Clearly "The Week" is my 'go to' for news. You can check it out yourself just as easily, I guess. BUT, I would LOVE to hear your opinion on these! What do you think about legalizing marijuana? No judgments will be passed. This could go either way so easily to me...

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News & Opinion

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

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Could legalizing marijuana save California?

It's time to admit that the war on marijuana has been "an abject failure," said Dan Walters in the Fresno Bee. It costs taxpayers a fortune every year. "Wouldn't it be smarter to legalize marijuana"—as a San Francisco assemblyman is proposing—"and tax its sale to adults much as we do liquor and cigarettes?"

The idea isn’t as far-fetched as it once was, said Nate Silver in FiveThirtyEight. “Three recent polls show that Americans are more sympathetic to the idea of legalizing marijuana than ever before.” Support for legalization has broken the 40 percent mark, and “the position no longer holds the stigma that it once did.”

And now there’s a new reason to tax pot instead of criminalizing it, said Eric Bailey in the Los Angeles Times. California has been squeezed hard by the financial crisis, and cannabis is widely believed to be the state’s biggest cash crop. San Francisco Assemblyman Tom Ammiano’s proposal to tax marijuana could be the state’s financial salvation.

Sure, in Amsterdam they sell pot and hashish in “coffee shops,” said the Texas Enterprise in an editorial. Some places allow bullfighting; some allow casinos; some allow brothels. But legalizing vices is the easy, and immoral, way out.

O. M. G.

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"Joaquin Phoenix's Letterman splash

In Joaquin Phoenix's bizarre TV appearance, he forsakes acting for his music career.

(AP Photo/Matt Sayles)
Arts & Leisure
Thursday, February 12, 2009

Joaquin Phoenix's Letterman splash

"Wow. What on Earth is going on with Joaquin Phoenix?" asked Maureen Ryan in the Chicago Tribune. He made a "surreal" appearance on "The Late Show With David Letterman" Wednesday night, speaking in monosyllables, chewing gum, wearing shades, and mumbling about his new rap career (click here for the video). As the interview ended, Letterman said, "Joaquin, I'm sorry you couldn't be here tonight."

This was "an exercise in squirmingly uncomfortable comic gold," said Craig Newman in the Chicago Sun-Times. Phoenix was on to promote his new movie, "Two Lovers," or his rap career, "or ... well ... who knows, really." All mystified viewers seem concerned about is whether he was high or "just a jerk." And, "what's up with the beard?"

Phoenix's behavior has turned Friday's opening of "Two Lovers" into "a circus nearly as surreal as anything staged by Fellini or Cirque du Soleil," said John Horn in the Los Angeles Times. Phoenix says the film is his "swan song"—he's retiring from acting to devote himself to music. The "unusual declaration" is overshadowing the film itself, "seriously testing the long-standing adage that there's no such thing as bad publicity.""

"Fidelity": Don't Divorce... from Courage Campaign on Vimeo.

I'm such a baby-- this made me cry.