Meant to post a lot, but you know how that goes.
Found this photo on flickr, and was impressed with the stark beauty:
BoingBoing : Guatemala security forces retake "jail town" built by prisoners
BoingBoing : apparently-baked biz school prof who was soon fired – with video to boot! update: remix!
BoingBoing : Adopt a Clitoris / Alien clone sex cult leader launches "Clitoraid" campaign
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world" – Gandhi
I saw this picture on the Act for Change website, and it really made me sad…sometimes, you have to take the moral high ground. If you do not, you are no better (or worse: no one likes a hypocrite) than the 'terrorists' you are 'trying' to defeat. Click on it if you feel the same way…"NOT IN MY NAME!!!"
Can you imagine what it was like under that hood? Innocent people are convicted every day HERE IN THE U.S. Hell, innocent people have been executed…what is the likelihood that the guy being 'questioned' above was thought of as innocent until proven guilty? More likely just seen as a potential source of information…
Check this link out: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0405/S00011.htm
Winning their hearts and minds indeed…God Bless America, err, excuse me while I hang my head in shame. "I'm proud to be an American" indeed…Is Lee Greenwood's song now an ironic mockery of reality? The Stars and Stripes stand for freedom? Equality? Dignity? That all men are created equal, unless they are not protestant, white, European, Caucasian…then you can stick some electrodes to their nutsack and torture them until they say whatever it is you were trying to get them to say, anything to make the pain and humiliation to stop?
Great…hearts and minds, indeed…
Police in the United States made a record number of arrests in 2005 according to the FBI's annual Uniform Crime Report. The 786,545 people arrested for marijuana violations made up 42.6 percent of all drug arrests, and more arrests the total number for all violent crimes combined, including murder, manslaughter, and rape, robbery and assault.
From : wired.com
One third of US citizens have tried Marijuana. Prohibition has proven itself a useless excersice. The only things I can think of:
1) Government wants to 'look tough', and repealing prohibition would cost SOMEONE votes.
2) Drug Lords employ lobbyists just like anyone else. Repealing prohibition is bad for their business as it would really cut profits (if prices were then raised with taxes to fund rehabilitation and education, as it should be, which would also reduce their business, the profits would then go towards something useful beyond beer, bitches, massive mansions, and substantial financial consideration to our very much in-need elected representatives…).
3) Marijuana makes black men rape white women…probably has the same effect on macaca's and other ethnic types.
4) Marijuana will make your children have sex with said ethnic people…
5) …and probably crash a train into a bus full of nuns and orphans…
6) …or spend the next decade playing Playstation in your basement.
7) Marijuana contributes to the American obesity crisis.
8) Et cetera, ad nauseum.
http://www.thebudgetgraph.com/view.html
http://www.breathingearth.net/
The first is simply a gigantic, and yet concise, graphic representation of where our taxes go (after looking at it I alternated between nausea and despair), the second is another graphic representation of humans on the earth (after watching for a few minutes I became increasingly alarmed and dismayed…thinking more and more that there really should be tax penalties for increasing number of children (assistance for one child, neutral for two children, moderate tax penalty for three, severe for four and up).
I feel bad that I just posted a link without any interesting content…damn circular links!
http://www.nerdshit.com/wordpress/?p=2179
Update: nerdshit.com is unfortunately offline? Here is the google cache while it exists. It also appears that the original blog (FreeThePlant) that this appeared on is ALSO offline, so I’ll copy/paste it here for future reference. If the original content creator objects, just let me know and I’ll remove the copy and link to any existing source:
FreeThePlant
(hooked up by ElDad)10) MARIJUANA USE HAS NO EFFECT ON MORTALITY: A massive study of California HMO members funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) found marijuana use caused no significant increase in mortality. Tobacco use was associated with increased risk of death. Sidney, S et al. Marijuana Use and Mortality. American Journal of Public Health. Vol. 87 No. 4, April 1997. p. 585-590. Sept. 2002.
9) HEAVY MARIJUANA USE AS A YOUNG ADULT WON’T RUIN YOUR LIFE: Veterans Affairs scientists looked at whether heavy marijuana use as a young adult caused long-term problems later, studying identical twins in which one twin had been a heavy marijuana user for a year or longer but had stopped at least one month before the study, while the second twin had used marijuana no more than five times ever. Marijuana use had no significant impact on physical or mental health care utilization, health-related quality of life, or current socio-demographic characteristics. Eisen SE et al. Does Marijuana Use Have Residual Adverse Effects on Self-Reported Health Measures, Socio-Demographics or Quality of Life? A Monozygotic Co-Twin Control Study in Men. Addiction. Vol. 97 No. 9. p.1083-1086. Sept. 1997
8) THE “GATEWAY EFFECT” MAY BE A MIRAGE: Marijuana is often called a “gateway drug” by supporters of prohibition, who point to statistical “associations” indicating that persons who use marijuana are more likely to eventually try hard drugs than those who never use marijuana — implying that marijuana use somehow causes hard drug use. But a model developed by RAND Corp. researcher Andrew Morral demonstrates that these associations can be explained “without requiring a gateway effect.” More likely, this federally funded study suggests, some people simply have an underlying propensity to try drugs, and start with what’s most readily available. Morral AR, McCaffrey D and Paddock S. Reassessing the Marijuana Gateway Effect. Addiction. December 2002. p. 1493-1504.
7) PROHIBITION DOESN’T WORK (PART I): The White House had the National Research Council examine the data being gathered about drug use and the effects of U.S. drug policies. NRC concluded, “the nation possesses little information about the effectiveness of current drug policy, especially of drug law enforcement.” And what data exist show “little apparent relationship between severity of sanctions prescribed for drug use and prevalence or frequency of use.” In other words, there is no proof that prohibition — the cornerstone of U.S. drug policy for a century — reduces drug use. National Research Council. Informing America’s Policy on Illegal Drugs: What We Don’t Know Keeps Hurting Us. National Academy Press, 2001. p. 193.
6) PROHIBITION DOESN’T WORK (PART II: DOES PROHIBITION CAUSE THE “GATEWAY EFFECT”?): U.S. and Dutch researchers, supported in part by NIDA, compared marijuana users in San Francisco, where non-medical use remains illegal, to Amsterdam, where adults may possess and purchase small amounts of marijuana from regulated businesses. Looking at such parameters as frequency and quantity of use and age at onset of use, they found no differences except one: Lifetime use of hard drugs was significantly lower in Amsterdam, with its “tolerant” marijuana policies. For example, lifetime crack cocaine use was 4.5 times higher in San Francisco than Amsterdam. Reinarman, C, Cohen, PDA, and Kaal, HL. The Limited Relevance of Drug Policy: Cannabis in Amsterdam and San Francisco. American Journal of Public Health. Vol. 94, No. 5. May 2004. p. 836-842.
5) OOPS, MARIJUANA MAY PREVENT CANCER (PART I): Federal researchers implanted several types of cancer, including leukemia and lung cancers, in mice, then treated them with cannabinoids (unique, active components found in marijuana). THC and other cannabinoids shrank tumors and increased the mice’s lifespans. Munson, AE et al. Antineoplastic Activity of Cannabinoids. Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Sept. 1975. p. 597-602.
4) OOPS, MARIJUANA MAY PREVENT CANCER, (PART II): In a 1994 study the government tried to suppress, federal researchers gave mice and rats massive doses of THC, looking for cancers or other signs of toxicity. The rodents given THC lived longer and had fewer cancers, “in a dose-dependent manner” (i.e. the more THC they got, the fewer tumors). NTP Technical Report On The Toxicology And Carcinogenesis Studies Of 1-Trans- Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol, CAS No. 1972-08-3, In F344/N Rats And B6C3F Mice, Gavage Studies. See also, “Medical Marijuana: Unpublished Federal Study Found THC-Treated Rats Lived Longer, Had Less Cancer,” AIDS Treatment News no. 263, Jan. 17, 1997.
3) OOPS, MARIJUANA MAY PREVENT CANCER (PART III): Researchers at the Kaiser-Permanente HMO, funded by NIDA, followed 65,000 patients for nearly a decade, comparing cancer rates among non-smokers, tobacco smokers, and marijuana smokers. Tobacco smokers had massively higher rates of lung cancer and other cancers. Marijuana smokers who didn’t also use tobacco had no increase in risk of tobacco-related cancers or of cancer risk overall. In fact their rates of lung and most other cancers were slightly lower than non-smokers, though the difference did not reach statistical significance. Sidney, S. et al. Marijuana Use and Cancer Incidence (California, United States). Cancer Causes and Control. Vol. 8. Sept. 1997, p. 722-728.
2) OOPS, MARIJUANA MAY PREVENT CANCER (PART IV): Donald Tashkin, a UCLA researcher whose work is funded by NIDA, did a case-control study comparing 1,200 patients with lung, head and neck cancers to a matched group with no cancer. Even the heaviest marijuana smokers had no increased risk of cancer, and had somewhat lower cancer risk than non-smokers (tobacco smokers had a 20-fold increased lung cancer risk). Tashkin D. Marijuana Use and Lung Cancer: Results of a Case-Control Study. American Thoracic Society International Conference. May 23, 2006.
1) MARIJUANA DOES HAVE MEDICAL VALUE: In response to passage of California’s medical marijuana law, the White House had the Institute of Medicine (IOM) review the data on marijuana’s medical benefits and risks. The IOM concluded, “Nausea, appetite loss, pain and anxiety are all afflictions of wasting, and all can be mitigated by marijuana.” While noting potential risks of smoking, the report added, “we acknowledge that there is no clear alternative for people suffering from chronic conditions that might be relieved by smoking marijuana, such as pain or AIDS wasting.” The government’s refusal to acknowledge this finding caused co-author John A. Benson to tell the New York Times that the government “loves to ignore our report … they would rather it never happened.” Joy, JE, Watson, SJ, and Benson, JA. Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base. National Academy Press. 1999. p. 159. See also, Harris, G. FDA Dismisses Medical Benefit From Marijuana. New York Times. Apr. 21, 2006
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Check out the four plugins on the bottom…a world population counter, a national debt counter, a hit counter which graphically displays the location of visitors, and a countdown to December 21, 2012…if only my site were so cool!!!
UPDATE : I found the script which does the countdown, nifty….
UPDATE reprise : I found the site which provides the graphical visitor map, very nifty!!!
