Over the last several hundred years, while repressive monarchs, dictators and fascist governments terrorized their citizens, anarchists were often the lone voice demanding change. It is not hard to picture them as folk heroes, especially when their foes were communists in the Soviet Union or the Nazis in Germany.

Fast forward to the present, from the WTO riots in 1999 to the Mayday debacle last Tuesday, and one is left with the inescapable conclusion: Anarchy ain’t what it used to be.

The modern day anarchist presents the image of a jack-booted thug, dressed in …

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In the last couple of years dispensing medical mariajuana has moved out of dark alleys and into storefronts. As scientific research confirms its benefits, public perception appears to be warming up to the idea of cannabis as legitimate medication. In the near future this progress could lead to a stable industry that provides a secure source of a legitimate prescription medicine.

If only recreational pot users would stop sabotaging the program.

Medical marijuana remains a chaotic business model in large part because of the legalization advocates themselves. These folks  - who are vocal, if nothing else – loudly denounce the criminalization …

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Through the doorway I heard the sound of a woman screaming. I ran inside, breathing through my mouth to keep from gagging on the stench that permeated the apartment. In the living room, on a soiled couch, lay a young man with a purple face, unblinking eyes and a chest that neither rose nor fell.

Fortunately, my partner and I had arrived a mere second ahead of the paramedics who quickly shoved us aside. They opened their medical kits while having a muted conversation. I picked up the words, “Already dead,” and “Let’s try it anyway.” Then one of them …

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A couple of years ago I was driving to work, when I slowed for a red light. I put on my signal and turned right. Two weeks later I got a ticket in the mail.

I balled up my fist and shook it, spitting out, “Redflex!” Seinfeld fans will get that, trust me.

The infraction was for my apparent failure to stop before turning on the red, a point I had no intention of arguing for two simple reasons. First, the police agency at the top of the ticket was my employer; second, I had watched traffic cops review Redflex …

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You can say one thing for Arizona’s controversial new immigration law. It separates its supporters and critics as easily as a hot knife through butter.

Arizona SB 1070 is headed for a showdown at the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday. At issue are the four provisions that have been the exclusive privilege of the federal government (at least up until now):

(1) require police to verify the immigration status of anyone they stop if they suspect he or she is undocumented;

(2) make it a state crime for a non-citizen to be without registration papers;

(3) make it illegal for …

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I knew a vampire once.

He had dark hair and pale skin and his clothes were a midnight blue. He usually woke up just as the last rays of the sun were winking out on the horizon. Give or take a few minutes.

My friend wasn’t especially adherent to the strict regimen of vampires – bloodsucking, for one, was not on his list of to-do’s. But then, strictly speaking, he wasn’t a traditional vampire. He was a cop on the graveyard shift.

What separated my friend from countless people working the night shift was this unique decision: He changed his …

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In the vast repertoire of human actions there are few as disturbing as suicide. As such it is too often viewed as a stigma, a crime against the community as much as a crime against oneself.

If we were to be honest, the act of self-destruction is repellant to us for two basic reasons: It is a violation of both our primal sense of self-preservation and the moral principles which mold our personal and religious views. In the past, people who committed suicide were considered damned for eternity and unworthy of a Christian burial. In the present, conversation on this …

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