Open thread

OK, so I’ve been spending a lot of time trying to refine various aspects of the site to adapt to changes in WordPress and the Atuahalpa Theme.

In order to adapt to interests of readers, I’ve added a few new throw pillows on the couch and cleaned a couple of the old ones.

1. The two buttons on the upper right of the screen are for subscribing to RSS feeds (usually using a news reader — I use Feeddler on my iPhone and iPad, and Vienna on my Mac). This allows you to see the posts and the comments within your newsreader without even coming to the website. There do seem to be problems with these buttons in some browsers. If you want to subscribe and are unable, let me know. The subscription addresses are: http://www.drugwarrant.com/feed/ (for posts) and http://www.drugwarrant.com/comments/feed/ for comments.

2. Some readers have been using those to see a list of recent posts or recent comments, without using a reader. I can’t guarantee that those buttons can work that way anymore.

I have, however, added a widget on the right side (just below the Google Ad) that shows the beginning of the 10 most recent comments regardless of post (clicking on them takes you to that comment), and links to the 7 most recent posts.

I can adjust the number of comments/posts shown, or the number of characters of the comment shown, so let me know if this is useful for you, and if you’d like any adjustments.

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33 Responses to Open thread

  1. jean valjean says:

    Thanks Pete for all your hard work for the cause of drug reform.
    Talking of which, Loretta Lynch has been put forward for attorney general by the hardened drug warriors on the Obama administration to side-track any hope of real reform (in tandem with increased budget spending on enforcement). All of a sudden though her nomination has been placed on hold as a party issue by Republicans committee members. Needless to say her full support of all the worst elements of the drug war is not an issue to house Republicans and barely gets a mention in this article:

    http://www.politico.com/story/2015/02/loretta-lynch-attorney-general-delayed-confirmation-115138.html

    • B. Snow says:

      Maybe they googled some of her earliest work = on the Tulia,Texas?

      More or less – (Corrupt Narc arrests not quite every black person in town oncocaine charges…) I’m exaggerating that a little bitn but only because I don’t want to re-read that story.

      Kevin Booth covered it in his film “American Drug War” – I don’t recall her being mentioned in the film but I haven’t re-watched it in a couple years…

      • Hope says:

        B. Snow. I think you may be thinking of Vanita Gupta.

        • B. Snow says:

          Yep = You’re right…

          After going thru some bookmarks,
          It looks like I must’ve read about both of them in an article about new appointments tapped for offices and potential nominations of cabinet members & mixed up the details about who was who.

          Fortunately – I’m in the company of people who are practiced at sifting through mountains of misstatements & outright lies – to call people out on them…
          Thus my flub-up didn’t go unnoticed, good catch!

        • Hope says:

          I enjoy reading your comments, B. Snow. Keep up the good work.

  2. Freeman says:

    Yes, thanks for everything you do, Pete. You have consistently maintained a top-notch site in terms of content, functionality, attractiveness of the layout, unobtrusiveness of advertisements, and comfortable camaraderie of the commentary couch.

    The site tweeks look great. I’m loving the sidebar on the right, and feeds are even working in my browser again!

  3. Frank W. says:

    One minor quibble I have is the links on the sidebar. Some are removed, like Union Local 13, or have officially shut down like Toke of the Town. Maybe you could have a friend weed through those sometime.
    Also, I wouldn’t mind if the thumbs up/down buttons disappeared. I know everything I type is solid gold and I don’t need to know who hates me.
    Well, it looks like gold. I don’t care what it smells like.

  4. Nunavut Tripper says:

    My wife came back from shopping and picked a copy of
    Newsweek Special Edition
    Weed Nation
    “Is America ready for a legalized future ?”

    The whole edition is devoted to cannabis politics,history,politics and science.
    It’s pretty good coverage,fairly unbiased with a few inaccuracies and a rant from David Frum,Kevin’s buddy (is he still around ? )

    A sign of progress as I can’t imagine Newsweek devoting a whole issue to this subject even a couple years ago.

  5. Servetus says:

    During her confirmation hearing, would-be Attorney General Loretta Lynch, whose father was a Baptist minister, and whose grandfather was a minister who helped blacks escape the South’s Jim Crow laws, responded to Sen. Jeff Sessions’ question about marijuana by opposing its legalization. Rand Paul opposes her nomination because Mrs. Lynch actively utilizes and supports the forfeiture laws:

    “Mrs. Lynch has a track-record of violating the individual freedoms granted to us by our Constitution,” he said in a statement. “She considers civil asset forfeiture to be a ‘useful tool,’ while I consider it to be an infringement on the Fifth Amendment….” – Rand Paul

    Her guarded responses could be mere pre-election politics designed to deflate the cannabis legalization issue for the 2016 presidential election. In the meantime, we’re likely to be stuck with a U.S. Attorney General who doesn’t understand that forfeiture is government theft, and who can’t comprehend that the marijuana laws are equivalent to the Jim Crow laws her grandfather once fought against.

    It’s also apparent that the majority of 2016 election candidates, and the two major political parties in general, fear marijuana and drug topics the most, just as in 2012. All the better for exceedingly loud voters and activists to make marijuana and the illegitimate drug war in Mexico key issues in the upcoming presidential election.

    • kaptinemo says:

      They can run, but as the Town Halls proved, they can’t hide…and as Obama has learned, they can’t shuck and jive anymore, either.

      This issue is not going away, as it has become the litmus test I keep railing on about, a ‘quick and dirty’ way of seeing if a pol is worth supporting or not.

      Fail it, and you’re done with that new electorate I also keep railing on about, the one whose futures have been trashed by machine politics, and they’re in no mood for BS. The societal zeitgeist is truly changing, and woe betide the pol who doesn’t realize this in time. Only those pols willing to distance themselves from the political herd by making statements in favor of what the new electorate considers important will insure their continued political survival.

      Only a true progressive, one willing to tackle this issue head-on, will pass that test. Anyone who hems and haws and hedges, thinking that the old stall-and-dodge tactic used against reformers in the past will continue to work when over half the country wants cannabis legal again, will fail that quick-and-dirty litmus test, and is on the outs.

      And lest any pol try to deflect attention from his/her stance by stating that there are more important issues to deal with, the response should be that to the electorate who is demanding an answer it most definitely is a major issue, as it constitutes a gun held to the head of these VOTING TAXPAYERS, and we want that gun removed from our heads, now, and we are not asking, we are not begging, we are DEMANDING it be removed.. And if said pol won’t work for that, we’ll support someone who will.

      The long-sleeping giant of drug law reform has finally awakened. The tiniest muscle flexed, and Dwight Holton and that city councilwoman are gone. We always had the numbers; now we can prove what those numbers can translate into, namely, political power. And we’ve just gotten started.

    • Windy says:

      Sharing your comment to FB and Kap’s too, together. This is info that needs to go viral.

  6. 420 4-Ever says:

    Please don’t be alarmed if I view your page from behind a proxy. Strictly white hat I would never step on another person’s computing time. Living in a place where you can be locked up and the key thrown away for a pinner joint, you have to be careful online.
    I apologize for any drive by comments as this is a shared machine and there might be prying eyes around that are not 420 friendly.
    It will be a glorious day when one no longer has to worry about such things and the 420 flag can wave high and proud in all 50 states.

  7. Servetus says:

    Dinosaurs got high.

    That’s the latest suggestion by Emeritus Professor George Poinar of Oregon State University, whose work inspired Jurassic Park.

    A piece of Myanmar amber dated at between 97-110 million years contains Palaeoclaviceps parasiticus, an extinct fungus related to ergot mold, producing ergotomine, a hallucinogen in the same class of chemicals as LSD.

    Of course, what everyone wants to know is whether deliberately tripping dinosaurs stomped the Earth, providing their own beat to prehistoric raves. “There’s no doubt in my mind that it would have been eaten by sauropod dinosaurs,” Poinar says. “Although we can’t know what exact effect it had on them.”

    And everyone thought dinosaurs never had any fun.

    • DdC says:

      Early Humans Used Magic Mushrooms, Opium and Toad Skins. Dinosaurs ‘got high on psychedelic fungus’, Lynch was raised with Southern Baptists so no wonder she is against legalizing. To her this proves Humans and Dino got high together, probably 5000 years ago or so. When God created earth. So much for that liberal notion of evolution.

    • Nunavut Tripper says:

      Stephen Harrod Buhner states in his book “Sacred Plant Medicine ” that all human cultures plus animals,birds,plants and bacterial communities use mood altering substances or euthogens to produce altered states of consciousness. This practise is used as an adaptive or survival tactic in order to be a better hunter,warrior,builder,designer etc. He feels that this practise is wide spread in the natural world and so altering your perception of the world is the norm and for some very good reasons.
      We must try to think past the ” get stoned and party it up ” stigma that prohibs and the general population feel is the only reason for drug or mind altering herb use.

      Try to concentrate on the creative and analytical thoughts that cannabis or LSD produces…could this have some very practical value ?

  8. NorCalNative says:

    Pete, sorry about that stain on the couch. I promise it’ll never happen again.

    OT?

    “Life in Lubbock, Texas taught me two things: One is that God loves you and you’re going to burn in hell. The other is that sex is the most awful filthy thing on earth and you should save it for someone you love.”

    — Butch Hancock —

  9. darkcycle says:

    Nice. I like the green pillow, same shade as my sister’s brides maid dress. I like the site changes too.

  10. claygooding says:

    I see the OR governor has resigned cause he cot caught with his hand and influence in a lobbyist’s cookie jar,,or something to that effect,,his career is smoked and hers,,whatever she chooses is probably just beginning.
    I agree with Kap,,the politicos do not want marijuana questions thrown at them right now,,so it is time to double up.

    • claygooding says:

      I feel like the shit will hit the fan about the time a Native American pot shop opens in a state where all marijuana is still illegal.

      And My money is on the Cherokee or Cheyennes followed closely by the Apache tribes in OK will hit them first.

      • Poca says:

        I bet it will mostly be tribes near areas w/ strong cannabis culture like the Eastern Cherokee near Asheville NC… But you’re right that’ll be the day in a state that doesn’t even have medical mj

      • Duncan20903 says:

        .
        .

        There’s already a tribe setting up shop in NorCal. Not a name I’ve ever heard previously. They’re saying that they’ll be growing wholesale medicinal cannabis for ‘export’ to California’s authorized dispensaries..

        Don’t you think that Mr. Obama’s emphasis on tribal lands being a sovereign nation indicates that exports will be frowned upon, perhaps not tolerated by the Feds? If Canada were to grow a pair, re-legalize and authorize exporting to the US I think that a diplomatic shitstorm of epic proportions would be the weather forecast.

        Then there are those “border” check points authorized within 100 miles of a foreign border. Since the tribes are sovereign nations does that mean that those can be established just about anywhere in the US?

        • Poca says:

          That’s the Pomo in Mendocino who are growing for medical, but I bet they have their own docs whom will give the recommendations & certify the need.

          The Ute in Colorado are well suited to start growing & would greatly benefit the region’s economy…they are near to some tribes in NM that would surely follow.

          The Mohawk on either side of the U.S.-Canadian border would make things interesting for Canada & would only compliment their tobacco revenue.

          Awesome song Clay!

  11. DdC says:

    Science Says: Lungs Love Weed
    A twenty-year study examining marijuana’s effect on lungs.

    Cannabis users in their 30s ‘have lungs of 80-year-olds’ from MADDSAM ref Daily Mail

    When the walls come tumbling down…

  12. Frank W. says:

    Here’s some unsettling news: The Policeone.com site has locked down its comments section and restricted it to verified members. I used to hate-read this site and wonder if civil-rights groups were monitoring this nazi fuckfest, where suspects and “liberals” are routinely called POS and the rest straight out of the KKK. handbook. This is the kind of stuff that routinely gets people fired, but how do you fire the Police State?

    • kaptinemo says:

      You think that’s bad? This article is old (ca. 2007), but it perfectly illustrates the thought processes of many DEA personnel.

      DEAWatch has always served as a platform for rank-and-file agents to vent their spleens, and as you can see, not always about work. Racism, ethnic prejudices, misogyny, etc., all have ‘graced’ the pages there.

      If a defense attorney ever needed to prove to a jury that the implementation of the modern-day DrugWar is as racist today as it was at its inception, all such doubts would be erased within seconds of clicking on that link and downloading the archives.

      It’s really amazing that these open secret, in-your-face Websites exist at all, given their content. Which brings into ever sharper focus the eternal relevance behind the old saying, “Quis custodiet, ipsos custodes?” (“Who shall police the police?”)

    • Windy says:

      They also have a policeone FB page, and since discovering it, thanks to another FB friend, I have been commenting there a lot.

  13. Hope says:

    I like that the recent comments are shown again. It makes it so much easier to keep up with what I have and haven’t read. Thanks, Pete!

  14. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .

    A couple of weeks ago in this blogs comments columns I opined that every time I think that I’ve seen the outer limits of prohibitionist stupidity they turn around and prove me wrong without breaking a sweat. That was the Alaska Legislator’s idiotic proposal to make being legal an affirmative defense for those on trial for what that State’s new re-legalization law had re-legalized. 17 days is all that it took them to get even more stupid. As promised, this one is from the “may god have mercy on our soles” category:

    Marijuana grow house with hash oil extraction deemed unsafe, contaminated
    2/13/2015

    [Moron] County, Fla. — A [Moron] County house used to grow marijuana and extract hash oil is deemed officially unsafe, according to a [spokesmoron] for [Moron] County.

    The front door of the house has signs saying it’s dangerous and that anyone who enters the house unauthorized can be arrested.

    Marsha and Scott Yandell were arrested for possession and production of marijuana.

    [Moron] County Sheriff’s deputies busted the drug operation in the Vinings neighborhood home Wednesday.

    Neighbors told Action News the suspects returned to the house Thursday after bonding out.

    “They came back last night,” [head moron] of the Vinings Homeowners Association Susan Moseley said. “We had to call the police because all of the homeowners contacted me. I’m not 100 percent comfortable that they’re not going to try and come back.”

    Action News captured exclusive video of sheriff’s deputies wearing masks and drawing guns as they entered the house Friday to make sure the suspects were not inside.
    /snip/

    Ohmygosh! These people actually went back to their home after they got out of jail!! Can you believe the nerve of some people?

    There are some days when I really, really, really regret not following my childhood dream of being a hermit. Yes, I was a really weird little kid…what’s your point?

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