Ah, So What....?

The man is right, ya know:

Kinky Friedman says he favors legalizing marijuana to keep nonviolent users out of prison. If Texas elects him governor, he says, he'll try to get locked-up pot users released to make room for more violent criminals.

"I think that's long overdue," Friedman told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday. "I think everybody knows what (U.S. Sen.) John McCain said is right: We've pretty well lost the war on drugs doing it the way we're doing it. Drugs are more available and cheaper than ever before. What we're doing is not working."

There are several areas where traditional conservatives and I part company, the “war on drugs” being just one. I tend to be fiscally conservative and socially liberal…to a point. But that’s neither here nor there. Back to Mr. Friedman:

As for Friedman, he said he doesn't like being called a politician.

"I don't mind being called a flip-flopper," he said, a description Perry's campaign has placed on him. "I think we actually could use a flip-flopper as governor because a flip-flopper is a human being open to change, and God knows change is what we need now."

He acknowledged that the Texas governor's authority is limited compared with executives in other states but said he would use the bully pulpit to cajole legislators. He doesn't trust them, he said, adding: "I do not trust the media either."

"Right now the lobbyists are leading us. We have a lack of leadership, a vacuum," he said.

One of the Texas governor's few powerful roles is in appointing state board members, and Friedman said he would replace as many as he could, including regents at the University of Texas and Texas A&M.

"You clean house," he said. "You get the old farts out of there. You put a bunch of young people in and you put a bunch of people who care about Texas. It's pretty simple."

I’m gonna vote for him. Seriously. I don’t think I have any Texas readers (other than the googlers and the drive-bys), but just in case: here’s Kinky’s web site. The man makes quite a bit of sense, and I’m all for the (vanishing) American tradition of citizen-politicians, as opposed to the professional pols. Kinky fits the bill.

Charles Krauthammer has a short and sobering op-ed in today’s WaPo, wherein he claims the decision to launch military action against Iran is but a year away. The costs of military intervention will be high, indeed, but the costs of not acting are much, much higher. It may come as no surprise that I agree with Mr. Krauthammer.

Falling gas prices… Most folks have noticed, me among them, that gas prices are falling. I filled up out at the base yesterday and the price of premium unleaded has fallen from $2.99 to $2.60-something in the past two weeks or so. There are several good opinions in the ‘sphere today on this subject, and the Good Captain is typical:

Why will the prices fall so low? It comes from the speculation involved in commodities trading. Over the past couple of years, traders have built a lot of catastrophe into oil prices, betting on future disruptions of serious scale due to bad weather, war, diplomatic difficulties, and bad economic conditions. However, it turns out that most of the risks either have fizzled or were overstated -- and now the market is somewhat flooded in oil.

Supply and demand. Basic market forces at work, and all that. One of the greater goods of falling gas prices is defusing of one of the Democrat party’s powerful arguments for change, an argument that relies more upon emotional string-pulling than rational thought. But, I digress. PowerLine and Austin Bay have more…Colonel Bay has some particularly good links in his post.

E. coli cases traced to bagged spinach… The AP reports:

WASHINGTON - Consumers nationwide should not eat fresh bagged spinach, say health officials probing a multistate outbreak of E. coli that killed at least one person and made dozens of others sick.

Eight states were reporting a total of 50 cases of E. coli, Acheson said Thursday.

The death occurred in Wisconsin, where 20 people were reported ill, 11 of them in Milwaukee. The outbreak has sickened others — eight of them seriously — in Connecticut, Idaho, Indiana, Michigan, New Mexico, Oregon and Utah. In California, state health officials said they were investigating a possible case there.

The outbreak has affected a mix of ages, but most of the cases have involved women, Acheson said. Further information on the person who died wasn't available.

Wow. Not good. I usually eat a couple of bags of spinach a month, but not raw. I stir-fry the stuff in a mixture of sesame oil and a tablespoon or two of soy sauce. I suppose stir-frying is enough to kill those nasty lil critters… If you’re in the habit of eating spinach salads I’d quit for a while, if I were you.

Finally…Oriana Fallaci is dead. The West has lost a powerful voice in the fight against Radical Islam. Dr. Rusty Shackleford and Michelle Malkin have more (Malkin, particularly). RIP, Ms. Fallaci.

Today’s Pic: Everyone loves Puppy Pics, right? I’m putting this one up because of his expression, which illustrates perfectly the way I’ve been feeling of late. Interpret that as you wish… Photo taken in February, 2004.