Syndicated Columns
Who Commits Suicide?
As odd as it might seem suicide used to be against the law in the United States. Odd because how in the world could you punish a dead person for taking that final, fatal act? Still, some states continue to have laws on the books labeling attempted suicide as a criminal act, although prosecutions have…
Read MoreIf You Share Your DNA, Should You Expect Privacy?
Imagine a day when hardly anyone is able to get away with murder. Think about that. If there were a way to almost guarantee a killer would be discovered and punished wouldn’t the murder rate go into freefall decline? Frivolous thinking, you say? Well, consider the forensic crime fighting advances that have been developed in…
Read MoreFacebook Needs to Face Facts on Criminal Behavior
Say you invented something that became so popular more than a billion people across the planet used it. Wow, you’d be famous worldwide and one of the richest people on earth! But then, say, you discovered some of your customers were criminals using your product in nefarious ways. Terrorists were using it to communicate deadly…
Read MoreThis Impeachment Won’t Work
This is not a column about impeaching our current president. This is a column about the impeachment process and the history of the legal route our nation is obliged to follow to oust a federal official. In the 231 years since the U.S. Constitution was ratified, Congress has seriously considered impeachment only a handful of…
Read MoreThe Supply-and-Demand Solution to the Drug Crisis
A famous Greek myth recounts the tale of the diabolical King Sisyphus. He was punished for his many murderous actions by being forced to roll a huge boulder up a hill. No matter what method he used, each time Sisyphus neared the top of the hill the boulder would crash back to the ground, ensuring…
Read MoreScience and Making Babies – Buyer Beware
We live in a remarkably over regulated world. Yet almost unbelievably there are few hard and fast laws to protect those who want to create a baby the non-traditional way. When something goes wrong following a surrogate or in vitro arrangement the aggrieved parties often finds themselves in a murky space, without a clear-cut legal…
Read MoreRomance Scams Target Lonely and Elderly
The woman’s Facebook page reveals she is a high school graduate, fit and trim looking and nicely dressed. She lives in small town in the southern U.S. and is a devoted Christian who loves animals. Each photograph shows her with a beaming, trusting smile. She is almost always seen standing alone and a simple scroll…
Read MoreCrime Fighting at Your Front Door
Nothing is perfect. Can we all agree on that? Especially when we’re talking about all the digital technology that surrounds us these days. But when deciding whether a technological advancement is worthwhile shouldn’t more weight be given to the amount of good it can do and not to the possible misuse of it?
Read MoreFact: School Shootings Are Rare
If schools aren’t already back in session where you are they soon will be. As a sign of our times, many parents will worry about the safety of their child and the possibility of another deadly school shooting. The fact is: while mass shootings in the U.S. seem all too frequent, occurring between 10 and…
Read MoreHow the Media Politicizes Crime Coverage
Words matter. So does equal treatment. So, when the New York Times recently devoted a top-of-the-front-page, three column wide article equating the actions and words of the El Paso mass murderer to those of “right wing pundits”* I was curious to say the least. Was The Gray Lady saying conservatives somehow convinced someone to commit…
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