We have long followed trend toward “Make My Day” and “Make My Day Better” laws (also known as “Castle Doctrine” laws) allowing homeowners to kill anyone who invades their homes (here). Some of us have been very critical of these laws as unnecessary and based on a misrepresentation of both the criminal and common law. Citizens are being told that they could be sued for defending their homes from invaders. Now politicians in Pennsylvania have latched on a new gimmick: a law called “stand your ground” that allows people to use lethal force to defend their homes from the outside.
Continue reading “Pennsylvania Passes New Castle Doctrine Law”
Brownmark Films is suing “South Park” creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker in a case that seems right out of one of the South Park scripts. The court will decide whether Stone and Parker stole copyrighted material from “What What (in the Butt) — a music video that went viral. They are accused of stealing the idea from the website CollegeHumor, but the show insists that this is simply protected parody.
Continue reading “Parody or Pilfering? Court to Decide What’s What (In The Butt)”
Steptoe & Johnson has prevailed against a burger restaurant, Rogue States, after the law firm complained that the fumes from the restaurant made them all smell like short-order cooks. Indeed, one of the firm’s “rainmakers” even reportedly threatened to resign from the firm if the burger smells were not removed from his office. D.C. Superior Court judge John Mott ruled that Rogue States was indeed responsible for a nuisance and must either abate the odors or close down.
Continue reading “Hold the Fries: Did Burger Joint Get Raw Deal on Moby Dick Nuisance?”
Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler has moved to fine a GOP political consultant to former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (left) for thousands of false calls to suppress the vote in the recent governor’s race to help out Ehrlich. Republican political consultant Julius Henson and his company Universal Elections sent out thousands of calls to convince Democratic voters to stay at home by telling them that they had already won the election. Also named is employee, Rhonda Russell, who reportedly taped the message — which Gansler alleges violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by not identifying who was behind the messages.
Continue reading “Maryland Attorney General Seeks $60 Million Fine Against GOP Consultant”
This is a terrific speech given by 14-year-old Ann Arbor student Graeme Taylor who is defending Howell High School teacher Jay McDowell, who was disciplined after throwing out two students for anti-gay statements. The controversy, however, gets a bit murkier on closer examination for free speech advocates.
Continue reading “Hate Speech or Free Speech? Michigan Teacher Challenges Discipline Over Removal of Two Students From Economics Class”
In England, four prison officers were injured after discovering Charles Bronson naked in a gym and covered in butter. Ok, this might need a bit of explanation. Bronson, it turns out, is England’s most violent prisoner — a man who has spent nearly all of the last 36 years in prison for one violent crime or another. On this effort, he decided to butter himself to make it more difficult for guards to grab him — it worked. It took 12 guards to finally subdue the greased con.
Continue reading “Do You Want Butter With That Bronson?”
In Manchester, New Hampshire, a woman has learned the costs of vanity . . . well at least vanity plates. Bonnie Usher, 43, allegedly was careful to hide her face in a hooded sweatshirt when she robbed a Rite Aid. The problem was the getaway car: her car boasted vanity plates reading “B-USHER.” It did not take long for the police to arrive at her house and recover the cash.
Part I
Earlier this year, the Texas State Board of Education removed children’s author Bill Martin Jr. from a proposal to include him in the third-grade curriculum section. Martin would have been put on a list of authors who had made cultural contributions—along with Laura Ingalls Wilder and Carmen Lomas Garza—until board member Pat Hardy made the motion to toss out Bill Martin’s name. You see, Hardy had learned that “Bill Martin” had written an adult book that contains “very strong critiques of capitalism and the American system” from another board member named Teri Leo.
It was while Leo was researching Bill Martin on the Borders.com Web site that she discovered that he had written a book called Ethical Marxism. Leo alerted Hardy to her discovery in an email. Hardy explained: “She said that that was what he wrote, and I said: ‘ … It’s a good enough reason for me to get rid of someone.’ ”
Continue reading “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?—I See Anti-Marxists Looking at Me!”
Minnesota Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann has a knack for saying just the right thing. She famously educated Chris Matthews on the merits of guilt by association saying “…usually we associate with people who have similar ideas to us, and it seems that it calls into questions what Barack Obama’s true beliefs, and values, and thoughts are…I am very concerned that he [Barack Obama] may have anti-American views.” Now, Bachman is inviting conservative commentator Sean Hannity and Christian evangelical author David Barton to teach lawmakers the nuances of Constitutional law. Bachmann originally considered Supreme Court Justices Scalia or Clarence Thomas but neither could match Hannity’s honorary degree (he dropped out of two colleges) from the late Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University, or Barton’s religious education BA degree from Oral Roberts Univerity.
Continue reading “Hannity & Barton on Con Law: Required Reading at Tea Parties”
Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio has been the right-wing poster boy for tough law enforcement. Subjecting his prisoners to spoiled food, tent villages in scorching heat, pink underwear, and then launching criminal investigations against public officials who challenged him just added to his “Walking Tall,” tough-cop credentials among his backers. He also is the moving force behind Arizona’s tough anti-immigration law backing Governor Jan Brewer in her “Show Me Ze Papers” campaign against Mexican immigrants. Now it seems the worm has turned, and Maricopa County officials are wondering why Arpaio needs to keep two sets of books.
Some of you may recall reading Professor Turley’s recent post about a Massachusetts priest who allegedly stole more than $80,000 from his parish to support his pornography habit. Well, there’s a new story about a priest in Spain who is alleged to have saved more than 20,000 pornographic images of children on his computer.
Earlier this week, Professor Turley wrote a post about the “Twinkie Diet.” That story inspired me to pen a silly poem on the subject of Mark Haub’s junk food regimen for losing weight.
Eating junk food every day
Can melt your excess pounds away.
Count calories—it’s simple as that—
And you’ll be able to shed your fat.
Here is Mark Haub’s Twinkie diet—
Go on. I recommend you try it.
Here’s how to begin:
Pop a vitamin.
Drink a protein shake.
Eat a cream-filled cake.
Chew a brownie too.
Chug a Mountain Dew.
Carolee Bildsten (left), 56, of Gurnee Illinois, has been charged with aggravated assault for threatening a Chicago police officer with a “rigid female pleasure device.” The officer was unharmed as he deftly deflected the devilish device.