The scenes are being repeated in city after city as the Olympic torch makes its way to China–runners are protected by a phalanx of police in riot gear determined to protect China’s image and investment. The torch was once a symbol of international cooperation, of putting aside differences in the name of sport. Now it…

In Colorado, a third grader was suspended for three days (subsequently reduced to one) for the high crime of sniffing a place on his shirt where he had written with a Sharpie marker. A toxicologist says there’s no way anyone could get high off the non-toxic smell. That doesn’t faze the school, which has a…