• Cannabis,  Marijuana

    Reefer Madness?

    How weed Became the New Oxycontin

    Happy International Overdose Awareness Day.

    I wrote this story for Tablet. If the responses I’ve received so far are any indication, some of you are going to hate this article. Some of you might accuse me of propagating “reefer madness.” We can have an interesting discussion about that in the comments. My own suspicion is that for whatever reason, there is such a deep-seated cultural attachment to the idea of cannabis being some kind of a wonder plant that many people have a reflexive revulsion to anything arguing otherwise. In other words, I think much of the reaction is emotional. But I can be convinced otherwise.

    Read all of this excellent article here.

  • Barack Obama,  Marijuana

    Obama: Enforcement of Marijuana Laws Not a HIGH Priority

    Drudge Screencap: Obama Cool to Non-enforcement of Marijuana LawsWhy, of course, President Obama is cool towards non-enforcement of marijuana laws.

    President Obama says recreational users of marijuana in states that have legalized the substance should not be a “top priority” of federal law enforcement officials prosecuting the war on drugs.

    “We’ve got bigger fish to fry,” Obama said of pot users in Colorado and Washington during an exclusive interview with ABC News’ Barbara Walters.

    “It would not make sense for us to see a top priority as going after recreational users in states that have determined that it’s legal,” he said, invoking the same approach taken toward users of medicinal marijuana in 18 states where it’s legal.

    There is precedent with the President not liking duly passed laws and refusing to enforce them. Examples include the Defense of Marriage Act and the Dream Act with regards to enforcement of the immigration laws.

    Now, it is federal drug laws pertaining to marijuana.

    If the President doesn’t like a law – no problem. It is no longer a priority.

    Sounds like dictatorial type of powers to me….

    Here is the video:

  • Pinboard Links,  The Morning Flap

    The Morning Flap: November 26, 2012

    Shelley Moore Capito

    West Virginia Rep. Shelley Moore Capito

    These are my links for November 21st through November 26th:

    • Democrats Unlikely to Regain House in 2014– “In midterm election years since World War II, the president’s party has lost an average of 26 seats in the House … The president’s party gained seats only twice, in 1998 and 2002. … [W]hat we observe in the data … is a ‘reverse coattails’ effect. When a party wins the presidency by a large margin, it usually benefits from voters who are mainly interested in the presidential election itself, and then vote for the same party in races down the ballot. These types of voters may not show up to vote in midterm years. Thus, the more a party benefits from presidential coattails in the presidential election year, the more it stands to lose two years later. … Midterm losses for the president’s party have been somewhat more modest in recent years than during the middle part of the 20th century. This potentially reflects the fact that more Congressional districts have strongly partisan makeups now, leaving fewer seats in play. As 2010 demonstrated, however, no firewall is all that robust in the event of a wave election year.”That Mr. Obama won the presidency by a relatively narrow margin this year and that Democrats do not control the House would argue against a wave election … This year, there were only 11 House seats that Democrats lost by five or fewer percentage points. Thus, even if they had performed five points better across the board, they would still have come up … short of controlling the chamber. In other words, Democrats would have to perform quite a bit better in House races in 2014 than they did in 2012 to win control of the chamber … And … Democrats … have become increasingly reliant upon voters, like Hispanics and those under the age of 30, who do not turn out reliably in midterm election years. Democrats have a broader coalition than Republicans do in high-turnout environments, so perhaps this will benefit them in 2016. But these are not the voters you would want to depend upon to make gains in midterm election years, when turnout is much lower. “
    • How Hillary Clinton’s choices predict her future– On a recent Monday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton walked with her husband onto a stage at the New York Sheraton to cheers and whoops and a standing ovation that only got louder as she tried to quiet things down.It was a friendly crowd — the annual meeting of her husband’s foundation, the Clinton Global Initiative — and people may have been eager to hear her speech about using U.S. aid to target investment barriers such as old land tenure laws. But really, they were there to see her.“She’s just looked so sad and so tired,” said Ritu Sharma, a women’s rights activist, referring to Clinton’s appearances in the days after the attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.They wanted to defend her, to rave about her, to say how sick they were of people talking about her hair, and then to talk about her hair, which, several men and women offered, definitely looked best in a simple chignon.

      Mostly, though, people wondered what the woman walking across the stage — now smiling as a soaring, presidential-sounding score began playing — would choose to do next. Maybe now, in her final months in office, she would provide a clue.

    • Democratic super PACs get jump on 2014, 2016– Winning changes everything.It took Democrats a while to warm up to super PACs, but their glee over 2012 is — for now — eclipsing any moral qualms about big money eroding democracy, and they’re already busy at work courting their wealthiest supporters and planning even more ambitious efforts for future elections.Shortly after Election Day, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer and top White House aides spoke at a three-day secret meeting of major Democratic donors and officials from liberal outside groups gearing up for 2014, POLITICO has learned.Among the groups represented: Priorities USA Action, the super PAC that is vowing to remain a player in Democratic politics, even though President Barack Obama won’t run for office again; American Bridge 21st Century, the oppo shop that helped sink Missouri Rep. Todd Akin’s GOP Senate bid; the Pelosi-backed House Majority PAC; the secret-money organizing nonprofit America Votes; and the pro-choice group EMILY’s List.
    • Obama faces huge challenge in setting up health insurance exchanges– The Obama administration faces major logistical and financial challenges in creating health insurance exchanges for states that have declined to set up their own systems.The exchanges were designed as the centerpiece of President Obama’s signature law, and are intended to make buying health insurance comparable to booking a flight or finding a compatible partner on Match.com.Sixteen states — most of them governed by Republicans — have said they will not set up their own systems, forcing the federal government to come up with one instead.Another five states said they want a federal-state partnership, while four others are considering partnerships.

      It’s a situation no one anticipated when the Affordable Care Act was written. The law assumed states would create and operate their own exchanges, and set aside billions in grants for that purpose.

    • ObamaCare Faces the Implementation Iceberg– Defenders of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, can be forgiven for some post-election triumphalism. But their joy is likely to be short lived. Because the law put off implementation of most key provisions until after the 2012 election, voters cast their ballots on November 6 without knowing what Obamacare’s true effect will be on their tax bills, insurance costs, or access to care.Delaying implementation until 2014 helped the president win re-election, but now the bill is coming due. The administration can’t forestall Obamacare’s massive regulatory impact any longer, and the result will keep Congress and the media occupied for months and years to come.
    • How the Implementation of Obamacare Will Make the GOP a Majority Party– As we get closer to the day when Obamacare moves from threat to reality, it seems probable that the resulting catastrophe for tens of thousands of businesses, as well as the massive increase in premiums for many families, will propel Republicans to majority status in 2014.How many businesses will be forced to close shop? How many will cut back on the number of employees to stay in business? How many will refuse to expand, unable to handle the increased costs?How many jobs will Obamacare cost?
    • House elections 2014: Democrats face uphill slog– Nancy Pelosi decided to take one more crack at winning back the House, but a big obstacle stands between the Democratic leader and the speaker’s gavel in 2014: the six-year itch.Pelosi’s party will be swimming against the riptide of history. The party controlling the White House during a president’s sixth year in office has lost seats in every midterm election but one since 1918, when Woodrow Wilson occupied the Oval Office. And the setbacks typically aren’t small: The average loss in these elections was 30 seats. The exception was 1998, when a soaring economy and Republicans’ focus on President Bill Clinton’s affair helped Democrats buck the trend and pick up a handful of seats.
    • West Virginia Sen: GOP’s Capito Plans 2014 Rockefeller Challenge– West Virginia Republican Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito will announce Monday morning that she is running in 2014 for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Democrat Jay Rockefeller.Capito has long considered a run for the Senate, and passed on the most recent opportunity following the death of long-time Senator Robert Byrd. She’s expected to say, among other things, that the timing is now right for her run.The announcement sets up a potential race between two West Virginia political heavyweights.Rockefeller, 75, is serving his fifth term in the Senate. Prior to that he served two terms as Governor. In Washington, he has championed issues affecting children and families.

      Rockefeller has indicated that he plans to run for re-election in 2014, but there continues to be speculation that he may retire at the end of this term.

    • My Daily Twitter Digest for 2012-11-25 – Locum Tenens (Temporary) Dentist – Gregory Cole, D.D.S. – My Daily Twitter Digest for 2012-11-25
    • GetGlue – Your app for TV, Movies, and Sports – I unlocked the Homeland: Two Hats sticker on #GetGlue!
    • Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Digest for 2012-11-24 – Flap’s California Blog – Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Digest for 2012-11-24
    • Flap’s Blog @ Flap Twitter Daily Digest for 2012-11-24 – Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Blog @ Flap Twitter Daily Digest for 2012-11-24 #tcot
    • Medscape: Medscape Access – High Obesity, Caries Documented in Homeless Children #tcot
    • Rahm Emanuel: How to rebuild America – The Democratic Agenda– Too much post-election analysis has focused on voter demographics and campaign mechanics, leaving Democrats in danger of drawing the wrong lessons from our electoral success.Demographics alone are not destiny. There is nothing in this year’s election returns that guarantees Democrats a permanent majority in the years to come. President Obama and the Democratic Party earned the support of key groups — young people, single women, Latinos, African Americans, auto workers in the Rust Belt and millions of other middle-class Americans — because of our ideas.But we cannot expect Republicans to cede the economic argument so readily, or to fall so far short on campaign mechanics, the next time around.So, instead of resting on false assurances of underlying demographic advantages, the Democratic Party must follow through on our No. 1 priority, which the president set when he took office and reemphasized throughout this campaign: It is time to come home and rebuild America.
    • High Obesity, Caries Documented in Homeless Children– Homeless children have higher rates of caries and obesity than children in the general population, a new study shows.The study, published online November 13 in the Journal of Pediatric Healthcare, showed that rates of caries among children living in shelters for the homeless increased with body mass index (BMI), but this correlation did not reach statistical significance ( P = .08).The researchers speculated that similar dietary factors might contribute to both caries and obesity. “Poor kids don’t have access to nutritious foods,” Marguerite DiMarco, PhD, RN, CPNP, told Medscape Medical News.DiMarco said she had spent decades working with very poor children. “Some families don’t even have a refrigerator to keep milk,” she said. “Some families might not even have running water.”
    • Medical marijuana for a child with leukemia | OregonLive.com – Medical marijuana for a child with leukemia While Parents Live Off of Her Disability Income and Food Stamps #tcot
    • Medical marijuana for a child with leukemia While Parents Live Off of Her Disability Income and Food Stamps– Mykayla Comstock’s family says marijuana helps her fight an especially aggressive form of leukemia, keeps infection at bay and lifts her weary spirit. Twice a day she swallows a potent capsule form of the drug. Some days, when she can’t sleep or eat, she snacks on a gingersnap or brownie baked with marijuana-laced butter.Mykayla is one of 2,201 cancer patients authorized by the state of Oregon to use medical marijuana.She is 7.
    • Larry Hagman | 1931-2012 – latimes.com – RT @latimes: From “Jeannie” to “Dallas”: A Larry Hagman photo gallery
    • The Great Society’s Next Frontier – RT @ByronYork Liberals outline post-Obamacare wish list for welfare state expansion. It’s huge. Read this:
    • Gregory Flap @ Ronnie’s Diner – 9 miles finished – – ready for the Las Vegas Half Marathon next week. (@ Ronnie’s Diner) [pic]:
    • Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Digest for 2012-11-23 – Flap’s California Blog – Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Digest for 2012-11-23
    • Flap’s Blog @ Flap Twitter Daily Digest for 2012-11-23 – Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Blog @ Flap Twitter Daily Digest for 2012-11-23 #tcot
    • My Daily Twitter Digest for 2012-11-23 – Locum Tenens (Temporary) Dentist – Gregory Cole, D.D.S. – My Daily Twitter Digest for 2012-11-23
    • Actor Larry Hagman, notorious and beloved as ‘Dallas’ villain J.R. Ewing, dies– Larry Hagman, the North Texas native who played the conniving and mischievous J.R. Ewing on the TV show Dallas, died Friday at a Dallas hospital. He was 81.Mr. Hagman died at 4:20 p.m. Friday at Medical City Dallas Hospital from complications of his recent battle with cancer, members of his family said.“Larry was back in his beloved Dallas, re-enacting the iconic role he loved most,” the family said in a statement. “Larry’s family and close friends had joined him in Dallas for the Thanksgiving holiday. When he passed, he was surrounded by loved ones. It was a peaceful passing, just as he had wished for. The family requests privacy at this time.”The iconic role of J.R. Ewing metamorphosed Mr. Hagman’s life. He rocketed from being a merely well-known TV actor on I Dream of Jeannie and the son of Broadway legend Mary Martin, to the kind of transnational fame known only by the likes of the Beatles and Muhammad Ali.
    • Twitter / WSJ: College dropouts btw. 25 and … – RT @WSJ: College dropouts btw. 25 and 34 earn on average $32,900. College grads, $45,000.
    • The Cost of Dropping Out – WSJ.com – RT @WSJ: College dropouts btw. 25 and 34 earn on average $32,900. College grads, $45,000.
    • Saxby Chambliss takes aim at Grover Norquist– Sen. Saxby Chambliss took aim at Americans for Tax Reform head Grover Norquist on Wednesday, telling a local television station he’s not worried about a potential primary challenge if he votes to raise taxes.“I care more about my country than I do about a 20-year-old pledge,” said Chambliss, who signed Norquist’s “Taxpayer Protection Pledge” when he first ran for Senate. “If we do it his way, then we’ll continue in debt, and I just have a disagreement with him about that.”
    • Gallup Poll: Americans Continue to Adjust Their Ideal Weight Upward – Americans, on average, say their ideal weight is 162 pounds, continuing a trend of increasing estimates of ideal weight since Gallup first asked about it in 1990. The trend in Americans’ self-reported actual weight — now averaging 176 pounds — has shown a similar increase over time.
    • Restaurant Industry Already Preparing for Obamacare Consequences– Will the restaurant business survive a second Obama term? Can it? Since the president’s reelection earlier this month, four large restaurant chains, Papa Johns, Applebee’s, Denny’s and Darden Restaurants (the company that owns the Olive Garden, Red Lobster, and LongHorn Steakhouse chains) have all recently released statements about their companies’ plans to respond to the increased costs of complying with Obamacare regulations. According to the healthcare law, every full-time employee must be provided with comprehensive medical coverage if the company employs more than 50 full-time workers. If a company refuses to comply, they will be faced with fines of $2,000 per year, per employee, as of January 1, 2014.The announcements from companies grappling with the increased costs of Obamacare have, expectedly, been met with disbelief and consternation by the left, still seemingly unaware of basic economics. Appearing on Fox News Business early last week, Applebee’s CEO Zane Tankel explained the steps his business would have to take in order to stay in operation:The costs of fines or healthcare for dozens of employees per restaurant have the potential to bankrupt individually owned chains across the country. The Applebee’s in New York City would face fines of $600,000 per year if insurance isn’t provided for full-time staff, and estimates for offering federally approved insurance would cost “some millions” across the Applebee’s system. Both scenarios, according to Tankel, “[would] roll back expansion, roll back hiring more people. In the best case scenario [it] would only shrink the labor force minimally.” The restaurant industry, already operating with razor thin margins, doesn’t have the ability to absorb tens of thousands more in healthcare expenditures without a considerable increase in sales. It’s a basic realty of economics: more has to be coming in than going out.The only solution for restaurants that want to stay open and maintain competitive pricing would be to cut employee hours to part-time status. This is the conclusion already reached by several large chains–companies that provide jobs to tens of thousands of working class Americans.
    • Fake Dentist Preyed on Immigrants, Kissed Patient’s Buttocks– A man accused of sexual battery has been charged for practicing dentistry without a license.Wednesday morning, Davie Police issued a search warrant and arrested the alleged unlicensed dentist, 47-year-old John Collazos, at a warehouse located at 5071 S State Road 7. Police said the Collazos owned and operated a dental supply company out of the warehouse and also performed dental services in the back of the warehouse.Carlos Mier works nearby. “Six months ago, this gentleman opened a dental shop, and I started seeing people come in,” he said. “He always was wearing his mask, and his scrub, like a dental scrub.”According to police, Collazos preyed on undocumented immigrants, and when one woman went to him to have some dental work done he allegedly made kissed her buttocks. Davie Police Captain Dale Engle said, “Back in July, we had a female come forward, hesitantly, but she was concerned about her immigration status, but she was was referred to this individual through an acquaintance. When she came on one of the visits, he made some sexually overt comments and ultimately touched her inappropriately, so she did finally come forward.”
    • Marco Rubio and the Age of the Earth– Those believers whose sensibilities Rubio was presumably trying to avoid offending would do well to meditate on the words of Saint Augustine, who like most of the greatest minds of historic Christianity insisted that biblical interpretation take place in the light of reason as well as faith:Usually, even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the other elements of the world, about the motion and orbit of the stars and even their size and relative positions, about the predictable eclipses of the sun and moon, the cycles of the years and the seasons, about the kinds of animals, shrubs, stones, and so forth, and this knowledge he holds to as being certain from reason and experience. Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics, and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show up vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn … If they find a Christian mistaken in a field which they themselves know well and hear him maintaining his foolish opinions about our books, how are they going to believe those books in matters concerning the resurrection of the dead, the hope of eternal life, and the kingdom of heaven, when they think their pages are full of falsehoods on facts which they themselves have learnt from experience and the light of reason? Reckless and incompetent expounders of Holy Scripture bring untold trouble and sorrow on their wiser brethren …It is not Marco Rubio’s task in life to solve this problem. But it is a problem, in our age even more than in Augustine’s, and his answer didn’t help.
    • Waiting for the GOP’s Populist Turn– Dozens of explanations are circulating for why Mitt Romney and a number of Republican Senate candidates lost in the 2012 election.The Republican Party is supposedly too white, too male, and too old. It purportedly does not reach out to minorities, women, and the young. Romney cared more about job creators rather than employees. The Republicans gratuitously picked social fights on abortion and homosexuality that needlessly alienated women, gays, and the young who otherwise might have supported its more important fiscal and national security agendas.It apparently did not get out the white working class vote that wished not just to oppose Obama, but also to rally behind a likeable and personable conservative alternative of like nature. With half of the country on some sort of assistance, 47 million now on food stamps, and with disability insurance morphing into a de facto extension of unemployment insurance, too many voters are invested in the welfare state to vote against its purveyors.
    • The Illegal Immigration Amnesty Delusion– The amnesty signed into law by the charismatic and popular President Reagan did not bring Hispanic voters into the Republican party; Republican congressional leaders who believe that sending one to President Obama would redound to their benefit are engaged in a defective political calculus. Nor are Hispanics the only group of voters to consider. Blue-collar whites do not appear to have turned out for Republicans in the usual numbers last week. Support for amnesty will not bring them back. If the policy advanced the national interest, that consideration might not matter. It does when supposed political advantage is the argument for the policy.The Republican party and the conservative movement simply are not constituted for ethnic pandering, and certainly will not out-pander the party of amnesty and affirmative action. Republicans’ challenge is to convince Hispanics, blacks, women, gays, etc., that the policies of the Obama administration are inimical to their interests as Americans, not as members of any collegium of grievance. That they have consistently failed to do so suggests that Republican leadership is at least as much in need of reform as our immigration code.
    • Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Digest for 2012-11-22 – Flap’s California Blog – Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Digest for 2012-11-22
    • Flap’s Blog @ Flap Twitter Daily Digest for 2012-11-22 – Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Blog @ Flap Twitter Daily Digest for 2012-11-22 #tcot
    • My Daily Twitter Digest for 2012-11-22 – Locum Tenens (Temporary) Dentist – Gregory Cole, D.D.S. – My Daily Twitter Digest for 2012-11-22
    • Colin replies to Dr. Howard Farran on DentalTown RE: Dr. Michael Gibbons, Scottsdale, AZ – YouTube – Colin replies to Dr. Howard Farran on DentalTown RE: Dr. Michael Gibbons, Scottsdale, AZ – YouTube #tcot
    • Colin replies to Dr. Howard Farran on DentalTown RE: Dr. Michael Gibbons, Scottsdale, AZ – YouTube – I liked a @YouTube video from @creceveur Colin replies to Dr. Howard Farran on DentalTown RE: Dr. Michael
    • Happy Thanksgiving 2012 – Flap’s California Blog – Happy Thanksgiving 2012
    • Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Digest for 2012-11-21 – Flap’s California Blog – Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Digest for 2012-11-21
    • Flap’s Blog @ Flap Twitter Daily Digest for 2012-11-21 – Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Blog @ Flap Twitter Daily Digest for 2012-11-21 #tcot
    • No Reversal in Decline of Marriage | Pew Social & Demographic Trends – No Reversal in Decline of Marriage | Pew Social & Demographic Trends #tcot
    • My Daily Twitter Digest for 2012-11-21 – Locum Tenens (Temporary) Dentist – Gregory Cole, D.D.S. – My Daily Twitter Digest for 2012-11-21
  • Pinboard Links,  The Morning Flap

    The Morning Flap: April 2, 2012

    Photo via N.Y Daily News

    These are my links for March 29th through April 2nd:

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for October 20th on 10:51

    These are my links for October 20th from 10:51 to 18:19:

    • Gallup.Com – Polling Matters by Frank Newport: Occupy Wall Street, Obama, Marijuana, and Facebook – 3. True or false: Presidential job approval ratings don’t rise between the fall of the year before an election and election year itself. In other words, it's unlikely that Obama’s job approval ratings will be much higher next year.

      That’s false. Clinton’s ratings went up over 10 percentage points between October 1995 and 1996. Reagan’s job approval ratings went up over 10 points between October 1983 and 1984. Carter’s ratings went up over 20 points between October 1979 and January 1980 (although they rapidly fell back down again). And George H.W. Bush’s job approval ratings fell more than 30 points between October 1991 and 1992.

      In other words, an incumbent president's job approval ratings can, in fact, change significantly between October of the year before an election and the election year itself. Obama’s job approval ratings are hovering right around 40%. History suggests it is in theory possible that his ratings could rise 10 points between now and next year, which would put him at or around 50% — the bottom range of where he would need to be based on history to win re-election.

      4. What percent of those aged 65 years and older say marijuana should be legalized?

      The answer to that question is 31%. That contrasts, of course to the overall average of 50% for all adults, and 62% among those aged 18-29 years who support legalizing pot. Perhaps some of those aged 65 and older are aging hippies who fondly remember the Flower Power days of the 1960s.

      5. True or False: Facebook users are almost entirely composed of those below age 50.

      False. While Facebook use certainly skews young, 18% of those we interviewed in a recent USA Today/Gallup poll who were 65 years and older said they have a Facebook page. That compares to 35% of those 50 to 64, 58% of those 30 to 49, and a whopping 74% of those 18 to 29 we interviewed. Overall, 48% of Americans say they have a Facebook page.

    • Car Company Gets U.S. Loan, Builds Cars In Finland – With the approval of the Obama administration, an electric car company that received a $529 million federal government loan guarantee is assembling its first line of cars in Finland, saying it could not find a facility in the United States capable of doing the work.

      Vice President Joseph Biden heralded the Energy Department's $529 million loan to the start-up electric car company called Fisker as a bright new path to thousands of American manufacturing jobs. But two years after the loan was announced, the job of assembling the flashy electric Fisker Karma sports car has been outsourced to Finland.

      "There was no contract manufacturer in the U.S. that could actually produce our vehicle," the car company's founder and namesake told ABC News. "They don't exist here."

      Henrik Fisker said the U.S. money so far has been spent on engineering and design work that stayed in the U.S., not on the 500 manufacturing jobs that went to a rural Finnish firm, Valmet Automotive.
      "We're not in the business of failing; we're in the business of winning. So we make the right decision for the business," Fisker said. "That's why we went to Finland."

      =======

      Read it all…..

    • LifeNews.com – The Pro-Life News Source – Cain Releases Clarifying Statement: I'm Pro-Life on Abortion |
    • Dilbert October 20, 2011 – Forbidden Planet » Flap’s California Blog – Dilbert October 20, 2011 – Forbidden Planet
    • Cain Releases Clarifying Statement: I’m Pro-Life on Abortion | LifeNews.com – RT @StevenErtelt: Cain Releases Clarifying Statement: I'm Pro-Life on Abortion
    • Poll Watch: Who Has More Popular Support – The Tea Party or Occupy Wall Street? | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Poll Watch: Who Has More Popular Support – The Tea Party or Occupy Wall Street? #tcot #catcot
    • GOP 12: T. Boone Pickens doesn’t like GOP in-fighting – > But, they can't stop RT @GOP12: T. Boone Pickens to GOP field: Listen to Reagan, and quit pickin' on each other.
    • Flap’s Dentistry Blog: Should the Federal Government Develop a New Nutritional Rating System for Food and Beverages? – A simpler, easier to use nutritional rating system for food and beverages is proposed…:
    • California Veterinary Board Says NO to Dog Groomers Cleaning Teeth With Dental Scalers » Flap’s California Blog – California Veterinary Board Says No to Dog Groomers in Canine Dentistry issue..:
    • Obama’s numbers down even in Hawaii – Public Policy Polling – RT @ppppolls: Obama's Hawaii approval is 56/35. Down net 15 points from 64/29 in March:
    • Flap’s Links and Comments for October 20th on 06:31 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Chris Christie spurs a candidacy and Herman Cain mocked by Hillary Clinton…:
  • Marijuana,  Polling

    Poll Watch: 50% Favor Legalization of Marijuana



    According to the latest Gallup Poll.

    A record-high 50% of Americans now say the use of marijuana should be made legal, up from 46% last year. Forty-six percent say marijuana use should remain illegal.

    When Gallup first asked about legalizing marijuana, in 1969, 12% of Americans favored it, while 84% were opposed. Support remained in the mid-20s in Gallup measures from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s, but has crept up since, passing 30% in 2000 and 40% in 2009 before reaching the 50% level in this year’s Oct. 6-9 annual Crime survey.

    According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, “Marijuana is the most commonly abused illicit drug in the United States.” The National Survey on Drug Use and Health in 2009 found that “16.7 million Americans aged 12 or older used marijuana at least once in the month prior to being surveyed, an increase over the rates reported in all years between 2002 and 2008.”

    It has been made essentially legal here in California with the medicinal marijuana laws and the decriminalizing of personal possession. If you are caught tomorrow here with a small amount, you will be guilty of an infraction and have to pay a $100 fine.

    Over the weekend, it was announced the California Medical Association called for the legalization of marijuana.

    Eventually, in a generation or two, pot may be legalized, but like alcohol and tobacco there are problems with the drug. The voting public will have to weigh the negative effects of the inebriation versus the benefits of the high.

    Here is a chart of the polling demograhics:

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for September 9th through September 11th

    These are my links for September 9th through September 11th:

  • Arnold Schwarzenegger,  Marijuana

    California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Signs Bill Decriminalizing Marijuana Possession

    In his younger days Arnold Schwarzenegger smoking some weed

    Why, of course, Arnold would.

    The California Governor, Schwarzenegger, who opposes Proposition 19, this morning signed a landmark bill in the state of California which decriminalizes the possession of marijuana. For those wondering, this does not make marijuana possession legal, but it no longer will be a misdemeanor offense. Instead of the mandatory fine of $100 as well as the mandatory appearance in front of a judge, the outcome of being caught with marijuana will now simply be a $100 fine. The new law will be in effect on January 1st and include anyone caught with up to an ounce of marijuana. Basically the possession of the drug is seen no different by California now than speeding is.

    Schwarzenegger signed the bill because it will save the state a ton of money since there will no longer need to be a judge and attorneys appointed to each and every one of the misdemeanor offenses involving marijuana possession. Last year alone there were 60,000 Californians caught with the drug, and in the last decade approximately 500,000 offenders.

    I am trying not to be cynical here but really isn’t this a ploy to make sure that Proposition 19 which legalizes marijuana on the November ballot will NOT pass? The fact is the medicinal marijuana law is a mockery and the use of marijuana is very common place – like alcohol in California.

    I really don’t know how California will EVER solve its numerous problems with more stoned out citizens. But, the current law is really a joke anyway.

  • Marijuana

    High Times: Legalizing Marijuana Headed to California 2010 Ballot?



    A California budget solution?

    A measure to legalize marijuana in California has enough signatures to qualify for the November 2010 ballot, advocates say.

    The Tax and Regulate Initiative has far more than the nearly 434,000 signatures needed to make the statewide ballot, said Richard Lee, well-known Oakland medical marijuana entrepreneur and the initiative’s main backer. Campaign organizers say they will submit more than 650,000 signatures of registered voters next month.

    “People were eager to sign,” Lee told the Chronicle. “We heard they were ripping the petitions out of people’s hands to do it.

    Heh….. I bet they were……


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  • Barack Obama,  Marijuana

    Obama Administration to Issue New Marijuana Enforcement Policy

    Will this be the first Obama Administration step toward legalization of marijuana?

    Federal drug agents won’t pursue pot-smoking patients or their sanctioned suppliers in states that allow medical marijuana, under new legal guidelines to be issued Monday by the Obama administration.

    Two Justice Department officials described the new policy to The Associated Press, saying prosecutors will be told it is not a good use of their time to arrest people who use or provide medical marijuana in strict compliance with state law.

    The guidelines to be issued by the department do, however, make it clear that agents will go after people whose marijuana distribution goes beyond what is permitted under state law or use medical marijuana as a cover for other crimes, the officials said.

    The new policy is a significant departure from the Bush administration, which insisted it would continue to enforce federal anti-pot laws regardless of state codes.

    Fourteen states allow some use of marijuana for medical purposes: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.

    California is unique among those for the widespread presence of dispensaries – businesses that sell marijuana and even advertise their services. Colorado also has several dispensaries, and Rhode Island and New Mexico are in the process of licensing providers, according to the Marijuana Policy Project, a group that promotes the decriminalization of marijuana use.

    Attorney General Eric Holder said in March that he wanted federal law enforcement officials to pursue those who violate both federal and state law, but it has not been clear how that goal would be put into practice.

    A three-page memo spelling out the policy is expected to be sent Monday to federal prosecutors in the 14 states, and also to top officials at the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration.

    The memo, the officials said, emphasizes that prosecutors have wide discretion in choosing which cases to pursue, and says it is not a good use of federal manpower to prosecute those who are without a doubt in compliance with state law.

    Well, the California laws on medical marijuana are a joke and anyone can obtain marijuana by going to a medical marijuana doctor or clinic. If the Obama Administration wants to legalize hemp then they should just pursue legislation, tax and regulate it.

    For now, marijuana use in California will continue to be lack of enforcement, a wink and a nod.


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