News of the Day 9-14-06

Only a couple of items of today. In TX, Independent gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman has called for decriminalizing marijuana as a way to cut use of prison space for non-violent offenders. Will get him some votes and lose him some. Wasn't likely to win, but there are four candidates on the ballot there and anything that can draw new, usually uncounted-in-polls voters to the polls can sometimes yield unpredictable results. Witness Jesse Ventura. Wait, on second thought . . . . And in Britain, a call for tougher education and other methods to reduce alcohol and tobacco consumption after a panel of doctors and scientists reviewing school-based programs around the world found their impact "slight or non-existent" and maybe even "counterproductive." So, let's do more, huh, just harder . . . where have we heard that prescription before?