Today's Cool News

Why gay marriage, getting high, and going to Cuba will soon be legal. - By Jacob Weisberg - Slate Magazine

HOME / the big idea: The thinking behind the news.The End of ProhibitionWhy gay marriage, getting high, and going to Cuba will soon be legal.By Jacob WeisbergPosted Saturday, Oct. 31, 2009, at 7:06 AM ET

via www.slate.com

From hotel to hospital - farewell to S.F. era

As the last guest checks out of the Cathedral Hill Hotel today, a 44-year run of hotel hospitality will come to an end at the corner of Geary and Van Ness and put to rest a piece of San Francisco history.

The Jack Tar Hotel is going to be demolished.

For the first 22 years of its life, that was the name of the Cathedral, and it was as the Jack Tar that the building became notorious to a generation of San Franciscans.

The Jack Tar, opened in April 196o, was once an oasis of opulence and swank, the kind of joint where Don Draper from "Mad Men" might have stayed over for a martini or two.

It was also a gawd-awful piece of modernist architecture ridiculed for its boxy shape and checkerboard exterior.

In a city that loves to hate its buildings, perhaps no other structure burned so deeply into the civic consciousness.

Herb Caen, who jabbed at the pink and turquoise color scheme as often as he used an ellipsis, referred to another modern hotel built off Union Square as "the San Francisco Hilton, the box the Jack Tar Hotel came in."

And as late as 1983, a year after the Jack Tar had changed ownership and been drastically remodeled and repainted a sedate beige, a national wire service story about a fatal fire on the property noted, "A woman's body was found in the mezzanine ballroom of the 400-room, 12-story Cathedral Hill Hotel, formerly the Jack Tar Hotel."

via www.sfgate.com

BBC NEWS | UK | Cannabis row drugs adviser sacked

"We can help them. We can give them very good advice, and it would be much more simpler if they took that advice rather than getting tangled up in other sorts of messages which frankly really do confuse the public."

via news.bbc.co.uk

Tiny banner ads attached to flies generate buzz

The banners, measuring just a few centimetres across, seem to be causing the beleaguered flies a bit of piloting trouble. The weight keeps the flies at a lower altitude and forces them to rest more often, which is a stroke of genius on the part of the marketing creatives: the flies end up at about eye level, and whenever a fly is forced to land and recover, the banner is clearly visible. What's more, the zig-zagging of the fly naturally attracts the attention because of its rapid movement.

via www.wired.co.uk

Coal group, grassroots firm knew of forged letters before climate vote - TheHill.com

Working on behalf of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), the firm Bonner & Associates has acknowledged that it sent about a dozen forged letters to three House Democrats who were seen as critical swing votes.

via thehill.com

Now The White House Is Fighting With Car Website Edmunds.com

Now The White House is going after highly-respected and influential car site Edmunds.com.

They're actually using The White House blog to dispute the site's analysis of Cash-For-Clunkers (via Detroit News).

The post is snarkily titled: "Busy Covering Car Sales on Mars, Edmunds.com Gets It Wrong (Again) on Cash for Clunkers"

via www.businessinsider.com

NAACP calls on lawmaker to remove, apologize for 'other dark meat' video / LJWorld.com

Topeka — The Kansas chapter of the NAACP on Thursday called on state Rep Bill Otto, R-LeRoy, to remove from YouTube his video where he criticizes President Barack Obama while wearing a hat that says “OPOSSUM the other Dark Meat.”

via www2.ljworld.com

The Associated Press: Wal-Mart starts selling caskets, urns online

Prices range from $999 for models like "Dad Remembered" and "Mom Remembered" steel caskets to the mid-level $1,699 "Executive Privilege." All are less than $2,000, except for the Sienna Bronze Casket, which sells for $3,199.

via www.google.com

For those of you who wouldn't be caught dead in Wal-Mart

Calif. lawmaker holds hearing on legalizing pot

No tie-dye was on display at a standing-room only hearing held by a California lawmaker on Wednesday in a bid to get his marijuana legalization bill taken seriously. More News Instead, suits and sober discussion were the rule at the state Capitol as Assemblyman Tom Ammiano presided over what his office said was the first legislative consideration of the issue since California banned the drug in 1913. Though both sides of the debate were heard at the hearing, Ammiano has long had his mind made up. At a news conference before the hearing, the San Francisco Democrat and former comedian called the criminalization of marijuana a failed policy that denies the state significant revenue. And despite opposition from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ammiano said he believed the bill put the state in a position to set the national agenda. "I think we have a real shot at it, particularly in the context of it being in some ways bigger than California," Ammiano said. His bill would tax and regulate marijuana in the state much like alcohol. Adults 21 and older could legally possess, grow and sell marijuana. The state would charge a $50-per-ounce fee and a 9 percent tax on retail sales. While at least one poll showed a slight majority of Californians would support a tax-and-regulate scheme for pot, the bill's chances remain hazy. Skeptics have questioned whether the state could truly enforce a tax on marijuana, especially since the paper trail could lead federal prosecutors straight to sellers' doors. Speakers at the hearing touched on most issues common to the marijuana debate, including whether legalization would increase or decrease crime, raise or cost the state money and help or hurt children. No vote was taken at the hearing, described as "informational." The proposal has been referred to the public safety and health committees, which will consider in January whether to send the bill to the full Assembly. Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/10/28/state/n144146D70.DTL#ixzz0VHMp47Rq

via www.sfgate.com

The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

I'm surprised this hasn't gotten more attention. But imagine for a moment that the opt-out public option passes and becomes law (I give it a 65 percent chance at this point). Then what happens? Well, there has to be a debate in every state in which Republicans, where they hold a majority or the governorship, will presumably decide to deny their own voters the option to get a cheaper health insurance plan. When others in other states can get such a plan, will there not be pressure on the GOP to help their own base? Won't Bill O'Reilly's gaffe - when he said what he believed rather than what Roger Ailes wants him to say - be salient? Won't many people - many Republican voters - actually ask: why can't I have what they're having?

via andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com