Monthly Archives: February 2007

Medical Marijuana Group Sues U.S. Government

The War on Drugs

A medical marijuana advocacy group in California has sued the Federal Government over statements by two federal agencies denying the medical benefits of smoking marijuana:

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 21 – Frustrated by government policy and inaction, a group of advocates for medical marijuana sued two federal health agencies on Wednesday over the assertion that smoking it has no medical benefit.

The group, Americans for Safe Access, a nonprofit organization based in Oakland, filed the lawsuit in Federal District Court, challenging the government’s position that marijuana, “has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.”

In its lawsuit, the group contends that federal regulators have publicly issued “false and misleading statements” about the medical benefits of marijuana and marijuana products, including many of the private label CBD options on the market.

The lawsuit, which named the Department of Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug Administration, seeks a court order to retract and correct statements that the group called, “incorrect, dishonest and a flagrant violation of laws.”

In other words, standard operating procedure in the War On (Some) Drugs. There are many things about the War On (Some) Drugs that are despicable, but chief among them is the fact that the government continues deny people who are sick medication that could actually alleviate their pain. If you don’t believe in medical marijuana and its medicinal properties, you could read this CBDfx review here along with any other CBD product. If you are looking to purchase sativa or indica online then there are several companies who safely and legally sell cannabis across the US and Canada.

Doug Mataconis
http://www.belowthebeltway.com

Happy Birthday Mr. President

Founding Fathers, History

David Boaz discusses why George Washington is so important:

George Washington was the man who established the American republic. He led the revolutionary army against the British Empire, he served as the first president, and most importantly he stepped down from power.

In an era of brilliant men, Washington was not the deepest thinker. He never wrote a book or even a long essay, unlike George Mason, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Adams. But Washington made the ideas of the American founding real. He incarnated liberal and republican ideas in his own person, and he gave them effect through the Revolution, the Constitution, his successful presidency, and his departure from office.

(…)

What values did Washington’s character express? He was a farmer, a businessman, an enthusiast for commerce. As a man of the Enlightenment, he was deeply interested in scientific farming. His letters on running Mount Vernon are longer than letters on running the government. (Of course, in 1795 more people worked at Mount Vernon than in the entire executive branch of the federal government.)

He was also a liberal and tolerant man. In a famous letter to the Jewish congregation in Newport, Rhode Island, he hailed the “liberal policy” of the United States on religious freedom as worthy of emulation by other countries. He explained, “It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights, for, happily, the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens.”

And most notably, he held “republican” values – that is, he believed in a republic of free citizens, with a government based on consent and established to protect the rights of life, liberty, and property.-

And for that America, and the world, should be eternally grateful.

Doug Mataconis
http://www.belowthebeltway.com

Let Them Eat Cake

Dumbasses and Authoritarians, Foreign Affairs, Individual Rights

Robert Mugage, Zimbabwe’s dictator for the past twenty-seven years, will turn 83 this week complete with a big birthday party, while his countymen starve for lack of bread:

JOHANNESBURG, Feb. 21 — President Robert G. Mugabe of Zimbabwe turned 83 on Wednesday to the strains of the song “God Bless President Mugabe” on state-controlled radio, along with an interview on state television, a 16-page paean to his rule in Harare’s daily newspaper and the prospect of a grand birthday party — costly enough to feed thousands of people for months, his critics argued — on Saturday.

Zimbabwe’s economy is so dire that bread vanished from store shelves across the country on Wednesday after bakeries shut down, saying government price controls were requiring them to sell loaves at a loss. The price controls are supposed to shield consumers from the nation’s rampant inflation, which now averages nearly 1,600 percent annually.

Mugabe is not only unconcerned about his countrymen’s plight, but is already seeking to expand his power:

In his hourlong television interview, broadcast Tuesday evening, Mr. Mugabe showed no sign of concern that he was unpopular. Rather, he expressed confidence that voters would add another six-year term to the 27 years he has spent in power should he run for re-election.

He has proposed postponing the next presidential election, now scheduled for 2008, until 2010, and he mocked the ambitions of underlings who, he said, hoped to push him from office before he was ready to retire.

“Can you see any vacancies?” he asked. “The door is closed.”

On Wednesday, The Herald, the state-managed newspaper, included in 16 pages of tributes to Mr. Mugabe an editorial calling him “an unparalleled visionary” and “an international hero among the oppressed and poor.”

And, of course, those hungry people are just a bunch of unpatriotic traitors.

As for much of Africa, the prospects for Zimbabwe seem grim at the moment, but I particularly liked this quote from one Mugabe opponent:

Tawanda Mujuru, who runs a vegetable stall on Samora Machel Avenue in downtown Harare, said that she would be working in a factory if not for the failure of Mr. Mugabe’s economic policies.

“He has the guts to eat and drink when we are suffering like this,” she said. “Let him enjoy. Every dog has his day. We shall have our day.”

Mr. Mugabe, you may want to do a Wikipedia search on Nicolae Ceacescu

Doug Mataconis
http://www.belowthebeltway.com

Egypt Imprisons Blogger For Insulting Islam

Free Speech, Individual Rights

Yesterday, I wrote about the case of Abdel Kareem Nabil, a college student being held in an Egyptian prison after posting anti-government remarks on his personal blog. Today, an Egyptian judge sentenced him to four years in prison:

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt — An Egyptian blogger was convicted of insulting Islam and President Hosni Mubarak and sentenced to four years in prison on Thursday in Egypt’s first prosecution of a blogger.

Abdel Kareem Nabil, a 22-year-old former student at Egypt’s Al-Azhar University, an Islamic institution, had pleaded innocent to all charges, and human rights groups had called for his release.

Nabil, who used the blogger name Kareem Amer, had sharply criticized Al-Azhar on his Web log, calling it “the university of terrorism” and accusing it of suppressing free thought. He also often criticized Mubarak’s regime on the blog.

In one post, he said Al-Azhar University “stuffs its students’ brains and turns them into human beasts … teaching them that there is not place for differences in this life.”

He was a vocal critic of conservative Muslims and in other posts described Mubarak’s regime as a “symbol of dictatorship.”

The university threw him out last year and pressed prosecutors to put him on trial.

The judge issued the verdict in a brief, five-minute session in a court in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria. He sentenced Nabil to three years in prison for insulting Islam and inciting sedition and another year for insulting Mubarak. Nabil had faced a possible maximum sentence of up to nine years in prison.

Keep in mind. An American ally and supposed example of moderate Islam.  And what has the Bush Administration had to say about this travesty ? So far, nothing:

The Bush administration has not commented on Nabil’s trial, despite its past criticism of the arrests of Egyptian rights activists.

We’re waiting Mr. President.

Doug Mataconis
http://www.belowthebeltway.com

The New Assualt Weapons Ban

Dumbasses and Authoritarians, Keep and Bear Arms, Politics

Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy (D-New York) has proposed a new assualt weapons ban. Say Uncle has a summary of what the ban proposes.

Instead of banning rifles with 2 evil features, it’s one evil feature. Said evil features are:
`(i) a folding or telescoping stock;

`(ii) a threaded barrel;

`(iii) a pistol grip;

`(iv) a forward grip; or

`(v) a barrel shroud.

Expands the list of rifles banned specifically by name.
Bans possession of conversion kits (example, you couldn’t own a rifle and a bayonet lug even if the two weren’t attached).
Transfer of grandfathered weapons would have to go through a FFL.
Bans transfers of grandfathered semi-automatics with regular capacity magazines.

As mike pointed out in his post, the cops are using the ban expiration as an excuse to further militarize their departments. Imagine what checks there would be to these militarized cops if the McCarthy gun ban goes through.

Free Republic has the full text of the scary bill.

I’m waiting for outrage from the “libertarian Democrats” and the “libertarian left”.

Kevin Boyd
I’m one of the original co-founders of The Liberty Papers all the way back in 2005. Since then, I wound up doing this blogging thing professionally. Now I’m running the site now. You can find my other work at The Hayride.com and Rare. You can also find me over at the R Street Institute.
https://thelibertypapers.org/2005/11/22/a-bit-about-kevin/
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