It’s time once again for a collection of musings, observations, opinions, and ramblings, all offered by a visually-impaired middle-aged crazy man on the Internet. As such, none of these should be taken seriously. Unless, of course, you agree with me.

I learned this week “Ogentroost” is the name of a Dutch metal band. It also sounds like some kind of obscure liver disease. Continue reading →

Three Harvard graduate students sued the University for its “deliberate indifference” to sexual harassment by a venerated anthropology professor, John Comaroff.

The suit, filed by three graduate students in the Anthropology Department, alleges that Harvard mishandled Title IX complaints and allowed Comaroff to intimidate students who threatened to report him, including the plaintiffs. Continue reading →

Some thought that poor Merrick Garland, former judge from whom a Supreme Court seat was stolen by the Republicans, would be the hero attorney general of their dreams. After all, he was Obama’s nominee and the maligned soul who launched a thousand SCOTUS tears.

But when it came time to decide whether prosecutors under his auspices were any more ethical, more reliable, more honest, Radley Balko discovered that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Continue reading →

The words were the same insipid appeal to emotion used by every manipulative tough-on-crime prosecutor ever.

To me, the trials underscore how ill-equipped the criminal legal system, process, and punishment is to achieve accountability and healing. Ahmaud Arbery’s killers were sentenced to life without the possibility of ever being released. Sentenced to death in prison. Yet still, his killers remain unrepentant and indignant. Meanwhile, even worse: Arbery’s family remains unwhole, unhealed, traumatized. Continue reading →

Not only were the facts undisputed, but they were appalling. Yet Miranda Smith did it anyway.

The Wednesday ruling came in the case of a Highland County woman charged with rape involving a two-year-old child. The Ohio Supreme Court reversed the decisions of an appeals court and trial court that convicted the woman of rape, saying instead, the actions, which she admitted to, constitute gross sexual imposition under state law. Gross sexual imposition is a lesser charge that could net less punishment. Continue reading →

“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 →