statism

Professor in Jesus-stomping controversy reinstated, will teach online courses

"Non-tenured communications instructor Deandre Poole will teach online courses this summer and in the fall. Poole endured quite a lot last semester after then-junior Ryan Rotela, a devout Mormon, was suspended from class because he complained about one of Poole’s assignments. According to a letter written by FAU associate dean Rozalia Williams, Rotela faced several possible charges including 'acts of verbal, written or physical abuse; threats, intimidation, harassment, coercion; or other conduct which threaten the health, safety or welfare of any person.' The charges against Rotela were apparently hastily dismissed at some point." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingProfessor in Jesus-stomping controversy reinstated, will teach online courses

Judge Finds Cop Not Guilty of Assault After Refusing to Watch Video of Assault

"A St. Louis cop is caught on video, slamming his forearm across the face of a handcuffed teenage suspect. However, when Bruce stepped in front of the judge to be tried this week, the judge refused to watch the video that came from a surveillance camera from the back of a police transport vehicle. As a result, Judge Theresa Counts Burke found him not guilty. But the head of the police union, Jeff Roorda, who is also a Missouri state representative, fully agreed with her decision not to view the video because he believes videos should only be used to protect police, not hold them accountable. Roorda is now going to help Bruce get his job back." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJudge Finds Cop Not Guilty of Assault After Refusing to Watch Video of Assault

“Why did you shoot me? I was reading a book”: The new warrior cop is out of control

"Sal Culosi is dead because he bet on a football game — but it wasn’t a bookie or a loan shark who killed him. His local government killed him, ostensibly to protect him from his gambling habit. Fairfax County, Virginia, detective David Baucum overheard the thirty-eight-year-old optometrist and some friends wagering on a college football game. Baucum befriended Culosi as a cover to begin investigating him. On the night of January 24, 2006, Baucum called Culosi and arranged a time to drop by to collect his winnings. When Culosi, barefoot and clad in a T-shirt and jeans, stepped out of his house to meet the man he thought was a friend, the SWAT team began to move in." Continue reading →

Continue Reading“Why did you shoot me? I was reading a book”: The new warrior cop is out of control

The Redcoats Had NOTHING on Today’s Local Police

"Dustin Theoharis of Auburn, Washington was asleep in a basement bedroom when he was shot 16 times by officers who had come to the home looking for someone else. He was not a criminal suspect and had no access to a weapon when the officers opened fire in the darkened bedroom. The assailants who shot Theoharis were Detective Aaron Thompson of the King County Sheriff’s Office and Corrections Officer Kris Rongen. The King County Prosecutor’s office ruled that the shooting by Deputy Aaron Thompson and Correctional Officer Kristopher Rongen was legally justified." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe Redcoats Had NOTHING on Today’s Local Police

When Vice Enforcement is a Capital Crime

"Alexa Hamme of Salt Lake City was 25 years old when she died in a jail cell. She had been arrested four days earlier on suspicion of drug possession and endangerment of a child or adult. That last charge is a sentence enhancer often tacked on to a drug arrest as a way of escalating the potential penalties and extorting a guilty plea to a lesser charge. Using drugs is unwise and self-destructive. The same is true of other personal vices, as well. But government has no moral or legal mandate to punish people for indulging vices. Doing so is itself a crime – and as the tragic death of Alexa Hamme illustrates, it is frequently a capital offense." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWhen Vice Enforcement is a Capital Crime

Bitcoin Trade Group Bites Back at California

"The Bitcoin Foundation is defending the virtual currency to California’s banking department, explaining bitcoin doesn’t qualify as a payment instrument under the state’s money-transmission rules. In a lengthy letter addressed to Tara Murphy, an assistant attorney general in the California Department of Financial Institutions, the Washington-based group also stuck up for itself, saying it doesn’t sell or exchange the virtual currency. California is known to be particularly aggressive in enforcing money-transmission rules. In the letter, the foundation made it clear that it doesn’t even operate in California." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBitcoin Trade Group Bites Back at California

Credit card transactions for gold purchases curtailed in India

"Buying gold in India has got a little more difficult for consumers used to using plastic money to buy large jewellery sets or heavy gold ornaments. India's apex bank has asked banks not to convert gold purchases done through credit cards into equated monthly installments. Continuing its fight against gold consumption, the Reserve Bank of India is leaving no stone unturned to discourage gold buyers in India. The ban on conversion of gold purchases at jewellery stores into equated monthly instalments for credit card purchases has already triggered a slump in sales." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCredit card transactions for gold purchases curtailed in India

Marc Rich, King Of Commodities, Dead At 78

"He sold Soviet oil to apartheid South Africa, despite a UN embargo, and between 1979 and 1994 made profits of around $2 billion there. He sent Soviet and Venezuelan oil to Cuba in exchange for sugar, ignoring America’s ban on trade. He sold on the global market surplus Iranian oil that had flowed to Israel down a secret pipeline, and kept the arrangement going seamlessly despite the Iranian revolution of 1979, another embargo, and the American hostage crisis. In 1983 he fled to Switzerland with his family. Thereafter he became a fugitive, a star of the FBI’s most-wanted list. In 2001 Bill Clinton pardoned him." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMarc Rich, King Of Commodities, Dead At 78

Obamacare Strikes: Part-Time Jobs Surge To All Time High; Full-Time Jobs Plunge By 240,000

"As a reminder: jobs have quantity and quality components. The quantity component was good enough to convince the 10 Year the taper is imminent (if not stocks, which continue to trade dislocated from any and all fundamentals). But how about the quality? In a word: not good. In June, the household survey reported that part-time jobs soared by 360,000 to 28,059,000 - an all time record high. Full time jobs? Down 240,000. And looking back at the entire year, so far in 2013, just 130K Full-Time Jobs have been added, offset by a whopping 557K Part-Time jobs. And there is your jobs 'quality' leading to today's market euphoria (if only for now)." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingObamacare Strikes: Part-Time Jobs Surge To All Time High; Full-Time Jobs Plunge By 240,000

Argentina Applies Law That Jails Hoarders as Bread Price Surges

'Interior Commerce Secretary Guillermo Moreno announced the measure in the official gazette today. The 1974 law allows authorities to freeze prices and obliges companies to maintain supply. Those in breach are subject to fines and imprisonment. 'If the law on supply is applied, the one who should go to jail is Moreno himself,' former Economy Minister Martin Lousteau said in an interview with Radio Mitre today. 'He’s to blame for the lack of wheat in Argentina.' Argentine wheat production has decreased since 2006, when President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s predecessor and late husband Nestor Kirchner set export quotas." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingArgentina Applies Law That Jails Hoarders as Bread Price Surges