Freedom is a funny thing.  Too borrow and pervert an aphorism, freedom is like oxygen: most people don’t think about it until it’s missing. Think of me (and this article) as a canary in a coal mine. I only hope you’ll actually notice — and then do something about it.

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Over on the blog, Defending People: The Art and Science of Criminal Defense Lawyering, after a post titled “Thoughts on a Hanging,” a character named “Y” comments: Wait. A. Minute. How can we have real liberty if we lack safety? How is a man free to “pursue happiness” — another key phrase to our country’s […]

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Awhile back, I wrote an article called “Nothing to Hide” after a comment made by a particularly unthinking neo-conservative — an otherwise likeable guy, making his comment all the more disturbing — suggested that if you have nothing to hide, you should not be against governmental intrusion into your privacy. And, yes, that was virtually […]

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One more reason not to shop WalMart. What a lot of people don’t realize is that we have the system of crime and punishment that we have because for hundreds of years, it’s been determined that once someone has been punished for a crime, they should be re-incorporated into society. Yet, today, it is increasingly […]

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One of our more troubled readers — no longer with us because he’s off trying to start his own blog full of panache and style, if not content — frequently worries about the location of “the semen-stained dress.” Thanks to Wal-Mart, we’ll soon never lose another dress…or the person who wears it.

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Regarding the new Gmail service proposed by Google, which will give away one gigabyte of free email storage — and all you have to do is let them read all your mail and use what they find there however they want: “It’s not a great deal. Individuals would be throwing away the protections of their […]

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…moves to a whole new level. For those who don’t worry about this sort of thing…the day is coming when science will be able to scan your head as you enter a public arena. By observing activity in various parts of your brain, science can already determine things like propensity for violence, lack of impulse […]

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An acquaintance of mine contacted me today. He was quite proud of himself for being involved in the story of a young Fresno girl he suspected of having SARS. He mentioned that he had a “contact” at the hospital who had seen some lab reports on the little girl, and was concerned that “proper precautions […]

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