One way to resolve the thorny question of whether marijuana should be legal is to adopt an indirect approach. Instead of trying to get it legalized, which in this puritanical culture would meet stiff resistance from the usual busybodies, you can simply lower the penalties for use and possession. Maryland governor Robert Ehrlich has taken a brave stand on the least controversial measure – allowing people with serious illnesses, like AIDS and cancer, to alleviate their nausea by using weed. The fine for such usage is now $100 – in the range of a parking ticket. Good for Ehrlich for demonstrating compassionate conservatism.
THE CHURCH DIGS IN:The insurance companies aren’t exactly demanding compassion and contrition.
MORE SHOES DROPPING? Is Blair merely the first of NYT future scandals? The New York Post, hardly a disinterested party, seems to think so:
“There’s a big search going on inside the Times and outside the Times to find out if there are other Blair-like problems,” says our source. “Howard Kurtz [of the Washington Post] is rumored to be working on something. The Wall Street Journal and the L.A. Times are supposed to be doing something. The Times wants to come out with something first. If somebody else goes down, then people think [top editor Howell Raines] is out. That’s the prevailing wisdom around here.”
Tick, tock.
THE MYTH OF GAY MALE PROMISCUITY: Actually, that’s pushing it. But Eugene Volokh, a pretty disinterested party, has done some digging and come up with some interesting data. Gay men are not as promiscuous as some would argue.
The Dish 