Tigger Follow-up

Ken AshfordCrimeLeave a Comment

A brief follow-up to a story I blogged about last month: No charges will be filed against Tigger. I have mixed feelings about this.  On the one hand, Tiggers are a wonderful thing.  On the other hand, I think we have to fight Tiggers there so that we don’t have to fight them here.

Astronaut Sex: Anyone In The 100 Mile High Club?

Ken AshfordCrime, Science & Technology, Sex/Morality/Family Values3 Comments

Well, the Nowak story seems to be the story of the day — both in the mainstream media and the blogosphere — presumably for it’s weirdness/entertainment value. CNN is now reporting that astronaut Lisa Nowak will face charges of attempted murder.  That’s on top of her three other charges for battery, attempted kidnapping and attempted vehicle burglary with battery. For … Read More

Not The Right Stuff

Ken AshfordCrimeLeave a Comment

They don’t make astronauts like they used to, I guess. Once the very definition of "hero", we now have astronauts that are one step above trailor trash.  Yup, a mission specialist on a shuttle flight last summer is sitting in a Florida jail now, having been charged with plotting to kidnap a woman who was her rival for the heart … Read More

Free The Chattanooga Six

Ken AshfordCrimeLeave a Comment

Look, I know it’s disturbing when teenagers talk about "killing" other people.  We all remember Columbine. But sometimes, it’s just a joke. If some girls talk about "killing" their teachers and classmates, that’s one thing.  But when they add Oprah, Tom Cruise, and the Energizer Bunny (which, last time I checked, was an inanimate/fictional non-human corporate mascot) to their list, … Read More

America’s Dumbest Criminals

Ken AshfordCrimeLeave a Comment

I admit it — I love stories like these: GPS devices lead to suspects’ home LINDENHURST, N.Y. –Three thieves who allegedly stole 14 global positioning system devices didn’t get away with their crime for long. The devices led police right to their home. Town officials said the thieves didn’t even know what they had: they thought the GPS devices were … Read More

Greenwald on FISA Oversight Of Wiretaps

Ken AshfordConstitution, War on Terrorism/TortureLeave a Comment

(1)  I’ll just let Greenwald speak for himself on the subject of GOP disillusionment with the sudden Bush reversal on FISA oversight: If you were a Bush follower, and you were told (and, of course, by definition, believed) that the President’s violations of FISA were not just legal but critical to our Survival and Ability to Defeat The Terrorists, and … Read More

A Remarkably Stupid (Or Dishonest) Attorney

Ken AshfordBush & Co., Constitution, War on Terrorism/TortureLeave a Comment

UPDATE AND BIG BREAKING NEWS:  Fortunately, breaking news suggests that the days of Bush’s secret and illegal surveillance may now be over.  Bush now intends his surveillance program to be monitored and overseen by the "secret" FISA court, as the lawmakers who passed FISA originally intended.  In other words, Bush caves.  Victory for freedom and privacy lovers, but more importantly, … Read More

Loony Rehnquist?

Ken AshfordSupreme CourtLeave a Comment

Interesting: The FBI’s file on former Chief Justice William Rehnquist — made public more than a year after his death — offers insight into hallucinations and other symptoms of withdrawal that Rehnquist suffered when he was taken off a prescription painkiller in 1981. A doctor was cited as saying that Rehnquist, an associate justice of the Supreme Court at the … Read More

You’ve Got Mail

Ken AshfordConstitutionLeave a Comment

The leader of Iraq has unilaterally declared that he has the right and the power to authorize government to open citizens’ mail whenever he so pleases.  No warrants, no oversight, no checks-n’-balances, or anything like that. You may think — well, that’s horrible, but that’s Iraq — so why should I care?  I don’t live in Iraq, which is obviously … Read More

Constitutional Crisis

Ken AshfordConstitution, Courts/LawLeave a Comment

The Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court says we are experiencing a "Constitutional crisis".  That’s very very serious.  The last time I heard that phrase was during Watergate. But what exactly is the constitutional crisis he’s talking about?  This: Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. made judicial pay the sole topic of his second annual report, issued on … Read More

Give The Kid An “A” In History; Fail The Teacher

Ken AshfordConstitution, Education, Godstuff1 Comment

Matthew LaClair is a student in public high school in Kearny, New Jersey. David Paszkiewicz is his 11th grade accelaerated history teacher. Paszkiewicz would often lace his classes with — well — historical inaccuracies, including telling the students that only Christians went to heaven, that the Big Bang and evolution were false, and — wait for it — that dinosaurs … Read More

Statutory Rape In Georgia

Ken AshfordCrime, Sex/Morality/Family ValuesLeave a Comment

This is a sensitive subject, I know. But it seems to me that the judgment in this case is unduly harsh. It simply makes no sense. Honestly, should a seventeen year old kid be sent to prison for ten years because he had consensual (oral) sex with a fifteen your old girl?  That’s what has happened. Now obviously, we don’t … Read More