Legal Weed, Etc.

For a while now, I've been inclined to think that marijuana should be de-criminalized (whatever that means) if not legalized. This guy used to think the same, but now feels pot should stay illegal due to potential long term ill effects, namely schizophrenia:
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/why-i-no-longer-support-decriminalizing-marijuana/?singlepage=true. I knew guys in college who smoked weed regularly and it was easy to observe that they had definitely lost their edge and didn't have the same drive of their non or occasional pot using peers. No doubt if you use pot regularly from a relatively early age and possibly have a few loose issues up top, the stuff will have an ill effect on your well being. That said, I'm not sure that negates other arguments for marijuana's legalization, namely that were spending a gillion or so dollars to fight something that a gillion or so people like doing with a gillion or so bad guys getting rich in the process. Still haven't formulated a definitive "yea" or "nay" in my own mind, but I'm listening.

There was a primary election in Texas on Tuesday and I voted in it. I'd like to say that I was happy with the party ballot that I elected to participate but that would be far from the truth. In fact, the older I get the less I like about what I see. It's essentially come down to me identifying a few core issues that I think are important overall and holding my nose during the rest of the process. I'm guessing that is fairly typical of many voters--they aren't that fond of what they see coming out of a party whose candidate they're voting for and are really not all that happy with the candidate him or herself. What's clear is that the primaries bring out the fringe nabobs from both sides of the spectrum and voters in the later general election are in many cases left with choices that are highly lacking. An example would be the fifteen state school board positions. From the far right, you get guys like a Bryan dentist who thinks that people and dinosaurs roamed the earth together or the evils of fluoridation types or those otherwise interested in praying a lot. On the left, you get the historical revisionist crowd that won't rest until each and every pigment disadvantaged individual has pissed on his or her ancestors' graves and at least one school in each district is named after Che Guevara while all the while throwing money high into the air. What you don't get much are people interested in what's important (learning) as opposed to peripherals. For once, I'd like to see someone on the board who is sensible enough to say that shoving money into new buildings doesn't come close to measuring up to effective teaching and solid parental support while at the same time urging those with a wack job social agenda to go piss up a rope.

Maybe some day. Maybe not.