Pet Peeve and more quickies

First, the pet peeve: This may come as news to many people out there, but today, the Summer Solstice, a day that has been honored by festivals and rites for millennia is not the longest day of the year. It's still 24 hours in length. Yes, it has the longest amount of daylight minutes in the year, but it is not the longest day. Each day is 24 hours in length.

The Boston Globe reports that emergency contraception sales in Canada have nearly doubled since it was made available without a prescription. Officials think that many Americans are crossing the border to get the pills, which makes perfect sense from a supply and demand perspective. Though not mentioned in the link above, Mexico is seeing a similar increase in sales.

Speaking of supply and demand and Mexico, a lot of articles have gone out this week about how the number of meth labs being found and closed in the U.S. has greatly fallen. I link to one example which was very similar to the one in the Seattle Times. Law enforcement considers this a huge win, however I expect to see further articles detailing how meth use has not fallen. As this link from Oregon shows, production has been outsourced to Mexico. Expect further stories on the alleged meth crisis, how it is out of control, a Mexican meth scare prompted by deaths from a bad batch, and more. In other words, a continuation of the typical tactics used by law enforcement and politicians to justify the war on drugs. For those of you old enough, we heard these same arguments made about LSD, heroin, cocaine, crack, and, incredibly, marijuana.

Remember the ad run against Al Gore in 2000 featuring a young girl picking daisies when China attacks with nuclear weapons? It was a take off on Lyndon Johnson's ad from 1964 against Barry Goldwater. Well, the man behind the ad is facing child molestation charges in Texas and one of his accusers is the girl from that ad.

More Republican corruption. Laura Rozen offers up an article on the Duke Cunningham, Jerry Lewis, Dusty Foggo. Bill Lowery, and Brent Wilkes cabal. More here, here, here, here, and here. This story has tentacles that reach into many companies and areas as well as Congressional Representatives.