Thursday, May 3, 2001

by the Wunderland Toast Society

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• Details on our new Summer Intern program
• Testimonials of the Week are now being archived
• Kory did some expansion of Zendo, Chapter 2
• GinohnNews: Beltane Weather
• Two new Tombstoners
• A new Hero of the Month

Lately we've been kind of taking it easy, but now we're getting back to work. Last month, after having done Toy Fair, GTS, and ToasterCon, with nothing major on the horizon until Origins, and with our skulls nearing the bursting point from the workload we've been piling on ourselves, we decided we needed to give ourselves a break. We kept filling orders and updating the website of course, but in general, we kind of did what we felt like doing this past month. So, during April I've been doing things like inventing a new game, updating the real-life Image Wall (the new online version will (hopefully) be coming soon), creating my first homemade CD, catching up on my reading (I really enjoyed Replay, by Ken Grimwood), and so on. Kristin also made a point of relaxing these past few weeks, but Alison has actually been busier than ever of late. Besides us and our numerous projects, her time has been consumed by her spring plantings around our house and her job at the florist (which recently gave her both a raise and more hours).

But now that May is upon us, we're all getting busy again. Origins is just two months away, and we've got a lot to do before then. Production loose ends (including financial issues) have been holding up the printing of Fluxx Blanxx and the next printing of Aquarius, but this week we started getting those logjams cleared. (It also helped our peace of mind knowing that a big influx of cash is impending, due to the fact that Fluxx and Chrononauts are about to appear on 90+ new mall store shelves as of early next week.) Both Purchase Orders have been submitted, so both products should be available by (or before) Origins. Also, we're working up a campaign to urge people to vote for our games in the Origins Awards voting (which is already underway, making that deadline a pretty urgent one). Finally, we've been working out the details of our plan to hire a part-time intern to help us out this summer.

In other words, we're back to our usual frantic pace.

Nowhere is there a better example than in Mr. Bush himself of the reality that someone can use drugs and still go on to accomplish great things (such as becoming President). I was beginning to think he understood this. He never mentions the drug war when discussing his priorities, and didn't bother to fill the months-vacant post until after his first 100 days in office. In January, he even said "I think a lot of people are coming to the realization that maybe long minimum sentences for the first-time users may not be the best way to occupy jail space and/or heal people from their disease." So why then did he choose John Walters, a strident drug war hawk who apparently doesn't agree with this sentiment, to be the new Czar?

This guy is so harshly pro-punishment that he actually thinks we haven't been putting enough people in jail yet. He thinks our inhuman Mandatory Minimums aren't excessively long, and has even said that the obvious racial disparity among the victims of the drug war is nothing but an "urban myth." (He doesn't even understand the term "urban myth", much less the futility and cruelty of the policies he holds dear.) Despite a massive treatment gap, this guy thinks we've got too much treatment already, and believes we should instead be putting yet more young black men in jail, for longer times than they're already being condemned to. This is Bush's idea of "compassionate conservatism"?

In the wake of growing public dissatisfaction with our disastrous drug policies, I'm just amazed (not to mentioned saddened) that Bush would choose someone who is so slavishly committed to failed ideas. This candidate is so extreme (one article I read called the choice "peculiar" in the headline) that it almost makes you wonder if Bush isn't deliberately setting this guy up for a fall. Who better to bring to national attention all the wrong ideas about fighting drugs than a "lock 'em up" creep from daddy's administration? Maybe Bush understands, in his secret heart of hearts, that the Drug War must end just as surely as Prohibition did, and that his legacy would well be served to help bring about its conclusion. Perhaps he's deliberately chosen someone to serve as a foil, someone so entrenched in the wrong way of doing things as to be easy to win arguments against, and thus made to take the blame for all the failures of the drug war. It might actually be a good strategy. Sadly, I just don't think Bush is that clever. (But maybe that's how things will turn out in the end...)

In any event, I'm deeply troubled by this news, and can only hope the Senate Judiciary Committee rejects his confirmation.

Let Freedom Grow,