Sunshocked

The legalization of marijuana is on the ballot in Nevada, stirring up the amount of controversary expected from a state whose biggest export is nothing because what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. However, U.S. Drug Czar John Waters recently broke a Nevada law (which are hard to find) by actively campaigning against the dreaded Question 7.

I’ve never really thought of myself as a nationalist. Sure, the United States of America has been good to me, but I’ve avoided any jingoism over my 29 years. It wasn’t until yesterday when our president signed into law legislation that allows torture and eliminates habeas corpus that I realized how much I loved our country—and how much it hurts to see it destroyed in my generation.

The word “Utopia” literally means “no-place”—which is exactly where you find a society without class boundaries. But when 40,000 people journey to the desert and build a new civilization for a week, what cultural institutions do they bring with them and what do they leave behind?

It was not poor planning, but rather mutual ignorance, that led to the simultaneous scheduling of the Commonwealth Club‘s lecture by Geoff Nunberg and the smartMeme reportback on the STORY project. Only because they offered such a chance to rub elbows with intelligent people did I break a sweat running through the streets in order to attend both. I’m glad I did. I don’t think anyone else noticed that the two were talking about exactly the same things.

It would be a great story if Senator Rick Santorum took his family to see An Inconvenient Truth and left the theater realizing that his Grand Old Party was defecating all over the world he was planning on leaving to his children, invoking in him a profound shift of character which culminated in his full endorsement of the local Green Party. The truth is profoundly shiftier.

There have been lots of efforts by peace activists to bring the troops home. Marches, concerts, and civil disobedience have all fallen on deaf ears. When I participated in the Troops Home Fast, my low expectations were blown away. Not only has it made a difference politically, but I’ve learned a lot about my own “internal politics”.

Back in the 1920s, Harold Hotelling made a strong case for making products similar to your competition. Very clever people immediately applied this Law to politics. Let’s take a look at how this has played out, shall we?