Gene Policinski: After 800 years, does the Magna Carta’s legacy of freedom persist?

  The signing of the Magna Carta was a major step toward the concept of speaking truth to power in the Western world – and was neither a rock band nor has anything to do with volcanoes, both responses the other day from a quick set of man-on-the-street interviews in Washington D.C.

  In fact, the Magna Carta is an 800-year old document setting out certain baronial rights in England in 1215. Granted, at first thought, that occurrence may not necessarily set our collective Colonial toes to tapping. But perhaps it should.

Gene Policinski: Hacking the Westboro church is not the way to counter its hate

  The First Amendment does not empower anyone to hack into websites associated with the controversial Westboro Baptist church and the family members of founder Fred Phelps — even with the best of intentions. But that’s the latest development in the sad saga of that Topeka, Kan.-based church.