"Overturn the Stolen Valor Act," by Brent Jones is an honest appeal about the slippery slope of criminalizing a lie.  Prior to the Stolen Valor Act of 2006, the only lies that were criminal offenses were lying on a sworn affidavit or lying about a specific person with the intent to harm (defamation of character.)  The piece is intended for an audience deciding on their position of the supreme court challenge to the Stolen Valor Act.  Jones comes off as credible and thoughtful, giving insight on his concerns and how they were formed.  He shares his opinion that the Act is a risk, and not in line with the freedoms that our country is founded on.  Jones goes on to discuss past court precedent pulled from First Amendment challenges, like the freedom for nazi sympathizers and freedom to protest military funerals.  

As the granddaughter of a Silver Star receipient, I know the sacrifices that soldiers make in order to win any of the nation's valor medals.  I don't wish to see their glory tarnished, but they are not specifically harmed when another tries to become what they earned.  It is simple to verify any major award by contacting the military branch the person served in.  Anyone that grew up in or around a military family knows that if a person was awarded one of the top combat medals, you rarely hear about it.  After 33 years, I still do not know why my grandfather was awarded a silver star, only that his name is on the list for recipients from Saipan.   One of the reasons the media investigates these cases thoroughly is that they so often end in a sensational lie.   This should be their punishment.  They are lying to make themselves more interesting, so I think that they should be publicly outed for being their own boring self, not put in an already overcrowded prison system with hardened criminals.  I agree with Jones' idea that this could be the proverbial road to Hell.....  We want to give our soldiers every bit of the honor they have earned, and someone else pretending to have sacrificed what so many others laid down their lives for is heart wrenching.  But the question becomes, "what next?"  Are we going to criminalize lying about your education?  It hurts everyone that worked hard to finish college.  What about if you say you were a senator?  Will we criminalize that?  They spent a lot of money to get where they are.  We all make sacrifices to become the people that we are, and there will always be someone willing to take a shortcut, and pretend they are at the finish line.  In the end, they will always get caught.  Don't punish them in the courts, give them something to fear.  Let them be punished in the court of public opinion.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/story/2012-02-21/Stolen-Valor-Act-Supreme-Court/53197316/1

Screenings are for the little people

OK.  I get it.   No one likes the TSA.  Who in their right mind wants to be pulled aside when they are running late to catch a plane, only to get felt up by a Coach Beiste look-a-like in full view of their traveling companions?  It's happened to me many times.  So many, in fact, that I refused to travel for work for almost a year, until Austin put in the new scanners.  Does it really feel necessary for me to take off my boots and walk through the airport in stocking feet?  Not really.  It does seem like a good way to get athlete's foot, and I still haven't figured out why we can't scan shoes without putting them on a conveyor belt, but if everyone in the airport sees the ugly penguin socks my mom gave me for Christmas, so be it.  I do, however, feel safer knowing that we are doing what we can to ensure the safety of air travel.  Is it perfect?  Not even close.  Could something get through? It will happen eventually.  But looking around at some of the scraggly passengers on the red eye from California to Austin, -boy- am I glad they have been checked!

Why then, do politicians, and for that matter the famous in general, think that they are above the screenings?  Why is it always a tragedy that they got singled out to get the pat down.  Rand Paul actually thinks that the TSA employees push a button on purpose to cause random extra screenings.  The great scanner conspiracy.  Put on your tin-foil hat, boys, rent-a-cop is out to get you.  I'm sorry, Rand, but have you ever known a low-level government employee, making slightly more than $10 an hour, that would willingly add to their workload?  If so, send me their resume - I could use that kind of employee.  What I want to know is why is this senator, who apparently is affronted to be treated like the rest of us, going to spend the tax dollars we paid, to investigate this alleged insult?  Unfortunately, Rand, you are not my senator, or I would veto your ability to be a moron, but alas, I am not hopeful that the state of Kentucky is going to figure it out before my money is wasted on this fool's errand.

Oh, and Rand, you can always go through the new scanners, they are only there to find cloaked aliens.