“A 40-year-old Racine man is accused of killing a 2-year-old boy, punching him because he was spilling his milk.”

Manuel Garcia “lost his temper with his girlfriend’s son, punching him numerous times in the abdomen on Thursday, killing him.” He “admitted punching the boy at least three times because the child was[…] ’frustrating him’ and spilling his milk.”

We at PWSBKTW understand that two-year-olds can be frustrating. They have terrible table manners. Still, no one should die over spilled milk. [Read more →]

Tags: people who should be killed this week
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We at PWSBKTW know that kids these days are often coddled. They don’t have to work and their parents give them whatever they want. Some parents, though, understand the importance of pushing their children to have a strong work ethic. They know that their kids need skills that are valued in the marketplace, and they demand that their kids contribute to the family’s income. This can only build character. Even 14-year-old girls need character. Fortunately for one of them, her parents gave her plenty of character, good and hard. As wsbtv.com reports:

The couple bought a minivan from a used car dealership in Eastman, about 140 miles southeast of Atlanta, in March 2008 but has not made a single payment on it… They made their daughter perform sex acts on the dealership’s manager in lieu of making the $281 monthly payments on their minivan […] It appears the parents may have offered sex with their daughter to as many as six other adults in exchange for money and drugs…

[Read more →]

Tags: people who should be killed this week
2 Comments »

Parents, if you stay awake at night worrying that one day when your kids go to college they might try to throw a ping-pong ball into a cup of beer, you can rest easy, as long as the college is in Suffolk County:

A Long Island lawmaker hopes to curb underage drinking by banning the sale of booze-themed board games, like beer pong, to minors.

It would be against the law to sell beer-pong sets to minors under the measure proposed by Suffolk County legislator Tom Cilmi.

“I am not one who would typically advocate for regulation of our free market, but this is simply common sense,” said Cilmi. “Our children’s lives are at risk.” [Read more →]

Tags: drugs & alcohol, on the law
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We at PWSBKTW usually describe some particularly heinous act and explain, with wit, when we can muster it, just how terrible the actions of some murderer or child abuser were. We are sorry to say that this week, we have nothing — no sarcasm, no punchlines as we point out who should be killed this week. We have catalogued horrible cases in past columns, managed maybe even to amuse as we shared outrage with our readers, but we’re at a loss for this one. Our column this week probably isn’t even necessary, since by now most readers are familiar with the case and have reached similar conclusions about a just end, but if we’re going to have a column called “People Who Should Be Killed This Week,” it would seem we’d be remiss to not mention the person who perhaps has most earned it. Dr. Earl Bradley is a pediatrician who is accused of sexually assaulting and raping more than 100 children, his patients, over the course of many years, while their parents sat in waiting rooms. Apparently there are videotapes. There is no end to disturbing details. Your day will be better if you don’t read the linked article. There isn’t anything we have to add that isn’t obvious from this column’s title and graphic. A lightning bolt and quick death would be a kindness Earl Bradley doesn’t deserve.  

Tags: people who should be killed this week
1 Comment »

On September 7, 2007, William Eugene Davis shot his two sisters and the mother-in-law of one of the sisters each in the throat, one shot per person, killing all three of them with a shotgun. For whatever reason, it took a year and a half to convict him of the murders. [Read more →]

Tags: on the law
5 Comments »

I hope you were as appalled as I was by the way the Supreme Court basically said “eff you” to democracy with their decision in the “Citizens United” case. Brave Senator Chuck Schumer and brave Representative Chris Van Hollen are doing their part by proposing a new law designed to blunt the effects of said decision, but I am afraid that nothing less than an amendment to our imperfect Constitution will have any effect — the Supreme Court can always strike down a law.  That’s why I, like so many others, have taken direct action by composing a bipartisan amendment to the constitution, designed to protect our democracy (I’m calling it the “Protect Democracy Amendment,” so my intentions will be clear). I’m not exactly sure how these things work, but I think that if enough people sign this proposition it will become an actual Constitutional amendment, in which case democracy as we know it will be saved.

WHEREAS, an informed citizenry is necessary to the perpetuation of our government as it currently exists,

[Read more →]

Tags: on the law, politics & government
14 Comments »

Young children sometimes cry. We at PWSBKTW know that this can be annoying. There are several appropriate ways to address the problem of children crying. This is not one of them:

Thirty-three-year-old Aaron Pace, a friend of the baby’s mother who was babysitting the boy, put Drano on a cloth and rubbed the poisonous cloth on [the] baby’s skin because he had been crying, police said.

Rubbing Drano on his skin was supposed to make the 20-month-old stop crying? [Read more →]

Tags: people who should be killed this week
6 Comments »

Learning is important. Without knowing her ABCs, Joshua Tabor’s 4-year-old daughter doesn’t have much of a chance to get ahead in life. Or learn how to spell. So why aren’t people commending Tabor’s efforts to stress the importance of education in his home? It could be because he and his girlfriend held his daughter’s head under water when she refused to say her ABCs. [Read more →]

Tags: education, family & parenting, on the law
2 Comments »

300 of these Filipino inmates are awaiting trial for murder and the others have been incarcerated for three years or less. Sure… why not make them famous. I understand that this formalized recreation has improved conditions in the prison ten-fold, but I am not sure I like the fame attached to it all. Still… the video is kind of amazing.

See more videos (oh, and there are a lot more videos) and explanations about how this all started on Byron Garcia’s You Tube channel.

Via PopEater

Tags: art & entertainment, on the law
1 Comment »

 I don’t know how many of you have been following the case of Citizens United v. the FEC, but I’m willing to bet a goodly number of you have an opinion on it.  Here’s mine, again, on the heels of today’s Supreme Court ruling.

[Read more →]

Tags: on the law, politics & government
4 Comments »

Sometime later this year the Supreme Court will probably rule, by a narrow margin and on narrow grounds, to uphold Proposition 8, the California law enacted last year that bans gay marriage in the state. It will slow, not end, the inexorable progress of this country toward justice on this issue.  But meanwhile, we have a dilly of a trial going on in San Francisco, Perry v. Schwartzenegger, with David Boies and Theodore Olson, from opposite sides of Bush v. Gore, ganging up against the marriage-is-just-for-boys-and-girls crowd. [Read more →]

Tags: family & parenting, on the law
9 Comments »

 Section. 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution

[Read more →]

Tags: on the law, politics & government
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Ronald Reagan, in a 1975 interview with Reason Magazine on the state of the Republican party, said that “the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism.”

Today, despite the prescience of the Gipper, a rumble is growing in many free market, small government circles — a lurking sense that the two major parties in this country just aren’t cutting it.  A new and fired up brand of conservatives, libertarians, constitutionalists, and tea partiers want something new.  They feel that the Goldwater/Reagan revolutions have fizzled out.  They want a legitimate third way.  They want a banner to rally behind that sheds off the constraints of today’s GOP — a party left in philosophical tatters after eight years of “compassionate” government growth, adventurous militarism, moral hypocrisy, and skyrocketing deficits — all endorsed by Bush (and now gleefully exploded into the stratosphere by Obama).

[Read more →]

Tags: on the law, politics & government
9 Comments »

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the would-be-bomber of an American airplane on Christmas Day, is being treated like he held up a candy store. As Charles Krauthammer said so well in his recent column, this is nuts!

[Read more →]

Tags: on the law, terror & war
2 Comments »

As Heather MacDonald notes in her piece in the Wall Street Journal, the recession of 2008-09 has undercut one of the most destructive social theories that came out of the 1960s: that the root cause of crime is poverty and social injustice

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Tags: money, on the law
1 Comment »

This is a joke, right? Some kind of hoax? Did a hacker get into their system and post a fake story? This can’t be real. Oh, wait, it’s France. Never mind.

Tags: on the law, travel & foreign lands
2 Comments »

We at PWSBKTW were going to write a witty set-up to amuse our readers this week. But can anyone, even an anyone with our great skill and sense of humor, top this, the first lines of the news story itself?

A Brazilian man has admitted trying to kill his two-year-old stepson by pushing 30 sewing needles inside him after doping him with wine.

That’s hilarious. [Read more →]

Tags: on the law, people who should be killed this week
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Mike McGowan writes today about campaign finance laws and how they limit free speech.

As I understand the way these laws work — and someone correct me if I am wrong — it would be legal for a show like The West Wing to run a full-hour episode that had as the major theme the evils of gun ownership. The show could present people who support gun rights as nuts, could present the politicians trying to enact gun control as heroes, could dramatize horrible results of gun violence and show little Suzie’s funeral, which the fictional President attends, and on and on. [Read more →]

Tags: on the law, politics & government
2 Comments »

I’ve really gotta stop reading the HuffPo.  Did anyone else see “Supreme Court to Hand Government to Republicans, Again: This Time, Forever.” by Paul Abrams today?  Man, does that piece ever make your blood boil, or what?

[Read more →]

Tags: diatribes, on the law, politics & government
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“A man who claims to be the leader of a group of vampires has pleaded guilty to charges that he threatened to torture and kill an Indianapolis judge and his family.” The vampire in question is Jonathon Sharkey, a “self-proclaimed Satanist and professional boxer as well as wrestler (under the name Rocky ‘Hurricane’ Flash) and perennial candidate for public office.” He founded the Vampyres, Witches and Pagans Party, is fond of calling for impaling people for various crimes (and you thought PWSBKTW was extreme?), and is the subject of a documentary film. He was just sentenced to two years in jail. But how’s a jail cell gonna hold a vampire? Can’t he hypnotize the guards and escape? Can’t he sparkle or whatever it is vampires do these days and charm his way out? Okay, maybe the sparkling won’t work, since he looks like this: [Read more →]

Tags: animals, on the law
3 Comments »

What can you say about this case, in which a 98-year-old woman murdered her 100-year-old nursing home roommate? Do you have anything? I don’t, except that it’s sad.

I like the picture of Elizabeth Barrow. She seems happy there, smiling and holding a stuffed animal while celebrating her latest birthday, with “100″ on the cake.

(via Drudge)

Tags: getting older, on the law
No Comments »

We at PWSBKTW are on the verge of going insane.

“The second trial of Seattle Jewish Federation gunman Naveed Haq is now in the hands of a King County Superior Court jury.”

Haq stormed the Jewish center in July 2006, fatally shooting one woman and wounding five others. His attorneys acknowledge he did it, but say he was insane at the time and should be committed to a mental hospital for the rest of his life. […] Haq’s first trial ended with jurors deadlocked over the question of his sanity.

[Read more →]

Tags: on the law, people who should be killed this week
2 Comments »

When you read the beginning of this story about Theodore Sypnier, you might be thinking that New York residents are overreacting. Using common sense, you might believe that freeing a 100-year-old pedophile from jail isn’t dangerous, that this man can’t really be an ”active threat” to the community. He’s 100. What’s he gonna do, rape a kid? He’s a hundred. Years. Old. [Read more →]

Tags: getting older, on the law
3 Comments »

Essayist Gerald L. Early once wrote that 2,000 years from now, America will be known for “the Constitution, baseball, and jazz music…the three most beautiful things our culture has ever produced.”

Tough to argue with that.

But if the Constitution is to be enshrined in this immortal trio of Americana, why do today’s leaders continue to dismiss what’s written inside? [Read more →]

Tags: on the law, politics & government
3 Comments »

Ok, before we get started, I need to ask if anyone in the audience has a forklift or light crane I can borrow?  Looking over my outline for this post, I’m having serious trouble keeping my lower jaw held up off the floor and I require some heavy duty mechanical assistance to put an end to the uncontrollable drooling on my carpet that is resulting from it.  I’m going to actually defend Rush Limbaugh here, and it’s having the adverse effect of making me lose control of some of my minor muscles…

[Read more →]

Tags: on the law, politics & government
1 Comment »

10. He started horsing around, and then things just got out of hand.

9. His ex-girlfriend once told him he was hung like one.

8. Seriously, have you seen that horse?!

7. During the playoffs, he misheard when someone said he should be rooting for the Phillies!

6. He read one of the signs of the swine flu was feeling a little hoarse.

5. He knew he’d never have to pay palimony to a palomino.

4. The horse looks exactly like his old girlfriend.

3. He claims he was looking for a stable relationship.

2. His daughter said, for her next birthday, she was hoping for a pony.

1. He was put up to it – by a small step stool.
 

Bob Sullivan’s Top Ten Everything appears every Monday.

Tags: Bob Sullivan's top ten everything, animals, ends & odd, on the law
2 Comments »

Maurice Clemmons allegedly murdered four police officers at a coffee shop. He just walked in and shot them where they sat. Clemmons was shot and killed by police a couple of days later.

Mike Huckabee, when he was governor of Arkansas, signed a clemency order for Clemmons’ sentence, which made him eligible for parole. Had he not done that, one imagines that Clemmons would have had a tougher time killing those four police officers, since he was serving a 108-year sentence. [Read more →]

Tags: on the law, politics & government
1 Comment »

Here in the rural South, I’m often asked “Why are you a libertarian?” or “What makes you a libertarian?” when I mention to others what political persuasion I hold.  Living in a State that went McCain by seven points, I am often surrounded by Republicans who seem to think that libertarians are just another face in the “Big Tent”, like we’re their slightly dopey little brother, and that given time, we’ll eventually mature into full blown GOPer’s.  But I think they are mistaken when they make that assumption.  In my opinion, there are very serious discrepancies between a true libertarian and a Republican Party statist!

Over the course of the next few posts, I’m going to try to hit the highlights and explain exactly what kind of libertarian I am.

[Read more →]

Tags: on the law, politics & government, religion & philosophy
2 Comments »

I’m sorry about posting this. I really shouldn’t. It isn’t fair to you, my faithful readers. I made the mistake of reading this news story this morning, and I shouldn’t have. It’s fucking disturbing every which way. But it’s in my head now, and if you read it, at least I won’t be the only one hearing the words, over and over, ”No, Daddy, no.” But don’t read it. Just go home after work and hug your kid, maybe pretend for a little while that the world as it is doesn’t exist.

Tags: family & parenting, on the law
2 Comments »

Anyone interested and plenty who are not have seen the Attorney General, Eric Holder, making his arguments as to why the transfer of Khalid Sheik Muhammed from Guantanamo to the Southern District of New York for trial is not just Good; not just Superior to the previous status quo, but rather Necessary. Indeed, he claims to be correcting a derilection, committed by You Know Who. [Read more →]

Tags: on the law, terror & war
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