Obama has put “boots on the ground” in Syria after promising 16 times that he would not put “boots on the ground” in Syria. Our Nobel Peace Prize winner seems to have trouble staying out of wars.
U.S. Sends Ground Troops to Syria. Here Are 3 Reasons Why That’s Bad.
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If Ohioans pass Issue 3 today, the days of pot prohibition will disappear like the smoke from a wild night’s last bong hit.
That’s sorta what Nick Gillespie of Reason argued yesterday, anyway. “[I]f marijuana can be legalized in Ohio,” he wrote, “it can — and will be — legalized everywhere and the war on pot is effectively over.” Why?
Ohio is the ultimate embodiment of mythical “middle America” and a state that once plastered “the Heart of It All” on its license plates. It’s poised to become just the fifth state to legalize weed — before liberal blue states like California, Maryland, New York, Massachusetts, and perhaps most importantly, before its dark twin in college sports and economic dissipation, Michigan. Given its paradigmatic normalcy, Ohio can be the place where the drug war . . . finally goes to die.
But there is a disturbing aspect to Issue 3: “Crony Capitalism.”
The constitutional amendment would not simply legalize growth and sale, subject to regulation similar to alcohol or tobacco. Though it would legalize home growth, it stakes out a complicated limited licensing system for commercial sale, allowing for only a handful of growers in the state.
Gillespie quotes one pro-legalization activist who objects to the very idea that “any group or corporation has the exclusive right to grow marijuana and sell it. It’s not plutonium. It’s an agricultural commodity that should be regulated like one.”
A recent poll shows voters evenly split on Issue 3, but increasingly troubled that the measure creates an un-free market, a lucrative marijuana monopoly for those funding the initiative.
Today’s balloting may determine only whether voters like marijuana more than they dislike monopolies.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
“Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.”
Jean-Paul Sartre, L’être et le néant (Being and Nothingness), 1943, Hazel Barnes, translator
Government incentives and market incentives are quite different. This explains a lot.
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Sen. Marco Rubio’s charge in last week’s presidential debate, that the mainstream media functions as a SuperPAC for Democrats, was not only accurate, I wrote at Townhall, it has deeper implications.
Consider the relentless media drumbeat for restrictive campaign finance regulations.
If the Federal Elections Commission mutes, at Congress’s instruction, voices of the political parties and silences issue-oriented advocacy groups — or such groups are prevented by the IRS from even forming in the first place — and if Democrats get their way and ban SuperPACs (other than the media), who would hold the loudest megaphone?
You guessed it.
The New York Times, Washington Post, Associated Press, NBC News, etc. — corporate behemoths all — warn of the dangers of big, bad corporations and wealthy individuals, hoping to spur regulation that hamstrings the communications of others.
The regulations somehow never involve abridging the speech of those same powerful media outlets.
Last year, every single Democrat in the Senate voted to repeal the essential constitutional guarantee of free speech, voting for Senate Joint Resolution 19, introduced by Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.).
Had it become part of our Constitution, the First Amendment’s words “Congress shall pass no law” would have been replaced with an open-ended invitation for politicians in Congress to “regulate” campaign spending — therefore speech — to their hearts’ content.
The amendment was so sweeping the authors felt the need to add: “Nothing in this article shall be construed to grant Congress or the States the power to abridge the freedom of the press.”
Big Media is a major force promoting Big Government, always willing to attack advocates of a constitutionally limited government.
Except when it comes to constitutional protections for Big Media.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
We have nothing to fear from BIG GOVERNMENT!
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“I hate your city. It has standardized all the beauty out of life. It is one big railroad station — with all the people taking tickets for the best cemeteries.”
Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt, 1922
Marco Rubio said something more than a little true about his opposition party, the Democratic. It had to do with the media. But that truth explains a whole lot more than just the mechanics of the much-ridiculed presidential debates. Click on over to Townhall. Then come back here for more reading . . . and viewing.
“War is a racket. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.”
Smedley Butler, War Is a Racket
, 1935
Uhmmm,Yeah. So…how’s that Been working out for you?
(Public Approval Rating for congress: 15% | Re-election rate for congress: 90%)
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Photo credits (endorsement of this message is not implied): cc Randy Stern on flickr / cc Raelene Gutlerrez on flikr