Category: reason

Lakemaid Beer, “the
hottest beer on ice,” arranged for beer-delivering octocopters to
carry 12-packs over frosty lakes to thirsty ice fishers. But as
soon as it learned of Lakemaid’s plan, the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) grounded
it.

Released about a week ago, the Minnesota-based company’s beer
commercial
instantly went viral. Drones delivering Wisconsin-brewed beer
rather than targeted killings? Consumers loved the idea.

But the FAA says it isn’t ready for the technology.
The Star Tribune explains:

The nation’s stewards of the air are still studying how to
safely bring drones into modern life, and until then, their
commercial use isn’t permitted.

Meanwhile, Lakemaid president Jack Supple broke his printer
printing all the documents the agency sent him.

When Supple saw Amazon Prime Air commercials he had his doubts.
But he believes Lakemaid is a little different. Supple wasn’t
planning on navigating drones through mazes of skyscrapers and
stoplights. They would traverse open lakes. He explained
to Star
Tribune:

That would be a far better testing ground because
they’re vast and flat and people are in little fish houses out
there.

Eager entrepreneurs have brainstormed a zillion uses for the new
technology. FedEx has toyed around with replacing its delivery
trucks with a drone fleet. Taco deliveries are anticipated in California.

Other countries have already legalized commercial drone use.
South Africa companies have operated beer
drones. China based company InCake started
delivering cakes last July, and the Australian textbook
delivery company Zookal has plans to
utilize drones early this year.

In response to growing enthusiasm for commercial drones, the FAA
released a road map to cautiously guide the country toward safe,
reliable domestic drone use. Administrator Michael Huerta
expects its integration plan will take five years. The FAA
projects “7,500 unmanned aircraft in the skies within that period
if regulations are in place.” But the roll out is already months
behind schedule.

Entrepreneurs like Jack Supple have to wait for the green light
from the FAA whether or not they’re sure their individual
enterprise is safe.

Watch Lakemaid’s commercial below: 

California is attempting once
again to
ban plastic grocery bags statewide. SB 270 would require all
grocery stores, liquor stores and pharmacies to offer reusable bags
or recycled paper bags instead. It’s been well-established that bag
bans will
barely make any dent at all in the state’s waste make-up or fix
litter problems.  Even a company that produces reusable bags
and hates plastic bags thinks a bag ban is a
bad idea, because it’s “an emotional response which fails to
strike at the heart of the issue; instead of a market-based
solution, a ban shifts production to paper bags and compostable
bags, both of which have heavy environmental consequences.”

California is also in the middle of a drought so severe that
Gov. Jerry Brown is trying to discourage people from
flushing the toilet. Californians are urged to cut water
consumption by 20 percent and rural communities are in potential
danger of running out.

We have a contradiction in environmental goals. If Californians
do switch to reusable bags, in order to use them safely, the bags
will need to be washed regularly, increasing residents’ water
consumption. Here’s the full list of tips from the
state’s Department of Public Health (pdf) when turning to
reusable grocery bags:

At home:

• Reusable grocery bags should be machine or hand-washed
  frequently! Dry the bags in a clothes dryer or allow them to air
  dry.
• After putting groceries away, clean the areas where the bags
  were placed while
• unbagging your groceries, especially the kitchen counter and
  the kitchen table where food items may later be prepared or
  served.
• If food residues from any food products have leaked into the
  bag, make sure to wash and dry the bag thoroughly before
  reuse.
• If reusable grocery bags have been used to transport non-food
  items, such as detergents, household cleaners, and other chemicals,
  wash and dry the bags before using them to transport food items.
  Alternatively, you may wish to use bags of one color for food items
  and bags of a different color for non-food items.
• Store grocery bags away from sources of contamination, such as
  pets, children,and chemicals. Storing reusable grocery bags in the
  trunk of cars is not recommended. During the warmer months, the
  increased temperatures can promote the growth of bacteria that may
  be present on the bags. 

At the store:

• Place reusable bags on the bottom shelf of the grocery cart
  (below the cart basket where food products are placed).
• When selecting packages of meat, poultry, or fish, consider
  putting the packages in clear plastic bags (often available in the
  meat and produce sections) to prevent leaking juices from
  contaminating other food items and the reusable grocery bags.
• Fresh produce should be placed in clear plastic bags to help
  protect the items from contamination.
• At checkout, do not place reusable grocery bags on the conveyor
  belt. Hand the bags to the checker/bagger or, if self-bagging,
  carry the bags to the bagging area at the end of the checkout
  counter.
• Meat, poultry, and fish should be placed in separate reusable
  bags from fresh produce and ready-to-eat foods.
• Non-food items should be placed in separate reusable bags from
  food products

There’s quite a bit of cleaning and water consumption suggested
by the state itself (and note the recommendation of single-use
plastic bags!). But does it add up to much? A researcher at
California State University, Chico, assessed the energy
consumption, waste production and water use involved over the
lifetime of various
types of bags (pdf). The results vary, but for certain types of
reusable plastic bags, their manufacture and use over the course of
a year will consume four times as much water as the same number of
single-use plastic bags.  The trade-off is that the reuse of
the bag reduces waste and energy consumption in other areas.

Paper bags, by the way, are an awful alternative for anybody
wanting to conserve water. The manufacture of single-use paper bags
uses 17 times the amount of water as single-use plastic bags. The
bags they’re offering in grocery stores in Los Angeles, for
example, may not have been made in California, so they may not be
adding to the state’s drought woes. Still, though, nobody who is
actually in favor of conservation should support paper bags over
single-use plastic bags.

The larger point, other than plastic bag bans being poorly
considered manifestations of green populism, is that priorities
matter in environmental regulation. The state of California’s water
supply is much more important than its consumption of plastic bags.
Going for a state-wide ban on plastic bags runs counter to the
state’s need to conserve water.

• President Obama said he
  wants private companies and the federal government to do more
  for the long-term unemployed. The chair of his Council of Economic
  Advisors, meanwhile,
  insisted the anxiety of wealthy Americans over the president’s
  economic policies were mere “hyperventilation.”
• A report from the State Department
  found the environmental impact of the XL Keystone pipeline
  would be minimal, but did not set a deadline for the White House to
  approve it.
• Vice Admiral Michael Rogers will be
  appointed the NSA’s new chief, while Richard Ledgett, who
  previously floated the idea of an amnesty for Edward Snowden, will
  become the agency’s top civilian official.
• Hillary Clinton leads Democrat primary voters in an
  early poll in New Hampshire, getting 75 percent to Joe Biden’s
  10 percent. With 16 percent of Republican primary voters, Rand Paul
  has a slim lead in a crowded field. The state’s Republican senator,
  Kelly Ayotte, came in second at 13 percent.
• Lawmakers in Washingtoon, Republican and Democrat, are
  pushing the feds to look into why propane prices are getting so
  high as the country gets so cold.
• Bomb squads were
  sent out to several hotels near the site of this weekend’s
  Super Bowl in New Jersey after envelopes containing an unknown
  white powder were found. Preliminary tests
  indicated the substance, also sent to Rudy Giuliani’s office in
  New York City, was corn starch.
• Jesse Eisenberg was
  cast in the role of Lex Luthor in the upcoming Superman/Batman
  film.

Follow Reason and Reason 24/7 on
Twitter, and like us on Facebook.  You
can also get the top stories mailed to
you—sign
up here. 

Some Democrats seem to think that the very fact
“inequality” even exists should be enough to lure the entire nation
to the progressive cause. New York
Times columnist Paul Krugman, in a recent piece imploring
President Barack Obama to put emphasis on social justice in his
State of the Union speech, argued as much, writing that “to focus
on inequality is political realism.” David Harsanyi says this kind
of rhetoric sounds as if we don’t believe that anyone in any of
those groups can help himself anymore. This is a perverted view of
the American experience. 

View this article.

Some Democrats seem to think that the very fact
“inequality” even exists should be enough to lure the entire nation
to the progressive cause. New York
Times columnist Paul Krugman, in a recent piece imploring
President Barack Obama to put emphasis on social justice in his
State of the Union speech, argued as much, writing that “to focus
on inequality is political realism.” David Harsanyi says this kind
of rhetoric sounds as if we don’t believe that anyone in any of
those groups can help himself anymore. This is a perverted view of
the American experience. 

View this article.

Nicholas Johnson, a professor at Fordham Law School and the
author of the new book
Negroes and the Gun, has written a series of guest
posts for The Volokh Conspiracy this week. His topic
is the relationship between the black freedom movement and armed
self-defense, and his first
post draws a distinction that many people miss:

The black tradition of arms has been submerged
because it seems hard to reconcile with the dominant narrative of
nonviolence in the modern civil-rights movement. But that
superficial tension is resolved by the long-standing distinction
that was vividly evoked by movement stalwart Fannie Lou Hamer.
Hamer’s approach to segregationists who dominated Mississippi
politics was, “Baby you just got to love ’em. Hating just makes you
sick and weak.” But, asked how she survived the threats from
midnight terrorists, Hamer responded, “I’ll tell you why. I keep a
shotgun in every corner of my bedroom and the first cracker even
look like he wants to throw some dynamite on my porch won’t write
his mama again.”

Like Hartman Turnbow, Fannie Lou Hamer embraced private
self-defense and political nonviolence without any sense of
contradiction. In this she channeled a more-than-century-old
practice and philosophy that evolved through every generation,
sharpened by icons like Ida B. Wells, W. E. B. Du Bois and Daisy
Bates, pressed by the burgeoning NAACP, and crystalized by Martin
Luther King Jr.

You can read the rest of that post
here, and you can read the other installments in the series

here,
here,
here, and
here.

During his recent
interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, President Obama
falsely claimed that reclassifying marijuana would require
an act of Congress, whereupon Tapper asked whether he would favor
that change. But Obama did not want to answer that question, so
instead he said this:

I stand by my belief—based, I think, on the scientific
evidence—that marijuana, for casual users, individual users, is
subject to abuse, just like alcohol is, and should be treated as a
public health problem and challenge. But as I said in the
interview, my concern is when you end up having very heavy criminal
penalties for individual users that have been applied unevenly and
in some cases with a racial disparity. I think that is a
problem.

Over the long term, what I believe is if we can deal with some
of the criminal penalty issues, then we can really tackle what is a
problem not only for marijuana but also alcohol, also cigarettes,
also harder drugs, and that is try to make sure that our kids don’t
get into these habits in the first place. And the incarceration
model that we’ve taken, particularly around marijuana, does not
seem to have produced the kinds of results that we’ve set.

Here Obama conflates drug use with drug abuse, adults with
children, and penalties for marijuana possession with penalties for
marijuana productiion and distribution. Since each of those
distinctions is an important prerequisite for an intelligent
conversation about drug policy, let’s consider them one at a time.

Obama correctly observes that marijuana, “just like alcohol”
(and every other drug or source of pleasure), “is subject to
abuse.” That implies, contrary to what the Drug Enforcement
Administration claims, that not all marijuana use is abuse. As I
argue in my book
Saying Yes, equating use with abuse is the sort of
definition that obliterates meaning. Like alcohol, marijuana
can be used in a moderate, controlled, responsible way, a way that
does not harm the user or anyone else. To the contrary, that kind
of use is life-enhancing: It brings people pleasure, helps them
relax, enhances enjoyment of other experiences, and so on—all
without hurting anyone.

Yet in his recent
interview with The New Yorker, the same one in which
he
conceded that marijuana is safer than alcohol, Obama called pot
smoking “a bad habit and a vice.” In the CNN interview, he called
it a “public health problem.” Nonsense. Marijuana consumption not
only is not, properly speaking, a public health problem (keeping in
mind the distinction
between risks people voluntarily accept and risks imposed on them
by others); it is not even, by and large, a problem. In the vast
majority of cases, it is a harmless pleasure and therefore a
good habit, not “a bad habit and a vice.” The same goes
for drinking—although, as Obama notes, the possibility of harm is
greater with alcohol.

The ultimate aim of treating drug use as a public health
problem, Obama says, is to “make sure that our kids don’t get into
these habits in the first place.” But concerns about underage
access should not become an excuse for treating adults like
children. Grownups have a right to “get into these habits” if they
want to, which means they should not be punished for doing so. In
fact, it is hard to see why they should even be criticized for
doing so, provided their habits are temperate.

Although I reject the idea that marijuana is a “public health
problem,” I recognize that such rhetoric often implies a less
punitive approach, as Obama’s concern about “criminal penalty
issues” illustrates. The problem is that he mistakenly implies
marijuana users face “very heavy criminal penalties” and does not
address marijuana growers or sellers at all. Don’t misunderstand
me: It is absurd and unjust that police
arrest hundreds of thousands of Americans for marijuana
possession every year. There is no reason why people who have
violated no one’s rights should be subjected to the humiliation,
inconvenience, and expense of an arrest, not to mention the lasting
consequences of a criminal conviction. That injustice is especially
disturbing given how racially skewed pot busts are: The ACLU

calculates that blacks are about four times as likely to be
arrested for possession as whites, even though they are no more
likely to smoke pot. 

It is nevertheless incorrect to suggest that many people are
serving long prison terms merely for possessing small amounts of
marijuana. A drug warrior can respond to Obama’s argument that pot
smokers should not be subject to “very heavy criminal penalties”
with an easy retort: They’re not. Meanwhile, the growers and
distributors who are subject to such penalties are swept
under the rug. That way Obama avoids addressing the moral
incoherence of decriminalizing demand but not supply: If actually
smoking pot should not be treated as a crime, then why should it be
a crime merely to help people smoke pot, let alone a crime that can
send you to prison for
the rest of your life?

The usual answer to that question treats consumers as victims of
predatory suppliers—even when they do not perceive themselves that
way, even when they seek out the product, eagerly consume it, and
come back for more. (In fact, if you believe that certain chemicals
have the power to enslave people who consume them, this eagerness
is evidence that drug users cannot control their consumption and
must be coerced into abstinence for their own good.) Judging from
his musings about the consequences of legalizing marijuana, Obama
subscribes to this view of consumers as mindless
automatons: 

Those who think legalization is a panacea, I think they have to
ask themselves some tough questions too, because if we start having
a situation where big corporations with a lot of resources and
distribution and marketing arms are suddenly going out there
peddling marijuana, then the levels of abuse that may take place
are going to be higher.

First of all, who are these people who “think legalization is a
panacea”? I have never met them, and I spend a lot of time talking
to drug policy reformers. The activists I have met do not say
legalization is a panacea; they say it is better than prohibition.
I thought that was the question we were discussing. 

In any event, Obama offers, as a possible reason why
legalization might be worse than prohibition, that legalization
would allow “big corporations” with big ad budgets to sell
marijuana. I know that anti-pot activists like Kevin Sabet
think we should all be terrified by that prospect, but it
sounds pretty good to me. My life is a lot better in many respects
thanks to big corporations with big ad budgets, and if I don’t like
what they’re selling, I can always say no. The scary connotations
of “Big Marijuana” are based on a critique of capitalism that
denies consumer sovereignty, portraying people as incapable of
judging their own interests or resisting come-ons for stuff they
don’t want.
I don’t buy it.

During his recent
interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, President Obama
falsely claimed that reclassifying marijuana would require
an act of Congress, whereupon Tapper asked whether he would favor
that change. But Obama did not want to answer that question, so
instead he said this:

I stand by my belief—based, I think, on the scientific
evidence—that marijuana, for casual users, individual users, is
subject to abuse, just like alcohol is, and should be treated as a
public health problem and challenge. But as I said in the
interview, my concern is when you end up having very heavy criminal
penalties for individual users that have been applied unevenly and
in some cases with a racial disparity. I think that is a
problem.

Over the long term, what I believe is if we can deal with some
of the criminal penalty issues, then we can really tackle what is a
problem not only for marijuana but also alcohol, also cigarettes,
also harder drugs, and that is try to make sure that our kids don’t
get into these habits in the first place. And the incarceration
model that we’ve taken, particularly around marijuana, does not
seem to have produced the kinds of results that we’ve set.

Here Obama conflates drug use with drug abuse, adults with
children, and penalties for marijuana possession with penalties for
marijuana productiion and distribution. Since each of those
distinctions is an important prerequisite for an intelligent
conversation about drug policy, let’s consider them one at a time.

Obama correctly observes that marijuana, “just like alcohol”
(and every other drug or source of pleasure), “is subject to
abuse.” That implies, contrary to what the Drug Enforcement
Administration claims, that not all marijuana use is abuse. As I
argue in my book
Saying Yes, equating use with abuse is the sort of
definition that obliterates meaning. Like alcohol, marijuana
can be used in a moderate, controlled, responsible way, a way that
does not harm the user or anyone else. To the contrary, that kind
of use is life-enhancing: It brings people pleasure, helps them
relax, enhances enjoyment of other experiences, and so on—all
without hurting anyone.

Yet in his recent
interview with The New Yorker, the same one in which
he
conceded that marijuana is safer than alcohol, Obama called pot
smoking “a bad habit and a vice.” In the CNN interview, he called
it a “public health problem.” Nonsense. Marijuana consumption not
only is not, properly speaking, a public health problem (keeping in
mind the distinction
between risks people voluntarily accept and risks imposed on them
by others); it is not even, by and large, a problem. In the vast
majority of cases, it is a harmless pleasure and therefore a
good habit, not “a bad habit and a vice.” The same goes
for drinking—although, as Obama notes, the possibility of harm is
greater with alcohol.

The ultimate aim of treating drug use as a public health
problem, Obama says, is to “make sure that our kids don’t get into
these habits in the first place.” But concerns about underage
access should not become an excuse for treating adults like
children. Grownups have a right to “get into these habits” if they
want to, which means they should not be punished for doing so. In
fact, it is hard to see why they should even be criticized for
doing so, provided their habits are temperate.

Although I reject the idea that marijuana is a “public health
problem,” I recognize that such rhetoric often implies a less
punitive approach, as Obama’s concern about “criminal penalty
issues” illustrates. The problem is that he mistakenly implies
marijuana users face “very heavy criminal penalties” and does not
address marijuana growers or sellers at all. Don’t misunderstand
me: It is absurd and unjust that police
arrest hundreds of thousands of Americans for marijuana
possession every year. There is no reason why people who have
violated no one’s rights should be subjected to the humiliation,
inconvenience, and expense of an arrest, not to mention the lasting
consequences of a criminal conviction. That injustice is especially
disturbing given how racially skewed pot busts are: The ACLU

calculates that blacks are about four times as likely to be
arrested for possession as whites, even though they are no more
likely to smoke pot. 

It is nevertheless incorrect to suggest that many people are
serving long prison terms merely for possessing small amounts of
marijuana. A drug warrior can respond to Obama’s argument that pot
smokers should not be subject to “very heavy criminal penalties”
with an easy retort: They’re not. Meanwhile, the growers and
distributors who are subject to such penalties are swept
under the rug. That way Obama avoids addressing the moral
incoherence of decriminalizing demand but not supply: If actually
smoking pot should not be treated as a crime, then why should it be
a crime merely to help people smoke pot, let alone a crime that can
send you to prison for
the rest of your life?

The usual answer to that question treats consumers as victims of
predatory suppliers—even when they do not perceive themselves that
way, even when they seek out the product, eagerly consume it, and
come back for more. (In fact, if you believe that certain chemicals
have the power to enslave people who consume them, this eagerness
is evidence that drug users cannot control their consumption and
must be coerced into abstinence for their own good.) Judging from
his musings about the consequences of legalizing marijuana, Obama
subscribes to this view of consumers as mindless
automatons: 

Those who think legalization is a panacea, I think they have to
ask themselves some tough questions too, because if we start having
a situation where big corporations with a lot of resources and
distribution and marketing arms are suddenly going out there
peddling marijuana, then the levels of abuse that may take place
are going to be higher.

First of all, who are these people who “think legalization is a
panacea”? I have never met them, and I spend a lot of time talking
to drug policy reformers. The activists I have met do not say
legalization is a panacea; they say it is better than prohibition.
I thought that was the question we were discussing. 

In any event, Obama offers, as a possible reason why
legalization might be worse than prohibition, that legalization
would allow “big corporations” with big ad budgets to sell
marijuana. I know that anti-pot activists like Kevin Sabet
think we should all be terrified by that prospect, but it
sounds pretty good to me. My life is a lot better in many respects
thanks to big corporations with big ad budgets, and if I don’t like
what they’re selling, I can always say no. The scary connotations
of “Big Marijuana” are based on a critique of capitalism that
denies consumer sovereignty, portraying people as incapable of
judging their own interests or resisting come-ons for stuff they
don’t want.
I don’t buy it.

The health care overhaul passed
in Massachusetts under Gov. Mitt Romney was a state-level model for
the federal reform plan that became Obamacare.

But Massachusetts has had an exceedingly tough time upgrading
its own system to comply with the federal law.
Via The Boston Globe, the state’s new exchange
technology is still broken:

Connector executive director Jean Yang said Thursday that the
manual systems created to bypass the malfunctioning website are
complicated. The agency has been working to identify stalled
enrollments, so that a crisis management team can address them.

The team was working on between 40 and 50 cases Thursday, Yang
said, though she could not say how many were related to premium
payments that were not properly processed. She said the Connector
is planning to improve customer service with better training.

The fixes have not “happened as fast as we would have liked,”
Yang said. “We won’t stop until it’s all taken care of.”

The Connector website was developed by CGI, the same firm that
created the federal healthcare.gov website that got off to a rocky
start.

But, while the federal site is largely fixed, major components
of the state site still do not work, including those that process
payments, determine whether people are eligible for subsidies, and
transfer information automatically to health insurers.

At Forbes, meanwhile, Josh Archambault
notes that by some measures Massachusetts has the worst
performing exchange in the nation: The state has enrolled just
5,428 people—0.2% of its first year goal of 250,000. (In response,
the state has lowered its year-one goal to 200,000.) At this point,
the state has failed to enroll a single person through its online
exchange. Every enrollment so far has been via a manual
workaround. 

At least two other states gung-ho about health reform—Maryland
and Oregon—continue to struggle with their exchanges as
well. 

The health care overhaul passed
in Massachusetts under Gov. Mitt Romney was a state-level model for
the federal reform plan that became Obamacare.

But Massachusetts has had an exceedingly tough time upgrading
its own system to comply with the federal law.
Via The Boston Globe, the state’s new exchange
technology is still broken:

Connector executive director Jean Yang said Thursday that the
manual systems created to bypass the malfunctioning website are
complicated. The agency has been working to identify stalled
enrollments, so that a crisis management team can address them.

The team was working on between 40 and 50 cases Thursday, Yang
said, though she could not say how many were related to premium
payments that were not properly processed. She said the Connector
is planning to improve customer service with better training.

The fixes have not “happened as fast as we would have liked,”
Yang said. “We won’t stop until it’s all taken care of.”

The Connector website was developed by CGI, the same firm that
created the federal healthcare.gov website that got off to a rocky
start.

But, while the federal site is largely fixed, major components
of the state site still do not work, including those that process
payments, determine whether people are eligible for subsidies, and
transfer information automatically to health insurers.

At Forbes, meanwhile, Josh Archambault
notes that by some measures Massachusetts has the worst
performing exchange in the nation: The state has enrolled just
5,428 people—0.2% of its first year goal of 250,000. (In response,
the state has lowered its year-one goal to 200,000.) At this point,
the state has failed to enroll a single person through its online
exchange. Every enrollment so far has been via a manual
workaround. 

At least two other states gung-ho about health reform—Maryland
and Oregon—continue to struggle with their exchanges as
well.