May 17, 2012 MISCELLANY!

• Judge halts indefinite detention of Americans on, among other things, First and Fifth Amendment grounds. The judge also rejected the stupid argument that enjoining this law would put an unconstitutional barrier on the President's absolute power.


• Minority births now outpace white births. Cue hysteria in three, two...


• Oh look, Israel is the hot issue in Egypt's Presidential election. Do note: the secular left that led the revolution doesn't like the occupation tactics of Israel any more than the Islamic parties do.


• Today's word is "Grexit," meaning, the quick abandonment of the Euro by Greece. More on this here. Yes, this will hurt the US economy, it will cause the stock market to dive, and it could determine the election. Let's see if Mittens really has solutions here.


• In the 80s, it was fighting for your right to party. In this decade, it's fighting for your right to locally produced pork, like this guy did. One has slightly more merit than the other.

May 17, 2012 MISCELLANY!

• Judge halts indefinite detention of Americans on, among other things, First and Fifth Amendment grounds. The judge also rejected the stupid argument that enjoining this law would put an unconstitutional barrier on the President's absolute power.


• Minority births now outpace white births. Cue hysteria in three, two...


• Oh look, Israel is the hot issue in Egypt's Presidential election. Do note: the secular left that led the revolution doesn't like the occupation tactics of Israel any more than the Islamic parties do.


• Today's word is "Grexit," meaning, the quick abandonment of the Euro by Greece. More on this here. Yes, this will hurt the US economy, it will cause the stock market to dive, and it could determine the election. Let's see if Mittens really has solutions here.


• In the 80s, it was fighting for your right to party. In this decade, it's fighting for your right to locally produced pork, like this guy did. One has slightly more merit than the other.

New York Judge Pleas for medical marijuana in NYT Op-Ed

If you're going to admit to breaking the law, an op-ed in the New York Times is the way to do it.

THREE and a half years ago, on my 62nd birthday, doctors discovered a mass on my pancreas. It turned out to be Stage 3 pancreatic cancer. I was told I would be dead in four to six months. Today I am in that rare coterie of people who have survived this long with the disease. But I did not foresee that after having dedicated myself for 40 years to a life of the law, including more than two decades as a New York State judge, my quest for ameliorative and palliative care would lead me to marijuana.

The Judge goes on to state that marijuana, smoked and inhaled, is the only medicine that allows him to eat and sleep, and thus continue his fight against cancer.

It bears repeating that I do not myself use marijuana or other illegal drugs for any purpose. It also bears repeating that the day may come when I or any of you reading this.find themselves in the same position as the above author. Congress's continued refusal to make allowances in Federal law for medical marijuana, the FDA and DEA VIA their refusal to make allowances for state medical marijuana laws, and President Obama's own inability to govern consistently with his campaign promises, are cruel, callous, and cowardly towards thousands of cancer patients. Not to mention glaucoma patients, chronic pain patients, and so on. As a nation, our compassion has been overriden by our inane prohibitionist phobia. This has to end.

New York Judge Pleas for medical marijuana in NYT Op-Ed

If you're going to admit to breaking the law, an op-ed in the New York Times is the way to do it.

THREE and a half years ago, on my 62nd birthday, doctors discovered a mass on my pancreas. It turned out to be Stage 3 pancreatic cancer. I was told I would be dead in four to six months. Today I am in that rare coterie of people who have survived this long with the disease. But I did not foresee that after having dedicated myself for 40 years to a life of the law, including more than two decades as a New York State judge, my quest for ameliorative and palliative care would lead me to marijuana.

The Judge goes on to state that marijuana, smoked and inhaled, is the only medicine that allows him to eat and sleep, and thus continue his fight against cancer.

It bears repeating that I do not myself use marijuana or other illegal drugs for any purpose. It also bears repeating that the day may come when I or any of you reading this.find themselves in the same position as the above author. Congress's continued refusal to make allowances in Federal law for medical marijuana, the FDA and DEA VIA their refusal to make allowances for state medical marijuana laws, and President Obama's own inability to govern consistently with his campaign promises, are cruel, callous, and cowardly towards thousands of cancer patients. Not to mention glaucoma patients, chronic pain patients, and so on. As a nation, our compassion has been overriden by our inane prohibitionist phobia. This has to end.