The Economist's Cookbook

I found this especially interesting. It's very much worth watching and raises some interesting arguments in the justice sphere. How can we hope to "rehabilitate" people that are literally ticking bombs from a neuroscience standpoint.



Thoughts?

Well ... the 9th Circuit Court of appeals has done it
again. This is quite frightening. Courtesy of the DEA, of course.

So we can watch you from traffic or CCTV cams, we can track you through OnStar without your consent. They can now attach a GPS to your car and watch you where ever you go.

In fact, the government violated Pineda-Moreno's privacy rights in two different ways. For starters, the invasion of his driveway was wrong. The courts have long held that people have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their homes and in the "curtilage," a fancy legal term for the area around the home. The government's intrusion on property just a few feet away was clearly in this zone of privacy.

Really? So... trespassing no longer applies to others? Or is it only okay for agents of the state when they are watching you ... the little guy?

...even if you didn't do anything that should put you on the list.

GA Supreme court upholds the position that even if you don't commit ANY sexual crime you are still going on the sex offenders list if you commit OTHER crimes like kidnapping, illegally detaining a minor, etc.
This quote is priceless:

Writing for a 5-2 majority, Justice Harold Melton rejected arguments that the provision, as applied to Rainer, was cruel and unusual punishment. Sex offender registry laws, Melton wrote, "are regulatory, not punitive, in nature."

I would like to advance a position that many may find controversial, all regulation is punitive in nature because it provides punishments if those regulations are not met. So I think that the distinction is a fuzzy one at best to differentiate between. Add to that this concept: All regulations inherently reduce the choice set of the individual without facing punishment. That reduction in choice set is in and of itself a punishment of a kind. (Please note I'm not arguing that laws against murder is a bad thing, merely that regulation reduces choice set or more rightly that regulation increases the costs of making certain choices, which outside of the protection of life, liberty, and property are a bad thing.)

Here is another gem:

"Because the registration requirements themselves do not constitute punishment, it is of no consequence whether or not one has committed an offense that is 'sexual' in nature before being required to register," Melton wrote.

Does that make any sense to anyone? We all know that those regulations of where you can live/work/go make life hell on people that are convicted of a sex offense. As a result I can very clearly say that those regulations ARE punitive.

Now please understand I'm not saying that real sex offenders deserve a pass, on the contrary they deserve to get it good and hard. however there are WAAAY too many people that have no business being on those lists. 18 year old hooks up with his 17 year old girlfriend, even if it's consensual, her parents can file charges anyway (this varies from state to state but documented cases exist of this kind of shit).

Come on GA, you can do better than this.

You're Probably a Federal Criminal

There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible to live without breaking laws. – Ayn Rand

Yes I know this article is old and it comes from the ever even handed Faux News site. But still the anecdotes in this article are ... frightening.

This is what economists talk about when they say regulation is a bad thing because of the unintended consequences such legislation may cause. The idea that bureaucrats and their department enforcers get to look over everyone's shoulder at anything a normal peaceful person is doing. And while many federal agencies are responsible for stupid prosecution of poorly written and poorly enforced laws, I can think of two primary offenders: The ATF and the EPA.

The ATF recently seized a series of airsoft guns with an ATF agent claiming they could readily be converted into usable machine guns. REALLY?!

On the EPA side of things there are so many laws governing what you can and cannot do with your own land because of all the regulations that surround land use, endangered species, water control, etc.

Ladies and Gentlemen: Is this freedom?

More laws, less justice. – Marcus Tullius Ciceroca (42 BC)