A Progressive on the Prairie

Since Friday Follies deals with humorous or idiotic matters with some arguable tangential relationship to the law, I will point to citizen journalist Corey Heidelberger and three separate posts by the omnipresent PP on the folly of the South Dakota “blogger bills” (HB 1277 and HB 1278). I see no need to recreate the [...]

Defamation suit over a Tweet dismissed because much of Twitter is “pointless babble.” Personally, I think courts could take judicial notice of that.

Jurors in a murder trial in Winnipeg, Manitoba, were sent home early “after the star witness . . . couldn’t stop vomiting while under cross-examination.” (Via.)

Gotta agree with this: “I didn’t know [...]

Announcements from the Consumer Product Safety Commission about product recalls aren’t new. But one for books? Oxmoor House is recalling 951,000 copies of nine home improvement books because of errors “that could lead consumers to incorrectly install or repair electrical wiring, posing an electrical shock or fire hazard.” The books were sold [...]

The North Face makes good on threat to sue The South Butt.

“A man claims a judge chased him down a road, had him handcuffed and threatened to have him shot after he broke up with the judge’s daughter.” (Via.)

Here’s why people don’t feel bad for downloading music illegally.

Take your pick for year-end lawyer lists. [...]

Among the issues on the North Dakota Supreme Court’s docket is whether breast implants are considered “marital assets” in a divorce. For what it’s worth, the trial judge said the claim was “absolutely nonsense.” (Via.)

And I wonder if male reporters are fighting over covering this trademark infringement trial. It tain’t often those [...]

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Scalia: Constitution does not ban “stupid laws.”

Here’s another of those legal ethics matters that would seem to be a no-brainer. A “couch of restitution” is not an acceptable method of collecting fees for legal services.

ATL gives lawyers and legal wannabees a chance to evaluate a job offer to Sarah Palin’s [...]

A day late but here’s the top 10 reasons to be thankful there were no lawyers on The Mayflower.

Fondling breasts is outrageous conduct in prostitution investigations.

Earlier this month, Taiwan’s highest court ruled that a law penalizing prostitutes and not their clients is unconstitutional because it violates equal rights guaranteed under the Taiwainese Constitution. (Via).

I [...]

A Russian court reduced by several months the sentence of a man who murdered and ate his mother — and dismissed a cannibalism charge against him — because “I was so hungry, I had to eat [the corpse].” (Via.)

But maybe it’s a cultural thing. “Russian police have arrested three homeless people suspected of [...]

Sometimes the headlines (and subheads) say it all:

Man caught nude in truck uses the “explosive diarrhea” defense.

Woman Calls 911, Says Boyfriend Won’t Marry Her
Same Person Called 911 Saying She Couldn’t Find Car (Via.)

Giant Breathalyzer Found Drunk in Ohio.

Man stabs himself so he doesn’t have to go to his job at Blockbuster.

“Sorry, Teach, I Forgot [...]

I’m thinking a $16.5 million verdict isn’t unexpected when jurors ask for a 10-digit adding machine.

Woman arrested for offering sex for World Series tickets gets 800 new Facebook “friends.” I wonder why. (Via.)

Dumb legal marketing idea # 36,926: Lawyer-referral site tries to generate more business for immigration lawyers by offering a make-believe [...]