A China-born U.S. citizen and award-winning inventor of emission control systems for autos, Hu has written to the police who investigated him for infringing commercial secrets and met with the prosecutors who dropped the charges for lack of evidence. Yet he has not been allowed to leave - nor told why.

-"Kelvin" in Colorado

A University of Wisconsin professor has been threatened with criminal charges after placing a series of posters on his office door. The first poster featured a picture of and quote from the character Mal Reynolds from the television series "Firefly" that, according to the university police chief, could be interpreted as "a threat." After the first poster was removed by said police chief, the professor, James Miller, put up a second poster featuring a cop clad in riot gear with this caption, "Warning: Fascism. Fascism can cause blunt head trauma and/or violent death.

The proposed National Security and Federal Lands Protection Act would let the agency waive 36 federal environmental protection laws in the name of better border patrols on public lands. But it would give Homeland Security unchecked authority to disregard major environmental laws covering wilderness areas, national parks and wildlife refuges.

More than 1.6 million people were arrested for drug offenses in the US last year, according to the FBI's Uniform Crime Report 2010, and more than half of them were for marijuana. That's a drug arrest every 19 seconds, 24 hours a day, every day last year. The numbers suggest that despite "no more war on drugs" rhetoric emanating from Washington, the drug war juggernaut is rolling along on cruise control.

" Another fallacy in the idea of using more police to stop crime involves the problem of recognition. Criminals do not wear sweat-shirts with “Bad Guy” printed on them to enable policemen to single them out. One way police try to find robbers and murderers is to stop and question ordinary people who have done nothing wrong. Increasing the number of policemen therefore means an increase in the number of innocent people who will be harassed and intimidated by officers."