Tim Tebow and woman pulled over for supposed pot leaf sticker

About issues in the news:

Tim Tebow, who seems to be a nice guy but really is an awful quarterback, was going to speak at a church by ultra rightwing Dallas Pastor Robert Jeffres. Jeffress, known for his rampant homophobia and loathing of anyone who doesn't agree with him, also has stated that the election of President Obama is going to bring about the mythological anti-Christ.

People like Jeffress think this anti-Christ is necessary for the divine plan of his god, but then oppose the election of a president that would help bring it about? Look, it's not my silly mythology, but if you are going to believe in a plan, wouldn't you want the election of a president that would bring it about?

Jenny and Jessica Buntemeyer are a legally married couple in Iowa. They had a son who sadly was born dead. Well, the Iowa state Department of Public Health erased Jenny's name from their son's death certificate. The Iowa Attorney General's office refused to issue a certificate with Jenny's name, and it took a court challenge to do so. Thankfully they got a new updated certificate.

The U.S. Supreme Court has said that drug sniffing dogs don't require field tests (but only training tests) to determine probable cause for searches of cars. So in other words, if a dog is repeatedly wrong when it comes to searching for drugs in the real world, it does not matter.

Dogs equaling probable cause is basically something that has been taken as a matter of faith by the courts, but I am glad that at least there was a ruling by the highest court of the land on this issue, though not one I agree. By the way, various studies show how wrong these dogs have been.

In the state of Tennessee, police stopped a woman originally from Ohio, who had an Ohio State bumper sticker on her car. The sticker features a leaf from the Buckeye tree, which is also the nickname of Ohio State University, or "The Buckeyes. The cops told her they stopped her because someone else, maybe another cop, reported the car with a "marijuana leaf" on it. O.K, a couple of points.

No marijuana trafficker is dumb enough (I would imagine) to put attention on themselves by decorating their car with pot leaves. They don't want to draw the attention of the police. Second, even if she did, so what! There is a right to put a pot leaf symbol on your car! Marijuana, stupidly, is illegal. Symbols of marijuiana aren't illegal. Are some police really this stupid?

Advocating for legalization of marijuana is also legal, though some police have arrested individuals who engaged in their free speech rights to advocate for it being legalized. If a cop read this and didn't like what I wrote about marijuana, can he arrest me? Of course not. Even if I put up a giant pic of a marijuana plant next to the column. By the way, if you want to end the war on marijuana, please think about joining the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) or the Marijuana Policy Project.

Lastly, a word about the Derek Williams inquest, the man who died during police custody. Even after the police finished their internal review, why withhold the video from the public and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel? Seems like police in Milwaukee, like everywhere, care little about being accountable to the public and more about covering their own behinds.