Government Argues: If Your Mobile Phone Provider Knows Where You Are, Why Shouldn't We?

My conclusion is, the cell phone company should not be allowed to record where you have been, absent a court order to keep track.

Scott Walker and Wisconsin Republicans want to make the Government Accountability Board partisan, so that they can stop it from investigating any crimes they may commit.

Sanders' bill to eliminate privatized prisons would also forbid gouging on prisoners' phone calls.

A school in Virginia kicked out a student for a year because he brought a leaf to school from a Japanese maple tree. A school official thought it was marijuana.

The crucial point here is not that the official made a mistake, but that once he knew it was a mistake, he still insisted on punishing the child. This attitude towards mistakes characterizes the most cruel and self-righteous officialdoms. We see it when people are convicted of crimes and then proved innocent: the legal system resists exonerating them. And now, under the guise of "zero tolerance", we see it in schools.

Even if it had been fairly harmless marijuana — or even some dangerous poison — that would be no reason to punish the child for it in such a harsh way. A reprimand ought to be enough.

The pope is about to canonize Junipero Serra, who established Spanish missions in California that operated on a system of slave labor.

Serra generally has a very positive image; the missions he established have been made into big tourist attractions.