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Another major newspaper comes out with a damning article on the drug war.
From The Washington Post:
Thirty-six years and hundreds of billions of dollars after President Richard M. Nixon launched the war on drugs, consumers worldwide are taking more narcotics and criminals are making fatter profits than ever before. The syndicates that control narcotics production and distribution reap the profits from an annual turnover of $400 billion to $500 billion. And terrorist organizations such as the Taliban are using this money to expand their operations and buy ever more sophisticated weapons, threatening Western security.Another major newspaper comes out with a damning piece on the drug war.
Also, in the newest edition of Foreign Policy magazine, Ethan Nadelmann makes the case for legalization.
A “drugfree world,” which the United Nations describes as a realistic goal, is no more attainable than an “alcoholfree world”—and no one has talked about that with a straight face since the repeal of Prohibition in the United States in 1933. Yet futile rhetoric about winning a “war on drugs” persists, despite mountains of evidence documenting its moral and ideological bankruptcy.
I wish Elizabeth was running instead of this duplicitous chump.
Knocked Up hits theaters tomorrow. If the trailer and the initial reviews are any indications, he’s got another hit on his hands.
The New York Times has an excellent profile of Apatow and some insight on what makes him tick.
Wired magazine lets Apatow and some of the stars of his various works give an oral history of his work, starting with Freaks and Geeks.
Columnist Dan Gardner writes a thoughtful, cogent rebuttal to the throngs of people who have taken to attacking the “new atheists” like Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens.
Via The Ottawa Citizen
Then there’s the problem on the other side — among the atheists such as Richard Dawkins who have been labelled “fanatics.” Now, it is absolutely true that Dawkins’ tone is often as charming as fingernails dragged slowly down a chalkboard. But just what is the core of Dawkins’ radical message?
Well, it goes something like this: If you claim that something is true, I will examine the evidence which supports your claim; if you have no evidence, I will not accept that what you say is true and I will think you a foolish and gullible person for believing it so.
That’s it. That’s the whole, crazy, fanatical package.
Crazy, huh?
Surprise, surprise. Racial profiling exists on the basketball court.
Via The New York Times
“An academic study of the National Basketball Association, whose playoffs continue tonight, suggests that a racial bias found in other parts of American society has existed on the basketball court as well.
A coming paper by a University of Pennsylvania professor and a Cornell University graduate student says that, during the 13 seasons from 1991 through 2004, white referees called fouls at a greater rate against black players than against white players.”
