Brighton, England, is planning to ban smoking tobacco outdoors. Since smoking is already banned in indoor public places, this would make it almost intolerable for a smoker to be in Brighton for any length of time.

Tobacco is death, and I urge people to quit, but prohibition is going too far, and this is tantamount to prohibition if you are a visitor or work outside your home. People do have a right to kill themselves, slowly or quickly.

Planned Parenthood's fetal tissue has helped develop treatments for diseases such as cystic fibrosis and Parkinson's. Planned Parenthood should take pride in helping.

The only thing I would criticize about Planned Parenthood's conduct is that it could have charged more, and used the money to finance treatments for poor women that insurance does not cover.

SCROTUS are trying to stop the IRS from clarifying regulations for how 501(C)4 tax-exempt organizations can do political campaigning.

Wealthy (mostly Republican) donors fund such organizations, and want their money to buy the most possible plutocratic power.

Snowden's message to the IETF meeting: build anonymity into the internet.

Varoufakis: the creditors did not want a mutually beneficial agreement ; they wanted to impose regime change on Greece.

In effect, they have succeeded, at least for the while.

Varoufakis was wise to resign. Tsipras should have done it, too. If you cannot defeat an invading army, it is better to retreat and remain hostile to it, than surrender and become a pillar for it.