Michael D. Hensley - {@Minimum Wage}: this came as email in response to my links to minimum wage stories yesterday. I liked it so much I asked for and got Mr. Hensley's permission to post it. It tells the real reason that politicians are always hiking the minimum wage. "It's a very slick, two-level vote buying scheme." They convince the poor to vote for them now in order to get higher wages, and later, after losing their jobs because of the higher minimum wage, in order to get welfare payments. More freedom would profit everyone except the politicians; they'd have to find real work. Ah-ha!

I haven't thanked Dave Winer recently for creating Manila and making it available to us at editthispage.com.

Thank You, Dave!!

Yesterday I wrote my first useful Python CGIs. We don't yet have a fixed server outside our firewall on which I can run the web server software that we use to demo our Palm Timecard Entry Application. The machine is in the office, but not yet configured. We had a customer in yesterday, so I ran the demo on my laptop, dialed in via a phone line to my ISP, and pointed the Palm at a trampline web page at billstclair.com. I've done this before, but before yesterday I always edited the trampoline page and changed the link there to point at the dynamic IP that I got when I dialed in to my ISP. This time I had two simple Python scripts. One sampled my IP address and recorded it in a file on billstclair.com. The other read the IP address from that file and redirected the web page to that IP address. No more bringing up Winipcfg, copying the address to my editor, and FTPing the file. Just point a web browser at the IP sampling script.

Russ Kick at altLit - Burning Drug Books: A good overview of the bills currently in Congress that end the first amendment in the name of the war on some drugs. Contains links to web sites and a list of books that will be illegal should this legislation pass congress and not be declared unconstitutional by the courts. [randomonium]

Lady Liberty via Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership - Michael New Day: Lady Liberty, the only "AM" Christian talk radio station in Las Vegas, Nevada, declares October 10th to be Michael New Day. On this day we commemorate the patriotism of Michael New's refusal to wear the U.N uniform on October 10, 1995. It's been moved to Sunday, October 8, this year so that it will fall on a weekend. To celebrate, burn the U.N. flag. The article tells you how to order one. [jpfo]

Paul Krassner at Loompanics - Why Was Peter McWilliams Murdered? Basically, so a bunch of inhuman politicians could keep their jobs.

On June 14, two months before he was due to be sentenced, McWilliams was found dead in his bathtub. He had died from asphyxiation. He had choked to death on his own vomit. He had been murdered -- depriving the ill of medicine they need is "depraved indifference" or Murder Two -- but by whom? And for what reason?

I accuse President Bill Clinton, for coming out against medical marijuana, as if to say, "I feel your pain, I just don't want to help you relieve it."

I accuse Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey, who, after medical-marijuana initiatives were passed in Arizona and California, proclaimed: "There is not a shred of scientific evidence that shows that smoked marijuana is useful or needed."

I accuse California Governor Gray Davis, for opposing recommendations by his own Attorney General's Task Force on Medical Marijuana.

I accuse Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jackie Chooljian and Mary Fulginiti, the prosecutors who sought to prevent the use of a medical-marijuana defense.

I accuse Federal Judge George King, who denied Peter McWilliams -- slumping in his wheelchair in the courtroom -- his legal right to smoke medical marijuana. I accuse Federal Judge George King, who denied Peter McWilliams -- slumping in his wheelchair in the courtroom -- his legal right to smoke medical marijuana.

These individuals participated in an unspoken conspiracy, all for the same reason. And what was it that they had in common? They all wanted to keep their f---ing jobs. They all wanted to advance in their careers. They all wanted prestige. They wanted to live in a nice house. They wanted to send their kids to college. They wanted to be responsible to their families. And the price was simply their own humanity.

Chris Conrad at Loompanics - Industrial Hemp: Fiber, Food and Fuel for the Future: a good screed on the wonders of industrial hemp.

The porkbarrel politics of prohibition have made many people and corporations rich, without having to show any results for all the tax money they spend. Drug use is up, drug production is up, police budgeters are up, and every year their budgets go up even more.

Meanwhile industrial hemp is said to have a $100 billion economic potential with the capacity to build housing for the homeless, create jobs for the unemployed, and provide fuel and food for the hungry people of the world. However, none of this makes any money for the prison lobby, piss testers or narcotics enforcement agencies. So federal law was modified in 1994 to place harsher penalties on marijuana and to provide the death penalty for growing one-fifth of an acre of fiber hemp.

The Clinton approach is to let future generations pay the price, both economic and social: just don't let anyone say Bill was soft on drugs.

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