Crystal Cox – Investigative Blogger? No, More Like A Scammer and Extortionist

Crystal Cox: “Pay me $2,500 a month and I won’t write false crap about you, call your wife a slut, and go after your 3 year old daughter on the internet! STRAIGHT CASH HOMIE!”

Imagine this…. you Google yourself. To your surprise, a whole bunch of stuff that is blatantly untrue comes up. Being an adult, you call the person who wrote it. This is how the conversation goes down:

“Did you write all that stuff on a website about me?”
“Yup. I’m an investigative blogger journalist!”
“Um, a bunch of the stuff you wrote about me is untrue. Actually all of it is.”
“Oh sure, I know. But I’m a journalist blogger so I can say whatever I want. First Amendment, bitch! But tell you what – I’m also reputation manager. If you pay me $2,500 a month, I’m sure a lot of that untrue stuff would go away.”
“Uhhhhhh… wait a second. You wrote a bunch of stuff that’s untrue about me. And now you’ll only take it down if I pay you?”
“Yup! And if you DON’T pay me it’s going to get worse! I’m going to buy a bunch of domain names that involve you and your family. Not only will I smear your reputation, but I’ll smear theirs, too! I’ll write all kinds of stuff, like call your wife a slut! I’ll even go after your four year old child!”
“That’s extortion!”
“No silly, it’s not extortion! It’s journalism! Investigative journalism!”

You’re probably saying to yourself “nah, that couldn’t happen. That’s illegal. A person could get in a lot of trouble for doing something so irresponsible and probably illegal.”

Too bad that’s exactly what Crystal Cox did. Twice now. Maybe more.

Why We Should Eat Milkshake the Pig

This is where your bacon comes from. Sorry that makes you sad.

[WARNING: There is some graphic content in this post, the video in particular.]

Many of you know Milkshake, the adorable pig that lives on Greensgrow Farm in the neighborhood. Most of you love Milkshake, because he’s a very cute pig and generally pretty cool.

So I’m not surprised that many Fishtown residents are disturbed by the thought that Milkshake is allegedly going to be killed and eaten. People are calling out for a petition to stop this.

Apparently people don’t like knowing where their dinner comes from. That’s a little, shall we say, unpleasant…

Bullying and Zero Tolerance: It Gets Better

Who would bully a kid this awesome? Wu-Tang!

Today Scott Greenfield wrote a post about why anti-bulling laws are stupid, based on the Dharun Ravi suicide and conviction of New Jersey’s Tyler Clementi. According to Scott:

Because of hate crime legislation, Ravi faces a term of imprisonment of 10 years. Uh oh.  Suddenly the anti-bullying crusade has a problem. They demanded he be convicted. They demanded he be held accountable. And now that they got their way, they are confronted with the consequences of what they asked for.  But it’s become clear that they don’t want that either.
…
Newsflash, singers of Kumbaya.  Neither gay rights groups, nor you, can intervene.  The imposition of sentence is not a matter of public approval.  It’s not a democratic decision. The judge won’t “crowdsource” it.  And nobody gets to “intervene.”

Scott’s words took me back to high school. The year was 1999 and I was in school at Downingtown High. The country had just been rocked by the Columbine High School massacre.

As far as I know, we never had any real problems with weapons or gangs at Downingtown. Maybe a random fight here and there, but nothing serious. This was a typical run of the mill suburban high school filled with ordinary suburban kids. After the Columbine massacre, Downingtown decided to take measures against trench coats and a “more serious” stance on weapons in order to combat a problem isolated to a school in Colorado.

Sounded like a great idea at the time, though. We don’t want Columbine happening here in Downingtown! We have to do something, right…?

The school administrators told us Zero Tolerance was to keep everyone safe from Columbine. But is that how it panned out…?

Unfortunately, reality is often a bit uncooperative…

Supreme Court says lawyers must do competent job handling plea bargains. “Isn’t that obvious?” asks every competent defense attorney.

These law books are no substitute for zealous advocacy.

Supreme Court says lawyers must do competent job handling plea bargains. “Isn’t that obvious?” asks every competent defense attorney.

I am at once astounded and disgusted that this issue even had to go to SCOTUS.

“The decisions laid out by Kennedy means that criminal defense lawyers are now required to inform their clients of plea bargain offers, regardless of whether they think the client should accept them, and must give their clients good advice on whether to accept a plea bargain at all stages of prosecution. If they don’t, Kennedy said, they will run afoul of the Sixth Amendment right to assistance of counsel during criminal proceedings. ‘The right to counsel is the right to effective assistance of counsel,’ Kennedy said.”

Are Employers Who Ask Potential Employees To Turn Over Their Facebook Login and Passwords Breaking the Law?

Yesterday you may have read some employers are requesting potential employees to turn over their Facebook login and password information. Today the ABA Journal is reporting that two states are considering banning this practice for public employers.

Well, what if I told you this practice might already be illegal under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, 18 USC § 1030?

Mentorship: Who Would You Want as a Personal Trainer – the Biggest Guy in the Gym or a Supplement Salesman?

Who would you rather get weight lifting advice from?

I’ve been out of the gym for over a year. Last night I finally got back into it. And it feels good, man. It’s amazing, but even after being out for over a year I’ve retained a lot of my strength. I can still put up 60lb dumbbells without a problem, which isn’t close to where I used to be, but it’s not bad for someone whose physical activity has been pretty limited for a year.

Marc Randazza: Why I Went to Law School

I want to be this badass

“As you get older it is harder to have heroes, but it is sort of necessary.”
-Ernest Hemingway

This is an ode to someone I consider a mentor, a role model, and a friend. I’ve been criticized by my friends and family for being a little, shall we say, uncouth at times. Well, Marc Randazza, who is also known for being a little uncouth himself, is the lawyer I want to be. And I have no shame about admitting it.

Philly

I support your right to carry, but not your poor culinary choices. (Keen legal insight within).

Why yes, Charles. Yes I am. Oh my.

I got this message a few minutes ago and nearly spit up my coffee.

The Philadelphia Inquirer Philadelphia Daily News picked up a story on an Open Carry dinner that’s scheduled to be held at an Applebee’s in Ridley Township.

Now, these particular guys have been active on our neighborhood message board for quite some time now, acting the part of the rabble rousers. A bit ago, they posted an open invitation for us to join them this open carry convention held at the king of restaurants.

I whole-heartedly support gun owners’ rights – including the right to open carry in Philadelphia (irrespective of the wisdom of that decision). But this venue choice is atrocious. Really, of all the great restaurants we have in the area, they choose to assemble a group of guys who feel the need to wear their holstered penises on their hip for all to see at a family restaurant whose claims to fame are 2 for $20 dinners and half-price appetizers after 9?

I posted this in response:

Who knew that my rhetorical eloquence would be picked up this morning by the Inquirer? (At least now I won’t have to let Applebee’s know how I feel on their Yelp page).

H/T @CharlesThomas for letting me know about this at all.

Shame on you Applebee’s for wanting to track my location when I visited your website.

Extra kudos to Stephanie Farr for including this line: “Fiorino, who used a forum on the website for the Pennsylvania Firearm Owners Association to coordinate the meet-up, said on the forum that he’s shooting for getting to the restaurant about 5:30 p.m.”  Ah, puns.

Search Engine Terms of the Day – “Does Jordan’s Wife Know?” Edition.

I always enjoy perusing what search terms people use to find our site. 

Congrats to the happy couple. Have you picked out a name yet? 

Maybe you should hire a defamation lawyer?