Yearly Archives: 2013

Paul Rosenberg: Top 5 Reasons I Stopped Caring About Politics

"When I was young, I felt a need to understand politics, and I spent time studying. But as time progressed, I received diminishing returns on that investment. And in the past few years, I have given it up altogether. These days, my concern with politics is limited to things like these: Who is making war, and where? Where is the crime occurring in my area? Are there laws that will force me to move my businesses offshore? Beyond that, I’m really not interested. I see the headlines, but I seldom read the stories. And I’m very happy saying, 'I haven’t looked into it,' when people ask my opinion on the day’s ‘news.’ Here’s why." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPaul Rosenberg: Top 5 Reasons I Stopped Caring About Politics

Want to Defend Your Privacy?

"We all have to accept the cold, hard fact of the matter, which is that this cat-and-mouse game is likely to be with us for a very long time. Those who believe they have the right to spy on us will develop ever more sophisticated ways of doing it. Those who believe we have a Constitutional right to privacy will fight tooth and nail to protect it. It's possible that the one side eventually will develop an unstoppable offense or that the other will come up with a defense that can't be breached. But that's not the way to bet. In the end, technology is completely neutral. It will evolve with no regard to how it is used. Expect those cats and mice to continue chasing each other." Continue reading →

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More inmates say guards at St. Louis jail forced them to fight ‘gladiator-style’

"Thirty inmates at a St. Louis jail want to join a class-action lawsuit saying they were forced into a 'gladiator-style' fight club — all for the amusement of guards. The potential for additional plaintiffs comes a year after the original suit was filed against the city and alleges a systemic problem at the Medium Security Institution, which is nicknamed the Workhouse. 'What was happening was the guards were actually taking inmates out of the cells, placing them in cells with other inmates and forcing them to fight each other,' Brown told St. Louis radio station KMOX. The station said the city has filed a response denying the allegations." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMore inmates say guards at St. Louis jail forced them to fight ‘gladiator-style’

Female inmates sue Texas county for running ‘rape camp’ at jail

"Two female inmates have sued a Texas county and three former jailers for running what they said was a 'rape camp' at the county jail. In a court filing obtained by Courthouse News Service, inmates J.A.S. and J.M.N name Live Oak County and former jailers Vincent Aguilar, Israel Charles Jr. and Jaime E. Smith as defendants. Although the three guards were arrested in 2010 on charges of sexual assault and are now serving time in Texas state prisons, the women have brought to light new disturbing details about the abuse. They are seeking punitive damages for civil rights violations, assault and emotional distress." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFemale inmates sue Texas county for running ‘rape camp’ at jail

Why the ‘War on Drugs’ has been made redundant

"Professional but clandestine labs are rifling the scientific literature for new psychoactive drugs and synthesising them as fast as the law changes. Despite the free availability of substances as pleasurable as already banned drugs, we have not seen a massive increase in problem users and drug mortality rates have been falling. Even with the newly introduced 'instant bans', drug laws are simply not able to keep up. It has long been clear that the drug war approach of criminalising possession rather than treating problem drug-users has been futile. The war on drugs has not been lost, it has been made obsolete." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWhy the ‘War on Drugs’ has been made redundant

Down With the Supremes

"The United States Supreme Court made a serious and harmful blunder in its decision in Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc. Their first holding was that a gene or portion of a gene extracted as a strand of DNA from a genome is not an invention, but something found in nature, and thus not patentable. So far, so good. Unfortunately, they erred in reaching their second holding, that a strand of cDNA, which is derived by a different process, and contains only a single gene, is patentable. This means that genes do, despite the headlines, remain patentable." Continue reading →

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Something’s not all right with Medicare

"What could possibly be so powerful that it threatens the viability of the largest revamping of health care in half a century? It’s the amount of money Medicare pays doctors for services rendered. Next year the ACA mandates that the reimbursement rate for doctors’ services be cut by 24.7 percent. If that happens without a hitch — without the first Million-Doctor March on Washington or doctors forming a union as tough as the Teamsters — the health-care cost savings envisioned by the ACA may actually come to pass because doctors will either be working for less money from Medicare or they will have said goodbye and good luck to their Medicare patients." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSomething’s not all right with Medicare

Supreme Court rules generic drug makers cannot be held liable for defects

"The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday that makers of generic drugs already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cannot be held liable under state law for claims of design defects. In a 5-4 vote, the court ruled for Mutual Pharmaceutical Co, a unit of URL Pharma, owned by Sun Pharmaceutical Industries." Continue reading →

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Washington state pot regulators favor outdoor growth for environmental reasons

"The regulatory board overseeing marijuana legalization in Washington State is leaning toward allowing licensed growers to raise the drug outdoors, citing the much higher carbon footprint of indoor and greenhouse cultivation, board members said. The shift on cultivation rules underscores the degree to which the Washington State board is taking public feedback to heart, Chairwoman Sharon Foster said, and comes after the Seattle Times cited a 2012 study published in the journal Energy Policy saying that a kilogram of cannabis grown indoors requires the same amount of energy as 11 cross-country car trips." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWashington state pot regulators favor outdoor growth for environmental reasons

CA Medical Marijuana Dispensary Numbers Shrink in Two-Pronged War of Attrition

"Anyone who is following the situation in the Golden State at all closely has seen a numbing litany of reports of dispensaries forced out of business, including from some of the most venerable, respected, and law-abiding operations in the state. What had been the occasional raid or prosecution by the DEA or federal prosecutors during the early years of the Obama administration has turned into a heightened onslaught since the issuance of the notorious Cole memo, written by Assistant Attorney General James Cole, two years ago next week and the announcement by California's four US Attorneys that fall that they were declaring open season on dispensaries." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCA Medical Marijuana Dispensary Numbers Shrink in Two-Pronged War of Attrition