Jim Davis (a Hoosier, by the way) is a class act.
Minneapolis mayor admits it was a mistake to give awards to the SWAT team that erroneously raided the home of Vang Khang, though he still praises their bravery in shooting up a house full of children. Here’s the real question: If the SWAT team isn’t to blame for the mistaken raid, when are the officers who are responsible going to be identified and disciplined? It’s been seven months.
Congress sees its first federal marijuana decriminalization bill in 30 years. Kudos to Barney Frank.
The latest on the federal government’s absurd border seizure policy. They say they can take anything from you, for any reason, and keep it indefinitely.
So if it turns out that flouride is bad for your brain, will that finally put an end to the tired argument that flouridated water is an example of the many wonderful successes of government the last century?
Illinois attorney general wants to make “glorifying drug use” and “sending a terrible message” about drugs illegal, too.
This entry was posted
on Saturday, August 2nd, 2008 at 1:10 pm by Radley Balko
and is filed under General Drug War, Police Militarization.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
TheAgitator.com
And Rep. Ron Paul.
Flouride bad for you? Those commie bastards.
That’s why the only things I drink are rainwater and pure grain alcohol.
I believe the gist of the mayor’s order to the chief wasn’t “Make sure this never happens again,” but rather, “Make sure I’m not embarrassed like this again.”
Vancouver, WA whistleblower cop gets fired:
http://wweek.com/editorial/3438/11316/
The article on fluoridation left a lot to be desired though. For one, the International Society for Fluoride Research (ISFR) and the Fluoride Action Network (FAN) are both anti-fluoridation groups. (see http://www.quackwatch.org/04ConsumerEducation/nonrecorg.html). Now, rejecting their findings based simply on that would be hasty, but at the very least it should make us pause and take a closer look at their findings.
As someone who has spent a significant amount of time away from florinated water, I can personally attest to the benefits in terms of fighing tooth decay. I’d never in mylife had a cavity in one of my adult teeth. I left the country for two years, my brushing and flossing habits didn’t change and I came back with 5 cavities. Many folks I spoke with expereinced more problems than average. Of course this is all anicdotal, dismiss it if you will.
I’m a libertarian, but I’m not dogmatic about it. You know, it is possible that every once in a while the government may accidentially do something correct.
well mr libertarian john harrold, is there a way to prepare just your own water with fluoride? Saying the government should do something because it could improve the situation is asking for wiretaps and eminent domain.
but I don’t know if liking fluoridated water is un-libertarian, because isn’t it the public water supply?
The problem is that the government owns and operates the water system in the first place. Fluoridation is an irrelevant side story- there’s no reason a privately owned water system couldn’t be fluoridated.
By the way, most of the bottled water in Brazil is fluoridated.
Wow, too many great links in one article.
As for fluoridation – yeah, it might harm people. As a matter of fact, it’s known to do just that. Lack of fluoridation also causes an increase in tooth decay, which also harms people. Lesser of two evils?
As for the MN controversy, I emailed the mayor right after the awards asking simply if it was a joke. I’m astounded at this statement, if for nothing else the absolute crassness that continues to be displayed. He’s obviously far more worried about three officers being shot than an innocent family being shot at and terrorized, even though the officers created the situation and can’t be viewed as victims.
Worse yet, he continues to insult everybody’s intelligence (including his own) with the “we’re trying to get to the bottom of this!” statement. It’s been, what?, 7 months now? That “investigation” would take 5-10 minutes if anybody bothered to do it.
I hope the judge takes the little award ceremony into consideration when coming up with punitive damages.
That thing about fluoridation isn’t even written by Reuters, it’s a press release by an anti-fluoridation group.
I guess I work for a Public Water Utility and we are not run by the government, we follow the Safe Drinking Water Act but are free to do as we see fit. The users of the system can vote out flouridation if they so desire.
We are run by a Board of Directors who are responsible to the users of the water system in their jurisdiction. The only thing we have in common with the government is that the Board Members are appointed by the representative for that area of the community.
Flouridation, as well as chlorination, are two of the better things that we have done to water supplies. The amount of flouride in the water is a recomended level to prevent tooth decay and unless it’s at an extremley high level (which is what they do to rats) is of no threat to humans. And listening to anti-flouridation groups as the bastion of pure science is not where I’d put my faith IMO. If Flouridation was as bad as they say, we’d be seeing all of these effects that they perscribe.
Both tubes of toothpaste in my bathroom have instructions to call poison control if more than is used for brusing is swallowed. Is it the fluoride that is triggering that warning?
Congrats to AG Lisa Madigan for protecting us children…oops, I mean citizens of Illinois, from “Meth Coffee” and other thought crimes. I feel soooo much safer. Lisa seems to be quite a bit like her dad, the pompus Chicago Machine politician Mike Madigan. They are so busy pursuing publicity stunts and personal feuds with other lawmakers that they forget who they really work for sometimes.
“That’s why the only things I drink are rainwater and pure grain alcohol.”
Nice Strangelove quote, sir. ;)
“The vast amount of human activity ought to be none of the government’s business. I don’t think it is the government’s business to tell you how to spend your leisure time.”
QFT. And God bless you, Mr Frank.
Andy Craig–
What’s the problem with a government-operated water system, exactly?
Mark Z.: the problem is in the term “government-operated”.
What has the government ever done that the private sector couldn’t do better?
Could not? That’s a trap–I name something that the government has done decently well, and you reply that in Bizarro World the free market is doing it at half the cost and with lemon-fresh scent.
But to offer one of many examples: ending slavery in the United States.
An interesting bit about where I grew up (West Texas).
Out there they have to REMOVE flouride from the water in order to bring the amount down to the prescribed amount. You can also tell the people my age that were born out there as they typically have mineral stains on their teeth from the high amounts of flouride in the water.
Barney Frank really should be a credible candidate for president.
Mark Z.: Ok, I’ll take your setup.
Yep, the Government was the entity that ended slavery in the United States, however, given that 98% of the slaves in the Western Hemisphere were freed without the attendant bloodshed of something on par with the Civil War, I think it’s disingenuous to claim they did it well.
Radley I caution you not to go down the Woo-Woo road. Yes government routinely screws things up, makes things worse rather than better. No doubt about it, still a broken clock is right twice each day.
Ibuprofen isn’t in mother’s milk either, lets not give that to children either and children can have adverse reactions to it. Better safe than sorry, don’t use this drug, that can help 99%+ of children, in fact we must ban it. Lets get the government to do it.
Right Radley…oh wait, that government screwing things up again.
Keep in mind that groups like FAN are Nanny State pressure groups and nothing more. If they rely on sound science it is generally just a coincidence. Bottomline, take care who you clamper into bed with, no telling what rather unpleasantness you’ll walk away with.
“however, given that 98% of the slaves in the Western Hemisphere were freed without the attendant bloodshed of something on par with the Civil War, I think it’s disingenuous to claim they did it well.
That’s muddled a bit in that there were two governments involved. Arguably, the one that screwed it up was the one that insisted on resisting.
All of the other countries that freed their slaves before the US did so under far more authoritarian governments. So while the US may not have gone about freeing slaves well, I don’t think you can blame that on big government.
For a more complete list of (unconstitutional) power grabs by the unitary executive and gives by the “courage lacking” congress, pick up a copy of _The_Cult_of_the_Presidency_ by Gene Healy. No good fix inthe book but a lot of info that should anger everyone.