Two German vultures have found themselves on the front lines of gay rights after zookeepers discovered their same-sex relationship and proceeded to force them to go straight with female vultures. After the two male partners (Guido and Detlef) were forced to nest with females rather than each other, gay activists mounted a campaign alleging zoological homophobia.
Continue reading “Birds of a Feather: Gay Activists Protest Decision to Force Two Male Vultures To Nest With Females”
It is that time of the year for our annual blawgletting — the ABA top blog competition. We have once again been selected as one of the top 100 legal blogs (of over 3000) and nominated for the IMHO (opinion) category and it is time to release our minions upon the field of blog battle. Vote here to defend our way of life and the future of the planet.
Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), the incoming chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, has called for WikiLeaks to be officially designated as a terrorist organization. This would, of course, allow the same designation for The New York Times and other organizations to be declared terrorists for publishing leaked stories on torture, secret prisons, or the Pentagon Papers.
While the world is reacting to leaks indicating that Saudi Arabia is funding Al Qaeda and Clinton ordered diplomats to engage in espionage, Sens. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) have called for the prosecution of those responsible for the leaks.
Continue reading “McCaskill and Graham Call For Prosecution in Wikileaks Case”
In what could prove one of the interesting lawsuits over art ownership in decades, the estate of Pablo Picasso has filed suit against a retired French electrician and his wife after they came forward with 271 previously unknown works by the artist. The estate is claiming illegal receipt of the works — a nice way of saying they were stolen. Pierre Le Guennec, 71, says that they were all gifts.
Continue reading “Trove of 271 Picasso Paintings Found in House of Retired Electrician”
The victory of the Bears over the Eagles yesterday was marred by the death of a fan at Soldier Field — the second recent death at a major sporting event this month. The man has been identified as Stewart Haverty, 23.
Continue reading “Man Falls To Death During Bears-Eagles Game in Chicago”
Finally, I can throw out that cheap atomic clock in my basement. For years, I have been complaining that, no matter how much I tweak by atomic clock, it is always off a second every billion years. Now, for that difficult to buy for family member who has everything, James Chou and his colleagues at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, have developed a laser-controlled quantum logic clock that oscillates at a frequency of 1.12×10^15 times per second — a million times faster than the speed of light. The only problem is that it does not tell time and does not yet come in a wrist version. However, these researchers brilliantly released the clock before Christmas.
Continue reading “Perfect Stocking Stuffer: The New Quantum Logic Clock”
Some of you may remember Dirty Dog!: A Sunday Pooch Poetry Post about my daughter’s yellow Lab Jack who is a bit of a rascal. Jack is frisky. He loves to chew on all manner of objects. It’s doesn’t matter whether the objects are edible or not.
Jack has a younger brother—a cat named Rudy. Rudy is also “out of control” at times…just like his elder sibling. Rudy loves to tease Jack in a number of ways—including hiding behind walls, waiting for Jack to come around the corner, and then swatting Jack in the face with his paw.
Deon Williams, a 19-year-old from Brooklyn, was caught shoving a 12-pound Boar’s Head turkey breast down his sweatpants on a store surveillance video. The teen then waddled out of the Fine Fare Grocery in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
Alerted by cashier Michelle Benjamin of the teen’s “fowl” deed, the store butcher, Sergio Marte, chased after the poultry poacher and demanded that he return the turkey. Williams dumped the filched fowl and then punched the butcher in the jaw when he bent over to retrieve it.
Continue reading “A Fowl Idea, A Furtive Glance, A Little Turkey Down His Pants”
GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has stated that his principal goal is to cause Obama to lose in 2012. Tangible improvements in the economy are key to Obama’s reelection. If, as the GOP claims, Obama’s policies are bad for the economy, then the GOP should give him everything he proposes and reap the political benefits in the 2012 election. If, on the other hand, the GOP fears that Obama’s policies will revitalize the economy, then those policies must be obstructed in any way possible.
The April raising of the debt ceiling will show if the GOP priority is the economy or their own political ambitions.
Rush doesn’t like GM, whom he calls Obama Motors. GM is unionized, from a state with two Democratic Senators, and bailed out by the Obama Administration. So when GM came out with the Volt and Motor Trend magazine named it their 2011 car of the year, Rush was incredulous. How dare Motor Trend not share his bias against GM!
Rush questioned the integrity of Motor Trend and one of the magazine’s editors, Todd Lassa, responded:
Sunday cool video time.
-David Drumm (Nal)
Just ran across this gem. Who is the funniest Supreme Court Justice? A 2005 study reported in the New York Times has the answer. Boston University Professor J.D. Wexler has conducted a survey of the transcripts of SCOTUS oral arguments, and … drum roll, please … Justice Antonin Scalia is the semi-official “Court Jester,” with 77 laughs. Justice Stephen Breyer came in second with 45, and Justice Ginsburg quipped in just four laughs. Bringing up the rear was the “Harpo Marx” of the troupe, Justice Clarence Thomas, who added zero Continue reading “Take My Scalia, Please!”
John Fiala, a 52-year-old Roman Catholic priest, has been charged with soliciting a hit man to kill a teenager who had accused him of sexual abuse. Fiala, who was arrested on November 18th, is being held on $700,000 bond.
Earlier this year, the priest was named in a lawsuit brought by the teen’s family. The boy’s parents accused the priest of sexually abusing their son—and of forcing the young man to have sex with him twice at gunpoint.
The Tea Party sees Thanksgiving as a morality tale about finding salvation in Capitalism. The Pilgrims were failed Socialists who turned to Capitalism for survival. Only after foregoing communal ownership of property and allowing private ownership did the colony prosper. (Communism could also have been used, but socialism is the bogey meme du jour.)
The actual historical details are much more interesting than the Tea Party myth.
Continue reading “The Tea Party Meaning of Thanksgiving: Socialism Doesn’t Work”