I have no idea why 10 Americans, in Haiti on a humanitarian mission, thought it would be a good idea to take 33 Haitian kids to an orphanage in the Dominican Republic. No one that I have seen has suggested that they were paid or had any insidious motive. My guess is that [...]

The Supreme Court will soon hear a series of cases on whether or not juveniles can be sentenced to life without parole for crimes that aren’t murder.
Personally, I think it is silly to sentence a juvenile to life without parole for any crime.
Take this quote, which is actually a defense of the practice by the [...]

There is an article in the New York Times today that I think raises an interesting question: how many times must a harmless act be repeated to become hurtful?
Here’s the background information on the lawsuit: In Minneapolis area there are two elite private high schools, Breck and Blake. They are both small, extremely expensive, [...]

I apologize for my extended absence. I could tell you a story about taking care of a two-year old, getting the flu, and then working on a book (all of which are true), but the greater reality is that I simply allowed myself to get out of the habit of posting here. But [...]

Sit down in a circle everybody, because Uncle Mike is going to tell the story of the arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr., with editorial comments injected. (I’ve been taking care of a two year old all week, sorry.)
Our story begins with Professor Gates returning from a trip to find himself locked out of [...]

In an internet Q&A with President Obama last week, he was asked about the beneficial effects on the economy and/or fiscal health of the nation if marijuana were legalized and taxed. I’ve seen this argument before, so I thought I might run through some back-of-the-envelope calculations to see if there is any merit to [...]

Here’s a question for the audience to ponder: to what extent is the belief that “men shouldn’t hit their wives (girlfriends/children/etc.)” a sexist notion?
I bring this up because domestic violence is once again in the news the last couple of weeks, with the Chris Brown assault on his girlfriend, Rihanna. Brown is an R&B [...]

There are about 1.4 million Americans currently in state and federal prisons. And that’s not even counting the hundreds of thousands more in jail. Just so you know, prison is different than jail. Jail is designed as a temporary holding facility for those with short sentences (usually less than one year) or [...]

As you probably heard, New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez just admitted to using steroids. It seems to me that everyone is in the wrong here: A-Rod is certainly in the wrong for taking steroids, but the blame doesn’t end with him. The testing lab, the Justice Department, Sports Illustrated, the Players [...]

As I’ve made clear before, I’m strongly against the death penalty for ethical, moral, and philosophical reasons. And so, when I say that I’m going to tell the story of a case that shines a light on some of the biggest problems of the death penalty as applied to our criminal justice system, you [...]