Fact Check: Cory Booker Did Not Sing Top Gun Tune While Sexually Engaged with Drunken Teen

By Phil Stilton

WASHINGTON-When telling a good story, often the story is good enough.  Sometimes, the facts behind that story don’t match up to the story, but the strength of the story often overshadows the actual facts.

Such is the case in a story written in 1992 by a young Stanford University Student, Cory Booker.

Fast forward to 2018 and Cory Booker is now a United States Senator clamoring for truth and justice.

Back in 1992, young Booker was just experimenting in social justice.

“New Year’s Eve 1984 I will never forget. I was 15. As the ball dropped, I leaned over to hug a friend and she met me instead with an overwhelming kiss,” Booker reminisced about his sexual encounter eight years earlier.

Again, keep in mind, 1984 was only 8 years prior to his 1992 editorial. Read the rest of this entry »

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Cory Booker: So much for stealing second

Originally published in The Stanford Daily Signal, February 19, 1992

Telling one’s own personal story is often the most powerful way to make a point, or, more importantly, to make people think. When grandiose statements entrenched in politically correct terminology are made, many may listen but few will hear.

When I hesitated in writing this column, I realized I was basking in hypocrisy. So instead I chose to write and risk.

New Year’s Eve 1984 I will never forget. I was 15. As the ball dropped, I leaned over to hug a friend and she met me instead with an overwhelming kiss.

As we fumbled upon the bed, I remember debating my next “move” as if it were a chess game. With the “Top Gun” slogan ringing in my head, I slowly reached for her breast. After having my hand pushed away once, I reached my “mark.” Read the rest of this entry »

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Bring back Justice O’Connor

The death of Justice Antonin Scalia has already deepened the divide in American politics. Even when the president’s party controls the Senate, Supreme Court confirmations are difficult; just ask President George W. Bush about what happened with Harriet Miers. In the midst of an open-seat presidential election, and with the White House and Senate controlled by… Read the rest of this entry »

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Supreme Court’s conservative justices cast doubt on labor union fees

The Supreme Court is poised to dent the political power of labor after conservative justices cast doubt Monday on public sector unions’ ability to collect fees even from workers who disagree with the union’s political or other demands. At stake are millions of labor dollars in “agency fees” that unions collect from teachers, police and other… Read the rest of this entry »

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More unions ask U.S. Supreme Court to hear pension payment case

TRENTON — Another 16 New Jersey public worker unions are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to consider whether the state’s highest court erred by declaring a pension funding agreement between the state and employees unenforceable. In a petition filed with the U.S. Supreme Court, lawyers for 16 labor groups — including the New Jersey Education Association,… Read the rest of this entry »

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Analysis: GOP can no longer look to court to repeal Obamacare

 

WASHINGTON — It’s clear now that any overhaul of the Affordable Care Act will have to come through the political system, not the court. And repeal-minded Republicans face trouble generating a mandate for change. Republicans were hoping the court would decide against this key part of the law — and in turn give the party momentum… Read the rest of this entry »

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Supreme Court allows Texas to require photo IDs for voting

WASHINGTON — A divided Supreme Court early Saturday morning let a new Texas voter ID law take effect, the latest ruling in a series of decisions on voting laws in the states just weeks before midterm elections. The court’s decision means Texas voters starting Oct. 20 must present one of several forms of photo identification. “We… Read the rest of this entry »

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Let Us Pray

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled today, 5-4, that prayer is permitted at government meetings.

The American public agrees with the decision, according to a FDU Public Mind poll conducted late last year following the oral arguments in Town of Greece v Galloway.

73% told FDU that prayer should be permitted at public meetings, 23% said it shouldn’t.

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Supreme Court Declares DOMA Unconstitutional

The United States Supreme Court has the struck down the Defense of Marriage Act as an unconstitutional violation of the 5th Amendment’s protection of equal liberty.

“DOMA singles out a class of persons deemed by a State entitled of recognition and protection to enhance their own liberty.”

“The federal statute is invalid, for no legitimate purpose overcomes the purpose and effect to disparage and injure those whom the State, by its marriage laws, sought to protect in personhood and dignity.  By seeking to displace this protection and treating those persons as living in marriages less respected than others.”

The 5-4 decision was written by Justice Anthony Kennedy.

The Court’s 76 page decision can be downloaded here.

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Used Goods

Good news and potentially bad news

Have you heard about ecoATM?  It’s a really cool way to dispose of old cell phones or MP3 players and get some cash or donate to charity.

You put your device into an ATM-like machine which scans it, identifies it and gives you a range of prices that it will pay for the device based upon its condiditon.  If you like the prices, the machine asks that you insert a cable into the device so that it can evaluate the condition.  After a few moments a cash offer appears on the machine’s screen.  If you accept, it dispenses cash after giving you the option to donate a portion to a charity.  If you don’t accept, you get the device back.

Yesterday I took a Blackberry 9700 with a broken screen and three Palm Treos that I haven’t used for years to the machine at the Monmouth Mall.  The machine is outside of Modell’s and Boscov’s at the southern end of the mall.   There were two young women using the machine when I got there and several others watching the process.  I was quite surprised when the machine offered the young women $41 for the used phone.  I figured $5 or $10 would be the most offered.   I got $39 for the broken Blackberry and $1 each for the Palms.

Such transactions may become illegal by this time next year. Selling your car, furniture, books, art or clothes might also be illegal if you don’t get the permission of or pay a vig to the manufacturer of the product, depending on the outcome of a case the U.S. Supreme Court has decided to hear.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons  is a case involving Supap Kirtsaeng, a Thai man who came to the United States in 1997 to study at Cornell and stepped into the American Dream in the bookstore.  He noticed that the textbooks he was required to buy  cost a great deal more at Cornell’s bookstore than he could buy them for back home in Thailand.  He bought his books in Thailand.  He also bought enough books in Thailand, published by Wiley & Sons, to resell to his classmates and pocket $1.2 million in the process.

Wiley sued for copyright infringement, arguing that the first sale doctrine does not apply to goods first sold outside of the United States.  A jury agreed with Wiley and awarded the publisher $600,000.  The Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the verdict and now the U.S. Supreme Court will hear the case on October 29.

It seems to defy logic and fairness that the manufacturer of a product would retain property rights after the valid sale of their product, regardless of where the sale took place.  However, SCOTUS was divided on this issue 4-4 in a 2010 case involving Costco and Swiss watch maker Omega.  Justice Kagen recused herself from the Costco/Omega case but will participate in Kirtsaeng v Wiley.

Don’t count on SCOTUS making sense.  We’ve seen them declare that women have the right to declare that embryos and fetuses are trespassers invading their privacy, the punishment for such trespass being death,  and that penalties are really taxes, even when Congress and the President says they are not taxes.

Posted: October 9th, 2012 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: SCOTUS, U.S. Supreme Court | Tags: Blackberry, ecoATM, Kirtsaeng v Wiley, Monmouth Mall, Palm Treo, SCOTUS, U.S. Supreme Court | Comments Off on Used Goods

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