War on Abstractions 24 Aug 2007 As part of the “War on Drugs” an entire family of hydroponics sellers, selling legally available material, were sentenced to prison without parole. Gary Tucker has just been released after a ten year stretch and confiscation of all his goods and money. His brother Steve died of cancer in prison. Why? He refused to allow the DEA to install surveillance cameras in his store to identify his customers. “This isn’t Nazi Germany” he said. One wonders… read the rest. It’s harrowing. Hat tip to the Lippard Blog Politics
Evolution Out of the mouths of [mental] babes 2 Jun 2008 Creationism is being pushed legislatively in Texas again. But this line is priceless, from State Board of Education vice chairman, David Bradley (yes, you guessed, a Republican): Bradley said he doesn’t foresee any successful effort to remove the “strengths and weaknesses” requirement from the science standards. “There are issues in… Read More
Politics Commander in Chief 1 Jul 2008 This is me commenting on American politics again. Sorry. I am somewhat amazed at the furore over Wesley Clark’s comment that being a prisoner of war doesn’t automatically make one qualified as Commander in Chief of the armed services, a position that the President fulfills. Not only is that true,… Read More
Censorship The Policy policy, and a Bill of Rights 3 Dec 2008 When my kids were in school, I noticed an interesting phenomenon that went something like this: Headmaster: No, your kids can’t be being bullied. We have a policy against bullying. I came to call this the “Policy policy”: so long as there’s a Policy in place for some longstanding problem,… Read More
In my area, I’m seeing more and more police crackdowns on just about everything, from DUI, to drugs, to parking tickets. The politicians “war on crime” slogan sells well here, and they’re getting better at finding things to convict you of.