Year: 2007
CHICAGO NEWS DEPT.
Traffic Enforcement Profiteering in Chicago
Yesterday I wrote about the moral perils of punishing people in a way that is profitable for the government. Today, the Gary Washburn of the Chicago Tribune gives me another example: Driving-related fines and fees provided the city treasury with more than $210 million last year. That represented about 4 percent of the 2006 budget,… Read more
LEGAL DEPT.
Evil Lawmaking: Profitable Punishment
Yesterday I wrote about the evils of free punishment, which tempts lawmakers into punishing people just because they can. But free punishment is just the low endpoint of a much bigger problem: Profitable punishment, also known as fines. There’s nothing inherently evil about fining wrongdoers, but it carries the risk of turning law enforcement into… Read more
LEGAL DEPT.
Evil Lawmaking: Free Punishment
About a month ago, Gideon at a public defender posted a poll for his fellow criminal defense lawyers to pick the “most evil legal principle“. Being lawyers, Gideon and his readers are concerned with real legal principles, like harmless error and reasonable suspicion. I’m more concerned with the principles used by legislatures when creating new… Read more
OPERATIONS DEPT.
New Skyline Photo
Regular readers may notice that I’ve replaced the Chicago skyline photo at the top of the page. It’s an emerging tradition here at Windypundit that the banner photo is one of the few photos on the site that is not my original photography (mostly because I’m too lazy to trek to the lakefront). The previous… Read more
CONSUMER AFFAIRS DEPT.
Sallie Mae is a Nightmare
Woman of the Law has a really good rant about a customer service nightmare with Sallie Mae, her student load provider. I’m hoping the links in this post will improve her search engine score for the phrase “nightmare with Sallie Mae“. Or maybe I should link to it with the more traditional “Sallie Mae sucks,”… Read more