Tuesday, February 17, 2004

Now, what, I say, what is the big idea? What's more shocking than a California farmer disposing 30,000 of his nonproductive hens by feeding them, still alive, into a wood-chipper? The fact that he consulted a member of the American Veterinarian Medical Association's animal welfare committee beforehand and received approval for the procedure. Philosopher Peter Singer has the scoop on this and other horrors. 11:05:31 PM    comment [] Up in Smoke TalkLeft has reported that the federal government spent $12 million prosecuting Tommy Chong for the sale of drug paraphernalia. Pete Guither at Drug War Rant asks us to put the $12 million in perspective: But let's just look at the cost of prosecuting Tommy for making some pipes: $12 million would pay for treatment for 3,500 drug addicts for an entire year. $12 million would pay for enough needle exchange programs to prevent 1,258 HIV infections. I would add: It's four times as much as was originally budgeted for the 9/11 Commission ($3 million), and more than the additional funds requested by the Commission's chairman Thomas Kean ($11 million) -- funds that the White House denied and that Congress eventually allocated after a long battle. It would provide 1,000 AIDS victims antiretroviral drug therapy for a year. So the Bush Administration thinks that a nine month prison sentence for Tommy Chong's sale of bongs is more important than investigating the 9/11 terrorist attack, than treating thousands for drug addiction or AIDS, and than preventing the spread of HIV to over a thousand. Postscript: Oh yeah, $12 million would also buy approximately one million large pepperoni pizzas with side orders of cheesy dots from Domino's. Far out, man! 9:53:00 PM    comment []

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