Kindness permitted
Arkansas has an opportunity to progress still further by approving the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act, which will be on the general-election ballot. The state Supreme Court last week unanimously rejected a mean-spirited legal challenge, filed by the Coalition to Preserve Mean Spirits, that would have kept the act off the ballot. (Really, the group uses the name Coalition to Preserve Arkansas Values, but it's a familiarly cold-hearted bunch of people who call their prejudices values.) Reluctant to admit ill will, the coalition argued instead that the act's ballot title was misleading, being both too short and too long. The court found that the ballot title is "intelligible, honest and impartial," (Rather the opposite of the CPAV.)
The act would permit the use of marijuana for medical purposes but only if prescribed by a physician and only for certain ailments. Seventeen states and the District of Columbia have approved medical marijuana; Arkansas would be the first in the South. A vote for medical marijuana is a vote to try to relieve a sick neighbor's suffering. Thanks to the Supreme Court for allowing Arkansans to do so.
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Ingratitude
Republicans are an ungrateful lot. Though Arkansas routinely votes Republican in national races, the party maligns the state at every opportunity.
- Oct 3, 2012
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For Obama
If it's true that united we stand and divided we fall, America will come crashing down should Mitt Romney be elected president. He's already declared half the citizenry worthless, and said that as president, he'll concern himself only with the others. All those deemed unworthy of Romney's attention are low- and middle-income Americans, people who, unlike Romney himself, had no rich father's shoulders to stand on. These are the people who most need a friend in the White House. Romney promises the back of his hand.
- Oct 10, 2012
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Listen, UA
Any public-university trustees considering merger of their tax-supported teaching hospital with a Catholic hospital should ponder these wise words from Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
- May 16, 2013
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Semi-tough
The 2013 legislature was protective of gun-carriers and red-light runners, but it came down hard on voters. The first two groups might kill a few people, (or a lot). The third might remove from office a few Republican legislators. This was seen as the greater danger by Republican legislators. Their priorities are different from normal people's.
- May 9, 2013
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Which one?
The city of Beebe or Mike Beebe? It's not an easy question. They're both from White County, both have their merits, and their advocates. The town has gained fame for its dead birds; the man as a competent and moderate governor, perhaps the last of his kind.
- May 2, 2013
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