Guilt

I live on the border between Oregon and Washington.  I get my local TV news from Portland, Oregon but live in Vancouver, Washington.  Vancouver is the poor cousin in this relationship. As election day gets closer we are inundated with television campaign ads (just like everyone else, I imagine).  Here in Washington, the candidates and incumbents don’t have to declare their party affiliation in the TV ads.  Which is interesting. Here’s what is happening at every commercial break---Every incumbent (regardless of party affiliation) running for re-election has the same pitch, to wit:  “I been fightin’ da’ man all along to get you folks sumpthin' good and keep da' man from doin’ sumpthin' bad.  Reelect me so I can keep fightin’ da’ man.”  The Republicans generally say that they are, in fact, Republicans.  The Democrats generally say nothing about party affiliation.  Like I said--Interesting. The kicker, though, is that the incumbents seem to...

As a retired law enforcement guy (32 plus years) one might be forgiven for believing that I am automatically against the legalization of marijuana. I forgive you. I’ve advocated for the legalization of weed for a really long time. Back when my peers thought I was nuts--OK, many of them still do, but no longer for this specific reason. My only beef is that the advertisements during the election season that push for legalization laws always include an interesting array of fictions. They perpetually claim that a repeal of criminality associated with marijuana will somehow free up the police to catch more child molesters and rapists (thereby making a vote to legalize marijuana a women's issue). Frankly, I'd like to see some stats from Washington and Colorado to see if that's actually the case. Or that nasty little lie that the extra taxes that will be generated (to replace the sin tax on tobacco, I guess) will help fund schools (another women's issue), and...