Archive for April, 2008

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For sale in Thailand: Girls, Guns,…and Fake Passports

Tuesday, April 29th, 2008

If you’ve got the money, and know where to look, just about anything you want—legal or illegal—is available in Bangkok. In recent years, Thai police have cracked down against trade in drugs, prostitution, and weapons.  But one of the most profitable industries—the manufacture of fake passports—remained relatively unmolested, until now. On April 26, authorities in [...]

Anti-Terrorism Law Used to Investigate Dog Poop

Monday, April 28th, 2008

As wacky as some of the anti-terrorist initiatives that I’ve written about in the good ol’ USA, they don’t hold a candle to those advanced in the United Kingdom. Case in point: the U.K.’s Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA).  When the U.K. Parliament enacted this law in 2000, proponents claimed it was urgently required [...]

Now Take That: Feds Put Billionaire Expat on No-Fly List

Friday, April 25th, 2008

Each year, a few hundred Americans give up their U.S. nationality and passport.  It’s a radical step, not to be taken lightly.  Most of those that do so have foreign-sounding names, as indicated by the list of expatriates published quarterly in the Federal Register.  Many in this group are presumably individuals who by circumstances of [...]

Think Inflation is Bad Now? Just Wait Until this Radical Proposal Takes Effect

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008

Quietly and with scarcely a whisper in the press, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency (CBP) has issued a proposed regulation that could lead to huge tax increases on just about everything imported into the United States. Naturally, importers don’t really pay this tax…they merely pass the increased costs onto consumers, in the form [...]

Fingering Big Government’s (and Big Businesses’) Obsession with Fingerprinting

Monday, April 21st, 2008

Could you be forced to submit your fingerprints for the offense of "driving while Latino?"  To apply for a job?  Or even as a condition to enter a Disney theme park?  If you live in the United States, the answer is "yes."  And that’s got me pointing my finger at some serious problems with these [...]

Government Stings: Don’t Get Stung

Wednesday, April 16th, 2008

Could you be arrested for stomping your foot in a restroom?  Prosecuted for accepting "hot money?"  Or imprisoned for clicking your mouse on a hyperlink that pops up in your Internet browser? If you live in the United States, the answer is yes.  Welcome to the world of government stings.  Former Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) [...]

Is “Real ID” Dead—or Just Waiting for the Next Terrorist Crisis?

Monday, April 14th, 2008

Are there limits beyond which Americans will refuse to go in the so-called "War on Terrorism?"  Apparently so.  Legislators in more than two-dozen states have enacted laws refusing to go along with an unfunded federal mandate that imposes security, authentication, and issuance standards for driver’s licenses and state ID cards.  The initial deadline for compliance [...]

What Happens if Your Offshore Bank Goes Belly-Up?

Wednesday, April 9th, 2008

The sub-prime catastrophe has spread far beyond the United States.  It’s hardly beyond the realm of plausibility that offshore banks could be affected.  That concern came into particularly sharp focus last week, when Switzerland’s largest bank, UBS AG, said it expected to write off a staggering US$40 billion in sub-prime losses. So far, financial regulators [...]

Science Arrives in New Jersey Courtrooms

Tuesday, April 8th, 2008

Trial lawyers in New Jersey, beware.  The state Supreme Court has ruled that a trial judge can determine whether evidence submitted is "scientifically reliable," or not. That might not seem earthshaking.  But until this decision, accident victims in New Jersey didn’t have to do much to win a lawsuit alleging that the incident resulted in [...]

Warning: Your Cat May Make You a Terrorist Suspect

Monday, April 7th, 2008

In these halcyon post-9/11 days, we’ve learned apparently innocent actions can instantly convert us from "law-abiding Americans" into "terrorist suspects." Just a few examples will suffice: Your reading habits make you a terrorist suspect. A senior at the University of Massachusetts came under investigation after he made an inter-library loan request for a copy of [...]

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