New video evidence below shows Maummar Gadhafi was alive after being seized in the operation that led to his capture. What I find rather disconcerting is the treatment of this video by the media, which covered the “joy” and “celebration” of the event while ignoring the shocking abuse of a wounded man and then the parading and stripping of this corpse. We were appalled when militants paraded the bodies of Americans in Somalia and Iraq. Yet, when it is someone we hate, it barely draws mention while newspapers taunt the dead man as being pulled “from a stinking drain.”
Every year, Halloween gets scarier and scarier. I am not talking about the costumes but religious writers and activists who denounce the holiday as a pagan attack on God and faith. The creepies started early this year. Bloomberg columnist Amity Shlaes has written to denounce “the pull of the pagan” and ask people to think about how Halloween fills the vacuum left from the absence of faith.
Continue reading “Amity-ville Horror: Is Halloween A Cry For Help?”
The Fontana Unified School District board is not generally a hot bed of controversy, but it is the focus of a novel controversy after member Leticia Garcia revealed that she has a “confidential marriage” to a convicted murderer who was recently released. The existence of such confidential marriages is a surprise to most citizens, but not as much as the existence of a former convict husband for a recently elected board member who reportedly had said she was divorced.
Continue reading “Parents Demand California School Board Member Resign After Disclosure of “Confidential Marriage” To Murderer”
I am pretty certain I know the favorite graduate lab in Canada. Canadian researchers have just released the genome sequence of the Cannabis sativa, better none as The Purple Kush, one of the most potent forms of marijuana.
Soon after the news that Gadhafi had been shot, Judge Reggie Walton issued an opinion dismiss the lawsuit by members of Congress challenging the war powers claim underlying the intervention in the Libyan war without a declaration of Congress. I represent the members in that litigation. The Court declined to rule on the merits of the constitutional claims and instead held that the court does not have jurisdiction to rule on such questions. Despite the timing, the opinion did not turn on the removal of Gadhafi. The opinion is below.
Continue reading “Federal Judge Dismisses War Powers Challenge By Members of Congress”
In my torts class, we discuss the scope and purposes of dram shop laws, which expose bars and other businesses to liability for “over serving” customers who get into car crashes or other types of accidents. Washington now has such a case involving D.C. United’s Charlie Davies who is suing the owners of a local nightclub and the company Red Bull for $20 million. He is claiming that they are responsible for his injuries from a fatal car crash that dashed his hopes for joining the 2010 U.S. World Cup team.
Continue reading “Does D.C. United’s Charlie Davis Have A Valid Dram Shop Claim?”
French terrorists have landed . . . in San Antonio, Texas. That is apparently the concern of local police after arresting French teenagers who broke into a courthouse, put on a judge’s robe, played with a gavel, and ran around the hallways wearing sombreros and drinking beer. The FBI and Homeland Security have been called in to determine whether this could be an act of terrorism.
Continue reading “French “Terrorists” Break Into Texas Court, Wear Sombreros, and Play With Gavel”
Freemon Everett Seay, 38, like to punish his child the old-fashioned way . . . around the 15th Century old-fashioned. After Seay’s daughter ran away, he donned armor from the Renaissance period and forced her to do the same. He then forced her into a battle for hours until she was covered in bruises and could barely stand. Vanquished, he let his foe leave the field of battle and she promptly recorded evidence of the alleged abuse for that band of not-so-merry men in the Yelm police department.
Continue reading “Renaissance Man and County Inmate: Father Arrested After Forcing Daughter Into Armored Battle”
What do you get a new gas protoplanet just forming 450 Light Years ago. A Buzz Light Year nightlight? That is no doubt one of the pressing questions for a University of Hawaii astronomer who used the twin 10-metre Keck telescopes on Mauna Kea to capture the first direct image of a planet forming around a star. Much like human babies, it proved a bit gassy.
Below is today’s column in The Los Angeles Times on the Supreme Court granting certiorari in the Alvarez case and the constitutionality of the Stolen Valor Act. I have long been a critic of the Stolen Valor Act and supported the decision of the Ninth Circuit to strike down the law. Civil libertarians have good reason to worry.
Continue reading “The Truth Police: The Supreme Court Takes Up Stolen Valor”
Now, this could make for an interesting torts lawsuit. The Synagogue Church Of All Nations (SCOAN), a Nigerian-led Evangelical Christian church in London, has claimed to have the cure of people with HIV that involves their stopping all medications and praying for a cure. The results, critics say, has been not the promised “miracle” but three deaths.
Continue reading “Church Under Fire After Three People Die After Being Allegedly Told To Stop AIDS Drugs In Favor Of Prayer”
There is an interesting controversy in Washington where Stanley Thornton Jr., aka “Adult Baby,” has demanded an apology from Sen. Tom Coburn, who Thorton says effectively accused him of fraud when Coburn called for the Social Security Administration to review his qualification for benefits. Thornton was featured on the National Geographic channel reality television show “Taboo.” Thorton lives part of his life as an “adult baby” and collects Social Security disability payments.
Recently, I wrote a column in the Washington Post about the increasing use of faith as an issue in the 2012 presidential campaign. In the Western Republican Presidential Debate, the candidates appeared to double down on the use of politicized piety. Rick Santorum reaffirmed that a candidate’s faith was essential to his qualifications. Newt Gingrich, however, used the opportunity to again attack agnostics, atheists, and secularists – saying that you cannot trust any leader who does not pray.
Continue reading “Gingrich: You Cannot Trust Politicians Who Do Not Pray”
We just moved a little closer to making Superman obsolete. MIT scientists at the Lincoln Laboratory have announced that they have developed a new radar system that looks through walls using “ultrawideband multiple-input, multiple-output phased-array sensor.” For the rest of us, they developed x-ray vision!!!
Continue reading “MIT Scientists Discover X-Ray Vision . . . Sort Of”
A lesbian couple in California has triggered a controversy by giving their son hormone blockers to delay his puberty so that he can decided whether to be a girl or a boy. The 11-year-old boy named Tommy could decide to be a Tammy now that he is approaching puberty, but many are questioning the basis for such treatment or the ability of a minor to make such a decision. I am one of them.
Continue reading “Tommy or Tammy? California Parents Give Son Hormone Treatment To Delay Puberty To Allow Him To Explore a Female Identity”