Month: November 2012

  • To a Democrat, nothing is sustainable, because all that is sustainable must be devoured!

    Speaking of sustainability, I just learned that Drake’s Bay Oyster Company — fourth generation family business I patronized when I lived in California — has been shut down by the federal government. Even media liberal types are upset, because after all, not only was the place a cherished institution, but the politically correct company has…

  • Sustaining Sustainability

    I wrote a bit on what sustainability means. “Sustainability” is inherently unsustainable. You might find it amusing. One commenter had this to say: It is always nice to start a day with a very tongue in cheek commentary. I wrote the piece in order to smoke out the Malthusian mass murderers. I did catch a…

  • Unending cycles of appeasement

    Speaking of Ambrose Bierce, in Politico today, NRO’s Rich Lowry looks at the rise of Egypt’s latest new dictator, Mohamed Morsi: The great, acerbic 19th-century satirist Ambrose Bierce defined a revolution as “an abrupt change in the form of misgovernment.” He would understand events in Egypt since the fall of Hosni Mubarak very well. In the signature…

  • TSA Follies

    H/T Simple Justice

  • There is a difference

    Ambrose Bierce may have been writing many years ago, but I think that when he defined “conservative,” he was onto something — especially the difference between liberals and conservatives. Conservative, n: A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal who wishes to replace them with others. And if you liked…

  • American Drug War 2

    A movie about Drug War casualties. Note the bit about cannabis as a cancer blocker that shows up in passing. You didn’t know that cannabis combats cancer? Here is a news story on the subject. A pair of scientists at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco has found that a compound derived from marijuana…

  • A Sitting State Police Chief

    When it comes to ending Drug Prohibition It has so far been retired officers and retired Police Chiefs who have said, “End Prohibition.” The roster of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition is a prime example. So this in a very big way is a blockbuster: The leader of Indiana State Police has no objection to legislative…

  • Saudi Arabia Has Perfected Abortion Prevention

    Yep. The Saudis have done it. They have perfected a system for preventing abortion. Saudi Arabia is sending a text message to the guardian—usually a husband, father, or brother—of any woman who attempts to exit the country. While the kingdom isn’t known for its women’s rights, critics feel “tagging” women like a dog that wanders…

  • A Trivial Little Answer

    In my post A Trivial Little Matter, I asked: Why did the Republicans of 1914 vote against the Harrison Narcotics Act? (the act put the Federal government in charge of opiates and cocaine). None of the social conservatives who responded could answer the question. Now if they frequent this blog I’m sure they think of…

  • Are these Republicans serious?

    Eric asks the question “Are these Republicans serious?” in An issue as ahead of its time as counting chickens before they hatch. I answered in part: Sadly, I believe they are. Perhaps at the Rand Paul level the effort is a cynical one to raise money and a following. But at the level of the…

  • An issue as ahead of its time as counting chickens before they hatch

    As various polls and election results demonstrate, some issues are losers for Republicans. M. Simon emailed me a link to an issue which I have discussed before, and which I think may be the biggest loser of them all: the so-called “personhood” issue. Some of the less pragmatic people in the Right to Life movement…

  • A Trivial Little Matter

    We have a fair number of Conservatives who read this blog. And because of that I get chided all the time about my obsession with Drug Prohibition. Fine. I have a question for my Conservative critics. (Please. Only those of you who are dyed in the wool Conservatives answer the question. The rest may comment…

  • A Reasonable Person Explained It All To Me

    I found this delicious comment at Reason Magazine. I believe it explains everything I don’t understand about the Republican Party. “I personally find certain types of drugs objectionable, and the abusers of those drugs offend my moral sensibilities, so better a total assault on the personal liberty of everyone else than even one of them…

  • I Am A Heretic

    The Republican Party wants to be a religion. Well I want to be a heretic. Excommunicate me and all those like me. 2012 will then be a high water mark. You remaining Republicans will long for the days when you only lost National elections by a few million. I had a similar decision to make…

  • A “natural Republican constituency” which is unnaturally Democrat

    Charles Murray asks why Asians are not Republicans. After all, as a group they tend to be the following: conspicuously entrepreneurial, industrious, family-oriented, and self-reliant. If you’re looking for a natural Republican constituency, Asians should define “natural.” Murray thinks that the Republicans have been successfully stereotyped as not just social conservatives, but as hard core…

  • Republican Party On Suicide Mission

    This is the Alabama edition. It is not very important as these things go. But it is indicative. On November 14, the Alabama House Committee on Health, held a hearing on the issue of medical marijuana in Alabama. It was evident that the purpose of the hearing was to kill HB 2, the Alabama Medical…

  • Pravda

    In Russian “pravda” means truth. I knew that even before #2 son majored in the Russian language. So what is the Truth saying these days? Pravda says Obama is a communist. The famed Russian news site “Pravda,” which ironically was formed as the official Communist publication of the former Soviet Union, recently released a scathing…

  • all your assets are belong to us!

    While I was in Rockford, I stayed in a motel where it seemed to me that some of the guests were selling or using drugs. According to current laws, what that means is that greedy law enforcement officials could simply seize the motel from its owners. Such things happen all the time, and Reason has…

  • May You Hear Some Surf Music Again

  • Not Fade Away

    Eric reminded me at dinner last night that the Rolling Stones got their start in America when this cover of a Buddy Holly tune made the charts. The Stones are celebrating 50 years in music. Here is the Buddy Holly original. And since Eric and I are long time Dead Heads this collection wouldn’t be…