Years ago, I had an idea for a novel. It was way before I started blogging -- maybe the mid 1990's -- and I was feeling a little out-of-sorts with respect to my life and career, so I had this idea of writing a novel about a geeky guy like me who gets down on his luck (lost job, wife left, dog died, etc.) and in desperation decides to use his job skills making money doing … [Read more...] about I Still Want Walter White to Win
A Brief Message to Valve Software
Dear Valve Software Executives,I have been following with great anticipation your three-part series of excited announcements this week. Your Linux-based operating system, cleverly called SteamOS, sure sounds fascinating, although I personally don't want to "bring the Steam experience...into the living-room" because my wife is watching TV in there. For the same reason, I … [Read more...] about A Brief Message to Valve Software
In Which Bill Otis Laments That We’re So Soft On Crime
I should be finishing up the next part of my dissertation on Radley's book, but for some reason I dropped in on the Crime and Consequences to see what Bill Otis was saying. He was on a rant: In a speech to the ABA about a month ago, the Attorney General denounced the criminal justice system as "ineffective," and -- pointedly ignoring the well-being of the huge majority of … [Read more...] about In Which Bill Otis Laments That We’re So Soft On Crime
Rise of the Warrior Cop – Book Tour
Yesterday evening I drove downtown to visit Roosevelt University to catch the Chicago stop of Radley Balko's tour for his book Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces.Radley's presentation is pretty interesting, although not of course as in-depth as the book itself. He starts with a clip from the Columbia SWAT raid that brought so much … [Read more...] about Rise of the Warrior Cop – Book Tour
Rise of the Warrior Cop – Interlude
I've been writing a series of posts (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) that outline some of the themes that Radley Balko explores in Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces. The book itself is far more detailed, with discussions of the political forces that created some of these policies, and lots of descriptions of how they went so very wrong, including … [Read more...] about Rise of the Warrior Cop – Interlude