I can't tell which author would best describe the state (and the State) we're in these days…

The Trial and Catch-22 revisited

Sainteros spotted this news item in the NY Times (registration may be required): a federal appeals court has decided that the government can make a prisoner take drugs to make him sane enough to execute, in order to side-step a Supreme Court decision that the insane could not be executed.

This, from a “right-to-life friendly” administration.

Man Without a Country Revisited

Other news, related in a sort of stream-of-horror kind of way:

The Justice Department (in the most Orwellian interpretation of its own name) has put together a secret draft of a follow-on to the PATRIOT Act (well, it's not secret anymore) that proposes extending the power to the Attorney General of summarily revoking citizenship and exiling any individual who associates with a group deemed to be a “terrorist organization” by him. Wow.

But I'm sure they have only our best interests in mind.