policy examiner

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) says Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing in September to examine “stand your ground” laws in the wake of the Trayvon Martin case.

The “stand your ground” laws in Florida and two dozen other states allow individuals to defend themselves without requiring them to attempt to evade or retreat from a dangerous situation. Although Zimmerman did not specifically employ a “stand your ground” law defense but those laws shaped the instructions given to the jury.

Left unsaid is whether these laws can be further refined to separate self defense from situations created by your one’s actions. Zimmerman would not have needed a stand your ground law if he has stayed on his own ground to begin with.

Love him or hate him, Cory Booker in on a roll with 52 percent of the vote according to the latest poll compared with 10 percent for U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone and 8 percent for U.S. Rep. Rush Holt and 3 percent for Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver.

A full 26 percent are undecided but that may not matter. The same poll also shows Booker running 13 points ahead of likely Republican nominee Steve Lonegan (53 to 30 percent) according to the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

We now know we are being analyzed, watched, and listened to continuously in this digital age of big data. A decade ago we might have all flipped out. But perhaps it was a slow acquiescence with a certain
inevitability to a loss of privacy.

And given the obsession Americans have with publishing everything about themselves and the thirst for attention, maybe we all got what we really wanted – to feel like we are on stage and someone is listening. The social media and self publishing has created a generation of exhibitionists. So be it. Thou doth protests too much.