In thinking about taboos recently, it occurred to me that while some of them are obvious (no peeing in public, for example), some of the cultural standards with the deepest impact are the ones which are hardest to see: those dealing with ideas. Here in the United States, we champion our freedom, and get into [...]
It came up when I searched for “high”. Photo by Coulsey. (License: Creative Commons Attribution) Let’s take just a moment and consider some fundamental paradoxes within the United States’ legal system. We like to think we are the nation of freedom, the nation of get-ahead, the nation of self-made men and women who just have [...]
Everyone is suspect, now… Photo by Bryan Rosengrant. (License: Creative Commons Attribution) After reading a report earlier this week which references various law enforcement pamphlets which detail behaviours of potential terrorists (“If you encounter any of the following, call the Joint Terrorism Task Force”), I was quite naturally inspired to look back over the body [...]
2011 (1)
