Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., blasted the American Bar Association over its mixed evaluation of Gloria Navarro, his nominee to the United States District Court. Reid, who has previously relied on ABA ratings in opposing or supporting nominees, told the ABA to “get a new life.”
Continue reading “Reid Blasts ABA Over Nevadan Nominee”
United States District Judge Robert Gettleman in Chicago has held infomercial pitchman Kevin Trudeau in contempt after Trudeau encouraged fans to write and call his chambers. The result was clogging the court’s email and phone system. Trudeau is the author of “The Weight Loss Cure ‘They’ Don’t Want You to Know About.”
Continue reading “Bad Pitch: Weight-Loss Pitchman Trudeau Held In Criminal Contempt”
It is a numismatists’ dream come true. The Chilean mint has issued thousands of 50-peso coins with Chile misspelled as C-H-I-I-E instead of C-H-I-L-E. The manager of the Chilean mint has been dismissed.
Continue reading ““CHIIE” Coins Become Instant Collectors’ Item — And National Embarrassment”
There must be some National Association of Cheerleaders filing a complaint over this, but it is pretty funny. The important thing is that it demonstrates the concept of natural selection and the survival of the fittest on Charles Darwin Day.
Continue reading “Survival of the Fittest: Raptor Eats Cheerleader on Charles Darwin Day”
This video is perfectly mind blowing. Three security guards in a Seattle Metro bus tunnel are shown watching a group of teenagers beat and rob a 15-year-old girl and do nothing to stop it beyond calling 911.
Continue reading “Video: Three Seattle Metro Guards Watch As Teenagers Rob and Beat Girl In Front of Them”
For those who are suspicious of the massive stimulus payments to states, they need look no further than the Polk County school district where officials announced that they would give away $350,000 of free iPod Nanos. After media coverage, the school has backed down from its not-so-stimulating plan.
Continue reading “Florida School Officials Scrap Plan Give Away $350,000 Worth of Free iPods”
A surgeon in New Zealand has received a formal reprimand for using bad language in telling a severely obese patient to change her lifestyle. I wonder what the doctor in New Zealand said (in today’s story) after the teenager stole his puppy back to keep him from being euthanized, here. Hopefully, it was something like “Oh fiddlesticks, now I will never be paid.”
Continue reading “Heal Thyself: Doctor Sent to School After Swearing At Obese Patient”
Police in New Zealand have an interesting necessity defense to deal with in a theft case. Bronson Stewart’s puppy, Buck, was hit by a car and neither Stewart, 19, or his father could afford the money to pin the puppy’s broken leg back together or the lower price to have the leg mputated. While the family (which is on welfare) offered to pay $3.50 a week, the vet declined and said that it was best to euthanize Buck because he was in agony. That is when Stewart took matters into his own hands.
Continue reading “Passing the Buck: Teenager Steals Dog to Prevent It From Being Euthanized”
For many, voting for your favorite lawyers is akin to voting for your favorite parasitic worm, but LawDragon has announced the roughly 3,000 lawyers who made the cut as National Finalists to the annual selection of the top 500 lawyers. I am thankful to have been nominated (here), but the greatest interest is who is also on the list and not on the list of finalists.
Continue reading “LAWDRAGON: VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE LAWYERS”
If Charles Gill and Ryan Knight are looking at five years for throwing a snowball at a snow plow, one can only imagine what they would get using a weapon like a snow blower — a difference akin to a single-shot .22 caliber hand gun and a Thompson machine gun. Steve Negri may soon learn the answer to that question: he is accused of blowing snow on a plow driver.
Continue reading “Rap Sleet II: Pennsylvania Man Arrested for Blowing Snow on Plow Driver”
The Obama Administration has taken the rare step of criticizing a British court. Why? Because the court released a few paragraphs of a report that confirmed our abuse and torture of detainees. Spokesman Ben LaBolt denounced the release of the information and threatened to cut off access of the British to classified information in the future. Note these paragraphs do not appear to reveal any new classified technique, but rather confirm our violations of international law — evidence that the Obama Administration has been refusing to release.
Continue reading “Obama Administration Blasts British Court For Disclosing Abuses at Guantanamo Bay”
No, this is not a story about Congress. A new program shows what scientists believe it would look like to approach a black hole. Now, you can experience the light show without the inconvenience of being crushed to the size of a pea by the gravity.
Continue reading “Welcome to the Black Hole”
Republican Iowa legislator Jason Schultz has introduced legislation to rid the state courts of the scourge of . . . precedent.
Continue reading “Iowa Legislator Seeks To Bar Courts From Using Precedent or Case Law”
It is no secret that I am a dog person and I have taken heat for my warnings about a widespread cat conspiracy to enslave humans (here). However, you cannot ignore the story out of Lake Worth, Florida where Bubba, a Golden Retriever, saved a sleeping family by alerting them to a fire . . . that they believe was started by the family cat.
Continue reading “Cat Starts Fire in Family Home . . . Dog Saves Family”
This month, members of Congress have introduced an amendment to the Constitution to reverse a recent ruling by the Supreme Court to allow Congress to regulate corporation engaged in political speech. Constitutional reform is no simple task. However, if we are finally ready to amend the Constitution to achieve political reform, why not make some real changes to our system? The proposed amendment would do little but return us to the status quo before the decision in Citizens United which (in case you have a short memory) was hardly a period of celebrated good government. To paraphrase the Beatles’ song, if “you say you want a revolution,” this is not it but there is a way.
Before we can change the system, we have to change our attitude passivity and collectively declare “enough.” While our leaders control the political branches, they do not control the political process itself. That is controlled by the Constitution, which remains in control of the people, in our control. It is not too much speech or too much money that is draining the life from this Republic. It is a lack of faith in ourselves to force change without the approval or support of our leaders. If we are going to go through the constitutional amendment process, then let’s make it worth our while and achieve real political change in this country.
Below is today’s column on fundamental reforms that could change not just Congress but our political system. I discussed the column on this segment on National Public Radio.
Continue reading ““You Say You Want A Revolution”: How To Reform Our Political System”