The never ending war against human nature

Nice and quite interesting commentary from a reformed drug warrior...

ObamaCare that expensive mistake waiting to happen

Not that the dean of the Harvard Medical School would known anything....

In discussions with dozens of health-care leaders and economists, I find near unanimity of opinion that, whatever its shape, the final legislation that will emerge from Congress will markedly accelerate national health-care spending rather than restrain it. Likewise, nearly all agree that the legislation would do little or nothing to improve quality or change health-care's dysfunctional delivery system. The system we have now promotes fragmented care and makes it more difficult than it should be to assess outcomes and patient satisfaction. The true costs of health care are disguised, competition based on price and quality are almost impossible, and patients lose their ability to be the ultimate judges of value.

Game, set, match. Sorry but I trust this person more than I trust Obama, the Congress, and that includes you Snowe and Collins or MSNBC, and the mindless losers writing stupid shit for a mind numbing and boring TV series.

Yet another misstep in the vital war against FOX

Words cannot describe how mindnumbingly stupid a move this was on the part of the Whitehouse. Bravo for ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC for refusing to go along with this.

War on drugs = fail

I've long been a critic of the war on drugs. It looks to me like a civil war against your neighbors and their children and possibly even your own children. The police have become increasingly militarized, confiscatory laws provide law enforcement with profit incentives for arrest and convictions, the collateral damage seems intolerably high and in essence all we've accomplished is to provide a government price support mechanism. I found this article in New Scientist interesting despite the lack of depth.

SO FAR this year, about 4000 people have died in Mexico's drugs war - a horrifying toll. If only a good fairy could wave a magic wand and make all illegal drugs disappear, the world would be a better place.

Dream on. Recreational drug use is as old as humanity, and has not been stopped by the most draconian laws. Given that drugs are here to stay, how do we limit the harm they do?

The evidence suggests most of the problems stem not from drugs themselves, but from the fact that they are illegal. The obvious answer, then, is to make them legal.

The argument most often deployed in support of the status quo is that keeping drugs illegal curbs drug use among the law-abiding majority, thereby reducing harm overall. But a closer look reveals that this really doesn't stand up. In the UK, as in many countries, the real clampdown on drugs started in the late 1960s, yet government statistics show that the number of heroin or cocaine addicts seen by the health service has grown ever since - from around 1000 people per year then, to 100,000 today. It is a pattern that has been repeated the world over.

You can read the whole thing here: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327251.100-better-world-legalise-drugs.html