Friday, May 8, 2009

Quick Links for May 8th

*Looks at calendar* Let's see, it's...Oh fuck yes it's Sexy Friday! Let's end this Wally-forsaken week and see if we can't do better next week. But until then, Quick Links!

Legalize it!

It's only fitting that this week ends with me agreeing with Fitzy, who put away his elitist "eat at that fucking restaurant I like you bitter fucking fucks!" sword today and busted out his dirty hippie sword (that's still slightly elitist). He says let us smoke in peace! And I couldn't agree with him more. While I have absolutely no faith that pot's going to legalized and taxed even though it makes boatloads of sense.

Of course, we have to point out some flaws in his argument, even if it pains us to do so. For one, saying the devil's lawn clippings is "unequivocally" safe isn't exactly true. Sure, it's never been proven to be chemically addictive, it's sure a shit mentally addictive. Of course, that doesn't make it wrong, mental addiction isn't really something easily scientifically measured since everybody's different. Some people can handle the awesome calming factor of hippie lettuce and still function without it. Others light that shit, smoke that shit, and pass that shit and then realize that it's ridiculously fucking awesome and want to be like that all the time. It's not something Mary Jane can control. Anything in the wrong hands can be a bad thing, but to totally dismiss that and act like the big green is no more dangerous than a chocolate Easter Bunny is really one of the few things still pissing prohibitionists off enough to keep their fight going.

That's the real problem I have with this column, in typical Fitzy condescending fashion he treats the prohibitionists like morons for not bowing to his wealth of statistical knowledge. If you're truly going to have a persuasive argument you have to understand the other side of the argument. Prohibitionists aren't arguing from the logical, scientific point of view. They're coming from a very emotional angle because a lot of the time prohibitionists are conservatives with ties to religion. Weed's wrong because Jesus says it's wrong. To use stats to point out all the reasons they're wrong is basically saying Jesus is wrong. You ever tell a deeply religious person Jesus is wrong? It's not pretty.

And that's why Fitzy's argument sucks, he's using a rational argument with irrational people. His whole argument is useless because he's not changing their minds. And even if he could, doing so by basically calling them fucking stupid is, well, really fucking stupid.

Really? It took this long to get this interview?

The Cantu coverage has thankfully subsided since the gag order was put in place. We've spent our fair share of time speaking out against the ridiculous amount of coverage the Record gave the story but this story about Jose Franco, the man who discovered the suitcase containing Cantu, is an interesting read. We really don't have much to say about it, just really passing it along. It's a pretty well done story about a guy dealing with realizing his biggest fear. I can't imagine what goes through that guy's head when he can't sleep at night.

And finally, a long overdue link

If you haven't checked out Ian Hill's blog, appropriately titled Ian Hill Media, you really should. It's an interesting look at the constantly changing state of journalism as the internet finds new ways to get news and information out there for free, thus killing newspapers dead. Plus we get to watch as Ian learns new skills for his job as web content producer for recordnet.com. Yup, today is "interesting" day. Fucking slow news days/weeks.

I heard a rumor that El Duke make poke his ugly mug in here today in light of Rick Pitino claiming he wants the Kings coaching. So that should be pretty good if it actually happens. If not, have a good weekend, happy Sexy Friday. Let the drinking commence.

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