Drugs in Portugal: Did Decriminalization Work?
By Maia Szalavitz
Pop quiz: Which European country has the most liberal drug laws? (Hint: It's not the Netherlands.)
Although its capital is notorious among stoners and college kids for marijuana haze–filled "coffee shops," Holland has never actually legalized cannabis — the Dutch simply don't enforce their laws against the shops. The correct answer is Portugal, which in 2001 became the first European country to officially abolish all criminal penalties for personal possession of drugs, including marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine.
At the recommendation of a national commission charged with addressing Portugal's drug problem, jail time was replaced with the offer of therapy. The argument was that the fear of prison drives addicts underground and that incarceration is more expensive than treatment — so why not give drug addicts health services instead? Under Portugal's new regime, people found guilty of possessing small amounts of drugs are sent to a panel consisting of a psychologist, social worker and legal adviser for appropriate treatment (which may be refused without criminal punishment), instead of jail.
Link to con.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
The Banality of Bush White House Evil
WE don’t like our evil to be banal. Ten years after Columbine, it only now may be sinking in that the psychopathic killers were not jock-hating dorks from a “Trench Coat Mafia,” or, as ABC News maintained at the time, “part of a dark, underground national phenomenon known as the Gothic movement.” In the new best seller “Columbine,” the journalist Dave Cullen reaffirms that Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris were instead ordinary American teenagers who worked at the local pizza joint, loved their parents and were popular among their classmates.
On Tuesday, it will be five years since Americans first confronted the photographs from Abu Ghraib on “60 Minutes II.” Here, too, we want to cling to myths that quarantine the evil. If our country committed torture, surely it did so to prevent Armageddon, in a patriotic ticking-time-bomb scenario out of “24.” If anyone deserves blame, it was only those identified by President Bush as “a few American troops who dishonored our country and disregarded our values”: promiscuous, sinister-looking lowlifes like Lynddie England, Charles Graner and the other grunts who were held accountable while the top command got a pass.
Link to con.
WE don’t like our evil to be banal. Ten years after Columbine, it only now may be sinking in that the psychopathic killers were not jock-hating dorks from a “Trench Coat Mafia,” or, as ABC News maintained at the time, “part of a dark, underground national phenomenon known as the Gothic movement.” In the new best seller “Columbine,” the journalist Dave Cullen reaffirms that Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris were instead ordinary American teenagers who worked at the local pizza joint, loved their parents and were popular among their classmates.
On Tuesday, it will be five years since Americans first confronted the photographs from Abu Ghraib on “60 Minutes II.” Here, too, we want to cling to myths that quarantine the evil. If our country committed torture, surely it did so to prevent Armageddon, in a patriotic ticking-time-bomb scenario out of “24.” If anyone deserves blame, it was only those identified by President Bush as “a few American troops who dishonored our country and disregarded our values”: promiscuous, sinister-looking lowlifes like Lynddie England, Charles Graner and the other grunts who were held accountable while the top command got a pass.
Link to con.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
The Aura of Arugulance
By MAUREEN DOWD
The first thing I wanted to do in the Bay Area was go out to Skywalker Ranch and ask George Lucas about a disturbing conversation we’d had at an Obama inaugural party in Washington. Lucas, the creator of “Star Wars,” had told me that I had gotten Dick Cheney completely wrong, that Cheney was no Darth Vader. I felt awful. Had I been too hard on Vice? Lucas explained politely as I listened contritely. Anakin Skywalker is a promising young man who is turned to the dark side by an older politician and becomes Darth Vader. “George Bush is Darth Vader,” he said. “Cheney is the emperor.”
I was relieved. In “Star Wars” terms, Dick Cheney was more evil than Darth Vader. I hadn’t been hard enough on Vice! Lucas was on his way to Europe and didn’t have time to elaborate in person. But he sent me this message confirming our conversation: “You know, Darth Vader is really a kid from the desert planet near Crawford, and the true evil of the universe is the emperor who pulls all the strings.”
Link to con.
By MAUREEN DOWD
The first thing I wanted to do in the Bay Area was go out to Skywalker Ranch and ask George Lucas about a disturbing conversation we’d had at an Obama inaugural party in Washington. Lucas, the creator of “Star Wars,” had told me that I had gotten Dick Cheney completely wrong, that Cheney was no Darth Vader. I felt awful. Had I been too hard on Vice? Lucas explained politely as I listened contritely. Anakin Skywalker is a promising young man who is turned to the dark side by an older politician and becomes Darth Vader. “George Bush is Darth Vader,” he said. “Cheney is the emperor.”
I was relieved. In “Star Wars” terms, Dick Cheney was more evil than Darth Vader. I hadn’t been hard enough on Vice! Lucas was on his way to Europe and didn’t have time to elaborate in person. But he sent me this message confirming our conversation: “You know, Darth Vader is really a kid from the desert planet near Crawford, and the true evil of the universe is the emperor who pulls all the strings.”
Link to con.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Lies they tell about marijuana
Helen Redmond explains the terrible consequences of the "war on drugs" on the life-improving potential of medical marijuana.
IN PRESIDENT Obama's first virtual town-hall meeting, questions about legalizing marijuana ranked at the top of the "green jobs," "financial stability" and "budget" sections, and came in a close second in the health care section. Obama took up the question, saying voters wanted to know "whether legalizing marijuana would improve the economy and job creation"--then joking, "I don't know what this says about the online audience." After the laughter subsided, Obama's answer was "no" to legalizing marijuana.
But there's nothing to laugh about. A person is arrested every 38 seconds in the U.S. for violating marijuana laws. In 2007, police arrested an estimated 872,720 people, the highest annual total ever recorded, according to statistics compiled by the FBI. Over the last 10 years, close to 15 million people have been arrested; 89 percent of them were charged with possession only. A marijuana conviction has given millions of Americans criminal records, and deprived them of jobs, housing and financial aid to attend school.
Link to con.
Helen Redmond explains the terrible consequences of the "war on drugs" on the life-improving potential of medical marijuana.
IN PRESIDENT Obama's first virtual town-hall meeting, questions about legalizing marijuana ranked at the top of the "green jobs," "financial stability" and "budget" sections, and came in a close second in the health care section. Obama took up the question, saying voters wanted to know "whether legalizing marijuana would improve the economy and job creation"--then joking, "I don't know what this says about the online audience." After the laughter subsided, Obama's answer was "no" to legalizing marijuana.
But there's nothing to laugh about. A person is arrested every 38 seconds in the U.S. for violating marijuana laws. In 2007, police arrested an estimated 872,720 people, the highest annual total ever recorded, according to statistics compiled by the FBI. Over the last 10 years, close to 15 million people have been arrested; 89 percent of them were charged with possession only. A marijuana conviction has given millions of Americans criminal records, and deprived them of jobs, housing and financial aid to attend school.
Link to con.
From Iraq to Appalachia
Ronald Teska explains why two places half a world apart share similar experiences--because both are occupied territories of American energy companies.
WHAT DO Iraq and Appalachia have in common? More than you may think. Both are occupied by U.S. energy corporations, resulting in colonization. It's oil in one case and coal in the other, but make no mistake about it: The modus operandi and consequences are strikingly similar.
Soldiers and coal miners have a shared camaraderie as both are enforcers of the will of the oil and coal corporations for the purpose of increasing bottom-line profits at any cost. This is depicted on a billboard in Beckley, W. Va., showing soldiers and coal miners arm in arm. The major difference being that coal miners do not have to kick down the doors of Appalachians to get the coal, as the coal companies already own most all of it.
In Iraq, private contractors (working for Halliburton and Blackwater, for example) are killed and not counted as U.S. casualties. In Appalachia, independent contractors killed are also not tallied as coal company deaths.
Link to con.
Ronald Teska explains why two places half a world apart share similar experiences--because both are occupied territories of American energy companies.
WHAT DO Iraq and Appalachia have in common? More than you may think. Both are occupied by U.S. energy corporations, resulting in colonization. It's oil in one case and coal in the other, but make no mistake about it: The modus operandi and consequences are strikingly similar.
Soldiers and coal miners have a shared camaraderie as both are enforcers of the will of the oil and coal corporations for the purpose of increasing bottom-line profits at any cost. This is depicted on a billboard in Beckley, W. Va., showing soldiers and coal miners arm in arm. The major difference being that coal miners do not have to kick down the doors of Appalachians to get the coal, as the coal companies already own most all of it.
In Iraq, private contractors (working for Halliburton and Blackwater, for example) are killed and not counted as U.S. casualties. In Appalachia, independent contractors killed are also not tallied as coal company deaths.
Link to con.
Behind the right's insani-tea
Elizabeth Schulte reports on the right-wing Tax Day protests--and the nasty politics that lie beneath the surface.
IN WHAT they called the "spirit of the American revolution," conservatives organized protests in cities and towns across the country on April 15--Tax Day--dubbing them "tea parties." "Tea" stood for "Taxed Enough Already," according to organizers, who took aim at the Obama administration for spreading "socialism" and "big government," and "wasting" taxpayer money on social spending in the economic stimulus package.
"They want us to hold our noses and take a little bit of socialism, like a child taking a bitter pill," Washington state Sen. Janéa Holmquist told a crowd in Olympia. "You can get pregnant with a little socialism, and sooner or later, you're going to give birth to a full-blown Marxist." The protesters brought teabags, to symbolize the American colonists who dumped tea into Boston Harbor in 1773 to protest unjust taxation imposed by the British king. The repeated use of the word "teabag" (as in "We're going to teabag the White House") made the arch-conservatives shilling for the protests--including Dick Armey, oh my!--the target of justified derision, and plenty of semi-naughty jokes.
Link to con.
Elizabeth Schulte reports on the right-wing Tax Day protests--and the nasty politics that lie beneath the surface.
IN WHAT they called the "spirit of the American revolution," conservatives organized protests in cities and towns across the country on April 15--Tax Day--dubbing them "tea parties." "Tea" stood for "Taxed Enough Already," according to organizers, who took aim at the Obama administration for spreading "socialism" and "big government," and "wasting" taxpayer money on social spending in the economic stimulus package.
"They want us to hold our noses and take a little bit of socialism, like a child taking a bitter pill," Washington state Sen. Janéa Holmquist told a crowd in Olympia. "You can get pregnant with a little socialism, and sooner or later, you're going to give birth to a full-blown Marxist." The protesters brought teabags, to symbolize the American colonists who dumped tea into Boston Harbor in 1773 to protest unjust taxation imposed by the British king. The repeated use of the word "teabag" (as in "We're going to teabag the White House") made the arch-conservatives shilling for the protests--including Dick Armey, oh my!--the target of justified derision, and plenty of semi-naughty jokes.
Link to con.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Monday, April 13, 2009
Tea Parties Forever
By PAUL KRUGMAN
This is a column about Republicans — and I’m not sure I should even be writing it. Today’s G.O.P. is, after all, very much a minority party. It retains some limited ability to obstruct the Democrats, but has no ability to make or even significantly shape policy.
Beyond that, Republicans have become embarrassing to watch. And it doesn’t feel right to make fun of crazy people. Better, perhaps, to focus on the real policy debates, which are all among Democrats.
But here’s the thing: the G.O.P. looked as crazy 10 or 15 years ago as it does now. That didn’t stop Republicans from taking control of both Congress and the White House. And they could return to power if the Democrats stumble. So it behooves us to look closely at the state of what is, after all, one of our nation’s two great political parties.
Link to con.
By PAUL KRUGMAN
This is a column about Republicans — and I’m not sure I should even be writing it. Today’s G.O.P. is, after all, very much a minority party. It retains some limited ability to obstruct the Democrats, but has no ability to make or even significantly shape policy.
Beyond that, Republicans have become embarrassing to watch. And it doesn’t feel right to make fun of crazy people. Better, perhaps, to focus on the real policy debates, which are all among Democrats.
But here’s the thing: the G.O.P. looked as crazy 10 or 15 years ago as it does now. That didn’t stop Republicans from taking control of both Congress and the White House. And they could return to power if the Democrats stumble. So it behooves us to look closely at the state of what is, after all, one of our nation’s two great political parties.
Link to con.
Market illusions vs. the reality of capitalist crisis
A month-long upturn in the stock market has sparked a round of optimistic media commentaries and statements by Obama administration officials suggesting that the US economy is on the road to recovery. But any serious examination of the state of both the financial system and the broader economy suggests that such celebrations are unwarranted.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average has risen some 1,500 points since hitting an 11-year low of 6,547 on March 9. The market closed April 9 at 8,083. Far from marking a definitive end to the financial crisis, the recent rise is the third such surge since the crash of September-October 2008 that followed the failure of Lehman Brothers and the federal bailout of American International Group (AIG).
There was a similar 1,500-point run-up during the week that culminated in the election of Barack Obama as US president last November 4, after which the Dow lost 2,000 points over the next three weeks. The average staged another 1,500-point gain in December, triggered by Obama’s selection of Wall Street favorite Timothy Geithner as treasury secretary, before plunging 2,500 points during the first two months of 2009.
Link to con.
A month-long upturn in the stock market has sparked a round of optimistic media commentaries and statements by Obama administration officials suggesting that the US economy is on the road to recovery. But any serious examination of the state of both the financial system and the broader economy suggests that such celebrations are unwarranted.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average has risen some 1,500 points since hitting an 11-year low of 6,547 on March 9. The market closed April 9 at 8,083. Far from marking a definitive end to the financial crisis, the recent rise is the third such surge since the crash of September-October 2008 that followed the failure of Lehman Brothers and the federal bailout of American International Group (AIG).
There was a similar 1,500-point run-up during the week that culminated in the election of Barack Obama as US president last November 4, after which the Dow lost 2,000 points over the next three weeks. The average staged another 1,500-point gain in December, triggered by Obama’s selection of Wall Street favorite Timothy Geithner as treasury secretary, before plunging 2,500 points during the first two months of 2009.
Link to con.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Friday, April 10, 2009
The Debate Over Online News: It's the Consumer, Stupid
Arianna Huffington
The discussion about the aggregation and distribution of content on the web heated up this week when the Associated Press announced plans to "launch an industry initiative" designed "to protect news content" online.
The announcement -- characterized by the New York Times' Saul Hansell as a "war on search engines and aggregators" -- drew considerable fire, including blasts from Google, BusinessWeek, the Online Journalism Review, TechCrunch, and this classic broadside from Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land.
The conversation continued last night when Charlie Rose invited me to discuss the issue with Tom Curley, AP's president and CEO. The video of the segment is below.
As you'll see, for me the key question is whether those of us working in the media (old and new) embrace and adapt to the radical changes brought about by the Internet or pretend that we can somehow hop into a journalistic Way Back Machine and return to a past that no longer exists and can't be resurrected.
Link to con.
Arianna Huffington
The discussion about the aggregation and distribution of content on the web heated up this week when the Associated Press announced plans to "launch an industry initiative" designed "to protect news content" online.
The announcement -- characterized by the New York Times' Saul Hansell as a "war on search engines and aggregators" -- drew considerable fire, including blasts from Google, BusinessWeek, the Online Journalism Review, TechCrunch, and this classic broadside from Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land.
The conversation continued last night when Charlie Rose invited me to discuss the issue with Tom Curley, AP's president and CEO. The video of the segment is below.
As you'll see, for me the key question is whether those of us working in the media (old and new) embrace and adapt to the radical changes brought about by the Internet or pretend that we can somehow hop into a journalistic Way Back Machine and return to a past that no longer exists and can't be resurrected.
Link to con.
Thursday, April 09, 2009
The UAW’s silence
9 April 2009
It has been well over a week since US President Barack Obama rejected the restructuring plans of General Motors and Chrysler and threatened to throw the car companies into bankruptcy if they did not drastically downsize and impose even more “painful concessions” on auto workers.
Top executives at the two companies immediately pledged to accelerate plans to close more factories, lay off tens of thousands and impose deeper wage and benefit cuts on workers and retirees. If this cannot be achieved through negotiations, GM interim CEO Fritz Henderson said, it would be done through the bankruptcy courts.
In the face of this, the organization that claims to represent the 90,000 unionized workers and nearly 1 million retirees at GM and Chrysler has said nothing. United Auto Workers President Ronald Gettelfinger has not uttered a word, nor have any public statements appeared on the union’s web site. Asked why, a UAW spokeswoman told the WSWS, “the union has chosen not to issue a statement” and would not be “pressured” to do so.
Link to con.
9 April 2009
It has been well over a week since US President Barack Obama rejected the restructuring plans of General Motors and Chrysler and threatened to throw the car companies into bankruptcy if they did not drastically downsize and impose even more “painful concessions” on auto workers.
Top executives at the two companies immediately pledged to accelerate plans to close more factories, lay off tens of thousands and impose deeper wage and benefit cuts on workers and retirees. If this cannot be achieved through negotiations, GM interim CEO Fritz Henderson said, it would be done through the bankruptcy courts.
In the face of this, the organization that claims to represent the 90,000 unionized workers and nearly 1 million retirees at GM and Chrysler has said nothing. United Auto Workers President Ronald Gettelfinger has not uttered a word, nor have any public statements appeared on the union’s web site. Asked why, a UAW spokeswoman told the WSWS, “the union has chosen not to issue a statement” and would not be “pressured” to do so.
Link to con.
Wednesday, April 08, 2009
Resist or Become Serfs
By Chris Hedges
America is devolving into a third-world nation. And if we do not immediately halt our elite’s rapacious looting of the public treasury we will be left with trillions in debts, which can never be repaid, and widespread human misery which we will be helpless to ameliorate. Our anemic democracy will be replaced with a robust national police state. The elite will withdraw into heavily guarded gated communities where they will have access to security, goods and services that cannot be afforded by the rest of us. Tens of millions of people, brutally controlled, will live in perpetual poverty. This is the inevitable result of unchecked corporate capitalism. The stimulus and bailout plans are not about saving us. They are about saving them. We can resist, which means street protests, disruptions of the system and demonstrations, or become serfs.
We have been in a steady economic decline for decades. The Canadian political philosopher John Ralston Saul detailed this decline in his 1992 book “Voltaire’s Bastards: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West.” David Cay Johnston exposed the mirage and rot of American capitalism in “Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You With the Bill),” and David C. Korten, in “When Corporations Rule the World” and “Agenda for a New Economy,” laid out corporate malfeasance and abuse. But our universities and mass media, entranced by power and naively believing that global capitalism was an unstoppable force of nature, rarely asked the right questions or gave a prominent voice to those who did. Our elites hid their incompetence and loss of control behind an arrogant facade of specialized jargon and obscure economic theories.
Link to con.
By Chris Hedges
America is devolving into a third-world nation. And if we do not immediately halt our elite’s rapacious looting of the public treasury we will be left with trillions in debts, which can never be repaid, and widespread human misery which we will be helpless to ameliorate. Our anemic democracy will be replaced with a robust national police state. The elite will withdraw into heavily guarded gated communities where they will have access to security, goods and services that cannot be afforded by the rest of us. Tens of millions of people, brutally controlled, will live in perpetual poverty. This is the inevitable result of unchecked corporate capitalism. The stimulus and bailout plans are not about saving us. They are about saving them. We can resist, which means street protests, disruptions of the system and demonstrations, or become serfs.
We have been in a steady economic decline for decades. The Canadian political philosopher John Ralston Saul detailed this decline in his 1992 book “Voltaire’s Bastards: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West.” David Cay Johnston exposed the mirage and rot of American capitalism in “Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You With the Bill),” and David C. Korten, in “When Corporations Rule the World” and “Agenda for a New Economy,” laid out corporate malfeasance and abuse. But our universities and mass media, entranced by power and naively believing that global capitalism was an unstoppable force of nature, rarely asked the right questions or gave a prominent voice to those who did. Our elites hid their incompetence and loss of control behind an arrogant facade of specialized jargon and obscure economic theories.
Link to con.
Monday, April 06, 2009
Will the Debtors Fight Back?
The IMF Rules the World
By MICHAEL HUDSON
Not much substantive news was expected to come out of the G-20 meetings that ended on April 2 in London – certainly no good news was even suggested. Europe, China and the United States had too deeply distinct interests. American diplomats wanted to lock foreign countries into further dependency on paper dollars. The rest of the world sought a way to avoid giving up real output and ownership of their resources and enterprises for yet more hot-potato dollars. In such cases one expects a parade of smiling faces and statements of mutual respect for each others’ position – so much respect that they have agreed to set up a “study group” or two to kick the diplomatic ball down the road.
The least irrelevant news was not good at all: The attendees agreed to quadruple IMF funding to $1 trillion. Anything that bolsters IMF authority cannot be good for countries forced to submit to its austerity plans. They are designed to squeeze out more money to pay the world’s most predatory creditors. So in practice this G-20 agreement means that the world’s leading governments are responding to today’s financial crisis with “planned shrinkage” for debtors – a 10 per cent cut in wage payments in hapless Latvia, Hungary put on rations, and permanent debt peonage for Iceland for starters. This is quite a contrast with the United States, which is responding to the downturn with a giant Keynesian deficit spending program, despite its glaringly unpayable $4 trillion debt to foreign central banks.
Link to con.
The IMF Rules the World
By MICHAEL HUDSON
Not much substantive news was expected to come out of the G-20 meetings that ended on April 2 in London – certainly no good news was even suggested. Europe, China and the United States had too deeply distinct interests. American diplomats wanted to lock foreign countries into further dependency on paper dollars. The rest of the world sought a way to avoid giving up real output and ownership of their resources and enterprises for yet more hot-potato dollars. In such cases one expects a parade of smiling faces and statements of mutual respect for each others’ position – so much respect that they have agreed to set up a “study group” or two to kick the diplomatic ball down the road.
The least irrelevant news was not good at all: The attendees agreed to quadruple IMF funding to $1 trillion. Anything that bolsters IMF authority cannot be good for countries forced to submit to its austerity plans. They are designed to squeeze out more money to pay the world’s most predatory creditors. So in practice this G-20 agreement means that the world’s leading governments are responding to today’s financial crisis with “planned shrinkage” for debtors – a 10 per cent cut in wage payments in hapless Latvia, Hungary put on rations, and permanent debt peonage for Iceland for starters. This is quite a contrast with the United States, which is responding to the downturn with a giant Keynesian deficit spending program, despite its glaringly unpayable $4 trillion debt to foreign central banks.
Link to con.
Dear New York Times -
By Anonymous
I am canceling my print subscription in Austin, Texas. I am saddened in part because my carrier has been outstanding in consistently delivering excellent service. The Times editors on the other hand, not so much.
This is a time of unprecedented corruption and fraud causing worldwide ruin. Along with our misadventures in Iraq, it is the story of a generation. But, there on the front page of the Sunday print edition - not a single story about our gilded class of robber barons on Wall Street. Just as the Times served assisted the Bush administration in its Iraq lies and fabrications, the Times finds itself again aiding and abetting the criminals who pillaged our treasury. So where is the story? In a snaky puff piece about executive salaries in the "business" section? And instead, what is on the front page? A business story about malls and water slides- what the???? Over and over corporate white collar crime gets treated as business as usual in the “Business“ section.
You recently devoted a major portion of your op-ed section to the insufferable ruminations of an unapologetic and defiant Wall Street banker whose company is at the center of our current disaster. Crocodile tears are still streaming. In many respects this piece serves to illustrate exactly why the Times will ultimately fail. It is not a viable entity delivering news and information that people need to make informed choices and decisions in their life. As you have reduced the physical size of your print format , you have also devoted less space to reader comments. It’s as if we don’t matter.
Published comments and opinions are too often from industry or political insiders defending or agreeing with an editorial position. The Times has doubled down on elitist contributors - crafting an artificial ecosystem for nurturing propaganda. Meanwhile, Brooks and Dowd offer little of substance in your shrinking universe of opinion. Dowd almost redeemed herself in a scathing piece about Judith Miller. It showed her as a woman with enviable intellectual and writing skills. Since then, however, the contributions pale in the face of excellent, informative writing found in hundreds of blogs. At best Dowd could find some corner in the weekly review section and her op-ed space should be turned over to the best of the aforementioned blog contributors.
Your "Mea Culpa" over the Iraq reporting gave me hope that the Times would start taking on the establishment. Like an unwitting investor in a Wall Street ponzi scheme - I have been fooled by the Times ownership, expecting big returns for my $50 a month investment. .......I just can't continue to support an entity that is operating in a passive aggressive way against the values we teach our children - truth, integrity and justice. For raw reporting and core journalistic integrity, the passion for excellence just isn't at the top of the Times. I simply can't continue to support your editorial enterprise.
Signed...
By Anonymous
I am canceling my print subscription in Austin, Texas. I am saddened in part because my carrier has been outstanding in consistently delivering excellent service. The Times editors on the other hand, not so much.
This is a time of unprecedented corruption and fraud causing worldwide ruin. Along with our misadventures in Iraq, it is the story of a generation. But, there on the front page of the Sunday print edition - not a single story about our gilded class of robber barons on Wall Street. Just as the Times served assisted the Bush administration in its Iraq lies and fabrications, the Times finds itself again aiding and abetting the criminals who pillaged our treasury. So where is the story? In a snaky puff piece about executive salaries in the "business" section? And instead, what is on the front page? A business story about malls and water slides- what the???? Over and over corporate white collar crime gets treated as business as usual in the “Business“ section.
You recently devoted a major portion of your op-ed section to the insufferable ruminations of an unapologetic and defiant Wall Street banker whose company is at the center of our current disaster. Crocodile tears are still streaming. In many respects this piece serves to illustrate exactly why the Times will ultimately fail. It is not a viable entity delivering news and information that people need to make informed choices and decisions in their life. As you have reduced the physical size of your print format , you have also devoted less space to reader comments. It’s as if we don’t matter.
Published comments and opinions are too often from industry or political insiders defending or agreeing with an editorial position. The Times has doubled down on elitist contributors - crafting an artificial ecosystem for nurturing propaganda. Meanwhile, Brooks and Dowd offer little of substance in your shrinking universe of opinion. Dowd almost redeemed herself in a scathing piece about Judith Miller. It showed her as a woman with enviable intellectual and writing skills. Since then, however, the contributions pale in the face of excellent, informative writing found in hundreds of blogs. At best Dowd could find some corner in the weekly review section and her op-ed space should be turned over to the best of the aforementioned blog contributors.
Your "Mea Culpa" over the Iraq reporting gave me hope that the Times would start taking on the establishment. Like an unwitting investor in a Wall Street ponzi scheme - I have been fooled by the Times ownership, expecting big returns for my $50 a month investment. .......I just can't continue to support an entity that is operating in a passive aggressive way against the values we teach our children - truth, integrity and justice. For raw reporting and core journalistic integrity, the passion for excellence just isn't at the top of the Times. I simply can't continue to support your editorial enterprise.
Signed...
Sunday, April 05, 2009
Saturday, April 04, 2009
Toward a less efficient and more robust food system
by Tom Philpott
I’ve been asked to talk about how to create a robust, diversified food system here in the High Country.
Now the High Country is a largely rural area, constructed around a relatively small town called Boone. But I’m going to start by doing something odd. I’m going to quote someone who’s probably the most famous urban theorist of our time: Jane Jacobs, who died in 2006. Don’t worry, I will circle back to what an urban theorist’s work has to do with our situation here in rural north Carolina.
In her great book, The Economy of Cities, Jacobs praised what she called the “valuable inefficiencies and impracticalities of cities.” To illustrate her point, she invited readers to consider two examples from Victorian England: Manchester and Birmingham—or as she put it, “Efficient Manchester,” and “Inefficient Birmingham.”
A 19th century marvel and widely hailed as the “city of the future,” Manchester represented a break from the past. What Manchester did that was so new and different was simple—it specialized. The city threw its lot with one industry—textiles. Jacobs refers to the “stunning efficiency of its textile mills.” By the 1840s, the textile industry dominated the city entirely, Jacob tells us. The industry was brutally competitive; less efficient producers got swallowed up by larger, more streamlined players.
Link to con.
by Tom Philpott
I’ve been asked to talk about how to create a robust, diversified food system here in the High Country.
Now the High Country is a largely rural area, constructed around a relatively small town called Boone. But I’m going to start by doing something odd. I’m going to quote someone who’s probably the most famous urban theorist of our time: Jane Jacobs, who died in 2006. Don’t worry, I will circle back to what an urban theorist’s work has to do with our situation here in rural north Carolina.
In her great book, The Economy of Cities, Jacobs praised what she called the “valuable inefficiencies and impracticalities of cities.” To illustrate her point, she invited readers to consider two examples from Victorian England: Manchester and Birmingham—or as she put it, “Efficient Manchester,” and “Inefficient Birmingham.”
A 19th century marvel and widely hailed as the “city of the future,” Manchester represented a break from the past. What Manchester did that was so new and different was simple—it specialized. The city threw its lot with one industry—textiles. Jacobs refers to the “stunning efficiency of its textile mills.” By the 1840s, the textile industry dominated the city entirely, Jacob tells us. The industry was brutally competitive; less efficient producers got swallowed up by larger, more streamlined players.
Link to con.
Friday, April 03, 2009
This Is the Truth on Drugs ... Any Questions?
By David Sirota
Finally, a little honesty.
Finally, after America has frittered away billions of taxpayer dollars arming Latin American death squads, airdropping toxic herbicide on equatorial farmland and incarcerating more of its own citizens on nonviolent drug charges than any other industrialized nation, two political leaders last week tried to begin taming the most wildly out-of-control beast in the government zoo: federal narcotics policy.
It started with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stating an embarrassingly obvious truth that politicians almost never discuss. In a speech about rising violence in Mexico, she said, “Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade,” and then added that “we have co-responsibility” for the cartel-driven carnage plaguing our southern border.
She’s right, of course. For all the Rambo-ish talk about waging a “war on drugs” that interdicts the supply of narcotics, we have not diminished demand—specifically, the demand for marijuana that cartels base their business on.
Link to con.
By David Sirota
Finally, a little honesty.
Finally, after America has frittered away billions of taxpayer dollars arming Latin American death squads, airdropping toxic herbicide on equatorial farmland and incarcerating more of its own citizens on nonviolent drug charges than any other industrialized nation, two political leaders last week tried to begin taming the most wildly out-of-control beast in the government zoo: federal narcotics policy.
It started with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stating an embarrassingly obvious truth that politicians almost never discuss. In a speech about rising violence in Mexico, she said, “Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade,” and then added that “we have co-responsibility” for the cartel-driven carnage plaguing our southern border.
She’s right, of course. For all the Rambo-ish talk about waging a “war on drugs” that interdicts the supply of narcotics, we have not diminished demand—specifically, the demand for marijuana that cartels base their business on.
Link to con.
Reps Paul, Frank introduce bill to legalize industrial hemp
Stephen C. Webster
One of the earliest plants domesticated by man may be on the verge of a resurgence in popular production across the United States.
Industrial hemp, a non-drug variety of the cannabis plan, used for centuries for its versatile fibers, is the subject of a new bill filed by Congressmen Ron Paul (R-TX) and Barney Frank (D-MA). They and eight cosponsors, both Republican and Democrat, hope to legalize the plant so American farmers can begin supplying fibers for a wide array of products, with the overreaching goal of opening a new sector in American agriculture.
To view the bill's status, full text and list of sponsors, or to follow new developments, visit Govtrack.us.
"It is unfortunate that the federal government has stood in the way of American farmers, including many who are struggling to make ends meet, from competing in the global industrial hemp market," said Representative Ron Paul during his introduction of the bill and in a media advisory issued by advocacy group VoteHemp.
Link to con.
Stephen C. Webster
One of the earliest plants domesticated by man may be on the verge of a resurgence in popular production across the United States.
Industrial hemp, a non-drug variety of the cannabis plan, used for centuries for its versatile fibers, is the subject of a new bill filed by Congressmen Ron Paul (R-TX) and Barney Frank (D-MA). They and eight cosponsors, both Republican and Democrat, hope to legalize the plant so American farmers can begin supplying fibers for a wide array of products, with the overreaching goal of opening a new sector in American agriculture.
To view the bill's status, full text and list of sponsors, or to follow new developments, visit Govtrack.us.
"It is unfortunate that the federal government has stood in the way of American farmers, including many who are struggling to make ends meet, from competing in the global industrial hemp market," said Representative Ron Paul during his introduction of the bill and in a media advisory issued by advocacy group VoteHemp.
Link to con.
Thursday, April 02, 2009
Marijuana helps in battle against cancer: study
The main chemical in marijuana appears to aid in the destruction of brain cancer cells, offering hope for future anti-cancer therapies, researchers in Spain wrote in a study released Thursday.
The authors from the Complutense University in Madrid, working with scientists from other universities, found that the active component of marijuana, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), causes cancer cells to undergo a process called autophagy -- the breakdown that occurs when the cell essentially self-digests.
The research, which appears in the April edition of US-published Journal of Clinical Investigation, demonstrates that THC and related "cannabinoids" appear to be "a new family of potential antitumoral agent."
Link to con.
The main chemical in marijuana appears to aid in the destruction of brain cancer cells, offering hope for future anti-cancer therapies, researchers in Spain wrote in a study released Thursday.
The authors from the Complutense University in Madrid, working with scientists from other universities, found that the active component of marijuana, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), causes cancer cells to undergo a process called autophagy -- the breakdown that occurs when the cell essentially self-digests.
The research, which appears in the April edition of US-published Journal of Clinical Investigation, demonstrates that THC and related "cannabinoids" appear to be "a new family of potential antitumoral agent."
Link to con.
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
State of the Birds
Ken Salazar, the secretary of the interior, released a new, nationwide survey last month that assesses the state of bird populations in America. The news is grievous. Over all, a third of the bird species in this country are endangered, threatened or in serious decline.
There is special concern for grassland birds — whose habitat has been vanishing steadily for decades — for birds in Hawaii, where a variety of species face a variety of threats, and for coastal species. The good news is that wherever nature is allowed to recover, especially in the case of wetland birds, it shows its usual resilience.
But there is no glossing over these staggering losses, and there is no dismissing what they mean. There is nothing accidental or inevitable about the vanishing of these birds. However unintentional, it is the direct result of human activity — of development, of global warming, of air and water pollution and of our failure to set aside the habitat these birds need to flourish. Every threatened species reveals some aspect of our lives that could be adjusted.
link to con.
Ken Salazar, the secretary of the interior, released a new, nationwide survey last month that assesses the state of bird populations in America. The news is grievous. Over all, a third of the bird species in this country are endangered, threatened or in serious decline.
There is special concern for grassland birds — whose habitat has been vanishing steadily for decades — for birds in Hawaii, where a variety of species face a variety of threats, and for coastal species. The good news is that wherever nature is allowed to recover, especially in the case of wetland birds, it shows its usual resilience.
But there is no glossing over these staggering losses, and there is no dismissing what they mean. There is nothing accidental or inevitable about the vanishing of these birds. However unintentional, it is the direct result of human activity — of development, of global warming, of air and water pollution and of our failure to set aside the habitat these birds need to flourish. Every threatened species reveals some aspect of our lives that could be adjusted.
link to con.
How I Learned to Love Goat Meat
By HENRY ALFORD
YOU never know where goat will take you. When I asked the smiley butcher at Jefferson Market, the grocery store near my apartment in the West Village, whether he had any goat meat, he told me: “No. I got a leg of lamb, though — I could trim it nice and thin to make it look like goat.” I politely declined. We fell into conversation.
I found myself telling him: “Koreans think eating goat soup increases virility. It can lead to better sexytime.” My new friend responded: “My lamb does that a little. You won’t want to every night, but maybe every other night.” Reaching toward his counter to pick up a mound of hamburger, he paused to ask, “It’s for you, the goat?”
Mine is the tale of the recent convert. Admittedly, I’m late to the party: goat is the most widely consumed meat in the world, a staple of, among others, Mexican, Indian, Greek and southern Italian cuisines. Moreover, it’s been edging its way into yuppier climes for a year or so now, click-clacking its cloven hooves up and down the coasts and to places like Houston and Des Moines. (When New York magazine proclaimed eating goat a “trendlet” last summer, one reader wrote on the magazine’s Web site, “Here are white people again!!!! Acting like they invented goat meat.”) A famed beef and pork rancher, Bill Niman, returned from retirement to raise goats in Bolinas, Calif.; New York City has a chef (Scott Conant) who’s made kid his signature dish.
Link to con.
By HENRY ALFORD
YOU never know where goat will take you. When I asked the smiley butcher at Jefferson Market, the grocery store near my apartment in the West Village, whether he had any goat meat, he told me: “No. I got a leg of lamb, though — I could trim it nice and thin to make it look like goat.” I politely declined. We fell into conversation.
I found myself telling him: “Koreans think eating goat soup increases virility. It can lead to better sexytime.” My new friend responded: “My lamb does that a little. You won’t want to every night, but maybe every other night.” Reaching toward his counter to pick up a mound of hamburger, he paused to ask, “It’s for you, the goat?”
Mine is the tale of the recent convert. Admittedly, I’m late to the party: goat is the most widely consumed meat in the world, a staple of, among others, Mexican, Indian, Greek and southern Italian cuisines. Moreover, it’s been edging its way into yuppier climes for a year or so now, click-clacking its cloven hooves up and down the coasts and to places like Houston and Des Moines. (When New York magazine proclaimed eating goat a “trendlet” last summer, one reader wrote on the magazine’s Web site, “Here are white people again!!!! Acting like they invented goat meat.”) A famed beef and pork rancher, Bill Niman, returned from retirement to raise goats in Bolinas, Calif.; New York City has a chef (Scott Conant) who’s made kid his signature dish.
Link to con.
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