A recent visit to the emergency room with a friend of mine came to mind when I watched this.
That also reminds me: I need to renew my passport…
I was glad to discover the blog of a friend of mine today. While I read it, I thought to myself, “she gets it.”
There’s been a lot of buzz on social bookmarking sites like digg and reddit about yesterday’s announcement of a California bill that seeks to legalize marijuana. Those who introduced the bill and are defending it, as well as the hundreds (or thousands) of people who have been commenting on the story online, have listed a host of reasons the bill makes sense: it would allow the state to finally start profeiting from California’s largest cash crop and possibly fix its financial problems, it would take revenue away from criminals trafficing the plant on the black market, it would reduce crime enforcement costs, it would be great fun for pottheads…
While these are all great reasons to legalize pot, I was struck by the fact that hardly anyone is talking about the most important issue: freedom.
Have we become so used to being babysat by the govenment that we don’t mind them telling us how to live our own lives? Are adults capable of weighing the risks versus the benefits of pot use on their own – or do we need the government to make that choice for us?
We need to be thinking bigger than just pot…
Update:
A Canadian Member of Parliament has also called for an end to prohibition. His reasoning: it would help to curb gang violence. Once again, no mention of freedom.
Update 2:
In light of increasing gang violence, the Conservative government in Canada is getting tougher on gang-related drug crime. Why not just legalize drugs and take the wind right out of the sails of gangs? Remember Al Capone? You don’t hear about gangsters killing people over alcohol now that it’s legal. It’s all drugs, now.
I spent last night getting paid to drive cars off the floor of the Canadian International Auto Show.
Pretty sweet deal, eh – getting paid to drive cars that thousands of other people had to pay a fee just to come see. I’ve got my girlfriend’s dad to thank for that opportunity. He’s a manager at one of the companies that ships the cars in an out of the show and he hooked me up with a gig driving cars out to the trucks. So how were they?
Well, I’m by no means a car expert (I don’t even own one) but I can share my general impression of how the cars felt to drive. I drove a whole whack of different models from Mitsubishi, Hyundai, Ford, Nissan, Infinity, Kia and Volkswagen. Generally, Volkswagen blew the other manufacturers away. I could sense a significant difference in how all of the models from Volkswagen felt to drive compared to the others in terms of comfort, aesthetics, and quality. The VWs just seemed really solid and every aspect seemed smooth and well thought-out. Every component seemed to work exactly as it should, unlike many of the other manufacturers’ cars which seemed cheap and shoddy in comparison.
I had a lot of trouble, for example, putting the Infinity QX into drive. The shifter on this expensive luxury SUV felt like it was going to break as I struggled to wiggle it out of park and move it into the correct drive position. The shifters on the Volkswagens felt solid and glided smoothly and easily, on the other hand. And long after all the Volkswagens were out and loaded, we were struggling to get some of the Nissans and Mitsubishis started. We ended up having to get a few of them towed, even after boosting the batteries and adding fuel to the tanks.
If I ever do buy a car (which I have no plans to do in the near future) it will likely be a Volkswagen.
A quick photo I snapped after delivering a Mitsubishi Galant to one of the trucks
Looks like the polygamy debate’s getting more attention in Canada. It seems like the legalization of polygamy is the logical next step after same-sex marriage. Why should we stop someone from having more than one spouse? To each his own.
A story that generated much publicity in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks has become the centrepiece of a Supreme Court hearing that could permanently alter the scope of defamation law in Canada.
Lawyers for the Ottawa Citizen and more than a dozen other media organizations urged the top court yesterday to endorse a new defence against libel that would protect properly researched stories published in the public interest, even if they contain errors.
Full Story (Thanks for bringing this story to my attention, Dad)
As someone who practices journalism, this story is particularly relevant to me. As the law stands now, if I publish something that could potentially tarnish someone’s reputation, I can be charged with libel even if I approached the story with the best intentions for public interest or if the information was false because one of my sources lied to me. This makes publishing controversial stories quite risky, and discourages journalists from pursuing important stories that could put them in hot water. Depending how this case goes, that could all change.
It seems it’s okay for everyone to have an advocacy group – except straight white men. At least that’s the case at Brandon University. And I’ve seen this issue come up many times (the I’m a White Minority @ Ryerson Facebook group controversy comes to mind). It seems a bit hypocritical that some of the same people who claim to be fighting for equality would rally against the right for men to have advocacy groups of their own – just like every other group has.
When Will Breen tried to form his campus group, he faced a lot of criticism:
One elected council member set the tone of debate, scoffing that Breen’s group would be nothing but a “pornography and cigar club.” As a man, he huffed, he didn’t require representation. Other speakers were miffed and simply couldn’t see the need. The motion was defeated.
At another forum, a female professor could barely tolerate hearing Breen’s reasons for starting a Men’s Collective. “She was saying that men do not have need of representation, that we have historically been the oppressors, that we have no position of disadvantage,” the fourth-year geology student recalled.
But Breen isn’t forming another group to compete for victim status. He questions why everyone thinks a group should be “disadvantaged” to have an advocacy group.
“Men have issues just like everyone else,” he maintained.
Imagine if someone called the Women’s group a “baking and knitting club.”
Breen eventually was granted the right to start his group, which will receive $400 in funding. That, compared to the $5,000 per year and $2,000 startup grant the Women’s Collective gets. The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans-gender Commission gets $2,000 per year.
Thanks to Fraser for bringing this story to my attention.
and we’re getting pretty good at reading it.
I just thought this was interesting. We’ve come a long way in understanding the universe. I’m excited to see what we learn in the future.
Watch out for Big Brother…
As Jimi Hendrix put it, “I’ve got my own life to live / I’m the one that’s gonna die when it’s time for me to die / So let me live my life the way I want to.” I wonder if he’d apply that same line of reasoning to death. But those in North America saying, “let me end my life the way I want to,” aren’t getting much of a response. Politicians will barely touch it. The right to die seems to be one of those issues too “icky” for some to even consider.
At least they’re talking about it in Europe.
PARIS — Right-to-die controversies are playing out in European media and parliaments in stark contrast to Canada where there is no momentum to amend Canada’s law that criminalizes assisted suicide and euthanasia, experts say.
In Italy, Eluana Englaro, left in a permanent vegetative state after a car accident 17 years ago, was allowed to die this past week amid a controversy that divided the nation.
Looks like the economy is helping put things in perspective. We’ll be seeing a lot more home-made cards and poems this Valentine’s Day.
In the current economic climate, many men say it comes as a great relief not to have to produce a material manifestation of an intangible emotion.
“It has become such an ingrained part of our culture that women expect it and men expect they need to do such things,” said Marc Matsumoto, 31, a New York marketing manager who was laid off in December.
The holiday, Professor Close said, may be coming full circle.
“It started as a very pure romantic holiday, until capitalism and marketing spiked it,” she said. “We are retreating back a little bit to the original meaning behind the day.”
I haven’t spent any money yet, but I’m spending the day with the woman I love. Happy Valentine’s Day