Obama said he would rein in the NSA, but his proposals are minor tweaks.

More information about how little effect they will have.

The US car-tracking system also takes photos of drivers and passengers.

A thug killed an aged, demented man by firing a rather dangerous "non-lethal" weapon, and was acquitted for it.

I am sure that several thugs could have subdued him. The hospital staff could have done so, with some persistence and thought.

Ferguson thugs want to try out a kind of bullet that is less likely to kill (but can still kill). They already have many other weapons that are more likely to injure people than to kill.

What's wrong with them is that they use these weapons when they should not.

Israel's bombardment of Gaza provoked a big increase in antisemitism in Britain and France.

I almost never experienced antisemitism while growing up in the US. Horror over Nazi genocide made antisemitism something to shun a person for, which suppressed it to a low level.

Israel's crime in Gaza does not justify bigotry or hatred against Jews. These are two different issues. Indeed, many US Jews (and people of Jewish ethnic background, such as me) condemned the bombardment of Gaza and campaign against Israel's occupation of Palestine.

Israel itself has done its best to link the two issues, through decades of falsely claiming that those who condemn Israel's occupation policies are "antisemitic". The link can't help running both ways, thus contributing to the resurgence of real antisemitism.

New rules in US colleges say students are to be treated as rapists if they don't get "affirmative consent" for sex. At the same time, you can get kicked out of school and lose your job just for asking.