Legal Commentary

This Dwarf May Kill You

Posted on January 07, 2010
Looking for something else to worry about, consider T Pysidis . . . it may be the end to all of us. Astronomers at Villanova University believe T Pyxidis is really two stars with one being a white dwarf that is sucking in gas and steadily growing. It will eventually explode and possibly end life [...

Accenting the Positive in Polygamy: South African President Marries Fifth Wife in Zulu Ceremony

Posted on January 07, 2010
South African president Jacob Zuma has decided to accent the positive in marrying his fifth wife (he is currently married to three other women) the knot for the fifth time and is now married to three women. Zuma insists that his polygamist lifestyle is more “honest” than leaders who simply cheat with [...

Kiss Shuts Down Newark Airport

Posted on January 07, 2010
It appears that the security scare that led to shutting down Newark was due to a last minute kiss by a man who stepped over the line of a checkpoint. The amorous gesture led to a pile up at the airport and has now doubt led TSA to recommend kissing zones for passengers...

Studies: Female Humans and Toads Inflate When Coupled with Opposite Sex

Posted on January 07, 2010
There are two interesting studies out this week. One is that female toads inflate their bodies to discourage amorous partners. The New York Times is reporting another study shows that women gain more weight when part of a marriage or a couple than when they are single...

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Please Check Your Carry-On: Slovakian Police Plant Explosives and Contraband on Unwitting Airline Passengers . . . Leading to the Arrest of Innocent Irishman

Posted on January 06, 2010
There is a bizarre case out of Ireland where a 49-year-old man was arrested after being found with contraband and an explosive at the airport. It turns out that the Slovakian police planted the explosives and contraband on passengers at the Bratislava Airport, but did not bother to tell the Irish authorities...

Fur Flies Over Advert: PETA Runs AD With Picture of First Lady Without Permission

Posted on January 06, 2010
PETA’s new ad featuring Carrie Underwood, Tyra Banks, Oprah Winfrey and the First Lady bills them as “among the most stylish and influential women in America” who “all refuse to wear real fur.” The First Lady also refuses to make such endorsements...

France To Make Psychological Abuse in Marriages a Crime ? With Electronic Monitoring

Posted on January 06, 2010
There is an interesting debate occurring in France over a law that will make the country the first to criminalize “psychological violence” within marriage. A spouse who engages in psychological abuse will be criminally charged and potentially forced to wear “electronic tagging...

Plaintiffs in World Bank Protest Case File for Forensic Expert

Posted on January 06, 2010
This week, the Plaintiffs in the World Bank/IMF protest case filed a notice with the Court on the appointment of a forensic expert to investigate the destruction of evidence in the case. As lead counsel in one of the two cases (with my colleague Daniel Schwartz of Bryan Cave), I am limited in what [...

Chicago Police Considers Dropping Entrance Exam To Increase the Number of Minority Officers

Posted on January 06, 2010
A police officer in the Chicago Police Department sent this story to me. It appears that the CPD is moving oward dropping the entrance exam for officers to add more minority officers and avoid legal battles over applicants rejected on the basis of the exam...

NASA?s Time Machine

Posted on January 06, 2010
While this picture may look like a bunch of stars, but it comes close to a time machine. The picture taken by the Hubble Space Telescope has reached back 13.2 billion years to reveal baby galaxies after the Big Bang. This is the picture of space just 600 million to 800 million years after the [...

Japanese Whaling Ship Cuts Off Bow of Environmentalist Ship

Posted on January 06, 2010
Sea Shephard’s hi-tech anti-whaling speedboat Ady Gil was virtually cut in half by a Japanese ship running interference for whalers this week. The Japanese Shonan Maru hit the speedboat during one of the confrontations at sea. At video of the ship is found at the site below...

Iranian Court Orders Economics Journalist Jailed for Over Seven Years and Flogged

Posted on January 05, 2010
AFP is reporting another outrage out of the Iranian legal system where a journalist Bahman Ahmadi Amoui has been sentenced to over seven years in jail and a flogging with 34 lashes. Amoui was a critic of Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s economic policies...

Gestational Surrogates Win Custody Rulings in Michigan and New Jersey

Posted on January 05, 2010
There is a significant ruling out of New Jersey on the rights of gestational surrogate who gave birth to twin girls who are not genetically related to her. Angelia G. Robinson, agreed to have the children in 2006 for her brother, Donald Robinson Hollingsworth and his spouse, Sean Hollingsworth...

Dope for Dummies: New York Distributes Guide on How To Best Shoot Herion

Posted on January 05, 2010
New York officials are under fire this week for spending $32,000 on a guidebook for heroin users on how to shoot up. The useful guide offers such advice as: “Warm your body (jump up and down) to show your veins,” and “find your vein before you try to inject...

?Tase The Baby?: Florida Man Allegedly Uses Baby As Human Shield

Posted on January 05, 2010
We have another contestant for Worst Person in the World. Jorge Garcia, 39, in Florida was confronted by police for acting strangely and told to get out of his car. When he refused an officer pulled out his stun gun. That is when Garcia allegedly used an infant as a human shield...

Boy Killed By Stray Bullet While In Church With Family on New Year?s Eve

Posted on January 05, 2010
The parents of Marquel Peters, 4, probably thought that there was no more safe place than their church in Decatur, Georgia on New Year’s Eve. They were wrong. While he was playing a video game at his parent’s feet, a bullet came through the roof of the church and killed Marquel...

Tennessee Judge Reprimanded and Sued For Policy of Forced Drug Tests Based on Courtroom ?Hunches?

Posted on January 05, 2010
Tennessee General Sessions Judge Durwood Moore has a curious view of the fourth amendment and the doctrine of judicial notice. Moore is the subject of a judicial ethics complaint and lawsuit after he had an observer in his courtroom arrested and forced to do a urinalysis...

Pierre Sarkozy Makes ?Miraculous Escape? From Mudslide . . . By Staying At Party

Posted on January 04, 2010
French officials have been heralding the amazing escape of the eldest son of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Pierre, after a mudslide killed 64 people on the Isle of Pigs in Brazil. It was certainly an amazing and terrible mudslide but the escape was a bit less remarkable...

Excuse Me, Waiter, I Asked for Mousse Not Moose

Posted on January 04, 2010
In Manhattan, Raina Kumra has an interesting personal injury lawsuit. While eating at the White Slab Palace restaurant, her meal was interrupted when a 150-pound Moose head with three-foot antlers fell on her. Kumra, a web designer, is representing herself and claims “overall health, strength and vitality [have] been greatly impaired...

Georgia Parents Arrested For Giving Kids Tattoos

Posted on January 04, 2010
We previously saw the prosecution of a California father who gave his son a gang tattoo, here. Now in Georgia, parents Patty Jo Marsh and her husband, Jacob Bartels have been arrested for giving their children tattoos using a home-made tattoo device...

Theft of Auschwitz Sign Connected To Wealthy British Nazi Sympathizer

Posted on January 04, 2010
Polish police have recovered the stolen sign from above the entrance gate of the Auschwitz Nazi concentration camp. The infamous sign reads “Arbeit Macht Frei” (“Work Sets You Free”) and was recovered in three pieces after thieves dumped it in the woods while being pursued by police...

This Week on Fox: Brit Hume Tries To Convert Tiger

Posted on January 04, 2010
Fox News’ Brit Hume raised a few eyebrows with his advice this week on Fox Sunday when the subject of Tiger Woods came up. Hume stated that the question of whether Woods can recover from his scandal “depends on his faith” and specifically the need for him to dump his Buddhist faith for Christianity...

The Real Polar Express

Posted on January 04, 2010
Now this is the way to remove snow. Where was this guy when we had two feet of snow in McLean?

Fox Expert: Strip Search All Muslim Men Between The Ages of 18-28

Posted on January 04, 2010
Retired Lt. General Tom McInerney appeared on Fox News to offer his own proposal for making air travel safer: strip search all Muslim men between 18 and 28. That’s right, strip search every Muslim male at the airport. Here is how the General explained how we need to “be very serious and harsh about the [...

Nomination Goes Southers: TSA Nominee Caught in False Statement to Congress

Posted on January 03, 2010
The Obama Administration’s nominee to head the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is facing some serious questions after the release of a letter showing that he had intentionally or inadvertently misled Congress over his violation of privacy laws while at the FBI...

CANINE BAY WATCH

Posted on January 03, 2010
This should be shown in slow motion, of course. A video of David Michael Hasselbark was later released on the Internet showing him intoxicated and passed out near this bowl. Kudos to All Creatures

What Do You Think of This Painting?

Posted on January 03, 2010
Do you like this painting? Well, it was painted by a six-year-old named Kieron Williamson. Called the next Picasso, Williamson is now 7 and has amazing talent as a painter. At seven, I recall trying to control embarrassing drooling and cursive writing...

Scientists Call For Dolphins to Be Given ?Non-Human Person? Status

Posted on January 03, 2010
Scientists are seeking greater protection of dolphins as ?non-human persons? in light of research showing that they are the second most intelligence species after humans. They specifically argue that the continued use of the animals for amusement is morally unacceptable...

Muslim Man Attempts To Kill Kurt Westergaard With Axe At His Home

Posted on January 03, 2010
Danish political cartoonist Kurt Westergaard faced a horrific scene with his 5-year-old granddaughter when they had to hide in a “panic room” inside his home after a man smashed in his front door while wielding an axe and a knife. The 28-year-old Somali then attacked responding police, who shot him...

Chavez Orders Rationing of Electricity

Posted on January 03, 2010
While Hugo Chavez spends wildly on a military build up and cracks down on free speech and the free press in Venezuela (here), he has ordered the rationing of electricity in the oil-rich country. Chavez blames not his policies but waste of businesses for the crisis...

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