Unqualified Offerings

By Thoreau
David Sirota has it right:  Why did people freak out over Michael Phelps smoking a joint but not utter a peep when everyone’s hero and icon of healthy living Lance Armstrong signed a deal to promote something associated with  domestic violence and car accidents?  We should take up a collection to get Phelps an [...]

By Thoreau
Scientists in New Jersey are hoping to fuse hydrogen and boron nuclei to create an unstable nucleus that will fission into helium and produce energy.  Like all fusion experiments, I presume that it will either be a massive money-sucking boondoggle or cheaper but scandal-plagued.  In any case, I can think of no better place [...]

By Thoreau
It’s been a while, I know.  But now and then I feel the need to provide everyone an opportunity to rant about how evil we libertarians are.  I largely agree with what Kerry Howley said in this article, and I think Todd Seavey is setting fire to strawwomen:  Libertarianism is a theory of government, [...]

By Thoreau
You won’t believe who is working as a motivational speaker.

By Thoreau
While walking across campus, a guy asked a nearby student if he would sign a petition for a ballot measure to legalize pot.  My ears pricked up and I walked over and signed it.  But I had a nasty suspicion, so I read what I was signing.  I read the fine print.  I turned [...]

By Thoreau
The best comic on the web says what I’ve been saying all along.  Of course, whereas SkyNet used hunter-killers to enslave the human race, we only use flying killer robots to protect our freedom and bring democracy to those poor benighted places that would be in even worse shape had we not dropped [...]

By Thoreau
A federal pledge to not go after medical pot dispensaries following local law is, at best, only as meaningful as the local committment to protecting medical pot dispensaries.  This push-back from a judge is welcome news, although the City Council and DA are committed to finding a way to continue their insane crusade.
I just [...]

The Obama administration does tangible good. I’d like to see full-blown legalization, but drug policy is an area where the Republicans have been an actively malign force this decade.
It does call into question the whole “Only Nixon can go to China” thing. Not every Nixon wants to go to China for one thing. And maybe [...]

The Best Man at my wedding is none too happy with the denouement of Balloon Boy Afternoon:
The Daily Show often frames this as an inherent problem with a 24-hour news cycle. My take is, if you have time to fill, why not include a full-throated expression of doubt that it’s even physically possible for a [...]

Happy Mutual Birthday to Kevin Drum, elder statesman of the October-19th cohort of bloggers. To make this one special, I’ll attack him from the left. It isn’t possible to get the banksters “off the federal teat immediately” or otherwise. There is simply no guarantee we make today that can bind the politicians of tomorrow. That’s [...]