Many of you Readers will have already come across the sensational story of a woman escaping from an eighteen-year captivity in an East Bay Area exurb. She was kidnapped by a stranger near her home in South Lake Tahoe in… Continue Reading
In part of my continuing theme of “dial the rhetoric down from eleven,” let me turn your attention to a phenomenon of truly astonishing disrepute: the fabricated hate crime. Here’s how I suspect the thinking behind such an activity goes,… Continue Reading
So, we have reports that President Obama is backing a suggesting by Attorney General Holder to appoint a special prosecutor. The special prosecutor will go after people involved in the CIA’s use of torture to interrogate prisoners, including the decidedly… Continue Reading
Now, I think there’s no problem with a law that requires you to register your guns. And Plaxico Burress owned a gun that he had not registered. And it went off when he carried it into a club in New… Continue Reading
I know that the Supreme Court has narrowly upheld certain kinds of hate crimes laws. I think those laws, and those decisions, are ultimately contrary to the First Amendment — which is to say I think the Supremes blew the… Continue Reading
Public Defender Sarah makes an eminently reasonable observation about the prosecution of Lori Drew. The civil justice system is significantly more flexible than the criminal justice system, and for good reason. The downside to the civil courts is that Lori… Continue Reading
I came across this story arising from near Portland, Oregon today and was moved to finally understand something I’ve read about and resisted in the past. [Fifteen-month-old] Ava Worthington died March 2, 2008, after her parents and other members of… Continue Reading
Obviously, the Holocaust Museum murders yesterday were awful. They were the act of a deranged individual acting on hateful beliefs and the only consolation for the deaths of innocent people is that their murderer was swiftly neutralized and will do… Continue Reading
While some of the commenters to this article act like this was common knowledge, I did not know this fact and I consider myself fairly sophisticated about employment matters. There are lots of reasons for “use it or lose it”… Continue Reading
When I was in high school and college, lo these many years ago, the big flashpoint political issues that I can recall talking about were: Abortion Affirmative action The Cold War Balancing environmental protection with economic growth Illegal immigration Gay… Continue Reading