It’s time to break the taboo and to talk frankly about human overpopulation

If you are feeling brave, take a look at the World Clock. You'll see that more than twice as many people are being born as are dying for any given interval (click the "Now" button to see the numbers spinning out from the present). world-clock Click the "Deaths" tab and note that for every 100 deaths, there are also more than 60 abortions, and yet the Earth's population still spirals out of control. Click around on the other tabs and you will probably find yourself transfixed by magnitude of these numbers. Notice the vast amount of forest being decimated by clicking on the "Environment" tab. Under the "Energy" tab, notice the incredibly disconcerting "Oil Depletion Timer," indicating that we have 40 years of oil left on the entire planet (you'll need to do the math, dividing the days left by 365--this estimate is based on the admittedly laughable assumption that it would be economically viable to scoop up every drop of oil). Notice the ghastly numbers of entire species being lost each week (almost 300 extinctions per week). Notice the many thousands of preventable deaths every week (under the Death tab), including ghastly numbers of children dying from preventable things like lack of nutrition. The World Clock sends me into an existential swirl. Watching these numbers accumulate fascinates me and, regarding some categories, horrifies me. Regarding the needless deaths, for example, it occurs to me that no human being has sufficient cognitive capacity or sufficient empathy to properly understand or react to numbers of this magnitude. It is impossible to feel sufficient empathy for the needless deaths of thousands people, week after week. Last year, I posted on an effort by Global Population Speak Out (GPSO) to discuss the need to discuss overpopulation. But many people are too horrified to even consider this topic. One such person repeatedly vilified me in the comments, arguing that I was an elitist (and worse) because I merely dared to raise this issue. But this issue of overpopulation is too important to ignore. [more . . . ]

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Medical marijuana is coming to DC

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition is reporting that Congress is giving the OK to medical marijuana in Washington DC. Who is LEAP?

A group of police and judges who want to legalize drugs pointed to new FBI numbers released today as evidence that the "war on drugs" is a failure that can never be won. The data, from the FBI's "Crime in the United States" report, shows that in 2008 there were 1,702,537 arrests for drug law violations, or one drug arrest every 18 seconds. "In our current economic climate, we simply cannot afford to keep arresting more than three people every minute in the failed 'war on drugs,'" said Jack Cole, a retired undercover narcotics detective who now heads the group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP). "Plus, if we legalized and taxed drug sales, we could actually create new revenue in addition to the money we'd save from ending the cruel policy of arresting users."
LEAP's motto is that while drug use is bad, "The War on Drugs is Worse."

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Critique of selective testing

William Cornwall raises this worthy question:

the focus on drug and steroid testing in sports is absurd when you consider that professional athletes are tested more than Supreme Court Justices, Members of Congress, the President of the United States, and other elected officials. Additionally, despite the disproportionately high incidents of substance abuse among health care practitioners and the undeniable potential risks to their patients, there are no uniform workplace testing programs for health care practitioners that are similar to the testing programs in sports. What is it about possessing the elite athletic prowess that justifies treating a man or woman differently from others whose impact on our lives are potentially much more profound?

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Four litmus tests for Congress

According to consumer advocate Ed Mierzwinski, the following four reforms "seem obvious to taxpayers. Not to Wall Street." I would add that they don't seem obvious enough to most members of Congress. They should have been passed at least a year ago:

1) Will Congress enact a strong version of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency? [It needs to be independent, needs to regulate all financial products, needs to reinstate federal law as a floor, not a ceiling, of protection]. 2) Will Congress regulate the shadow markets, e.g., unregulated derivative, hedge fund, and private equity shadow markets? 3) Will Congress audit the Fed? 4) Will Congress end the too-big-to-fail system that led to taxpayer-funded TARP bailouts?
I agree with Mierzwinski that these needs are obvious. The only reason they aren't yet law is that Congress is flooded with banking industry money. It's time for Congress to show whether it has any integrity for enacting these four reforms, which constitute some very low bars, indeed. These are minimum standard that any reasonable person would immediately support. Members of Congress need to show us that they really represent the People of the U.S. by immediately voting for these four reforms.

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