EVERYDAY HEROS

It's cold and dreary in the Happy Valley this week. I hate when you have to close all the windows and turn on the heat. There was one warm moment though, I did get to meet my long time counter-culture hero, Barry Crimmins, on Tuesday night at the ACLU event. We hung out after the show and had a great chat. He's way cool and it turns out we have quite a few friends in common. I love when my heros live up to my expectations in real life.

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SHOW ME THE MONEY

It's been a busy week and my in-box is overflowing with unread drug war news. We'll be catching up on the highlights in the next couple of days but for this morning I leave you with this story on another waste of your tax dollars. Brattleboro Vermont has received almost $100,000 from a federal Drug-Free Communities grant to 'educate' parents on how to talk to their kids about drugs. Apparently, they're having a hard time getting the parents to participate. They have to pay them to sit through the propaganda.

Sue Dennison, coordinator for the Brattleboro Area Prevention Coalition, reports that as part of the program, parents will be provided an incentive of $10 for each class they attend. Parents who attend all five of the weekly classes will receive a final bonus of $15, and those who take part in a three-month follow-up will receive an additional $10.

I'll put up a Ben Franklin right now that says when they report the attendance figures on this project to tout the success of the program, there will be no mention of their having to bribe the attendees.

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