The Binary Circumstance

The Daily Koz reports on a growing sex scandal involving Republicans.

And you thought Bill Clinton was bad!

Mexico is about to change its drugs laws in a way that is bound to upset those involved in the “war on drugs.”

MEXICO CITY — Mexicans would be allowed to possess small amounts of cocaine, heroin, even ecstasy for their personal use under a bill approved by lawmakers that some worry could prove to be a lure to young Americans.

The bill now only needs President Vicente Fox’s signature to become law and that does not appear to be an obstacle. His office said that decriminalizing drugs will free up police to focus on major dealers.

“This law gives police and prosecutors better legal tools to combat drug crimes that do so much damage to our youth and children,” said Fox’s spokesman, Ruben Aguilar.

The Senate approved the bill Friday in the final hours of its closing session. Mexico’s lower house had already endorsed the legislation.

The measure appeared to surprise U.S. officials. State Department spokeswoman Janelle Hironimus said the department was trying to get “more information” about it. One U.S. diplomat, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said “we’re still studying the legislation, but any effort to decriminalize illegal drugs would not be helpful.”

Some worried the law would increase drug addiction in Mexico and cause problems with the United States. Millions of American youths visit Mexico’s beach resorts and border towns each year.

More from Yahoo News.

I watched Brokeback Mountain for the third time on DVD tonight.

When I see a movie several times, it’s always interesting to me how my impressions change from viewing to viewing. Something always seems to pop out that I hadn’t really paid much attention to before.

This time around I was struck with just how sparse the movie is. Like the scenery, it is full of wide open spaces where there is little or no dialogue. There are long spaces and stretches of silence. I certainly noticed that before but hadn’t realized how it’s in direct contrast to the density of the story. The film covers twenty years of emotional territory in the lives of several characters in the space of a feature length film.

How did they do that?

How did they pack so much story, time and space into a movie with so little dialogue?

In my original review I focused on the dichotomy of the majestic and the desolate. Now that I’ve seen it three times, I was struck more by the dichotomy of the sparse, barren pace and character of the movie against the dense and richly textured character of the story.

From Yahoo News:

DURHAM, N.C. - The woman who says she was raped by three members of Duke’s lacrosse team also told police 10 years ago she was raped by three men, filing a 1996 complaint claiming she had been assaulted three years earlier when she was 14.

Authorities in nearby Creedmoor said Thursday that none of the men named in the decade-old report was ever charged but they didn’t have details why.

A phone number for the accuser has been disconnected and her family declined to comment to The Associated Press. But relatives told Essence magazine in an online story this week that the woman declined to pursue the case out of fear for her safety.

The existence of the report surprised defense attorneys, one of whom has sought information about the accuser’s past for use in attacking her credibility.

Slightly different accounts were reported by the Durham Herald Sun and the The Raleigh News and Observer.

It’s disgusting that at this point the two men accused of this alleged crime have had their names mentioned in nearly every media outlet in the country but nobody has released the name of the accuser. Any woman who reports a legitimate rape should be proud and has nothing to be ashamed of.

View my previous posts on the alleged Duke lacrosse team gang rape.