Today’s Links: December 22, 2011

OPINION

PAUL BUTLER: “Jurors Need to Know That They Can Say No
“IF you are ever on a jury in a marijuana case, I recommend that you vote ‘not guilty’ — even if you think the defendant actually smoked pot, or sold it to another consenting adult. As a juror, you have this power under the Bill of Rights; if you exercise it, you become part of a proud tradition of American jurors who helped make our laws fairer. The information I have just provided — about a constitutional doctrine called “jury nullification” — is absolutely true. But if federal prosecutors in New York get their way, telling the truth to potential jurors could result in a six-month prison sentence.”

GEORGE F. WILL: “Gingrich, the Anti-Conservative
“When discussing his amazingness, Newt Gingrich sometimes exaggerates somewhat, as when, discussing Bosnia and Washington, D.C., street violence, he said, ‘People like me are what stand between us and Auschwitz’ [Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Jan. 16, 1994]. What primarily stands between us and misrule, however, is the Constitution, buttressed by an independent judiciary. But Gingrich’s hunger for distinction has surely been slaked by his full-throated attack on such a judiciary. He is the first presidential candidate to propose a thorough assault on the rule of law.”

DAVE WEIGEL: “Ron Paul is Blowing It On the Newsletter Story
“Nearly five years ago, the New York Sun criticized Ron Paul for an item in his old newsletter, the Ron Paul Political Survival Report, which called ‘the Israeli government’ the ‘most powerful lobby of the bad sort.’ I asked Paul about the item. ‘I’d have to have you show to me that I wrote it because that doesn’t sound like my language, and in campaigns, some things get into newspapers that aren’t actually correct,’ he said. ‘There were some things in a newsletter that wasn’t actually written by me, so sometimes that gets a bit of distortion.'”

NEWS

R & D – Self-Healing Electronic Chips May Aid Space Travel
“Self-repairing electronic chips are one step closer, according to a team of US researchers. The group has created a circuit that heals itself when cracked thanks to the release of liquid metal which restores conductivity.”

FOOD – Frito-Lay Lawsuit: Class Action Suit Brought Against Company for Using GMOs and Claiming All Natural
“In August, ConAgra was hit with a lawsuit filed by Milberg LLP, arguing that its line of Wesson oils can’t be “all-natural” since the oil contains GMOs. The process of genetic modification is in fact unnatural, the suit claims, which should nullify the term ‘all-natural.'”