Because when left up to the discretion of law enforcement, those law enforcement officers given to being pricks will be pricks — and you’ll either comply with them or you’ll suffer.  How much you suffer — or where they’re allowed to exert their prickness — depends on just how much leeway you give them to presume you guilty until you prove otherwise. And that’s what these universal background checks do: 

I’ve tried to go on with my day as I would any other but the story of the 8-year-old boy who died as a result of the bomb blasts has taken me to a really dark place.  Which I suppose is the point of terrorism.  And for that I’m ashamed. Ashamed, and also sick to death of the leftist jackals, be they in the media like Nicholas Kristof or Chris

What are the chances that the bombings were carried out by a Boston resident who simply hates the logistical inconveniences caused by the Marathon? Or hates / envies joggers (the bombs appeared to target the lower extremities, and were packed with pellets, ball bearings, and nails or tacks)? — And of course, who doesn’t like his taxes being raised, because he doesn’t want to pay his fair share…? Which raises

Joseph Cotto, who writes the “Conscience of a Realist” column for the Washington Times’ Communities section, recently contacted me for an interview in which is discussed the ideological layout of the contemporary blogosphere (along with my part in it).  Part one of that interview can be read here. — Followed, inevitably, by disparaging words from tim b. and maybe even EricPWJohnson in the comments, unless I miss my guess.

I noted last evening that investigators had converged on a residence in Revere, which they later searched.  Reports are still circulating about a Saudi national as a “person of interest” — though whether this means he is a suspect or a witness hasn’t yet been made clear.  Also unclear is if that same “person of interest,” who is in custody in a local Boston-area hospital, is also the inhabitant of