If you've ever seen Midnight Express, the horrific (but brilliant) movie based on the real life man who was given a life sentence in a Turkish prison for trying to smuggle hashish, you probably know enough not to get in trouble in a foreign country. But something like that could never happen here in America, right? Wrong. What happened to Steven Slevin was almost worse -- because he wasn't even convicted of anything. Slevin was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving in New Mexico in 2005. But he was never convicted, never tried, never even saw a judge. Yet he spent almost two nightmarish years in solitary confinement with treatment that devastated his physical and emotional health. Once you read this, you'll never look at our justice system quite the same way again.

Banning plastic bags from grocery stores in recent years seems to be the hot new trend for progressive enclaves like Los Angeles and Seattle that, you know, care about the environment. Because apparently using plastic bags to carry your food purchases home is the equivalent of clubbing baby seals. Or something.

Anyway, we’ve known for a while that reusable grocery bags can make you ill (it seems that not everyone knows you’re supposed to wash them after carrying your raw chicken home in them), but now a new unintended consequence has come up -- shoplifting.

Well, here we are, America. It's Sequester Day! Great news if you're obsessed with smaller government no matter what, terrible news if you care about people. Oh I jest! A little. What worries me most about the new cuts is that the people who will feel it the most, soonest, are the poorest among us.

I worry about people like Barbie Izquierdo, a single mom in Philadelphia who was trying to feed her two kids on food stamps. Barbie's story is told in the new film, A Place at the Table. She got a full-time job. But even with that full-time job, she still wasn't quite making enough money to feed her family. And with these new cuts, I'm worried people like her will lose their jobs.

OMG, break out the champagne! Today the House passed a new Violence Against Women Act. This is the Senate's version of the bill, and its next stop is President Obama's desk. In a statement the President said the bill is "an important step towards making sure no one in America is forced to live in fear." He says he will sign it the minute he gets it.

The first Violence Against Women Act was passed in 1994 and has been reauthorized since then. But when it came up for reauthorization last year, legislators failed to reach an agreement and more or less screwed women. ARGH! But this year it came back, and it's better than ever. Here's what the Violence Against Women Act means for you, your sisters, your mothers, and your friends.

Marco McMillian was "one of the good ones," according to his friends. And now, one of the first openly gay mayoral candidates in Mississippi history was found dead early Wednesday morning, and police say they suspect murder. At just 34, McMillian was running as a Democrat for the position of mayor in Clarksdale, Mississippi, which was his hometown.

Though investigators aren't calling this a hate crime, the details are both heartbreaking and highly suspicious. McMillian's car was found smashed, having been driven by someone else, and then his body was found in the woods.

It's sickeningly sad to see those who love him grieve for this young and vibrant personality who wanted so much to make a difference in his community. See below:

Rosa Parks, hero of the civil rights movement, became the first black woman to be memorialized with a life-sized statue in the U.S. Capitol today. And to that I say ... about time and hallelujah!

The statue of Parks is seated, depicting her pose as she waited to be arrested for her simple, yet incredible, act of bravery and defiance: refusing to give up her seat to a white person on a segregated bus, a mere half a century ago in Alabama. It’s a perfect memorial for the woman and the act that helped spur the civil right movement, end the scourge of segregation, and led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act. It’s a reminder that anyone can make a difference by acting with integrity and the courage of their convictions.

So word has it Mercury is in retrograde and everything is going all topsy turvy. And just in case you don't believe all that astrology mumbo jumbo, here's proof: a fraternity in Massachusetts is raising money so a transgender brother can have sex change surgery. I KNOW! It's pretty much the last thing I'd expect from a bunch of beer chugging college frat boys, but there it is.

Frat boys as bonehead losers is old and busted. Frat boys as effing saints is the new hotness. And yeah, it gets better (pun very much intended).

Hold the presses! This conservative Republican chick agrees with John Kerry about something. While addressing a group of students in Berlin, the Secretary of State said that in America, “you have a right to be stupid if you want to be.”

That’s completely true. In the land of the free and the home of the brave, we protect people’s right to say the dumbest stuff ever. Thank goodness for our politicians, because sometimes they really should think before they speak.

In honor of John Kerry, here’s a list of some dumb things that our elected officials have said recently: