Assorted Stupidity #14

• "[I]t is not up to this Hearing Officer to decide whether in fact Respondent was or was not truly possessed by and speaking for [her client's] deceased wife," wrote the officer hearing this legal-ethics case. He did go ahead and recommend a suspension, though, so I'm guessing he was leaning toward "no."


• Did you know that marijuana is also an excellent "deworming agent" for ducks? You might keep that in mind if you have marijuana, and ducks, and police visitors.


• The guy who threw his shoes at George W. Bush in 2008 is suing the Iraqi prime minister, alleging he was tortured during his nine-month sentence for shoe hurling. Maybe so, but on the other hand he got a shoe named after him in Bangladesh, and isn't that compensation enough? Wisely, Muntadhar al-Zeidi has been living in Lebanon since his release. Unwisely, he visited Iraq again this week, and was promptly detained.


• Dear Aspen police: it's not against the law to call you "douche bags." No, the Founders didn't put those specific words in the First Amendment but they probably thought you'd be smart enough to figure it out. Were they wrong?


• A hatchet-wielding mummy robbed a gas station on Monday in Herminie, Pennsylvania. The robber, who escaped, reportedly had his head wrapped in fabric. If I wasn't pretty sure he was still in prison, I would suspect that maybe the Duct Tape Bandit had come up with a slightly better plan.


• That guy skulking around the Comfort Suites in Urbana, Illinois, may be a Democratic state legislator on the run, according to the New York Times. Seems Illinois is the "refuge of choice" for Democratic lawmakers fleeing Wisconsin, Indiana and Ohio to avoid controversial votes. The official Illinois tourism site does have a feature that allows visitors to "Plan Your Getaway," and we can assume they aren't going there to visit Ronald Reagan's boyhood home.