As we put the finishing touches on the summary judgment motion and brief in the Sister Wives case, a friend sent me this story out of Idaho. Five Wives Vodka has been told by the state of Idaho that it will ban the booze as insulting to the large Mormon population.
Continue reading “Idaho Bans “Five Wives Vodka” As Insulting To Mormons”
Pentecostal pastor Mark Randall “Mack” Wolford was one of the nation’s leading advocates of snake handling as an article of faith. Last Sunday, he sent a message to the faithful to join him at a state park for “homecoming like the old days” with “Holy Ghost-filled speaking-in-tongues sign believers.” Wolford then proceeded to handle snakes as a demonstration of the immunity given by God to those who believe. He was then bitten and died. It came 29 years after his father — another religious snake handler — died from a snakebite in 1983.
Either this is a grooming gone bad or the Talosians from Star Trek have crossed over into canine blood lines with telepathic abilities.
Continue reading “Canine Talosian: You Will Bring Me A Treat, You Will Bring Me A Treat . . .”
He has killed scores of his own citizens and political opponents. He has devastated a nation, reducing it to unspeakable poverty while he and his family live in unrivaled luxury. He has denied everyone in his country every basic right and liberty. He has turned Zimbabwe into a pariah nation. And now Robert Mugabe is the newest ambassador for tourism for the United Nations. He will now work with the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) which appears interested in enlisting the help of dictators on vacation.
Continue reading “U.N. Makes Dictator Robert Mugabe An Ambassador For Tourism”
In Afghanistan, the struggle for basic rights for women continues to be a struggle for life itself. Today officials confirmed that 160 were poisoned in what is viewed as another attack by Muslim extremists. Last month, 170 schoolgirls and three teachers were poisoned. Muslim extremists oppose the education of women and the Karzai Administration, while supporting such education, has been accused of rolling back on the gains of women and girls following the fall of the Taliban. These “men of God” continue to believe that killing or maiming little girls pleases Allah and makes them spiritually pure, including throwing acid in the faces of little girls. Fortunately, there is no word of deaths yet and many children have been released from the hospital.
Continue reading “330 Schoolgirls And Teachers Poisoned In One Month in Afghanistan”
This reads like a torts exam question. A group of frat brothers allegedly want to celebrate the end of the year with some book burning at Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity house at Louisiana Tech in Ruston, Louisiana. The text books then cause a large fire that ultimately claims not just the frat house but the nearby apartment building. The motto of the fraternity is “Once a Pike, Always a Pike.”
Police have identified the man shot in the midst of chewing the face off a victim in Florida. Police shot and killed Rudy Eugene, 31, after they found him along a highway naked while biting off the face of of his victim. What is more important in the future is that the cause of insane rampage appears to be “bath salts,” a new form of LSD.
Continue reading “Cannibal In Florida Believed To Have Been High On “Bath Salts””
The lawyers for juice maker Pom Wonderful appear to have found a way to make lemonade from a lemon. After the company was hit by a largely negative ruling by Administrative Judge D. Michael Chappell over false advertising of the health benefits of his product, the company used lines from the opinion as part of its new advertising. Many have complained that the selective quotation is misleading. Whatever the accuracy, it is a move that will not go over well with Chappell or other judges.
Continue reading “Pom Wonderful: Recommended By One Out Of One Administrative Judge”
I could not resist taking a picture of this sign in front of the Pork Barrel BBQ in Alexandria, Virginia when the family was out walking last night after buying ice cream on Memorial Day. Over at the corporate headquarters of Safeway, executives wish they had two fewer pigs after the company’s General Counsel cracked a joke about Hillary Clinton and Speaker Nancy Pelosi that has been denounced as sexist.
Best wishes to all on this Memorial Day. It is a sobering holiday on the heels of our passing the 3000 death in Afghanistan alone. This week we also learned that half of our returning veterans are filing for disability. While some of us opposed these wars, we still are united as a country in our gratitude and respect for the men and women who have put themselves in harm’s way in foreign lands. The cost to these heroes and their families is a debt that we can never fully repay.
Continue reading “Happy Memorial Day”
The U.S. Justice Department again showed how its protects its own in scandals involving government lawyers. The DOJ has long been notorious in refusing to seriously punish its own lawyers for wrongdoing while pushing the legal envelope on criminal charges against others. The slightest discrepancy in testimony or omission in reporting can bring a criminal charge from the DOJ. The DOJ is particularly keen in finding intentional violations or substitute for intent in federal rules — bending laws to the breaking point to secure indictments. However, when its attorneys are accused of facilitating torture or lying to the court or withholding evidence, the general response is a long investigation and then a slap on the wrist. This week is no exception. Waiting until late Thursday to inform Congress to guarantee a low media coverage, the DOJ announced that it had found no intentional violations by its attorneys in the failed prosecution of U.S. Senator Ted Stevens — despite the contrary finding made by an independent investigation. Instead, the investigation again offered rhetorical punishment as a substitute for true punishment — declaring that the attorneys were only guilty of “reckless professional misconduct.” As a result, Joseph Bottini will be suspended for only 40 days and James Goeke will be suspended for 15 days. Even that level of punishment is viewed as noteworthy for the DOJ given its prior history of whitewashing misconduct by its attorneys. Even the finding of misconduct and brief suspension was contested within the department by Terrence Berg, a lawyer with the department’s Professional Misconduct Review Unit.
Germany’s economy is viewed as the most successful major economy in the world today and the key bedrock for European recovery. While many conservative leaders in the United States are calling on the tearing up of environmental protections to help our economy, Germany has shown the fallacy of that claim. The Germans continue to set new records on environmental protection. This week the German solar power plants produced a world record 22 gigawatts of electricity per hour — literally half of the energy used through the key midday hours in the country.
Continue reading “Germany Hits Record In Solar Power With 50% Of Energy During Mid-Day Hours”
Scientists are warning that the world could face a new HIV strain as a result of the failure to stop poachers from killing great apes and monkeys for “bushmeat.” We have previously seen how bushmeat remains a great draw for Africans even in the United States. However, scientists are warning that it could be humanity itself that will bear the costs of the continuing slaughter of apes and monkeys as humans are exposed to new strains that are highly compatible with human bodies.
Continue reading “Experts: Bushmeat May Trigger Mass Death Pandemic”
One of my former students sent me this video of a harrowing experience of an 80-year-old woman named Laverne who almost falls out of her harness in a parachute jump. I have long collected “falling body” cases of torts involving falling human and animal bodies (which we discuss in class). This one will have to go into the negligence section, though ultrahazardous activities might be an option.
Continue reading “Video Captures 80-Year-Old Woman Coming Out Of Parachute On Birthday Jump”
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence Rafferty (rafflaw)- Guest Blogger
It was just a small news item on the blog site, but it had a big impact on me. It was reported that two female soldiers have filed suit against the Defense Department in an attempt to force the military to allow women soldiers to fight on the front lines along with men. They are alleging that women soldiers are being denied their Equal Protection rights under the Fifth Amendment by the military holding them back from fighting on the front lines in all military jobs. Continue reading “Front Line Ladies”