Legal Commentary

The Good Faith Defense: Cherie Booth (Wife of Tony Blair) Under Fire For Sparing Man Due to the Fact That He is Religious

Posted on February 06, 2010
After her husband former Prime Minister Tony Blair declared secularists to be an equal or greater danger than terrorists (here), his wife Cherie Booth is under fire for granting leniency to a man accused of criminal assault because he is religious. Her statement in court would suggest that, if the man were an atheist [...

Frozen Water or Snowpocalypse? Washington Descends Into Panic With Approaching Storm

Posted on February 05, 2010
This is getting a bit out of control, folks. I know that I am a Chicago native with a snow attitude but people in this town are doing everything short of sacrificing their young to please the Snow God. I just came back from the store where people seem to be preparing for the final [...

Heinz Drops Classic Ketchup Packet and Destroys The Hopes and Dreams of Children Around the Country

Posted on February 05, 2010
In a shocking development, Heinz company is about to issue a new package for ketchup. No one seems to realize the clear import of this thoughtless corporate act for children across the country. One of the most defining moments for all adolescents in this country is the use of creamers or ketchup packages for the [...

New York Court to Decide Whether Human Genes Can Be Patented

Posted on February 05, 2010
There is an interesting case developing in New York where a court is being asked to declare that companies cannot patent human genes. The case involves a patent claim by Myriad Genetics, and the University of Utah Research Foundation, In 1994, the company and foundation isolated the DNA sequence for the BRCA1 and later [...

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Flasher Identified By His Pronounced . . . Tooth

Posted on February 05, 2010
In what may be something of a disappointment for Ian Rushing, 27, women identified the Oregon man as the alleged “St. Helens Flasher” by his pronounced bad tooth. Rushing is accused to grabbing women and exposing himself at the Cascade Cleaners in St...

Aged Shackleton Scotch: Crates Found Buried in Arctic Ice Under Shackleton?s Shack

Posted on February 05, 2010
For those of us who are Sir Ernest Shackleton groupies, this story is wonderful. Five crates of whisky and brandy belonging to Shackleton have been recovered from under the Antarctic ice after 100 years. Just for the record, as we wait to receive our estimated 30 inches of snow today, I am burying [...

Sixteen-Year-Old Turkish Girl Buried Alive in Honor Killing

Posted on February 05, 2010
We have another Islamic honor killing, but this one adds a horrific element: burying the victim alive. Turkish police believe that the 16-year-old girl was buried alive in south-eastern Turkey in a town called Kahta. The family was upset that the girl was seen speaking with boys and held a “council” meeting...

Obama Administration Claims Right to Kill Americans Suspected of Terrorism

Posted on February 04, 2010
Today in a congressional hearing, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair acknowledged that the U.S. may, with executive approval, deliberately target and kill U.S. citizens who are suspected of being involved in terrorism. I discussed this story in the segment on MSNBC Countdown below...

Self-Help Guru James Ray Arrested

Posted on February 04, 2010
We have been following the criminal investigation into the deaths at a sweat lodge run by self-help guru James Ray. Ray has now been arrested Wednesday and charged with manslaughter in deaths of three people at the Arizona sweat lodge ceremony. His temporary self-help zone will be the Camp Verde Detention Center...

Goth Cats: Woman Convicted of Animal Cruelty for Piercings

Posted on February 04, 2010
There is an interesting case out of Pennsylvania where a dog groomer has been convicted of animal cruelty for ear and neck piercings. It is the defense of Holly Crawford that makes the case particularly notable. Crawford, 35, was marketing “gothic kittens” on the Internet with ear and neck piercings...

Soft on Sharia? Saudi Arabia Gives Rape Victim 100 Lashes But Is Outdone By Bangladesh Which Gives Rape Victim 101 Lashes

Posted on February 04, 2010
Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh seem to be vying for which country is the most repressive in the application of Islamic Sharia law. The Saudi courts have ordered a Filipino woman to be lashed 100 times after she was raped. The Bangladesh courts outdid their Saudi counterparts and ordered a girl lashed 101 times [...

Clarence Thomas Defends Recent Ruling on Campaign Finance

Posted on February 04, 2010
Associate Justice Clarence Thomas appeared to take on President Obama this week in discussing the ruling in Citizens United — contradicting the President’s portrayal in the State of the Union. In my view, the President did overstate the holding (not unheard of in the halls of Congress), but I continue to despair over the [...

Houston Judge Resigns After Claims of Bias Against Domestic Abuse Victims

Posted on February 04, 2010
Harris County criminal Court-at-Law Judge Reagan Helm has resigned after protests over his allegedly taunting remarks to victims of domestic violence. Helm, 68, reportedly admitted to suffering from dementia and having “medical issues.” He was accused of extreme bias against women in these cases...

The Problem With Trolls: Florida Police Arrest Three ?Trolls? Demanding Payment to ?Cross the Bridge?

Posted on February 04, 2010
Police in Florida have been dealing with the long-ignored menace of trolls. While we are all taught how to trick trolls in the “Three Billy Goats Gruff,” the victim forgot the “rob-me-when-I’m-fatter” trick when Jimmy Lee Morris (27), Dylan Patrick O?Shea (18), and Christopher L...

Fighting Crime . . . One Statistic A Time: Brooklyn Police Accused of Fixing the Books

Posted on February 03, 2010
There is an interesting investigation in Brooklyn where Internal Affairs is looking into allegations that Brooklyn police officers refused to take criminal complaints and downgraded crimes to lower crime statistics. It brings a new meaning to officers warning people not to become a statistic...

Family Research Council?s Peter Sprigg Calls For Preservation of ?Don?t Ask, Don?t Tell? . . . And The Criminalization of Homosexuality

Posted on February 03, 2010
Family Research Council’s Peter Sprigg does not appear quite ready to accept gays serving the country in the military. On Hardball, he not only opposed the elimination of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy but argued that all gays should be arrested as criminals...

Faith-Healing Parents in Oregon Convicted of Negligent Homicide

Posted on February 03, 2010
A church in Oregon has the infamous reputation of killing children in the name of faith. Now, two parents — Jeff and Marci Beagley — have been found guilty of negligent homicide. Their case was discussed in this prior column. It is a welcomed charge (often religious parents are given lesser charges [...

Pay Misty for Me: Courts Mull Over Restitution Payments to Victims of Child Pornography From Possessors

Posted on February 03, 2010
In a disgusting pornographic collection called “the Misty series,” a little girl named Amy was photographed by her uncle who then distributed the pictures worldwide on the Internet. As discussed earlier, now an adult, Amy has succeeded to securing restitution not from her uncle but from a man who was found in possession of [...

Spray-On Glass is Coming

Posted on February 03, 2010
It appears that a Turkish company has perfected the invention of “liquid glass” in a breakthrough that will likely make it and its German patent holder fantastically wealthy. With the United States pouring billions into these wars (while cutting educational budgets) and countries like China spending equally on new research (here), we will increasingly [...

France Refuses Citizenship to Moroccan Man Who Forces Wife To Wear Veil

Posted on February 03, 2010
France has been stepping up its opposition to the Muslim tradition of women wearing full veils. It has not only moved toward a ban in public places, but it has now denied citizenship to a Moroccan man for his attitude toward women, including forcing his wife to wear a veil...

Goose, Goose, . . . Duck!

Posted on February 03, 2010
This video shows the ugly face of the goose peril being ignored by our leaders. When will we stopping ignoring the menace of Anatidae on attack? When a champion like Drew Gregory cannot go on the river without facing goose taunting, this country is going to the birds...

Early Draft of Constitution Found

Posted on February 02, 2010
Lorianne Updike Toler, lawyer and head of the Constitutional Sources Project in Pennsylvania, has found a rare early draft of the United States Constitution in the hand of James Wilson. It is a major historical and legal find at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania...

HAPPY GROUNDHOG DAY!

Posted on February 02, 2010
Yes, it is time for the world’s most famous rodent to fixate the nation with his shadow-phobic response. It appears that good people of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania have rejected the demand of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) to free Phil into the wild and get a robotic groundhog (which presumably would [...

Sex, Surfing, and the SEC: Investigation Finds Workers Surfing For Porn on Government Computers

Posted on February 02, 2010
Ever wonder what those guys at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission were doing during the financial market meltdown. A recent investigation uncovered more than two dozen SEC employees and contractors were surfing for porn on their computers, including one supervisor who made more than 1,800 attempts to look up pornography in a 17-day [...

Tenant Calls Police After Landlord Found Naked On Her Couch . . . Landlord Evicts Tenant

Posted on February 02, 2010
If you feel that your landlord is a pain, you may want to consider the alternative. Meet Ivan Rak, 45, who was arrested after being found naked on the couch of a tenant. The tenant says that Rak has been harassing her and later evicted her in Lorain, Ohio...

Police Run Over Woman?s Dog and Then Charge Her For Damage To Cruiser

Posted on February 02, 2010
When Heidi Schwank, 65, was told by police that her Australian Shepherd Robby had been hit by a car on the highway in Germany, she was predictably upset. However, she became incensed later when she learned that Roddy was intentionally run over by the police and then presented with a bill for the damage [...

Death Cat: Staff At Nursing Home Claim To Have Cat That Predicted Over 50 Deaths

Posted on February 02, 2010
Even for cat lovers, Oscar the Cat is not a welcomed sight in your bed at Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode Island. The unsociable cat is known to curl up in bed with only one type of patient: those who have only hours to live...

Study: All You Need To Run Is A Pair Of Feet

Posted on February 02, 2010
While the old adage said “all you need to run is a pair of shoes,” researchers have found (and reported in Nature magazine) that all you need is a pair of feet. In their study, the researchers found that, before the invention of shoes, humans ran differently ...

Washington Woman Allegedly Killed as ?Warlock? in Wiccan Murder

Posted on February 01, 2010
Police in Everett, Washington are dealing in a rather bizarre murder where Eric Christensen allegedly kiled Sherry Harlan, 35, for breaking a “Wiccan blood oath” by texting another man on her cellphone. Christensen, 40, allegedly cut up her body and distributed it around Snohomish County...

Gibbs: KSM Will Be Tried, Convicted, and Executed

Posted on February 01, 2010
We have previously noted the problem with President Barack Obama assuring the public that people like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) will be convicted. After the previous such incidents (here), many of us noted that a president is expected to avoid such comments which are inimical to a fair trial and sitting an unbiased jury...

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