-and-run. Cook hit bicyclist Tom Palermo, 41, on a sunny Saturday afternoon, and left the father of two young children dying of a head wound on the side of the road. She returned 20 minutes later.
Continue reading “Heather Cook, Maryland’s First Female Bishop, Accused of Fatal Hit-and-Run”
During the coverage of the Ferguson protests, activist Joshua Williams, 19, became something of a celebrity as an advocate for peaceful protests. He was profiled by MSNBC and shown walking hand-in-hand with Cornel West. Williams was the counter image of the violent protesters who burned and looted Ferguson. However, this week, Williams was charged for setting fire to a convenience store during those very protests — a crime that police say he confessed to in a videotaped interview. It is sad development for a young man who garnered national attention for his work as a protest leader.
I just saw the new Hobbit movie with the kids in Chicago (which I liked) and was immediately intrigued by this story: a YouTube video on how to make your own ultimate nerdy “Sting.” Rather than detecting Orcs, this Sting detects unsecured WiFi. For the Hobbit nerd, it promises an elevation to nerdom that few single, middle-aged Hobbit wannabes still living with their parents in the basement could hope to achieve. I cannot say that the new sword will make you an Elf “chick-magnet” at the next Hobbit convention but it will get those other Hobbits pulling pens out of their pocket protectors to write down your every Bilboesque instruction.
Continue reading “Nerdvana: Video Shows You How To Make Your Own “Sting” To Glow When There Is An Unsecured WiFi Signal Near”
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan remains one of the most controversial leaders in Turkey’s history. A devout Muslim, Erdogan has steadily dismantled the secular traditions of country — a rare alternative to the Sharia systems or Islamic republics common in Muslim nations. As in those other countries, the insertion of Islamic rules have been accompanied with crackdowns on civil liberties, press freedom, women’s rights, and religious minorities. Recently, that included heavy fines for a television program for showing the immorality of a man dancing with a Western woman. Erdogan also attempted to rewrite history (with human rights) by recently declaring that Muslims discovered America . As criticism has mounted, he has inflamed his religious followers over a vast media conspiracy against his righteous policies. Now, Erdogan has attacked the use of birth control as a form of “treason” and said that women must commit themselves to having three or more children in the interests of the nation: “One or two is not enough.”
Continue reading “Erdogan: People Using Birth Control Are “Traitors””
When I was in Chicago this week for Christmas, Brian Barker, 41, was all over the news. The Edwardsville police officer is accused of being a serial burglar, including break ins while on duty. He seems wanting as a police officer but as a crook he is even worse. They found stolen items in his home and there is a security tape reportedly of him burglarizing one of the locations. The end came fittingly at the Reality Salon and Spa for Barker.
Continue reading “Reality Check: Illinois Police Officer Arrested As Allegedly Serial Burglar”
Cara L. Gallagher, Weekend Contributor
I’ve spent the holiday break in the sun-drenched state of Arizona every year for the last ten years. It’s warmer than home, I have family and old friends down here, I got married here, and I know where to find an awesome bagel. Yes, lots of reasons to be psyched about spending a week here every December. But there’s another not-so-secret reason I always look forward to returning to the Grand Canyon state – it’s for the a slim chance that I might run into the elusive Supreme Court Justice who calls this state home, Sandra Day O’Connor. Continue reading “What’s a girl gotta do to run into a Supreme Court Justice?”
Like most of humanity, I have been stunned by the sheer savagery and cruelty of the Islamic State. Yet, thousands have flocked to the ISIS forces from the West. For me, it has been a particularly shocking phenomenon. The images that repel us, attract them. Religion is clearly a release for these people. A release from the obligations of decency and humanity. Images show Islamic State fighters laughing and enjoying the torture and murder of captives. Muslim clerics with ISIS assure them that they can treat non-Muslims as lower than animals and commit rape as an Islamically pure act. It has been an incredibly depressing time for those of us who believe that humans can aspire to true greatest of spirit and caring. This Christmas, however, my daughter showed me the YouTube clip below of a man named Matt Harding who goes around the world getting people to dance with him. After watching him, my faith in humanity was restored.
Cara L. Gallagher, Weekend Contributor
When SCOTUS orders a case back to a lower court it’s rare that the case garners the same attention it received when it was in the Supreme Court. But Fisher v. The University of Texas at Austin, a critical case that still has the potential to uproot affirmative action programs in public universities – one that beckoned Justice Sandra Day O’Connor to the SCOTUS pews on decision day in June of 2013 – is one you follow post-SCOTUS. Perhaps Justice O’Connor traveled all that way to throw shade to those justices likely to upend her landmark 2003 affirmative action decision, Grutter v. Bollinger. Although the spirit of Grutter remained intact, the majority’s 7-1 decision to remand the case back to a lower court was done so with explicit instruction that the University prove they’d satisfied the necessary strict scrutiny test. The same attorneys who argued the case before the SCOTUS in 2013 stayed on the case arguing before a 3-judge panel in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. Continue reading “Affirmative action in college admissions survives. For now.”
There is an interesting twist on the usual nativity litigation that comes with the season (for a prior column, click here and here). In Ohio, Jasen Dixon has been told to take down his Nativity scene. Dixon, who manages a nearby haunted house, took a unique approach to the standard Christmas display: it shows the holy family as zombies.
Continue reading “Town Orders Ohio Man To Take Down Zombie Nativity”
We have had a great time in Chicago. The holiday went off without a hitch. The beef turned out great. I insert a whole head of garlic into the meat, which adds a great taste with the herb coating. With 29 people, it was a lot of beef but everything came off well and we had a wonderful family dinner with the Turleys from Bartlett, Naperville, Evanston, Highland Park and of course Virginia (as well as our friends Laura, Annie, Norman, and Jennifer). We finished the day with intense games of Quiz Up on our cellphones and iPads. As are now coming down from our sugar high from a record of cakes, pies, cookies, and other sweets.
If you gave a Barbie to a child in France, you might want to check the box. The French feminist group FièrEs secretly inserted pamphlets into hundreds of barbie toys and plastic guns reading “this toy is sexist. They stressed that “We have caused no damage or ripped any plastic. We simply slipped the message in boxes, or in books.” Of course, there is the injury to families who do not want to expose their children to the rantings of an extreme group that wants to use their children to make some point of social protest.
Cameron Shenk, 26, presents what can only be described as a tough defense case. A woman was in a bathroom stall in Terminal C of the Logan Airport in Boston when Shenk reportedly fell through the ceiling naked. It went from bad to worse from that point on.
Best wishes to everyone celebrating Christmas. Continue reading “MERRY CHRISTMAS!”
Charles DiRosa, 27, has been criminally charged in Chicopee, Massachusetts after he posted “Put Wings on Pigs” to Facebook. It was a despicable act after the murder of two New York police officers, but in my view it was protected speech.
Continue reading “Massachusetts Man Arrested For Posting “Put Wings On Pigs” On Facebook”
We have previously seen how people attempt to cash in on political and social expressions under the increasingly absurd copyright and trademark laws in this country. Now joining this ignoble group is Catherine Crump, 57, of Waukegan, Illinois, who has applied for the trademark on “I Can’t Breathe.” In doing so, Crump not only is attempting to cash in on the words of the deceased Eric Garner, but a nationwide protest movement. So, while tens of thousands have been trying to find ways to protest what they view as police brutality, Crump has been trying to find a way to make money out of the tragedy and the movement.
Continue reading “Illinois Woman Files For Trademark Protection On Phrase “I Can’t Breathe””