Has a blog. Link it now. Read it regularly.
Barlow is one of the good guys. He cofounded the Electronic Frontier Foundation in 1990 and continues to be active as its Board Vice-Chairman. You can find some of his writings here.
Oh, and he is a damned good lyricist.
Via Lynn Kiesling.
In November I called for the firing of Goose Creek principal George McCrackin. You may remember him as the man responsible for this.
Now, via Drug WarRant, I learn that he his no longer at Goose Creek:
Floyd has not decided to what position McCrackin will be reassigned, but he said McCrackin would probably spend time in the coming weeks preparing for two lawsuits filed by students stemming from the incident.
While this is a step in the right direction I still believe that this is a person that has no business being anywhere near or involved in education.
Alaskans will vote next fall:
Registered voters will get a chance to decide next year whether to legalize private use of marijuana for Alaskans 21 and older.
In one sense it is a good thing that this is on the ballot. The good citizens of Alaska may thumb their noses at their elected representatives.
However, this is not something that should ever end up on the ballot. Nor, in the first place, should legislatures or congresses or parliaments be ruling one way or another on this or similar issues.
Via Via the Media Awareness Project.
In Central Alabama drug related cases keep prosecutors busy:
Giddens estimates that about half of the criminal cases set to go to trial every month are pure drug cases, either possession of marijuana or other controlled substances, distribution, trafficking, manufacturing and others.
The percentage is much higher when drug related cases are added to the ‘pure’ cases.
This makes me think there might be a pretty easy way to find some money to divert to ‘important’ government services.
Via the Media Awareness Project.
For doing this good deed:
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that prosecuting these medical marijuana users under a 1970 federal law is unconstitutional if the marijuana isn’t sold, transported across state lines or used for non-medicinal purposes.
Volokh blogger Randy Barnett argued and won this case and he provides technical details and more links here.
We need more like this:
The decision was a blow to the Justice Department, which argued that medical marijuana laws in nine states were trumped by the Controlled Substances Act, which outlawed marijuana, heroin and a host of other drugs nationwide.
No, what we really need is for the myriad local, state and federal drug laws to be eliminated.
Via Talkleft.