NUTSHELLS is the part of this site where we link you to a lot of policy stuff, in case you've got the time and stamina for it. If not, no tragedy: We summarize it all for you in six brief sections. Roll over the icons to zoom in on each section.

To begin at the end: We found three controversial issues that people disagree about so deeply they won't care whatwe say. We called them HOT BUTTONS, and told David Gurevich, head of theshredder.com, to press them all for us, one by one: Guns, Drugs, and Hate (crimes).

In BAD COMPANY, Wall Street Journal parodist Robert Weisberg divulges the latest techniques for taming corporate malefactors — and he does it without once mentioning David and Goliath.(If you like pie, be sure to click on the last URL in his footnotes.)

Searching the Net we found the key to crime control: Most crimes are caused by a tiny percentage of criminals who get off on the wrong foot as tots. The trick is to keep those dear little babes from turning into vile little demons. How? See DRAWING THE LINE IN THE SANDBOX.

Even if we could rescue half of the kids we lose each year to crime, we'd still need police to round up the Lost Boys. We examine the advantages of community policing in COPPING.

In GUILTY AS CHARGED, we sentence today's sentencing laws to hard time on the scrap heap, not because we're soft on crime, but because bad policy isn't the best way to curb it.

In LOCK DOWN we review charges that America is going Gulag.

Crimes of terrorism and cybercrime we're saving for later issues, along with crimes of passion and fashion. There is only so much we can do and still be VAGUE, as opposed to merely unfocused.

Because we can't promise to be infallible, we hope you'll question our every word. But we do promise that VAGUE's Nutshells offer the quickest, relatively most painless way to get a grip on crime issues without leaving the Web, abusing caffeine or experiencing loss of brain capacity — or your money back.