Progress! Even New Yorker cartoonists now understand the imperative of people not relying on police to save their necks…. (Okay, maybe that is not the interpretation the magazine hoped for, but…) A dozen years ago, I wrote a forward for a book entitled Dial 911 and Die, by Richard Stevens and Aaron Zelman. Here’s […]
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Dilbert Blows the Whistle on my Side Business
N.Y. Times Snares Secret FISA Court Decrees – Fresh Hell for NSA and Obama
The New York Times published a long article today on secret rulings by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The article describes the FISA court as “almost a parallel Supreme Court” which has cast aside traditional understandings of privacy and the Fourth Amendment. Reading between the lines, it is clear that NYT has the actual decisions…. […]
Gettysburg Lesson: The Illusion of Invincibility
I was a big Civil War enthusiast as a boy. My sixth grade teacher wrote on my permanent record that I was “overly interested in war.” In this photo (probably snapped at Gettysburg), I’m sitting astride a cannon wearing a pair of flip-flops that definitely would have been out of place a century earlier. […]
Germans Recognize Danger of U.S. Surveillance
Germans instinctively understand the danger of government surveillance far better than do many Americans. (Or at least far better than Obama apologists.) This photograph is from a recent anti-Obama rally in Hanover – one of my favorite German cities. The “V for Vendetta” mask is especially appropriate.
Michael Hastings, R.I.P.
The great journalist Michael Hastings was killed in a car accident today. He was both thoughtful and tough – a rare combination. The following line, from an email slugfest he had with a State Department spokesman covering up Benghazi, deserves to be in Bartlett’s Quotations: “Why don’t you give answers that aren’t bullshit for a […]
AmeriCorps & Bear Awareness: Maybe I was Wrong
In last Thursday’s Wall Street Journal piece, I listed a few peculiar AmeriCorps projects, including this one: “Members of a Nevada AmeriCorps program busy themselves these days by encouraging local residents to drink tap water and watch out for bears (‘bear awareness’).” But, after seeing this great Non Sequitor cartoon by Wiley Miller, maybe I […]
