The "Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave" is experiencing an identity crisis. We want to be free but we have come to believe an ever increasing number of behaviors are cause for arrest, trial and imprisonment.

Prostitution
Nevada,  Germany, Netherlands, England, France, Mexico, Canada, Israel, Australia....and many more don't seem to think the oldest profession should be crime. In an interesting twist one enterprising individual suggests always filming your paid trysts. If you are caught, you can simply claim you were legally filming a low budget porn movie with First Amendment protection.

Gambling
It's hard to call this a crime any more since it is so widely practiced. Texas Hold'em is a top TV draw. The real crime is how bad the odds on the Power Ball lottery really are. If you prefer you can gamble at the big casinos on the Internet like the NASDAQ and ETrade. However there are still laws that seem to be more focused on somebody else getting a cut of your action. The Congress used the 2006 Safe Ports Act to undermine online casinos by using American financial insititutions as an enforcement tool. Got an offshore account?

Drug possession and use
We are at war with drugs for some forgotten reason. Americans are the customers. They have an insatiable thirst for the product. The money generated by this prohibition is staggering and at the heart of much of the crime in America. It's no longer only the drugged up junkie committing a burglary that we have to fear, now it's the gangs and other loosely organized extra legal groups that benefit from transactions and practice violence to protect their business. If you believe there are elements of truth in Hollywood productions like the "Big Easy" or "LA Confidential" or "Traffic" you might think the drug trade encourages public corruption from the very highest levels down. You would be right.

This business is ruinous. It harms international relations and victimizes entire populations in the drug producing countries. It ties up the police, courts, and jails. It saddles millions of Americans with criminal records creating an entire underground culture in our midst. It creates tensions between the authorities and drug using public that undermine the very fabric of our society.

Walter Block at Loyola chimes in that crime, especially murder, would drop if drugs were legal.

Medical marijuana
The state of California licenses stores to sell marijuana to patients with medical prescriptions for the drug. The US government does not recognize this exception and has prosecuted the stores, the users and even a little old lady with a prescription who was growing twelve plants for her own use at her home. It must work because people in pain say it does. Unrelenting pain tends to elicit truth. Politics reached a new low when Mitt Romney during a campaign rally at first seemed to answer a man in a wheelchair who claimed marijuana helped relieve the pain of his muscular dystrophy. Mitt said there were legal alternatives including synthetic marijuana. The man persisted saying the alternatives didn't work and asked if Romney wanted him jailed, Romney had no answer and just walked away ignoring the man's predicament.

Marriage Crimes
When it comes to professional relationships, the law recognizes just about every kind. In business, there are sole proprietorships, limited partnerships, corporations, and any number of other government (and, more important, IRS) recognized relationships. The laws and customs are neatly in place for mergers, takeovers, creating, and dissolving professional relationships of all shapes, sizes, and durations. Why is it, then, when it comes to personal relationships, there is only one legally recognized, community approved, IRS sanctioned relationship: one man and one woman promising fidelity until one of them dies? (courtesy of Peter McWilliams). In 2006 this issue moved into the spotlight again with the debate over the Defense of Marriage Act and the desire for a Constitutional Amendment to prohibit same sex marriages in any state.

Nudity Crimes
It's OK in theaters, museums and many bars. R rated movies allow brief  frontal nudity, and you'll find topless and bottomless men, women and children on many beaches around the world. The European visitor to the upscale Disney World Swan hotel poolside was the finest attraction on that visit. Little did she know she was breaking the law. But it's grounds for arrest, fines and imprisonment throughout most of the United States. There are even circumstances under which you can be arrested for being nude inside your own home.

Censorship
Wardrobe malfunctions, George Carlin's seven words, obscenity, pornography. Attempts to gentrify speech ultimately whittle away at the First Amendment rights central to our freedom. The acid test used to be whether the statement being made created a clear and present danger" like yelling "Fire" in a crowded theater. What's OK on cable TV is still not allowed to be broadcast. This one continues to be hot in mid 2006 as the FCC reviews live sporting events to see if anyone coaches, players even spectators uttered one of the verboten words. Did anyone see the 2007 Orange Bowl? After the Wake Forest running back fumbled on the 12 yard line he yanked off his helmet and clearly yelled the big F word at maximum volume with the camera focused on his face. The announcer called it a "bark."

Unpopular Politics and Religion
Although you disagree with my position are you are willing to defend my right to express my opinions....Would it matter if I was a communist, Nazi, radical Islamist, or a Democrat? The rancor in early 21st Century American political discourse suggests to me that even if you would, there are many who would not. Castigating liberals and labeling political opponents as wing nuts divides us further and hurts our chances of achieving success.

Suicide / Assisted Suicide
With Dr. Kevorkian jailed (parole denied at the end of 2005, finally released in June 2007) and the huge furor of the Terry Schiavo case in Florida, the Oregon Death with Dignity Law remains the only law permitting terminal patients a way out. A 2006 Supreme Court ruling in favor of Oregon may signal to other states that is is time to try the waters.