Sympathy for the Devil
Published February 5, 2010
Martha Coakley has enlisted public hysteria, attacked her marks in the media, and fought like a Tasmanian devil to keep people behind bars long after they’ve been exonerated.
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Decent Exposure?
Published May 1, 2009
First the Keystone Komstocks started protecting teens from themselves by arresting them on child porn charges for “sexting.”
Now a Massachusetts legislator would criminalize the photographing of people over 60 and those with disabilities. Such adults would be statutorily unable to consent.
Sex crimes law is like a black hole: Once reason falls in, it can never re-emerge.
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Teens, Sexting, and the Law
Published February 10, 2009
Sex isn’t the big danger to teens online. What’s really vexing them is ordinary kid-on-kid meanness.
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Poli Psy: A Poverty of Solutions
Published December 15, 2008
Vermont is about to push through another round of “child protective” sex-crimes legislation. These laws won’t protect kids. There is a way to do that — but it won’t grab any sexy headlines: attack child poverty.
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Poli Psy: Cruel and Unusual
Published August 13, 2008
Hysteria, said Elia Kazan, “is inflamed by mystery, suspicion and secrecy. Hard and exact facts will cool it.” Kazan was wrong about a lot of things — for instance, his decision to inflame anti-communist hysteria by naming names of alleged pinkos during McCarthy’s Hollywood inquisitions. But he was really wrong about this.I come to this [...]
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Poli Psy: “Be Very Afraid”
Published November 8, 2007
Phew. We made it through another Halloween with no American child bursting into flame. For this we can thank the Consumer Product Safety Commission, whose Halloween Safety Alert admonished parents to dress children in flame-retardant costumes, emboss their bags and clothes with reflective tape, and make sure they were wearing sensible shoes: “Mother’s high heels [...]