No More Reloading

This is the last post here at Reload. I started a new job on Monday and will not have the time to devote to keeping this site active and interesting. I'll continue to write at HorsesAss (and hopefully at Effin' Unsound too) although it probably won't be as prolific as it used to be. I'm hoping to bring the Birds Eye View Contests over to HorsesAss next weekend, although it'll likely go back to just being for pride. Milwhcky was declared the winner of the one and only "official" contest.

I'm excited about what Goldy's been doing with HorsesAss. Contributing to what he's doing is something I think is important for drug policy activism - making it an integral part of the overall progressive movement that's overtaking our political climate right now. I believe that progressivism can avoid the kinds of historical follies like alcohol prohibition by better understanding the limits of what government can and can't do (and should and shouldn't do). Unlike most other libertarians, I don't have a fundamental disagreement with the notion of progressivism. I believe that certain types of collectivism are part of the free market and that many individualism vs. collectivism arguments represent two valid perceptions of liberty, rather than believing that extreme individualism is the only path towards liberty. Many libertarians will likely never agree with me on that, or think I'm entering a contradiction, but I always welcome the dialogue and I hope that over time I can still elaborate on how think it should work.

Maintaining this blog has been an enormous joy for me. There are way too many people to thank for reading it, linking to it, and giving me great feedback in the comments. If you're reading this now, you're probably one of those people. Thanks.

Birds Eye View Contest I - View 18 of 25

Since last week's contest, WesS has gotten not one, but two contests. He got last week's, which was Rotterdam, Holland, and he got the long-unsolved contest 15, which was Glendale, AZ. That brings the overall standings to:

Milwhcky - 11
wstanton - 3
WesS - 2
Mlc1us - 1

With 8 contests to go, only wstanton can catch Milwhcky, so the magic number is 1. Here's this week's contest, which is facing east rather than north.

Birds Eye View Contest I - View 17 of 25

As you can tell, blogging has stopped here, but I'm going to keep doing the Birds Eye View Contest until Contest I has a clinched winner. The reason for the stop in blogging here is related to my work situation and it's likely the end of Reload, but not the end of my blogging at HorsesAss and EffinUnsound. I just don't expect to have the time to maintain this site going forward, and I don't want it to continually feel rushed and half-assed, as it's felt to me for a while. I'm thinking of bringing future Birds Eye View Contests over to HorsesAss at some point. Feel free to shoot me a mail if you want to be notified by mail of such an occurrence.

Back to this contest, last week's contest was Pennsauken, NJ. The victor was Milwhcky, who's on the verge of clinching the overall title:

Milwhcky - 11
wstanton - 3
Mlc1us - 1
(View 15 is still up for grabs)

Here's this week's contest. Good luck!

Birds Eye View Contest I - View 16 of 25

Last week's contest is still unsolved as of this morning.

Here are the standings:

Milwhcky - 10
wstanton - 3
Mlc1us - 1

Here's this week's, good luck!

More Suckiness

I've had some unexpected events come up that will continue to derail my blogging for at least another week. The Birds Eye View Contest will still be posted on Thursday.

Challenge

This week's Birds Eye View Contest is still not solved.

The Unraveling of Mexico

It continues:

Eleven decapitated bodies have been found outside the city of Merida on the Yucatan peninsula, heightening fears that Mexico's recent descent into violence has reached even heavily protected tourist areas.

All the bodies showed signs of torture and were tattooed with star signs and the letter “Z”, suggesting that they had fallen victim to the country's growing drug war, which has left more than 2,700 dead so far this year.

Part of me really wants this issue to be discussed in the upcoming debates. The wiser part of me knows that our cable news knuckleheads don't have a prayer in hell of figuring out why this is all happening - and it will just keep promoting the idea that we have to build walls and shake our fists at the bad guys.

What's Gregoire Smoking?

The Drug War Chronicle covers the mess involving the state Department of Health's medical marijuana limits.

Here are the previous posts that I've written about it both here and at HorsesAss:

4/22 - Rob McKenna’s War on the Sick and Disabled
5/21 - Cops and Robbers
5/23 - Why is Governor Gregoire Lying About the Medical Marijuana Workshops?
6/3 - Washington State Medical Marijuana Update
6/15 - The Exact Opposite of Compassionate Conservatism
6/30 - Limits
7/1 - 60 Day Limits Released
7/2 - Looking to Oregon
7/6 - Looking to Oregon - Part III
7/12 - “There is no Medical Marijuana law in Pierce County”
8/12 - Chatting with the Governor
8/17 - The Fight for Better Limits
8/22 - Re-Setting the Limits
8/23 - The Hempfest Panel on the Medical Marijuana Limits

On the Road to a Narco-State

Via Dan Robinson, here's a report on the drug cartels in Mexico and their growing influence.

Birds Eye View Contest I - View 15 of 25

Last week's contest was won by Milwhcky. It was Sanford, ME.

Here are the standings after 14:

Milwhcky - 10
wstanton - 3
Mlc1us - 1

Rules of the contest are here. Here's this week's. Good luck.

The Biden Dilemma

Dominic Holden is agonizing over the Biden VP pick, as are other drug law reformers. I don't think drug law reform was even a passing consideration to Obama when it came to selecting a VP, so I don't see his pick of Biden as an endorsement of his truly horrific record. And even though I think that Obama understands the drug war much better than he lets on, I doubt he even considered how bad it looks that he just picked a VP who is possibly more to blame than any other American for the devastation that the drug war has brought upon African American communities.

But Dominic makes the one point at the end that I find to be mildly reassuring:

Obama cannot alter drug laws on his own—he’s lived a youth of indiscretions. (Realistically, no politician can make any sweeping changes; it must be incremental.) But if anyone has the credibility at the federal level to say we were wrong, to push the Senate for sentencing reform, to back Barney Frank’s bill in the House to decriminalize pot—nobody is more more capable than Joe Biden. And if he does, this could be an excellent four years.

I hope he's right. It helps to remember that Franklin Roosevelt ran against prohibition in the 1932 election, after being its proponent for a long time. Politicians will always shift in the wind. It just takes enough of us to start blowing in the opposite direction from how its been blowing for the past four decades. And it would help if he had a good conversation with his colleague from Virginia, who understands the need for drug law reform better than anyone in that body.

Mary Anastasia O'Grady on Mexico

This is What a Police State Looks Like

This was how the police in Beijing dealt with people protesting the Chinese government's support of the Sudanese government and the treatment of people in Tibet:



Wait a second, that's a mistake. That's a picture of how police in Denver are dealing with people protesting the Iraq War and corporate influence in our political system.

Convention Coverage

HorsesAss was selected as the Washington State blog for the DNC, so Goldy, Darryl, and Geov are down there this week.

Fantasy Season

I'm in the second day of my back-to-back, coast-to-coast fantasy football drafts. I drafted one team in Rockland County, New York yesterday and will be drafting my second team back here in Seattle tonight. Blogging will be lighter for the next two weeks as we get our fantasy website up and running again.

Ninjas

In New Jersey.

The Hempfest Panel on the Medical Marijuana Limits

Tides Turning

The marijuana decriminalization bill in Massachusetts has over 70% support in surveys.

Hawaii's Big Island will vote on making marijuana enforcement the lowest priority.

A legalization movement is under way in Poland.