Let the feds worry about marijuana

In the LA Times, Hanna Liebman Dershowitz points out the stupidity of not changing X because X is "the law." The case of interest in California is legalizing marijuana. Federal and state authorities annually arrest more than 800,000 people for possessing marijuana. This is an immense and destructive waste of government resources. Liebman Dershowitz argues that California legalization would leave it to the feds to justify this atrocious policy of criminalizing marijuana (though not beer or tobacco - - I would add psycho-active prescription drugs):

Voter approval of Proposition 19 would shift to the feds the responsibility and burden of justifying marijuana prohibition in the first place. Now, the Washingtonians who have never questioned decades of anti-pot propaganda can explain to the people of California why we cannot be trusted to determine our state's marijuana policies. Let them endorse the prohibition laws' usefulness as a tool of oppressing minorities. Let them celebrate how minor marijuana violations cost people their jobs, their housing, custody of their kids, and entrap them permanently in vast criminal justice databases. Let them justify the utter hypocrisy of the legal treatment of alcohol and tobacco, as compared with the illegal treatment of marijuana. Let them tell us how many more people will have to be prosecuted and punished before marijuana is eradicated, how much that will cost, and where the money will come from.

Continue ReadingLet the feds worry about marijuana

And it’s causing senseless violence and wasting of tax dollars up here too

Mexico is the biggest supplier of marijuana to the United States, and the illegal drug trade is tearing Mexico apart.

Mexico has been wracked by murders connected to the drug trade. Last year, it suffered more than 6,500 drug-related killings, triple the number in 2007. And 2010 looks worse. As of mid-March, more than 2,000 people have died in drug-related homicides – which puts Mexico on pace for more than 10,000 such deaths this year. That's more than one every hour.
The linked article (from the Chicago Tribune) argues that California's upcoming ballot initiative legalizing marijuana would be the worst nightmare of the Mexican drug cartels. For the terrible numbers from Mexico at a glance, see here.

Continue ReadingAnd it’s causing senseless violence and wasting of tax dollars up here too

This is why I don’t enjoy the though of going to city council meetings

Have you ever gone to a local government meeting where citizen input was invited and it made you wonder about whether democracies are good ideas? As I watched this woman's speech (to the Santa Cruz California City Council) on Reddit.com, I wondered whether it would ever occurred to her that she'd be more effective if she had command of any facts or if she performed a coherent analysis before standing up and talking. I don't mean to pick on her too harshly. She seems sincere. This does remind me of many government meetings where ill-informed citizens dominate. This is the price to pay, though, if you want to give well-informed citizens a chance to talk too. These are only excerpts from the woman's full speech. Therefore, this a very patient city council, indeed.

Continue ReadingThis is why I don’t enjoy the though of going to city council meetings

Mormons Win in California, For Now

Anyone who has been following the 2008/2009 contest of California's Proposition 8 (constitutional prohibition of marriage between people of the same sexual preference or same sexual identity) knows that it was submitted and promoted by Salt Lake City. The paper trail is clear. Arguably, Salt Lake City isn't even in California. But that was not the issue, because the Utah money did persuade California voters. Recently, the California Supreme Court upheld the amendment. But Friendly Atheist Hemant Mehta posted Am I a Bad Person If I Think The Prop 8 Ruling Was Correct?. His point is that this ruling will make it harder for anti-gay activists the next time around. States are beginning to domino into accepting marriage between those of same gender much like they did for those of different races in the mid 20th century. Conservatives have a valuable role to play; they fear and resist change. They function as a drag anchor to force those who would move ahead to work out iron-clad methods before change is implemented. Our legal system therefore resists implementing anything new from the grass roots direction until it is acceptable to at least half of the voting population. Very frustrating, but a historical necessity. When the process is short-circuited, we get embarrassments such as the 18th and 23rd amendments to our Federal Constitution.

Continue ReadingMormons Win in California, For Now

The inevitable march toward equality continues

Iowa & Vermont just became the third and fourth American states to legalise gay marriage. They join Massachusetts and Connecticut in a small but no doubt slowly growing club: states who are no longer bound to bigotry against their own citizens. Running score: Humanity - 4; Dark-Aged superstitious bollocks - 46. But the human beings are making ground. Also, it seems DC is now willing to recognise same-sex marriages performed in other states. Do I hear a tide turning here? Sploosh, sploosh. Yes. Yes, I do. I'm willing to take bets on how long it takes the remaining 46 to come around (in the case of Calfiornia, to come back around). It might take a decade or even a few decades, but one thing's for sure: it's inevitable. Fighting this is as effective as Canute attempting to hold back the ocean. Predictably, various proponents of the "gay marriage = slippery slope to hell in a handbasket where everyone can marry their sister" or "omg the liberal ay-leet are a-tryin' to dess-troy Jeee-zuss with their The Gay Agendas!" arguments are coming out of the woodwork, riding their highest horses onto oversized soapboxes and, well, bitching and moaning like a pack of moaning bitches. Some make the arse-backwards claim that The Gays are trying to destory marriage itself! Well, somebody needs to explain that to me. Gay couples want to be a part of something that they've been excluded from for their entire lives - how does that equate to wanting to destroy it? All gay people want is the same thing everyone else gets: the right, bestowed at birth, to marry the love of their life. They don't want to ruin it for anyone, including themselves. Of course (and as usual) when it comes to fundamentalist hand-wringing loons, the reality of the situation is something completely different. They say it'll destroy the institution of marriage, they say it'll mean the end of the family, some even seem to think it's all part of The Gay Agenda's plan to have The Gay taught in every schoolroom in the country (and by "The Gay" these people mean "have sex with anything, anywhere, anytime"). However, what they really mean is "Wah. Sob. We're losing our grip on an exclusive Christian heterosexual privilege that we didn't earn (but got really, really used to having, puh-raise Jee-zuss) and have really only held onto through laziness/reluctance/fear of losing votes on the part of the legislature and disproportionate fundamentalist representation & lobbying in government going back two or three decades. Oh noes! People are waking up and realising that not only will they not go to Hell for giving The Gays equality, they're also starting to realise we in the Religious Right are not as numerous or important as everybody used to think we are (and they may be onto the fact that we're hyper-reactionary & paranoid with delusions of persecution - or perhaps they've just realised we're full of shit)! And not only that, it's all happening democratically and we on the nutjob fringe don't have the numbers to stem the tide forever! Oh, and thinking about gays just makes me feel ... icky ... so they shouldn't get to marry each other. It's unnatural ... or something. There's even something in Leviticus about them being, well, icky, in the eyes of God (but we won't discuss the other parts of the Bible that make selling my daughters into slavery or killing the children of my enemies or massacring, with bears, children who tease bald people just fine - they're just metaphors, outdated tribal moralities or other things that can be described by various phrases designed to both support our bigotry and deflect criticism of it)." Tough cheese, brethren. You've had it your way for long enough and it's time to let the other kids play. Time for equality - not "special rights", not privileges above and beyond those of good ol' God-fearin' straight folk - just the same rights and the same privileges everyone who happens to like the opposite sex gets. Hell, some would argue that it's straight people who've had the special treatment for so long and that it's simply time to level the playing field for everyone. As any childcare worker or nanny could tell you, the kid who gets spoiled rotten his whole life and suddenly gets asked to include other kids in his sandbox is always going to throw a tantrum. So what do you do? Give him a cuddle and make the others go away? Or tell him to harden up and deal with reality? You can't insulate yourself from stuff you find objectionable forever. After all, people here in the real world have been tolerating bleating fundie idiocracy and its accompanying rise to inordinate levels of power and influence for years. Well, it's time for a dose of reality. Time for all hysterical homophobes to harden up and deal with the inevitable progress of fairness & equality - or be remembered in a similar light as those who opposed Rosa Parks sitting where she damn well pleased.

Continue ReadingThe inevitable march toward equality continues