More Data and Why I Can't Vote for Guiliani

Here's more evidence of the effect our drug laws have on society. According to the National Development Research Institute, large disparities in the number of blacks and Hispanics arrested in New York City for marijuana violations exist. In fact the number is around 85% since 1980!

Please keep the following in mind if you don't smoke. Granted, some of these individuals were probably doing something else that may have justified their arrest. I'll concede that. However, arresting someone for smoking marijuana makes no sense whatsoever. They're hardly endangering themselves (see previous post), and they are certainly not having an impact on the happiness of others. Therefore, there is no moral obligation to jail people for marijuana offenses.

Which is all why I could not vote for Rudy Giuliani for president. Here's an interesting tidbit of information. In 1991, before Giuliani took office, marijuana arrests totaled 774. By 2000, there were 51,269 marijuana-related arrests in New York City. If you think Bush has curbed your civil liberties, Guiliani won't be any better.

Deadlier than nutmeg?

Whenever you hear a stoner say something like, "Hey, you know alcohol is way more harmful than pot and alcohol isn't illegal," know that they're right. According to a recent report in the American Scientist, smoking pot is one of the least lethal things you can do. In fact, it barely qualifies as being lethal at all. By comparison, when measuring levels of toxicity, marijuana is far and away the least harmful drug you can take. Nutmeg, which you can buy in your local supermarket, requires a dosage of only seven times it's effective amount to kill you. Alcohol, only ten times. Marijuana, on the other hand, requires a dosage of over 1,000 its effective amount to be fatal. Not only that, the required lethal dosage of marijuana still remains a mystery since there are NO published reports of anyone ever inhaling or digesting a lethal amount. Yet, in spite of this data, which substance remains illegal?

Reports like this are encouraging. Maybe I'm overly optimistic, but I feel we may be on the brink of a paradigm shift on this subject where we can begin to discuss this matter intelligently in the public sphere.

Origins of Morality

I absolutely love this article. Our sense of morality is deeply ingrained into our genetic code as evidence by similar behavior in primates. The ability to be altruistic and feel emotions like empathy or compassion fuel our species quest for survival. Assuming that there aren't any Christian, Jewish, or Muslim chimpanzees, this proves a point I try and make time and time again: Religion and morality have nothing to do with one another.

Chocolate Jesus

There are many causes in this world that Catholic leaders can get behind. Ending poverty, curing diseases, reversing global warming, banning torture. Halting the display of a Chocolate Jesus just isn't one of them. Here's my favorite quote of fake outrage...

Bill Donohue, head of the watchdog Catholic League, said it was "one of the worst assaults on Christian sensibilities ever."

I guess the abuses in Abu Ghraib didn't have that same effect on him. Maybe he should stay away from sweets altogether.

But what pisses me off on this story is that the exhibit was canceled. We've given in to the religionists yet again, and all that does is encourage them in the future. All they know they need to do is cry in public enough and they can get whatever they want.

Sickening.