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Contradictory Medical Reports

By: Billy BeerSlugger

You know seems like every week I read or hear something in the about what is or is not good for your body that is completely contradictory of a previous medical study.

Yesterday it was that diet is indeed a factor in kids having Acne. The study suggests that a diet high in chocolate, potato chips and low in vegetables is linked to Acne. Which is complete bullshit because a potato chip comes from a potato which is a vegetable and they’re cooked in Vegetable oil. Previously I was told by the media and medical world that diet had nothing to do with acne and previous to that I was told to avoid chocolate and salty foods like potato chips.

I was told that a glass of wine a day was good for your heart which is great because I then convinced myself that beer has the same effect. Now a study comes out and says that any kind of alcohol for women increases their chance of breast cancer.  Awesome.

Coffee is good for you… wait a minute coffee isn’t as good for you as they previously thought. An aspirin a day is beneficial to the heart… oh but wait a minute it’s not good for the stomach lining… or the heart possibly.  Vitamin E prevents cancer.. oh but only in people that don’t already have cancer. Antioxidants are great for you… Vitamin C is great for you… You need to get a full days supply of Calcium.  I’ve seen studies to the contrary on every single one of these things.

So what are we supposed to believe? The Scientists or the Scientists? Do we go by who got the more prestigious degree from the best known University? Pick out of a hat? Do you believe the one that best suits your needs, ie. I’m going to drink my glass of wine every night no matter what they say?

Who’s got the agenda and who is doing the actual non-biased work? I think in the 80’s the tobacco companies funded studies to conclude that smoking had no direct link to Cancer so one thing to look out for is who is funding the study. Another thing to look at is the sample size. If the study has 14 people taking Vitamin E and 13 taking a placebo you can’t really conclude anything except that you need a larger sample size. Another thing to look at is assumptions based on a study.

Consider this: One study suggests a link between drinking alcohol and developing lung cancer. However, the newscaster that reads the findings conveniently leaves out the fact that a good portion of people that drink alcohol also smoke cigarettes. Yes there may be a link but is alcohol a direct cause?

I think what i’m trying to say is that studies and statistics can be manipulated pretty much any way a person or entity wants. Take for instance a Phillies game where some obscure stat will be shown on the jumbo tron as a player walks up to bat: “Carlos Ruiz is hitting .421 in home day games with a runner on 2nd base when facing left handed pitching”. Now shorten that to Carlos Ruiz is hitting .421 and that’s essentially what we are being told about these medical studies in the media. The shocking statistic but none of the details.

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Obamanomics

medAn Opinion by Luan Zuccarello

I have refrained from bashing the POTUS (check out west wing – great show) on this site but the gloves are off now.

Last night Barrack Hussein Obama stood before congress and urged their support for HIS health care bill. Under HIS health care bill the United States government would spend 900 billion dollars to run health care and to offer free health care to every citizen.

Now every Republican and a good handful of Democrats do not support this. So instead of “reaching across the aisle” (catch phrase of the Obama campaign) he is still shoving it down people’s throats! He has not changed one major thing in the bill and told his die-hard opponents that he will not bother with them. Is this not a democracy? Don’t we elect congressman and senators to be our voice and have a say and a vote? He said last night he has already put the plans into motion for “demonstration projects” in certain states. How is this going to work? How can you deem one state have free health insurance and one not, even in a trial period? My next question where in the fuck are you getting 900 billion dollars? We are a deep recession with people trying to make payments to mortgage companies, utility companies, credit card companies, etc. Where do you think this money is going to come from? Ummmmm – new taxes.

I only took 2 economics classes but I think if I proposed this situation I would have got laughed out of the class. I am strongly against universal health care, but I agree some changes should be made. I think all children should receive health care, health care insurance and premiums should be lowered, and there should be some reform in medical malpractice. But for the government to step in and give me the same healthcare options as the druggy on the corner is ludicrous! The big question that everyone keeps ignoring is the impact of insurance companies? Insurance companies will stop picking up regular doctor’s visits, they will stop picking up physicians rebates, and the cost of surgery and treatment will go through the roof! All this so crack head can shoot more shit into his vein and then go to the hospital for free. I love how instead of focusing on the real problem of how to get America back on its feet as the leading global economy we are focusing on a segment of our population that doesn’t pay taxes and already takes advantage of government programs. Here is a thought – create more jobs so people can take advantage of employer’s health care and they will pay taxes. But since Barrack Hussein Obama spent 787 billion dollars on his “recovery plan” unemployment is almost in double digits – 2 % higher than when he took office. Ronald Reagan took office under some of the same conditions as Barrack Hussein Obama . I will admit Reagan’s conditions were not as bad as the current ones, but the man did a damn good job getting us out of the hole. Instead of creating programs for us to spend money on he created programs for us to invest in.

How many people can take advantage of buying things right now – when all their money is going to bills? The smart thing would be to make people money! Don’t get them to spend it, have them invest it, the spending will come later. Cut income taxes that will encourage people to work more thus making them more money and cutting capital gains taxes will encourage investment.

Luan Zuccarello ’12 Bitches!!!!

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The Evolution of The Music Industry

An artifact for later generations to discover
An artifact for later generations to discover

By: Robby RipChord

I Want My MTV MP3!

With the sale of The Pirate Bay to a company and their plans to turn it into a legal file distribution site (the same route Napster went) it would seem to be a monumental victory for the Recording and Motion Picture Industries.  As monumental or bigger than the fall of free Napster.  However, what these organizations fail to realize is that they are treating a symptom, not the problem and effectively putting a band-aid over a bullet wound.

The RIAA has an antiquated business model particularly.  You won’t even see a CD in 10 years the way you don’t see a Vinyl Record nowadays.  While for the last 70+ years recording labels have had a monopoly on where music could be sold and at what price, those days are gone.  The distribution of music for our and subsequent generations will be the digital way, downloads.  The problem with this and the problem that the Recording industry has not yet come up with a solution for is the unlimited amount of copies that a digital version of a song can birth.  As they are leaked onto the internet the copies go up in numbers exponentially. There have been tries to mitigate music piracy, Digital rights management (DRM) is a systematic approach to copyright protection for digital media.  This endeavor has failed miserably to curb illegal downloading although I believe is still used in iTunes.

What some of the smarter Record Labels are realizing is that the money from artists is shifting from CD sales to concert ticket sales.  That’s one part of the equation. Though to really weather the storm that is file sharing, the Record labels and or Artists need to adapt their business models.  Artists like Trent Reznor (a born Pennsylvanian I might add) have shown that you can give your music away for free and still make buttloads of money. Of course Trent and band Nine Inch Nails became famous before the tide turned the way of illegally downloading music and this business model probably would not work in most instances given NIN’s already large fan base but Trent began growing weary of the corporate greed earlier.  A quote from Reznor in states, “…the climate grows more and more desperate for record labels, their answer to their mostly self-inflicted wounds seems to be to screw the consumer over even more.” in response to Interscope’s price gouging of NIN’s latest offering. He even encouraged people to steal their albums online.

I’m not necessarily a Nine Inch Nails fan but I don’t think there’s doubt that Reznor is a true visionary on this battlefront.

Other artists have begun to embrace a new way of distributing their music online, offering something tangible.  Mos Def has offered a free t-shirt with the purchase of his album or rather a free album with the purchase of a t-shirt.  Some artists have experimented with sending autographed album or other band related artwork in poster form to fans who buy limited edition albums. The concept of offering a physical product with a digital download of an album is a novel one and somewhat makes up for the lack of a material album in fans hands.

Whatever the idea, it has been proven that real fans will shell out money for their favorite artists for their newest release no matter if they can get it free or not.  That does not help the struggling garage band make it to the big time without an already large following but if their ideas are smart enough, viral enough and the band is actually good enough that people will want to see them then they will survive.  Just as Music Video’s catapulted artists in the 80’s and 90’s into mainstream consciousness so can it’s cousin YouTube.

The Music Industry needs to embrace these ways of selling albums rather than relying on and defending a dying business model.  There will be piracy no matter what now that we have entered the digital age, the Record Labels that adapt will be around as long as they have a product that is relevant to fans. And true, die hard fans are always going to be there and support their favorite acts.  It is now a matter of making these acts matter to the public and I’ll leave that up to the music industry and the artists themselves to figure out.

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Obama… No Problema?

27_obama_lg
It's only a couple Billion....

By: William J. BeerSlugger

You know I’m really tired of a lot of things going on right now in this Country.  The fact that we have a new President who doesn’t fumble over words written on a teleprompter and who happens to be black does not make him  infallible.  Just because the current administration is proposing Cash for Clunkers or Universal Healthcare does not mean you have to believe blindly in it just because you voted for him. I voted for him and I don’t necessarily agree with everything that’s going on.

I agree Obama should be given a chance to prove himself and I am anxious to the the outcome of some of his endeavors.  However, just because I do not agree with some of the policy’s proposed by the Obama administration does not make me a right wing supporter or a racist or not caring for the well being  of the uninsured.  It just makes me have (I’d like to think) informed opinions which can and have changed with better and better information and opinions I hear from both sides of the issues.

I don’t believe that all people who oppose the war(s) are left leaning, freedom hating socialists so I don’t appreciate being painted that way…. (yes you girl at the bar I was having a conversation with last weekend but was disinterested after we started discussing Obama).

It seems to me that it is very “Taboo” to criticize the President or his administration’s actions in the media or public discussion.  This is due (in my opinion) principally to his relatively short term in office so far but also some of it is race related whether we want to acknowledge it or not. It seems to me that there is an overwhelming want from the general public and media for Obama to succeed and not be ridiculed because of his race (which is ironically half Caucasian).

I do not want the current President to be held up to a higher or lower standard because of race or any other factor.  The President is the President, regardless of sex, race, religion or sexual orientation.  Yes since this countries inception the President has been a white male but that doesn’t mean that we don’t hold the first black President’s feet to the fire just as his predecessors were.  That doesn’t mean the public should rubber stamp every policy the Obama Administration suggests without asking where the money will come from to finance it.  Basically, just because he’s black doesn’t mean we should stop asking questions (and I’m not talking birth certificates here).  I know a lot of people are crazy about him and believe he is some sort of political messiah that will deliver us from all bad but that’s a lot to ask from a 1 and a half term U.S. senator.

But maybe he is being treated fairly in the media and I’m just not watching those shows because I’m too interested in the Phillies right now, who knows.  All I know is I’m fed up with people blindly believing and not asking questions about “How” and “Why”.

I have see a couple of people criticize him in the media and I’ll list a couple here:

Bill Maher is a guy you wouldn’t think would take on the left but then again he did it with Clinton.

Jon Voight is one of the few celebrities I’ve seen talk in detail about where the country seems to be going.

Kieth Olberman, one of Obama’s media biggest admirer’s also took aim at Obama.

Anyway, not to get too political on you BeerSlugger’s out there, it just bugs me when someone believes in something blindly whether left or right leaning.  Get the (so called) facts and make informed and rational decisions. Of course this is America what the fuck am I talking about.

In closing America, stop drinking whatever flavor of Kool-Aid that’s being served and have a glass of water instead.

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Jon Stewart: The Most Objective Person in News?

By: Billy BeerSlugger

Earlier I wrote about how much I dislike Kieth Olberman on MSNBC and how much, while on opposite ends of the political spectrum, Fox News and MSNBC are essentially the same network.  They both cater to their Liberal or Conservative base, each bashing the other network and or opposing political figures several times a day never really extensively covering their own party’s shortcomings.

I think Jon Stewart is growing on me a little, I didn’t completely enjoy him essentially blaming Philadelphian Jim Cramer for people losing money in the stock market but he did make some valid points.  His “Fake News” program The Daily Show has been on for about 10 years and while I’ve never really gotten into watching it regularly on TV, I do watch clips from his shows on the internet.  Jon leans slightly to the left but overall I think he’s got a pretty objective view on things.  While the goal is to deliver the news with humor, it’s usually well thought out and logical.  As a man, I like when things are logical, when they make sense.

Anyway, here’s a clip of Stewart not only bashing Fox News but MSNBC as well as CNN.

So true though, Fox News is going to bash Obama anytime they can get in a jab, with Bush Jr. out of office, MSNBC has turned to hurling spitballs at Rush Limbaugh and CNN is so obsessed with whats going on Twitter, Facebook and MySpace that I’m not sure if they have anyone writing scripts anymore. CNN just asks you what you think.

What the Hell happened to CNN, they used to be “The News”.  All I can think about CNN now is that they had Will-I-Am live via Hologram on the night of the Presidential Election.  Apparently that was the first Hologram used on live TV and they chose Will-I-Am of the Black Eyed Peas to be the guy to talk to?  No offense to Will-I-Am but you couldn’t have gotten someone better CNN.

sidenote: I just saw a Target commercial with the Black Eyed Peas.  What was thery’re biggest sell out move? Adding Fergie, Changing the Lyrics from “Let’s get retarded” to “Let’s get it started” or the target commercial.  Does any of this even matter?

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Twitter? What’s that?

twitterBy: Billy BeerSlugger

So a lot of my friends have asked me what Twitter is.  That’s all you ever hear about nowadays, Twitter, Tweet’s, Twats. “You’re a computer guy, you should know this stuff”, they say.

From what I’ve read, it’s a mico-blogging tool.  Where BeerSlugger.com is a blog and has no real limit on the amount of text, Twitter has a post limit on characters that is about the same as a text message (SMS).  You can actually Twitter (effectively post text to your account and have it show up on the website) from your phone using Text messages so that I’m guessing comes in handy on the go.  Though if I wanted to I could post something to BeerSlugger.com from my Blackberry (I’m a one upper).  I’m not sure what is so important that you couldn’t wait to go home and post on a regular blog or website but I guess if everyone else is jumping off a bridge I should too.

Anyway, I’m hip, I’m cool, I know who the Jonas Brothers are and I use Twitter.

Check me out at http://twitter.com/beerslugger

Eventually I’ll try and incorporate the Twitter into the BeerSlugger.com once i figure out what I can use it for besides sending messages while in the bathroom.  Preliminary ideas include segments called “Toilet Talk” and “Droppin’ Knowledge While Dropping A Deuce”.

Let me know what you guys think.

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The Cost of Getting Drunk

helmet-decal-us-medicBy: Bill BeerSlugger

There is apparently a Bill floating around in congress that will increase taxes on Beer, Wine and Liquor.  Supposedly the tax will increase 48 cents a six-pack, 49 cents per bottle of wine and hard liquor would see an increase of 40 cents per fifth.

This is all being proposed to pay for expaning health coverage for 50 million uninsured Americans.  The cost of this would be in the neighborhood of 1.5 trillion dollars over the next 10 years, all of which could never be paid with just an increase in beer and liquor tax.

The proposed tax increases are on lifestyle choices that contribute to rising medical costs and has been seen elsewhere in cigarette tax increases.  The “Sin Tax” as my grandmother called it.  There may also be new taxes levyed on Soda and other sugary drinks as they are linked to obesity. Though no new taxes are proposed for diet drinks because Aspartame and other Artificial Sweeteners never caused cancer in lab rats or anything, right?

I get it that you want to tax unhealthy behaviors.  Tobacco and Alcohol can cause health problems and thus can cause insurance rates to rise etc. There are other factors that Alcohol brings to the table like Drinking & Driving Accidents/Deaths.  One study I read cited that an increase in the alcohol tax would curb college binge drinking and trips to the emergency room for Alcohol poisoning and alcohol related injuries.  The main reason being higher alcohol prices and the same budget would mean less alcohol to go around.  I get that a little bit as well.

What I don’t get is why they have to tax Alcohol to pay for the uninsured.  Why not tax alcohol and put it towards lowering premiums for the insured who are already paying a portion of their health care premium to care for the uninsured.

On top of the Alcohol and Soda tax, lawmakers are also proposing a tax on healthcare which is provided by employers. Currently about 164 million people get their insurance through work and the money spent on insurance premiums is deducted from their taxable income.

So not only is a portion of my insurance premium already going to pay for the uninsured, they are also going to tax the money I pay for the insurance premium and increase taxes on the beer I drink to forget about how high my fucking taxes are, to pay for the uninsured.

Not to get into the politics of the Health Care, but yes I want certain groups in America to have access to health care.  At the very least I believe every child until the day they graduate high school should have free health care provided they don’t drop out.  And yes people with disabilities absolutely should have their health care covered, within reason.

However, the cost of getting these 50 some million uninsured Americans falls on the people who have done things right.   The situation is akin to having your dog shit on the carpet and then telling him “Good Boy” and giving him a treat.  For whatever reason, these 50 million people don’t have health insurance, I bet a good portion of them have the money coming in to pay for insurance but  choose to spend it on other things like booze, cigarettes and lottery tickets to name a few.

There are obviously family’s that are trying to do the right thing but just can’t make ends meet.  I feel for them, I really do and I’m sure there’s ways we can help them.  I just don’t think that giving everyone healthcare at the expense of the already overburdened middle class is the way to do it and certainly not by increasing the cost of a case of beer by $2.

I could be wrong though….

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Miss California, Gay Backlash, The Liberal & Right Wing Media

By: W.J. BeerSlugger

Usually I try to stay away from these crappy political battles that don’t matter and actually detract, if anything, from the real news the Mega Corporations that run the news should be reporting on.  However, I kind of can’t stay away from this one.

I guess i’ll give you a brief synopsis of the back story that started this sh!tstorm.  Carrie Prejean, Miss California and a contestant for Miss America was asked by Celebrity Blogger (and noted Homosexual) Perez Hilton, a judge, what her thoughts were on Gay Marriage.  Ms. Prejean answered that she did not believe in same sex marriage, stating she was brought up that way.

You gotta give her a little credit for sticking to her guns.  In this day and age where supporting Gay Marriage (publicly) is akin to peeing your pants in the movie Billy Madison, it’s refreshing to see someone in the spotlight answer that question opposingly.

So Miss California did not win Miss America and afterward, judge Perez Hilton went on to to a Youtube video describing why she lost and calling her some mean names:

I guess he makes a good point, she could have answered in the way that takes the personal belief out of it and puts the onus on state or federal government.  That’s the politcially correct way to handle that question.  Nonetheless, the way she answered the question doesn’t make her wrong.  It’s her opinion (unless otherwise scripted by Donald Trump’s minions).

Now for the last week or so all you hear on the news and read about on news websites is Miss California this and Carrie Prejean that.  So you have the right wing media supporting her for opposing gay marriage and the left wing media bashing her for being a whore naive model.

The left wing media bringing out that she allegedly posed topless for some photos while younger, which is against pageant rules.  Also that, allegedly, the Miss California pageant company paid for breast implants.

Surprisingly, all I can think about is WHO FUCKING CARES WHAT MS. CALIFORNIA THINKS ABOUT SAME SEX MARRIAGE!  She’s in a beauty pageant not running for office.  Get this story off my iGoogle newsfeed page and out of what little TV news I watch (but keep me informed if any more naked pictures come out).

What really drove me to write this article was a piece i saw on the Kieth Olberman program.  I was so angry with it I actually watched the whole 6 minute 40 second clip.  Here it is:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

I can’t stand Kieth Olbermann . I can’t believe people on the left take his gospel as the Word of God when a few years ago this guy was spouting out one-liners at dunks and home runs as a sports jockey for ESPN.  I got into a discussion with a bar patron recently and he was all about Olbermann.  Saying how he thought Kieth was great American and that he loved his rants.  I’ll admit Olbermann can spout off a good rant but I’d look pretty serious too if I had a ton of writers coming up with rant content for me.  As I delved more deeply into the root of his man crush on Olbermann the guy says, “He really goes after Bill O’Reilly and I hate that guy.”.  I guess that’s a valid point but going after Bill O’ is why Olbermann is even a blip on the news anchor radar these days.  It’s why people like him and from what I’ve seen he has devoted a lot of time to the subject.  He’s more known for policing Bill O’Reilly show than his own journalism.

After conveying these tidbits to the bar patron he accuses me of being a Bill O’Reilly lover which I denied.  I told him I try to get my news and opinion from less biased sources.  I cited that I thought both O’Reilly and Olbermann were puppets of their respectively right and left leaning TV networks and thus reported stories a certain way for political and or economic interests.

“Oh well you gotta admit Olbermann is better then O’Reilly… come on”.  I said that’s kind of like saying Athelete’s Foot is better than Jock Itch in my book chief!

One of the more Hilarious points about the Miss California story is that everyone knows who she is now and she’s not even Miss America.  Anyone know Miss America’s name?  I bet she’s pissed.  She won and the runner up is the big story.

note:  Sorry, this should have been two posts and I really didn’t want to overuse the videos in the article but that’s just the way it happened.  Better journalism when I start getting paid and bow into the will of the interests of my sponsors.

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Mainstream Media on MLB Steroids/HGH… Double Standard?

Sports with Bob McFlurry

So yea, one of my first picks in my Fantasy Baseball draft, Manny Ramirez,  is now suspended for the next 50 games as a result of a positive “Performance Enhancing Drug” test result.  Now before you get all, “You’re writing this article because you’re pissed that your Fantasy Baseball Team is going to hit the shitter.”, please read the rest of the article.

So what’s up with the Espn’s and other Major News outlets coverage of MLB players failing drug test as opposed to the NFL, NBA and NHL?  When is the last time you heard of an extremely visible NHL player or NBA player failing a drug test (Besides Weed in the NBA)?  Are you really going to tell me it’s because it doesn’t happen in those sports?  Please give me a break because you’re living in the same denial of those sports now just as you did in the late 90’s and early 2000’s of Major League Baseball.

Now I understand that the NHL is not as popular as the other of the 4 major sports, but when was the last time you have even heard of a player getting suspended in the NHL for anything other than roughing someone up more than a 5 minute major? Ever? Might have happened but it’s not running across the bottom line of ESPN as breaking news while you’re trying to hit on underage girls at Finnigans Wake.

And then you’ve got the NBA.  I’m not about to accuse the newly crowned NBA MVP, but when he came into the league as an 18 year old rookie he looked a whole lot older and bigger than anyone I have known when they graduated high school.  Freak of Nature, completely possible.  More shocking is that I haven’t heard of any problems in the NBA in terms of Performance Enhancing Drugs.

Now a brief ,and a little suspect, Google Search of “Steroids NHL” and “Steroids NBA” returned the following results on the NBA Steroid Problem and the NHL Steroid Problem.  Both commisioners claim not to have a problem with Steroids.  Again, possible yes, there’s a great chance that there’s not as much rampant use of PED’s in the NHL and NBA as there is in the Home Run obsessed MLB.  However, it’s certainly plausible that someone of high regard in either of these leagues has used  and tested positive for PED’s.

Don’t even get me started about the NFL.  I’m not saying that the NFL does a completely terrible job of policing their players intake of PED’s (because apparently people do get suspended), I’m just saying why does the American Mainstream Media make Rodney Harrison getting busted for HGH in 2007 not as big a deal as say Manny Ramirez or Alex Rodriguez?  Or what about the whole Carolina Panthers Offesnsive Line being on PED’s (allegedly) in 2003 as they steamrolled our Philadelphia Eagles on the way to losing the Super Bowl.  Where’s the outcry in that? Seriously?

The MLB has Senate hearings and calls an obscene amount of people/players to the witness stand and wastes Millions of taxpayer dollars to fix a problem that they have no business fixing. Yes the federal government should be going after  Steroids and HGH, however they should go after it the same way they do other drugs, get the distributors and manufacturers.  I’m not saying that taking down a major pubic figure who uses PED’s won’t help discourage their usage.  I’m just saying don’t kill my Fantasy baseball Season in the Process.

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Cracktacular

crackBy: Billy Beerslugger

So I’m reading some stuff today and come across that the president is pushing for more lenient crack cocaine laws.  Now yea I’ll agree that the law is a little scewed, putting crack cocaine offenders away longer for less amounts, I get that.

What I do not get is why we are lessening Crack Cocaine sentences and not lengthening Cocaine sentences.  Seems logical to me.  Yes I do have sympathy for the “Treatment Movement”, where instead of throwing people in jail, putting them into rehab.  I do think that some people come out of prison worse than they were before they went in.

Some statistics I’ve seen suggest a better rate of non-repeat offending after rehab as opposed to jail.  But statistics can be misleading and subjective in terms of the people doing the survey as well as the people chosen for the sample.

Federal law currently has a system in place which 5 grams of crack gets the same minimum sentence as 500 grams of coke, according to the article in the link above.  So there does need to be some reform, but I’m not sure lessening sentences is the way to go.

I understand the penal system is overcrowded.  I understand it is a lot of money to have someone in jail for 5 years.  Is that the answer though to the Crack Cocaine problem, reduced sentences, more crackheads on the street?  It’s bad enough that the people selling the stuff and the people in the neighborhoods they own will not narc anyone out, now you’re just making it more of an incentive to not talk to the police.

To me it’s kind of like telling a kid “If you do XYZ you’re going to be grounded for 2 weeks instead of 5”.  Well now the kid is going to think about the situation a little more.  Maybe he should steal the case of beer from his dad, 2 weeks of being grounded isn’t that bad.

No the current laws are not fair, but boost up sentences on Cocaine and not lessen sentences on Crack.

But I could be wrong….