Day: March 11, 2003

Disposition of McDonald's Case Delayed Until End of March

Judge Richard Siebel was to have ruled on the division of a $10 million settlement between McDonald’s and vegetarian groups on February 25. Instead, Siebel decided to delay his ruling until March 25 after questions were raised about some of the groups seeking funds.

The funds can only go to tax-exempt groups, but the tax status of two of the groups — the Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America and the Hindu Student Council — were still in limbo. Siebel delayed his decision to allow time for plaintiffs attorneys to determine the tax status of those two groups.

Some vegetarian groups have objected to the proposed division of the settlement and have hired Chicago attorney Michael Hyman to represent them. At the February 25 hearing Judge Siebel apparently ignored the concerns of those objecting to the proposed division.

The Associated Press quoted Hyman as saying that Siebel did not ask any questions regarding the objectors concerns. “He’s made up his mind, it sounds like,” Hyman said.

Hyman said that his clients would likely appeal the division of the settlement if there are no changes, and a story posted at VegSource.Com said that, “A consortium of a wide number of celebrated vegetarian individuals is forming which will likely appeal any decisions which are counter to the interests of the vegetarian class.”

Sources:

Judge Delays Dispersal in McDonald’s Case. Associated Press, February 25, 2003.

Judge delays ruling another month. VegSource.Com, February 25, 2003.

Insult the French Flag, Go to Jail

I always had this hope that American hysteria over people who burn our flag was a phenomenon restricted to this country, but it turns out that France also has a problem with people disrespecting its flag and legislators with equally idiotic responses.

Last year at the French cup final, some youths apparently booed and whistled derisively during Le Marseillaise, the French national anthem. French president Jacques Chirac angrily left the match and demanded an apology from the footbal association.

The French parliament earlier this year passed a law that would allow French courts to fine or even imprison for up to six months anyone found guilty of insulting the national flag or anthem. You do have to appreciate the anti-American tone that the Times Online takes,

The law on the flag and anthem have raised a chorus of ridicule from the intellectual world, including some right-wing thinkers, on the grounds that it smacks of American or Third World practices and reflects an attempt to impose a “new moral order” on France.

Hmmm… of course Constitutional safeguards have prevented the flag worshippers in the United States from passing a similar law here, so perhaps its the other way around. Those U.S. lawmakers who support restrictions on flag burning are oh so French.

Sources:

Anger over new law on insulting tricolour. Philip Delves Broughton, Telegraph Online, January 27, 2003.

French face jail for insulting the flag. Charles Bremner, Times Online, February 15, 2003.

Unbiased British Media? Not!

One of the things I like about reading British newspapers online is that many of the newspapers are written from a rather obvious ideological point of view. Of course when that also leads the newspapers to skew the facts out of context, it is also one of the more annoying things about the British media.

It was amusing, then, to read this article about how Americans are supposedly driving up traffic to British newspapers “in search of unbiased reporting and other points of views.”

It was more amusing to then to read this Times Online story which describes George Bush Sr. giving a speech admonishing George Bush Jr. to play nice. The only problem is that the article mischaracterizes Sr.’s speech to a degree that can only be due to intentional dishonesty.

Roland Watson claims, for example, that,

He [George Bush Sr.] also urged the President to resist his tendency to bear grudges, advising his son to bridge the rift between the United States, France and Germany.

“You’ve got to reach out to the other person. You’ve got to convince them that long-term friendship should trump short-term adversity,” he said.

The only problem is the quote above had nothing at all to do with Germany or France. In fact Bush Sr. doesn’t mention France until almost 22 paragraphs after the above quote appears. Rather, Bush Sr. is discussing how he was able to fix the U.S. relationship with King Hussein of Jordan despite Jordan’s very public opposition to the Persian Gulf War.

The only thing Bush Sr. says about the U.S./European rift is that he is certain the relationship will be restored once this business with Iraq is behind us.

Or take this tidbit,

In an ominous warning for his son, Mr Bush Sr said that he would have been able to achieve nothing if he had jeopardised future relations by ignoring the UN. “The Madrid conference would never have happened if the international coalition that fought together in Desert Storm had exceeded the UN mandate and gone on its own into Baghdad after Saddam and his forces.”

But the quote about the Madrid Conference is not advice to Bush Jr., but rather a self-servig explanation of why the elder Bush didn’t depose Saddam Hussein when he had the chance — because the UN supposedly wouldn’t have tolerated it and it would have ruined future Israeli-Arab peace efforts (neither explanation is credible in my opinion).

Fortunately, we live in a networked age where anyone can read the full text of the speech and see just how far Watson has distorted Bush Sr.’s speech.

Court Reinstates Activist's Legal Challenge of Utah Hate Crimes Law

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals this month reinstated a lawsuit by animal rights activist Eric Ward that challenges a Utah state hate crimes statute.

Ward was arrested in 1999 and charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct after he set fire to a mink stole outside of a fur store. But prosecutors used Utah’s hate crimes statute to increase the charge to a felony.

The felony charge was dropped in 2000 and Ward in turn sued the state challenging the constitutionality of the hate crimes statute. A lower court dismissed Ward’s lawsuit arguing that since he had never been prosecuted under the law that he did not have legal standing to bring a challenge to the law.

But 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with Ward that since he planned to participate in future such protests, he had a reasonable fear that he might be charged again in the future under the hate crimes statute which was enough to grant him standing.

Ward’s challenge to the hate crimes statute will now be taken up by the U.S. District Court in Utah.

Source:

Appeals court reinstates suit against Utah hate-crime law. Associated Press, March 10, 2003.

Webb Pleads Guilty; Allowed to Leave the Country

After previously vowing that he would not be pressured into pleading guilty to an offense he didn’t commit, Robin Webb enter a guilty plead to a charge of trespassing on the grounds of Huntingdon Life Sciences during a December 1 protest.

Webb entered the guilty plea after his lawyer failed to convince a judge to overturn the indictment against him. Webb was fined $1,000 by Superior Court Judge Edward M. Coleman.

Webb maintains he plead guilty simply to put the episode behind him,

I had absolutely no intention whatsoever of contravening a court order or any American law. I had to plead guilty for purely tactical reasons to bring this period of unwanted exile to an end.

. . .

I’ve been away from my home country, away from my family, for three months. [The court] refused to even allow me home for my birthday and the new year over a 10-day period. With that kind of vindictiveness — and it is undoubtedly vindictiveness on behalf of the court system here — I have had to succumb to what is nothing less than blackmail.

That’s pretty amusing talk coming from a spokesman for the Animal Liberation Front who has openly endorsed violence and intimidation by animal rights activists. In fact, Webb defended animal rights extremism in speeches he gave over the past couple months while his legal situation was being resolved.

In a speech given at Virginia Tech on February 20, 2003, for example, Webb defended animal rights terrorism saying,

We’re condemned to use imperfect methods in an imperfect world history will show that [animal rights activists] were right to break the law in pursuit of the ultimate liberation, animal liberation.

So in other words, Webb had no intention of violating the law while in the United States, but even if he had, the laws don’t apply to people like Webb whom only history can judge.

Webb also played nicely into PETA’s “Holocaust on a Plate” campaign, describing efforts to genetically modify animals thusly,

Genetic modification is one step toward what Hitler was trying to create in the concentration camps. To me, it’s becoming a caricature of the mad scientist.

As opposed to being a caricature of a logical argument, which much of the animal rights movement has been reduced to.

Sources:

Animal ‘liberator’ advocates radicalism. The CollegiateTimes.Com, February 21, 2003.

Animal-rights activist can leave U.S.. Crissa Shoemaker, Home News Tribune (New Jersey), March 7, 2003.

Animal Rights Activist Under Investigation for Alleged Perjury

The Associated Press reported in its March 4 edition that the Grant County Sheriff’s office was investigating possible perjury charges against the director of a Seattle animal rights group.

The Associated Press cited Chief Deputy John Turley as saying that David Thornton, director of the Northwest Animal Rights Network, was currently the subject of an investigation for allegedly making false or misleading statements to a public servant as well as for second-degree trespassing.

The allegations stem from a complaint that Thornton, 33 made, after entering a private dog farm near Quincy, Washington. Thornton allegedly filed a complaint stating that 200-300 animals on the farm were in distress and that some were near death. An investigation by sheriff’s deputies, however, found about 60 dogs that appeared to be in good health, well-fed and with adequate living space.

According to the Associated press, the sheriff’s office will send a report to the Grant County prosecutor’s office recommending that criminal charges be pursued against Thornton.

Source:

Sheriff’s office recommends charges against animal rights activists. The Associated Press, March 4, 2003.