Stoner Seniors Edition

Why more old people smoke pot than they used to, what to do when your judge and prosecutor are having an affair, and why Obama’s assault on Wall Street is weak sauce. All this and more after the jump.

On a regular basis, Truthdig brings you the news items and odds and ends that found their way to Larry Gross, director of the USC Annenberg School for Communication. A specialist in media and culture, art and communication, visual communication and media portrayals of minorities, Gross helped found the field of gay and lesbian studies.

The links below open in a new window. Newer ones are on top.

A carbon tax is preferable to cap and trade unless there are compelling practical reasons a tax won’t work as well.

Dept of D’uh: Marijuana use by seniors goes up as boomers age Observers expect further increases as 78 million boomers born between 1945 and 1964 age. For many boomers, the drug never held the stigma it did for previous generations, and they tried it decades ago.

Quote of the Day, From the Judge Who Had an Affair With a Prosecutor The odd case of Charles Dean Hood has been a subject of talk for a while. He was convicted of killing a Plano couple — there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of doubt about it — but he’s got a unique appellate argument: The judge and his prosecutor had been lovers.

Obama’s impotent assault on Wall Street On January 21, in an abrupt change of policy, President Obama announced his intention to take on the big bankers who have brought us so much trouble. …

Andy Warhol, Then and Now In two weeks, the National Book Critics Circle will vote on this year’s awards, and so, of late, I am reading until my eyes bleed. …

Academic Labor Market ‘Gone Seriously Awry’ In a draft article published to its website today, Scientific American blasts some of the junk analysis bedeviling mainstream higher-ed coverage and what passes for policy “thought” about academic labor.