Politics bests truth again

The chairman of the British government’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, Dr. David Nutt, was fired from his post in October for speaking the truth. Nutt referred to a paper published in a respected medical journal and suggested that the UK rethink its drug policy using the research and other objective facts.

As we all know, the truth has little sway in the halls of government. Remember Joycelyn Elders, President Clinton's surgeon general, who was cut loose after a little more than a year because she said that masturbation is part of human sexuality? In the US, and in Britain as well, we sometimes behave like little children. It's ludicrous.

The Globe story on Dr. Nutt is discusses the study to which he made reference. The paper was published more than two years ago, and it asked a wide range of professionals to rank drugs according to three criteria: "physical effects on the user, the likelihood of addiction, and its impact on society," according to Boston.com, and the totals were tabulated. It's no surprise that heroin is, by a wide margin, first on the list -- meaning that it's most dangerous -- but alcohol is fifth and tobacco are ninth, both ahead of marijuana, LSD, ecstasy and more.

Dr. Nutt and the researchers weren't saying that we should make alcohol and tobacco illegal and legalize everything below them on the list, but they do believe that the UK should reexamine its policies on illegal drugs with facts in mind. This seems eminently obvious and applicable to America as well. Alas, politics would seem to reject even that simple step.

Things that make you go, 'Hmmmm?'

***In a revelation that appears shocking, Margaret Thatcher, the commie fightin' British Tory PM of the 1980s often referred to as the "Iron Lady," apparently counseled Mikhail Gorbachev against breaking up the Soviet Union -- and Ronald Reagan agreed with her. This, recently released from Soviet files, is Thatcher speaking to Gorbachev in the fall of 1989:

The reunification of Germany is not in the interests of Britain and Western Europe. It might look different from public pronouncements, in official communiqué at Nato meetings, but it is not worth paying ones attention to it. We do not want a united Germany. This would have led to a change to post-war borders and we can not allow that because such development would undermine the stability of the whole international situation and could endanger our security.

In the same way, a destabilisation of Eastern Europe and breakdown of the Warsaw Pact are also not in our interests. Of course, internal changes are happening in all Eastern European countries, somewhere they are deeper than in others. However, we would prefer if those processes were entirely internal, we would not interfere in them or push the de-communisation of Eastern Europe. I can say that the President of the United States is of the same position. He sent me a telegram to Tokyo in which he asked me directly to tell you that the United States would not do anything that might put at risk the security of the Soviet Union or perceived by the Soviet society as danger. I am fulfilling his request.

***Former Bush Administration speechwriter Matt Latimer is publishing a book about his time in the White House. I suggest reading the excerpt published on the GQ web site. Here are a few lines that sum up Latimer's observations:

In 2007 I finally made it to the Bush White House as a presidential speechwriter. But it was not at all what I envisioned. It was less like Aaron Sorkin’s The West Wing and more like The Office.

Eeeek. Can you imagine Michael Scott as president?

***Michelle Malkin is one of the most infuriating knuckleheads on the right and recently she engaged in the type of misrepresentation that she and her wacko cohorts typically use to debate real issues. When a crowd estimated at about 70,000 gathered to bash Obama last weekend -- as is their right -- Malkin estimated the crowd at 2 million, and other media outlets passed on the uber-inflated number.

And here is a round-up of the thought processes of the individuals who were part of the protest: the ten best signs. All I can say in response is, "Lincoln! thou should'st be living at this hour: America hath need of thee."