How's that for creative headlining??  I'm telling you, I am So Ready to stop being "protected" from myself by the government.  This just drives me crazy.

Court Blocks D.C. Vote on Medical use of Marijuana [Washington Post]

with fun annotations here...Court Blocks D.C. Vote on Medical Use of Marijuana [Marijuana.Com]

Efforts to legalize marijuana for medical purposes in the District were blocked yesterday when a federal appeals court overturned, without explanation, an earlier court ruling that had cleared the way for the issue to be put before D.C. voters.

...

This is the second time that the measure has been blocked in the District. In 1998, D.C. voters passed a similar initiative, 69 percent to 31 percent. But a congressional rider to the D.C. appropriations bill prevented the initiative from taking effect.

Without explanation?  Yeah.  Whatever.  And they say that this is for "[our] own good."  Tell that to the suffering people who could be helped if they could avoid the threat of jail time for smoking pot. 

This makes me sad.  But, to continue...

Rep. Robert L. Barr Jr. (R-Ga.), who sponsored the rider, said in a statement yesterday that "despite a concerted public relations campaign to distort the real dangers of drugs, such as marijuana, the pro-drug lobby ran head-on today with the rule of law and a court, which recognized the right and responsibility of Congress to protect citizens from dangerous, mind-altering narcotics."  [emphasis added]

Show me where the Constitution gives Congress that right.  Show me.

The case, Barr said, "was about whether federal taxpayer dollars should be used to support the drug legalization effort in the nation's capital, and the court's decision today was a clear and emphatic 'No.' "  [emphasis mine.]

THAT is why DC needs statehood, or at least a bit more autonomy; Barr is right, in a sense, that federal dollars shouldn't be used.  But the District in essence has nothing but federal dollars; they don't get to do anything with locally generated funds that Congress doesn't approve.

Perhaps DC should start petitioning to re-join England; at least their laws are starting to recognize reality.

This is interesting.  In "Who's the most wired nation?. ITU speaks, we scratch our heads [The Register]," author Andrew Orlowski asks what the ITU means by wired.  Andrew quotes Dan Gillmore saying

"few people are actually doing much in the way of mobile Net communications [in the USA] except WiFi"

and continues

"whereas the Nordic countries can't stop tapping out text messages, the Japanese are going ape about sending each other pictures between their phones, and no one at the ITU wanted to say one was worth more than the other. "

My recent (admittedly non-scientific) survey of mobile users in the UK and France complements Orlowski's observations of Sweden and other Nordic countries.  In London, the friends I stayed with did not even have a computer at the house, but regularly "texted" other people (making important "which pub should we meet at?" plans) via mobile phones.  Every other television commercial seemingly highlighted the "cool" stuff they could do with their phones, even as my friends were interrupted during Dirty Dancing by yet another text message...this one from a friend in New Zealand. 

While the US may have higher penetration of computers in the household, mobile use is less prevalant.  Even among my friends I'd consider "wired," most of them use their mobile phones as, well, phones, with the occasional use of the web functionality to get important information like which theaters are showing the latest Rupert Everett movie at which times.   In other words, it tends to be one-way feeds of information, rather than two-way communication.

Instead, our communication tends to occur sitting in front of our computer terminals and posting in various eCommunities, via IM, or even by e-mail.   I'm not sure what the significance of this is, other than the status quo bodes darkly for the continued decline of physical fitness in the US.  For me, I'm going to web-enable my RIM Blackberry, hope I don't develop carpal tunnel in my thumbs, and get out on my bike for a few hours.  If you need me...text me.