BoingBoing: Bloggers who attended a “smile mob” in Minsk, Belarus, were arrested for coming to the central square and smiling at each other. Some face months in prison.

Belarus is an ailing former Soviet state, and it’s where my paternal grandfather’s family comes from. All my life, it was a kind of romantic place of my origin, but all the news I ever hear from there is like this — police-state tactics that make the Soviet era sound like a paragon of liberty. Sad.

Sad? What’s so sad about it?

Smile at everyone you see in New York and you’ll get far worse than a simple arrest.