I just got to Thursday night's Daily Show on Tivo, and one of the featured segments involved Samantha Bee and Jason Jones expressing their frustration at a focus group of undecided voters. How could they not see the difference between the candidates? How could they not know who they like better after 20 months of campaigning? It's like they're stupid or something! It was … [Read more...] about In Defense of Being Undecided
A Lesson About Child Pornography
They just caught an alleged child pornographer in Newark, Ohio. The miscreant had taken nude photos of a 15-year-old girl and was sending them to the girl's friends---also minors---on their cell phones. What really makes this a story, however, is the identity of the individual who was exploiting this poor girl. Some of you know where this is going, don't you? The girl took the … [Read more...] about A Lesson About Child Pornography
So Your Lawyer Has Some Influence?
Saturday, Scott Greenfield posted about the ethics of defense lawyers who make a big deal out of the fact that they used to be prosecutors and can therefore do a better job of defense. Scott, let's say, has his doubts: The pitch is intended to capitalize on a basic misperception by the public, that the skills one develops as a prosecutor, characterized as "experience in … [Read more...] about So Your Lawyer Has Some Influence?
Retouching Sarah Palin
It's hard to really be sure, but the dumbest issue among the many dumb issues to emerge from this election season is the question of whether it was disrespectful of Newsweek to put an unretouched photo of Sarah Palin on the cover because it exposed all her flaws. That's an easy one: Newsweek does journalism. They're not supposed to retouch any of the photos. Besides, have … [Read more...] about Retouching Sarah Palin
Fear Itself is Fear Enough
A few months ago I saw squirrel get hit by a car. I had just noticed it starting to cross the street when it spotted an approaching car and froze on the pavement. It was probably safe where it was, but I could see it was overwhelmed by fear and I knew, a second before it happened, that the squirrel was going to panic and run the wrong way, right under the wheels of the oncoming … [Read more...] about Fear Itself is Fear Enough