If it looks like a clown...

Conspicuously absent in Google search results is the phrase “drug use among U.S. politicians” See for yourself. I find it highly unlikely that Google does not have any documents pertaining to this search. Are you trying to tell me Marian Barry, Ted Kennedy (any Kennedy) , Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and a slew of other U.S. pols have escaped the much vaunted search engine that is Google? Let me be the first to catalogue the phrase and submit it then!

There is a long running battle between Mayor Thomas Menino of Boston and the Boston Firefighter’s Union. This comes in the wake of two firefighters dying in the line of duty due to the roof of a building collapsing and a very convenient arrest of a firefighter for drug use while in uniform. Amid all the sensationalism the public is being led astray.

Menino and his people are trying to force drug testing onto Boston’s Bravest. This in and of itself is not controversial (except that it is in violation of the Fourth and Fifth Amendments.) What the Firefighters are resisting is the unilateral decision to make random urinalysis mandatory. Things of this nature are settled via collective bargaining. I am not going to get into the intricacies of contract negotiations suffice it to say the firefighters want something for the relinquishments of their civil rights.