Archive for February, 2009

I know by now you have to have heard about or saw the images of Micheal Phelps taking a hit off a bong at a party here in my home state of South Carolina. Now eight people have been arrested and maybe more to follow in an effort to make charges against Phelps. What an incredible waste of time and resources. By some estimates somewhere between one third to one half of the adult population in our country has tried marijuana at some time. Where would they put us all if they were to bring charges against everyone who ever took a toke. Our outdated drug laws and misguided public messages should be laid to rest. I will admit that drugs are dangerous and should not be in the hands of people to hurt themselves, and it is usually only themselves that get hurt. Though some of them graduate to harder drugs that are so addictive they prostitute their bodies and steal for their next fix, but marijuana is not one of them. In fact I feel like if they did not have to buy from the black market that many would never be exposed to hard drugs. I know I never had seen or seen anybody doing drugs until I saw them being done while I was looking for some pot. I better not mention where I was then or they might be attempting to prosecute me. Actually if it had been someone that no one had ever heard of they probably wound even care. Much less be wasting all this manpower on an arrest where there is no victim. Wouldn’t it be a better use of resources if they were to concentrate there investigations on a crime where there was a victim?

A little good news on the environmental side. Obama’s team is putting some of Bush’s decisions on air quality out to pasture. First is the decision to drop an appeal of a New Jersey courts decision that required coal and oil fired power plants to install more stringent mercury controls on their emissions. Last year the appeals court rejected a Bush administration plan for regulating mercury emissions and was slated to go before the Supreme Court before the Obama administration submitted papers Friday to the court asking for the case to be dismissed. The power companies still have a separate petition challenging the court ruling and it is unaffected by this decision. At a green jobs conference in Washington Lisa Jackson, the new EPA Administrator, said the EPA would draft its own rules and set limits on mercury emissions. “We’re better off spending all our resources making rules that will stick instead of fighting the courts on this one,” Jackson said. Seventeen states and health groups both joined a lawsuit to block the Bush plan that would have allowed “hot spots” around power plants. Mercury is believed to cause neurological problems in infants.
In another EPA air quality case they have decided to let California and other states set more stringent air quality standards for auto emissions. This too will be challenged by industry I am sure, but it is a step in the right direction.

I wrote about Obama giving an interview to the Muslim nation via Al-Arabiya and neglected to give any credit to former President Bush for reaching out to Muslims. It is not that he did not reach out, far from it. He definitely tried to but he was ineffective for the most part. Average Muslims felt he was talking down to them or was insincere in his approach to them. Maybe I should have gave more details but I was pointing out that the average Muslim is at least paying attention to what our President has to say and giving it some credence. That was the gist of my post. Muslims were very distrustful of President Bush. The few interviews I read from average Muslims though not entirely swung over to our point of view, they are at least listening and keeping an open mind. Right now that is probably the best we can hope for, but not enough they can keep Obama out of their political cartons.

I wrote about Obama giving an interview to the Muslim nation via Al-Arabiya and neglected to give any credit to former President Bush for reaching out to Muslims. It is not that he did not reach out, far from it. He definitely tried to but he was ineffective for the most part. Average Muslims felt he was talking down to them or was insincere in his approach to them. Maybe I should have gave more details but I was pointing out that the average Muslim is at least paying attention to what our President has to say and giving it some credence. That was the gist of my post. Muslims were very distrustful of President Bush. The few interviews I read from average Muslims though not entirely swung over to our point of view, they are at least listening and keeping an open mind. Right now that is probably the best we can hope for, but not enough they can keep Obama out of their political cartons.