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Why Does a Small Town Have an Armored Vehicle? The Police Chief Explains
Earlier today I posted a message from a reader who had passed through the small town of Galax, Virginia and seen this armored vehicle, with a label on the front saying Galax Police. The Galax police...
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'The UC Davis Policeman's Actions Are a Huge Gift to the Chinese Government'
Just now from an American living in China:I've been following the coverage of the UC Davis Pepper Spray incident and I just wanted to bring up another angle. I first learned about the incident while...
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Turning Patrolmen Into Soldiers: How Did We Let This Happen?
I'm chagrined not to have noted a great Atlantic item from two weeks ago, "How the War on Terror Has Militarized the Police." It covers systematically much of the terrain I've been going into...
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Guest Post: 'This Is What Is Happening Around Us'
The post below is from Michael Jones, a successful tech-world figure in California. When I asked whether he should be identified as part of "the 1%" -- which is relevant, considering the argument he...
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Two Views of Pepper-Spray, Abuse of Power, and the Militarization of the Police
The first is from a reader who asks not to be named. She underscores the point Ta-Nehisi Coates makes this morning, with a video of a young black man being pepper-sprayed in Illinois for no apparent...
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Tanks in Small Towns
Thanks to many, many people who have written in about the ongoing militarization of the police, and the ramifications of police over-reaction to the Occupy movement in Davis, Berkeley, and elsewhere....
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A Weird Unforced Error by W. Mitt Romney
UPDATE: On a few minutes' reflection, I'm probably wrong about this. For the record, I'll leave the item here, with adjusted title, rather than just nuke it. I guess I was primed to give it weight by...
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To Lighten Things Up: Glider Flight Across the Alps!
Courtesy of my friend (and glider pilot) Michele Travierso in China, this YouTube video of a glider flight over and through the Alps. If you watch even a little of this, you will see what an incredible...
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Today's UC Davis News, Including Defenses of the Police
This actually is interesting: the home page of the Physics Department has a photo of a mass rally yesterday (below); a unanimously approved apology to students for the police violence on campus; and a...
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Thanksgiving Guest Post #2: 'This Is What Is Happening'
On my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving Day, I am (sincerely) grateful and reflective for all the blessings received by my family, my friends, my work mates, my country, the world, and so on....
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Two Further Explanations for Romney's 'That's Also My First Name'
See updates below. After the Republican debate on Tuesday, I noted the oddity of Mitt Romney (full name Willard Mitt Romney) going out of his way to tell Wolf Blitzer that Mitt was his real first name....
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Feeling Thankfully Placid? I Can Fix That. Today's Af-Pak Reading
During some period of alertness during the turkey-comatose weekend, you might consider reading an essay by Franklin "Chuck" Spinney -- my long-time friend and a former guest blogger -- about the...
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Good for Peggy Noonan (on GOP Get-Tough Talk)
See UPDATE below.I don't always, or often, see the world just the way Peggy Noonan does, so I was struck by her latest WSJ column. It was about this week's GOP debate, and it expressed a concern that I...
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As You Get Ready for Airport Security Today
Anyone using the airlines for Thanksgiving weekend return travel today ... good luck! And a few bits of airline-security culture lore for your guidance and amusement.1) Turkey-day scenes from Turkey....
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Did You Wonder How a Plane Stayed Up for 11 Hours With No Engine?
Last week I noted an incredible video of an Italian pilot who had kept a glider aloft for more than 11 hours, over the sharpest peaks of the Alps, relying strictly on wind current rather that with any...
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While We're Talking About Aircraft in Crazy Winds
Following this item about the Italian glider pilot who stayed aloft for 11+ hours over the Alps, two related bits of news.First, thanks to reader CF, this impressive video of a Lufthansa Airbus...
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The Blessings of Cyber Monday (Cheap Chic Dept)
As I mentioned this summer, The Watch to have, if you want to be really chic, is this model of the Timex Indiglo: Today's Cyber Monday $25 special from the Timex mother ship is for this very watch. You...
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'All Electronic Devices Must Now Be Powered Off' -- But Why?
I have been out of range most of today, for reasons involving the vagaries of small-plane flight. But on opening up the email inbox I see a raft of messages kindly pointing me toward a NYT item asking...
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Why You Can't Read a Kindle During Take-off -- 4 Theories
Thanks to the scores of people who have responded overnight to my item saying that the airline insistence that "any device with an On-Off switch must be switched OFF" was another installment of...
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Pre-December Special! Readers Speak on Airline Security
Here's the set-up. One the one hand, I have two or three weeks ahead of fairly high-pressure real "non-web" writing, for a magazine article and edits to a book. (Following a recent stretch of fairly...
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