You know the Drug Enforcement Administration has for years interfered in the ability of patients in chronic pain to access medical marijuan, but did you know that our Drug Gestapo also interferes in the delivery of prescription pain medication to your elderly relatives in nursing homes? WaPo : Heightened efforts by the Drug Enforcement Administration to crack down on narcotics abuse are producing a troubling side effect by denying some hospice and elderly patients needed pain medication, according to two Senate Democrats and a coalition of pharmacists and geriatric experts.... The DEA has sought to prevent drug theft and abuse by staff members in nursing homes, requiring signatures from doctors and an extra layer of approvals when certain pain drugs are ordered for sick patients. The law, however, "fails to recognize how prescribing practitioners and the nurses who work for long-term care facilities and hospice programs actually order prescription medications," Kohl and White...

If you don't know who David Drake is, you don't read science fiction. He is a Vietnam vet (with the Blackhorse) whose experiences there caused him literally to recreate military science fiction based on his experiences there. He is the creator of Hammer's Slammers , which is [if its not an oxymoron] some of the most realistic combat writing about wars that never happened that you will ever find. Recently I have been reading a Baen books reprint of some of Mark Geston's classic SF that has an introduction written a few years back by David Drake. Drake is making the point the he first encountered Geston's work on returning from Vietnam, which causes him to take a four paragraph detour into Vietnam as an American experience. What strikes me about this piece is what would happen if you changed the names. Vietnam = Afghanistan Eisenhower = Bush Lebanon = Iraq JFK/LBJ = Obama McNamara = Gates Westmoreland = McChrystal Here's the original; you make the changes yours...

Maybe, just maybe, it's because the Obama administration has recently floated the idea of paying off Taliban followers to stop fighiting , that more and more people find plausible the idea that NATO is using its own headquarters to move the insurgents areoundt the countr y.

The Nation's William Greider pens perhaps one of the more idiotic screed's coming from the fiscally-reckless left, at least this week. Greider not only advocates MORE MORE MORE spending from the porcine Democrat gluttons running the national government, flying headlong into the historic face of failure after dismal failure of Keynesian voodoo, but he also demands wilful ignorance of the fact that incomprehensible mountains of this disgusting national spending orgy are all BORROWED BORROWED BORROWED. October 28, 2009 The deficit hawks are flapping their wings and making a terrible squawk about the government's gusher of red ink. Good grief, a federal deficit of $1.4 trillion! What will become of us? The gloom chorus includes GOP heavies and right-wing frothers, the editors of the Washington Post and other pinch-penny establishment journals, Blue Dog Democrats and even some of Barack Obama's own advisers. [Keep going, Billy boy. It's the whoooole world that's all...

I spend a lot of time reading Waldo and have developed such a vicarious appreciation of South Carolina politics that I am currently trying to figure out how to detour around the Palmetto State on my next trip from Delaware to Disney. What Waldo teaches me (when whatever I am drinking is not spurting out of my nose) is that huge numbers of Americans who are otherwise apparently competent to dress themselves and drive to work every day are not really functioning at an intellectual level necessary to deal with the moral dilemma and cultural nuances of modern life. Philosopher Daniel Dennett comes closer to explaining this phenomenon in brief academic terms than anyone else I have ever read [once you add one tiny fact to his explanation]: There's a mismatch between the modern versus ancestral world. Our minds are equipped with programs that were evolved to navigate a small world of relatives, friends, and neighbors, not for cities and nation states of thousands or millions of anonymo...

I realize that millions of people will see this on AOL Health , so that my recommendation will be statistically meaningless. But I think Tracey Carpenter's piece is so important--for men and women both--that if even one or two people read it and profit from it via this link then it will have been worth it. In the piece you will not only meet Tracey, a 26-year-old breast cancer/masectomy survivor, but also her boyfriend Adam who appears as one of the more remarkable human beings about whom I have ever read: The months after my diagnosis were a painful blur. My boyfriend, Adam, doggedly called me beautiful and made sure that I was able to believe it. He was so caring and supportive when my oncologist said I would likely not have children because of the chemo. Instead of complaining or bolting for the door when my doctor said no sex because of the infection risk, Adam said, "I will wait for years. I don't care about sex; I just want you." I know that if our roles were ...

... in my alter-ego secret identity as DSU faculty union chair, commenting on the loooooonnnnnggggg wait between the on-campus interviews for new Presidential candidates and action by the Board of Trustees . Thanks, Rachel.

What a shock : analysts at Edmunds.com report the cost to taxpayers of this fraud of a waste of borrowed federal dollars... The Cash for Clunkers program gave car buyers rebates of up to $4,500 if they traded in less fuel-efficient vehicles for new vehicles that met certain fuel economy requirements. A total of $3 billion was allotted for those rebates. The average rebate was $4,000. But the overwhelming majority of sales would have taken place anyway at some time in the last half of 2009, according to Edmunds.com. That means the government ended up spending about $24,000 each for those 125,000 additional vehicle sales. Link. I guess that is on par with the truth about the colossally wasteful spending orgy...err, "stimulus"...when it comes to the taxpayer cost for jobs "created or saved". In a recap of analysis by ProPublica.com : Assuming the number of created or saved jobs reported by each contract recipient was accurate—which, as we’ve reported before, is stil...

This was sent to me. Probably quite a bit embellished, but hilarious nonetheless... "FROM AN ACTUAL CRAIG'S LIST PERSONALS AD" To the Guy Who Tried to Mug Me in Downtown Savannah night before last. Date: 2009-05-27, 1:43 a.m. E.S.T. I was the guy wearing the black Burberry jacket that you demanded that I hand over, shortly after you pulled the knife on me and my girlfriend, threatening our lives. You also asked for my girlfriend's purse and earrings. I can only hope that you somehow come across this rather important message. First, I'd like to apologize for your embarrassment; I didn't expect you to actually crap in your pants when I drew my pistol after you took my jacket. The evening was not that cold, and I was wearing the jacket for a reason. My girlfriend had just bought me that Kimber Model 1911 .45 ACP pistol for my birthday, and we had picked up a shoulder holster for it that very evening. Obviously you agree that it is a very intimidating weapon when ...

Here's the money sentence of his resignation letter, but if there is any justice this entire letter will become an American state paper : I fail to see the value or the worth in continued US casualties or expenditures of resources in support of the Afghan government in what is, truly, a 35-year old civil war. You owe it to Americans risking their lives to read and heed the words of this Marine veteran. Even if you disagree with his conclusion, you should have the intellectual honesty to rebut his arguments before you dismiss them.

Or at least this appears to be the logical conclusion to draw from this recent post by Daniel Cassidy : In light of the tragic passage of hate crimes legislation to include those engaging in sinful behavior as a special and protected class of victims, the following is particularly meaningful. Big Hat Tip to Abbey-Roads and to the author, Father Dwight Longenecker The Slippery Slope Here is how Satan spreads his lies: 1. Natural Law is ignored, undermined or made to look stupid by particular instances where it seems not apply. 2. Subsequently religious and civil authorities have their laws questioned because they are 'too strict' too 'black and white', 'unworkable' or 'lacking in compassion'. 3. Relativism is therefore introduced. An understanding gradually grows that 'there are no objective rule' that apply to all people at all times. 4. Individualism is the next step. 'I guess I have to decide what is right for me in my situation.' 5. S...

... and that Waldo had unearthed somebody who got taken in by a fake advertisement. Then, as I read it and explored the website, I realized ... oh shit it is real. From Christian News Wire : Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid 'Burn in Hell' Video/Protest Competition Opens -- Prizes to be Awarded WASHINGTON, Oct. 26 /Christian Newswire/ --See video of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid "Burn in Hell" for putting child-killing in health care, instruction video on how to burn Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid "in hell," and rules for entering video competition of Pelosi and Reid "burning in hell." I'm all for the separation of Church and State. This seems to be the separation of Church and Sanity.

Via Alphecca : Some people are like slinkies…They don’t really have a purpose, but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down the stairs.

The current status and legal position of the Diocese of Wilmington, at least in my mind, is ... conflicted. For those reading outside Delaware, the Diocese sought Chapter 11 protection this week from the 142 child molestation victims in 131 lawsuits, who stand to be conceivably awarded up to $500 million in total damages from a Diocese that has assets of only about $50-100 million. Of course, the laity might be forgiven (so to speak) for failing to understand that Diocese is a distinct corporate entity from all of its parishes and schools, none of which are parties to these suits. Yet in the strange world of interlocking relationships, the churches and the Diocese split collections, the Diocese provides additional funding to the schools, and--naturally--the Diocese approves and moves around all the priests and other religious folk assigned to each of these completely financially independent organizations. It's kind of like the case where your doctor also maintains a lab in his bu...

... and in an extremely rare case I didn't post or even keep up with comments. My younger daughter is recovering from pneumonia; I'm recovering from extended travel. Ideas did not come. Motivation was absent. I spent most of the evening playing Galactic Civilizations on a different laptop. I'd endorse the game, but I don't know if they ever paid me anything; don't want to piss off the FTC. Now it's Monday and we'll see what energy I can muster....

Jason says in a thread about whether Beau Biden will challenge Mike Castle: For all the bluster by the tea party freaks on the right and the beard pulling concern about health care reform by liberals – most people simply don't care about politics. The average person knows more about Marvel comics characters and their powers than they know members of congress. That’s why the NJ and WDEL radio covers all politics as a long celebrity/personality story. There is no discussion of a Mike Castle’s conservative voting record (for example) because the market for that type of story does not exist. Important thing for all bloggers to remember: it is pretty well demonstrated that less than 2% of the electorate actually gives a shit about anything we say. And of that 2%, 98% are already strongly committed to one ideology or another and just want to scrap; they're not actually there to think about ever changing their minds. Which is what sometimes amuses me when people [including me] get a...

From Anonone : I do believe that the government should regulate what parents can allow their children to do and not do , like children should not drive cars or fly airplanes. If you take your child rock climbing and she is injured because she was too young, than there should be a penalty for that. Parents shouldn't risk their kid's life for cheap thrills when the kid may not have the maturity or judgement to know better. The inherent premise here is that, due to the fact that a small percentage of parents across the nation will be stupid or even criminally negligent in raising their children, it is the legitimate role of government to protect all children not from abuse but from what some bureaucrat considers a sub-optimal parenting decision . Ironically, these are pretty much the same bureaucrats who fail so miserably at actually preventing child neglect, sexual abuse, or physical abuse. But I have to praise Anonone for the intellectual honesty necessary to say out loud what l...

Yep, once their server stops being attacked, the United States of Earth's new online game 2011: Obama's Coup Fails will be going gangbusters among players like DarthMal, FirstInfantryUnit, and EnemyWithin , all of whom quite evidently have too much time on their hands. [DarthMal has, at last check, assembled a Patriot Army of over 7,000,000 loyal supporters.] The game is really a quite capitalist enterprise aimed at bilking survival fantasy and gaming addicts out of their money ala World of Warcraft. You can play for free, but you cannot really get ahead until you start spending money. [ David Corn, writing for Mother Jones , notes that despite the Obama coup and Glenn Beck's death of an aspirin overdose in a FEMA relocation camp, the notion that [Ron] Paul can become president may be the most far-fetched fantasy of their entire enterprise. ] And, I'd argue, the money that these guys are spending on the game won't be going to GOPAC or to stockpile ammunition. S...

The press release: The Libertarian Party of Washington has endorsed the “Approve” Referendum 71 position. Libertarians believe that people should be treated equally, that we all possess the right to equal protection of the law, as afforded by the 14th Amendment. “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” - 14th Amendment Since the government gives benefits to heterosexual couples, it is imperative that we also extend these benefits to our gay and lesbian citizens as well. “The children of gay and lesbian couples are entitled to equal protection, as well. Discrimination against the gay and lesbian community is also discrimination against their children.” Rachel Hawkridge, Chair of the Libertarian Party of Washington says “It...

With reference to the Obama administration's continuing war against Fox News , specifically referring to the recent attempt to impose the exclusion of Fox from the White House press pool for an interview opportunity, I said, The State having the power to restrict the free--even partisan press--is a greater danger to the American republic than anything that press might ever say. To which Dana Garrett responded, And if the Nazi press wanted to be part of the press pool and attend White House News briefings, then as far as your concerned the White House is OBLIGATED to oblige them? You are the one who claims to be the constitutionalist. Please point out in the constitution where the President is obligated to recognize just any "news organization" as responsible purveyors of free speech. And, amazingly, Hube fell for this line: As often as I disagree with Dana, I must say he's on the money with the above. Did anybody notice Dana palm that card? Neither my statement nor a...

From Alphecca : After scores of deaths, the U.S. government government is taking a closer look at off-road recreational vehicles, known as ROVs. The Consumer Product Safety Commission voted Wednesday to write mandatory rules to regulate the four-wheel vehicles, after more than 100 deaths since 2003. Riders have suffered dozens of injuries, too — some leading to amputations. The actual stats are : Since 2003, CPSC says 116 people have died, including young children, and more than 150 have been injured. Injuries have involved crushing fractures to legs, feet and arms and some riders have lost limbs. The CPSC says it cannot wait on voluntary standards and market forces: "This is an instance where the industry has not been responding quickly and effectively enough to the well-documented hazards caused by these products," said Rachel Weintraub, director of product safety and senior counsel for the Consumer Federation of America. Ms. Weintraub, however, is--wait for it, technical t...

Given these , I have to wonder whether our local bloggers are also applauding the White House attempt to impose its own restrictions on the press pool for network news : Thursday, CNN, NBC/MSNBC, ABC and CBS all refused to go along with an attempt to toss Fox from a media pool that was supposed to conduct interviews with White House pay czar Kenneth Feinberg, who was unveiling restrictions on pay for executives of companies that accepted bailout money from the government. Under an arrangement designed to save the networks money, a crew from one network shoots some White House events for all five outlets. The pool camera was supposed to shoot each network’s separate interview with Feinberg, but the networks were notified that Fox, which has been part of the pool arrangement since 1997, would not be allowed to question him. The Obama administration relented after the other networks, in a gesture of solidarity, said they would take a pass on interviewing Feinberg if Fox was kept out of th...

While everybody is quivering in righteous populist anger over the impending restrictions on corporate pay and bonuses for the most bailed-out corporations, Goldman Sachs is salting away a bonus pool of, well: As Wall Street firms typically do, Goldman set almost half that sum aside to compensate its workers. Through the first nine months of 2009, the firm socked away $16.7 billion, enough to pay the average Goldmanite $526,814. The bonus pool is on pace to hit $21 billion for 2009, which would match the record bonus payout of 2007. Goldman said it won't decide the size of the bonus pool till year-end. In any case, the payments will be substantial -- and will come just one year after huge sums of taxpayer dollars were funneled to financial institutions. Of course, GS leadership (at least that much of as has not been recruited to run the Fed and the Treasury Departmet) asserts that it should be exempt from government regulation because it has paid back all $10 billion in government b...

Manny Ramirez after last night's loss to the Phillies : "They were better than us," Ramirez said. "You saw what they were capable of doing." No equivocation. No excuses.

From Mark Trodden of the University of Pennsylvania on recently taking his US citizenship test: While the interview is relatively straightforward for someone like me (English speaking, with a long and continuous employment record, and married to a US citizen for well over a decade), one does have to go through the civics exam, in which one is asked ten questions chosen randomly from a list of one hundred, which one can study in advance from a booklet. The questions are not particularly difficult, and one only needs to get six correct to pass. However, being a good nerd, I studied dutifully, and made sure I could answer all one hundred correctly if necessary.... The ... problem for the geek taking the citizenship test is that if you get six correct before the examiner reaches ten questions, he just stops asking, and tells you you’ve passed. One must then avoid the temptation to say “No, come on, ask me the rest! I know the answers, honestly, just try me!” Pathetic, I know. ... because ...

Because we desperately need to be protected from naked people drinking coffee in their own homes : (Oct. 21) A Virginia man was busted for indecent exposure after he was caught in the buff. In his own home. Alone. Eric Williamson, 29, got up at 5:30 a.m. Monday and went to the kitchen to make some coffee. He was naked, but he was alone in the Springfield house, so he didn't think it mattered. Wrong. A woman and a 7-year-old boy were cutting through Williamson's front yard from a nearby path, according to WTTG-TV, Channel 5 in Washington. Through his front window, they saw Williamson having coffee in his birthday suit. Fairfax County police showed up and arrested him. Williamson said he had no idea anyone could see him, but police said they believed he wanted to be seen by the public, said WTTG, a Fox station. If convicted, Williamson could face one year in jail and a $2,000 fine. He plans to fight the charge. "If I stood and seemed comfortable in my kitchen, it's natu...

Regular readers will have long ago been introduced to ground-breaking Tarheel State Libertarians like Michael Munger and Chris Cole . Now [h/t Libertarian Republican ] you can add Matt Drew, the Libertarian candidate for Durham City Council, whose finish in the ward primary now entitles him to take on Democratic incumbent Howard Clement. A visit to Drew's website discovers a candidate who is both thoughtful, civil, and willing to challenge perceived wisdom. With respect to the idea that he cannot win the council seat in an overwhelmingly African-American population: If you are a voter, go look in the mirror and honestly appraise yourself and your reasons for voting. If any of the reasons you voted for me include the fact that I’m white, I have a message for you: Please stay home in November. I don’t want your vote. If you find yourself in this position, I strongly urge you both to re-examine yourself and your motivations for voting. You also need to re-examine what Libertarian...

Here's what George Wahlen did : One of the greatest of these living recipients [of the Congressional Medal of Honor] is George Wahlen of Ogden, Utah. Wahlen was a medical corpsman during the battle of Iwo Jima. Wahlen risked his life repeatedly by crawling out into the line of fire to administer life-saving medical aid. On two occasions he was hit by shrapnel and painfully injured, yet he refused to leave the battlefield. During twelve days of battle he is credited for saving a countless number of Marines. After World War II, Wahlen served active duty during both the Korean and Vietnam conflicts. He is also the only recipient to have served during war-time for the Navy, Marines, Army and Air Force. I shouldn't have to tell you what Linda Brown did. But I'll give you a hint if you need it: she was a third grader in Topeka KS when the NAACP filed Brown v. Board of Education . On the other hand, you may not have heard of Murray Gell-Mann, one of the most important American t...

From Coyote blog : Cameron Scott meant this sentence as a withering critique of everything that is wrong with the government, from his point of view: Transit riders shouldered four times the share of the MTA [Metropolitan Transit Authority] 2008 budget disaster [than] drivers did, but officials promised to seek more revenue from parking. Holy cr*p! You mean that transit users shouldered four times more of the transit budget than transit non-users? Gasp! The Bay Area where he lives is experiencing light rail disease. This is the phenomenon where middle class voters along heavy white collar commuting routes push for horrendously expensive light rail lines. The capital costs of these systems drain transit budgets into the distant future, forcing service cuts, particularly in bus systems that serve the poor. The result is that the city ends up with bigger transit bills, but less actual transit, and progressives like Scott scratch their head and try to figure out what went wrong. It m...

My friends at Delawareliberal went all out describing Americans who did not believe that President Barack Obama did not deserve the Nobel Peace prize as wingnuts with no fewer than nine major posts . The general theme was possibly best expressed by Delawaredem, who opined that when you have President Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize, you have the recipe for Peak Wingnut. The only problem, CNN now reports , is that a majority of Americans (which would require a lot of Democrats to make up that majority, one presumes) don't think President Obama deserved the Nobel Peace prize: About a third believe the president deserved the prize, according to this week's CNN/Opinion Research poll. Fifty-six percent say they disapprove of the Nobel Prize Committee's decision to honor him, the survey found. This would appear to mean one of three things: 1) Americans in general reality test much better than our local liberal/progressive bloggers, and realize that the primary reason Presid...

... like the Darfur region of Sudan. It is important to read this entire NYT article on the impact of Major-General Scott Gration on the Obama administration's policy towards the genocidal government in Khartoum. You need to read it for yourself, because it is carefully balanced and subject to distortion if I pick out too many quotes about Gration himself. But it is disturbing on multiple levels: 1) The continuing and apparently expanding use of US military personnel in diplomatic roles. To a greater extent than most previous administrations, President Obama appears to be relying upon military rather than diplomatic personnel to make critical assessments and carry out foreign policy. 2) The lack of transparency in our new foreign policy: On Monday, the administration unveiled a new policy in Sudan, outlining an effort that officials said was aimed at ending the mass human suffering there, promoting a definitive peace and preventing Sudan from serving as a haven for terrorists. T...

Hard as it may be to recall now, when the Afghan presidential election originally came off, the US State Department praised it as well-run and closely scrutinized , even as President Karzai's political supporters organized 800 completely fictitious polling places to garner phoney votes. Now, thanks primarily to public pressure brought to bear by Peter Galbraith (resulting in UN election observer Kal Eide finally admitting that Karzai's election was fraudulent) , the US has reluctantly joined those agreeing that a run-off will be necessary after first suggesting that we would not allow one . In fact, this has no opened up something of a breach between the Obama administration and Senator John Kerry (who was, if you recall, one of the other finalists to become Secretary of State, and who might well be Hillary Clinton's replacement if she decides to quit and run for Governor of New York). Kerry says no decision about US troop levels should be made until there is a legitimatel...

So two weeks ago Tyler Nixon announced here that Mike Castle was running for Congress and that he supports him. No surprise there. Then Delawaredem references that post in Around the Horn a couple days ago and throws off the comment that he'd like to know what I think. I answered and explained why I'm not supporting Castle (or Biden). Then Eric Dondero of Libertarian Republican drops by, sees my answer to DD's post, goes back to find Tyler's original post, and suddenly we have Delaware's Top Libertarian Endorses Republican Mike Castle of US Senate Political Stunner!!!! And in the process, Delawareliberal even gets a mention in passing at Libertarian Republican. I know they will be so proud. Several observations are important in this: 1) Despite Eric's connections to Delaware he somehow misses the fact that Tyler was a fusion Republican/Libertarian candidate in 2008, and that Tyler--while possessed of strong libertarian credentials--has been a registered Republi...

Maybe folks are starting to understand : WASHINGTON (CNN) - A slight majority of Americans think that the war in Afghanistan is turning into another Vietnam, according to a new national poll which also indicates that nearly six in 10 oppose sending more U.S. troops to the conflict. Fifty-two percent of people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Monday say the eight year long conflict has turned into a situation like the U.S. faced in the Vietnam War, with 46 percent disagreeing. According to the poll, 59 percent of people questioned opposed sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan with 39 percent in favor. Of the 59 percent opposed, 28 percent want Washington to withdraw all U.S troops, 21 percent are calling for a partial American pullout, and 8 percent say the number of troops should remain the same. "Has Afghanistan turned into Barack Obama's Vietnam? Most Americans think so, and that may be one reason why they oppose sending more U.S. troops to ...

This would be funny if it weren't really happening. From Classically Liberal : The conflict over Proposition 8, the anti-marriage equality proposal in California continues in federal court. A legal battle is brewing over the discriminatory nature of Prop 8. The proponents of Prop 8 have their lawyer in court defending the measure. That lawyer, Charles Cooper, claimed that marriage equality would harm children. This is the sort of claim that the anti-equality advocates have been pushing all along. But a court room is not the place for meaningless, political sound bites. And the judge in this case, Vaughn Walker, wasn't falling for a sound bite. Because Cooper had claimed that marriage laws further procreation, and allowing gays to marry would somehow harm procreation, Walker asked: "What is the harm to the procreation purpose you outlined of allowing same-sex couples to get married?" That's a fairly, straight forward question and one that Cooper clearly should have...