• Alli Reed posts the worst dating profile ever on OkCupid and proves, as you might suspect, that horny men will hit anything.
• Stephen Foster thinks it should be illegal to take pictures of people if you plan to have dirty thoughts about them later, or something.
• Rob Hustle explains what happens when you call the cops:

• Along those lines, a local group called We Charge Genocide (named after the 1951 U.N. partition charging the U.S. with genocide against African Americans) is raising money to send a group to a meeting of the United Nations Committee Against Torture in Geneva, Switzerland to present a report on Chicago Police abuses.
• NSA recruiters turn out not to like being recorded in public.
• By the skin of their teeth, man, the skin of their teeth:

(Hat tip: Prison Culture)

This post by Mark Draughn at Windypundit was originally published at Scattershot: Dating, Cops Behaving Badly, NSA, and Some Lucky People

• Yet another case of judges saying you can drive away from the cops. Well, not that you can actually do that, but if you open your window because a cop pulled up behind you, got out of his car, and knocked on your window, you are totally doing that voluntarily for purposes of admissibility of evidence, because you absolutely could have driven away. (I mentioned a similar case here.)
• According to the synopsis, Naomi Kline, who argued in The Shock Doctrine that right-wing ideologues used disasters to impose their value on others, is arguing in This Changes Everything that climate change is an opportunity for left-wing ideologues to impose their values on others.
• CSI: Gallifrey.
• Something stirs from slumber in Bat Country.
• Making Satan look like a sensible choice.
• Maggie ruins my fond memories of Scully.

This post by Mark Draughn at Windypundit was originally published at Scattershot: Leaving Cops in the Dust, Shock Doctrine, and CSI: Gallifrey.

What is it with Illinois and bizarre double jeopardy cases? In the 1990’s we had the Harry Aleman murder trial do-over which wiped out his earlier acquittal (a classic Chicago tale), and now the state is requesting to re-try Esteban Martinez after refusing to present its case in the first trial. (Gideon covers it too.)

Greenwald and Snowden reveal that the British GCHQ has been using its intelligence agencies to go after political enemies and dissident groups rather than just the terrorists they’ve been using to justify their budgets.

Gideon has a fascinating explanation of a new twist in consent search law, courtesy of the Supreme Court in Fernandez v. California.

A jury awarded 2 million dollars for the killing of Pastor Jonathan Ayers by (of course) a drug task force.

According to Scott Greenfield’s review of his book, Professor Robert Blecker thinks that we need to spend more effort to rehabilitate prisoners we are planning to release, but for those who will never get out, we need to expend more effort to make their lives miserable. From what I can tell from his video (below), because nobody in the correction system is specifically tasked with punishing inmates, prison must not be a form of punishment. So I guess if Scott and I kidnapped Dr. Blecker and locked him in a cage in my basement, but treated him very well, with a nice colored television and weekly calls home to his family, he’d be totally cool with that.

In other news, Scott Greenfield is also fighting with people with gigantic egos.

And now to lighten things up a bit, the Bryan Williams Rap:

http://youtu.be/-YCeIgt7hMs

(Hat tip: Stillettos and Sneakers)

This post by Mark Draughn at Windypundit was originally published at Scattershot 2014-02-28

Matt Brown has a lot more background information about the cop who shot a surrendering man in the back and about the leadership in Pinal County that make it likely he’ll get away with it.

Norm DeGuerre has a very good essay describing the mismatch between how the justice system works and how real people live their lives.

Gideon notes that prosecutors aren’t always as pro-victim’s rights as they say.

The appellatesquack has a great post about fake peer-reviewed journals. His post is based on a Science magazine article that is itself a great read if you’re into that sort of thing. At times it’s pretty snarky for a science article:

After months of e-mailing the editors of SAP, I finally received a response. Someone named Charles Duke reiterated—in broken English—that SAP is an American publisher based in California. His e-mail arrived at 3 a.m., Eastern time.

I’m pretty sure everybody inside the Beltway sees themselves this way. Non-ironically.

(h/t Popehat)

This post by Mark Draughn at Windypundit was originally published at Scattershot 2014-02-01

After reading the harsh conclusion Scott Greenfield reaches in his response to the Pinal County Sheriff’s department’s shooting of Manuel Longoria as he was surrendering with his hands in the air, I had this running through my head:

When they kick out your front door
How you gonna come?
With your hands on your head
Or on the trigger of your gun

When the law break in
How you gonna go?
Shot down on the pavement
Or waiting in death row

— The Clash “Guns of Brixton”

Along the same lines, Ex-Cop Law Student has started an interesting series of posts about the First Rule of Policing (“Get home safe”) and the harm that it does. Part 1 and Part 2 are up and worth reading.

Mark Bennett isn’t a marketing guru, but his years of participation in the blogosphere have given him some great insights for anyone using blogging or social media to establish a professional presence. He wrote it in response to a specific lawyer who made some specific mistakes, but it applies to almost everyone.

I work in a virtual office where everything we do is conference calls, and this is pretty accurate:

Rankin Bass’s version of The Thing:

This post by Mark Draughn at Windypundit was originally published at Scattershot 2014-01-24

• Radley Balko now has a home at the Washington Post. Interestingly, he’s billed as an “Opinion Blogger” rather than an “Opinion Writer” like the columnists featured at the top of the Opinions page. (In fact, he doesn’t appear anywhere on that page as I write this.) Radley plays it like an old-school blogger too: He starts with an Introduction explaining his background and what he’ll be trying to do with the blog, and then a few hours later he follows up with a substantive post about the rollback of forfeiture reforms in Utah. And then later a piece about exposing corrupt prosecutors. And a list of links. You can find his bio page — and more importantly, a Radley-specific RSS link — here.
• A Jesse Walker post about the old COINTELPRO scandal gives a hilarious example of the FBI’s technique for trying to disrupt dissident political organizations: Socialism is Gay.
• I’m sure the folks at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control do lots of good work, but it’s hard to take them seriously when they fret that Americans drink excessively, given that they’ve defined excessively to include consuming more than 3 drinks for women or 4 for men on a single occasion or any drinking by anyone under the legal drinking age.
• Spotted this a while ago and just kept thinking about it: With my limited legal knowledge, I can’t quite follow the main point nidefatt is making here about the Oregon Supreme Court’s ruling on implied consent in DUI investigations. His post did, however, contain the phrase “right to an administrative hearing.” I’m pretty sure that “right to an administrative hearing” is the “cheese food” of due process.

This post by Mark Draughn at Windypundit was originally published at Scattershot 2014-01-10

• Jack Marshall points out that memorial events for the mass shooting in Newton, Connecticut last year are ignoring one of the victims.
• Blonde Justice says she does, but doesn’t present any evidence.
• Deborah Montesano tries to spin the government’s $11.8 billion dollar loss from owning GM, using numbers that the Center for Automotive Research appears to have generated by assuming that a whopping 90% of the auto industry would have vanished without a federal bailout.
• Virginia Postrel writes an article about the largely uncontroversial notion that national income and productivity statistics do not fully capture improvements in quality and variety of consumer goods, using television programming as an example; some Bloomberg editor sandbags her by giving it a stupid headline; Stephen Colbert seizes it as an opportunity for satire that completely misses the actual point; a ton of clueless douchebags leave comments on the original piece; and Virginia Postrel gets the Colbert bump anyway because, as she reports on her Facebook page (might not be visible if you’re not a friend), sales of her new book grew faster after being mocked on Colbert than they did after a positive review in The New York Times Book Review.
• It’s Friday the 13th, and Maggie McNeill has posted her roundup of pro-sex-worker-rights posts. I’m already seeing a bit of a visitor spike from the link to mine.

This post by Mark Draughn at Windypundit was originally published at Scattershot – 2013-12-13

The ACLU tells an effective horror story about what can be done with all that GPS data the NSA is gathering.

The ATF continues to make wonderful ethical choices.

Bill Otis at Crime & Consequences says sending people to prison doesn’t ruin their lives. Because holocaust survivors.

Today’s Google front-page doodle is about Admiral Grace Hopper, who would have been 107 years old today. In my line of work, software engineering, she’s one of the gigantic figures of history, inventor of the COBOL programming language, and of the concept of machine-independent languages in general.

COBOL is a wretched language compared to today’s modern wonders — Java, C#, C++, Python, Ruby — but it was the first real programming language, and it was so successful that there are still probably tens of billions of lines of COBOL in production over 50 years later.

This post by Mark Draughn at Windypundit was originally published at Scattershot 2013-12-09

• Ken Lammers at Crimlaw has written a fascinating series of posts about how the criminal justice system (at least in his Virginia) determines the value of a stolen item for purposes of charging and sentencing. He covers items with a fairly obvious price tag, items without a price tag, and intangible property like music and software. It seems like a fairly thoughtful balance between an economically meaningful valuation and the need to have bright lines for making clear decisions.
• Meanwhile, over at Popehat, Ken is posting a multi-part series about his investigation of someone who tried a fake invoice scam on him: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3. [Update: Chapter 4] He shows how much information you can get about someone like this with simple, inexpensive online tools.
• And here’s the important op-ed of the day, by Orin Kerr. Looks like the government is about to get its wish and make us all guilt of something.

(Hat tip: Greenfield)

This post by Mark Draughn at Windypundit was originally published at Scattershot 2011-09-15

• I’ve always wondered why the TSA doesn’t make it easier for passengers at security checkpoints to mail packages that they’re not allowed to take on planes. I believe Jennifer has stumbled on the answer.
• You know how some legal bloggers try to get clients by posting about current events in the news in the hope that one of the participants will Google himself and hire the blogger to represent him? Here’s how the the big dog does that.
• Timothy B. Lee has a pretty good response to the Jose Antonio Vargas story, but I actually like this piece of his even better, and not just because it’s so similar to one of mine.
• Then there’s a post of mine at Nobody’s Business about the link between consensual crime enforcement and the abuse of our civil liberties.
• Finally, I posted the “No Knock Raid” music video that everyone else has already posted. Warning: It’s not cheerful.

This post by Mark Draughn at Windypundit was originally published at Scattershot 2011-06-23

• I’m sure the benefit to the food contractor is purely a coincidence.
• This crap from the TSA is so wrong.
• And, the TSA is using puppies for propaganda. Have they no decency!

This post by Mark Draughn at Windypundit was originally published at Scattershot 2011-04-11

• Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Still a complete tool.
• Rather awesome response to a racist screed. Somebody get this guy a recording contract. Or an appearance on the Colbert Report.
• There’s a lot I don’t understand on Twitter, such as whatever this person is up to. What is that? A tsunami bot?
• Ken Lammers attending a conference about reforming the War On Drugs? You know, judging by his posts, he’s slowly turning back into a defense lawyer…
• Ah, man, what’s this about?

This post by Mark Draughn at Windypundit was originally published at Scattershot 2011-03-22

• Kevin Smith is releasing a horror movie in which the bad guys are, basically, the Westboro Baptist Church.
• The Scarlett P.
• Twitter in a nutshell.
• Massively idiotic anti-terrorism training.
• Can’t. Get. It. Out. Of. My. Head.

(Hat tip: Ethics Alarms)

This post by Mark Draughn at Windypundit was originally published at Scattershot 2011-03-09

• Congratulations to the Jews, on beating the rap.
• Carl Hiaasen, who used to write fun books, apparently believes in the government needs to know how much pain medication everyone is taking.
• Not that drug monitoring would help.
• Note to teachers unions: This is why people hate you.

Apropos of nothing, do you remember that time a few years ago when everyone seemed to go through the same pop culture transition with regard to Britney Spears? Over a period of a few weeks, she went from being just another out-of-control celebrity to someone with serious mental health problems…and therefore no longer a fitting subject for comedic scorn. I think Charlie Sheen has reached that same tipping point. We’ll see soon if he goes over, or if he just stays an entertaining jerk.

Winning.

Hat tip: Hit & Run.

This post by Mark Draughn at Windypundit was originally published at Scattershot 2011-03-03

• I missed this earlier, but blocking the internet kill switch seems like a good thing.
• They say that “He who represents himself has a fool for a client.” Does that apply to a criminal defense lawyer charged with a traffic misdemeanor?
• Sunday night’s Oscar speech by the writer of The King’s Speech encouraged David Tarrell to say some really interesting things about stuttering.
• Among the reasons why cops give out tickets and arrest people.

This post by Mark Draughn at Windypundit was originally published at Scattershot 2011-03-01

• The state of Illinois has made it even easier for you to pay them to get your right to drive back after they take it away from you without bothering to convict you of a crime.
• Meanwhile in D.C., changes in drunk driving arrest procedures set up officers for a bit of a perjury trap.
• So, if I record a video of some children, and then I record someone singing a sexually explicit song, how much of a gap should I allow between the shots of the children and the shots of the sexually explicit song to avoid being charged with creating child-abusive material?
• This one brings back memories. The college I went to had tons of foreign students, including a lot of Muslims. I used to stumble across them all over the place.

This post by Mark Draughn at Windypundit was originally published at Scattershot 2011-02-25

• Homeland Security can seize domain names? WTF?
• A little bit of crime facilitating speech (?) from Steve Graham (useful to the 420 crowd).
• More Venn diagram humor.
• Gang fight caught on video.
• Now matter how awful I think our criminal justice system is, I can always count on the crimlaw blogosphere to come up with new criminal justice horror stories I’ve never heard before.

Hat tip: Jesse Walker, Radley Balko.

This post by Mark Draughn at Windypundit was originally published at Scattershot 2011-02-14

• It bothers me that foreigners need advice like this to enter my country.
• A terrible fate for a telegenic white girl.
• The true face of public education and an amazingly reasonable judge.
• This is kind of awesome.
• Lindsay Beyerstein explains why the kids-getting-high-on-bath-salts story isn’t as exciting as it sounds.
• A law to make people be careful when walking.

This post by Mark Draughn at Windypundit was originally published at Scattershot 2011-01-27

• Yet another reason why the U.N. is a joke.
• Why Ken Lammers should stay out of England. (Explanation)
• Why Canada’s Human Rights Commission is a joke and why Patrick at Popehat should stay out of Canada.
• It looks like music piracy is now a matter of homeland security.
• Why I’m putting Jennifer in charge of Homeland Security if I’m ever elected President.

(Hat tip: Radley Balko)

This post by Mark Draughn at Windypundit was originally published at Scattershot 2010-11-27

• The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has been returning overhead photos of the Apollo landing sites.
• Cory Maye is getting a new trial.
• Steve Landsburg slams Krugman and then praises Krugman. Sounds right to me in both cases.
• It just kills me that teachers grade students all the time, but their unions fight anything that suggests some teachers are better than others.
• Marc Randazza is a little down on the ABA.
• Hit the bitch. If you’re gangsta enough.
• Blogger Lindsay Beyerstein is now writing stories for Newsweek.
• A short film about why campaign finance regulations suck.

 (Hat tip: Megan McArdle, Virginia Postrel, Radley Balko)

This post by Mark Draughn at Windypundit was originally published at Scattershot 2009-11-20

• Economist Steven Landsburg is blogging to promote his new book.
• Another example of using civil forfeiture to turn a police force into a theft ring.
• The war on people in pain continues.

(Hit tip: Pete Guither)

This post by Mark Draughn at Windypundit was originally published at Scattershot 2009-11-06

• Don’t mess with Texas. Or Texas’ pecans.
• When you’ve made the sale, quit talking.
• Remember when I called Money Laundering a fake crime?
• Sound like we should hire casino security experts to do the TSA’s job.

This post by Mark Draughn at Windypundit was originally published at Scattershot 2009-10-23

• Lousiana justice of the peace Keith Bardwell just denied a marriage license to an interracial couple. Money quote: “I’m not a racist. I just don’t believe in mixing the races that way.”
• No cost-of-living adjustments for Social Security recipients this year, presumably because their cost of living has not gone up in our crappy economy. Naturally, lobbyists are outraged and politicians want to spend our money.
• If the cybersquatter you just sued thinks being outside the country means he’s judgement proof, he’s forgotten about some of his assets.
• Thug life revisited.

This post by Mark Draughn at Windypundit was originally published at Scattershot 2009-10-16

• On a per-capita basis, Jericho, Arkansas has got to be the worst-run town in the country.
• A lot of trouble comes from people forgetting this: “The sad truth is that the parties who seek to develop sophisticated and sensible schemes for state control quickly lose control over the administrative process to persons whose ambitions for state control are not bound by any fine-grained rationale.”
• A police shooting gone really, really bad. And the follow up is even worse
• When you make recreational drugs illegal, you put criminals in charge of how safely they’re made.
• Our robot president.
• Count me in: Chicagoans For Rio 2016.

(Hat tip: Balko)

This post by Mark Draughn at Windypundit was originally published at Scattershot 2009-09-28

• How not to conduct an emergency drill.
• Scott Greenfield: So badass he doesn’t remember how to give up.
• I agree with Peter Suderman: Patrick Swayze’s coolest movie was neither Ghost nor Dirty Dancing.
• …as well they should.

This post by Mark Draughn at Windypundit was originally published at Scattershot 2009-09-21

• Not the craziest religion I’ve ever heard about: godchuck. (Warning: Plays Music)
• My wife and I have had conversations like this.

This post by Mark Draughn at Windypundit was originally published at Scattershot 2009-09-14

• Norm Pattis continues his quiet war against his former sensei.
• Eric Turkewitz has some interesting things to say about his wife’s ass.
• Fascinating discussion of medical responsibility for Michael Jackson’s death in the comments at Kevin M.D.
• A new book about a heroic former prosecutor being stalked by someone she tried to put away for murder. By sleezebag former prosecutor Nancy Grace.
• Software that understands natural human language is the future of internet search. And this makes me think it always will be.

This post by Mark Draughn at Windypundit was originally published at Scattershot 2009-09-07

• I guess this is easier than, you know, catching criminals.
• More evidence that our harsh treatment of released sex offenders is just ineffective security theater.
• I should have seen this coming: Michael Jackson sightings.
• The death of Spiderman? Or at least the death of an interesting Spiderman…along with every other interesting Marvels superhero. Details here.

This post by Mark Draughn at Windypundit was originally published at Scattershot 2009-08-31

• This could cause a lot of trouble.
• The war against illegal immigration is apparently as stupid and cruel as the war on drugs.
• Bobby G. Frederick drinks the TLC kool-aid.
• So true.
• I do this, but with a shorter lag.

 [Thanks, Bobby. The error in your comment has been noted and corrected.]

This post by Mark Draughn at Windypundit was originally published at Scattershot 2009-08-24

• Motorola goes back to the brick with a mil spec cell phone.

[It was kind of a rough week.]

This post by Mark Draughn at Windypundit was originally published at Scattershot 2009-08-17