Open Thread

I’m up in Chicago for the day with the Illinois State University Improv Mafia — an awesome group competing in the College Improv Regional Tournament.

So I’m a bit out of touch.

What’s going on?

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20 Responses to Open Thread

  1. allan420 says:

    OMG Pete! You didn’t hear? Kerlikowske surrendered!

    Ah! November Fools…

  2. DdC says:

    Barry Cooper For Texas Attorney General 2010
    Ex-cop turned pot activist Barry Cooper is running for Attorney General of Texas on a ‘Pro-Gun, Pro-Pot, Pro-Family’ platform.

    NeverGetBusted Tip: The Safest Way to Fly With Pot
    Barry Cooper
    It’s never safe to smuggle large amounts of marijuana through a public airport; however, it’s important for some people to fly with their medicine and NeverGetBusted.

    Dutch Among Lowest Cannabis Users in Europe
    The Dutch are among the lowest users of marijuana or cannabis in Europe despite the Netherlands’ well-known tolerance of the drug, according to a regional study published on Thursday.

    Drug Czar Blames the Media for Marijuana’s Popularity
    Nov 5 2009
    If you wanna hear drug czar Gil Kerlikowske getting served by random people who hate the drug war, check out this NPR interview.

    Marc Emery Forced to Accept Plea Bargain for Five Years in A Canadian Prison. Charges Against Co-Defendants to Be Dropped. Canada Betrays Its Citizens and Its Sovereignty.
    Our extradition law puts Canadian citizens at the mercy of foreign governments and judges can’t do much about it.

  3. Jon Doe says:

    Did anyone catch the Colbert interview with former-NYC/Boston/LA Police Chief William Bratton?

    Here’s the Hulu link:

    http://www.hulu.com/watch/107212/the-colbert-report-william-bratton#x-4,vclip,1,0

    I’m not a fan of cops (at least, non-LEAP member cops) and this just came off as extremely disingenuous to me, especially the part about “improved race relations”. Does anyone have an information on this guy’s effect on the Drug War in those cities? Did he rev things up or actually concentrate on important things? Something tells me he’s a hardcore prohibitionist, but I’d love to be proven wrong.

  4. Wendy says:

    A little girl was gang-raped the other day in Southern CA.

    The rage from the shooter in TX Army should have been directed at the on-looking by-standers of this tiny victim.

    Instead, society tries to find a ‘hero’ and sincerely She is, “Oh yes, God bless the brave other little ‘victim’ girl of whom had the courage to make a 911 call to save a life.”

    Kudos to Kimberly Munley to blow away the assassinator!

    My personal belief is that it is the Army Geddon Biblical prediction unfolding before our very eyes and ears these days.

    We Women and Men of the World have the courage to stand and fight this battle and Truth and precious Time marches onward. We all do..Kudos and Peace To My Firends of the World.

    Love Speaks A Language All Its Own!

  5. Wendy says:

    Another fucked-up point..the physco shrink is now being pampered to survive…are we that desperate for a comment from it..let the fucker die! Whatever it may be called..it is not moral to now fight for this fucker’s life…Hassan hospitalized…pull the ventilators yesterday!

  6. Wendy says:

    We need our peaceful tokers released from prison.

  7. DdC says:

    Use of cannabinoids (marijuana) could help post-traumatic stress disorder patients
    Published by Editor at 1:44 pm under Home Page, Press Releases

    Dude, Where’s my Trauma?
    Marijuana Could Treat PTSD
    Many millions have been made in Hollywood by lampooning the acute effects of marijuana on memory—but Israeli researchers suggest that they might one day be harnessed to prevent or treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

    Ganja 4 PTSD & Depression

    Inside the Army’s Far-Out Acid Tests Nov 6 2009
    The new movie The Men Who Stare At Goats
    is bringing the CIA’s LSD use and abuse back into the spotlight.

    Fascist Nationalism and MKULTRA
    Bushit Rumcheney Aspartame Cocktail

  8. DdC says:

    Could the Next Drug Czar be William Bratton? by Scott Morgan on Mon, 11/03/2008
    Bratton is a proponent of the “broken windows” theory of policing which prioritizes enforcement of minor offenses in pursuit of a trickle-up effect on crime control. Broken windows, which in the mutated form it took in New York under his and Rudy Giuliani’s leadership insists that the way to control serious crime is to control not-so-serious crime.

  9. DdC says:

    “And I will raise up for them a plant of renown,
    and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land,
    neither bear the shame of the heathen any more.”

    ~ Ezekiel 34:29

    Redding Charity Turns Down Pot Dispensary’s Food
    US CA: Record Searchlight (Redding, CA) 06 Nov 2009

    A Christian ministry that feeds homeless people in Shasta County is saying “no thanks” to an offer of free food from a medical marijuana collective, much to the chagrin of its co-owner.

    “It doesn’t make any sense to me,” said Joe Munday, who, with his wife, Gina, owns The Green Heart medical marijuana collectives and dispensaries in Anderson, Shasta Lake and Mount Shasta. “Everybody I’ve told so far about this thinks it’s absolutely ridiculous.”

    Munday, who said his three businesses have been holding food drives for about the past month, called Redding Loaves and Fishes on Wednesday after seeing that organization’s TV commercials seeking donations.

    He said he eventually spoke on the telephone to a man named Chris, who originally seemed receptive to his offer of the free food.

    But, he said, that man called back about 30 minutes later and turned it down.

    “He said, ‘My pastor and I have been praying on this, and we don’t want to accept your food,’ ” Munday said. continued…

    Blasphemy

    “In the later times,
    some shall speak lies in hypocrisy
    commanding to abstain from meats
    which God hath created to be
    received with thanksgiving of them
    which believe and know the truth.”

    ~ Paul: 1 Timothy 1-4

    The psychedelic secrets of Santa Claus
    by Dana Larsen (18 Dec, 2003)

    Modern Christmas traditions are based on ancient mushroom-using shamans.

    Although most people see Christmas as a Christian holiday, most of the symbols and icons we associate with Christmas celebrations are actually derived from the shamanistic traditions of the tribal peoples of pre-Christian Northern Europe.

    The sacred mushroom of these people was the red and white amanita muscaria mushroom, also known as “fly agaric.” These mushrooms are now commonly seen in books of fairy tales, and are usually associated with magic and fairies. This is because they contain potent hallucinogenic compounds, and were used by ancient peoples for insight and transcendental experiences. continued…

    Kaneh Bosm: Cannabis in the Old Testament

    “This would be the best of all possible worlds,
    if there were no religion in it.”

    — John Adams, in a letter to Thomas Jefferson

  10. DdC says:

    Should charities screen their donors and reject aid from inappropriate sources?

    Yes. If a shady business is trying to polish its reputation, non-profits shouldn’t help them do it.

    Maybe, but it makes so sense to turn down donations from a legal medical-marijuana operation trying to be a good neighbor.

    No. The poor need all the help they can get.

  11. ezrydn says:

    To anyone who has PTSD and those dreaded “episodes,” it’s not that cannabinoids MAY help. It DOES help! One small inhalation and no more will stop the cycle immediately!

    A person with PTSD (like myself) gets a thought that makes us remember something that makes us angry. That thought won’t go away! It “builds” upon itself til we cannot control it any longer and an outburst ensues.

    One hit and those thoughts become “slick” and don’t stick. The anger subsides quickly and you’re normal again. And one hit doesn’t make one “stoned.” You can still function.

    It’s like “night and day” against the VA’s “pill-bots.” It is the ONLY THING I’ve found that addresses the symptoms of PTSD!

  12. jayrollinhippie says:

    Today there was Anintersung disscussion on the Chris matthews show about the vote in Maine and how the tipping point in the marijuana debate is drawing to A creshendo in the next couple of years/ LOL looks like MSM is finaly seeing the writing on the wall

  13. DdC says:

    CHIEF SCIENTIST SPEAKS OUT
    TO SUPPORT SACKED ADVISER’S STANCE ON CANNABIS
    4 Nov 2009 Mark Henderson Times, The (UK)
    Divisions in the Government over the sacking of its chief drug adviser deepened yesterday when its most senior scientist backed Professor David Nutt for saying that cannabis was less harmful than alcohol. Professor John Beddington, the Chief Scientific Adviser, said research showing the drug to be less dangerous than alcohol and cigarettes was “absolutely clear cut”, though he stopped short of criticising Alan Johnson’s decision to dismiss him. Professor Beddington’s intervention came as it emerged that Lord Drayson, the Science and Innovation Minister, e-mailed No 10 at the weekend to say that he was “pretty appalled” by the Home Secretary’s move, which had the scientific community “up in arms”. Both were abroad when Professor Nutt was dismissed – Lord Drayson in Japan and Professor Beddington in Russia – and neither was consulted by Mr Johnson despite their roles in overseeing science advice across Whitehall.

    Red Bluff Ban On Cultvation Crosses A Line
    Record Searchlight (Redding, CA) 07 Nov 2009
    Our View: The City Should Respect The Right To Grow Otherwise Legal Plants In A User’s Own Home. It’s a hard line, but the Red Bluff City Council has every right to decide, as it did Tuesday, that medical marijuana sales and cultivation are simply unwelcome. But do the councilors have the right to say what otherwise legal users do in their own homes? They do not, and in that regard Red Bluff’s newly passed ordinance goes an intrusive step too far.

    A Heady Debate on Medical Pot
    “The problem with the legalization crew is that they don’t understand that the voters didn’t approve legalization in 2000,” said state Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver. Be that as it may, it’s important that spectacle not get in the way of substance. Romer is at the forefront of a group of policymakers who are determined, as Romer put it, to put a “robust regulatory framework” on the state’s exploding medical marijuana industry.

  14. allan420 says:

    I even saw on Fri night’s Law and Order (NBC)… a (black female) detective has cancer, geting chemo, not eating… son tries to give her mmj, she of course “omg, what were you thinking?!” Father/husband says “we’re watching you wither away, this is real medicine and works.”

    Scene shifts to police station. Captain approaches detective and says “someone reported to me that you smell like marijuana. What are thinking? You know what our policies are. Here’s some real strong gum. Use it. Here is the name of a reputable mmj supplier.” The detective looks quizzical and the captain says “3 years ago when I was fighting cancer, my chemo was killing me, this is the only thing that helped. It works.”

    Law & Order was just on, when I’m on the ‘puter it’s background noise. But that grabbed my attention for a short bit. Cops, cancer and cannabis… nice play NBC.

  15. Chris says:

    allan420, I have to go watch that episode then.

  16. DdC says:

    Has there ever been such openly blatant Hypocrisy about any other subject? Law and Order or a few of the sitcoms and dramas have slipped dying cancer victims some pot. Comedically putting yuppie house wives on the street to “help” their loved ones. Then some cop or “friend” of the family inevitably scores for them. They take their guilt and pocket it long enough for grandpa to find relief before kicking off. Always the guilt of relieving pain and suffering? Same as these numbnut reefer mad religionists refusing donations from a buyers club. Now here’s old Mr environment, taking huge tobacco donations, instigating with Rand Beers the Plan Colombia, to aid his Occidental Crude Oil company’s security. Toked into his 30’s according to Stephan Gaskin. Got it for his sister, then denied that it helped when he and Klintoon ask the Supreme Court to not permit Oakland from having Buyers Clubs. I expect this kind of shit from GOPerverts. Gores kid and many other politikans kids get busted and a slap on the wrist. No complaints, but it should also be for Will Foster, not 93 frickin years in Oklahoma. I guess the Ganjawar is bipartisan. tsk tsk tsk

    Is Pot Good For You?
    By John Cloud / San Francisco Monday, Nov. 04, 2002

    The Federal Government, which by then controlled the only legal supply of marijuana, had just passed the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. That law placed marijuana in Schedule I, the designation for drugs without valid medical use. State health officials found it difficult to persuade their federal counterparts to give them cannabis for research, as doing so would undermine the law, at least in spirit, by suggesting there were medical uses. (Only seven states got pot. One was Tennessee, which is why Al Gore’s sister was able to try the drug before losing her battle with lung cancer in 1984.)

    Topic: The Major Presidential Candidates…

    Vice President Al Gore (D)

    In 1987, Al Gore admitted to his use of marijuana while an under grad at Harvard, as an Army news correspondent in Vietnam, and while a reporter in Nashville. Gore stated, “During my junior and senior year of college, it was looked at in the same way moonshine was looked at in Prohibition days.”

    In 1988, Al Gore called his friend John Warneke and asked him not to talk to the press about Gore’s past drug use. Warneke stated, “[Gore] called me three times in one morning and he said, ‘Don’t talk to the press at all about this.’

    “So when did you and Gore smoke pot?”

    “We started in 1970, I think. At my house in Nashville. He likes pot. He told me he smoked it before. I smoked it with Al before he went to Vietnam. And he told me he smoked over there in Vietnam. But now that I know how Al talks about it as opposed with what he really does, I don’t know what to believe.”

    Al Gore III Pleads Guilty to Pot, Unauthorized Prescription Drug Possession
    Al Gore’s son pleaded guilty Monday to possessing marijuana and other drugs, but a judge said the plea could be withdrawn and the charges dropped if he successfully completes a drug diversion program.

    Oklahoma seeks to revoke Will Foster’s parole
    Thursday, October 29th, 2009 at 2:06 pm | By: Radical Russ

    Will Foster
    June 26, 2009 — Drug War Chronicle (US)
    American Nightmare — Will Foster and Justice, Oklahoma Style
    Will Foster became a poster child for the mindless cruelties of the drug war more than a decade ago. The Tulsa small businessman and medical marijuana user — he suffers from degenerative arthritis — was raided by police with a warrant for a methamphetamine lab back in 1993. Police found no meth, but they did find a small marijuana garden. The unfortunate Foster was quickly sentenced to a mind-blowing 93 years in prison.

  17. Duncan says:

    “I even saw on Fri night’s Law and Order (NBC)…”

    I saw a rerun of House MD where he walks into Dr. Wilson’s office to chat and finds him rolling up a big fattie. “Feeling nostalgic for college” or some other classic Houseism, “no it’s for a patient” responds Wilson. FYI Wilson is an oncologist. But what was really great about the treatment of this scene is that it was just an aside, totally unimportant to the script, treated as mundane as having a doctor drawing blood for a test while engaging in the actual script’s dialogue. No controversy though they couldn’t refrain from a couple of stupid pothead jokes.

    Then there was the 2 part episode of House where a cop had a indoor grow op, and managed to get a rare disease from the water he was using for irrigation. Nice automated system, the plants were still healthy and happy 3 days after the officer/grower died. House: “Fungus enters the brain through the spanyol sinus, where it dances its tripe thread of happiness, blindness and intractable pain. Let’s hope this experience teaches our cop a lesson. Don’t cut corners when you’re growing your pot. See you back home.”

  18. Wendy says:

    You People are so.o.o awesome!

  19. Wendy says:

    World t.v. showed the Lokota Oglala Tribe’s fight for justice the past several years of industrial naturally re-seeding survival crops.

    The little kids were eating the nutritious granola.

    The dea pulls up the 1% thc hemp as soon as it matures.

    It is not even the marijuana but the strong fiber material being confiscated.

    When I grow up, I want to go smack some sense into somebody somewhere someday I think.

  20. DdC says:

    House is pretty good, realistic as far as TV goes. Hugh Laurie was into British comedy for a while. He did some LSD on the show once for some Neurological thing with his bum leg. Then did something, maybe Demerol to come down. I’ve heard of a TV case, maybe, no more like probably BS. About getting sick using Bat guano. I’ve heard something about Dylan getting sick using it as fertilizer too. ??? Seems organic ditchweed cannabis grows wild and chemically changing the Ganja makes it not Ganja mho. Hydroponics?

    Santa Cruz is so screwed up they tried outlawing outdoor grows and anything non organic. With an anything that smokes ban, everywhere. Except cars and trucks spewing emissions. Now they want to limit the clubs to the two in existence. No connections there I’m sure. Patients with HUD assistance suffer from a loop hole to prop 215 for the bldg. owners renting. Even with HUD claiming they have never evicted anyone. They also ban residents from owning a gun. Most are limited income do to Neurological Birth problems. Or MS or elderly. Hard for them to jeopardize their lives over a silly Bill of Rights. Profit on Chaos.

    I remember reading that there were almost as many FBI infiltrating the anti war movement, Panthers, SDS and Weathermen as there were members. Now if they can sabotage anything, or just not enforce the reform as many “mavericks” are doing. In hopes and prayers the collateral damage will be more headlined and far scarier than prohibition was. Or just one Boosh 911 to shift priorities and coverage by an already squeamish press. Brits went towards sanity, then reversed it. One election away from square one.

    Rainbow Farm Massacre is still an open investigation as far as I’m concerned. 9-2-01 The murder of Peter McWilliams, how his documentation on his case for a book suddenly lost when his computer caught on fire days before his death. Lungren still in politics. Feinstein and Harvey Milk and the twinkie defense? Two broad daylight, multiple witnesses to the assassinations, walking past DiFi. What 3 years> Will gets 93 years for 34 plants. DiFi goes from city council to US Senator. Like Klintoon, a staunch undercover gopervert. Teamed with Hatch on the censorship bill banning hemp talking.

    Its funny watching them run around in circles til their heads just go POP. Then they’re quiet for a spell. I know trying to figure it out cost me a lot more in Ganja usage. I think Ganja is protecting me from the pitfalls, similar to an under cover cop going into an insane asylum and not succumbing to the insanity. Contact high or low. Definitely have to avoid trying to comprehend a drug worrier. There is no sense to be found. If they tripped over truth it would kill em. The guilt would drive them into a total psychotic breakdown. And they’re the ones with the guns. Unless they’re poor. Just Give me some truth…

    I’m sick and tired of hearing things. From uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded hypocrites. I’ve had enough of reading things.
    By neurotic, psychotic, pig-headed politicians. No short-haired, yellow-bellied, son of Tricky Dicky. Is gonna mother hubbard soft soap me. With just a pocketful of hope. Money for dope. Money for rope. I’m sick to death of seeing things. From tight-lipped, condescending, mama’s little chauvinists. I’ve had enough of watching scenes. Of schizophrenic, ego-centric, paranoiac, prima-donnas. All I want is the truth now. Just gimme some truth. Now!
    ~ Lennon

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