Craig's Corner

I enjoy people watching.   I’ll make up an entire back story about somebody based totally on how they look, walk, interact with others.   Then they’ll do something that is ‘out-of-character’ with the person I’ve made up and I’ll revise their entire history.   It’s an amusing and harmless way to while away time.   Perhaps I’m wistful for my days working in entertainment, or perhaps I’m a profiler.   And if I’m a profiler – then it’s a good thing I live in a state with a stand your ground law – I can be a total help to law enforcement.   The Castle Doctrine permits somebody to use deadly force in protecting their ‘castle.’   There’s a unique variation on each of the states that it’s on the books for – but the essential philosophy is an extension of the mountain of constitutional self-defense law .   The principle now extends to one’s personal space, not just possessions. These sorts of laws are quite popular – with property-ow...

The classic metaphor “food for thought” is another way of saying “something to ponder; provocative.”   I wish that Congress’ latest fiasco had undergone a little consideration.   It didn’t and 45 million Americans could pay the price.   Earlier this week Congress passed the Farm Bill.   This is a bill that traditionally has included the funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program more commonly known as Food Stamps.   It’s a bill that traditionally also pays farmers not to grow certain crops.   While the political parties have tussled over it regularly – ultimately the politicians who support the one program and not the other are willing to allow the other program to be funded in order to maintain the program they care about.   Some call it compromise, others call it political reality.   It’s how government has functioned (and grown) for decades. Providing financial assistance to farmers has been a staple of American p...

Every now and again a story pops up that somebody had received a letter or a postcard that took decades to deliver.      It’s a relatively innocuous story that reinforces the popular conception of the incompetency of the U.S. Postal system while delivering a warm-fuzzy story of a long lost message finally finding its home.   I’ve advocated that as a quasi-private organization the USPS needs to be unshackled from the constraints that Congress puts on it and be allowed to operate as a stand-alone entity.   I learned this week that it’s not at all private.   The Post Office logs every single letter and package sent.   And t hey’ve been doing it for years. The New York Times reported last week that the United States Postal Service takes a photo of the exterior every single piece of mail that goes through its system, 160 billion pieces last year.   The information is sent to any law enforcement agency that asks for it.   Tens of...

I remember voting for Teddy Kennedy for President in a mock election in high school.   (It’s the only time I ever voted for a liberal…good thing it didn’t count!)   Voting is the most concrete expression of democracy.   It’s what Americans celebrate on July 4 th, , Independence Day.   People across time and across the globe have shed blood for the right.   In the same week that emerging Democracies in the Middle East struggle to make it work – the pillar of freedom – shows how little it values this bedrock principal.       The Supreme Court’s recent ruling that the nullifies Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 has been blasted as allowing racism back into the voting process.   The Voting Rights Act came of age after generations of discrimination, primarily against people of color.   (The U.S. also has an embarrassment of how long it took for women to get the vote.)    For my lifetime, then, certain...