Legal Commentary

Flog the Blog: A Call to Arms for the Greatest Blogging Generation

Posted on December 13, 2009
By last count, we were roughly 25 votes out of first place in the ABA competition. Twenty-five votes stand between us and ever-lasting glory. Who among us can now claim that we have done enough when we are mocked from across the Internet? It is clear that there are pockets of untapped [...

DEEP REM WITH REX

Posted on December 13, 2009
Some relationships are too profound to describe in words alone. These two have reached a level of perfect tranquility that has escaped all but the most senior Tibetan monks.

Ninety-Eight-Year-Old Woman Kills 100-Year-Old Roommate in Massachusetts

Posted on December 13, 2009
Despite my work with older prisoners at the Project for Older Prisoners (POPS), you sometimes find people that buck the trend and commit crimes late in life. Police say that Laura Lundquist is one such “later bloomer.” She is 98 years old and accused of killing her 100-year-old roommate Elizabeth Barrow (shown here) [...

Railing Against the Bosses: London Train Announcer Suggests Suicide as Option for Travelers

Posted on December 13, 2009
While Thomas the Tank Engine may be a capitalist stooge (here), one train employee has become a proletarian hero. A London Underground or tube announcer had some unconventional advice for riders recently: if they are frustrated with the service they might want to consider suicide as an option...

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Thomas the Capitalist Stooge: Professor Finds Dark Messages in Children?s Series

Posted on December 13, 2009
Professor Shauna Wilton and colleagues at the Department of Social Sciences Research at the University of Alberta have made a disturbing discovery: Thomas the Tank Engine appears to be a vehicle used to implant a “conservative political ideology” in our children...

The Scourge of Intellect: English Schools Hold Back Talented Students To Fight ?Elitism?

Posted on December 13, 2009
A recent study found that as much as three-fourths of the state schools were holding back the most talented and brightest students because they wanted to combat the scourge of “elitism.” These students were not being given more advanced work even though they were not being sufficiently challenged by grade-level material...

Shadow Army: ABC Discloses Use of Blackwater Contractors as Possible Mercenaries

Posted on December 12, 2009
Brian Ross at ABC has aired the results of his investigation into the use of alleged mercenaries by the United States. I was interviewed on the story, though I was obviously not at liberty to discuss it before it aired yesterday. Ross found evidence that private contractors were being used in Afghanistan, Pakistan, [...

High School Drug Counselor Arrested For Drug Dealing

Posted on December 12, 2009
Federal prosecutors allege that high school drug counselor was a bit too close to his subject. They have charged the intervention specialist with conspiracy to distribute and distribution of oxycodone. The prosecutors allege that they have a confidential informant who made four controlled buys of oxycodone from Smith...

Baucus: ?I Went Out Of My Way To Be Up And Up? On His Romantic Relations With Staff Member

Posted on December 12, 2009
It is a good thing that Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) represents Montana and not Minnesota, here. New details have emerged in the ethics scandal surrounding the Senator. Baucus allegedly gave his girlfriend Melodee Hanes a nearly $14,000 pay raise in 2008 when he started his romantic relationship and later took her on a [...

American Taliban: Family Group Calls for Laws To Be Strengthened That Criminalize Sex Outside of Marriage

Posted on December 12, 2009
There is an interesting fight in Minnesota where State Senator Ellen Anderson made the modest suggestion that the state repeal laws making it illegal for a married woman to cheat on her husband and another statute that makes it a crime for single women to have sex at all...

With All Due Respect . . . Kiss My Shillelagh

Posted on December 12, 2009
Irish Green Party member Paul Gogarty cut to the chase in the Irish Parliament in this video when confronted by by Labor Party members. Gogarty responds with “With all due respect and in the most unparliamentary language, f— you Deputy Stagg, f— you...

Wisconsin Man Hits Pole, Gets Arrested for DWI for Fifth Time, and Urinates on Officer?s Head But Will Serve Less Than a Year and Will Drive Again in Three Years

Posted on December 11, 2009
If this happy looking man appears relieved, it is because he is. Daniel L. Shilts Jr., 36, of Waldo, Wisconsin was arrested after his fifth DWI and then urinated on the back of the head of the officer taking him to jail. Officers spotted him driving erratically and striking a pole...

Bachelor Comes With 500 Channels! Chinese Doctors Remove Clicker That Was a Bit Too Remote

Posted on December 11, 2009
Chinese doctors at the Hunan Hangtian Hospital in Changsha were unsure what was the cause of the pain that a student was describing after a drunken party until he rolled over and the television in the hospital room changed channels . . . This was apparently a joke of other students after the man passed out [...

Uganda Law Would Execute Gays and Imprison Their Families

Posted on December 11, 2009
Uganda is considering a new law that would impose the death penalty for some gays and sentence family members to up to seven years in jail if they fail to report gay relatives to authorities. The law would even jail landlords for accepting gays as tenants...

Indianapolis Hits Motorists with Large Fines For Contesting Tickets

Posted on December 11, 2009
There is an interesting story out of Indianapolis, Indiana where attorney Paul K. Ogden has sued the city over the imposition of fines against any citizen who dares to challenge a traffic ticket. Ogden says that the city is charging as much as $2500 if citizens do not just fork over the dough with a [...

Concealed Weapon: Prisoner Turns in Shank and Demands Surgery

Posted on December 11, 2009
It is rare for an inmate to volunteer to turn over a shank, but Rance Johnson, 19, was ready to come clean with the Merced County jail in California. Johnson had hidden the 5-inch long plastic shank in his rectum for three weeks and desperately needed it removed...

Holy Cow: Connecticut Cow Is Latest Divine Sign To The Faithful

Posted on December 11, 2009
A Connecticut dairy family is heralding the arrival of a cow with a white cross on its head. A Texas farming couple is showing an egg with a cross on it. Both are being cited as signs from God during this holiday season. Together they make for either a powerful message of [...

The Witch of the North: Toronto Charges Woman With Witchcraft Crime

Posted on December 11, 2009
We have seen a number of witchcraft prosecutions in the Middle East (here), but the most recent such case is coming out of Toronto where Vishwantee Persaud, 36, is accused of engaging in witchcraft under a little used law. She may, however, have a rather novel defense...

Waiting for God: Man Dies After Sitting in Chair for Eight Months Waiting to Be Healed By God

Posted on December 10, 2009
The one thing that you can say is that Tillmon Webb, 33, had unshakable faith. The over 500-pound man sat down in his recliner in March after an injury and waited for God — never getting up for eight months until he died. His wife simply observed “The man totally believed in God and his [...

Woman Passes Out After Drinking Binge and Sues Hospital after Legs Are Amputated

Posted on December 10, 2009
This is an interesting and tragic case of contributory or comparative negligence. Shanna Hiles was celebrating her 20th birthday and got so drunk that she passed out with her legs tucker under her for 12 hours –cutting off blood to her extremities...

New York City Erases Bike Lanes to Appease Hasidic Men Who Object to Seeing Women in Bike Shorts

Posted on December 10, 2009
There is an interesting controversy in Brooklyn after the city yielded to the Hasidic community in sandblasting off bike lanes on roads. Hasidic leaders complained that they are having trouble obeying their religious law forbidding them from staring at members of the opposite sex with women biking around in shorts...

Wirth-Less: Man Accused of Double Murder Tasered in Courtroom Brawl

Posted on December 10, 2009
I suppose the large tattoo on the neck of Andrew J. Wirth, 24, reading “NOTHING TO LOSE” might have given the court deputies a clue that they were in for trouble at the appearance of the Wisconsin man in court. Wirth is accused of first shooting a couple to death outside a bar after [...

Jaw Breaker: Chemistry Blows Jaw Off After Chewing Explosive Material

Posted on December 10, 2009
At first this seemed like the ultimate product liability claim, but it now appears a chemistry student in Ukraine may have blown his jaw off by chewing an explosive material. The 25-year-old student was found by his family, which heard a loud pop in his room and later found an unidentified explosive material next [...

Canadian Police Department Builds New Firing Range That Helps Train Officers How To Shoot Fleeing Suspects

Posted on December 09, 2009
It is billed by the London Police Department Chief as “the best (shooting) range in Ontario.” At $22 million, it is certainly modern but one of the features might sit poorly with judges and civil libertarians. While police can shoot a fleeing suspect that presents an imminent threat to the public, it is relatively [...

Police Union Chief Calls For Federal Criminal Investigation in World Bank Protest Case

Posted on December 09, 2009
D.C. Police Union Chief Kristopher Baumann joined the call from city council members for a criminal investigation into the destruction of evidence in the World bank/IMF protest case where hundreds of people were arrested without probable cause and many hogtied by police...

Oh Canada: Disgraced Pathologist?s Report Led to Woman Losing Son in 1996 Wrongful Conviction

Posted on December 09, 2009
The costs of prosecutorial abuse or invalid convictions are rarely explored in depth by the media (here). Canada has one case that everyone should read. As with some recent scandals involving incompetent forensic prosecution experts in the United States, Canada is dealing with the legacy of disgraced forensic pathologist Charles Smith, who sent people [...

One Hundred and Twenty Percent of People Can?t Be Wrong: Fox News Shows People Are Dubious About the Accuracy of Global Warming Science With a Poll of 120 Percent of People

Posted on December 09, 2009
We previously saw a Fox News pie chart that had a couple extra slices (here). Now, fair and balanced math adds up to 120 percent of voters indicating that they view the science on global warming to be rigged. This is an interesting Rasmussen poll when you add up the number and discover that you [...

Video: Pop Star Lip Syncs While Holding Mike Upside Down

Posted on December 09, 2009
This should make Ashlee Simpson feel a bit better for the Saturday Night Live lip sync scandal. This Romanian pop singer was not only lip syncing but it was hard to miss since he was holding the mike upside down. The video below is part of a popular Romanian music show called Stele-sub-lupa...

Beef, It?s What?s for Battery: Florida Woman Allegedly Attacks Boyfriend with Steak in Fight Over Bread

Posted on December 09, 2009
Food appears to be the weapon of choice in Florida this week. A couple days ago, we saw a man who was arrested for assaulting his girlfriend with a hamburger (here). Now, Elsie Egan, 53, in Dunnellon, Florida was arrested for allegedly hitting her boyfriend Peter Schabhuttl, 49, several times in the head [...

The Doubtfire Defense: Woman Stopped With Man?s Ski Pass Claims Sex Change Operation

Posted on December 09, 2009
Now here is a defense that you would not have seen just a couple decades ago. Sarah Fowke, 23, was stopped attempting to use someone else’s ski pass at a Colorado ski resort. Ski officials noticed that the pass was for a man named Nicholas Hemstreet and Fowke explained that she was originally [...

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