It's not just official thugs that kill blacks. Private insecurity guards can do it too.

The good news is, Libya's cease-fire has lasted for a few weeks. The bad news is, more oil is being extracted there.

In the long term, fossil fuels will kill far, far more people than fighting in Libya. How many more will be killed due to extracting oil in Libya is imponderable.

The thug department of Pasco, Florida, secretly profiles all children based on personal data collected by their schools and other government agencies. It uses the profiles to estimate whether they are likely to end up as criminals. Such predictions tend to be self-fulfilling.

Victoria (a state in Australia) does something similar.

If we had a reliable and helpful form of intervention to help children avoid that fate, these profiles could be used to good effect. But we don't know of any way, so they tend to be used to do harm.

Progressive programs such as a higher minimum wage, a better welfare system, and a national medical system, could help a lot of children avoid becoming criminals, and it wouldn't be necessary to try to predict which children were personally in the most danger.

A feminist columnist recognizes that there are more important things about a proposed cabinet secretary than per gender. For instance, per political inclinations.

I've never been impressed by "firsts" in high-level positions. Having for the first time a woman as the secretary of this-or-that is not going to help the lives of very many women. What the official _does_ may help them, or hurt them.

An increase in the minimum wage would help millions of American women who have hard lives today, along with millions of American men. A national medical system would also do that, especially if it covers abortions and reliable contraception.

On the Firing of Jeffrey Toobin, by Richard Stallman.