Creeping Totalitarianism

One of the hallmarks of police states everywhere is the internal checkpoint. Think of all the movies you've seen where some Nazi or Soviet bureaucrat---backed up by uniformed thugs---is blocking a road or a train platform and demanding that people "show me your papers!" For a long time, we here in the United States could look down on other countries for their sad practice … [Read more...] about The D.C. Police State

From the U.K. comes a new law that its backers claim will ban violent pornography: Five years ago Jane Longhurst, a teacher from Brighton, was murdered. It later emerged her killer had been compulsively accessing websites such as Club Dead and Rape Action, which contained images of women being abused and violated. The victim's mother has been campaigning for a law that would … [Read more...] about Creed Of the Legislative Tyrant

New York Criminal Defense Lawyer Scott Greenfield has some comments about a disturbing Fourth Amendment ruling. The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution protects everyone in the United States from unreasonable searches. And I'm pretty sure that the U.S. government can't conduct arbitrary searches of U.S. citizens outside the country either. But when we cross the border, … [Read more...] about A Hard Drive Across the Border

Check out the Security Check-in toy set from Playmobil. Here's the description: Every single smuggler is caught at the security check-in. With a modern X-ray machine every item not allowed on board is detected. At the same time, the passengers have to pass the passenger check-in under the watchful eyes of the security staff. Only then can they start in their hard-earned … [Read more...] about For the Checkpoint Lover in Every Child

[This is a little late by now, but I thought I'd put it out there anyway.]A few days ago, the Wall Street Journal had an editorial about the wiretapping bill in the Senate. Let's sample a few choice phrases:The Senate takes up wiretapping of foreign terrorists this week, and the stakes couldn't be higher.Remember that "the stakes couldn't be higher" when we get to the more … [Read more...] about On Warrantless Wiretapping