Compassion and Concern

by Nomad

Victimhood Chutzpah: SUV Driver Sues Family After Fatal Cycling Accident

by Nomad

A Canadian driver has opened a legal case in an Ontario Superior Court against the family of a teenage accident victim. Demanding compensation of over $1 million, she claims the tragic event has lessened her "enjoyment of life." 

In Hebrew, there's a good word for it. Chutzpah.  It means "extreme arrogance, brazen presumption." 

What other word can express the audacity of the motorist, who after hitting and killing a teenage bicyclist, has now decided to sue the estate of the boy's family for over $1 million? That takes a hell of a lot of nerve.

The Ottawa Citizen reports that lawyers for Sharlene Simon filed the claim last December in Ontario Superior Court, alleging that she “has sustained and will sustain great pain and suffering,” including “a severe shock to her system.” On top of that, according to the court documents, Simon's  "enjoyment of life has been and will be lessened.”

May Day: America's Induced Amnesia of International Worker's Day

by Nomad

All around the world, workers are celebrating their own special holiday. Noticeably absent will be American workers. Since its creation, International Workers' Day -if it is ever mentioned at all- has been portrayed as some kind of Communist propaganda tool. 

In fact, it is as American as apple pie. 

As if any more proof were needed that the American public has been brainwashed by the ruling class, there's the example of May Day, otherwise known as International Workers' Day. 

It's a pity that so few Americans are aware of the historical origins of the worldwide May Day celebrations and protests. It is something that America should definitely be proud of.  The struggle for worker rights is ongoing and the lack of American participation has always been a handicap to the worldwide labor movement. 

Stranger still, those who are aware of the workers' holiday might assume it was a product of a Communist country like the Soviet Union or Cuba or China.  

However, the birthplace of this idea was Chicago back in 1886. Declared two years earlier, it was also the day in which an eight-hour work day was established as a standard. Here's a good source for that history.

At its national convention in Chicago, held in 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions (which later became the American Federation of Labor), proclaimed that "eight hours shall constitute a legal day's labor from and after May 1, 1886."

On May 1, 1886, more than 300,000 workers in 13,000 businesses across the United States walked off their jobs in the first May Day celebration in history.

Today, May Day is celebrated all over the world. In fact, May 1 is a national public holiday in more than 80 countries. except in the US. 

Take at look at this:

Why the US Won't be Speaking Out Against Brunei's Gay Stoning Laws

by Nomad

Does the silence from the Obama Administration about Brunei's decision to enact Sharia laws against homosexuality reveal a disturbing double-standard of the US government?
Or could this just another example of the kind of CIA miscalculation that has plagued the agency for decades?

When Existence Is Illegal

On April 22 2014, some of the most extreme anti-gay laws came into effect in the tiny Sultanate of Brunei. The Southeast Asia nation has enacted  punishments mandated by Sharia law for a number of offenses, including same-sex-activity. For crimes of a sexual nature, stoning to death- as well as slicing selected parts of criminal anatomy- will be a newly adopted method of punishment under the new laws. These laws will be gradually phased in over the next few years. 

"Rape, adultery, sodomy, extramarital sexual relations for Muslims, insulting any verses of the Quran and Hadith, blasphemy, declaring oneself a prophet or non-Muslim, and murder are the other offences for which the death penalty could be applied under the revised code."

Although tiny country is predominantly Muslim (67%) there are also Buddhists (13%), Christian (10%) who will from now on be obliged to live under Sharia laws.  

In point of fact, the Koran has this to say about the law when it comes to homosexuality.

If two men among you are guilty of lewdness, punish them both. If they repent and amend, leave them alone; for Allah is Oft-returning, Most Merciful (Sura al-Nisa' 4:16)

So, it would seem laws that require punishment are, strictly speaking, interpretations of the Sharia law and not based on what the religion actually dictates anyway. (But that's a matter for Koranic scholars to argue about.)

In any case, the United Nations Human Rights strongly condemned the new laws as a violation of human rights. Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). Colville  said, 

“Application of the death penalty for such a broad range of offences contravenes international law.”

Colville pointed out other problems with the new laws. 

"Stoning to death, under international law, constitutes torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and is thus clearly prohibited,”

Additionally, he noted that  the "criminalization and application of the death penalty for consensual relations between adults in private also violates a whole host of rights, including the rights to privacy, to equality before the law, the right to health and freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention." 

Lawsuit by North Carolina Church A New and Surprising Challenge to Same-Sex Bans

by Nomad

One North Carolina Church has taken the unusual step of challenging the state's same-sex marriage ban. The suit claims that  the state's ban violates its constitutionally-protected freedom to worship and conduct religious rites. 
Turning the whole argument on its head, this latest objection is one that lawmakers in North Carolina- and other states- should take seriously. It could just be the final nail in the coffin for same-sex bans across the country. 

Religious Freedom Working Both Ways

This has to be the weirdest twist in the same-sex marriage debate so far. On Monday, a liberal Protestant denomination opened a lawsuit challenging North Carolina's laws prohibiting same-sex marriage in that state. The suit argues that by forbidding its clergy from blessing gay and lesbian couples, it is effectively violating constitutionally protected religious freedom. According to an article in the New York Times:

The lawsuit, filed in a Federal District Court by the United Church of Christ, is the first such case brought by a national religious denomination challenging a state’s marriage laws. The denomination, which claims nearly one million members nationwide, has supported same-sex marriage since 2005.

That NYT piece also quotes Donald Donald C. Clark Jr., general counsel of the United Church of Christ.

“We didn’t bring this lawsuit to make others conform to our beliefs, but to vindicate the right of all faiths to freely exercise their religious practices.

According to the leaders of this denomination, the state of North Carolina has no jurisdiction to criminalize what any church can and cannot do. It would, they argue, against the First Amendment which guarantees that the government, whether local, state or federal, keep a hands off policy when it comes to religious practice.

Clark points out that North Carolina laws is not only unconstitutional, it is clearly inconsistent. Although clergy of the denomination are allowed to bless same-sex couples who have been married in other states, they are prohibited by law from performing religious blessings or marriage rites for same-sex couples within their own congregation. Violating such a prohibition would, according to the state law, subject the clergy to prosecution and civil judgement in court.