Science-free zone

Good OpEd in the L.A. Times by Stephen Gutwillig and Bill Piper: Medical marijuana: A science-free zone at the White House [Blowback]

President Obama came into office promising to reverse George W. Bush administration practices and elevate science over politics. He explicitly applied that principle to drug policy, an area long driven by ideology and prejudice. […]

But as The Times’ July 9 article makes dismayingly clear, the White House is putting the “science-free zone” sign back up.

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8 Responses to Science-free zone

  1. fr. darkcycle, sj says:

    Damn, this collar itches…
    One wonders where the Obama doppelganger came from. The campaign face is soooo different from the Imperial face…..

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .
      I think he sold us out for substantial support for his CREEP*. He’s smart enough to know that he’s a 1 term sitting duck without behind the scenes support from “the man behind the curtain”. My money’s on the urine testing industry. But I’m just not going to be easily swayed that some very wealthy king maker made this his price to offer support.

      Is my opinion nothing better than baseless speculation asserted by a pathological narcissist? Sure it is, what’s your point?

      (I’ve been hearing about Richard Nixon that, Trick Dick that so much that I figure he’s haunting the government. *CREEP was the Committee to Re-Elect the POTUS in 1972. It was CREEP that did that naughty stuff that upset so many people and put the Watergate Apartments the most well known Condo Owner’s Association on the planet. I bumped into Harry Browne outside the Watergate in 1996 hauling out a bunch of Harry for President campaign signs. In hindsight I don’t think that I’ll ever vote for another candidate for POTUS who seems to have cognitive dissonance after randomly bumping into someone carrying his campaign material. It really was pretty obvious that he was shocked by what I was doing. He had also ran in 1992 so this was his second trip around.

      It’s too bad he didn’t get elected because those people who impersonate public figures can get paid pretty good for doing so and nobody looks more like Harry than my brother in law.

  2. we won't get fooled again says:

    Meet the new boss same as the old boss.

  3. Scott says:

    Oh. I thought you made a science-free zone out of this post, so we can talk about unicorns and astro-burgers dancing about, creating the great highway to the forever place run by Shmehlocks, and other stuff like that.

    On a serious note to balance out that insanity, I want to remind everyone that the Controlled Substances Act cannot possibly be law in the United States.

    There is no way a group of people (e.g. Supreme Court) solely responsible for interpreting the Constitution can rule that the Commerce Clause (“To regulate Commerce, with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes”) can be rationally applied to allow Congress to ban the possession of a certain plant (among other relevant acts).

    That is not an argument to exercise in the judicial branch at this time, where judicial corruption dominates against us, but primarily in the court of public opinion, the true highest court of our land, where “We the people” preside.

    To abandon rationality is to abandon interpretation.

    To abandon interpretation is to abandon law.

    • Duncan20903 says:

      So did you ever think you’d be on the same side of an issue with Justice Clarence Thomas?

      Gonzales v. Raich, 545 U.S. 1 (2005)
      Justice Thomas in dissent:

      Respondent’s local cultivation and consumption of marijuana is not “Commerce … among the several States.”

      Certainly no evidence from the founding suggests that “commerce” included the mere possession of a good or some personal activity that did not involve trade or exchange for value. In the early days of the Republic, it would have been unthinkable that Congress could prohibit the local cultivation, possession, and consumption of marijuana.
      ………………………………………………
      If the Federal Government can regulate growing a half-dozen cannabis plants for personal consumption (not because it is interstate commerce, but because it is inextricably bound up with interstate commerce), then Congress’ Article I powers — as expanded by the Necessary and Proper Clause — have no meaningful limits. Whether Congress aims at the possession of drugs, guns, or any number of other items, it may continue to “appropriate state police powers under the guise of regulating commerce.”
      ………………………………………………
      If the majority is to be taken seriously, the Federal Government may now regulate quilting bees, clothes drives, and potluck suppers throughout the 50 States. This makes a mockery of Madison’s assurance to the people of New York that the “powers delegated” to the Federal Government are “few and defined”, while those of the States are “numerous and indefinite.”

  4. ezrydn says:

    As of today, 475 days of this lunacy to go. Then, on Day Zero, we get to elect someone else who isn’t worth a flyin’ flip, just like this two-faced model turned out to be. But, yes, the clock IS ticking and it’ll be a great day to see Barry pack up and leave the House!

  5. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .
    Cannabis taxation can help ease the budget crisis? Color me skeptical. Not that the tax revenue wouldn’t be real, after all in 2010 California pocketed more than $100 million in sales tax collected by the State’s authorized medicinal cannabis vendors according to the California Board of Equalization. At 8.25% that represents over $1 billion in gross sales, and they’ve barely scratched the surface of the California cannabis market.

    But reality is that if you give a dollar in new revenue to a politician in this country he’s going to spend $1.25…this year. Then 1.38 next year, $1.53 the year after next, etc, etc, etc, ad infinitum. The massive debt that is owed by all levels of government in this country is a result of profligate* spending and more money isn’t going to change that. New tax revenue to a politician is like crack to a crackhead, except that all things considered the crackheads are much less detrimental to our society. Perhaps we should elect some crackheads to hold political office. Seriously, they’d get into a lot less mischief with our tax dollars because they just be smoking crack and ignoring the administration of government.

    Did you know that Belgium has been bereft of a government for more than a year with their government shut down over a budget impasse? Have we seen any headlines hysterical about the “crisis”? The only reason I know about it is because a few months ago a small group of Belgians took off their clothes in public to protest the impasse. Next time Congress says they might have to shut down because they can’t agree on the budget we should say, “that’s a good idea!”, don’t let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya on your way out, and let it happen. A lockout is good enough for the NBA I think it an even better idea for Congress and the executive branch.

    The cemetery is filled with indispensable people, but there’s not a single politician in the bunch.
    ————————————————–
    prof·li·gate

    1. utterly and shamelessly immoral or dissipated; thoroughly dissolute.
    2. recklessly prodigal or extravagant.

    Synonyms: promiscuous, extravagant, licentious, degenerate, dissipated, iniquitous, reprobate, abandoned, licentious.
    http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/profligate
    ————————————————–
    http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/08/belgium-politics-idUSWEB902520110708

    quoted from link above:

    “Belgian government mediator tenders resignation”
    July 8, 2011 11:20am EDT

    BRUSSELS, July 8 (Reuters) – A mediator tasked with forming a new Belgian government tendered his resignation to the king on Friday, drawing out a political crisis that has lasted 13 months.
    /snip/

  6. darkcycle says:

    Increased revenue does not need to mean more profligate spending. In spite of the Reagan/Bush I recession, Clintoon (as much as I despise him) managed to pile up a budget surplus. Not all that long ago. Though much was creative accounting, he did manage to create a better looking set of balance sheets.
    And, I might add, new, untapped revenue sources are good, no creative accounting needed to make a real, measurable difference.
    Regardless of all that, with five unfunded imperial wars raging, the very idea that we could EVER balance this mess is a huge laugh.

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