Why there should always be publicly funded defenders

An article in the Boston Globe today about the exoneration of a mentally ill, homeless man wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for a sex crime he did not commit.  This is why there should always be publicly-funded defenders– because it’s never too late to admit you’ve made a mistake when it comes to civil liberties, much [...]

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Rehabilitation as a humanist principle

There’s an interesting article in the NYT about former prisoners and the operation of what used to be termed “halfway houses.” Underlying the entire article is the assumption that we want our former prisoners to do well– to succeed upon release, to integrate back into the community– and that this is why these places [...]

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Early morning, April fourth

Today is the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination. You can find a partial archive of his speeches and video and audio clips, here and here. Link to The King Center, here.
For the transcript and audio of Robert F. Kennedy’s speech in Indianapolis about Dr. King’s death, click here.
For Nelson Mandela’s Acceptance Speech [...]

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For shame

Lucky elitist member of the educated middle class that I am, I can’t imagine joining the military to pay for college. I know that I will earn enough, later on, to pay it off. I can’t imagine joining the military at all, peacenik beneficiary of prior solidiers’ deaths that I am. I’m lucky– I’m smart, [...]

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Cold, hard science? Hardly.

The NYT published an article about drug trials and the underreporting of negative and equivocal study results to the FDA and peer-approved journals, data which factors significantly into the FDA’s assessment of where a proposed drug falls along the risk/benefit spectrum.  To me, it’s no surprise.  Despite cladding their studies in impenetrable jargon and cloaking [...]

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