The more things change…

By James White

It has been a while since I wrote one of these. I feel a little out of practice. What has happened since the last time I wrote? We have seen a new president elected, one that broke racial barriers and changed the direction of the country. We have seen the order signed to close Gitmo and the pledge to withdraw all combat troops from Iraq. We have seen several plans implemented to stabilize the nation’s economy. We have seen a true attempt at reforming healthcare. All good things, and this was all in 2008! So then what happened?

Gitmo was never closed and there are still troops in Iraq, Afganistan, and now Libya. Oh yes, we are fighting in a third middle Eastern country now. The stimulus plans, at best, held off a full-fledged depression but did not turn our country around. And healthcare reform? It became insurance reform, and was combined with a mandate that requires all Americans to purchase insurance. But don’t worry. If you choose not to, there really isn’t anything the government can do about it. Or at least that was the line we were sold along with the rest of the bullshit. This is on top of the various comments about cops acting stupidly, playing along with the birther movement, and not taking the lead on a single issue. The only real question here is, why have I not written before now?

Surveillance Society

By William R. Toler

As technology increases, both in the government and private sector, it seems that our right to privacy continues to decrease.

Recently, Popular Mechanics reported that the Michigan State Police may have been using forensic analyzers on smart phones during routine traffic stops. The magazine mentions a letter sent from the American Civil Liberties Union to the state police alledging that troopers have been violating the Fourth Amendment by using the Cellebrite Universal Forensic Extraction Device.

The manufacturing company’s website boasts that the UFED system “extracts vital information from 95 [percent] of all cellular phones on the market today, including smartphones and PDS devices.” A list of information that can be extract is listed on the product’s page including: contacts, text messages (even deleted ones), call history, audio, video, pictures and ringtones.

Boobies bracelets and blue jeans

By William R. Toler

You would think that since the Tinker decision in 1969, public school officials would do a better job respecting the rights of students.

Sadly, as we’ve reported here time after time, that isn’t the case.

At that point, if the students and their parents have the abilty to recognize the violation, it is up to the courts to make the call.

This week, a federal judge ruled that middle schoolers can wear bracelets that read “I [heart] boobies” in recognition of breast cancer awareness, according to the Philidelphia Inquirer.

Brianna Hawk and Kaylea Martinez were suspended from Easton Area Middle School last October when the school decided to ban the popular bracelets. The girls had been wearing them since the school year began.

Community college bans pamphleteering

By William R. Toler

A community college student in Ohio was banned from distributing literature that was deemed “offensive” by another student.

According to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, Ethel Borel-Donohue passed out flyers to her paralegal classmates on the “possible risks of Breast Cancer related to brith control and abortion” during Breast Cancer Awareness month…after class.

The department chair, Judge Michael Brigner, “summoned” Borel-Donohue to his office to discuss the matter. According to her account, the judge told her a fellow student had complained and that she “had no right to hand out any materials to students in the classroom.”

And this guy’s a judge?

Delaware debacle over basketball goals

By William R. Toler

Residents in a Delaware neighborhood experienced heavy-handed enforcement of a state law, but not without a bit of opposition.

According to an Associated Press story, workers from the state transportation department rolled down a particular street March 25 with a front-end loader and a dump truck and proceeded to rip basketball goals out of several yards. One mom climbed on top of her family’s goal to keep it in tact.

The family had parked their van in front of the goal and was being interviewed by a television station when the crews returned to his home, along with the state police. John McCafferty questioned the state’s motives and was threatened with arrest. His wife Melissa was the perching, protective mother.

His, and other neighbors’, crime: non-compliance with Delaware’s “Clear Zone” law, which prohibits objects (including basketball goals and trees) from being within seven feet from the edge of the pavement in a subdivision.

In the video below, a state worker tells McCafferty that he can keep the goal. Minutes later the goal was dropped into the back of a truck. When he asks what the state is doing with his property, the worker tells him he can pick it up later.