The Editor's Desk

A heads up for those who are interested: Opinion commentary writer Barry Gadbois is at the Democratic National Convention. He’s blogging about the event while he’s there. You can read up on his experiences here in our community blogging service.

I’ve been seeing this commercial all over the place, and even during the Olympics. In case you haven’t seen it:

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What I like about this commercial is the libertarian-leaning argument behind it. This commercial isn’t about whether or not people should support gay people or actually put their stamp of approval on gay marriages. It doesn’t even have any gay people in it. It’s a reminder that — regardless of what its roots might be (and the deceptions that people present about it) — marriage is a right, not an “institution,” and heterosexuals wouldn’t accept outsiders determining the legitimacy of their marriage. Neither should we.

I’ve written editorials and run others from the OC Register about California’s Nanny State food issues, but this one takes the cake. Actually, it takes the bacon. In Los Angeles, police cracked down on illegal street hot dog (bacon-wrapped!) cart vendors. The LAist captured some pictures here. Most disturbing is that apparently, the police simply destroyed all the carts and all the contents without involving that crazy little creation we have here in the United States called “the justice system.”

They’re probably relying on the operators to not have the money to sue over this, but good lord. Due process? Anybody heard of it? Anybody?

Maybe next they’ll replace the impound lot with a used car dealership and not even wait for the verdicts.

When reading our report about Assessor Bill Postmus’s alleged addiction to meth, I couldn’t help but notice the explanation that he reportedly ended up on meth trying to deal with pain caused by scoliosis.

I thought to myself, “Pain? Isn’t that one of the arguments of allowing medical marijuana? That it helps deal with chronic pain?”

Sure enough, I did an online check and discovered that marijuana is a possible medical treatment for scoliosis pain.

Now this is interesting because San Bernardino is one of only two counties in the state that has resisted following California law and allowing prescriptions of medical marijuana within our county, arguing a conflict between the state law and federal drug laws. They keep losing their suits, but they keep trying.

So the county’s own resistance to medical marijuana use helped drive Postmus into the arms of meth. I wonder if anybody notes the irony.

Although to be fair to the county, a man operating a medical marijuana dispensary in Morro Bay that is perfectly legal under our state law was just convicted in a federal trial and could face years in prison. But now that I think about it, I find it highly unlikely the county is concerned that individual practitioners would face federal sanctions. They’re probably more concerned about federal subsidies county agencies and organizations receive to help fight this stupid drug war.

Oh, and by the way, here’s a great Huffington Post piece about the drug war. Postmus might feel better to note that the current Democratic presidential candidate and the wife of the Republican candidate have used drugs in the past. And of course, both our current Republican president and previous Democratic president are widely believed to have also done drugs in their youth.

My editorial today is about how the trans fat ban is a consequence of the public demanding government “do something” about health care costs.

Reason’s blog has another example worth exploring. Janet Riviera, in Fresno, has been in a coma for years and is being kept alive with the financial assistance of Medi-Cal.

It raises the rather horrifying ethical issue of how much of other people’s money should be used to keep somebody alive. With private insurance, this is a matter for her family. But because tax money is involved suddenly everybody gets a say.

It’s an unpleasant problem with no easy solution when we’re talking about people who can’t afford private insurance, but again it’s an example of putting decisions about health care in the hands of the government and not thinking through the consequences.