other news of the weird

Follow the money The usual explanation for why we have entrenched policies that make no rational sense, especially on a cost-benefit analysis for public policies, is that the entrenched parties are getting rich. Same thing happens with agricultural subsidies. But this is ridiculous:

"Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko, his budget under pressure in a weak economy, has laid off staff, reduced patrols and even released jail inmates. But there’s one mission on which he’s spending more than in recent years: pot busts.

The reason is simple: If he steps up his pursuit of marijuana growers, his department is eligible for roughly half a million dollars a year in federal anti-drug funding, helping save some jobs. The majority of the funding would have to be used to fight pot. Marijuana may not be the county’s most pressing crime problem, the sheriff says, but “it’s where the money is.”" - So the idea is to CUT actual CRIME prevention or policing, but to screw with pot smokers and producers MORE? Yea, that makes sense.

Just have to shake your head at this one. Sort of like green energy with land use restrictions, the government is just as much the problem as it pretends to be the solution.