NCCo is going to broadcast the Planning Board and the Zoning Board of Adjustment’s meetings. Finally. Time for NCCo to broadcast the County Council meetings.
Talking Points Memo announced their Golden Dukes Awards (named after Duke Cunningham, the GOPer who set the modern standard for scandal), and it looks like the Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has cleaned up this year. Rick Santorum won for Year in Derp and Steve King won for Meretorious Achievement in the Crazy.
How to Legalize Cannibis — Please. Get this done soon — Mark Kleinman is looking for some good discussion in how to do it well:
The initiative process may be the only way of accomplishing legalization in some states, but the ordinary process of legislation, where feasible, is likely to yield better outcomes.
The bulk of the revenue of a legal cannabis industry, like the bulk of the revenue of the beer industry, will come from people with substance abuse disorder. Thus the commercial interest will be opposed to the public interest in minimizing the growth of the clinically impaired population.
In the face of the lobbying power of the cannabis industry, it will be difficult to maintain high taxes or tight regulation. A state-monopoly system at retail might be preferable. The doctrine of “commercial free speech” makes the regulatory problem harder; one advantage of a state monopoly would be better consumer information. But the state lotteries demonstrate that a revenue-driven state monopoly can be just as ruthless as any private enterprise.
And just for commenter puck — this is how white people play the race card.