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I’ve noticed some news stories commenting about how black market marijuana is cheap in comparison to that which is sold in the state-licensed stores. I’m sure some extremist on the right will start sreaming about this as a threat to society and call it a drug problem when it is not. People always seek to avoid the more expensive product when a cheaper substitute is available. In this instance, this is not a drug problem: it’s a tax evasion problem, just like the guys selling cigarettes out of the back of a 1970 Ford Econoline van on old Highway 99.
For those who choose to enjoy mairjuana, I urge them to buy their product through the legal sources in order to support the end of marijuana prohibition. There is a lot more at stake than just saving a few dollars by purchasing the product from some shady character.
@1, I still think that this will decrease as more stores open. People will pay the premium for convenience. I went on a “educational’ tour of the one in SODO prior to a Seahawks game. They have multiple strains, pre-rolled, edibles, etc. So you can go there and yeah, it’s expensive but as long as they are open, you can get what you need.
Compare that to, is your guy home? Do you need to avoid calling him before noon ’cause, well, he’s a pothead and he gets pissy if you wake him? Is the product he has the same as you are used to or did he pick up some gack-weed from some dudes in Yakima when he was running low? Flip side, if that mellow high you’ve been enjoying lately is gone and now he has some mind erasing sit-on-your couch-for-hours stuff, is that what you want? Is he at work assuming pot selling isn’t his full time gig so you need to wait when you could just do it now and go home?
Damn those activist judges on the supreme court. What they really needed to do is overturn Gay Marriage “ONCE AND FOR ALL!” It says so here in my bible and THAT’s the law of America!
Even the crazed cretin arsloch knows the optics of two men living happily ever after is feckless and icky!
@3 the gay mafia was involved. I hear one member of the gay mafia threatened to tea bag each member of the supreme court. Scalia was a hold out but then fell too.
I see that (un)SP isn’t quite dead yet.
Birther fanatic and failed Lawyer files suit to deport Obama.
For fuck’s sake, when even Tucker Carlson is calling a you a nut job…
Well good luck with that.
Heh. Guess the village idiot troll will drop Carlson’s silly website and stick to the Gateway racist and Alex Jones.
I wonder what the excuse is for Muslim men who make thier women dress completely covered up?
http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/06/.....?hpt=hp_t3
I’d love to know what Laura Ingrham would say to those women…maybe she would tell them that they shouldn’t entice their men with their body odor? I know very cruel, remember I’m trying to think what Laura would think.
We’re starting to get a more nuanced media commentary now that pundits have had a couple hours to digest the Supreme Court’s punt on gay marriage.
CBS says it’s a setback for gay rights activists who were hoping for a decision that would establish nationwide gay marriage rights. But ABC says,
“The Supreme Court’s move … sends a strong signal that the Supreme Court wants this issue to percolate in the states. Ruth Bader Ginsburg told the Associated Press a few weeks ago that the court was in ‘no hurry’ unless there was a split in the lower courts. So far … there has not been a split.”
But decisions from the 5th and 6th Circuits are still pending, and ABC then quotes a legal expert, Stephen I. Vladeck, of the American University Washington College of Law: “The fact that the Court denied review in these cases, rather than holding them to see whether the 5th and 6th Circuits rule differently and uphold a marriage ban, sends a very strong signal about how the Court would rule if either of those courts rule that way. Simply put, there’s no reason for the Justices to have dumped these cases at this stage unless they’ve all but decided to reverse any lower-court decision that upholds a ban on same-sex marriage. Now, the question becomes whether the lower courts get that message.”
NBC’s analysis is more succinct and muted: “Monday’s action does not set a legal precedent. Lower courts are free to rule for — or against — same-sex marriage, and we may yet get rulings upholding bans.”
Generally speaking, though, pro-rights groups are treating the Court’s non-ruling as a victory, while anti-gay groups are expressing disappointment. That’s not surprising, as it effectively legalizes gay marriage in 11 more states, bringing the total number of states with gay marriage to 30 — a nearly 50% increase in the number of states where gays can get married, in one fell stroke. There’s no way the anti-gay camp could interpret that as a victory for them.
It’s still possible, of course, that the 5th and/or 6th Circuits will uphold gay marriage bans, and it’s also possible that, even then, SCOTUS won’t take the issue on. It wouldn’t be the first time the Supreme Court left in place a split among Circuits on an important national issue. The Court, like the other major branches of the federal government, is at bottom a political institution, or at least one sensitive to political currents, and historically its justices have often let contentious issues — the only kind it deals with — percolate, sometimes for decades. After all, it took them almost 60 years to revisit and redecide Plessy v. Ferguson.
Bottom line, though, what happened — and didn’t happen — today leaves the anti-gay marriage crowd with a much steeper mountain to climb, and I think their chances of getting to the top are now all but nil. Probably the worst that could happen to gay rights proponents as being left with a handful of states where gays can’t marry and gay marriages won’t be recognized. But who other than bigots wants to live in those low-wage and underfunded-schools bastions of bigotry anyway?
Three weeks into the new school year, gun-toting teachers have experienced three accidental discharges of guns in classrooms. Maybe that’s not such a hot idea after all.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/.....ail=email#
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Under the conservatives’ new policy of arming teachers, your schoolkids may be in more danger from their teachers than from terrorists or crazies.
This employer needs better legal advice than he’s getting. You usually won’t impress a judge by telling him you’re entitled to break the law.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/.....ail=email#
Who would’ve guessed the Texas fertilizer plant explosion that killed 15 people and injured 226 was preventable, and was ultimately caused by that state’s culture of lax regulation?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/.....ail=email#
Roger Rabbit Commentary: If, for some incomprehensible reason, you decide to live in Texas, you don’t want to buy a new home there. If the construction turns out to be shoddy, as it probably will, you can’t sue the builder. Instead, an arbitration panel of his buddies will decide what relief, if any (need you ask?), you’re entitled to. The best thing to do, though, is not live in (and preferably not visit either) Texas.
Mrs. Rabbit tells me that many years ago, before I met her, she had to change planes in Houston en route to a Caribbean cruise vacation and nearly got arrested in the airport there for trying to buy a Coke with a Canadian quarter.
“Yeah, fuck you, Mitt.”
@1, I think the whole way this legalization has been handled is embarrassing to the state of WA. Legal pot is not just a little more expensive, it costs twice as much as current street prices. I must quibble on you comparing it to illegal cigarette sales. Cigarettes have been a legal product for many decades and there was not a huge black market for cigarettes until there was massive taxes added to the price of a pack. So in the cigarette example the black market came after the legal market. Here in WA we are trying to convert an already established black market to a legitimate market. Putting huge taxes on the product, limiting the number of suppliers and retailers causing shortages, are not the best way to go about enticing people to change how they get their buds. Of course 520 may have never passed if there wasn’t the appeal to non users that there would be a huge tax windfall for the state so I understand why it was written the way it was. When the 2 year restriction on the legislature is removed, our lawmakers would be well advised to revisit the percentage of taxes placed on cannabis. Right now it is taxed 25% at the grower, then another 25% at the processor, and a third layer of 25% taxes at the retailer. I really think it is unrealistic to expect people to suddenly double the amount that they have to pay for a product that is easily available at half that price on the black market. Yes there are some dealers that are as you describe that are difficult to do business with, but there are also plenty of people that simply get a green card and go to one of the many medicinal stores that behave like regular businesses. Or you simply know someone with a green card and they buy extra for you. The Liquor Control Board needs to understand that they underestimated the amount of attrition amongst the lottery winners due to inability to secure properties, cash, etc and issue more licenses to drive down the price, thus attracting a larger customer base to pay taxes.
This isn’t really a rant about the death of left radio in Seattle but when they yanked it off 1090 and became “The Fan” they cited low ratings and the desire to air more live sports.
So right now of the four sports oriented radio are playing, Sports Talk (local) Sports Talk (Local), Sports Talk (Nationally Syndicated) and Sports Talk (Nationally Syndicated). But there’s an MLB playoff game happening live that you can’t hear in Seattle.
And the ratings for 1090 are no longer measurable…dead last in every daypart. I bet there’s at least 500 people who want to hear the game but hey, what’s that when we can broadcast Doug Gottleib to 22 people.
@15
Yeah, Colorado did a better job, but at least it’s a start here in Washington. The long term plan, I beleive, is to end the crazy War on Drugs. We need to start somewhere.
Why Do They Need To Ask?
Economists are wondering why the labor participation rate is plunging.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/wh.....workforce/
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Well, here’s a few thoughts: Declining pay; curtailment or elimination of pension and health benefits; split shifts, rotating shifts, weekend shifts; replacing full-time jobs with part-time jobs; playing interview games and demanding applicants’ social media passwords; commuting expenses and hassles; dangerous workplaces; bad bosses; I could go on, but you get the general idea: Employers expect people to work at miserable jobs for ever-shrinking rewards. Is it really so shocking that millions of workers are walking away from that bullshit? It doesn’t take a battery of economists; one half-smart ninth grader could figure this out.
Just what we don’t need, another tone-deaf Republican in Congress:
“A House Republican candidate is using video footage moments before the beheading of American James Foley in a campaign ad slamming Arizona Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema as weak on national security.”
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ho.....deo-in-ad/
Our civilization seems to be going backward.
“Brawls at the San Francisco 49ers’ and Los Angeles Angels’ stadiums over the weekend have left a football fan and a baseball fan hospitalized in serious condition, raising calls for increased safety at major sports venues.”
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/we.....ed-safety/