The concept of privacy continues to "evolve," i.e. the trend of everybody wanting to know where everybody else is all the time continues to strengthen. Fort Wayne Police Chief Rusty York wants to put GPS chips in all patrol cars:
It will allow officers, dispatchers and managers to see where the vehicles are located across the city. The chief said this will help in officer safety because it will better locate officers calling for help.
"Banishment" is generally thought of as an inappropriate punishment from our less-enlightened past, but that doesn't mean it isn't being tried here and there:
Though Georgia's judges are technically outlawed from banishing offenders, some have skirted the rule by restricting them from all but one of the state's 159 counties. Now, one convict is challenging the practice, claiming it is unconstitutional.
OK, we know why Indiana insists that the names on our divers licenses be the same as the ones on our Social Security records. With legitimate concerns about terrorism and illegal immigration, such a precaution seems only prudent. Still, this seems like bureaucratic insensitivity of the highest order:
LAKE STATION (AP) — A retired steelworker and longtime Indiana resident must change his name if he wants a driver's license, the state Bureau of Motor Vehicles says.
Officials in Michigan are shocked -- shocked, I say -- that giving law-abiding citizens the right to carry guns did not result in a bloodbath, though that outcome is consistent with common sense and most observable experience:
John Lott, a visiting professor at the University of Maryland who has done extensive research on the role of firearms in American society, said the results in Michigan since the law changed don't surprise him.
As recently as last year, the conventional wisdom was that a statewide smoking ban would never fly in Indiana. But I think the mood of the legislature has shifted -- if a ban isn't taken up this year, the only reason will be that it's a short sesssion and property taxes are such a pressing concern. And there is this, House Bill 1056:
Here's one that can keep gun proponents and opponents arguing for hours:
A 51-year-old man stopped a masked man from robbing a Southside grocery store and held him at gunpoint until police arrived.
Because it is constitutionally significant, and not coincidentally because it coincides with the longest presidential campaign in modern history, Indiana's voter-ID law is getting a lot of national attention as it is considered by the Surpreme Court. Here, James Taranto of The Wall Street Journal responds to an anti-ID column by a former Democratic congressman and makes a sly point I haven't seen anywhere else:
This should give pause to even the most ardent supporters of rights for the student press:
The story of the veteran who ripped down a Mexican flag because it was being flown above an American flag has been everywhere. Pat White brought it up on WOWO radio yesterday afternoon, and the consensus of the callers was: Maybe the veteran was wrong legally for messing with private property but, by God, he was a real American standing up for our country against the invading hordes.
It's my gun, not everybody's:
Deep inside Washington's police headquarters is a library like few others, with floor-to-ceiling racks displaying 1,700 guns, from a World War II-era rifle with bayonet to rows of pocket-size revolvers, automatic pistols and big six-shooters that look straight out of the Wild West.
