In Spain, it is perfectly legal to grow your own marijuana for personal use. The cops only start to care when you’re growing with intent to sell.

In general I’m strongly against the War on Drugs and generally in favor of the legalization of just about every currently illegal drug. Everything from the history of Prohibition (of alcohol) to teenage abstinence programs show us how forbidding people from seeking pleasure does not stop them from doing so; it only makes them do it in less safe ways. The sooner we can shed the Judeo-Christian-Islamic “pleasure = sin” mindset, upon which all these pleasure-prohibiting laws are based, and talk rationally about the best policies for keeping the populace safe and happy, the better.

In 2008, 1 in every 31 adults in the US was on probation, in jail, or on parole. (BJS)

22% of the prisoners in the US are convicted of drug-related charges. (HRW)

You don’t have to be a Libertarian to agree that we’re doing something wrong.

Only the very biggest clothes that Nora had last year are going to get any use this year. Today she put on her “I support my parents’ political beliefs”, from The Onion Store. It fit her perfectly.

Hard to believe it’s the same girl.

I hope we can get some use out of her other funny t-shirts.

Facebook is very aware of this. In fact it’s been a goal of theirs for some time now to create a private alternate version of the internet on only their servers. This net domination objective is probably the main reason they have rejected several lucrative offers to buy them out.

This is the homepage at Coca-Cola.com at the time of this writing.

Personally I’m not sure how I feel about this trend. On the one hand, I can definitely see the appeal of the simple, clean, consistent design, and I know from firsthand experience how easy it is to burn away hours inside Facebook’s minimally gated community. On the other hand, it’s never a good idea to give too much power to one corporation. There are plenty of articles about Facebook creating an “alternative internet” or “second internet”. I just wrote this post because I have not yet seen anyone drawing parallels to the America Online of yesteryear.

The ironic wordplay of the title being, of course, that Facebook’s biggest critics complain about privacy, and yet a privately controlled internet is exactly what they are constructing.

Yesterday I set her on her special chair that is still a little too high for her to sit on herself and gave her one of her baby dolls. She immediately began doing cute things with it, so I grabbed a video camera.

The “just leave her behind and she’ll catch up” trick didn’t work at all.

Making a dust angel.

Every wall must be touched.

I think I’ll sit down on this ledge.

A rare occasion of looking where she’s going.

Sticking her tongue out at her shadow.

The iPad photo is not mine, but Yutaka Tsutano‘s. My daughter’s iPad case is much more scuffed up than this. The heron is Jane‘s.

iSkater. Get it? View larger.

The spotlight lighting in the original skater image, by Charissa, was difficult to replicate, but I did my best. It’s still not totally convincing, I’m afraid. I am proud of the non-trivial shadows and reflection of the feet, though.

I’ve been walking a lot lately, so we decided that I would drive the car to Laredo in the morning, park it as close to the downtown parade site as possible, and then walk back home. I took Nora with me since she isn’t any extra work on walks (when bribed with cookies), but she is a handful to care for around the house. Then, at 17:00, we set out walking to Laredo. Immediately the sky began to look ominous, and about halfway there, it began to rain. We managed to find a little shelter and soon the rain slowed and then stopped. We got there late for the initial lap (for the judges to see the floats), but we caught the entire second lap (for the awards to be given) and a little of the third lap (for the awards to be paraded, literally, around the town).

Watching the Batalla de Flores reminds me of going to an art museum; the first few pieces you see and really focus on totally blow your mind with the creativity and skill with which they were created, and then every piece after that is like “Oh, look, another one… Meh!” The dedication and time and energy and teamwork to put one of these floats together, with the flowers added the day before the parade to keep them fresh, is truly to be respected. It seems that every year there is an oriental float with dragons, a circus float, a marine life float, a musical instrument float, and a float with superheroes or cartoon characters to please the kids. In addition to the prize for the best float, there is a prize awarded for the dresses and costumes of the adolescents standing in or on the floats. This year, the same float (I can’t remember which one) won both first place prizes.

Here are some photos I took with my phone. I chose not to make the effort with the real camera. I think I might be falling into the rut with the locals that actively avoid such festivals because once you’ve seen it one year, you don’t really have to go again. Hopefully my daughter will keep my eyes fresh.

You can see the slideshow larger here.

Here’s a short video of Nora watching the action. She very much liked the colorful floats, but very much disliked the emcee that came on the loudspeaker abruptly, making us both jump.

I suppose we’ll probably go for the next few years, when Nora will be excited to see the flowers, and then never again.

Afterwards, there was quite a bit of sugar on the table, so I used my wife’s “new” iPhone to, um, straighten things out. Like an iPhone has never been used for that!

Not much was added to the cuteness of the original video, but I think Nora enjoyed it.

Me: Hi, I’d like to buy the new iPhone 4 and use it with my current iPhone plan.

Clerk: You want to exchange points for a phone upgrade?

Me: Huh? I want to buy a new phone.

Clerk: Right, tell me your current mobile number.

Me: [mobile number]

Clerk: Okay, you have 18,600 points.

Me: Wow! That much?

Clerk: That’s nothing at all. Worthless.

Me: Well, I’ve only been a customer for two years.

Clerk: It’s not by time, it’s by how much you spend.

Me: Oh, that makes sense, I don’t pay much.

Clerk: [clicks through company website with the internet dexterity of an octogenarian] Okay. I’m sorry, but with only 18,600 points, it’s going to cost you 386€ to buy the iPhone.

Me: Okay.

Clerk: That’s really expensive.

Me: Oh?

Clerk: Here’s what I’d recommend. Since your two-year contract is up, you’re no longer bound to stay with [company]. You should call them up and mention that and say that you’re considering switching companies and ask if they could offer you some more points.

Me: Okay. I’ll try that and come back.

I came really close to not calling them at all to avoid the inconvenience, but in the end I phoned up my mobile service provider and made some guesses as to what to tell the computer to let me talk to a person. Eventually a service rep comes on the line…

Service Rep: How can I help you today.

Me: Hi, I’m a current iPhone customer and my contract is up, and I was wondering if you could offer me some points to upgrade my phone.

Service Rep: Your contract is with the phone you’re calling from?

Me: Yes.

Service Rep: [with no negotiation or hesitation whatsoever] I can offer you 150,000 points. That will make the new iPhone 4 cost 260€.

Me: Thanks.

WHAT?? I get a 126€ discount just for asking for it??

By this point, I had only made it walking about 50 meters from the mobile shop, so I turned around and bought my phone.

This experience parallels many, many, many experiences I have had with Corporate Spain. Default policies are in place to royally screw customers, but all you have to do is to ask to not be screwed quite so hard and they say, “Oh, okay. Here’s the real deal we can offer.” I can see the capitalist value in profiting from the laziness of the majority, but it seems so dishonest. You can imagine the social discord when Spaniards visit a country like England, where no one asks to talk to the manager unless they’re dying, and even then they apologize for the bother. If you want to not get screwed in Spain, you must complain.