Barney Frank just made my day.

Sure, the guy as two first names - and both of the names conjure up guys sitting back, maybe watching a little mork & mindy on channel 57, maybe kick back a cool coors 16-ouncer.... Good, fine people, sure... but I digress.

Representative Barney Frank has brought a proposal to the table suggesting that we stop arresting people for posession of marijuana in amounts under 100 grams.  Yeah, I think this is a pretty big deal - it's at the national level, first of all.  That's huge.  A congressman with the balls to basically go up against the national hysteria around the drug war gets huge kudos in my book.

I'm not going to bother quoting the article - it's something that should be read in full.  Go read it.  Take a few minutes, then, to re-read it.

Notice anything missing?
Yeah, me too.
There's no rabid "OMG SKY FALLING SLIPPERY SLOPE CATS DOGS HYSTERIA" going on in the article.  It's level-headed.  It brings facts. 

Is it possible that we're finally at a point, nationally, where we can have a frank (no pun) and honest discussion about the war on drugs?  Is it possible that this nation is finally beginning to understand that treating a medical and recreational issue as a criminal issue simply makes new criminals and problems?    I kinda doubt it, but who knows.... it would be nice.

Sean Tarvis for EMPEROR!

Special thanks to State of Protest for linking to Sean Tevis. Sean is running for office in Kansas on a platform of things that just make sense (AKA the common sense approach, or the screw-politics platform or whatnot). He's looking for small donors to help cover the costs, and in using a simple plan on the internet has been able to get well above the amount he needed. Go check out his page to check it out - and if you can donate, go for it.

Jesse Jackson is a douche.

So Jesse Jackson used the "N-word" in talking about Obama.

Okay.... uh... dude...  Jesse, Jesse, Jesse.

I have 2 thoughts on this idiocy.  My first thought is that Jesse Jackson is showing his stripes now that there's a successful man of color showing up in politics as an American first, and a black man second.  He cares more about his petty ego-fueled rants and divisiveness than almost anything else, and having a black man emerge that has a voice which is more reasonable, more interesting, more grounded in reality than Jackson's voice is.  Barak Obama has GOT to be getting under Jackson's skin - because Obama is showing, clearly, that he has NO need for Jackson's brand of politics.

Here's the other thought -
Fox News screwed up in a majorly immoral way.  They took footage which was taken while OFF THE AIR and aired it.  Commercial breaks are KNOWN to be off the record.  They are breaks not only for the hosts and commercials, but also for anyone else not ON camera.  It's an implied and trusting relationship with the interviewees, and violating that trust is pretty crappy. 

Is it news that Jackson wants to cut Obama's testicles off?  Sure!  I do care about that!!  But.... the reporting on this topic is completely immoral.  I hope Fox goes ahead and apologizes on this one.  That's likely, I'm sure.

Inspirational video

Anger = hilarity

If you read nothing else today, click here and read this article by my new favorite-ever blogger.  One post and I'm in love.

Motivation Poster for Evolutionists

Parabens, Estrogen, and LOLOMG oh MY!

Every so often I hear about chemicals that are now thought to be on the prowl in order to, you know, KILL. Things that everyone thought were completely safe turn out to be little molecular Charlie Mansons. The latest OMG SCARY PANIC chemicals are parabens.

Parabens are a group of chemicals that have been used for a long, LONG time in preserving everything from food to cosmetics, and generally are considered extremely safe. There have been no studies showing anything really dangerous about them, but people are still worried about it based on the fact that in very, very large amounts it parabens have been shown to cause some very, very weak increases in estrogen. OMG PANIC!

Well, wait. Don't panic yet.

From the wikipedia article on parabens -

Animal experiments have shown that parabens have weak estrogenic activity, acting as xenoestrogens.[15] In an in vivo study, the effect of butylparaben was determined to be approximately 100,000 times weaker than estradiol, although this effect was only observed when employing a dose level which was 25,000 times higher than is actually used to preserve products.[16] As the estrogenic effect is dose-related, it may be calculated that the estrogenic effect at normal use concentrations of butylparaben is 100,000 x 25,000, i.e. 2,500,000,000 times weaker than estradiol. In the same study it was shown that the in vivo estrogenic activity of parabens is reduced by about three orders of magnitude compared to in vitro activity probably through the rapid metabolism of the parabens to the non-estrogenic metabolites. In vivo data are accepted as being more relevant than in vitro data.

Translation: The estrogen-like effects are ONLY observed when levels 25000 times higher than amounts used in preserving products were employed. The level observed was then REALLY FRICKING WEAK.

Boiled down: Shut up.

If you take ANYTHING in 25,000 times its normal usage there's bound to be an effect or 3. Take 10,000,000 milligrams of Ibuprofen, as an example - that would be, yes, 10 KILOGRAMS of ibuprofen. That's the level of dilution we're talking about here.

Reality: Not just for breakfast anymore!

Qualifications for presidency:

1: Leadership
2: Ability to not suck at life
3: Some understanding of the law and constitution
4: Executive experience
5: Endorsements from religious nutjobs

Sure, there are other things that you need to have - charisma, nice hair, be tall, yadda yadda... but GETTING SHOT DOWN OVER VIETNAM AND BEING A POW IS NOT A QUALIFICATION TO BE A PRESIDENT.

Wesley Clark has been vilified for pointing that out. Personally, I think that he's right on the money here. McCain DOES have qualifications that make him a good candidate - getting shot down and surviving as a POW just isn't one of them.

I will say that he handled himself like a true hero, and it's certainly a sign that his character at that time (and hell, probably now too) was rock solid. He sacrificed a LOT for this country. He is certainly a true patriot.

That said, this experience isn't enough. There were a LOT of POWs over there. A ton of them. Most of them aren't qualified to be a president. Why not? Because GETTING SHOT DOWN OVER VIETNAM IS NOT A VALID WAY TO TRAIN FOR AN EXECUTIVE POSITION. Jesus CHRIST people, get off it already. Stop freaking out and demanding that Obama apologize for something CLARK said that, quite honestly, NEEDED to be said.

McCain has a lot of other perfectly valid qualifications that SHOULD be pointed out. He is the Samuel Jackson (*circa Pulp Fiction) of politics, and that's something that's pretty awesome. He's certainly a political force that knows what he's doing and has tons of smarts... but... and this is a big but:

He's panicking. His team knows they're running a likely unwinnable campaign at this point. When Hillary Clinton lost, McCain lost. They know their only option is to be as uber-patriotic and RA RA AMURRICA RA RA as possible, and try to ride the GWB coattails as far as possible. That means taking any perceived slight against his military record and making it a huge "OMG YOU TERRORIST" sort of deal. They know that right now Obama isn't just looking to win - he's looking to mop the frickin' floor with McCain. Obama's taking issues away from McCain one at a time. It's strategic and ugly, and McCain's staff can clearly see the writing on the wall.

They're going to have to get really, really innovative in a serious hurry in order to compete here. I think there's a chance they will, but it's a longshot. I actually hope it happens too - even though I think at this point Obama's a better choice, I DO think that McCain has some good input that should be aired out.

Of course, this campaign is going to get very ugly in a very big hurry. It'll be interesting to watch, I think - the "surrogates" are going to be out in force, saying things that no one directly connected could say, of course.

Fun. Welcome to Campaign 2008: the higher the road we take, the lower we have to stoop.