The death penalty—like all state actions—exists within a context constructed by humans, not gods. Humans tend to have biases, and the systems we construct often reflect those biases. Understanding this, it is worth asking whether our legal system should be in the business of doling out an ultimate punishment, one for which there can never… Continue reading The Inhumanity of the Death Penalty

I suspect that developers of Bitcoin services who are responsible for security consistently and dramatically underestimate what it takes to build a secure Bitcoin service. Coding and operational practices that are perfectly adequate for building a typical e-commerce site turn out to be utterly inadequate for, say, a Bitcoin exchange. via Bitcoin hacks and thefts:… Continue reading Bitcoin hacks and thefts: The underlying reason

After making a big, bold promise to wire every corner of America, the telecom giants are running away from their vow to provide nationwide broadband service by 2020. For almost 20 years, AT&T, Verizon and the other big players have collected hundreds of billions of dollars through rate increases and surcharges to finance that ambitious… Continue reading Telecom industry shafts America

The most mendacious phrase in the American language is “black on black crime,” which is uttered as though the same hands that drew red lines around the ghettoes of Chicago are not the same hands that drew red lines around the life of Jordan Davis, as though black people authored North Lawndale and policy does… Continue reading On the Killing of Jordan Davis by Michael Dunn