Category Archives: In The News

In The News

Another useless class-action lawsuit

I actually write quite a bit about class–action lawsuits. However, I don’t know how much sense this one makes, so here it is:

A U.S.-based national organization of Filipinos and Filipino Americans is preparing a $500M class suit against ABC Network in the United States in response to a slur against Philippine medical schools and Filipino medical professionals, aired in the premiere episode of the fourth season of “Desperate Housewives.”

Oh boy. Give me a break. Can we say overkill?

One Filipino lawyer said the class suit is needed to protect the reputation and credibility of Filipino doctors.

‚ÄúThe reputations of doctors are affected, their income is affected and this is a major damage inflicted not only on them but also the universities in the Philippines,” said lawyer Ted Laguatan.

So. A stupid joke on a silly show (that I don’t even watch) has damaged the reputation and credibility of Filipino doctors, who need to earn American degrees even if they have Filipino degrees anyway?

Right.

Ewww, not pretty

For the most part, The Smoking Gun posts funny, sarcastic pictures, stories and police reports, but this one is hard to look at, yet hard to look away from — drawings of al Qaeda torture methods and pictures of their tools of torture. Criminy.

Is Long Beach finished with the hate?

The last two black kids charged with beating the three white women in Long Beach on Halloween night have pleaded guilty to felony assault with a deadly weapon. But the hate crime charges were dropped, they won’t get any jail time, and they’ll still have to attend a race tolerance program.

So basically, on paper, they didn’t hate anybody, but they still have to attend a racial tolerance program.

Here is the LAT and PT take on it.

Of course, one of those kids will still be hanging out at the courtroom for months to come. He was arrested for an unrelated crime a couple of months after the Halloween incident.

The PT offered a couple of other tidbits that I didn’t see in the LAT or AP accounts. One of the boys’ lawyers had requested her client’s ankle monitor be removed, but the judge refused. Why?

Brown also refused Vitale’s request that her client’s ankle monitor be removed until he returns to court on June 15 for sentencing, noting the teen had serious problems with school attendance and his grades until he was placed in the California Department of Probation’s monitoring program. Since then, his grades have risen from Ds and Fs to As, Bs and Cs and his attendance is much better, the court noted.

It’s hard to say that this is over and done with. It’s different for me, since I’m Filipino. But if I were a white woman in Long Beach, I’m not so sure how I would feel about walking around at night after all this. I mean, think about it – a bunch of kids charged and convicted with beating a trio of unarmed women were punished with…..house arrest, probation and attending a racial tolerance program that will likely be just like detention to a teenager.

Sounds like cruel and unusual punishment to me — for the victims.

Inspired by and for TV?

I haven’t been following the Long Beach Attacks as maybe I should, but let’s face it – I don’t live in the area, I don’t know any of them personally and I’ve been busy. So sue me. That’s the privilege of simply blogging the news.

So today’s news about the Long Beach was that a) the two remaining boys charged were offered a plea deal and b) the families of the 10 kids convicted of beating the three white women are expected to file a claim against the city of Long Beach for civil rights violations, via both the LAT and PT. What civil rights violations, you ask?

In a statement released Monday, his group alleged that the youths, while in custody, “were injected with an unknown substance and blood was drawn without notification or parental consent.”

Will the drama never stop? Whoever heard of anyone ever being injected with anything (save for medical reasons, like needing insulin) while being arrested? And blood being drawn without notification or parental consent? I find it hard to believe, in such a politically charged case that has drawn such scrutiny, that the city of Long Beach would even dare. I mean, bureaucracy can sometimes break down into stupid, but I highly doubt it. I think these kids have been so enamored with Heroes that they may have projected it into their own predicament.

Hey, I think I stumbled on to something here. Humor me: Remember when I said before that this whole deal feels eerily similar to a CSI episode called “Fannysmacking,” in which a mob of Las Vegas teens roam around, beating on tourists? OK, well, a storyline in Heroes is that The Company is literally bags and tags the heroes they can get their hands on by injecting them with a radioactive isotope, which is evidenced by two, small parallel lines on the neck.

I think we know who the real culprit is here, people. TV. Hollywood. Throw the book at ’em!

By the way, I love it that they’ve nicknamed themselves. The Long Beach 10? I’m surprised that none of the TV news stations thought that one up. But then again, they’ve been treating this story with kid gloves, so I guess its no wonder.

First time

I haven’t ever done this before, but I’m doing it now because it’s becoming a pissing match on my blog that I’m not even involved in – so I’ve closed the comments on this post.

There are too many anonymous comments, too many statements with no supporting links/info, too much of the “well, let me tell you about this…” going on, and its making me uncomfortable because I’ve already let the whole thing go and gone on with life and other pursuits – therefore, so should all of you. If you feel you need to continue the backbiting and name calling you’ve been doing in my comments, start your own gosh darn blog. It’s free, you know.

I also do not like the idea of my blog ever becoming the focus or target of some sort of slander/libel lawsuit, so there.

kthxbye.