“I feel like our job as a group of documentarians trying to cover this very delicate issue was to do what we’re always trying to do, which is tell the truth. Let’s hear everybody out. And then let’s let the audience decide for themselves what’s true and what’s not true or what’s right and what’s wrong.”—“Cheer” director Greg Whitely (emphasis mine)

It’s funny reading a comment like that from a documentary filmmaker. One of my problems with that genre, specifically in the realm of criminal justice issues, is the tendency to take nuanced issues and present them as unvarnished truth. When the director’s eye turns its gaze toward what makes a story pop for the camera, concepts like the presumption of innocence become evanescent. Continue reading →

As the most critical issue facing a nation continues to rage, whether Spotify should cancel  Joe Rogan, one element of the name calling is how to distinguish ordinary criticism from cancel culture. This is not so much a free speech question, as both are protected speech under the First Amendment, but a matter of norms and social reaction to them.

Criticism is not only normal, fair and expected, but a greatly valued aspect of the marketplace of ideas. A claim that sounds good at first will often be revealed as silly, if not dangerous, in the face of criticism. It may take the form of a carefully argued and documented critique or a blithe “you’re an asshole,” not quite as informative but just as much an assertion of disagreement. Continue reading →

On February 3, Olympic-style posters appeared around the George Washington University campus critical of the Chinese government.

The artist, a Chinese student at GWU artist from Australia, explains that the posters are intended to protest the Chinese Communist Party. Continue reading →

The execution of Philando Castile put the screws to the silent voices of gun rights activists. Where was the NRA screaming bloody murder? How could it possibly have nothing to say when a man lawfully carrying a handgun, who informed the officer as required, was nonetheless killed for doing so?

Some years ago, Jon Blanks, who worked for libertarian thinktank Cato, explained that old-school libertarians were neither friendly toward, nor concerned with, racism, and many, in fact, leaned toward racism. It was considered a separate issue, so it didn’t come up often and festered in the background of free markets. Is this the same phenomenon that pervades old-school gun rights activists, simultaneously gung-ho on guns and generally racist? Continue reading →

It could have been a joke. It could have been the Onion, or for that matter, the Babylon Bee. But it wasn’t. It was Colorado State University being serious.

See all those places you can turn if you’ve been “affected”? Continue reading →

Happy Friday, everyone! I’m proud to announce this week I’ve assumed my place in a marginalized group—the visually impaired. I would ask in this time of reflection that you all respect my lived experiences and affirm my new identity. Otherwise you’re all ableist bigots.

I knew I needed some kind of glasses back in December when we took the kids to Vermont. When you’re navigating at night based on vibrations from your Apple Watch because you can’t read the road signs, you really need to get your shit looked at. So I did. Continue reading →

The day after Georgetown Law School dean Bill Treanor put lya Shapiro on administrative leave, the Black Law Students Association held a sit-in. Treanor attended, telling the students that the school would reimburse them for the cost of any food they ordered in, because what’s a protest without a nosh. The students in turn, informed Treanor that they needed a space to cry.

Cry? If one’s traumatized, one cries. And it appears that people are crying a lot. If you break a bone, you can see it on an x-ray. If you’re cut, you can see a wound and blood will come out. But if the pain is emotional, there is no visible proof that it happened, that it exists. Crying would be an outward signal of the pain, the trauma, and if people cry a lot, then they are traumatized a lot. Continue reading →

That Whoopi Goldberg has been sent to stand in the corner to think about what she did wrong is asinine. She expressed a view, albeit a bit too vociferously, that many share, as fleshed out on Colbert.

Continue reading →

Micheal K.Williams, who played Omar Little in The Wire, died of an overdose, reportedly from a “deadly dose of fentanyl-laced heroin.” The Drug War has been a disaster, and it’s still bad to be a junkie, and junkies sometimes die of overdoses. Four men have been arrested for selling this “deadly dose” to Williams. Not for homicide, as has become a popular enhancement to drug prosecutions, but a federal narcotics conspiracy.

Someone who knew Williams well, David Simon, says he would have been against this prosecution.

Please don’t @ me on this. I do not think Mike is honored or properly remembered by more incarceration in his name. Knowing him and his thoughts, I think he would be appalled at this. End the goddam drug war.

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In a suit almost certain to fail, Brian Flores is suing the NFL, et al., for discrimination on the basis of race. His argument, in part, was that teams sought to interview him not because they were open to hiring him, but because of the Rooney Rule.

The Rooney Rule, introduced in 2003, requires NFL teams to interview even minority candidates for head coaching and football operations opportunities in senior manager positions. It is often cited as an example of positive action.

Continue reading →