Happy Bastille Day

I'm not really a friend of revolution, The Revolution, or the Enlightenment, but at a remove of a couple centuries, one can appreciate the good parts, especially the symbolism of liberating prisoners and destroying icons of despotism.

Here are a few articles appropriate for reading on Bastille Day:

• Raise the Crime Rate: argues that the circumstances in America's prisons are so unjust the preferable alternative is to empty the prisons and endure the higher crime rate.
• The sequester is bad for the legal system: don't pay attention to the muppets who tell you that the sequester is not causing any problems. It is painful for many areas and the legal system is one of them. Note also that public defenders are horribly underfunded on the state level as well.
• An op-ed on prison reform: a conservative making the case for prison reform.
• The Fatal Shore: an extremely well-written and captivating history of Australia's founding as a penal colony.

Hope that helps.