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The UK state has long been scared of the effects of cannabis, especially its anti-state effect on people who want the freedom to eat, and smoke, and drink, whatever the hell they like.
But soon, specially selected National Health Service patients are to be given cannabis as part of a government-funded trial, costing half a million pounds, to see if it can work as an effective pain relief drug.
Of course, all of the sufferers from long-term pain who regularly use cannabis right now, illegally, to get themselves through the long days and nights of multiple sclerosis, and other painful complaints, could have told them this years ago. And have done so, many times. But not to worry. Spending half a million of other people’s money costs the government absolutely nothing, after all, so where’s the worry?
It should be interesting however, if Her Majesty’s Government do legitimise ‘medical cannabis’. Expect to see queues out the door of most General Practitioners’ surgeries filled with ‘migraine’ sufferers, for whom Nurofen doesn’t quite cut the mustard anymore.
Actually, I can feel this throbbing pain in my left temple, right this second, probably from all this cheese I’m eating on the Atkins diet. Maybe I should chuck the diet in, and get back to carbohydrates? Anybody got any ‘interesting’ chocolate cake mixture recipes?
Having just recovered from the shock of hearing about David Carr’s illegal tomato seeds, I’ve stumbled this morning across an even madder tax scam, this time originating from among our American friends in Seattle, in Washington State.
Apparently, and I’m still struggling to believe it, there’s a proposal to put a 10-cent coffee tax on every cup of espresso sold in the City of Seattle, to raise money for pre-school child care.
That’s Tax-tastic!
So what’s the alleged tax linkage between espresso coffee and pre-school child care? Linkage? Heck, we don’t need linkage. Here’s what John Burbank said, the man behind the proposed tax:
“I go into these places every day. One of the good things about Seattle is we love our coffee and we love our kids. So let’s make that connection.”
Has anyone reminded Mr Burbank that this is the land of the Boston Tea Party? I think someone should.
And while we’re waiting for the tax to go through, is Frasier available? I think I need a consultation to prevent early-onset total madness. The screens, please nurse. Quickly!
While I’m there in the recovery room, kids, you better watch out. One day, in the US, it’s a coffee tax. The next day, in the UK, it’s a Tetley Tea tax! Maybe those fine people in Boston won’t be the last ones to revolt over caffeine-based refreshments?
If you are one of those who favours privacy laws, to protect people against being snooped on, you might want to make sure you aren’t asking the government to make operations like this one illegal.
That link was in David Carr’s Samizdata piece yesterday, and there’s more comment from him and from the Samizdata comment pack.
The X-Prize entry from Armadillo Aerospace is coming along nicely. They’ve carried out a helicopter drop test. They’ve acquired a Russian space suit – sans gloves so far – from eBay. They’ve got the landing legs sorted. Most importantly, they have finally sourced more high purity 50% Hydrogen Peroxide. They are still having difficulties convincing the manufacturer (FMC) to sell them the hi-test rocket fuel grade. Nonetheless, this lets them continue the engine test series so they can solve problems identified in an earlier firing.
Armadillo Aerospace was created by John Carmack, one of the founders of Id Software. If you want to support private enterprise in space, buy their games! Of course, since they are the creators of such titles as “Wolfenstein”, “Doom” and “Quake”, you probably have already done so.
X-Prize entry under construction
Photo: Courtesy Armadillo Aerospace
The BBC reports that US Attorney General John Ashcroft has launched a strident defence of the controversial Patriot Act, saying it was the government’s responsibility to defend Americans in any way it could.
Mr Ashcroft highlighted support for the Patriot Act given earlier by members of Congress and the website lists quotations from members of both parties supporting the legislation, almost wholly dating back to October 2001 when it was introduced.
But since then dozens of cities and counties across the country have approved resolutions criticising the Patriot Act and various lawsuits have been brought to declare it unconstitutional.
Even the Republican-led House of Representatives has become involved in recent weeks, striking down “sneak-and-peek” rules which allowed government agents to search private property without telling the owner.
Other controversial areas – such as agents being allowed to scrutinise people’s library records without showing what crime they believe could be being committed – still stand despite challenges.
Telegraph reports that Tesco, a British supermarket chain, is taking pictures of everyone buying razors in a bid to cut down on shoplifting.
The experiment, at a Tesco store in Cambridge, has been condemned by civil liberty campaigners. Demonstrators have gathered outside the supermarket calling for a boycott until the “Big Brother” scheme is dropped.
Gillette razors in the company’s Newmarket Road branch are being tagged with individual microchips developed by Cambridge University’s Auto-ID Centre.
When anyone removes a product from the Mach 3 display, the chip triggers an in-store CCTV camera which takes a picture of the shopper.
Greg Sage, a spokesman for Tesco, said that the scheme was designed to keep track of its products within the store and stressed that the chips would have no further use once the products left it.
We would never compromise the privacy of our customers.
Police are said to be “impressed” with the images taken of shoppers, but civil rights activists claim that the microchips could soon be placed on a much wider range of products.
Yesterday I bought the paper version of the Daily Telegraph, to read about how England defeated South Africa at cricket (basically by winning the toss – never mind), and in the City Diary I read this.
Madsen Pirie, the president of the Adam Smith Institute, is feeling pretty smug. Three years ago he wagered £100 at 25-1 on Arnold Schwarzenegger becoming the next governor of California.
The best price you can get now is even money and Pirie is already dreaming of spending his winnings. “I’m going to have an absolutely great party,” he says, before adding, “and I’m going to ask Sir Clive Sinclair to host it.”
Pirie and Sinclair have been mates since they ran Mensa together and our gambler is particularly impressed by his friend’s pad in Trafalgar Square. “Nelson’s his nearest neighbour,” he gushes. “Clive has lots of gadgets so we will be able to show clips of The Terminator.”
So will Arnie make a good governor? “Maybe California needs someone with an economics degree,” Pirie replies. Arnie has one, by the way.
And then, I actually managed to track this story down in its electronic manifestation.
I think Madsen Pirie’s foresight deserves to get around and be celebrated.
I love this story. Not just because it sounds the like perfect scenario on which to base 1930’s-style Ealing comedy but because it has given me a glimpse into a world the very existance of which I had, hitherto, not even begun to suspect.
I don’t think many people realise it, but there is a contraband war going on in this country. It is a war which has spawned a clandestine ring of illicit and secretive dealers and buyers operating their own black economy and doing their best to steer clear of the agents of the state.
And just what are these shadowy merchants trading in? Is it narcotics? Is it guns? Is it prostitution? Gambling dens? No, it’s tomato seeds:
The dealer wishes to remain anonymous. Not that he’s ashamed of his seeds: on the contrary, he’s doubts you’ll find better in England. Once you’ve tried their crop, he believes, you’ll be hooked. But if he told you how to buy them, he could be prosecuted – and a small businessman like him can ill-afford a £5,000 fine.
The crop in question goes by the exotic name of ‘White Princess’. But it is not, as you might suspect, a variety of cannabis. Rather, it is a tomato – a “meltingly, sumptuously tasty” variety, according to the pusher, but a mere tomato none the less. And if that strikes you as surprising, you’ll be even more surprised to discover that ‘White Princess’ are just the tip of the iceberg.
This is a story of the bizarre, seldom-seen subculture of unlicensed vegetable-growing. Its wares include rogue tomatoes, “bad” apples and “hot” potatoes; tomatoes are as good an illustration as any of how the market works.
‘Seldom-seen’ is surely an understatement. Who knew such a thing was even going on? Though, reading on, it becomes clear why it is going on:
The Plant Varieties and Seeds Act (1964) makes these tomatoes forbidden fruit – well, at least the seeds from which they are grown.
NEVER EVEN HEARD OF IT!!
According to the act, anyone wanting to sell the seeds of a fruit or vegetable must first register the variety on a National List. Before registration, it must be tested to ensure it is “distinct, uniform and stable”, and a fee must be paid. Sadly for amateur growers, these fees add up to nearly £1,000, in the case of tomatoes, plus an annual renewal fee of £185. There are no exceptions, no grants for amateur growers, and it is illegal for anyone to sell the seeds of unregistered fruit or, by implication, the fruit itself.
Choice-killing legislation at its finest. Still, what the state denies the market provides so no wonder it gives rise to such a lively, profitable and enthusiastic ‘guerilla’ trade.
It’s fair to say Defra doesn’t police the law with much conviction, but the multinationals are always watching. In 1998 a company that illegally marketed grass seed was successfully prosecuted under the Plant Varieties and Seeds Act 1964. It was fined a total of £7,500 and ordered to pay costs of £7,964.
An instructive tale. For non-UK readers, ‘Defra’ is the Department of Farming and Rural Affairs and it is clealy not above moving to protect the interest of the market-hogging corporations. We should never overlook that fact that some large business concerns are not interested in the market they are interested in controlling the market and they use the apparatus of state to do so. Regulatory regimes often result from the connivance between big business and the state.
The linked article is lengthy but well worth reading in my view. It is not just enjoyable for its delightfully, eccentrically British flavour but also because it proves, yet again, that all legislation has precisely the opposite of its intended effect. The aim of the state was to prop up a cartel but instead they have breathed life into a thriving, committed and obviously very well-informed ‘black’ market.
May their tomatoes continue to grow and prosper.
There appear to be no good days in the Middle East, just varying degrees of bad day. How does today rate on the scale, I wonder?
In Baghdad, a bomber in a truck blows up the UN Headquarters: death toll 16 and rising.
In Jerusalem, a bomber blows up another bus: death toll 20 and rising.
It is conceivable (though by no means inevitable) that the attacks were co-ordinated in some way.
I often wonder about the future of that region and, every time I do, the vista just grows darker and darker. Some might say that that prognosis is simply a product of my pessimistic tendencies.
Is it?
The tabloid newspaper, The Sun is both the best-selling daily newspaper in Britain and (perhaps because of this fact) the most despised among that class of people commonly referred to as the ‘liberal elite’.
The Sun’s peculiar brand of kitchen-table, down-to-earth, working-class, mercifully unnuanced tub-thumping has earned it the nickname of the ‘Daily Red Neck’. To be fair, it is an image that the proprietors of The Sun have never sought to discourage.
But, while its more cerebral counterparts devote acres of print to torturous hand-wringing about the effects of globalisation on the native tribal peoples of the Amazon basin (or something) The Sun is prepared to get its boots dirty and go out and actually perform a public service:
LYING crook Brendon Fearon has been seen by The Sun effortlessly riding a mountain bike — even though he claims he was crippled by freed farmer Tony Martin.
The superfit burglar, who insists he cannot work because of leg injuries caused when Martin shot him, pedalled through streets at high speed.
And that’s not all.
STRIDING along the street with no sign of a limp; DARTING up the three stone steps to his home; STEPPING off pavements with confidence and WALKING his dog without a hint of difficulty.
Yes they actually sent in a surveillance team to follow this urchin around and record the results. I wonder how Mr.Fearon intends to explain this to the Judge (assuming he gets that far).
Once again, The Sun tells it like it is.
Thanks to Elegance Against Ignorance for the tip off about this, which is truly beautiful:
The burglar shot by Tony Martin has been filmed cycling and climbing steps with little apparent difficulty.
Brendon Fearon, who was shot in the legs at Martin’s Norfolk farmhouse, was filmed walking briskly and cycling near his home.
The footage, taken over the past week by The Sun newspaper, shows that the 33-year-old cannot be trusted and is a conman, Martin’s friend and supporter Malcolm Starr said.
And there was me thinking he was an upright citizen.
News of a new ID card scheme, in China:
BEIJING, Aug. 18 – For almost two decades, Chinese citizens have been defined, judged and, in some cases, constrained by their all-purpose national identification card, a laminated document the size of a driver’s license.
But starting next year, they will face something new and breathtaking in scale: an electronic card that will store that vital information for all 960 million eligible citizens on chips that the authorities anywhere can access.
Surprise, surprise.
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We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
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