Drug War Killers

This entry was posted in Drug Laws on by

A guaranteed result of prohibitions is inconsistent product quality which sometimes can have deadly results:

Seven people have died in Portland from apparent heroin overdoses in the past week, prompting police to warn users that a recent shipment of the drug might be more powerful than usual or possibly poisoned.
“We’re not fans of heroin use,” said Sgt. Brian Schmautz, a Portland police spokesman. “But obviously, the last thing we want is to have people dropping dead from this stuff.”

Well, it is not at all clear that this is not what the perpetrators of the drug war want.
Product quality related deaths can be eliminated simply by ending the prohibition. Then the marketplace would develop sets of branded products with identifiable quality perhaps tested by something comparable to Underwriters Laboratory. Sure, someone could still overdose but it would no longer be accidental but rather, as with alcohol, the user would have to make a stupid decision to consume large quantities.
Blame for these deaths must be placed on those who legislate for and enforce the drug prohibitions.

WAPO VP Deems bush a Reliable Source

This entry was posted in bush Journalism War on Terrorism on by

Yesterday on NPR Michelle Norris interviewed Ben Bradlee of the Washington Post:

As editor during Watergate, Bradlee was responsible for overseeing the paper’s coverage of the scandal and deciding whether to trust his reporter’s sources, including “Deep Throat.”

In a discussion about the number of sources required for a story to go forward this exchange took place:

Norris: I remember from my days1 that reporters generally needed multiple sources. You needed to come back with more than one name to back up your story.
Bradlee: That is the goal, certainly. Many stories we kept out of the paper because tehy only had one source.
But, if you think about it for a minute, if the President of the United States tells you something then you don’t really need a second source. You don’t hear President Bush say this is so and then go check it with somebody. You don’t have to do that.

Hmmm, just when did the president become infallible? Shouldn’t the fourth estate be fact checking everything that government officials say? And, with regard to the current president, it should be pretty clear to the press that disassembling, dissembling and dissimulation are the norm.
We are truly in deep trouble if faith based journalism is now the norm!
1Norris worked for Bradlee at the Washington Post.

Do You Care….

This entry was posted in Microsoft Mozilla Technology on by

…that IE 7 will not run on Windows 2000 machines?

Microsoft has confirmed that it won’t release a version of its upcoming Internet Explorer 7 for Windows 2000, putting an end to speculation — some of it fueled by Microsoft — that the Redmond, Wash.-based developer would offer a more secure, revamped browser to users of that the aging-but-still-used operating system.

Well, no, I don’t care! Firefox runs just fine on the one W2000 machine we still have as well as on the XP SP2 machines we have.

Education and Science

This entry was posted in Education Science on by

There is plenty to learn and think about at The Carnival of Education and the Tangled Bank!
Add Zombyboy’s article Why the Schools Won’t Change to your education reading list!
And, don’t go to the Discovery Institute to learn anything. As PZ Myers reports

…their earlier implications of legitimization have been shown to be crass spin, and it has been sharply and unambiguously criticized as “not consistent with

Summer Reading

This entry was posted in Economics on by

Tyler Cowan’s class is in the fall but I know you are all eager students so this reading list should make a good addition to or replacement for your current summer reading list.
Arnold Kling has a few suggestions for additional material.
Perhaps in the fall Tyler will post/link his lecture notes and we can all participate in a little on line discussion.