Excuses, Excuses

It generally takes a lot for me to bother responding directly to the author of an editorial, but today I read this piece in the San Antonio Express News written by a Professor of Middle Eastern politics at UT San Antonio. I'll cut and paste the column, then the reply I sent to him directly as well as to the editors of the paper.

Mansour El-Kikhia: Arabs shouldn't have to apologize
Web Posted: 07/29/2005
12:00 AM CDT


San Antonio Express-News

I am fed up with the
ceaseless requests by columnists, religious personalities and other American
public figures for Arabs and Muslims to apologize for terrorist acts committed
by thugs and murderers in the name of Islam.
As far as I am concerned, the final straw came a couple of weeks ago when the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, paid for a national advertisement repudiating terrorism in the name of Islam.
As soon as the advertisement was broadcast on America's media, I read a column by one of the nation's most ardent Islam-phobic columnists, Cal Thomas, now also a FOX News personality, which plowed into CAIR's reconciliation efforts. Long before 9-11, Thomas' writings were full of venom for Arabs and Muslims. He represents a despicable and ignorant attitude that, unfortunately, a sizable segment of America has come to share. There is nothing American Muslims can do to satisfy this group short of packing up and leaving the United States.
I disagree with what CAIR did, and I also disagree with this groveling and begging for forgiveness, as though American Arabs and Muslims are responsible for those atrocities. CAIR knows better, and those running it know that Islam rejects all acts of violence outside self-defense. Arab and Muslim Americans are responsible for neither the twin towers nor the London subway bombings, and as Americans they should never accept responsibility for actions they did not instigate, commit or condone.
Furthermore, in spite of the fact they are constantly condemned for one
thing or another, they — like other Americans — are victims of these murderers.
Does anyone think they are pleased to have their movements and telephone
conversations monitored or that coercive and freedom-depriving laws are tailored
for them? Does anyone in his or her right mind really believe that being an Arab
American or a Muslim is pleasant in America today?
The United States has lost 3,000 souls to terrorist thugs, but that figure is miniscule compared to the 60,000 Algerians or the 25,000 Iraqis who also have died at their hands. These thugs don't differentiate between Muslim and non-Muslim, Arab and non-Arab when they plant a bomb or enter a village at night and murder everyone.
It is rejection of U.S. and British policies in the Middle East, not Islam, that has promoted terrorism against America. And for the benefits of those who do not know, 95 percent of Middle Easterners are Muslims. Hence, it is only natural that those opposing the United States and Britain in the region would be Muslims. In India, they would have been Hindu; in Latin America or Northern Ireland, they would have been Catholic.
More important, it was the British and the United States that drew first blood. The Middle East didn't come to America or go to Britain; rather, America and Britain went to the Middle East. Both powers used and abused regimes, toppling some and keeping others in power. They never thought that the people they were helping suppress were human beings with needs, beliefs and emotions. They didn't care as long as their interests were served.
America's experience in the Middle East is no different from its Southeast Asia stint, and look at the mess it left in that region. However, while the calamity of Vietnam, Laos and Kampuchea might be rationalized by the Cold War or even a domino theory, there is nothing to rationalize the invasion of Iraq except ideological stupidity. The United States illegally invaded and decimated a country that did not threaten its security and, in the process, unleashed one of the most vile and ruthless insurgencies the region has ever seen. And as it did in Vietnam, when the going got tough, it is planning to pull out. The result will be a protracted instability and turmoil
that no country in the region can escape.
Future turmoil in the region is exactly what the instigators of the Iraq invasion have planned all along. They had made their desire for strife in the Middle East known long before the invasion of Iraq. Yet they underestimated the consequences of their lunacy and set into motion processes and events that will make the United States less secure and threaten the lives of Americans for many years to come.

MY REPLY:

Prof. El-Kikhia,

As you related in a prior column, I am sorry to hear that many people resort to cheap racism when responding to the points you bring up. There can be no honest dialogue and understanding when racism is an undertone.
I am curious though--you make a few assertions that seem to me a stretch. Perhaps you cannot delve deeper into each as you are no doubt limited in the length of your columns. Perhaps you simply choose not to.
First off, you imply that US/UK policies are to blame for most of, if not all that ills the Middle East, but beyond that very general implication no specific policy is offered as an example. I assume the major policy that is implied but not stated is our support for Israel. No matter one's personal views on Israel/Palestine, until the Arab world gives up it's non-negotiable goal of pushing Israel into the ocean, there can be no peaceable solution.
The US/UK have interests all over the globe including all those places you mention--India, Latin America, and yes, Northern Ireland. As far as I know the inhabitants of each of those regions have not resorted to suicide terrorism to settle their grievances against the US/UK. As you must know just yesterday the IRA announced that they would cease violent operations against the UK. My intuition tells me that the reason for this must be that Osama and his ilk have given terrorism a bad name. Furthermore, it would not surprise me if the ETA followed the IRA's lead.
You assert that our invasion of Iraq was "illegal". What exactly made it illegal? And by what standard is an invasion deemed legal? I assume it was because we did not have the backing of the U.N. security council which conveniently forgot that Saddam had been in violation of several U.N resolutions since the cease-fire that ended the first Gulf War was drawn up. Should not violations have consequences? And we won't even discuss the various reasons for Russia (Putin advisors benefitting from the Oil for Food scam), France (stood to gain from contracts with Saddam once sanctions lifted), and China (no moral compass whatsoever??) choosing not to stand behind the US/UK; or the fact that we tried for 6 months to gain support from the other security council members which no doubt gave Saddam ample time to destroy/hide/relocate anything remotely related to WMD's (which anyhow was only one of the 23 reasons congress voted to go to war) and plan for the current insurgency.
These assertions we've all heard many times before, but the most galling of all is in your final paragraph. You claim that future turmoil is exactly what the instigators of the Iraq invasion had planned all along. That's a new one. Can you please submit evidence of this? Please give an example of when the US/UK announced their desire for strife in the Middle East.
In the end I am left with the feeling that your column is irresponsible, especially from a professor who is in charge of moulding malleable young minds hungry for answers. I hate to bring religion into this but I have a thought that's been dogging me lately: perhaps things would be different today if Mohammed would have chosen to be a carpenter rather than a warrior. I'd like to see a column on that subject someday.

Unhinged and Ununified

Clearly democrats and republicans disagree on a number of issues. Now it's obvious the dems cannot agree even within their own party. Hillary Clinton recently called for an ideological cease-fire among the different feuding factions within the democratic party.

Link

Clinton Angers Left With Call for Unity
Senator Accused of Siding
With Centrists
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's call for an ideological
cease-fire in the Democratic Party drew an angry reaction yesterday from liberal
bloggers and others on the left, who accused her of siding with the centrist
Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) in a long-running dispute over the future of
the party.
Long a revered figure by many in the party's liberal wing,
Clinton (D-N.Y.) unexpectedly found herself under attack after calling Monday
for a cease-fire among the party's quarreling factions and for agreeing to
assume the leadership of a DLC-sponsored initiative aimed at developing a more
positive policy agenda for the party.

What kind of party gets angry when a call for unity goes out? What kind of party thinks it's unwise to side with centrists in a bid to find common ground? What kind of party would rather divide than unite?

A party that is doomed to occupy the dust bin of history, that's what kind of party.

Chicago

Had a great 4 day trip to Chicago to check out Lollapalooza and generally mess around in a city I haven't been to in 13 years. Sunday was the hottest day in 10 years, but it didn't slow us down too much--nothing a dozen cold beers couldn't handle! As far a great acts seen, the Pixies were awesome! They were much tighter than the first time we saw them on their reunion tour at Coachella last year--and I'd say tighter than when we saw them in Berkeley last fall as well. The Dandy Warhols show was the most disappointing overall. The mainstage across the venue was drowning them out and they had some problems with the sound system which visibly agitated Courtney Taylor. Anton and one of the guitar players from Brian Jonestown Massacre joined them onstage for a couple of songs, but they just weren't into it under the circumstances. G.Love was excellent as always, but he had the same problems as the Dandies did with the noise from the other stage. Widespread Panic rocked! ALWAYS a great show--and they were on the mainstage with out all the problems of the smaller stages. Perry Farrell's new gig is called Satellite Party complete with the requisite hottie dancers. He's a great showman for sure!

Democrats Forked Tongues

I lifted these from Craigs List today.

"As a member of the House Intelligence Committee, I am keenly aware that the proliferation of chemical and biological weapons is an issue of grave importance to all nations. Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region and he has made a mockery of the weapons inspection process." -- Nancy Pelosi, December 16, 1998

"There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein's regime is a serious danger, that he is a tyrant, and that his pursuit of lethal weapons of mass destruction cannot be tolerated. He must be disarmed." -- Ted Kennedy, Sept 27, 2002


"[W]e urge you, after consulting with Congress, and consistent with the U.S. Constitution and laws, to take necessary actions (including, if appropriate, air and missile strikes on suspect Iraqi sites) to respond effectively to the threat posed by Iraq's refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction programs." -- From a letter signed by Joe Lieberman, Dianne Feinstein, Barbara A. Milulski, Tom Daschle, & John Kerry among others on October 9, 1998


"Iraq made commitments after the Gulf War to completely dismantle all weapons of mass destruction, and unfortunately, Iraq has not lived up to its agreement." -- Barbara Boxer, November 8, 2002

"The community of nations may see more and more of the very kind of threat Iraq poses now: a rogue state with weapons of mass destruction, ready to use them or provide them to terrorists. If we fail to respond today, Saddam and all those who would follow in his footsteps will be emboldened tomorrow." -- Bill Clinton in 1998

"Iraq is not the only nation in the world to possess weapons of mass destruction, but it is the only nation with a leader who has used them against his own people." -- Tom Daschle in 1998

"Iraq does pose a serious threat to the stability of the Persian Gulf and we should organize an international coalition to eliminate his access to weapons of mass destruction. Iraq's search for weapons of mass destruction has proven impossible to completely deter and we should assume that it will continue for as long as Saddam is in power." -- Al Gore, 2002

****compare these fools with their 2005 rhetoric

Off to Lollapalooza in Chicago...booUP! booUP!

Bachelor Party Wall St. Style

And to think I could have had one of these...!

A Wall Street Affair:
This Bachelor Party
Gets Lots of Attention

Probe Centers on Payments
For Fidelity Star's Bash;
Private Jet
to South Beach
By SUSANNE CRAIG and JOHN HECHINGER
Staff Reporters of
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
July 18, 2005; Page A1

Even by Wall Street's
over-the-top standards, the March 2003 bachelor party for Thomas Bruderman, a
onetime star trader for Fidelity Investments, was an event to remember.

The festivities began with a trip by private jet from Boston to a small
airport outside New York City. There, the revelers picked up some Wall Street
traders and at least two women who investigators suspect may have been paid for
their attendance, say people familiar with the matter. The partygoers --
including the groom-to-be, who was getting ready to marry the daughter of former
Tyco International Ltd. boss L. Dennis Kozlowski -- then continued to trendy
South Beach in Miami. The fun included a stay at the ritzy Delano Hotel for
some, a yacht cruise and entertainment by at least one dwarf hired for the
occasion.


"Some people are just into lavish dwarf entertainment,"
says the 4-foot-2 Danny Black, a part-owner in Shortdwarf.com, an outfit that
rents dwarfs for parties starting at $149 an hour. Mr. Black says he spent part
of the weekend on the yacht and worked as a waiter on the Friday night at a
high-end Miami eatery alongside what he called "regular size" people. "A good
time was had by all," he said, declining to provide further details.

But
what really made this a memorable party is that it is now a focus of an
investigation into possibly improper gratuities from Wall Street trading firms
eager to get Fidelity's business. The National Association of Securities Dealers
and the Securities and Exchange Commission are examining which Wall Street firms
kicked in money for the weekend party. So far, at least three firms have been
embroiled in the investigation. Jefferies Group Inc. paid for the plane, SG
Cowen & Co. paid for the yacht, and Lazard Capital Markets paid for some of
the hotel rooms, according to people familiar with the matter.

Meanwhile, the party now figures into a broader criminal investigation
by federal prosecutors. The U.S. attorney in Boston has impaneled a grand jury
to determine whether some of the money flowing from brokerage firms to Fidelity
was used to pay for prostitutes and drugs at the party and other events,
according to people familiar with the matter. Among other things, investigators
are trying to determine if Lazard paid for prostitutes at the bachelor party,
the people say.

Spokespeople for Jefferies and Lazard declined to
comment.

Among the guests on the boat: Mr. Bruderman's soon-to-be
father-in-law, Mr. Kozlowski, then facing felony charges that he and a top
lieutenant looted $150 million from Tyco to pay for their extravagant
lifestyles. Mr. Bruderman's wedding to Sandra Kozlowski later that year on
Massachusetts's Nantucket Island was on the eve of Mr. Kozlowski's first trial,
which ended in a mistrial. His second trial ended in a conviction earlier this
year. Scott DeSano, then Fidelity's influential head of stock trading, was an
usher in Mr. Bruderman's wedding and attended part of the bachelor party.

Now investigators have taken sworn testimony from guests at the bachelor
party and are poring over receipts from that celebration. They are investigating
whether favors bestowed on Fidelity traders and others influenced how
Boston-based Fidelity, the nation's largest mutual-fund company, with $1.1
trillion under management, doled out its trading business to Wall Street firms.

Mutual-fund companies are supposed to choose brokers based on service
and price. NASD rules also prohibit brokers from giving or receiving gifts
valued at more than $100. Fidelity has similar internal policies. The rule on
entertainment is fuzzier. The NASD allows "ordinary and usual business
entertainment" so long as it is "neither so frequent nor so extensive as to
raise any question of propriety."

One firm, Jefferies Group, paid for
$75,000 worth of airfare to shuttle Messrs. Bruderman and DeSano and other
non-Fidelity traders to the bachelor party, according to people familiar with
the matter. A person familiar with the matter said SG Cowen, a unit of Société
Générale SA, paid for the yacht party, which ran to almost $10,000.

People familiar with Mr. DeSano's involvement said he did nothing
inappropriate at the party, where he stayed for only a small part of the
weekend. These people say Mr. DeSano has often reimbursed brokers out of his own
pocket for expenses, including the jet trip to Florida. Mr. Bruderman's attorney
declined to comment. Anne Crowley, a Fidelity spokeswoman, said the company
wouldn't comment on an ongoing investigation. But, she says, the firm has
policies that address issues like professional conduct and gifts and gratuities.
"If we find that anyone violates those policies we take steps up to and
including dismissal," she said.

Last December, Fidelity disciplined 14
employees, including Mr. DeSano, related to its internal investigation of gifts
and gratuities. Five, including Mr. Bruderman, have left the firm in connection
with violations of its internal code of ethics. Mr. DeSano, 44 years old, was
fined $50,000 for, among other things, failing to supervise his employees in
connection to the entertainment they accepted. Earlier this month, he was
reassigned to the company's Strategic New Business Development Group as a senior
vice president. Fidelity has declined to say whether the switch was connected to
the investigations.

Fidelity says none of its investing clients have
been harmed by these actions. Fidelity's trading costs are half the industry
average, according to Abel/Noser Corp., a firm that tracks such expenses. Mr.
DeSano, in particular, was known for his aggressive efforts to squeeze brokers
on Wall Street, saving hundreds of millions of dollars for shareholders.

In fact, many traders and their bosses complain that regulators have
been focusing on picayune violations of gift policies, such as doling out
tickets to sporting events or giving away the odd bottle of premium wine -- long
considered standard tokens of appreciation on the Street.

As part of the
gift investigation, SEC investigators have recently questioned Edward C. Johnson
III, Fidelity's chief executive, about tickets he and his wife accepted from a
Wall Street firm to attend a figure-skating competition at the 2002 winter
Olympics. Choice seats for figure-skating events sold for as much as $400. The
company has defended the receipt of the tickets as customary business
entertainment.

The bachelor party is likely to be harder to defend.
Photos of the weekend are circulating on Wall Street, including ones of men and
scantily clad women frolicking on a yacht, according to three people who have
seen them. In one picture, Mr. Kozlowski is standing with a dwarf on the boat,
according to people familiar with the situation. Mr. Black, the dwarf who worked
at the bachelor party, wouldn't say who paid him for his services that weekend,
or how much he was paid. Representatives of Mr. Kozlowski couldn't be reached
for comment.

Regulators have been able to piece together some of what
happened that weekend and on other occasions through interviews with
participants and by reading email and other electronic communications.

In one electronic exchange made over a trading terminal, then-Lazard
trader Robert Ward asked then-Jefferies trader Kevin Quinn how the two of them
planned to "T&E" Mr. Bruderman's wedding -- using Wall Street lingo for
travel and expense. "Creative T&E...again." he responded, according to a
person who has reviewed the exchange. Mr. Ward declined to comment. Gerald
Walpin, a lawyer for Mr. Ward, said his client's actions were "appropriate." He
said his client expensed a handful of hotel rooms to his firm that weekend and
everything that was expensed was fully disclosed to his employer. Mr. Quinn,
through his Boston lawyer Mike Tuteur, declined to comment.

In addition
to the bachelor party, Fidelity traders are under fire from regulators for
accepting other expensive gifts including trips to the Wimbledon tennis
championships, Las Vegas and the Super Bowl in private jets.

In recent
weeks, a number of former Fidelity traders have received so-called Wells notices
from regulators. These are warnings that regulators may file civil charges and
give firms or individuals a chance to defend themselves. Fidelity says the firm
has received no such notice, nor have any current employees.

A large number of sell-side traders, to borrow words from the movie Wall St.,
would not only sell their own mother to make a buck, they'd ship her C.O.D. And
nowhere was this more true than in trying to capture a fraction of the business
that mutual fund giant Fidelity generates. The first thing that
occured to me after reading this was despite how much fun it all sounds like
(from a guy's perspective of course), I couldn't help but notice that Mr.
Bruderman spent his final days as a bachelor largely with people with which
he does business. I have some friends in the business, but they are few and far
between--at least the good ones are. I prefer to keep my work separated from my
home life which is why I would much prefer the bachelor party(ies) I had with
all my close friends in attendance to something of this caliber. After reading
about himself on the front page of the WSJ, I bet Mr. Bruderman feels the same
way.

Bastille Day!

It is a little-known fact that the only reason the rearview mirror was invented was so the French could see the war... thanks for that one Toth!
Went for a beer or 3 lastnight for Bastille Day with the gang. Well if it wouldn't have been Bastille Day I bet we'd have invented another excuse to meet for a pint. I did notice something funny though. It seems that the French have outsourced the celebration to the Irish this year. The french restaurant lined alley that typically hosts the street party was virtually deserted, however the next alley over that is home to a popular Irish pub was in full 135-beat-per-minute swing. I heard something about not getting a permit in time, but c'mon--Bastille happens the same time every year. It's not like it came as a surprise. I will place my tongue firmly in my cheek and proclaim that it is further evidence of the decline of all things French.
So tip your guinness and belt out a hardy "VIVA LA FRANCE!"

Unwinding the biological clock

If personal choice and self determination are the measures, women in America and the western world in general have a far better life than women living in other parts of the world today. The women's suffrage movement that began in the early 20th century and bloomed in the 60's has had many ramifications, most of them positive.
Today there is an article at MSNBC entitled: With no Mr. Right in sight, time for plan B
More women are silencing their biological clocks via sperm donation.

link

it begins:

When Anne-Marie,* the president and CEO of a start-up medical device company in Philadelphia, first begajavascript:void(0)
Publish Postn thinking of having a child on her own, she was 37 and her biological clock was ticking loudly.
As much as she wanted to be in a great, loving relationship with a partner, she wanted a baby even more. “If I turned 50 and didn't have children," she says, "I'd be pretty devastated."

Here we have an obviously intelligent, business savvy woman who chose to start her own company. The consequence of this is that she hasn't had time to think about a family until now. The obvious solution?

So after about a year of weighing her options and considering what it would be like to be a mother on her own, she did something a growing number of single women are doing: She chose an anonymous donor through a sperm bank and started her attempts to get pregnant, using drugs to encourage the growth of egg-producing follicles.

This is supremely selfish.

“I think a lot of the reason there are more single women becoming pregnant on their own is because of careers,” says Anne-Marie. “I went to a big-name undergrad school and a big-name grad school, I traveled a lot, I worked overseas. It’s hard to meet somebody, if you didn’t want to date someone from work. All of a sudden you’re 37, 38 and you think ‘I should have prioritized this more.’ But you’re just doing what you enjoy.”

Every choice has a consequence.
OK I'll come out with where I"m going with all of this...
Women have made tremendous strides towards equality with men in the past 100 years. This is good for men, women and society as a whole. However, when a woman decides that she's missed the marriage boat, or she thinks it's too much trouble to find a proper mate and nurture a relationship that will result in children, she now has the option of becoming a single mother by choice. Society, rightly or wrongly, has decided that being a single parent is not so bad afterall (it is most certainly preferable to a child growing up in a dysfunctional, abusive two parent home). I do not know how this translates into a single mother being both a good mother AND a good father. A child needs both to be a well adjusted kid, adolesent and adult. I think it is the pinnacle of selfishness to bring a child into the world simply because a woman feels she needs to be a mother before it's too late. It transfers her neurosis on to an innocent being. I'll speculate and say that a woman who cannot choose the proper mate or maintain and nuture a healthy relationship probably would not make the best parent in the first place. There's something Darwinian there. How is a child to understand that he/she is a product of a spermbank? What sort of psychological consequences does this have?
There is such a thing as too many choices, I believe this falls into that category. I'll say it again--a child needs a mother AND a father. If that were not the case, nature would have created us as asexual beings.

Good Album Cover Shot

If we were a real band BAXTER would be some gratuitous hottie like Jenna Jameson on the cover of that Blink 182 album instead of a 20 lb dog, and we'd not be smiling, because being a musician is serious business, and there's no time for smiling. Unless your tour bus is full of scantily-clad groupies--then it's ok to smile.
Since I'm on the subject--Steve Albini, who produced Nirvana's "In Utero", wrote an excellent essay many years ago entitled "the problem with music". I looked not too hard and found it here . It's definitely worth a read--good stuff!

The Insidious Price of Crystal Meth

For the record, I am of the mind that one should be able to put into one's body whatever one chooses without government interference so long as it does not affect anybody but the user. That said, there are substances in this world that for whatever reason exist, and no good whatsoever can ever come from their existence. I have a paticular axe to grind with the drug Crystal Methamphetamine because I have personally seen the destruction it can wreak. Fortunately for me I recognized the evil that it represented early on; unfortunately for a few of my friends they did not, and their lives were forever changed for it. Today there is an article in the NY Times that highlights one of the more sinister byproducts that "tweakers" leave in their paranoid-delusionial wake: innocent children.
link

From the article:
While foster populations in cities rose because of so-called crack babies in the 1990's, methamphetamine is mostly a rural phenomenon, and it has created virtual orphans in areas without social service networks to support them. in Muskogee, an hour's drive south of here, a group is raising money to convert an old church into a shelter because there are none.
Officials say methamphetamine's particularly potent and destructive nature and the way it is often made in the home conspire against child welfare unlike any other drug.
It has become harder to attract and keep foster parents because the children of methamphetamine arrive with so many behavioral problems; they may not get into their beds at night because they are so used to sleeping on the floor, and they may resist toilet training because they are used to wearing dirty diapers.
"We used to think, you give these kids a good home and lots of love and they'll be O.K.," said Esther Rider-Salem, the manager of Child Protective Services programs for the State of Oklahoma. "This goes above and beyond anything we've seen."

Meth has been around since WWII. I believe it was first invented by the Japanese as a way to keep their factory workers productive over long periods of time. It began to gain popularity about 20 years ago in rural areas as an alternative to high priced and harder to find cocaine. It is interesting to note that it is just now beginning to get coverage in the MSM. A more cynical person than I might say it's because it has recently been discovered by the gay community as the latest and greatest party drug. Formerly it was only a "red" state problem, and as such it did not warrant the attention of the MSM. Now that it is moving to urban areas, urban papers such as the NY Times feel compelled to talk about it.
The real crime in all of this is that valuable "war on drugs" resources are being wasted on combating marijuana while little seems to directed towards combating meth which any rational person can see is by many orders of magnitude worse than marijuana. Controls exist over the sale of the main ingredient pseudoephedrine here in the USA, but regulation in Mexico is less stringent. I read not long ago that much production is being shifted south of the border. I believe that even if Mexico did have the resources and the desire to crack down on meth production it would simply continue to move south.
Here's an idea that will never happen but should. Anybody that has anything to do with setting drug enforcement policy in our country should sample all of the drugs available on the street and judge the danger of each from a personal point of view. That way meth and marijuana would not both be schedule 1 drugs link
Who knows? We may even be able to form a comprehensive drug enforcement policy based on facts rather than fiction and be able to distinguish between drugs that do real quantifiable harm to our society and those that do not.
P.S. if you have not seen the movie "SPUN" yet, go rent it today. You will think it surely must be a parody, you will be shocked to discover it's not.