Big Brother

Pandemics have a tendency to expose the more authoritarian impulses in our society, particularly when those impulses are wedded to the latest technology.

The Trump administration has temporaryily suspended payments supporting the World Health Organization. While the move has drawn howls from the organization's defenders, the case for defunding the WHO has been decades in the making:

A number of offices and individuals have turned to video conferencing platforms in this age of stay-at-home orders. Even if you can't be there in person, these platforms allow you to be there virtually -- a face and a voice on a screen in real time.

The actions governments and private businesses have taken in reponse to the coronavirus has served at least some good. They have exposed rules and regulations we could easily live without. Included on that list: the bans against plastic grocery bags.

Among those not letting a global crisis go to waste: hackers. They still want your data (and money), and they are willing to take advantage of coronavirus tracking websites to get it.

The calendar says Spring is almost here, with milder days soon to come. For government bureaucrats and members of Congress, however, it's never too early to think about summer, and how to undermine one of our most effective tools for fighting heat and humidity: air conditioning.

It's no secret the federal government is looking for all the additional revenue it can get to cover its ever-growing spending programs. One of the newest tools in the taxman's arsenal is using artificial intelligence to squeeze more out of taxpayers:

We've written before about government data breaches and the threats hackers pose to our increasingly online infrastructure. But we didn't think we'd see a story like this, which combines hacking, the government, and new tech -- in this case, government drones:

With all of the talk about curtailing, or even eliminating, the right of private citizens to own firearms, few have discussed the ever-expanding practice of arming federal employees.