Healthcare reform, Republican style

Make decongestants prescription-only, to beat the meth labs.

See, the Dems aren’t the only ones who can insanely run up costs.

You can see the nose grow!

The Times quoted a White House spokesman who said, “The president believes that federal resources should not be used to circumvent state laws, and as he continues to appoint senior leadership to fill out the ranks of the federal government, he expects them to review their policies with that in mind.”

Does this mean that the ATF will take no action against the Montana Firearms Freedom Act? Or does it man that the administration can’t stop lying, even about the most trivial things?

5 days for coconut candy

Two Bronx men were locked up and left to rot in a filthy jail cell for nearly a week after a pair of cops mistook their candy for a bag of crack.

The “drugs” were finally tested five days later and determined to be popular Coco (coconut) Candy. The charges were dropped.

The trouble began the night of Jan. 15, as José Pena, a 48-year-old plumber, and his longtime pal and colleague Cesar Rodriguez, 33, were headed to a party, and decided to stop at a bodega on 181st Street and the Grand Concourse.

When they came out, cops were waiting and asked to search their Ford minivan. “I said ‘Go search.’I even opened the door,” Rodriguez told The Post.

First mistake. The cops did not have probable cause to check the van. And the cops are not your friends.

An officer rummaged around, came out holding a “Hello Kitty” sandwich bag, and shouted “Bingo!” the men said.

“It’s only candy!” Rodriguez said, as the cops handcuffed him and Pena, and several other police cars rushed to the scene.Rodriguez said he buys a 50-cent bag of Coco Candy, a hard coconut-based treat, almost every day. Because it easily crumbles, he puts it in a sandwich bag.
“Can you test it? Can you taste it?” Rodriguez asked the cops.
“Shut up!” they replied.
“I didn’t know having candy was a crime,” he said.
The men’s lawyer, Neal Wallerstein, said the cops could have realized their mistake quickly.
“That’s the reason why they have a field-test kit,” he said, referring to the NYPD’s portable drug identification equipment.But Wallerstein said cops just needed their noses.

“It smells like sugar,” he said.

And here in the comments is why America is going down, hard:

why should the cops be suspended???? if it looks like crack and is in a plastic bag they should be arrested regardless, if they didnt arrest them and it was crack and they sold it to one of your kids you liberals would be going nuts on the cops, and as for tasting it?? wtf if some1 asked me to taste crack and risk my life with all the chemicals its cut down with i’d tell them to screw themselves its my life or thiers, this is a no brainer, both men arrested and have the alleged drugs sent to the lab for testing

A customer who WAS right

RETAIL | EVANSVILLE, IN, USA

(While ringing up a customer, the computer flags cold medicine and asks for age verification.)

Me: “Sir, I need to verify your date of birth.”

Customer: “Why?”

Me: “You’re trying to buy medicine and I just need your date of birth to confirm you are over the age of 18.”

Customer: “Oh. April 20th, 1420.”

Me: “Sir, I really need your actual birth date to continue.”

Customer: “4-20-1420. Put it in.”

(I enter the date. The system accepts. I look in disbelief.)

Customer: “Told you.”

I’ve done that at garden-variety retail snoops, but never when it was an issue of law. Kudos!

3 narcs bite the dust

Since the DEA is an American civilian “law” enforcement agency, would somebody mind telling me what they were doing in Afghanistan? Were they “advisors” sharing their invincible expertise on ending drug production?

Apparently, the agency has been strong-arming their pilots into going over, with threats of demotion, and sending their “problem children” out of the country. I have a little sympathy for those who thought they were getting a domestic job.  But fundamentally, I have no more sympathy for the DEA than I have for your typical Waffen SS member, and for the same reason.

In the past year, the DEA has launched an ambitious plan to increase its personnel in Afghanistan from about a dozen to nearly 80, greatly expanding its role, particularly in military actions against drug traffickers.

So were these guys counted in yesterday’s “14 casualties”? Are they soldiers?  Sorry, I will never celebrate the death of an American soldier….but I’m celebrating now.

Some Trig Trufers are more equal than others

Do I care if Andrew Sullivan burns one on MY  land? No

Do I think it’s objectively a Good Thing if Andrew Sullivan’s (or anyone else’s) $125 marijuana ticket is cancelled? Yes.

Is it right that Andrew Sullivan gets his ticket cancelled because “it would have resulted in an “adverse effect” on an unspecified “immigration status” that Sullivan, a British citizen, is applying for.”? And that nobody else does?

HELL NO!!

Really, send the sumbitch back to England. Rachel Lucas tells me that people can actually blog from there. And he’d find it much more comfortable.

“We’re here to pay taxes”

“We’re here to pay taxes, create jobs, and improve our communities.”

CLICK!

Silly me. I thought you were here to sell high-grade medical marijuana with the best service and lowest price consistent with quality. I’m sure your customers don’t patronize you to pay taxes, even in Oakland CA.

That was a quote from the guy who owns 4 medical marijuana dispensaries, who suggested to city officials that they should raise his taxes. and the “Click” was me turning off NPR Morning edition in stunned disbelief.

“New professionalism” on trial in Cleveland

A federal grand jury in Cleveland charged Lucas, 41, of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, in an 18-count indictment that accuses him of perjury, making false statements and violating three people’s civil rights.

What’s even more of a riot than the piece (“full-throttle approach”?) are the comments, many of which seek to shift the blame to informant Jerrell Bray…who has already been tried and convicted for his part. What we have here is a gung-ho employee of an unconstitutional agency which exists in violation of the 9th and 10th Amendments, who may have violated parts of the Bill of Rights that even the ACLU recognizes, and who deserves prison just for drawing the paycheck he drew, even if he were clean. This is what the War on Drugs means: people will be hired who are “good at what they do”, regardless of collateral damage.

And don’t tell me “innocent until proven guilty” — that may be true of these particular criminal complaints, but his employment is a matter of public record.

Eric Holder: lying sack of shit

So much for that statement that he’d leave medical marijuana distributors alone.
I am so ashamed to have been taken in. He’s a politicians, and his lips were moving; I should have known better. I guess I just got overwhelmed by all that Hope for Change.

British brass players drink

The Guardian reports on something oft-rumored: that British brass players (in particular) often need to be poured into their seats during a concert. They’re famous for running off to the pub during intermission.

I don’t hear these stories about players in the States though. I don’t know if management is stricter or or players more puritanical, or there’s not the culture, or what…or if I’m just not connected to the wrong people.