"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." ~ H.L. Mencken
That Makes Her a Heroine in My Book
A government court has convicted Martha Stewart of lying to the government. If she actually did it, good for her! And down with Them!
As a libertarian writer, I've tried to popularize the traditional distinction between a =malum in se,= an act that is wrong in itself; and a =malum prohibitum,= an act that some political authority has prohibited for reasons of its own. The latter category--consisting entirely of fake crimes--has come to dominate what passes for the American criminal-justice system.
Now I have to propose a third category of illegal acts--the =bonum in se.= Lying to the government is an act that is good in itself. If everyone did it all the time, we'd be far down the road--at last!--to Revolution.