Monthly Archives: May 2004

Shrek 2

This entry was posted in Movies on by

First: do not leave when the ending credits start! Wait until they start again.
The movie is fun. Plenty of chuckles. Just the thing if you would like to spend a couple hours just hangin’ out and not dealing with life’s serious issues…unless you want to get in to that layer of the movie.
Parents: it is PG rated. I chuckled at the sexual humor and innuendo, Rabelasian flatulence, typical pratfalls and didn’t chuckle much at the violence.
At the showing I attended with Mrs. Modulator the audience was probably 1/4 sub-teen with the rest being junior/senior high school types and adults. There were plenty of times I could just imagine the accompanying parents cringing at the thought of junior later asking about one scene or another.

Ending the Addiction

This entry was posted in Capitalism Constitution Culture Domestic Terrorism Drug Laws Law Enforcement Libertarianism on by

Nope, not drug or alcohol addiction though I suspect Bill Masters, sheriff of San Miguel County, Colorado would support individuals working to end their addiction.
Instead Masters argues that it is time to end the drug war addiction:

“The only reason why drugs and crime have expanded to reach every Mayberry village in the country is our blind obedience to misguided laws and police tactics that just do not work,” Masters writes in his essay introducing the collection. “It is time to admit our own folly and stop our addiction to the drug war.”

What does the drug war addiction cost:

According to research cited in Master’s book The New Prohibition, state and federal authorities spend more than $9 billion a year to imprison close to half a million drug offenders. More people are sent to prison for drug offenses than for violent crimes, a trend that’s been consistent since 1989. The overall cost to the justice system of arresting, convicting, punishing and supervising drug offenders stands at about $70 billion a year.

$70 billion??? I suspect that we could find much better things to do with that money. Including, of course, rehabilitation and retraining for the ex drug war addicts.
The Masters article via Avedon Carol.

bush’s nader

This entry was posted in bush Constitution Election 2004 kerry Libertarianism US History on by

On Friday Michael Medved spent part of his radio program bashing libertarians or, in his words, loosertarians. I say part because I listened to only 15-20 minutes. He may well have spent the entire show on this subject. Does anyone know if other talk jocks have taken up libertarian bashing now that there has been so much discussion about bush possibly loosing the libertarian vote?
Medved’s attack, at least while I was listening, was primarily ad hominem and without substance.
I found it particularly interesting that Medved, a lawyer, found it important to put down one of the Libertarian candidates because this candidate was teaching an 8 hour class on the U.S. constitution in conjunction with the Libertarian convention. This suggested to me that Medved perhaps does not consider the consitution important or important for the president to understand.
g w bush has sworn to uphold the constitution but can you imagine him teaching a class on the constitution? Even one as short as 8 hours?
Just to be fair and balanced: while kerry’s presentation may be smoother then w’s it is not at all clear that either Yale grad could teach this short course.