BuggBlog

In which I have a huge blog-crush on Radley Balko

I know lots of gays and lesbians make a frowny face when they hear the word "libertarian," because they think they smell "Republican." (Excepting, obviously, all the gay guys working over at the Gayto Institute.) That's unfortunate because, if you do, you're likely to miss things by libertarians like my personal blog hero, Radley Balko at Reason, who does a staggering amount of great reporting on two aspects of one issue that's of great interest to me, namely the abuse of government police and prosecution powers.

Aspect one is the use of paramilitary SWAT teams by local police departments in the ever-zealous pursuite of the war on drugs, and which has led to hundreds of "isolated incidents" in which innocent citizens are beaten, shot and terrorized by cops who fake evidence, get their addresses mixed up, or just generally get it wrong (as in our own local case of the Prince George's SWAT team invading the home of Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo and killing the family's dogs). Here's a post today from Balko on two new incidents reported this week. Such rare incidents they are.

Aspect two is the heinous manipulation of evidence and prosecutorial misconduct in Mississippi, a state in which you should probably pray daily that you never get ensnared in that state's legal system. Except then you have to remember that Mississippi ain't the only state where prosecutors are more concerned with convicting a total number of cases rather then convicting people who committed crimes.

I got into the habit of reading Balko, who also blogs solo at The Agitator, pretty regularly and it makes me mad nearly every time I do -- a good, good thing. I wish more people would do the same and get a little angrier. You don't have to be a libertarian to be concerned about the government abusing its power and limiting your rights.

Bite me

Hey, it's an invitation, not an insult. At the top of the left hand column you'll see the return of Bugg Bites, which I had previously boxed like an emotionally unstable Three series due to Twitter's unnerving habit of locking up my site. When you're looking to increase your regular readership beyond a number you can easily count on your fingers, toes and one other appendage, you really want to make sure the damn page will load in a browser.

But, all things considered, the Twitter feed seems to be playing a little nicer now, and maybe when they finish their maintenance later today it will work in the beautiful, seamless way in which the Internet is supposed to bring us all together through the magic of technology. Except when it doesn't.

So, let the navel gazing (re)commence.

A little bit of Buggery for you

If you've been around here for a while, you probably already know that I buy more books than I'll probably ever be able to read. They're just so pretty and shiny and they feel so good when you pick them up and they smell really nice. They also, you know, contain some information you can absorb if you open them up. This week's Buggery column at Metro Weekly tries to explain my passion for the printed page and, as a bonus, make up a new word,"arboranity." I have a  feeling it won't be the new word of 2008.

I've also got a new Gears up on the 2008 Mini Cooper S. In short, there's a lot to love about the Mini, and the new enhancements, mostly stylistic, don't do anything to change that. The new Mini Clubman -- a larger version of the car that should address some of the Cooper's problems with storage area and back seat passengers (it doesn't have any and it doesn't hold any) -- is out soon and I'm awaiting my chance at the wheel. Given the interest in the car, though, I don't expect to get a crack at it until mid-summer at the earliest.

Because I've been sort of slacking on the one hand and obsessing about Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton on the other, I totally forgot to highlight a couple other recent pieces. First, I have a quick overview of my video game obsession, Rock Band -- although I'm not playing it around the clock at the moment, as I'm in the midst of working my way through Lost Odyssey and leveling up some characters in World of Warcraft -- more on those later. Second, I had my first Food article for Domestic Partner, with suggestions for putting together an easy but impressive Valentine's Day dinner.

I do like to keep my interests broad.