The contrarian leader has some fine policy changes to put in place that will rationalize a lot of the injustice created by current US drug policy. Simple things like:
School Principals who enforce zero-tolerance policies must get written permission from one of their students before taking an aspirin or any other medication (any time of day or night).
There are a bunch more.
Via Pacific Views.
Looks like the Italian Mafia may be taking some lessons from the US Gov/IRS:
Libero Grassi, owner of a thriving textile company outside Palermo, was killed in 1991 after he refused to pay a large monthly “pizzo,” the Sicilian word for an extortion payment.
The new strategy is to avoid exorbitant rates, such as the ones applied to Grassi’s factory, but to cast the protection net much further afield, even to small shopkeepers.
Yep, if you kill them they will not be around to pay you tomorrow. A much better method is to expropriate their assets and perhaps dump persistent refuseniks in jail.
And like much government and its tax collectors:
It means the Mafia selling itself as a fact of life, even a benevolent association that helps find a job or fix a problem. This makes it not just a criminal organization but a criminal phenomenon rooted in history and harder to extirpate.
It has long seemed that one reason the politician gangs have pretended to want to eliminate folks like the mafia is that they want the same business themselves: extortion taxes, your local lottery, etc.
Via Catallarchy.
Matthew Yglesias and Ezra Klein both seem to think a draft is ok.
They may want to head over here right now and practice signing up.
Via Radically Inept.
No, you can’t get it quite yet but here is much more then you ever wanted to know about the proposed UK national ID card.
You should read this as this discussion will be coming to the country where you live sooner rather then later.
Kevin Aylward reports on an FCC investigation that may result in large fines for Oprah:
Using the recent FCC fines against Clear Channel Communications for airing indecent material on a Howard Stern radio broadcast, the 1900 complaints against a single episode of the Oprah Winfrey Show should lead to $5.9 million dollar fine.
If they actually do this I hope it happens well before the election. I have visions of huge anti-talibanbush rallies populated by hordes of Oprah and Howard fans.