http://abcnews.go.com/International/wikileaks-founder-assange-free-today-bail-money-secured/story?id=12410238

Conflating "free" with "out on bail" seems to be a favorite pastime of our media, but the two conditions are not the same.

If none is free, then one has no special travel restrictions, residence restrictions, or curfew, no legal oversight via parole officers or threat of re-imprisonment or bounty hunters if one ignores these legal restrictions.

"Out on bail" means he's not taking up prison space or resources and the court expects him to comply with special oversight restrictions and to feed, house, and clothe himself at his own expense and not the taxpayer's. He's not "free", he just has a different set of restrictions.

I am not even going to go where everyone seems to be conflating his alleged activity via WikiLeaks with his alleged sexual assault charges. Those are two totally different things. Blurring the line between them diminishes both, and may prevent true justice from being served.

People can do really good things and still also do some really bad things. Doing good is not a pass for getting away with doing bad.

I really wish people (and by people, I mostly mean lawyers, politicians, and the media) would stop with all the conflating things and misusing words.

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