Jun 10, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
The Miami Herald reports that if Sultaana Freeman [mug shot] want's a Florida driver's license, she cannot cover her face with a veil for her photo ID.Howard Marks, Freeman's attorney, said the ruling would be appealed. The ACLU of Florida said it was disappointed in Thorpe's statement that while Freeman "most likely poses no threat to national security," others may take advantage of a ruling in her favor to threaten lives. "So we have to infringe on Freeman's religious beliefs because of what someone else might do," ACLU legal director Randall C. Marshall said. "It seems to be a funny kind of interpretation on how the law should apply."
What if her beliefs involved beating up children?
Freeman, a convert to Islam previously known as Sandra Kellar, started wearing a veil in 1997. She had a mug shot taken without the veil after her arrest in Illinois in 1998 on a domestic battery charge involving one of twin 3-year-old sisters who were in her foster care. Child welfare workers told investigators that Freeman and her husband had used their concerns about religious modesty to hinder them from looking for bruises on the girls, according to the police records. The girls were removed from the home.
Sultaana Freeman should not feel too bad--in Saudi Arabia she would not be able to wear a veil to cover her face for a photo ID--in fact, she in Saudi Arabia women are not even permitted to drive. (Postscript: In Muslim countries where women are allowed to drive, such as Iran, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Jordan, women do not cover their faces for a photo ID.)
Jun 10, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
From CBS Marketwatch:
Sam Waksal, the former ImClone Systems executive whose insider trading has put Martha Stewart in prosecutors' crosshairs, is expected to learn his fate in federal court on Tuesday...
"The number of years Waksal will get would depend on how cooperative he has been," said Larry Soderquist, a law professor at Vanderbilt University. Soderquist said he believes Waksal will get three years jail time. The former ImClone executive hasn't appeared to be cooperating with prosecutors.
What does such "non-cooperation" consist of not doing?
Waksal also likely did not provide any information to government attorneys on Martha Stewart, according to Mintz. ...
Last week, Stewart was indicted for allegedly receiving insider information for her sale of ImClone shares in December 2001. Stewart, a friend of Sam Waksal's, pleaded not guilty to allegations of obstruction, false statements and securities fraud. Stewart also resigned as chairman and chief executive of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.
The public, after the Enron and WorldCom scandals, is not likely to accept hand slaps of white-collar criminals, even though Waksal did not engage in an Enron type of situation, said Soderquist. "This is not a good time to be sentenced." ["Waksal's fate to be decided Tuesday", June 9, 2003, CBSMW]
Related News: ImClone Vindicated?, "Insider Trading" Charges Against Martha Stewart
Related Articles: The SEC's "Insider Trading" Witch Hunt Against ImClone's Sam Waksal: Scapegoat for the Sins of the FDA, Martha and the Tall Poppies
Jun 10, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
Writes David Holcberg at the Ayn Rand Institute:President Bush's meeting with Mahmoud Abbas in Jordan last week was a huge mistake and a betrayal of the principle that terrorists should not be negotiated with but eradicated.
Negotiations are proper only between individuals who are open to reason, who respect each other's rights, and whose purpose is to exchange values for mutual benefit, without coercion. But the Palestinian leadership--religious and secular--is rabidly irrational, has no respect for the rights of Israelis (or Palestinians) to their lives and property, and seeks, by means of terrorism, to blackmail Israel into surrendering its land for nothing but empty promises to stop the violence.
The Palestinian regime under Arafat has always been and still is a terrorist regime. Arafat's appointment of Mahmoud Abbas as "prime minister" changed nothing.
President Bush's push for the creation of a Palestinian state is a big setback in America's own war against terrorism, since a Palestinian state would be another terrorist state to deal with. Moreover, the president's move sends our enemies the message that terrorism pays. If President Bush is serious about keeping his promise to "rid the world of terror," he should abandon the idea of creating a Palestinian state and start supporting the eradication of the Palestinian regime.
Jun 10, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
Martha Stewart has launch a site to defend her self against the government's witchunt against her and her company. The site, marthatalks.com, features letters from Martha's supporters, as well as facts to 'Set the Record Straight.' Comments Newsday,...Martha Stewart says the Web site she started just days ago to defend her name against a federal indictment has been swamped by more than 6 million visitors, with thousands offering e-mails of praise and support.
... The e-mails have been roughly 98 percent positive, Stewart spokeswoman Anna Cordasco said. She would not disclose specific plans for the site's future but said it would be kept "fresh and up to date."
Paul Levinson, chair of Fordham University's media studies department, said Stewart's campaign is designed to sway potential jurors who might assume she is guilty simply because she has been indicted. "I've heard people talk cynically about the juror point [--] trying to soften up the jurors," he said. "But that's exactly what the government is doing by holding a press conference, by making it a big public issue."
..."She doesn't have a whole variety of options to make people who dislike her like her," he said. "What she can do is put a press on the Justice Department by having her supporters hammer the narrative that this is a witchhunt." [Newsday]
Or as one astute Marth fan writes on a letter posted to Martha Stewart's site:
We can't think of ANYONE in this country or abroad who has worked harder than you. We admire your vision, energy, imagination and the way you reach high goals for yourself and your businesses. The range of your interests and knowledge is astounding. You are an inspiring example to millions of people of someone who aimed for...and reached..."the great American dream."
We support you in thoughts and prayers in this unfortunate situation/court battle. We are saddened by this attack on you and we feel you are the target of people who are jealous and lack common sense. We can't understand why our courts waste so much time and money persecuting our highest achievers, like you and Bill Gates. It is counter-productive, to say the least.
The reason is simple: it is hatred of the good for being the good. For details see Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. (Hat Tip: V. Bray)
Related Story: "Insider Trading" Charges Against Martha Stewart.
Jun 9, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
From the Sun Sentinel:For years, anti-Castro activist Ramon Saul Sanchez has claimed his right to return to his Cuban homeland in defiance of the U.S. government's attempts to stop him. Now the same country that prosecuted Sanchez to keep him out of Cuban territorial waters is going to court to determine if he should be sent back to Cuba...This fall, an immigration judge will determine whether he has a right to stay in the United States.
...when he showed up at the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, Sanchez said immigration officials arrested him on suspicion of being in the country illegally and told him to appear before an immigration judge to sort out his status. He was released on his own recognizance.
Sanchez doesn't think he'll be deported to Cuba, but says it's up to the conscience of U.S. officials. "When I wanted to exercise my right to return home, you detained me and you wanted to put me in prison for 10 years," he said. "Now you're coming back and saying 'I'm going to deport you, handcuffed, and return you to Fidel Castro.' I'm not going to encourage you to do that but I'm not going to resist you." ["Cuban activist faces immigration hearing", Sun Sentinel, June 7, 2003]
Hat Tip: Jim Woods.
Jun 9, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses, Dollars & Crosses 2
"The journey we're taking is difficult, but there is no other choice," President Bush said in reference to Israel making peace with the Palestinians. "No leader of conscience can accept more months and years of humiliation, killing and mourning. I know that peace can finally come."A democratic republic that respects the rights of Jews and non-Jews alike (i.e. Israel) must tolerate the existence of a state committed to violence and terrorism (Palestinians -- remember who they are? The people who cheered in the streets at the attacks on America on 9/11. The people whose leader, Arafat, makes deals with the Iranians, the world's number one sponsor of terrorism).Bush's premise: The view of the philosopher Descartes who claimed, "I think, therefore I am." The infinitely superior philosopher, Ayn Rand, called this view the primacy of consciousness -- the idea that wishes and intentions (the products of consciousness) supercede objective reality.President Bush has now brought Descartes' philosophical viewpoint to the Middle East: I wish it, therefore it will be so.Try telling this to the next victims of Palestinian terrorism.