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I LOVE this story:
Towards the end of May, a drug dog at Narita Airport (Tokyo) failed to detect 142 grams (about 5 ounces) of pot in the side pocket of a passenger’s luggage. While this must be troubling for the Japanese officials, what is a bit more troubling is how they knew that the pot was in the bag in the first place.
Apparently, a quick-thinking customs official had the bright idea to break a couple of regulations and plant the pot in a unsuspecting passenger’s luggage in order to test the dog and improve its at-work performance. The dog, unfortunately, failed his at-work test and missed the drugs completely, though I have a feeling the dog isn’t going to get in too much trouble for this one, especially since the story continues. Read more »
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American Madness readers: meet William Johnson.
William, it is my pleasure to introduce you to American Madness.
I apologize up front for the awkward introduction, but this is the only way we could arrange for this meeting. William is currently incarcerated in Brazoria County, Texas on a burglary charge.
Turns out, he asked one of the local trailer park residents to help him move a big screen TV out of another trailer home that wasn’t William’s. Outside of stealing someone’s snuff, thievin’ a TV from a trailer park is about the highest crime you can commit in that part of Texas.
And he might have gotten away with the theft if he hadn’t been pulled over during a couple suspicious U-Turns in the middle of the Interstate. And even that might not have got him nabbed if the officers didn’t think it entirely too weird that his co-pilots were a six-foot long alligator and a water moccasin (a type of poisonous snake).
Ok, I’ll pause and let you read that last little bit over again.
Yep, William here is a man with a fondness for reptiles. The Houston Chronicle reports Johnson told the pokey that he found the snake and the alligator on the sides of roads and picked them up because he has an interest in cold-blooded, scaled creatures. Read more »
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What would you do if your hamster killed your husband?
You would of course sue the pet store.
A Rhode Island woman filed a federal lawsuit last week after her husband died following a liver transplant. The death was attributed to the contraction of a virus apparently originating in the adoption of a hamster at a PetSmart store in Rhode Island.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, said a pathology report on the autopsy lists the cause of death as lymphocytic choriomeningitis, a viral infection of the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord. According to the AP report, “In May 2005, the Rhode Island Health Department confirmed that three people died after receiving organ transplants that were infected with the rodent virus.” Read more »
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(The following comment, in response to Another Test for Habeas Corpus received 80 reader recommendations and was an editors’ selection on the NYTimes online today):
“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Presidential Oath of Office.
Now, I ask you: Has this President lived up to that oath?
He has vitiated the right to Due Process of Law in the name of what he calls national security; He has intentionally determined not to enforce the laws passed by the Congress by using “Signing Statements”; He has violated the laws of the United States, the World, and Humanity in general by creating secret camps to hide prisoners; He has encouraged the torture of prisoners of the United States; He has violated the Laws of the Geneva Convention to which the US Congress has ratified; He has violated and abrogated treaties which the US Congress has ratified; He has eliminated the right of trial by jury to American Citizens held in foreign countries by American Forces, and he has attempted in various other ways to destroy the Administrative Bureaucracies lawfully created by the Congress by ordering them NOT to carry out their lawful stated missions, all in violation of numerous Court Orders at all levels.
What does it take to get a President impeached? Must such an action be entirely political or does there come a time when it is a patriotic duty?
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Earlier in the week there were a few news stories around that caught my eye, but I was hesitant to post them. ‘Why?’ you ask, well it was April 1st and I tend to take any news that comes out on April 1st with a grain of salt. Since there hasn’t been any retraction of these stories they get the full posting treatment.
The Recording Industry Association of America just received some bad news. A New York Federal Judge has made a ruling that is going to greatly effect most of their lawsuits against file sharers. According to Judge Kenneth Karas making a copyrighted file available for download does not necessarily violate the law. Instead it now needs to be proven that the file was actually downloaded or intended to be downloaded.
This is kind off a complex issue and this ruling will actually influence a lot of future download cases (NY courts are apparently known for how well they handle copyright issues). Essentially what this case ruling means (or can mean) is that the RIAA needs to show that some one had the intention of sharing copyrighted materials just having copyrighted materials available for download is not illegal. It is a complicated issue, I am sure complicated more with P2P file sharing programs. CNET has some decent coverage on the issue with explanations better then I can provide here.
This doesn’t really mean that anyone is going to get off scott-free in any of the pending lawsuits, but it does mean the RIAA is going to have to do a bit more legwork to prove that individuals were working to intentionally share copyrighted files.
