Yesterday I wrote about the evils of free punishment, which tempts lawmakers into punishing people just because they can. But free punishment is just the low endpoint of a much bigger problem: Profitable punishment, also known as fines. There's nothing inherently evil about fining wrongdoers, but it carries the risk of turning law enforcement into a profit-making operation … [Read more...] about Evil Lawmaking: Profitable Punishment
Evil Lawmaking: Free Punishment
About a month ago, Gideon at a public defender posted a poll for his fellow criminal defense lawyers to pick the "most evil legal principle". Being lawyers, Gideon and his readers are concerned with real legal principles, like harmless error and reasonable suspicion. I'm more concerned with the principles used by legislatures when creating new criminal laws. One of the … [Read more...] about Evil Lawmaking: Free Punishment
New Skyline Photo
Regular readers may notice that I've replaced the Chicago skyline photo at the top of the page. It's an emerging tradition here at Windypundit that the banner photo is one of the few photos on the site that is not my original photography (mostly because I'm too lazy to trek to the lakefront). The previous photo was a stock photo licensed from Matt Dula, and the one before … [Read more...] about New Skyline Photo
Sallie Mae is a Nightmare
Woman of the Law has a really good rant about a customer service nightmare with Sallie Mae, her student load provider. I'm hoping the links in this post will improve her search engine score for the phrase "nightmare with Sallie Mae". Or maybe I should link to it with the more traditional "Sallie Mae sucks," or my personal favorite, "Fucking Sallie Mae!" In any case, I wish … [Read more...] about Sallie Mae is a Nightmare
Immigration Analogies
Over at the conservative blog Illinois Review, John Ruskin quotes with approval from an unnamed letter writer who has a few things to say about the recent protests against stronger immigration enforcement (elisions mine) : Certain people are angry that the US might protect its own borders, might make it harder to sneak into this country and, once here, to stay indefinitely. … [Read more...] about Immigration Analogies