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January 16, 2013
Annals of Vindication
Back in June of 2008, The Atlantic, a magazine I have subscribed to since long before the internet existed, came out with a cover highlighting a lead article by Nicholas Carr asking rhetorically if Google was making us ‘stoopid.’I took full advantage of that opening to compose a blog entry on one of my favorite themes: namely that US persistence in the enforcement of pot prohibition is powerful evidence of a national insanity.
On reading that earlier entry, the link to Carr's article in my blog was dead, but not to worry, I found the full text on his.
Unfortunately, things haven’t changed much; cannabis is still illegal and can't be considered "medicine" under federal law, while our gun nuts are just as crazy as ever: Ed Meese, the mush-headed “Great Communicator’s" ex-AG was featured today on Fox News for opining that if President Obama issues a Presidential Order directing more restrictive enforcement of existing gun laws, it might be an impeachable offense. All that told me was that Meese, who is my age, just joined John Mitchell and John Ashcroft to form a triumvirate of legal dunces who served Republican Presidents
As for American stupidity: no matter how it’s spelled, the current news tells us that it’s not the facts; it's how they are interpreted. We are now trapped on an increasingly crowded and overheated planet, despite having become demonstrably better informed than at any time in history. To paraphrase the NRA: knowledge doesn’t kill people, people do; or in the words of the mythical, Forest Gump,"stupid is as stupid does.”
DoctorTom.
Posted by tjeffo at January 16, 2013 05:43 AM