Megan McArdle recalls her life of crime, as an underage drinker in Pennsylvania . . . in 1992.  She was caught by state liquor agents, fined, forced to attend alcohol-education classes, and promised never to drink underage again.  According to the Liquor Control Board, that should have been the end of the matter:

Alas, they never told the ( Read more... )

The state, to serve and protect our children:

Two Philadelphia social workers were among nine charged yesterday in the death of a Danieal Kelly, a 14-year-old girl who starved to death in 2006, her body eaten by bed sores to the bone.

Unveiling a blistering grand jury report today [PDF], District Attorney Lynne Abraham blasted the city's ( Read more... )

Alex Tabarrok:

There's nothing like visiting a foreign country like China to get an appreciation of what it's like to live under an authoritarian regime. I was reminded of this when I arrived home and found that the TSA had rifled through my baggage.

Attack of the killer tomatoes?  Apparently not:

A growing number of health officials fear that investigators made a terrible mistake in blaming tomatoes for the sickening of more than 800 Americans, and they increasingly suspect jalapeno peppers, cilantro or some other food commonly found in Mexican restaurants, health officials involved in the ( Read more... )

It's because states are capable of doing this:

Myanmar's junta seized U.N. aid shipments headed for hungry and homeless survivors of last week's devastating cyclone, prompting the world body to suspend further help on Friday ( Read more... )

It's worse during the holidays. Christmas, New Year's, Halloween. That's when they really start knocking. Calling him out in the middle of the night. Showing up at his stoop in angry packs ( Read more... )

If you think the government is the only entity capable of bureaucratic fuckwittery, here's your reality check:

Just hours after Oklahoma football recruit Herman Mitchell was shot to death Friday in Houston, Adam Fineberg started raising money for Mitchell's family ( Read more... )

[cross-posted from libertarianism]

Pedro Guzman was jailed for a misdemeanor trespassing violation, then sent to Mexico in May, despite his mother's claims that he was born in Los Angeles ( Read more... )

"Bureaucracy has murdered people in the greater New Orleans area. And bureaucracy needs to stand trial before Congress today. . . . So I'm asking Congress, please investigate this now. Take whatever idiot they have at the top of whatever agency and give me a better idiot. Give me a caring idiot. Give me a sensitive idiot. Just don't give me the ( Read more... )

irony, n: keeping a data center fully operational through a hurricane, flooding, looting and madness, only to be brought down by a Slashdot postingYes, it's another Katrina posting.  Maybe you're well and truly sick of reading about it by now, for which I apologize-well, no, I don't apologize.  It's my blog and I'll continue to be pissed off if I ( Read more... )