For your consideration: legalization.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Marijuana advocates are gathering signatures to get at least three pot-legalization measures on the ballot in 2010 in California, setting up what could be a groundbreaking clash with the federal government over U.S. drug policy.
Ok, yes, it’s a state’s rights issue and, generally speaking, I’m a fan of anything that takes power out of the federal government’s hands and returns it to the state. Also, you can tax the living hell out of it. If people (myself included) pay such ridiculous taxes on cigs, it’s a slam-dunk they’ll do it for grass. Jails are overcrowded, and locking someone up for something as harmless as weed is beyond stupid.
And yet...for some ill-defined reason, the idea still makes me uncomfortable. Maybe it’s not the idea of legalized weed itself that bug me, but the most vocal proponents of legalization.
I’d back the play if the vote went that direction, but it’d take some getting used to. Anyway, this is about your thoughts.
“Manscara.” “Guyliner.” Metrosexuals. Hipsters.
Sissies.
Y’all thought it was just a fad, right? Just a passing phase. Manly men would come back into style eventually, once women got tired of sharing their mousse and fighting for underwear with their so-called boyfriends. Testosterone would win the day, and we’d chase the last vestiges of these butt-lipped hair-fussers back into the depths of the woods with the rest of the faerie folk (NTTAWWT).
according to a new study, the Pill may also have changed women’s taste in men.
Scientists say the hormones in the oral contraceptive suppress a female’s interest in masculine men - and make boyish men more attractive.
No comments about how this discovery bears on our current political situation, if you please.
Scientists have long known that a woman’s taste in men changes over the menstrual cycle.
As well as her taste in debate, penchant for melee combat, and accuracy of thrown household items.
During the few days each month when they are fertile - around the time of ovulation - they tend to prefer masculine features and men who are more assertive.
[...]
On days when women are not fertile, their tastes swing towards more feminine, boyish faces and more caring personalities, researchers have shown.However, if women are taking the Pill, they no longer have fertile days.
Well that’s just f’n swell. Suddenly, the drawbacks associated with condoms don’t seem like NEARLY such a big deal.
Africa bishops speak of Obama in religious terms
African bishops attending a Vatican meeting are speaking about the election of Barack Obama in divine terms
Well this, by itself, is hardly even news. Worship of Obama as a religious figure is already old hat in America.
“It’s like the biblical story repeating itself,” he told reporters, citing the Old Testament figure Joseph, who after being sold into slavery in Egypt ends up becoming a top official.
At least in their telling they demoted him from Messiah to mortal, so there’s that. Though I think I missed the part of his biography where O! started out as a slave.
I’m not a churchy person myself. Maybe one of you religious readers can provide a more appropriate Biblical figure for comparison?
And the archbishop of Kinshasa, Congo, Monsignor Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, told the formal synod itself that it would be wise to not ignore what he called a “primordial event” in recent times.
“If the election of a black as head of the United States of America was a divine sign and a sign from the Holy Spirit for the reconciliation of races and ethnic groups for peaceful relations ... this synod and the universal church would gain from not ignoring this primordial event of contemporary history which is far from being a banal game of political alliances,” he said in his speech.
Maybe you guys missed out on the part where anyone who criticizes him is immediately labeled a racist? Kinda puts a cramp in the “reconciliation” thing.
So, the Somali pirates have struck again. Under cover of darkness, they spied a large vessel and, presumably after donning their eyepatches and drawing their cutlasses, attacked.
Only problem was, it wasn’t a container ship. It was the flagship of the French Navy.
Oops.
Somali pirates attempted to storm the French navy’s 18,000 tonne Indian Ocean fleet flagship after mistaking it for a cargo vessel, the military said on Wednesday.
The crew of La Somme, a 160-metre (525-foot) command vessel and fuel tanker, easily saw off the brazen night-time assault by lightly armed fighters on two open-topped motorboats and captured five pirates, a spokesman said.
[...]
The pirates tried to flee when they realised their mistake but were pursued by French forces who, after an hour-long chase, caught one of the skiffs, Prazuck said.
Really, as much fun as I have with the French (and who doesn’t?), this is pretty awesome.
A court in ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia today convicted a man for publicly talking about sex after he bragged on a TV talk show about his exploits, sentencing him to five years in jail and 1,000 lashes, his lawyer said.
[...]
Jumeii claimed Abdul-Jawad was duped by the Lebanese LBC satellite channel and was unaware he was being recorded.
GILES AND O’KEEFE STRIKE AGAIN!!!1!!
Not real rape-rape of a real 13-year-old - 13-year-old.
*spit*
Being as it’s slow right now, I wondered if I might get your thoughts on nature’s wonders.
Specifically, deer.
More specifically still, killing every last one of the wretched little dewy-eyed vermin.
Posted ‘cause, well, it’s just plain cool.
~ Wired Science ~
Some things you just can’t make up.
A French gay soccer team
..."but I repeat myself"…
says its members were victims of homophobia when a team of Muslim players refused to play a match against them.
What’s amusing isn’t their surprise or their outrage. What’s amusing is that they’ll quickly be forced into the realization that accusations of homophobia aren’t going to have much effect on a group of people for whom soccer is only the second most popular cultural pastime, having lost out to stoning and hanging homosexuals.
H/T WZ
~link~
Jackassery in the name of the fundamentalist/orthodox greenism cult.
Kool-Aid punch all around.
...an’ “Tommy, go away”
The Virginia State Board of Elections argued in their most recent filing that they have no legal obligation to send out military absentee ballots in a timely manner. Restated, the State of Virginia has argued in a federal court filing that they can legally send out absentee ballots to active duty soldiers the day before an election. Restated again, theDemocratic Chairwoman of the Virginia State Board of Election (appointed by the Democratic National Committee Chair Tim Kaine, in his capacity as Virginia Governor) Jean Cunningham just claimed a legal basis for massively raising the barrier to voting for soldiers at war.
raz0r
Swiss authorities rejected on Tuesday an appeal by lawyers for Roman Polanski, arrested in September after fleeing America in 1978 from an underage sex charge, to release the film director from prison.
Amnesty Int’l, Hollywood Branch will be holding a candlelight cuckoo-clock burning vigil this evening. All are invited to attend. No children under the age of 18 allowed unless accompanied by an open-minded progressive parent.
10/06 at 08:05 AM •
(6) Extra Credit • Pass it on...
As we try to shake off the financial crisis, here’s a bright idea. Take a law that has led to the writing of an enormous amount of bad mortgages and expand it. Then take enforcement away from bank examiners and give it to housing activists.
[...]
[I]n the first 20 years of the act, up to 1997, commitments totaled approximately $200 billion. But from 1997 to 2007, commitments exploded to more than $4.2 trillion. (Keep in mind this is more than four times the size of the current health bill being debated in Congress.)In short, the CRA is compelling banks to make trillions in loans to individuals who have poor credit and who often can’t or won’t make their payments.
[...]
Obama wants to take enforcement of the CRA away from the Federal Reserve, the FDIC and other financial regulators … Compliance would no longer be done by bank examiners but by what the administration calls “a group of examiners specially trained and certified in community development” (otherwise called community activists).
mojo
we knew that humor would get him in trouble someday...
[TREACHER’S] TOP TEN REASONS TO ACCEPT THAT JOB OFFER FROM DAVID LETTERMAN
10. Get to find out “Worldwide Pants” refers to his breathing
9. Whenever he has trouble performing, he can always count on Paul
8. Stupid Prostate Tricks
7. Pillow talk includes fond remembrances of working with Calvert DeForest
6. “Can Jay do this? Huh? Can Jay do this?”
10/06 at 07:11 AM •
(3) Extra Credit • Pass it on...
