Obama’s joke – the gift that keeps on giving

I can’t even keep up with all the press and attention that has been given to marijuana legalization in the past few days.
It’s resulted in a huge boost for this site with over 70,000 visits in the past two days (compared to the daily average of around 2,000). The Marijuana is illegal because, uh, uh… post was picked up on Digg, Raw Story and other sites. Interestingly, Digg also gave the Irv Rosenfeld piece I wrote several years ago a huge boost as more of the population are learning things we’ve known for some time.
“bullet” Kathleen Parker explains what Obama should have said:

‹Look, I‰m not ready to legalize marijuana tomorrow, but I do think it‰s time to take a fresh look at the effectiveness of some of our criminal justice policies. And I support Sen. James Webb‰s current efforts to do just that.
‹I also don‰t mean to make light of this issue because I know that a lot of kids wind up in jail who shouldn‰t. And I know from personal experience that smoking marijuana is not a career-ender. But I do want to study this issue carefully before I suggest any broad changes in policy. Thank you for your question.Š
Everyone would have gone home reasonably satisfied, if not quite ready to celebrate. Instead, Obama enjoyed a brief flashback and insulted his merrier minions.
As pot smokers blanket the White House with letters of protest, Obama may want to rethink his position. He not only has ticked off a portion of his grass-roots, so to speak, but, when the Chinese come to collect interest on those trillions, he may find it preferable that more, rather than fewer, Americans be mellow.

“bullet” Glenn Greenwald explores the Mysteries of logical reasoning

(1) Anyone who favors marijuana legalization just wants to get high without being hassled, and anyone who favors drug decriminalization generally is or wants to be a drug user.
[…]
Why is most everyone capable of understanding the egregious, illogical stupidity of propositions (2)-(8) — based on the bleedingly obvious premise that one can advocate the freedom to do X for reasons other than a desire to do X — while so many people embrace the equally illogical and stupid reasoning of proposition (1) as though it is so self-evidently true that it requires no discussion?

Update: See also…
“bullet” Mark Milian at the L.A. Times: Web lights up with protests over Obama’s dismissal of marijuana legalization

And on the social news website Digg, a story about marijuana benefits, decriminalization or reactions to Obama’s weedy treatment of the pot question has been voted to the home page every day since the town hall — and in many cases, multiple times a day.
So what does that say about the online audience? Considering that many political analysts attribute a major part of Obama’s election to his popularity on social networks, maybe he shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss something they clearly feel strongly about.

“bullet” This may not be at all connected to Obama’s statement, but it certainly adds to the sense that it’s becoming more possible to have the discussions…
Jack Cafferty, of CNN’s Situation Room: Commentary: War on drugs is insane

So how’s this war on drugs going?
Someone described insanity as doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result each time. That’s a perfect description of the war on drugs. […]
What do you suppose the total price tag is for this failed war on drugs? One senior Harvard economist estimates we spend $44 billion a year fighting the war on drugs. He says if they were legal, governments would realize about $33 billion a year in tax revenue. Net swing of $77 billion. Could we use that money today for something else? You bet your ass we could. Plus the cartels would be out of business. Instantly. Goodbye crime and violence.
If drugs were legalized, we could empty out a lot of our prison cells. People will use this stuff whether it’s legal or not. Just like they do booze. And you could make the argument that in some cases alcohol is just as dangerous as some drugs. I know.
Like I said … something to think about. It’s time.