From the Washington Post:

Kick in the Pants
Just deserts for a ludicrous lawsuit
Thursday, May 3, 2007; Page A24

IS THERE anything more absurd than someone pursuing a $65 million lawsuit over a lost pair of pants? Well, how about this same person being in a position to adjudicate the cases of other people? Or that there’s a chance of his getting a new 10-year term as judge?

A panel of four D.C. officials is considering the reappointment of administrative law judge Roy L. Pearson Jr. in light of devastating publicity about a court case he brought. As reported by Post columnist Marc Fisher, Mr. Pearson wants his local dry cleaner to pay him millions of dollars for the “mental suffering, inconvenience and discomfort” caused by the loss of his pants as well as for his legal costs.

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A study just released from George Mason University’s economics department has finally proven what everyone always sort of just knew. Local law enforcement officials target certain drivers and issue more, and higher dollar fines whenever they can get away with it.

Police officers have long argued that they issue tickets solely in the public interests, but ask almost anyone about the last ticket they received and you’ll often hear of some trivial incident like “failing to stop for 2 complete seconds at a stop sign on a Wednesday night at 2am.”

Now you know why…
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This is not meant to be offensive to anyone, but I found it educational to understand the depths of the Islamic religious basis for the status of women in society. So far as I am aware there is no similar religious teaching in Christianity, Buddhism, or other major religions - although I’m sure someone will correct me if that is not true.

Muslims in general may not bat an eye towards this philosophy, as it may be so ingrained into the culture so as not to be noticed, but I have to wonder how this edict works in the United States where spousal abuse is a crime and can land a man in jail.
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Just a few days ago I read about yet another bit of unbelievable Internet censorship coming out of China. It seems they have decided to eliminate access to the popular blogging site LiveJournal - effectively shutting down access to 1.8 million blogs!

This got me thinking. Given that I routinely report on Chinese abuses I wondered how many - if any - of my readers were coming from China.

For those of you who are not aware, Web servers collect various generic statistics such as the IP address of visitors. These IPs can be traced back to the country of origin and I can view a report of where visitors are coming from.

As you can see in the attached image I haven’t had a single visitor from China. This simply cannot be a coincidence.

The next time you take your freedom of speech for granted just think about the alternative. A young man in Egypt has been sentenced to 4 years in jail for “criticizing the President and Islam”.

Half of all Americans would be in jail if it were illegal here…

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt (Reuters)

An Alexandria court convicted an Egyptian blogger Thursday for insulting both Islam and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and sentenced him to four years in jail over his writings on the Internet.
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From the Florida Times-Union

Last Saturday Police in Jacksonville, Florida were working under cover, selling drugs and busting users. When they went over to 81 year old Issac Singletary’s front yard and started up he tried to run them off his property, apparantly threatening them with his .38 revolver.

Problem is, rather than the police getting the hell off his property, they pulled their weapons and killed him.
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This is unbelievable… The city of St. Petersburg, Florida decided that the best way to handle their homeless problem was to destroy the very tents these people live in.

At first I thought this must be a sensational headline, but when you watch the video it’s exactly how it sounds. Even the reporters seem like they can’t believe what is going on.
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Imagine a knock on the door after you have been on the Internet, blogging, and the next moment you are under arrest. Amnesty International launched a campaign in defence of Internet bloggers in many countries - including China, Tunisia and Iran who have been arrested for expressing views which have upset their governments.

But how have they been tracked down? It turns out that they have been turned in by major Internet providers such as Yahoo and Microsoft, who have supplied foreign governments with the information they need to pursue them.
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Imagine this… you’re a rookie cop staking out the mean streets of the Atlanta Convention Center where the raucous American Historical Association is holding their “Annual Meeting”. As you stand there eating your doughnut you witness a man in a three piece suit carrying conference materials cross the middle of the street right between the racy Hilton and questionable Hyatt!

What do you do? Call 5 fellow officers over, toss his ass on the ground, stick a knee in his neck and haul his jaywalking ass to jail of course! (Should have given him a good beat down too!) Who cares if he’s a jolly old foreigner with a British accent in a three piece suit? The public must be protected!
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In the new era of citizen reporting there are a number of new questions regarding issues such as audio and video recording interactions with police officials. Add these to the traditional questions about what is required, or not, and you’ve got one very confused public.

After all the publicity about police abuse of power I decided to try to find some reputable advice on exactly what I can and can’t do if I’m ever involved in, or feel the need to play “big brother” during, a police incident.

On a side note, I’m a well-to-do white guy that’s never been involved in any criminal activity but even I’m afraid of the police. On a few occasions I’ve encountered unprofessional, undereducated and over-ego’ed officers. Even if 90% of encounters are pleasant, 10% can really ruin your day… or worse.

Anyway, I found the following information to be informative.
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Saddam dead, hanged around 6AM Baghdad time
Malaysia Sun

Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has been executed by hanging.

The execution took place around 6:00am Baghdad time Saturday, just before the sun rose which marked the commencement of the Eid Al Adha holiday.
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Damn! This British news video demonstrates yet again evidence of police brutality. They claim that their investigation uncovered abuses at every level of the prison systems, and they present enough evidence in this video that I believe their claim.

This 50 minute program is NOT appropriate for children.
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