Monthly Archives: November 2011

Texas Judge Beats Disabled Daughter for ‘Illegal’ internet use

I think these are types of people generally attracted to government jobs — judges, sheriffs, world bankers, politicians and bureaucrats. They make money by exercising violence against peaceful people. Here, the violence spills into their domestic life.

gawker.com/5855478/reddit-video-apparently-shows-texas-family-judge-beating-disabled-daughter
(warning, disturbing video)

79-year-old arrested for handing out “Jury Info” fliers

open quoteJulian P. Heicklen, a 79-year-old retired chemistry professor, has often stood on a plaza outside the United States Courthouse in Manhattan, holding a “Jury Info” sign and handing out brochures that advocate jury nullification, the controversial view that if jurors disagree with a law, they may ignore their oaths to follow it and may acquit a defendant who violated it.

Then, last year, federal prosecutors had Mr. Heicklen indicted, charging that his activity violated the law against jury tampering.

. . . .

“No legal system could long survive,” they added, “if it gave every individual the option of disregarding with impunity any law which by his personal standard was judged morally untenable.”close quote (Read more)

Israel punishes Palestinians for Unesco membership: Withholding tax revenues and accelerating settlement construction – But it’s Palestines bid for membership that will kill peace talks.

open quoteIsrael last night announced that it would accelerate settlement construction and withhold tax revenues from the Palestinian Authority to punish it for joining the UN’s cultural arm.

enjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, convened his inner cabinet yesterday to study proposals to sanction the Palestinian leadership after it won overwhelming international support on Monday for its bid to join UNESCO.

While some kind of punitive action was expected, the severity of Israel’s response suggested that Mr Netanyahu had bowed to pressure from right-wing ministers intent on exacting the heaviest penalty possible for what they saw as an act of Palestinian effrontery.

An Israeli government official defended the measures, saying that Mr Netanyahu had been left with no choice but to respond robustly to Palestinian “unilateralism” in its pursuit of UN membership and by what he claimed was the growing radicalism of Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority. close quote (Read more)