Truth Like The Dark

I just went to CNN and turned to an article entitled “Bush: Students, teachers must ‘never fear for their safety’”, thinking that maybe The “President” had something to say on the GOP Sexual Predator Scandal.

Silly me, he was just blathering on about guns in schools (he said his administration “will do what it can”, which means nothing), and The No Child Left Behind act (a horribly unsuccessful program that is shockingly anti-conservative as well).

On a lighter note, I hear Foley wanted to call it the “No Child’s Behind Left” act.

From the timeline of the GOP Sexual Predator Scandal:

2001: A Republican staff member tells congressional pages to “watch out” for Foley, according to ABC News.

If a GOP staff member knew enough to tell the pages, the GOP knew exactly what was up, five years ago. Period.

Surprise: they are lying hypocrites. So, if all the horror of the W years hasn’t been enough, if the horror of the years since Nixon haven’t been enough, this should be enough. Please, let’s all get out there and purge this party of corruption from our halls of government!

Virgin Trains would be in so much trouble if this ad was shown in America! (click picture to go to site where the video is available):

Apparently, those red savages want our doodles, as well as our white women.

I was thinking this morning: why don’t we simply tax tobacco in proportion to it’s societal costs (and cut medical-system-related-taxes) for everyone else?

I wondered if anyone had done the math, and found that the CDC estimates the societal cost at $7.00 per pack.

Is that anything like the taxes on cigarettes? Not in the US, where the federal tax is $0.39 per pack, and state taxes vary from $0.12 to $1.51. In the UK taxes are about $3.20 per pack (this is an old figure, things may be closer to the real societal cost now).

Of course, it goes without saying that we should stop subsidies (USA and EU) for growing an addictive, deadly drug that forms a massive burden on society.