Back on the blogtrail

Miss me? Having installed our house sitter as well as the security door, we're visiting our son Stephen, who has taken advantage of ths in-the-tank housing market to buy his first house -- at the age of 23 an age when, for me, buying a house was abut 20years away. He just got his Internet service installed, and it was a little spotty yesterday -- and when it was up and working it seemed more important for Jen to use it. Also, our niece Mandie spent a good bit of the day with us, and amused herself in part by playing computer games, after which she and I went out shopping.

I don't think I wasted the day. Having changed my direction for my next book -- I think it will be more timely to do a marijuna-legalization trending toward all-illicit-drugs legalization book than a foreign policy book -- I read Ed Rosenthal and Steve Kubby's "Why Marijuana Should Be Legal," and began the Tim Lynch-edited "After Prohibition." It's not that I'm unfamiliar with the arguments, heaven knows but when I'm starting a new project I find it useful to saturate myself with knowledge and arguments to try to make sure I don't miss any important aspects, then setting out to prioritize them.

My inclination now is to expand on the reporting I did for this Register article, noting the swiftness with which leglization arguments seem to have entered the mainstream. I plan to work on an outline and sample chapter during this, my furlough week, and then start peddling it to publishers while I finish it. Wish me luck -- and feel free to ask me how it's going. A little prod now and then from friends is not a bad idea.