Mar 30, 2015 | Civil Liberties, Criminal Justice/Prison-Industrial Complex, Race and Racism
Published: Daily Dot (March 30, 2015) Those with power must be held accountable for how they use it. This may seem like a self-evident proposition, but it is actually facing a considerable challenge in Texas right now. If passed, a new bill sponsored by Rep. Jason Villalba (R-Dallas) would define the act of “filming, recording, photographing, or documenting the officer within 25 feet of [a...
Mar 26, 2015 | Civil Liberties, Foreign Policy, mic, Military-Industrial Complex/Security State
Published: Daily Dot (March 26, 2015) It’s doubtful that the PATRIOT Act will be repealed in this legislative session, but make no mistake about it: Dispensing with this bill, one of the more pernicious legacies of the post-9/11 erosion of American civil liberties, is long overdue. First, here's an introduction to the measure that could theoretically pull this off: the Surveillance State Repeal...
Mar 25, 2015 | Civil Liberties, General Advice, Race and Racism
Published: Daily Dot (March 25, 2015) Whether it's Reddit trolls or real-life ones, freedom of speech in the Internet age can be very unpleasant. The Supreme Court is currently preparing to hear a controversial case about whether the government of Texas has the right to ban hate speech from state-issued license plates; in this case, the issue is over use of a Confederate flag-based insignia by a...
Mar 16, 2015 | Civil Liberties, Education, Race and Racism
Published: Daily Dot (March 16, 2015) co-author Tillie Adelson To understand why the University of Oklahoma was wrong to expel the students responsible for singing a racist chant (as well as disband the Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter on their campus), it is first important to understand the legal arguments in favor and against the college’s decision, and only then can you fully realize why both...
Mar 4, 2015 | Civil Liberties, Foreign Policy, Military-Industrial Complex/Security State
Published: Daily Dot (March 4, 2015) America is rapidly approaching a new phase in its history, and virtually no one seems to care. The first sign became apparent on Saturday, when a federal court approved the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of the telephone records of American citizens. In theory, this shouldn’t mean very much; the controversial program needs to be re-approved every...
Jan 1, 2015 | Arts and Entertainment, Civil Liberties, Foreign Policy, World Affairs
Published: Daily Dot (January 1, 2015) Regardless of whether North Korea was actually responsible for hacking Sony, America can learn an interesting lessons from the brouhaha surrounding the release of The Interview. As a result of this incident, we have learned that the Internet—which was used by the Guardians of Peace in an attempt to intimidate other people—can also stoke the flames of public...
Dec 23, 2014 | Arts and Entertainment, Civil Liberties, Foreign Policy, mic, Terrorism, World Affairs
Published: Good Men Project (December 23, 2014) Matthew Rozsa offers three suggestions to protect both the police and the communities that fear them and calls for both groups to demand that politicians enact them. ___ Believe it or not, Michael Brown and Eric Garner share one very important quality with the pair of NYPD officers who were brutally slain earlier this week: Both of them live in a...
Dec 22, 2014 | Arts and Entertainment, Civil Liberties, Foreign Policy, mic, Terrorism, World Affairs
Published: Daily Dot (December 22, 2014) Say what you will about The Interview, but let’s abandon the notion that the filmmakers were wrong for their fictionalized depiction of Kim Jong-un’s death. The reason is simple: It is healthy to assert that Kim Jong-un deserves to die. Kim Jong-un is not just some interchangeable foreign leader. This is a point critics, like Justin Moyer of the...
Dec 19, 2014 | Arts and Entertainment, Civil Liberties, Foreign Policy, mic, Terrorism, World Affairs
Published: Good Men Project (December 19, 2014) Matthew Rozsa is mad as hell that Sony pulled ‘The Interview.’ But he’s equally horrified by the company’s racist attitudes. ___ If North Korea has shown the world anything, it is that the executives at Sony are abject cowards. This may sound rough, but it needs to be said. And since I’ve already expounded at length upon the free speech issue...
Dec 18, 2014 | Arts and Entertainment, Civil Liberties, Foreign Policy, mic, Terrorism, World Affairs
Published: Good Men Project (December 18, 2014) Matthew Rozsa believes North Korea’s threat to Sony challenges the very essence of our democratic freedoms. ___ Is it too much to expect Americans who expect to profit from the First Amendment to stand up for its underlying ethos? Of course, due emphasis must be placed on the phrase “underlying ethos” in the aforementioned sentence. Although the...