She Boots

At about 1345z on 8 Oct 2011 my GA144 board booted. I'm going to have a beer and a nap and start in on the software after a good rest.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Branding

The small government party is at it again.

The House Judiciary Committee passed a bill yesterday that would make it a federal crime for U.S. residents to discuss or plan activities on foreign soil that, if carried out in the U.S., would violate the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) -- even if the planned activities are legal in the countries where they're carried out. The new law, sponsored by Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) allows prosecutors to bring conspiracy charges against anyone who discusses, plans or advises someone else to engage in any activity that violates the CSA, the massive federal law that prohibits drugs like marijuana and strictly regulates prescription medication.

"Under this bill, if a young couple plans a wedding in Amsterdam, and as part of the wedding, they plan to buy the bridal party some marijuana, they would be subject to prosecution," said Bill Piper, director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance, which advocates for reforming the country's drug laws. "The strange thing is that the purchase of and smoking the marijuana while you're there wouldn't be illegal. But this law would make planning the wedding from the U.S. a federal crime."

The comments were especially instructive. This one was my favorite:

More "thought crime" legislatio­n from the party that wants to keep big government out of your personal business by putting itself in your personal business. Extra cup of "Doublethi­nk" anyone?

The Republican Campaign Slogan for 2012: We favor smaller government except for (use your imagination).....

H/T Drug Policy Forum of Texas

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Bad Day At The Work Bench

I'm putting together a work bench to do experiments on the GA 144 processor. I dug my oscilloscope out of (warm, dry) storage and powered it up for about an hour. Everything was fine at the beginning and then I hear a crackling and smoke is pouring out of the unit. And you know how those things are. Once the magic smoke escapes they stop working.

If anyone has a spare scope they could part with I'd be mighty obliged. Or if you know where I can get a low cost repair of a Tektronix 2215.... I used to have a Tek 465 too but it seems to have disappeared in all my travels. Bummer.

Update: Here is a picture of the scope with the missing smoke.



Just below the scope are a pair of 100MHz Oscilloscope Probes I bought from Amazon for $17.00 - which is a very good price. And they are well rated too. I didn't even get a chance to try them out. 'Nuther bummer.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Steve Jobs

I am rather fortunate to have grown up in the hacker era. To have heard of Steve and Woz before they became household names. The lights are going out. A lot of us were reaching for the brass ring Steve captured. Way to go guy. And lucky (and very good) you. You will be missed.

Now about that new processor I'm working on.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Palin Not Running In 2012?

Well it says so at this ABC News link.

Nothing up at Conservatives For Palin yet.

National Review has it.

I'm one sad puppy today. About politics. But I do feel rather GA 144.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

It's The Money, Stupid.

The moral I got from watching Part 3 of "Prohibition" a movie by Ken Burns, is that when the influence of the moralists wanes and the government needs money it will scrap prohibition in favor of commerce. Especially if the bodies are piling up in America. Mexican bodies? Not Our Problem.

Where are we with drug prohibition:

Pretty far along. And that doesn't even count the 70% to 80% that support medical marijuana.

So what about the money? The direct costs run about $25 bn a year Federal. And about $45 bn a year State and local. And then there are taxes to be collected.

A San Francisco Bay area medical marijuana dispensary that promotes itself as the world's largest has been hit with a $2.4 million tax bill following an audit by the Internal Revenue Service, the dispensary founder said Tuesday.

The back taxes, penalties and interest levied against Harborside Health Center came after the IRS examined its returns for 2007 and 2008 and determined a 1982 tax code prohibiting cost deductions for businesses that traffic in illegal drugs applies to the dispensary.

Hmmmmmm. If this puts them out of business there will be no future revenue. No sales and other taxes for the locals. No more income taxes for the Fererales from the business and its workers. Are our politicians really that stupid? No need to answer that. It was a rhetorical question.

H/T Drug Policy Forum of Texas

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Will You Have Guns With That?

Yesterday I looked at the lessons of Part One of "Prohibition", a movie by Ken Burns. Today the lessons of Part Two.

We will obey the law because that is what law abiding citizens do. For about 6 months or until supplies run out. Then we will buy from the "nice" guys until their supplies or luck runs out. Then we will buy from who ever we can as long as the supplies keep coming. The moral of the story is:

Put the nice guys out of business and a rougher crowd takes over.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Alcohol Is The Enemy Of The Family And Civilization

Alcohol Is The Enemy Of The Family And Civilization.

There ought to be a law.

That is my take away from watching the first two hours of Ken Burns "Prohibition".

Update: I said this in an e-mail.

Drug Prohibition. Same old song. New lyrics.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Prohibition Is Not Over

"Prohibition" on PBS - TV schedule

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Moon Tic

“It has long been recognized that America was an asylum, but it is only since Prohibition that it has resembled a lunatic asylum.” -- G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936)

Who Is Linda Green?

Linda Green

Looting

The audio is not so hot (it sounds like it was recorded off a playing TV), but the information is excellent.

More here. Watch the above first for background.

H/T Zero Hedge

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Guns And Drugs Don't Mix

Guns and drugs don't mix according to the ATF. If you live in a state where medical marijuana is legal you can go to prison for up to two years if you use medical marijuana and own a firearm. A gun rights group and a medical marijuana group are getting together to oppose this measure.

Gary Marbut, president of the Montana Shooting Sports Association, and Kate Cholewa and Chris Lindsey, board members of Montana Cannabis Industry Association, separately blasted the Sept. 21 letter sent by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives of the U.S. Justice Department to federally licensed firearms dealers.

“It is egregious that people may be sentenced to years in a federal prison only because they possessed a firearm while using a state-approved medicine,” Marbut said in a statement from the association.

Cholewa said: “In fact, the policy goes so far as to say even being in possession of a medical cannabis card forfeits a citizen’s Second Amendment rights whether or not that person ever followed through and used cannabis for their condition.”

Chris Lindsey, a lawyer specializing in medical marijuana cases, wrote: “With a stroke of a pen, the Department of Justice has suspended the Second Amendment for those who use medical cannabis.”

Rep. Diane Sands, D-Missoula, who headed an interim legislative panel that studied the issue last year, called the letter “further evidence that federal marijuana law trumps any Montana legislation, initiative or court action attempting to create protected medical use for marijuana.”

“The only viable action open to Montana and other states is to change the federal law,” Sands said.

I have been trying for years to get gun groups to recognize the threats to their rights that the Drug War has created by posting things like Guns And Weed - The Road To Freedom, to no avail. The only gun group to get it was Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership. Evidently the ATF is bound and determined to help me get my message across by direct action. Thanks ATF!

H/T Drug Policy Forum of Texas

Cross Posted at Classical Values

More Police Come Out Against Prohibition

From Moms United To End The War On Drugs
The Colorado Independent tells the story.

Hundreds of law enforcement professionals including Denver’s U.S. District Judge John Kane have come together on a curious quest: Saying the drug war has failed, they want to legalize drugs.

Some are very nuts and bolts, saying the war on drugs has cost trillions of dollars while only making the problem worse. Others like Kane, while agreeing on that point, are more philosophical. “Our national drug policy is inconsistent with the nature of justice, abusive of the nature of authority, and ignorant of the compelling force of forgiveness,” he says on the web site of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.

I'm of the opinion that we can't have a Free Country with a prohibition regime that arrests 1.6 million people a year for prohibition violations. Eric pretty much agrees although he is less sanguine than I am that it will end any time soon.

Winston Churchill said Alcohol Prohibition was "an affront to the whole history of mankind." And it seems so is Drug Prohibition.

Tony Ryan, who was a Denver police officer for more than 35 years, told The Colorado Independent that not only has the drug war been utterly ineffective but that it has also been counterproductive in many important ways.

He says the war on drugs is the number one reason cops become corrupt. “It’s the money. These drug cartels don’t care who they kill. Even a good cop, faced with the choice of ‘take this money or we’ll kill you’ will often take the money. And it is getting worse. Drugs are a vicious business,” he said.

The way it is put in the vernacular is Plata O Plomo, Silver Or Lead. An easy choice. Anyone who knows the history of Alcohol Prohibition knows that it was the same for that Prohibition regime. Human nature being what it is.

Officer Ryan goes on:

He says that while the money coming from the sale of drugs causes huge problems on one hand, money coming from the federal government–with virtually every law enforcement organization in the country getting grants of one sort or another to fight the drug war–causes additional problems.

“The war on drugs is an addiction because of the money police departments get,” Ryan says.

What the officer is saying is that a significant segment of local law enforcement has been Federalized. I don't believe that is what our Founders had in mind when they designed our governing arrangements some 220 years ago. Thomas Jefferson had something to say about that:

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

As usual desperate times call for desperate measure.

Ryan is among those circulating petitions for Colorado’s Regulate Marijuana like Alcohol initiative. He also serves as a public speaker through LEAP.

“We give members of law enforcement, who saw the drug war up close and risked their lives for it, a voice,” Tom Angell, spokesman for the group, told the Colorado Independent. “They will almost universally tell you that the drug war distracted them from the mission of solving crimes and ensuring public safety.”

He says LEAP wants to see all drugs made legal. “There is no drug that is made safer to the public by turning its manufacture and distribution over to cartels and gangs. You don’t want gangs selling drugs on your street corners, but that is what you have,” he said.

About 75 percent of Americans and 69 percent of police chiefs say that Drug Prohibition has failed.

You might also want to support another police organization against Drug Prohibition at Citizens Opposing Prohibition.

You can watch a history of that earlier failure tomorrow evening on PBS. It is called "Prohibition". Check your local listings.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Can't Find My Way Home

I was dreaming about this song this afternoon while I was taking a short nap. So I thought I ought to post it. The words were a little different in my dream though "I'm naked and can't find my way home".

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Air Accident Investigation

Bill Whittle does a preliminary investigation of the recent Reno Air Races accident that killed 11 people. It is very good if you want to know what went wrong. And why nothing in life is risk free.

Mind Your Own Business. Live Free Or Die.

Thanks Bill!

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Screaming Very Low Power Microprocessor

I have a new article up at ECN Magazine about a microprocessor that can do 90 billion instructions per second for a power cost of about 1 watt. Pretty good huh? It gets better. The chip has 144 processors in the package and when they are all idle the chip uses only 14 microwatts.

GreenArrays (the company that makes the chip) has partnered with another company to make the processor available to hobbyists.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

To Tell The Truth

Them crazies at Zero Hedge are at it again. The head of UniCredit global securities Attila Szalay-Berzeviczy had this to say:

"the euro is “practically dead” and Europe faces a financial earthquake from a Greek default"... “The euro is beyond rescue”... “The only remaining question is how many days the hopeless rearguard action of European governments and the European Central Bank can keep up Greece’s spirits.”...."A Greek default will trigger an immediate “magnitude 10” earthquake across Europe."..."Holders of Greek government bonds will have to write off their entire investment, the southern European nation will stop paying salaries and pensions and automated teller machines in the country will empty “within minutes.”

The Zero Hedge guys have it pegged: Welcome to the Apocalypse...

The Zero guys have more at the link. Batten the hatches boys because we are in for a hell of a storm.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Ray Stevens On The President

Hilarious.

H/T Patriot Action Network

Cross Posted at Classical Values

A Local Comes Out Against Marijuana Prohibition

As you may or may not know Black support for the pResident is falling off a cliff. If the Head Man doesn't do something about it soon he is a goner in 2012. So imagine my surprise when a local Black who writes an editorial column for the Rockford Register Star, Ed Wells, has come out against Marijuana Prohibition. You can find details at the link.

What other Blacks are against Drug Prohibition to varying degrees?

The NAACP

Blacks in Government

Charles Blow at the New York Times

Wilton D. Alston at Lew Rockwell

It looks to me like the Black community is begging the President to change his tune on Drug Prohibition. It will shore up his waning support among Democrats and if the discussions around here are any indication it will split the Republicans. The Republicans who stick with Prohibition will be branded racists. That should motivate college kids who are itching to recreate the anti-racism of the 60s. Not to mention that enforcement is targeted at their age group.

The President will have a perfect opportunity to change his tune following the showing of the Ken Burns movie “Prohibition” about Alcohol Prohibition airing on PBS starting on this Sunday 2 Oct. Check your local listings. And follow the news on it (I probably will be posting copiously on it - sorry about that).

It should be a very exciting election season.

H/T a friend.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Too Big To Fail Is Now Too Big To Save

Zero Hedge tells an interesting tale.

The latest quarterly report from the Office Of the Currency Comptroller is out and as usual it presents in a crisp, clear and very much glaring format the fact that the top 4 banks in the US now account for a massively disproportionate amount of the derivative risk in the financial system. Specifically, of the $250 trillion in gross notional amount of derivative contracts outstanding (consisting of Interest Rate, FX, Equity Contracts, Commodity and CDS) among the Top 25 commercial banks (a number that swells to $333 trillion when looking at the Top 25 Bank Holding Companies), a mere 5 banks (and really 4) account for 95.9% of all derivative exposure (HSBC replaced Wells as the Top 5th bank, which at $3.9 trillion in derivative exposure is a distant place from #4 Goldman with $47.7 trillion). The top 4 banks: JPM with $78.1 trillion in exposure, Citi with $56 trillion, Bank of America with $53 trillion and Goldman with $48 trillion, account for 94.4% of total exposure. As historically has been the case, the bulk of consolidated exposure is in Interest Rate swaps ($204.6 trillion), followed by FX ($26.5TR), CDS ($15.2 trillion), and Equity and Commodity with $1.6 and $1.4 trillion, respectively. And that's your definition of Too Big To Fail right there: the biggest banks are not only getting bigger, but their risk exposure is now at a new all time high and up $5.3 trillion from Q1 as they have to risk ever more in the derivatives market to generate that incremental penny of return.

That $5.3 trillion of exposure represents about 1/3 of US GDP this year. Suppose they are doing that every quarter. That means they are exposed to 4/3 of US GDP every year. Now it is not quite as bad as all that if the expected failure is slow and orderly. Currently the expected net exposure is 10% of the total. That would be roughly $25 trillion. That still is a LOT of money.

I remember when Everett Dirksen, who died in 1969, said:

"A million here, a million there, pretty soon, you're talking real money."

Where will that kind of money come from? And if the crash is fast and disorderly? Hold on to your hats kiddies because we are in for a wild ride.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

The Unnecessary Is Inevitable

This is the Industry Week take on the Solyndra solar cell company's crash and burn.

What a complete -- and unnecessary -- disgrace the Obama administration's performance in the Solyndra affair has been.

Admittedly, not all the facts are out about the administration's decision to award a $535 million dollar federal loan guarantee to the recently collapsed California-based solar panel maker. And admittedly, many free-market extremist politicians and think tank hacks are only too happy to blur a critical distinction: between criminal or otherwise corrupt activities (or simple incompetence, for that matter) on the one hand, and the inherent difficulties and risks on the other hand of subsidizing new, potentially game-changing, but by definition chancy products and technologies that will struggle to attract private capital from the short-term focused American financial system.

By the way he is wailing you know that debacle has hit a nerve. But think about it. Aren't all political decisions subject to cash under the table influence?

The way we handle looking out for the long term in America is that the government supports research and then attracts companies to put up their own money to capitalize on the fruits of that research. Perfect? No. Subject to manipulation re: who gets the patents? Yes. But at least companies are putting up their own money for a roll out. Which gives them some skin in the game.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Houston, We Have A Problem

It looks like some police in Houston love pot as much as the people they arrest for it.

Police say Hill told them he was a weed dealer and that he'd just taken delivery of his supply earlier that day.

Three other people in the apartment were allegedly holding drugs, and a thorough search of the apartment turned up a couple of shotguns, an unknown quantity of 'shrooms, around $940 cash, a little more weed, and an assortment of bongs and pipes.

What this official report does not mention specifically is the tray of pot brownies Hill says the cops seized and ate right in front of him and his fellow suspects.

All of this would emerge in Hill's conversations with his lawyers Daniel Cahill and J. Julio Vela. Cahill was disbelieving at first -- although only 19, Hill has a little bit of a precocious record in drug arrests -- but investigated his client's claims nevertheless. And now he says he has what might be a smoking gun.

Hill told Cahill that after eating the brownies and arresting him and two of his buddies, the cops got on their in-car computers and started squawking about how stoned they were.

KTRK's Ted Oberg got a hold of the transcripts:

"So HIGH...Good munchies," typed one at 2:44 a.m.

And why shouldn't they get baked on pot brownies? After all the supply is free to police. As long as they are willing to steal. If they had avoided arresting the kid for dealing pot they could have gotten away with it. Just a cost of doing business. In fact the police could probably have arranged for a regular supply free of charge had they thought the whole deal through.

The Real Purpose

Patriot Action Network is going on about the Government plan (implemented) to deliver guns to the Mexican Drug Cartels.

One commenter said:

The real purpose of "Fast and furious" program was to shut down the Texas gun shops.

To which I responded.

The real purpose of the Drug War is to attack the 2nd Amendment.

Had enough yet?

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Sailors Prayer

Sailor's Prayer

Lord, as I stand on the rolling
deck
To view the restless sea
With its wide expanse of darkened sky,
You seem so far from me.

Intrepid youth should feel no fear,
But I have a load of care
For the safety of our ship and men.
Lord, hear my earnest prayer:

That I be true to every task;
May no fault lie with me.
Whatever danger may arise,
As we sail the raging sea.

May I be calm and know that You
Can still the wind and wave,
And be assured in perfect trust
That You have the power to save.

When the moon sheds beams from a
starlit sky,
I feel near to You again,
For the same moon shines on my loved ones, too,
And I thank You, Lord......Amen.

The Pagan Solution.

About 70% of female heroin users were sexually molested as children.

I'm all for the Pagan solution. Abuse them some more.

Faith Works Wonders

Oprah is the carlot of Babylon.

The Statue of Liberty is a fleemonic idol.

The Ford came to me in a vision and relieved his miniseries on me. And I didn't even get wet. Hallelujah. Praise the Ford.

And don't forget your umbrella.

Regulatory Capture

This is a story of street level crime by officers of various government anti-drug organizations in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

After evidence of the officers’ misconduct came to light, federal agent Brandon McFadden pled guilty to drug conspiracy and testified against other TPD officers. An excerpt from former Agent McFadden’s guilty plea reveals his involvement in the scandal:

From January 7th of — to May of 2008, I conspired with others, including Tulsa police officer, Jeff Henderson, to distribute methamphetamine in the Northern District of Oklahoma. During the time period . . . I used the position as a special agent with ATF to further the drug conspiracy and abused my position as a special agent. During this time, myself and Henderson seized drugs and money which were kept for our own personal benefit, falsified investigative reports, and failed to document events, and obstruct justice through falsely [sic] testimony under oath and persuading other individuals to do the same.

Ah. But it gets better (or worse - depending)

Larry Barnes and his daughter, Larita, have been deeply affected by the Tulsa scandal. Larry and Larita were imprisoned because several TPD officers fabricated a drug buy and coached an informant to lie about the buy. The informant later recanted his testimony and admitted that TPD officers told him to lie. As a result, Larry and Larita Barnes have been released from prison.

However, Larry and Larita were not the only individuals affected by police corruption in Tulsa. Many more were wrongfully convicted based on the lies and false testimony of TPD officers. In fact, since 2009, almost 40 people have been released from prison or had their cases dismissed.

I'm sure this was just an isolated incident. After all, America has the most moral people and the most moral police in the world. Especially in Oklahoma. The Buckle of the Bible Belt. Just a few bad apples. Besides it is probably worse elsewhere in the country. Uh. Oh.

The TEA Party Shows Its True Colors

I was on a TEA Party blog and got this in reply to one of my comments:

Go vote for Ron Paul - he's more your style. We don't want immoral people on our side.

From what I can tell the Democrats have no such compunctions.

So I replied:

Fair enough. 80% of the American people favor med-pot. 76% say drug prohibition is not working. 57% of men favor legalization (the Rs are the man's party). There are not enough "moral" people to win an election. Four more years of Obama and the Ds. Fine by me. Enjoy.

As Casey Stengel once said,"Can't anybody here play this game?".

Note: The original discussion was about Gary Johnson and abortion. Gary says the government should stay out. So does Rockford Pro Life, which I support.

Democrat Prospects For 2012 Are Terrible

Eric left a link to this article on Facebook so I thought I'd give it a shot. The article is Left Behind: How Democrats Are Losing the Political Center. Most of you know the bad news about the Democrats so I'm not going to dwell on it (read the article if you want details). What I'm going to focus on is the point they made on how the Ds might turn it around.

Political scientists have long observed that Americans are more liberal on particulars than they are in general—ideologically conservative but operationally liberal. (Surveys have shown majority support for most individual elements of the president’s jobs and budget packages.) And the Republicans could undermine their chances by nominating a presidential candidate who is simply too hard-edged conservative for moderates and Independents to stomach.

In the face of widespread skepticism and disillusion, it will be an uphill battle for Democrats to persuade key voting blocks that government can really make their lives better. But if they fail, the public will continue to equate public spending with waste, the anti-government message will continue to resonate, and Democrats will be in dire straits when heading into what is shaping up as a pivotal election.

So how do they shore up their base, bring over independents, be anti-government, and bring over a few votes from the Right?

Let us start with some stats. According to the article 57% of the electorate is either moderate or liberal. According to numbers I have seen around, anywhere from 67% to 85% of Americans say Drug Prohibition is not working. Something like 80% of Americans support medical marijuana.

All that points back to something I wrote recently.

The Democrat's 2012 Victory Plan

The Republicans can lose this thing if they don't get on the right side of this issue.

We will get a good read on things following the airing on PBS of the Ken Burns movie "Prohibition" which is about Alcohol Prohibition. It starts on Sunday 2 October and will be on for two hours each following night. Which means that we should have a pretty good read by the 10th of October. Enough time for editorials and the Democrat Media Machine to make their point and then see what changes it has wrought.

T -6 days and counting.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

With The Lay

Worm and parcel with the lay. Turn and serve the other way.

Mind your cuntlines.

Rigging

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Why I Like Johnson

H/T Libertarian Republican

Eric in the comments at Classical Values says that you should check out this interview in GQ.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

A Gringo In Mexico Gives Advice

Fred On Everything (FOE) has a most amusing post up and you should read the whole thing. The post is about the drug WAR generally and how to win it. He has lots of suggestions. I liked this one particularly. First the set up:

I see that I may have to take over drug policy for the United States. Maybe not, though. I’ll hold off if I get a call from Michelle Leonhart, who runs the Drug Enforcement Administration, asking me how she ought to do her job, and what she ought to think about Mexico, and what is wrong with Washington’s whole approach to mind candy. (I’m expecting her call any day now.) I will answer as follows:

Now, look here, milady. You need to re-think this drug thing. It’s not going well. It isn’t going to go well. The Bare Skirmish on Drugs (BSkOD) may have seemed a good idea when Reefer Madness came out, or even in the Sixties a half century ago. Now, no. Everyone with the brains of a microwave oven knows that DEA serves only to keep prices up so that the narcos in Mexico can afford classy military weaponry and gorgeous mansions.

Well he goes on a ways in the same vein and then he comes to what I think is his most brilliant suggestion.

So you see, Michelle, the DEA is like a man sitting on a raft in mid-Pacific, trying to outlaw water.

Now we come, tangentially anyway, to Mexico. It is being torn apart, toward God knows what future, because it lives next to the world’s most gluttonous market for drugs. It seems to Mexicans that Washington is forcing them to die for a BSkoD that Washington won’t fight on its own soil.

Is this unreasonable, lady? A couple of things you might do to persuade Mexico that you really want to do your part.

First, why don’t you put a youngish DEA guy, or gal, in each of about ten universities chosen at random: say, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Harvard Medical, Julliard, Haverford, Berkeley, UCLA, and Dartmouth. (I say they’re random). See, young agents could rig their apartments for sound and video. In six months you could arrest hundreds of children of senators, Fortune Five Hundred CEOs, and people high in the Executive branch. You could give them the same sentences that slum blacks get. Think of the headlines: “Senator’s Kid Gets Five Years in the General Population in Leavenworth.” Is that a concept or what?

Yes Fred. It is a concept. I like it. Why do Black kids get herded into prisons for 5 to 20 and the Upper Crust (is there something wrong with their plastic teeth?) get slaps on the wrist or a month or two in a plush private rehab? I guess it is a WHIP type concept. We cycle the poor into jail and the rich stoners can become President. All to better to beat the poor into submission. And WHIP? It is a very old story. Wealth Has Its Privileges. The best money can buy.

Another thing you could do to demonstrate your good faith: You could ask Congress to legislate that people selling drugs to children in high school be tried as adults. Since most of these dealers are themselves in high school, you could put the daughters of lawyers in women’s slam in places like the Cook County Jail. Think how many interesting things they could learn about compulsory lesbian sex.

I mean, you are sincere about wanting to punish dealers, aren’t you?

I'll bet the jailers could make a fortune selling the videos.

And here we come to the crux of the matter. A war with Mexico.

OK. More and more I see suggestions that the US send troops to Mexico to Right Wrongs and make Mexico into Iowa. The Pentagon is sneaking psychopaths of the CIA and “retired” military men into the country, apparently wanting to showcase its systemic incapacity to win any war against anybody at all. Here is a chance for you to do something useful. DEA agents are not idiots, but colonels are.

You might try to drill into the Pentagonal mind—I would suggest a cold chisel and a sledge hammer—that Mexico differs in a fundamental way from the military’s other comic efforts at martial enterprise: The narcos have a million gringo hostages. Or maybe five hundred thousand. Nobody is sure exactly how many Americans live in Mexico. They—we—are very soft targets. We live in a sort of sprawl across Mexico, concentrated in places well known, grouping in known bars, unarmed and utterly defenseless.

A minor contact I have with the bad guys says that, now, attacking Americans carries a death sentence from people who would carry it out with a blow torch over a period of days. “Oh no. Don’t fuck with the gringos,” says this guy. Like most Mexicans, the narcos figure the US is looking for a pretext to invade. They are happy with the current semi-partnership with Washington and don’t want interference.

I'm not going to tell you how it ends. You are going to have to click the link and find out for yourself.

H/T Classical Values commenter Frank via e-mail

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Another TEA Party Address

There is a new TEA Party address to go to on the www. Grassfire Nation. I wonder if it is a response to Hippies 4 Palin. We might be able to get a clue by looking at their mission statement.

An organizing center for activists for traditional and conservative values, organized by issue.

I guess the answer is NO.

Veterans Need Our Help

First a little background on the source, Stars and Stripes newspaper.

Stars and Stripes is a news source that operates from inside the United States Department of Defense but is editorially separate from it. The First Amendment protection which Stars and Stripes enjoys is safeguarded by Congress to whom an independent ombudsman, who serves the readers' interests, regularly reports.

So what you are about to read comes from a semi-official source.

Former platoon sergeant says marijuana was 'the only thing' that controlled his PTSD

Jamey Raines tried marijuana once or twice in high school, but he said he had no interest in it after he joined the Army in 2000. He served in heavy combat in Iraq from 2003 to 2004 and rose through the ranks from private to platoon sergeant. Along the way he drank and smoked cigarettes like many infantrymen do, but he said he was “100 percent against” using any drug in any form.

Five years out of the military as of next month, however, Raines has changed his mind.

Using marijuana, he said, was the only way he could control his intense anger and anxiety as a result of post-traumatic stress disorder. The drug was a crutch, but a necessary one, he said, and it enabled him to go to college, earn his degree and land a decent job.

It succeeded, he said, where the fistfuls of prescription medications that Army doctors doled out failed him.

“The only way that I got through all that was that I smoked pot every day,” said Raines, 29, now living in Ohio. He thought of it as “the lesser of two evils [that] made it easier to go out in public, to talk to people, and easier to let things go when people say stupid [stuff].”

I assume the the brackets "[]" are to make the paper family friendly. So fill in the blanks.

This is not the first time military people have come out in favor of keeping pot legal. I'm not talking about individuals. I'm talking about an official US Military Commission. The following is taken from: The Military Surgeon Volume 73 - July-December 1933. The commission studied pot smoking by US Military personnel in the Panama Canal Zone.

B. Common effects of mariajuana described by users:

1. Mild intoxication. (Smokers use different terms to describe their sensations, the most common being "brushed up," "high," "happy," "peppy," "rosy," "dopy," "satisfied.")

2. Increased appetite.

3. Induction of sleep an hour or two after smoking.

4. Only five, or 15 per cent, stated they missed mariajuana when deprived of it.

5. Twenty-four, or 71 per cent, stated they preferred tobacco to mariajuana.

6. These soldiers stated that mariajuana was cheap and easy to procure in Panama and that they used it for "a pleasant pastime," usually during hours off duty when they had nothing else to do to amuse themselves. They stated that practically all recruits tried mariajuana and those who like it usually continued its use. Their average estimate of the number of habitual mariajuana smokers in their respective organizations was approximately 10 per cent.

We now know that the incidence of PTSD in the general population is about 10%. It can go as high as 20% to 25% among combat veterans. So the habitual use or "missing it" numbers fits well with what we know today.

So what was the final conclusion of the report?

RECOMMENDATIONS

1.The present military regulations prohibiting the introduction, sale, possession, or use of mariajuana on military reservations should continue in force, as they are believed to restrict the use of mariajuana among soldiers.

2. With the evidence obtained and considered by the committee no recommendations for further legislative action to prevent the sale or use of mariajuana in the Canal Zone, Panama, are deemed advisable under existing conditions.

Of course at the time the report was written marijuana was legal for any desired use in the US. It wasn't outlawed until 1937.

Our veterans need our help and yet so many of my "I'm on your side" friends say "not now" it might ruin our election chances. What about the chances of those suffering veterans my friends? What about them?

If you are into petitioning the White House here is the place to go: Allow United States Disabled Military Veterans access to medical marijuana to treat their PTSD

A little Panama music for the enjoyment of fans.



Cross Posted at Classical Values

The Winning Goal

If winning is our only goal then we will lose. Our goal must be to change the game. We have had too many years of winning without change.

We have had too many years of the nanny state: The Ds want to be protected from Economic failure and the Rs want to be protected from Moral failure (generally). When in fact the state can do neither and can at best be neutral and at worst promote failure.

When the state protects out economics too much our economic muscles grow weak. When it protects our morals too much our moral muscles grow weak.

Beaten For A Bulge

Who did the police beat? A Man With Downs Syndrome.

"The family is very upset and really shocked, to be honest," attorney Philip Gold said Wednesday. "They can't believe that this could have happened, let alone to their their son who is an innocent, sweet individual with Down syndrome."

Gilberto Powell, 22, was stopped by officers in the area of Southwest 111th Place and Southwest 138th Street around 9:30 p.m. Saturday, according to a Miami-Dade Police report.

The report said officers spotted a bulge in Powell's waist band and when they tried to pat him down, he tried to flee. Police say Powell broke free as officers tried to place him in handcuffs, hitting his forehead on the ground.

Powell hit one of the officers in the chest and continued to struggle until one of the officers "struck [Powell] in the left side of his face with an open hand in an attempt to subdue him," the report said.

After Powell was finally handcuffed and questioned, the officers realized he was "mentally challenged, was not capable of understanding our commands, and that the bulge in his waistband was a colostomy bag," the report said.

What ever happened to the concept of Peace Officer?

It happened to Kelly Thomas too, in Fullerton, Calif. Only he didn't survive. Don't click on the link if gruesome photos make you sick to your stomach. Because the one they have there will make you wonder what kind of animals could do that to a human. It was videoed too. And his last words were a cry for help. "Dad. Dad....."

We have a war going on against Americans in this country. Everyone is under suspicion for contraband. And some folks around here wonder why that war makes me crazy. It makes me crazy because police have an attitude because of that war. And it is not a good attitude.

Look around for the Kelly Thomas video and see if you can stand hearing him call out to his dad for help. I have sons. And it breaks my heart. Unfortunately my heart is not made of stone. Probably a personal defect. Why should I care about a stranger?

Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. Deuteronomy 10:19

If Christians celebrated Passover in the Hebrew way (some do) we might see a lot less of this sort of thing. Because we Jews read this verse every year at Passover. And we make it personal - "Because of what God did for me..." Not my ancestors. Me. Personally. He lifted my burdens and made me free.

Time to get back to the old time religion. If it was good enough for Jesus.....

Update: From the The Passover Hagadah

We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and the L-rd, our G-d, took us out from there with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm. If the Holy One, blessed be He, had not taken our fathers out of Egypt, then we, our children and our children's children would have remained enslaved to Pharaoh in Egypt. Even if all of us were wise, all of us understanding, all of us knowing the Torah, we would still be obligated to discuss the exodus from Egypt; and everyone who discusses the exodus from Egypt at length is praiseworthy.

Further:

In every generation a person is obligated to regard himself as if he had come out of Egypt, as it is said: "You shall tell your child on that day, it is because of this that the L-rd did for me when I left Egypt."

The Holy One, blessed be He, redeemed not only our fathers from Egypt, but He redeemed also us with them, as it is said: "It was us that He brought out from there, so that He might bring us to give us the land that He swore to our fathers."

Thus it is our duty to thank, to laud, to praise, to glorify, to exalt, to adore, to bless, to elevate and to honor the One who did all these miracles for our fathers and for us. He took us from slavery to freedom, from sorrow to joy, and from mourning to festivity, and from deep darkness to great light and from bondage to redemption. Let us therefore recite before Him Halleluyah, Praise G-d!

Just reading that has made my tears flow like rain. Because He saw my burden and lifted it. And thus I am obligated to lift the burdens of others.

“If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, then what am I? And if not now, when?” - Rabbi Hillel

As I have said often, "I'm not much of a Jew." But when He speaks to me I listen. And crazy as this sounds (we live in a Modern Age after all), He has spoken. This will not stand. You hear that all you mofo supporters of this abomination? The Wrath of the Maker is headed your way. For you have been unkind to the stranger. And mistreated the afflicted.

And just to get all ecumenical. (in case there are some Christians still reading):

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Matthew 25:40

H/T The Agitator

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Veteran's PTSD Treatment Currently Inadequate

The New York Times reports.

Drugs widely prescribed to treat severe post-traumatic stress symptoms for veterans are no more effective than placebos and come with serious side effects, including weight gain and fatigue, researchers reported on Tuesday.

The surprising finding, from the largest study of its kind in veterans, challenges current treatment standards so directly that it could alter practice soon, some experts said.

Ten percent to 20 percent of those who see heavy combat develop lasting symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, and about a fifth of those who get treatment receive a prescription for a so-called antipsychotic medication, according to government numbers.

The new study, published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, focused on one medication, Risperdal. But experts said that its results most likely extend to the entire class, including drugs like Seroquel, Geodon and Abilify.

“I think it’s a very important study” given how frequently the drugs have been prescribed, said Dr. Charles Hoge, a senior scientist at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, who was not involved in the study but wrote an editorial accompanying it. He added, “It definitely calls into question the use of antipsychotics in general for PTSD.”

Links at the article.

Maybe this explains the recent FDA approval of a study of the effectiveness of marijuana for the treatment of PTSD. Of course the DEA hasn't given its stamp of approval to the study so it is only a paper study so far. Despite the fact that information like this has been around for over 5 years: PTSD and the Endocannabinoid System.

I look forward to my statist social conservative friends screaming bloody murder to our government because our vets are not getting the best treatment known to man (so far) for the condition. Say. Who am I kidding? What am I smoking? Fighting dopers is way more important than treating our veterans. Or other victims of PTSD. Like abused children. Letting abused children suffer is OK as long as it keeps one doper from getting his dope. After all it is for the children. So I'm told. Like every day lately by a certain friend of mine.

So what religion is in the trenches fighting this injustice? The Damn Jews. Reform Jews had a year of outreach on the subject of medical marijuana.

"...members cited Jewish tradition as well as contemporary medicine. "According to our tradition," read the resolution, "a physician is obligated to heal the sick." The resolution cited Maimonides as the Talmudic authority. Less authoritative for the association was the state of research on medical marijuana."

And the Orthodox? They are selling the stuff. Like Einstein I'm not much of a Jew. And like him I am very proud to be a part of the Jewish tradition.

Heck even the Ron Paul site likes the Jews on this one. What you are about to read next will probably stir a LOT of cognitive dissonance. It did for me. BTW it is spelled Mitzvah buddy. You should have had a Jew give your article a once over.

Both Orthodox and Reform Jews believe Marijuana is a Mitvah. A Mitvah holds all the weight of the commandments. A Jew is Obliged to Disobey the Law to fulfill a Mitvah as a mandate of the faith.

Marijuana must be rescheduled to schedule 3 per Federal Law, yet the Republican leadership through the Attorney General , Secretary of State, and President and Party Platform have continued to pursue a draconian policy straight out of the inquisition.

Marijuana is NOT a 3rd Rail Issue. The Party Leadership have however been brainwashed and pursue that perfiduous programming with great zeal completely ignoring and distorting Federal Law. While Frankly Torturing and Murdering Sick People

And that Federal rescheduling he talks about? That would be the proper response to the DEA Judge Young Decision.

I'm still wondering about all that Judeo-Christianity I have heard so much about. From what I see there is a lot of Judeo and not much Christianity. Perhaps the Anointed One will come back and fix what He started.

H/T Drug Policy Forum of Texas

Cross Posted at Classical Values

The Protection Racket

If winning elections is our goal then we will lose. Our goal must be to change the game. We have had too many years of winning without change.

We have had too many years of the nanny state: The Ds want to be protected from Economic failure and the Rs want to be protected from Moral failure (generally). When in fact the state can do neither and can at best be neutral and at worst promote failure.

When the state protects out economics too much our economic muscles grow weak. When it protects our morals too much our moral muscles grow weak. Reliance on the state promotes weakness.

Sen. Lieberman prays with Sarah Palin

The Book Of Esther

From Chapter 4:

11 "The servants of the king and the people of the provinces all know that any man or woman who comes to the king in the inner court without being summoned is sentenced to death by the law, unless the king extends his royal scepter to him, granting him life. And the king has not called for me for thirty days now."

12 They told Mordechai Esther's message.

13 Mordechai sent back word to Esther: "Don't imagine that you alone among the Jews will escape to the king's palace, and that this will save your life.

14 "Even if you are silent now, the Jews will get relief and rescue some other way, and you and your father's house will be lost. And who knows? Maybe it was for just such an occasion that you were made queen!"

15 Esther sent back word to Mordechai:

16 "Go and gather all the Jews in Shushan, fast for me: do not eat or drink for three days and nights. My girls and I will also fast. Then I'll go to the king -- against the law -- and if I am killed, I will be the only one killed."

H/T Jews For Sarah

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Progressives On The March

Forbes Magazine has an interview with Progressive Insurance chairman Peter Lewis.

Our marijuana laws are outdated, ineffective and stupid. I’m not alone in thinking this: Half of Americans believe we should stop punishing people for using marijuana. And not coincidentally, more than half of Americans have used marijuana themselves. I am one of those Americans, and I know firsthand that marijuana can be helpful and that it certainly isn’t cause for locking anyone up.

He goes on to say:

I’ve been conducting a great deal of research on public opinion on marijuana. Change in this area is inevitable, much like the movement toward equal rights for gays and lesbians. An ever shrinking fraction of the country resists changing marijuana laws, largely for moral reasons. But change is coming. It’s just a question of when and how we get there.

According to some of my commenters such moralists don't exist. Some one is living in the wrong universe. It might even be me. But I doubt it.

H/T Drug Policy Forum of Texas

Cross Posted at Classical Values

The Most Destructive, Dysfunctional & Immoral Domestic Policy Since Slavery & Jim Crow

Retired Police Detective Howard Wooldridge says:

Modern Prohibition/The War on Drugs is the most destructive, dysfunctional & immoral domestic policy since slavery & Jim Crow.

He ought to know. Now you know.

Cross Posted at Classical Values