Once again, public policy is being manipulated by people who watch too many action movies. In light of the recent events at Virginia Tech, a number of states, including Virginia and Louisiana, unfortunately my home-state, are considering a brilliant new law to deal with the problem of shootings on college campuses: allowing students and teachers [...]
10. Opening on a Religious Holiday Why should Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, the non-religious, etc. close their businesses for Christmas and Easter? This goes against separation of church and state, and freedom from religious discrimination. 9. Jaywalking If there are no cars, who cares what color the light is? If the light says walk, but a [...]
Further to last week’s list of 5 reasons not to trust the police (and the nazi-esque comments that ensued), I can’t help but provide a few more. 6. They can turn off the cameras. Apparently, if prisoners don’t cooperate, the police can turn off the security cameras before beating the living shit out of said [...]
Recently, a police officer has engaged me in a debate about whether police are justified in using Tasers on individuals who nonviolently refuse to cooperate. I think we all agree that anyone who attacks a police officer deserves the asskicking that follows (most of the time); however, the issue is murkier where the “perpetrator” gives [...]
This post continues the series on solving the drug problem, which begins here. The most recent segment differentiated between drug uses that affect surrounding people, such as smoking tobacco, and ones that do not, such as popping morphine pills. We found that drugs that affect surrounding people should be banned in public places and in [...]
In my previous post I explained the true drug problem. I differentiated the symptoms from the underlying pathology by defining “the drug problem” as a conflict between: The right to choose how to live one’s own life. The responsibility not to cause harm to others. The unfortunate reality that use of and addiction to various [...]
Part 1: What is the Drug Problem? Everyone talks about the drug problem, but what exactly is the problem? We all know the symptoms. Symptoms of the Drug Problem Screwed up drug policy. Extremely dangerous drugs can be bought in the grocery store (e.g. nutmeg) while comparatively benign drugs can land you in prison (i.e. [...]
Have you been following this story of a man who was tasered to death at Vancouver airport? This is just one of a rash of taser incidents across North America in the past few months, including the highly-publicized incidents at the John Kerry speech and involving the death of a 56-year-old disabled woman in a [...]
The recent swell of support for US Presidential candidate Ron Paul is astounding. And I can see why: he’s anti-war, anti-torture, anti-taxes and anti-government-screwing-with-individuals. In other words, he’s not a sadistic, subhuman, nut-job radical like Rudy Giuliani or Mitt Romney. But when you probe a little deeper, and I just mean read the Wikipedia entry [...]
A Software License Agreement is a contract between a software producer and a software user that grants the user a license; an End-User License Agreement (EULA) is a Software License Agreement that indicates terms of use. EULAs are fine in principle, but the way many EULAs are written makes them legally meaningless, unenforceable nonsense. This [...]