The danger of Democratic hypocrisy

In societies that are governed by laws, there are certain assumptions that we take for granted. It is supposed to be the case that a person is assumed to be innocent unless proven to be guilty beyond a reasonable doubt or by a preponderance of evidence (depending on the nature of the charge), with the verdict being arrived at as a result of processes that are carried out with transparency and proper respect for the rights of the accused. Another feature is that every effort must be made to bring the suspect to justice, with proportional force being used when the accused resists such attempts. Hence deadly force should be used only in cases where the accused uses deadly force to resisting arrest. [Read more…]

You mean deer can’t read?

Some time ago, I came across an amusing audio clip of a woman calling a radio talk show to complain about the fact that she had collided three times with deer within the past year near places where there were deer crossing signs. She said that she couldn’t understand why the state placed those signs in high traffic areas instead of places where there were fewer cars. It began to slowly dawn on the radio hosts that the woman thought that the deer chose their crossing points based on the signs. [Read more…]

Blatant religious discrimination

Aaron Williams, a 25-year old resident of New Jersey, tried to get a driver’s license photograph taken while wearing the headgear of his religion but the Bureau of Motor Vehicles refused to allow him to do so and called the police when he insisted on his rights. His argument was that if turbans and headscarves are allowed, then so should his choice of religious headgear. [Read more…]

The servile White House press corps

There is perhaps no body of journalists in the US more useless than the White House press corps. These are the people who spend their days in the White House or follow the president on his travels, hoping for some morsel of news to be dropped or to overhear a gaffe or get a deliberate ‘leak’ from an important source. This seems like a soul-killing job to me but apparently these are much sought-after gigs by some reporters because they are high profile. [Read more…]

How false memories can get created

I remember the first time that I realized that I had a false memory. It concerned an event that I remembered from when I was about six years old. There was a fire a few houses away and my father decided to pack us in the car and drive us away for safety in case it should spread and engulf our home. When I asked my mother and older sister many years later about this incident, they both said that such a sequence never happened. But the images are still quite strong in my mind. [Read more…]

He would make a wonderful pope

Looming over the selection process for the next pope is the fallout from the sex scandals that have rocked the church, especially in the US and Europe. While there have been reported cases of abuse in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, they have been fewer and it is not clear why. It may be that victims in many developing countries have less power and the church has more, and thus they have been less reluctant to come forward with complaints. [Read more…]

Mississippi is a slow learner

Negotiating the boundary between church and state to determine what is allowed by the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment Clause of the US constitution can be tricky at times and the US Supreme Court has grappled with it on numerous occasions. But one thing is quite clear and that is that official school sponsored prayer in public schools is not allowed. [Read more…]