Civil Liberties

Everyone a Bomb Builder

By Justin Katz | November 8, 2009 |

I’ve got mixed feelings about this odd little story out of Tiverton: James R. Lapre, 24, of 320 Hurst Lane, Tiverton, was charged with disorderly conduct and with threatening to place a bomb in a public place (a felony) after police took him into custody, then searched his residence and discovered makeshift bomb-making materials. Police…

No Sympathy for the Demented

By Justin Katz | November 3, 2009 |

Not to go all social conservative on you, but I have to believe that there are (or should be) more pressing issues for the head of a civil liberties organization than protecting an industry set on selling the sexual objectification of children. But there goes the ACLU’s Steven Brown: Legislation passed last week to make…

Kennedy and Obama vs. Catholic Church and Fox

By Justin Katz | October 23, 2009 |

Something’s been gnawing at me since Andrew posted video of Congressman Patrick Kennedy proving once again why we should all hope his handlers keep him well away from any real power, and it took a revistation of Ed Achorn’s concern about the Obama administration’s jihad against Fox News to jar the pest loose. Here’s Achorn:…

An Argument for the Second Amendment

By Justin Katz | October 23, 2009 |

Sometimes news out of Europe suggests the possibility that another revolution may be coming, such as this story from England: On Monday afternoon, the mother gave birth to a girl by Caesarean section. And 28 hours later, social workers arrived at the maternity ward to take the baby into care, after serving child protection papers…

Can’t Be “Private, But”

By Justin Katz | October 18, 2009 |

A comment from Joe Bernstein, to yesterday’s post on assisted suicide, points us toward a deeper conversation: I am pro-life on the issue of abortion, but on this I believe that if someone with all their mental faculties intact makes a decision to commit suicide due to a hopeless, painful, or tortuous medical situation it…

Killing in the Name of the Law

By Justin Katz | October 17, 2009 |

Put assisted suicide on the long list of issues that ought to be left to the states, but that I’d oppose in my own. In the name of civil liberties that conflict with the (until recently) long-standing moral consensus of our culture, we’re building a giant trap that will at some point close on us…

Unfree Energy

By Justin Katz | October 14, 2009 |

Is this the future of energy? Planners envision installing a new kind of power meter in homes – a wall-based unit that can monitor how much electricity is being used by various appliances and turn them off when demand for energy is higher, and thus costlier to consume. The project also would upgrade the utility’s…

The Cross as Symbol

By Justin Katz | October 11, 2009 |

The Mojave Cross boxed in plywood so as not to offend may be the perfect symbol of tyrannical multiculturalism. Erected 75 years ago in memory of the nation’s World War I casualties — and with strong visual correlation with the plain crosses that have a long cultural pedigree along roads — the cross has been…

Wasn’t John Adams Against Treason and Sedition?

By Justin Katz | October 10, 2009 |

I’m a little slow to this one, but inasmuch as it hasn’t gotten much coverage, it’s worth a little catch-up: The Justice Department is investigating a group of lawyers working for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for taking pictures of covert CIA agents at Guantanamo Bay and handing them over to known al Qaida…

How Dare You Catch Us?

By Justin Katz | September 25, 2009 |

So ACORN is suing the young pair whose investigative journalism finding casual attitudes toward the importation of teenage sex slaves among its employees crippled the organization. The suits may or may not succeed under a Maryland law forbidding the capture of private conversations, but I’d prognosticate that ACORN will be more harmed than hurt by…