Several weeks ago the New York Times published and article on the number of states that were actively engaged in repealing the death penalty. Apparently it is very expensive to kill someone (some estimates range as high as nearly $2 million) and cash strapped states are discovering lawmakers would rather fill potholes than exercise self-righteousness in the service of the ultimate penalty. And then there is also the increasing number of false convictions; of the 232 convictions overturned by the Innocence Project, 17 spent time on death row. The advance of technology has resulted in many states reconsidering the irrevocable choice of putting someone to death.

The new CIA Director, Leon Panetta, has a new item in his daily briefing to the President. It is a list of actual and potential locations of civil unrest resulting from the economic crisis. It is a list that is growing and shows no signs of getting shorter any time soon. The summer of 2008 saw food riots in Africa and Asia. Later in the year China began to experience what the government calls “mass incidents” resulting from factory closings and the ensuing financial hardships. The images of six days of violent protest in Greece were seen around the world and reports of demonstrations in France, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Bulgaria and Russia in Europe were complimented with similar events in Haiti and Bolivia in the Americas.