Celebrities – Perpetual Adoration

June 29, 2019

Bishop Sheen and the Woman He Loved

During the 1980s, I purchased several sets of cassette tapes of talks that had been given by the late Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. At the time, I had a small battery-operated cassette tape player that I used to listen to tapes while I was shaving and getting ready for work, while I was driving, and while I was getting ready for bed.

January 12, 2019

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The Richest and Stupidest Man in the World

Last Wednesday (January 9), Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com, announced on Twitter that he and his wife of 25 years were getting a divorce. It turns out that two days before the announcement, a reporter from the National Enquirer notified him that the Enquirer was going to publish a story about an affair he was having with another married woman. The reporter wanted to know if Bezos had any comments for the story. A lawyer who represents Bezos apparently told the Enquirer that it was “widely known” that Bezos and his wife had been “long separated.”

November 17, 2018

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The Death of the Real Superhero of Marvel Comics

Stan Lee, the legendary writer, editor, and publisher who was responsible for making Marvel Comics the top comic book company of the 20th Century, died on November 12, 2018. He was 95.

September 29, 2018

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The Intentional Destruction of a Stellar Reputation

The copy of the article shown above appeared in the Peoria Journal Star on July 2, 1987. The article explains how I was able to get a criminal case against a pro-life activist dismissed, because of the failure of the prosecution to disclose a witness. My client, Gerald (Jerry) Smith, was a well-known local pro-life activist who was frequently arrested for trespassing on the property where the local abortion clinic was located. In the case that was referenced in the article, Jerry was charged with Criminal Trespass to Property, a Class A misdemeanor that was punishable by up to a year in jail, and up to a $1,000 fine.

September 22, 2018

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Is the Judge Guilty or Not Guilty?

It happened on September 5, 1985. That was the day that a jury in one of my criminal cases deliberated for only 20 minutes, before finding my client not guilty. I’ve been a lawyer for more than 35 years. The 20-minute jury verdict is still an all-time record for me.

September 1, 2018

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The Beatles, Cadillacs, and Aretha Franklin

In the marketing world, the phrase “passion brand” refers to a product that has a passionate following among its customers. In addition to being loyal to the product, the customers also personally identify with it. If necessary, they will expend the time and energy to defend the product when someone criticizes it. The ownership of the product becomes a statement in and of itself — a statement that the customer has achieved a special status because of their affiliation with the product.

February 3, 2018

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A Dream & The Greatest Showman

I recently joined my wife and some of our children at a local theater to see the movie, The Greatest Showman. The movie is a musical about the life of P.T. Barnum. It begins when Barnum is a boy. He is the son of a poor tailor who does work for a wealthy man. The man looks down on Barnum and his father, because of their lower-class status.

December 16, 2017

Hollywood Predators and Our Consent-Based Culture

I recently counted the sexual predators who have been exposed over the past three months who are associated with the mainstream media and the movie and television industries. All of them are men. The number of men who have been outed over the past three months exceeds three dozen.

November 25, 2017

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Mob Action on Knoxville Avenue

I have a client — I’ll call him John — who was recently injured when his pickup truck crashed into a car that pulled out in front of him on Knoxville Avenue in Peoria. The collision occurred on a weekday at about 4:45 p.m., near the intersection of Knoxville and McClure. John is a construction worker and was on his way home from work at the time of the collision.