News & Media
How much for a blowjob in a Florida trailer park?
Usually about twenty bucks according to the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office.
TSA Agents DO have a choice
My hatred for the TSA is well documented. Examples here, here, here, and especially here. For those of you who say “they are just doing their jobs,” well they have a choice. They can quit, like this guy did.
Quiz: Which religious cult slices up its babies' genitals and then sucks on them?
There’s this strange cult where they cut off a piece of a little girl’s genitals, and then the witch doctor who does it sucks the little girl’s vagina. Isn’t that disgusting? Barbaric? Stone age? Oh, wait, its not little girls, its little boys. The “cult” is a sect of judaism. As part of the ultra-orthodox Jewish circumcision ritual—known as metzitzah b’peh—the rabbi or mohel removes blood from the wound with his mouth. (source) Yeah, and occasionally, when the mohel has herpes, he gives it to the baby. (source). Sometimes then, the baby dies. (source) Nice fuckin ritual you got there,
Leaked stripper video leads to extortion charges in New Mexico
In what has been dubbed “Lapdance-gate” by local New Mexico media, Sunland Parks’ mayor pro-tem and city manager entered not-guilty pleas for extortion charges. District Attorney Amy Orlando alleges that City Manager Daniel Salinas and Mayor Pro Tem Jaime Aguilera attempted to blackmail mayoral candidate Gerardo Hernandez into withdrawing from the race with a recording of Hernandez receiving a lapdance in his campaign office. (Source) After Hernandez says he refused, the video was leaked to the media. New Mexico district court judge Lisa Schultz denied a reduction in both defendants’ bail. The district attorney said she felt the risk of
Judge rules court has no personal jurisdiction over Faceporn.com
U.S. District Court Judge Nathanael Cousins recently denied Facebook’s motion for default judgment against Faceporn.com, a website operating out of Norway, for trademark infringement. Judge Cousins said the court lacked personal jurisdiction over the defendants and recommended that the case be dismissed. Facebook originally brought suit against Thomas Pedersen and Retro Invent citing ten causes of action, including trademark dilution, violating the Facebook mark and wall mark, among others. The court concluded that Facebook failed to show that the defendants had purposefully directed their activities at California, pursuant to the three-pronged Calder test. In order to show that a defendant expressly
My Friend Dahmer
John Backderf, author of the comic strip, “The City” was buddies with Jeffrey Dahmer in high school. On Thursday, he is releasing a graphic novel about Dahmer’s high school years. (source) He says he waited 21 years because he didn’t want to jump on any exploitative bandwagon. It’s been 21 years, so it’s not like exploiting the story for personal gain. If I am, I’m doing a lousy job of it – I should’ve rushed something into print a year after the crimes came to light. I just didn’t want to be a part of the scandal, the sheer feeding
(Former) Judge Willie Singletary – Preacher Mode? Judge Mode? Its all Crazy Mode
When Willie Singletary ran for traffic court judge in 2007, he was described as “a scofflaw of major proportions” by the Philadelphia Inquirer. As of primary day, Singletary, 26, owed $11,427.50 for 55 violations, including reckless driving, driving without a license, careless driving, driving without registration, and driving without insurance. In fact, a bench warrant had been issued for his arrest – a fact made public after the election by Bernard Strain, who lost in the Democratic primary for Traffic Court but who won a Republican nomination. (source) His dad paid the fines, and claimed that “roughly half” of the
This is not what I'd call "game"
CBS Pittsburgh reports that John Jardini, 26, really liked a girl. He liked her so much that he robbed her, took $60 from her, and asked for her phone number. (Which she gave him, for some reason). After he robbed her, he called her twice trying to get her to go out with him. Police used cell phone records to track him down, but such sleuthing wasn’t really necessary. Police got a search warrant for Jardini’s phone records and were on the verge of tracking him down, but then Jardini reportedly assaulted the same girl and her mother outside Zack’s
Woman sues school because her roommate got laid too much
A woman is suing Stonehill College in Easton, MA because her roommate had too much sex in the room. Lindsay Blankmeyer, who says she suffers from depression and attention deficit disorder, is seeking $150,000 from Stonehill, claiming the college violated state and federal laws because housing officials did not give her reasonable alternatives for escaping a bad living situation. (source) Stonehill is a Catholic institution and the school’s student health insurance does not cover oral contraceptives unless prescribed for a medical purpose other than birth control.
Sheriff Mike Scott vs. The Media (again)
Lee County, Floriduh: Sheriff Mike Scott, (who I wrote about here) didn’t like being questioned about a federal lawsuit filed against his department. To show everyone that he’s boss, he decided that the Fort Myers News Press will no longer have the right to ask questions at press conferences, and he’s decided to severely limit press access to his department. (source) Apparently, this is not the first time that Mike Scott has thrown a temper tantrum at the media.
D.C. Judge Smokes out a First Amendment Violation
The “Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act”, Pub. L. No. 111-31, 123 Stat. 1776 (2009) gave the FDA the authority to regulate the manufacture and sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products. Under that law, Congress mandated that the DHHS must “issue regulations that require color graphics depicting the negative health consequences of smoking.” It also required that the top 50% of all cigarette packages, and the top 20% of all cigarette advertising, must carry one of the following messages with graphic images. WARNING: Cigarettes are addictive. WARNING: Tobacco smoke can harm your children. WARNING: Cigarettes cause fatal lung
Did Rush Limbaugh Defame Sandra Fluke?
Update: A more complete analysis is here. I received an inquiry asking if Rush Limbaugh calling Sandra Fluke a “slut” would be the proper basis for a defamation claim. I do not believe it would be. In order to have a valid defamation claim you must have: A false statement of fact About the plaintiff That harms the plaintiff’s reputation False Statement of Fact? For most of our history, stating or implying that a woman was unchaste would give rise to a claim for defamation per se. In fact, in recent history, a number of courts have specifically held that
Ken Mehlman, "my bad"
Ken Mehlman feels bad about his part in anti-gay bigotry he supported to get his dipshit in chief re-elected. “At a personal level, I wish I had spoken out against the effort,” he says. “As I’ve been involved in the fight for marriage equality, one of the things I’ve learned is how many people were harmed by the campaigns in which I was involved. I apologize to them and tell them I am sorry. While there have been recent victories, this could still be a long struggle in which there will be setbacks, and I’ll do my part to be
A brilliant attack on "bullying laws"
Derek Bambauer gives us a great essay on what is wrong with bullying laws.
Sandra Fluke is not a "slut" (just a liar)
Apparently, Rush Limbaugh found Sandra Fluke’s bullshit slinging on Capitol Hill to be worthy of disrespect. (so did I) He called her a slut (I did not), which of course, brought about the shrill screeching of harpies. Nancy Pelosi had this to say: “When Sandra Fluke testified before the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee after Republicans attempted to silence, she courageously spoke truth to power. As a result, today, she has been subject to attacks that are outside the circle of civilized discussion and that unmask the strong disrespect for women held by some in this country. We call
Is Nevada's Anti-SLAPP statute as weak as it seems?
Generally, Nevada’s Anti-SLAPP seems like a pansy-ass statute without much teeth. But some recent applications of NRS 41.635-70 give the Nevada version almost as much of a bite as California’s—the state regarded as having the best Anti-SLAPP statute in the country. Last year, Clark County Court Judge Gloria Sturman dismissed a lawsuit against local real estate investors on behalf of collection agencies, applying NRS 41.660. The Defendant investors argued that the lawsuit was a SLAPP suit intended to gather information about a larger group of investors the collection agencies regularly did business with. Judge Sturman agreed, concluding that the plaintiffs
Judge should review history of First Amendment
Pennsylvania District Judge Mark Martin needs to review his First Amendment law a little more carefully. Ernie Perce, an atheist who marched in a Halloween parade last year dressed as “zombie Mohammed,” was before Judge Martin after he alleged he was attacked by Talaag Elbayomy, a Muslim who took action after he witnessed Perce’s costume. Perce wore a turban and a long, fake beard and painted his face green. During the parade, he yelled the phrases “I am the prophet Mohammed! Zombie from the dead!” He marched with another protestor, who was dressed as a zombie pope, carrying a banner
Legal Education Reform that I can Stand Behind
Back in 2007, before it was all cool and shit to do so, I wrote “What is Wrong With Legal Education?” Looking back on it, I think that it somewhat missed the mark. One of the worst things about legal education is the fact that any moron can walk into a shit law school, get a guaranteed student loan, and start racking up debt. The system essentially is a government-sponsored indentured servitude program, which allows law schools to churn out a product that would never be able to survive if market forces were allowed to act on it. Professor Howard