News of the Day, Friday, March 2, 2007

• Afghanistan, Pakistan, Colombia. Iran, North Korea, Venezuela. War on Terror problem states? Uh, no. Nations the State Department has fingered for helping to aggravate the drug supply problem in this country. Of course, if we could keep our nostrils and lungs clean and needles out of our arms, maybe we wouldn't have to pay them attention. Just like we did with the oil providing nations when we achieved oil independence . . . oh, sorry. Dreaming I was on Planet Sanity again.
• "Sleep Deprivation Affects Moral Judgment, Study Finds"--actually, this may be of more concern for our law enforcement guys, but it does again show that moral behavior is affected by the state of our brains. Not sure that's a shock, is it? But then again, is this study that shows that the way we good people keep our sense of a fair and just world is to ignore the injustice we find and diminish our sense of moral outrage? We good people.
• Here's a good study finding that genetics and resulting brain circuitry do predispose some folks to addiction and others not so much. Again, it has to do with the receptors on our brain cells, which means that genetic manipulation might be possible to deal with the addictions as well as to help screen potential drug users for their addictive natures. Surely drug users would go get screened before they start shooting up, right?
• Finally, as you read this story on FL's state auditors on the massive problems caused the state by throwing probation violators behind bars and their recs that reforms familiar to us here be tried, none of this would have been avoided even if the state hadn't dumped its "sentencing reforms" several years back. Guidelines and info systems may be well and good, but technical violations have been what have filled up our prisons in recent years. Reform that doesn't address that is just "reform." Rule #1 of our corr sent history in this country: "If you build it, they will revoke."