CA has banned the sale of Salvia divinorum to minors. Several states have banned the plant outright. I wouldn't be surprized if the DEA steps in sometime soon and use its emergency powers to place the drug on Schedule I, just as it did with Ecstasy. That would be a shame because the drug is quite interesting from a pharmacological standpoint (I think it's the most potent natural psychoactive compound known, and a previously unknown class of drugs), and rapid progress is being made in studying its activity. A DEA ban would place a burden on researchers, and probably inhibit research progress.

BTW, CA is the home of the Salvia divinorum Research and Information Center.

Apparently the big health news today (according to Google News) is that radio hate-monger Michael Savage acted like a pompous prick and said something mean and belittling of families suffering from autism.

 In New York City, Autism United, a coalition of organizations that advocate on behalf of children with autism and provide services to them, staged a protest Monday outside the studios of WOR (710 AM), which carries Mr. Savage’s program...

 I don't know if these people really are shocked, or if they are just using this as an excuse to attack Savage, whose radio program transmits insulting drivel to the minds of millions of Americans. I haven't listened to Savage in several months (he keeps me awake on long drives), but there is nothing exceptional in him saying that nearly every child with autism is just “a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out.” This guy makes Limbaugh look like a hippie. Really, he's kinda scary. What is shocking is that his audience is the third largest among talk-radio (behind Limbaugh and Hannity).

If you aren't familiar with his screeds, here's some of his best stuff from Media Matters:

•  Savage praises comments by controversial McCain supporter Rev. Parsley advocating destruction of "false religion" Islam
• Savage on Obama: "He's an Afro-Leninist, and I know he's dangerous" 
• Savage: "Bring in 10 million more from Africa. ... They can't reason, but bring them in with a machete in their head"
• Savage: Rep. Ellison, atheists share "hatred of Christianity and hatred of Jews"

The current economic difficulties are exposing the weaknesses in some of America's core economic institutions. The mortgage crisis and the subsequent troubles of IndyMac, Freddie Mac, and Fannie Mae are bringing public attention to issues that left-libertarians have been harping on for a long time: our system of land ownership and (fractional reserve?) banking. Are we in a position to take advantage of public attention on these issues? Does anyone have a good outreach strategy? Is there any way to know if we are winning any converts?

I think this is stuff we need to think about, and act on rather soon. I can't say that I even have a solid understanding of the issues involved. Do we have access to any solid, accessible publications of critiques by economists? Is there a good way to publicize these?

For what it's worth, I did a half-hearted test of a prediction made by some Georgists--that real-estate taxes reduce land speculation, and thereby minimize the boom-bust cycle in real-estate, and via the wealth effect, these taxes can also minimize the general boom-bust cycle. To test this, I found some data on property tax rates and real estate price deflation (by state). I failed to identify any correlation, but I didn't have high resolution (i.e. county) data and I'm not sure I was even looking at the right statistics. Are any land-value economists conducting similar studies?

The US Navy has re-established the 4th Fleet, dedicated to the Caribbean, Central and South America, and the South Atlantic. The 4th Fleet was active during WWII, hunting submarines in the South Atlantic. Today, its will use it's firepower mainly to combat drug traffickers. Chavez and Castro dislike this development, for obvious reasons. Other Latin American leaders have expressed concern, which has been met with assurances that the fleet possess no offensive capacity. We'll see how long that lasts.

In the meantime, when we account for the costs of the drug war, I guess we can add in the costs of maintaining the 4th Fleet.

Some powerful stuff at Salon.com today:

• Ask the Pilot: "Propped up by a culture of fear, TSA has become a bureaucracy with too much power and little accountability." The government has responded to the threat of international terrorism by instituting a pointlessly totalitarian system of regulation on our airplanes and at our borders. It is squandering immense resources, both from the salaries of an army of security guards and also from wasting the time of travelers. It has erected barriers between Americans and the rest of the world, even as the friendship of foriegners is increasingly important. Finally, we now have to surrender all privacy just to use a form of transportation that is essential to our economy and the lifestyle of the American middle-class. This has to change.
• Why progressives should keep organizing on MyBarackObama.com: Progressive/Liberal activists are being sold out by the political elite. How can they maintain relevance? A good quote:"Political cynicism on the left is growing, and with good reason. We won both houses of Congress back in 2006, but we've seen almost nothing change. Most recently, a bipartisan coalition -- which included Barack Obama -- voted to subvert justice by granting the telecom special interests retroactive immunity for lawlessly spying on Americans."
• The dangerous hostility game with Iran: A mediocre review of some recent developments, and a reminder that "war is the health of the state"--or at least, the Republicans.
• From clearing crap to modeling fashion: Some attempts to help India's "untouchables" and bring awareness to their condition.

Salon.com is looking for a technology reporter.

For some reason, I have a gut feeling that we might have readers who would be a good match for this job.

Jesse Ventura is considering a run for the Senate in Minnesota, against GOP incumbent Norm Coleman and DFL candidate Al Franken. I'd be happy to see him run (and win). Franken seems well on the way to having is butt kicked by Coleman, while Ventura would start off with ~25% support were he to run. Ventura would be a good ally with the Democrats on the big issues for the next Congress--the war and government secrecy. From a distance, I've gained some admiration for Ventura, while Franken has never established himself as a serious politician in my eyes....but maybe Minnesotans have a different opinion.

Op-Ed Contributor - Put War Powers Back Where They Belong - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com

JAMES A. BAKER III and WARREN CHRISTOPHER come out in favor of a reformed war powers act. I haven't had time to look at this yet, but we've needed a stronger war-powers act for a long time.

Obama proposes easing consumer bankruptcy laws | Reuters

It sounds like he is just pushing to include the exceptions that Democrats wanted to have in the original bill. These are good ideas, but by my limited understanding of that bill, the entire thing was disposable: it amounted to changing the terms under which people had taken on debt--a massive transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich.

So here's some news:

• The Chinese Communists taught us how to interrogate prisoners:

In 2002, the training program, known as SERE, for Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape, became a source of interrogation methods both for the C.I.A. and the military. In what critics describe as a remarkable case of historical amnesia, officials who drew on the SERE program appear to have been unaware that it had been created as a result of concern about false confessions by American prisoners [captured by North Korean forces].

 

• While Republicans throw a fit about Obama's acquaintance with his neighbor, Weatherman bomber William Ayers, it appears that that McCain has his own associations with terrorists: A prominent McCain fundraiser was the CEO of Chiquita Bannana Company during the late 1980's and 1990's, when the company provided cash and weapons to Columbian paramilitary groups such as the AUC, even after the group had been listed as a terrorist organization.