This guy raves about oil prices and the Saudi connection.
Matt Simmons Interview
// June 28th, 2005HALF-BAKED ECONOMICS – Los Angeles CityBeat
// June 27th, 2005Though the Supreme Court may have decided against Angel Raich, a cogent argument could be made that important factors of the case were decided upon incorrectly.
Blunt Cuts Budgets
// June 27th, 2005Blunt takes money from Alzheimer’s Research and State Parks – instead of raising taxes.
California marijuana activists nervous after raids – Yahoo! News
// June 25th, 20051) The dispensaries actually WANT to be regulated and overseen. The majority of them want to abide by the laws on the books, and they’re willing to go through whatever bureaucracy necessary to be in accord with the law, and help sick people.
2) I am sure that some of them are tied to narcotics rings, and that the DEA has some amount of substance to their argument and recent actions.
3) Nevertheless, there are opposing goals. The legitimate medical dispensaries want to be in accord with the law, but the DEA really wants to shut down marijuana in San Francisco. Thus, even though they have some case for going after a few, I have no doubt the raids will continue, and will include many dispensaries that are not involved in drug trafficking.
California marijuana activists nervous after raids – Yahoo! News
Young Republicans support Iraq war, but not all are willing to join the fight
// June 25th, 2005Finally, some adversarial journalism.
Fucking hypocrites. Student Republicans are some of the worst, in every sense of the word.
Young Republicans support Iraq war, but not all are willing to join the fight
Marijuana
// June 23rd, 2005 The article below states that recent research suggests that endocannibinoids might form a whole new line of painkillers much more effective than those currently available. Of course, these are readily present in marijuana, but the usage, distribution, and cultivation of that plant is illegal. (For news on recent DEA arrests in the San Fran area, see:)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050623/ap_on_re_us/medical_marijuana_2;_ylt=AvyXjtJMTNvfULwKv_MbZhKsjA4A;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl
I’m sure, for the right price, that PharmInc will be able to create a synthetic form of endocannibinoids that are almost as effective as the plant is in its natural state.
For anyone interested, an appliance called a vaporizer reduces the health risks associated by marijuana significantly. You can find published medical information here:
http://www.canorml.org/healthfacts/vaporizerstudy2.html
It’s too bad Randolph Hearst told everyone it was the devil’s weed, or we might mistake it for a gift from God. The plant is much better suited for paper and clothing production, fuel production, and more, and grows with far less space, care, and input. For more information, please read Jack Herer’s “The Emporer wears No Clothes.” To read about the horrible atrocities of the “war on drugs,” read Eric Schlosser’s non-fiction “Reefer madness.” Let us not forget that every governmental commission in this country has recommended straight decriminalization moving toward legalization, and that these recommendations have been wholly ignored by politicians of both parties.
Wishes “morals” didn’t override facts,
Jonthon
—
“Penalties against a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself.”
~President Jimmy Carter
>>
Brain’s Marijuana-like Chemicals Postpone Pain
Wed Jun 22,11:47 PM ET
WEDNESDAY, June 22 (HealthDay News) — Experts have long known that the brain has the ability to suspend the pain response in times of injury and great stress, even after traumatic incidents such as gunshot wounds.
Now, a new study in rats suggests marijuana-like neurochemicals called endocannabinoids may be key to this process.
The discovery may lead to a new class of painkillers with fewer side effects than existing pain medications, report researchers at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). Their study appears in the June 23 issue of Nature.
"This study shows for the first time that natural marijuana-like chemicals in the brain have a link to pain suppression," researcher Daniele Piomelli, a professor of pharmacology and director of the Center for Drug Discovery at the UCI School of Medicine, said in a prepared statement.
Stress can provide a delayed pain reaction in certain situations, an effect called stress-induced analgesia. Previous research has identified two kinds of stress-induced analgesia mechanisms in the body — opioid and non-opioid. This study is the first to offer evidence that the non-opioid form is produced by cannabinoid compounds.
"If we design chemicals that can tweak the levels of these cannabinoid compounds in the brain, we might be able to boost their normal effects," Piomeilli explained.
"Aside from identifying an important function of these compounds, it provides a template for a new class of pain medications that can possibly replace others shown to have acute side effects," he added.
More information
The National Pain Foundation has advice on dealing with pain.
Feds Target Calif. Marijuana Dispensaries
// June 23rd, 2005Setting a withdrawal date…
// June 22nd, 2005I’m going to have to step into the mainstream for a moment. So rarely are they moving for the correct answer to the nation’s problem nowadays. However, in this one respect, I think they are, and that a lot of dissenters are wasting their efforts and energy.
That issue is with regard to setting a date with regard to removing our troops. My only love, Megan, will return from Iraq this Sunday for leave, only to return again in 8 days. Trust me, I don’t wish to prolong the war, which I do and always have vehemently opposed. But the truth is…if we set a firm withdrawal date, we commit a horrible atrocity twice over.
If we set a withdrawal date, it will be international news. Actually, I’m not opposed to one being made in secret, and not mediated (and given this administrations history, that is probably what will happen). My reasoning is simple: If we set a timeline, the terrorists can take a break, build their arsenal, and move toward recruiting efforts while lying in wait. Sure, the war will decelerate. But as soon as the proposed day comes, and we exit the country, Iraq will immediately be overthrown, and a tyrant much worse than Saddam will likely take power. It is convenient for us in the short-run, but having creating a bastion of jihad and terrorism, we must accept that responsibility. Even if we never, ever wanted it that way.
My opinion on this is still susceptible to change. The truth is, I don’t know how else we will retreat. I’m not so sure that we will ever defeat our opponents. I’m no longer sure that the people opposing us are Iraqi nationals defending their homeland (which I completely understood). Those shooting at our soldiers now are in it for the long haul. The question thus becomes, do we want to just give them an oil-rich nation now, or do we honestly think we can quell that insurgency and/or install a sitting government that has the ability to resist them. I sincerely hope that we can. And if we cannot, we can back out now, in a month, or in a year, because it really doesn’t matter – we’ve introduced the catalyst for worldwide terror, and created something too large for even the world’s largest military to suppress. Given the hopelessness of that scenario, I suppose I’d rather try to quell the movement, on the hope that some of my other suspicions are incorrect.
My message to a friend denouncing the Downing Street Memo as a Conspiracy Theory
// June 22nd, 2005The problem is, when stigmatizing unpopular truths as “conspiracy theories,” you are enabling dominant culture to go uncontested. The truth is, none of the more mainstream groups are saying anything at all about the other issues the conspiracy site addresses. What’s sad is, most of them are hesitant to report on the Downing Street Memo, because conservatives across the country will discredit it as conspiracy, and then accuse them of introducing a liberal bias into the media. But it’s the fucking TRUTH! Newsweek finally gave in and wrote a rather pressing story, and asked some mildly tough questions. I expect that there will be more in the future. However much it may rattle your cage, this is my truth: Conservatives, like yourself, are so content in being in control that you are unwilling to accept that some major tactical errors were made, and that the American public was straight out lied to, for political purposes. I wholeheartedly believe that BushCo lead us into a war on falsified charges, against a country that didn’t pose a significant threat and wasn’t involved in the ground attacks on our country. I believed that when we shifted our focus away from Afghanistan. I believed it during the election cycle. I believe it now. But because myself and others have been saying it for so long, the now-available proof is getting swept under the rug as “old news” by the major media outlets. That’s the conspiracy, my friend.
Learning from Vietnam
// June 22nd, 2005It seems to me that one major similarity between Vietnam and Iraq will not exist. During the Vietnam war, progressive activists across the country were still able to mediate and disseminate their viewpoints, to assemble and protest, and to introduce dissenting opinion into the mainstream of American culture.
The NeoConservatives learned from this. That is why, this time around, additional steps were taken. The media was entirely co-opted beforehand (ex: On the 30th anniversary of Vietnam (a no-no word in the media, no mention was given. Instead, stories on the runaway bride clenched our attention.) An amazing debt was raised, perhaps in an effort to turn the focus of Americans inward, and toward producing to survive. Coinciding with and related to this, motions to dismantle social programs sidetracked the politically attentive so as to render their many and varied arguments ineffective. The liberal crowd has a bit to answer for here, as well: We started too early. Before the majority of America was sure we were right, we professed to be so, and were vehemently charged as being UnAmerican. Now, even though we were right and acting in our country’s best interest, they have stamped us as conspiracy theorists.