Get away from Washington and see that official America has gone crazy too. Official America consists of the lower level skeins and sinews of authorities that permeate the length and breadth of this land, such authorities as police, schools, lower-level courts, and regulators of all sorts. The madness is creeping into companies. It is in one’s neighbors and friends, whom one has good reason to fear these days.
Two examples. A high school teacher in Batavia, Illinois is disciplined for teaching his students their fifth amendment rights. Then there is the case of Cameron d’Ambrosio, an 18-year old now held in jail for 1 month on a $1 million bond. He’s under arrest for a rap that he placed on facebook, this being deemed by the authorities as a threat of terror and a crime under a Massachusetts law. The conditions of a threat being a crime under this law are, however, far more strict than a rap.
8:33 am on May 30, 2013
