A good ruling from the Supreme Court

Recently, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled unanimously that Vancouver’s safe injection site, Insite, can stay open indefinitely. It also ordered the Minister of Health, Leona Aglukkaq, grant the site an exemption from Canada’s drug laws. The specific legal rationale was that the failure to grant an exemption violated Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

This is the correct ruling. Harm reduction, which safe injection sites are part of, and the general practice of treating drug addiction as a medical problem than a legal problem, has been far more cost–effective than the failed War on (Some Classes of People Who Use Some) Drugs. In addition, harm reduction and the liberalization of drug laws are far more effective at reducing crime, improving public health, and reducing drug use than caving to the appalling prison–industrial complex.

On self-checkouts

Whenever I go to the supermarket, I see an increasing number of self–checkout counters, those ones with no cashier. They are a symbol of how the company eliminated someone’s job. I never use them and I urge all my readers to never use them either. Being a cashier isn’t a particularly high–end or glamorous means of employment, but at least when you go through a checkout with a cashier, you’re supporting someone having a job.

With all this in mind, I feel that a recent move by supermarkets to pull back on self–checkout counters is a positive development.

Hat tip.

Why not just admit that you want women barefoot and pregnant?

At least he’s honest:

The goal is to get government money out of the abortion process and if contraceptive services have to suffer a bit of collateral damage in the process, so be it. When The Texas Tribune asked state Rep. Wayne Christian (R-Nacogdoches), a supporter of the family planning cuts, if this was a war on birth control, he said “yes.”

“Well of course this is a war on birth control and abortions and everything, that’s what family planning is supposed to be about,” Christian said.

Family planning clinics are routinely referred to by many Texas Republican legislators as “abortion clinics” even though none of the 71 family planning clinics in the state that receive government funding provide abortions. Texas and federal law prohibits that, but most women’s health clinics will refer women or teens who want an abortion to a provider.

“They’re sitting here, referring women out to receive abortions,” Christian said in an interview with NPR. “Those are the clinics, including Planned Parenthood, we were targeting.”

If he truly wanted to eliminate abortion, he’d be pushing birth control endlessly.

When people like me say that the religious right and faux–lifers are really motivated by a desire to control women, we’re not kidding. People like Wayne Christian really are reactionaries who want women back in their homes.

DADT discharged

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell ended today.

In other words, a non–event happened.

I’m back

I am glad to announce that I am back from an involuntary blogging hiatus. My old computer died, and I have finally gotten a new one. This means that I will be back at blogging.