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"Ecstasy, LSD and cannabis are less dangerous than alcohol and cigarettes, the Government’s chief drug adviser claims today. Professor David Nutt is calling for a new 'index of harm' to warn the public about the relative dangers of various substances. He says alcohol should rank fifth, behind only cocaine, heroin, barbiturates and methadone, while tobacco should rank ninth, ahead of cannabis, LSD and Ecstasy. His comments are likely to prove explosive, given the seniority of his position. Professor Nutt has also courted controversy in the past - by suggesting taking ecstasy was no more dangerous than riding a horse." Read the rest here .

By: Ryan Jaroncyk , T H L Contributor Based on the latest polls, Americans want a public health care option, they don't want to send more troops to Afghanistan, and they don't like the GOP. This is not surprising since the GOP, on the whole, advocates a second surge in Afghanistan and is resistant to any type of public option. Let's take a closer look at the numbers. In a CNN Poll , 52% of Americans believe Afghanistan is turning into "another Vietnam", while 46% disagree. 59% oppose sending more troops to Afghanistan, while 39% support sending more. Of the 59% opposed to more troops, 49% support a partial or full-scale withdrawal. Greater than 67% believe that Afghanistan will not have a stable government in the next few years, although a similar percentage feels an American presence is necessary to assist the Afghan government and to prevent the reemergence of Al-Qaeda. In a Quinnipiac Poll , 61% of voters want a public option, although voters, by

(Image of the actual memo) From the Huffington Post : Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger typically attaches a message to bills he signs or vetoes telling lawmakers why he took the action. A Democratic assemblyman who heckled the governor during a recent event in San Francisco actually received two messages: the veto letter itself and a not-so-subtle rebuke creatively hidden within it. Like a find-the-word puzzle, the second message was visible by stringing together the first letter of each line down the left-hand margin. It consisted of a common four-letter vulgarity followed by the letters "y-o-u." Wow. So what's the verdict, people? Hilarious coincidence or deliberate insult?

Photo by geckowithcanon By: Ben Bryan , T H L Contributor I stumbled upon this today while rereading Book Four of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics : Vain people, on the other hand, are fools and ignorant of themselves, and conspicuously so; for thinking themselves capable of honorable undertakings, they make the attempt, and they are exposed. And they adorn themselves in dress and pose for effect and do other such things... thinking that through these they will be honored. Could there be a better description of the Obama administration?

Despite what Michael Moore says, this video contains at least ten reasons to love capitalism. Can you spot all ten? 1. Capitalism brought us retail grocery stores with an abundance, diversity, and affordable price of food unprecedented in the history of the world. 2. American commercial theater, which strongly influenced this video, developed in the heart of capitalist New York over the past two centuries. 3. No capitalism, no Internet. No Internet, no hilarious, low-budget videos like this. 4. Capitalism brought us YouTube, a perfect distribution medium for such videos. 5. Capitalism brought us high-quality digital cameras, recording equipment, and video editing software. 6. You can thank capitalism for the energy that powered the abovementioned equipment to produce this video, and your computer so that you can watch it. 7. Before capitalism, people toiled remarkably long hours just to subsist. Art and leisure remained largely the purview of wealthy aristocrats. Post-capitalism, these

Last week, Ryan Jaroncyk and I had the exciting privilege of interviewing Cato scholar and Foreign Policy Analyst, Malou Innocent . We ended up covering America's overall foreign policy and what principles should direct it, the war in Afghanistan, the war against Al-Qaeda, Obama's undeserved Nobel Peace Prize, the widely-ignored PTSD epidemic in our military, nuclear policy, and ideas for revising U.S. foreign policy to keep America safe. Below is a text transcript of the first half of this hour long interview. You are free to browse and read it at your leisure, but I highly recommend that you listen to the entire interview here . Wes Messamore : Malou? You're on the air! Malou Innocent : Thank you for having me. Wes Messamore : Ryan, you there? Ryan Jaroncyk : Yes I am! Hello, Wes. Hello, Malou. Malou Innocent : Hey Ryan. Wes Messamore : It was good corresponding with you to get this all set up. I want to start off with your fundamental underlying principles that infor

Editor's Note: Inspired by " Indexed "

"Who cares" what Dick Cheney says? In his recent interview with a pool of reporters, Vice President Joe Biden responded to Cheney's blistering criticism that the Obama Administration is "'dithering' on ordering more troops to Afghanistan, as he plows through an exhaustive review of US strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan." "I think that is absolutely wrong," Biden added, checking himself before completely finishing the statement, noting his gaffe-prone speaking history: "Who cares what-- Yeah, yeah, I can see the headline now. I'm getting better, guys. I'm getting a little better, you know what I mean?" Now I agree with Vice President Biden on Mr. Cheney's relevance: Who cares? I will in fact say what the current Vice President cannot say because it would make way too awesome of a headline coming from him: Dick Cheney needs to shut his mouth. Former Presidents and Vice Presidents need to back off of engaging in partisan p

By: Ryan Jaroncyk , T H L Contributor Over at the Cato Institute , Justin Logan offered some unique insights into Defense Secretary Robert Gates' latest rationale for escalation in Afghanistan. Gates, representative of those who favor a second troop surge, nation building, and long-term deployment, made the case for further escalation by appealing to one of the most common emotional arguments. If we withdraw, Al-Qaeda declares victory and initiates a massive propaganda campaign. Hawkish supporters of open-ended commitment often use a similar line of reasoning. We can't withdraw or alter strategy because America will appear as the "loser" just like in Vietnam, or we will have "fought in vain", or will have "cut and run" like cowards, etc, etc. Al-Qaeda will reap an enormous propaganda boost, draw a barrage of fresh recruits, and redevelop into a worldwide terrorist powerhouse. In other words, to save face at any cost, America must commit i

In the New York Times today, economist Paul Krugman waxes triumphant for socialized medicine: Steve Benen gets exercised over a new appearance of a zombie lie in the health care debate — the totally false claim that Canadian health care won’t pay for hip replacements for the elderly. But the hip replacement scam is even worse than Steve realizes. Because who, you might ask, pays for hip replacements in America ? The answer : Medicare pays 63.8% of the cost, Medicaid 6.8%. That’s right, the U.S. government pays for 70% of hip replacements in this country. Aren’t you glad we don’t have evil, Canadian-style government-run health insurance? As pleased with this observation as Dr. Krugman is, it doesn't tell us anything at all about the superiority or inferiority of a government-run health insurance industry. Tomorrow, government could decide to take over the shoe industry and buy 70% of Americans their shoes. That wouldn't mean that "socialized footwear" is more effe

Conservative Anti-Stimulus T-shirts: Get yours here . Mr. Drudge had two important and related headlines today: 7 Months After Stimulus 49 of 50 States Have Lost Jobs That's right! This press release by the Ranking House Ways and Means Committee Republican, Dave Camp shows that America is "Now Over 6 Million Jobs Shy of [the Obama] Administration's Projections" and says the following: The table below compares the White House's February 2009 projection of the number of jobs that would be created by the 2009 stimulus law (through the end of 2010) with the actual change in state payroll employment through September 2009 (the latest figures available). According to the data, 49 States and the District of Columbia have lost jobs since stimulus was enacted. Only North Dakota has seen net job creation following the February 2009 stimulus. While President Obama claimed the result of his stimulus bill would be the creation of 3.5 million jobs, the Nation has already lo

By: Ryan Jaroncyk , T H L Contributor In response to theater commanders on the ground, Defense Secretary Robert Gates approved 1,000 more "combat enablers" to be sent to Iraq last month. Combat enablers are classified as noncombat troops who specialize in intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, explosives disposal, medical and mental health, and personnel administration. 3,000 of these specialized troops will already be sent to Afghanistan as well, independent of General McChrystal's upcoming request for more. The additional troops in Iraq appear to contradict President Obama's promise to institute a swift, orderly, and substantial withdrawal. Before Obama entered office, approximately 135,000 U.S. troops were stationed in Iraq. Since taking office eight months ago, 131,000 still remain. The 1,000 troop increase, in addition to the 131,000 troops currently on the ground, also appear to contradict one of the central pillars of the so-called "Democratic m

Yesterday's big headline was the Obama Administration's new policy (which was already announced months ago, if you'll remember) on medical marijuana: " Federal drug agents won't pursue pot-smoking patients or their sanctioned suppliers in states that allow medical marijuana, under new legal guidelines to be issued Monday by the Obama administration. " I want to advise my fellow libertarians not to get too excited about this development. I'm certainly not. This is neither a step forward for advocates of marijuana legalization, nor "states' rights" proponents who want to see the Federal government staying on its side of the line drawn by the 10th amendment. Michelle Malkin calls this out for exactly what it is: The “clarifying” memo that will be sent out today, seven months after Holder first announced the “shift,” makes clear that the Obama administration will actually retain the same discretion the Bush administration exercises to prosecute

T H L Contributor, Heidi Moseley recently forwarded me a hilarious and pointed e-mail entitled "How Guvmint Works." Here it is: Once upon a time the government had a vast scrap yard in the middle of a desert. Congress said, "Someone may steal from it at night." So they created a night watchman position and hired a person for the job. Then Congress said, "How does the watchman do his job without instruction?" So they created a planning department and hired two people, one person to write the instructions, and one person to do time studies. Then Congress said, "How will we know the night watchman is doing the tasks correctly?" So they created a Quality Control department and hired two people. One to do the studies and one to write the reports. Then Congress said, "How are these people going to get paid?" So They created the following positions, a time keeper, and a payroll officer, Then hired two people. Then Congress said, "Who w

Why Ayn Rand Is Hot Again The unconservative Ayn Rand and her relationship to the American right Brian Doherty | October 10, 2009 Why is Rand, dead since 1982, so hot again today? Ironically, big government, one of Rand's betes noires, is stimulating her sales. Her more than 1,000-page 1957 novel, Atlas Shrugged, sold 25 percent more copies in the first half of this year than it sold in all of last year, shipping a total of 300,000 copies so far this year—tremendous success for a 52-year-old novel. Readers and pundits alike look at America and see a world scarily reminiscent of Rand's government-choked dystopia in Atlas. It's a world with a struggling economy where political pull matters more than success in the free market, where the government blithely takes over huge transportation industries. Read the full article here .

Discussion Point - 10/18/09: Should the U.S. Census Bureau allow illegal immigrants to participate in its census? A recent Tennessean article by Phil Valentine addresses the controversy: There's a move to keep illegal immigrants from participating in the census. I know, most of you didn't even know they were allowed to participate, but currently there's no law prohibiting an illegal immigrants [sic] from filling out a census form and sending it in. Mr. Valentine outlines some of the important issues at stake. Some people for instance, charge that not allowing illegal immigrants to participate is racist. Valentine contends that allowing them to participate warps our political process because census data is used to apportion congressional districts and illegals are not citizens. When the U.S. Constitution was written, major slave-holding states insisted that slaves be included in district apportionment though they weren't citizens, while states with fewer or no slaves

"Sen. Lindsey Graham Light In His Loafers" Press release by: " The Southern Avenger " Jack Hunter -H/T: Webmaster at Liberty Pulse It’s hard to imagine a Republican more useless than South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham. Whether spearheading legislation that would grant amnesty to millions of illegal aliens, stumping for the $787 billion taxpayer theft known as “TARP,” being the lone GOP committee vote to confirm liberal Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor, or his recent joining with John Kerry to promote cap-and-trade—without shame and without fail—conservatives have never had a friend in Graham. And yet in 2008, Graham was reelected in the deep Red State of South Carolina over a Democratic candidate, Bob Conley, who staunchly opposed amnesty, TARP and was well to the right of Lindsey in almost every respect. Many dubbed Conley a “Ron Paul Democrat,” given his support for the Texas Congressman during the Republican presidential primary and in that senatorial elect

This is the second installment of the Think Tank Lineup , a new feature here at T H L : a regular round-up consisting of short excerpts from- with links to- articles from the various liberty-oriented think tanks. In last week's lineup , we put our finger to the pulse of America's libertarian think tanks to see what they thought about health care reform. (To summarize, it should involve LESS, not more government.) This week, the libertarian think tanks are also in agreement: a more successful national defense strategy should involve less troops in Afghanistan and a more focused mission, but that if America does choose to escalate in Afghanistan, it had better send A LOT more troops than 40 or 80 thousand, and win a swift, decisive victory. The Cato Institute Afghanistan, The "Graveyard of Empires" The Ludwig von Mises Institute The Afghan Disaster In the private sector, there is always a test of success. The business must make a profit. It can sustain some losses, but

To everyone who participated in my blog's giveaway contest last month, I have finally finished compiling a list of all the entries, cutting them out, putting them in a hat (cliché, I know), and drawing for the prize winners. Please check your in-boxes and give your spam boxes a quick glance, because I imagine my e-mail could trigger spam protection with all these words like "you won," "prize," "giveaway," (etc.). I'll give all three winners a couple days to get back to me, but if you take too long, I'll have to draw again (something I've had to do once or twice in past giveaways). I am looking forward to announcing the winners here soon! Thanks so much for participating, everybody. You made my blog's first birthday a blast!

This is unacceptable. First we learn earlier this week that a detailed study by a military historian found that weapons failed our troops in Afghanistan during a critical moment in a firefight, leaving nine dead and 27 wounded: In the chaos of an early morning assault on a remote U.S. outpost in eastern Afghanistan, Staff Sgt. Erich Phillips' M4 carbine quit firing as militant forces surrounded the base. The machine gun he grabbed after tossing the rifle aside didn't work either. When the battle in the small village of Wanat ended, nine U.S. soldiers lay dead and 27 more were wounded. A detailed study of the attack by a military historian found that weapons failed repeatedly at a "critical moment" during the firefight on July 13, 2008, putting the outnumbered American troops at risk of being overrun by nearly 200 insurgents. Then today, Mr. Drudge links us to a disgraceful story about our Congress' priorities (or utter lack thereof): Senators diverted $2.6 bill

In the third day of this jaw-dropping story , wherein an Obama adviser admits exactly what the Democrats want for our health care (higher prices for healthy people, no care for old people, and less medical breakthroughs and innovation), I am seeing links coming in from all over. The blogs and message forums are on fire over this, as they should be, and as I'm reading through the responses and comments all over the blogosphere, one thing I keep seeing pop up, is the claim that this is somehow being taken out of context. SERIOUSLY!? Just listen to it. If you think this is being taken out of context then listen to it ! One particular gem I read at a Christian message forum was: "The quote is from 2007 in regards to what an honest candidate should say to the citizens if they didn't care about becoming president. It's a slam against the republicans, who were in office at this time, and about how the republicans were handling health care reform." No way is that even cl

I typically feature U.S. and global news here at The Humble Libertarian , but I did want to do a brief roundup today as a Nashville resident of some things that my Tennessean readers can do to stay involved in the cause for liberty. 1. Urge Tennessee's Senators to Audit the Fed Congressman Ron Paul's bill to Audit the Fed is a landmark piece of legislation that will give Americans the knowledge we deserve about where all those trillions of dollars in loans (of our money ) have gone. Sadly both of Tennessee's supposedly Republican Senators oppose the Senate version of that bill, The Federal Reserve Sunshine Act of 2009. This is particularly sad, because Tennessee is the great state of Andrew Jackson. President Jackson, if you'll remember, was vehemently opposed to the very existence of the central bank in his time, and worked hard to shut it down entirely, which makes his appearance on the $20 note of the central bank's present incarnation, the Federal Reserve, ext

Yesterday, I posted a video of Obama adviser Robert Reich saying that we should just let old people die because paying for their health care is "too expensive." As that post goes viral today (most notably with a mention from Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit ), I decided to dig up some more on Robert Reich. Check out what he says in this recent video to persuade you to support the Democrats' "public option:" The money quote is this: "Not surprisingly, there are powerful groups with a huge self interest in seeing this reform fail... They're betting if they confuse and scare you enough about change, you'll decide to stay with a flawed system that everyone hates and costs too much. Look it's the same old game. They want to scare you. And they have plenty of money and plenty of political partisans to do their dirty work." I see, Mr. Reich- so when opponents of the Democrats' so-called reforms say that they will ration care to the elderly, sky

By: Heidi Moseley , T H L Contributor SNL just eviscerated “Our Dear Leader” President Obama last Saturday saying that he has accomplished nothing in his first 10 months. "When you look at my record," his impersonator, Fred Armisen said, "it's very clear what I've done so far -- and that is nothing,” Yet now the Nobel Peace Prize is given to a man who has not kept any of his campaign promises -from closing Gitmo, to not hiring lobbyists, to posting bills online so we can read them before they are signed. Why is the Nobel Peace Prize going to Obama? Let me answer a question with a question. What do we know about the Nobel Peace Prize or Alfred Nobel ? Alfred Nobel, born in 1833, was a Swedish chemist and engineer. He was an armaments manufacturer and the inventor of dynamite. After an obituary was written prematurely about him denouncing his invention of dynamite, he decided to change his legacy. His fortune that he had made over his lifetime was left to th