I'm now in favor of medical marijuana

...provided you put it in pill or capsule form.  Isolate the main medicinal analgesic element in pot and put it in a tablet and folks will quickly lose interest in it as an issue.  You'd think we didn't have good pain management until weed came along.  What's Oxycontin anyway a pussy drug? it's good and all but you can't smoke it.  It's all about getting in touch with your inner Munchhausen, your purported bad back now gives you an excuse to go to the medical dispensary in states where this is legal.  Help your cancer management and alter your mind at the same time, the two work in tandem and that's the whole point.  Smoking medical weed as opposed to taking a pot pill is kinda like seeing a sex surrogate instead of consulting a textbook to work out your sexual problems and save your marriage - "I'm doing this for us honey."

Bitcoin - techno-libertarianism?

Digital currency with no fixed rate, no real value. One business in NYC is starting to accept Bitcoin payments. So maybe after your next night on the town you can scan your restaurant bill with your brand new RandPhone.

The McBlog - a couple of thoughts on the go

Is it a sign of age when you spend most of your time on the computer looking up medical ailments? The failure of gun control - conservatives would rather you have a nuclear shoulder launchpad than risk a government takeover. Lovingly from my mobile device.

The Boston Marathon Bombings

One of my first and earliest thoughts in the tragic wake yesterday was Mayor Bloomberg needs to stop worrying about stupid stuff.  My other feeling was we've been lulled of late, no major domestic terror since 9/11 really and the few thwarted plans within the last few years were obviously concocted by amateurs (e.g. shoe bombers, undie bombers) and so there probably wasn't that heightened security at such a major event as there should have been not that there wasn't any security but you know what I'm sayin'.  Learned from some of the experts interviewed on the news yesterday that just like in the movies it is possible to detonate a bomb using a cell phone so maybe you can chalk up another negative into the cell phone/techno-addiction corner ("today's mayhem brought to you by Droid").  John Miller I like and will always stop while channel-surfing at such a time and see what he has to say, insightful and well worth listening to.  During his first address on the subject President Obama it was said made a deliberate decision to not yet use the word Terror even though CBS's Scott Pelley and some others were freely using the word so that seems to be some kind of early initial reflex on the part of the president following such events so make of that what you will.  Lastly Mayor Bloomberg needs to stop worrying about Stupid Stuff and if God forbid something like this should happen in NYC again many folks are gonna look back and say too much time spent on the Big Gulp:) 

Pro-abortionism, the quicksilver in the debate

Trying to nail down what exactly is pro-abortionism since everyone denies it so I've come up with this by way of example.  Let's say I'm against affirmative action or "reverse discrimination" as it's been called, now I think I can come up with a fairly respectable and intellectually legitimate defense of my position but let's say to make my case I then relied almost exclusively on the arguments made by avowed white male racists would it be a fair assessment among the folks-at-large to say I'm a racist or bigot, that the reason I'm against a quota system is because I hate blacks?  In the same way if I say I'm not pro-abortion but pro-choice but rely almost exclusively on pro-abortion argumentation, the pro-abortion worldview re the fetus in making my case then I think it not a far-fetched conclusion to say I'm also pro-abortion in addition to being pro-choice, nay probably pro-abortion first and foremost.  It's not really just another abortion thread just a caveat regarding semantics that when making your case be careful whose arguments you choose to use.  IF a pro-choicer uses the same material that a hardcore pro-abortionist uses and does this time and again know what I'm sayin'? 

Some more post-Newtown thoughts,

since it's still percolating out there and the state of CT has just passed some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation.  I only thought I'd do another Newtown thread if I have any fresh insights and so let's begin with the mathematics of Newtown.  Now all these massacres of late within the last several years are being lumped together somehow but in the vast majority of shooting massacres grown adults are the victims.  That's tragic enough but what happened at Sandy Hook is on another level totally IMO, a kind of existential quirk.  In fact it's bizarre and I don't think there's a snapshot anywhere of Adam Lanza where he's not a bug-eyed bastard, such a joyless individual.  Now the math angle, if you gun-controllers want to prevent another gun massacre ok but if your goal here is to prevent another Sandy Hook you're trying to prevent something that may not happen in another 150 years or ever for that matter.  Another point - how did the post-Newtown debate/discussion somehow evolve into ONLY talking about guns and gun control with a healthy side of mental health and no mention of DRUGS whatsoever?  meds, PCP, bath salts, prescription abuse, airplane glue, whatever but it's high past time authorities lay it all on the table so maybe we can have that other discussion.  One senses just another generic post-gun massacre political debate with an angle or two being deliberately suppressed and I've been wondering why.  Lastly since I'm trying to be fresh in this blog, to look at these things from another angle when you post comments I'd like some fresh and original thoughts too, maybe give yourself an aerial view of the issues instead of same-old same-old, left/right-wing talking points.  NRA Bad, ok we get that but how can you legislate exactly against or to prevent the tragically bizarre which is what Newtown was?  Conclusion: I'm not disagreeing with you about gun control per se but could Sandy Hook have been prevented?  I'm gonna go with a no:)  

The Mobile Web

My cell has the WAP browser deal where you can roam the Internet and it's real cool and addictive.  For instance when word first came out that we have a new Pope Francis I went on and found out within literally two minutes he had one lung since his teen days.  Just the other day I was doing the Sunday crossword and couldn't get the drug used in the movie Awakenings so again I went on the mobile web and within not even five minutes had my answer: L-Dopa.  Of course for real serious computer work you should have at least an iPad but it is fascinating just the same to have such information while on the go but there does seem to be limitations.  Newsmax.com itself has a nice mobile site, that's a conservative newssite but I find with Drudge the page is just too vast and sometimes you'll get a message that says "Page too large - open mobile site."  Browsing through some 'droid forums and other cyberdiscussions the other day and the things people get frustrated about like one guy wants to get the mobile version of a certain site on his laptop and it's really bothering him and I'm like why in hell would you even want to do that, are you that bored?  Anyway for those with Blackberrys or any other kind of smartphone device ya got any technical advice or pointers?