Open Thread

I’ll be traveling to spend the holidays with my parents. For all those who are traveling, drive safely – don’t take any chances, and if you get tired, pull over and take a nap. Tired driving is probably the worst impairment for driving out there.

With the holidays, the roads will also be heavily patrolled. If you do get stopped and the officer wants to look through your car, just say “I don’t consent to searches.” Remember that consenting to a search is extremely un-American.

Consenting to a search shows your disregard for the Constitution and your willingness to undermine important principles within it. When you consent, you are saying that you want to suspend the Constitution for a bit. That’s unacceptable.

Consenting to a search also wastes taxpayer dollars in a period of budget crisis by taking up the time of an employee who should be working on protecting and serving rather than digging through your trunk.

Consenting to a search is also stupid on a practical level. Officers are generally not required to fix anything they break while searching your car, and if you’ve ever given a ride to someone else and something fell out of their pocket into the seat cushion, the officers are probably not going to believe that you didn’t know anything about it.

For more useful tips on your rights, get 10 Rules for Dealing with Police, which is advertised on the lower right side of this page.

Happy and safe holidays to you all!

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

82 Responses to Open Thread

  1. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .
    Well I’m sure that everyone’s been aware of an involved in the fierce and contentious debate concerning Heather Donahue and the controversy over whether she’s a good witch, or a bad witch. Well, it’s been settled once and for all, and the verdict is unanimous: Good witch!

    http://tinyurl.com/ding-dong-the-witch-is-a-head

    I want to invite her for brownies and tea, the luscious little tart!!

  2. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .
    Excellent rule Pete. I think what vexes a lot of people isn’t the initial request, it’s the follow up, ‘well if you haven’t got anything to hide why would you mind if I looked?’ As tempting as it is to respond, ‘well if I haven’t got anything to hide, why the heck would you want to waste your time looking?’ cases that do end up generated after a completely legal refusal to search often find the shysters arguing over whether the petitioner had an ‘expectation of privacy.’ My rule is to answer the question, ‘why don’t you want me to search’ with ‘because I have an expectation of privacy.’ Remember, if you’re if fact caught ‘riding dirty’ after lawfully refusing a search you might end up convicted even if the judge has to give his blessing to an illegal search. But might get convicted also means might not. Consent, and conviction is guaranteed.

    BTW I’ve got a new story to reinforce my resolve to never consent to a search. A couple of weeks back a tenant in one of my commercial properties leaves a message on my voice mail telling me that he was cleaning out the storage area in his building and found my rifle. It seems he doesn’t like guns and wanted me to come and take it away. Well gosh, I don’t own any guns. Because of my foolishness in the 1980s having possession of one would send me to Club Fed for a nice stretch. Evidently it was left there by the former owner. I asked him to call the Baltimore Police and give them an easy tick in their total number of guns gotten ‘off the street’ statistic for Christmas.

    So tell me, are you sure that you’re not ‘riding dirty’? Are you absolutely certain that there aren’t any stray rifles in the storage area above your office? No one dropped a bag under your passenger seat a few years ago? No one’s jimmied your trunk and left a couple of pounds of leaf in there because they’re pissed off at you?

  3. pfroehlich2004 says:

    Interesting discussion going on at drugfree.org (http://www.drugfree.org/join-together/drugs/legalization-of-marijuana-and-the-impact-on-children)

    What I find particularly heartening is that at least some of our opponents are starting to recognize the inevitability of legalization and are shifting from demands for stepped up prohibition enforcement to calls for strict (and not entirely unreasonable) regulation of legal marijuana in order to limit youth access.

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .
      If I could figure out a way to keep the annoying little street urchins away from the cannabis I’d most certainly make it known. Why couldn’t we just set up restricted access fashioned after orphan asylums, and leave the children to screened professionals? Who could be against an idea designed for the good of the children? Since we have the incontrovertible evidence that if people don’t use drugs before the age of 21 they’re almost certain to never want to get high I say we lock them all out of sight until they turn 21. Oh shut up about Jack Herer.

    • نهاية says:

      I tried posting the following, but more than 24 hours later, it’s still “awaiting moderation”

      Alcohol consumption actually increased durring alcohol prohibition:
      Here is part of the testimony of Judge Alfred J Talley, given before the Senate Hearings of 1926:

      “For the first time in our history, full faith and confidence in and respect for the hitherto sacred Constitution of the United States has been weakened and impaired because this terrifying invasion of natural rights has been engrafted upon the fundamental law of our land, and experience has shown that it is being wantonly and derisively violated in every State, city, and hamlet in the country.”

      “It has made potential drunkards of the youth of the land, not because intoxicating liquor appeals to their taste or disposition, but because it is a forbidden thing, and because it is forbidden makes an irresistible appeal to the unformed and immature. It has brought into our midst the intemperate woman, the most fearsome and menacing thing for the future of our national life.”

      “It has brought the sickening slime of corruption, dishonor, and disgrace into every group of employees and officials in city, State, and Federal departments that have been charged with the enforcement of this odious law.”

      http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/HISTORY/e1920/senj1926/judgetalley.htm

      And the following paragraphs are from WALTER E. EDGE’s testimony, a Senator from New Jersey:

      “Any law that brings in its wake such wide corruption in the public service, increased alcoholic insanity, and deaths, increased arrests for drunkenness, home barrooms, and development among young boys and young women of the use of the flask never heard of before prohibition can not be successfully defended.”

      “I unhesitatingly contend that those who recognize existing evils and sincerely endeavor to correct them are contributing more toward temperance than those who stubbornly refuse to admit the facts.”

      And here is Julien Codman’s testimony, who was a member of the Massachusetts bar.

      “we will produce additional evidence on this point, that it is not appropriate legislation to enforce the eighteenth amendment; that it has done incredible harm instead of good; that as a temperance measure it has been a pitiable failure; that it as failed to prevent drinking; that it has failed to decrease crime; that, as a matter of fact, it has increased both; that it has promoted bootlegging and smuggling to an extent never known before”

  4. Matthew Meyer says:

    Thanks for everything you do, Pete.

    It’s a nice couch you got here.

    Happy travels and family time.

    • darkcycle says:

      Yeah..can you believe it? He just leaves us here like this all the time. Hey…anybody know what he left in the fridge?

  5. Servetus says:

    Our friend Kristen Gwynne, writing at Alternet, provides an excellent argument for why teen pot smoking can be a good thing when pot is used instead of alcohol and other drugs:

    http://tinyurl.com/7y4muau

  6. Randy says:

    Happy Holidays, Pete. Thanks for all the work you do on this site.

    And Happy Holidays to all the folks on the couch around here. It’s my ferverent hope that the true wisdom of Jesus’ teachings finds its way into the minds of all mankind, and especially Christians who seem to be more like the Pharisees instead of Jesus.

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .
      “Listen to that howling mob of blockheads in the street
      A trick or two with lepers and the whole town’s on its feet”

      I must say I that that Michael Schaeffer did the Ananus role superbly in Jesus Christ Superstar (2000). His performance sent a chill of terror down my spine. Ananus was evil, not a fairy as so many other versions present.

      I realize that Herod wasn’t a pharisee but Alice Cooper most certainly did a great version of King Herod’s Song. No fooling.
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6NSVrXQfvc

  7. Swooper420 says:

    Merry Christmas & Happy Holidayz to Pete & the rest of the group on the couch. Here’s hoping we all get what we need for X-mas (not necessarily what we want, but that would be nice too!).

    If you are out and about this weekend, please be careful and watch out for the idiots behind the wheels. Be safe.

  8. palemalemarcher says:

    http://www.9wsyr.com/news/local/story/Oswego-County-asks-to-be-a-test-site-for-welfare/ILbBPiL5GUicolZv8T26uA.cspx?fb_ref=box_right Link to story of a constitutionally dubious drug testing scheme in Central N.Y. It means that people should stay with malt liquor for a buzz. It also means more begging in public places this whole design of these phony character tests!

  9. claygooding says:

    Happy holidays,,,see you on the other side of Christmas Pete,all,,just cured some fresh for the season and made some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies from the sugar leaf.

  10. HappyHollsPete! says:

    Thanks to the current effort by AG Bill Schuette and company to destroy the MMMA, Michigan could be the first state to repeal marijuana prohibition.

    http://www.tuscolatoday.com/index.php/2011/12/23/repeal-of-marijuana-prohibition/

  11. ezrydn says:

    I got an email moments ago from SSDP (I think) announcing Obama’s about to sign a bill that includes doing away with the funding of some Child Anti-Drug Propaganda program. Lost it while trying to move it.

    Anyone else get it? If so, make it known.

    • tensity1 says:

      Yep, I just got that one, too.

      • tensity1 says:

        Okay, so you might actually want the contents, heh. Here’s the text:

        I wanted you to be the first to know that President Obama is about to sign a law that removes all funding for the federal government’s National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign! You know the ads. They say that if a young person uses marijuana, his girlfriend will run off with a space alien. Or he’ll accidentally eat his fist.

        Wiping out this ad campaign wouldn’t have been possible without the tireless efforts of SSDPers like Aditya, Katharine, and Tim. They travelled from Columbia University to Washington, D.C. for SSDP’s lobby day in March 2011. Their message: stop waging this wasteful campaign in our names.

        Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to so that we can empower more students like Aditya, Katharine, and Tim!

        This is the first time since the start of the ad campaign in 1998 that funding was totally wiped out. And not only does the new law remove all funding for the anti-drug campaign next year, it actually requires the drug czar’s office to return all $6 million they have left from last year.

        I don’t need to tell you that it’s not everyday that the drug war industrial complex takes this kind of hit. Sometimes living in Washington, D.C. can be depressing, given how little progress is made. But seeing students in action is truly inspiring — especially when we win.

        Please support our work so that we can continue to rack up the victories!

        Yours In Struggle,
        Aaron

        Aaron Houston
        Executive Director, Students for Sensible Drug Policy

  12. نهاية says:

    “We need to step up our efforts to end this war at home and stop sending our loved ones to cages because they have a drug problem. We have more power than we realize. If the people lead, the leaders will follow.”

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tony-newman/jury-nullification-an-imp_b_1165640.html

    • Windy says:

      dc, I’m certain this is headed to the legislature, not the ballot.

      I-505 is for the ballot, but signature gathering will not begin for it until January (and must have sufficient valid signatures by June or July something to make the ballot). I-502 should be dead on arrival, since it doesn’t improve anything for anyone other than prohibitionists, IMNSHO.

      • Duncan20903 says:

        .
        .
        I really do hope the people like yourself don’t manage to screw this up with such gross misrepresentations as in your post above, like your ilk did in 2010 California. No Windy, a law that isn’t perfect isn’t worse that absolute prohibition. That’s absolute hogwash and you should be absolutely ashamed of yourself for presenting such absolute absurdity.

        I-502 goes to the legislature first. It goes to the ballot if the legislature doesn’t approve it. I-505 is simple minded pipe dream. One of our greatest handicaps is the crowd of people from la-la land that think that an extremist law like I-505 has even the proverbial snowball’s chance of being passed into law. Fortunately the I-502 people learned a lot from Prop 19 and there’s a good chance that it will get enough yes votes from the fence sitters to counteract the stupidity presented by the potheads in clownface in their attempts to perpetuate prohibition.

        Why are you working so hard to keep us mired in prohibition Windy? When do you get a clue and attempt to understand that we simply don’t have the numbers to write our own ticket? That politics is the art of compromise and that re-legalization simply is never going to happen without addressing the fears held by those who hold the votes to allow this thing to move forward? When do you start to grasp the reality that you’re the best friend a prohibitionist could have?
        ———
        Curtis Cartier is obviously not a lawyer, nor is he qualified to even play one in the news media. Just how many years have the prohibitionists been waiting for the Federal cavalry to ride in on their preemption ponies and slay the medicinal cannabis patient protection laws? That would be 15 years now. You’d think after a decade and a half they’d have figured out that they’re not just over the horizon.

      • darkcycle says:

        Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good, Windy. Lets pass something passable, and we can deal with the details later. I don’t like the per se driving requirement, but that can be a fight for another day.
        It is going to the legislature, after we vote on it.

      • darkcycle says:

        And that Seattle Weekly writer is an idiot, he’s whacked in the head.

  13. allan says:

    here’s the ONDCP ad campaign story (this is 3 days old, so no SSDP mention):

    Anti-Drug Campaign Takes Funding Hit Without media dollars

    all I could find…

    • allan says:

      should include this quote from the SSDP msg:

      not only does the new law remove all funding for the anti-drug campaign next year, it actually requires the drug czar’s office to return all $6 million they have left from last year.

  14. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .
    The Commonwealth of Virginia does not accept signatures from voters who mark with an “X”

    Gingrich, Perry to Miss Virginia Ballot

    The Gingrich and Perry campaigns each filed more than 11,000 signatures Thursday to meet the 10,000-signature requirement, but the party ruled late Friday, after working to verify the petitions, that not enough of the signatures were valid.

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204552304577118213212640768.html

    • ezrydn says:

      Hey, Newt,

      Why don’t you haul the Virginia Legislature before Congress to grill them on WHY YOU screwed up? You’d do it to Judges. And, ultimately, to We, The People. And quit calling yourself a frontrunner. Last poll I heard was Paul, Romney and then, guess who?

  15. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .
    Nancy Harris of Dunedin, FL was “happy” detectives searched her home because it showed dedication to fighting drug use and sale, an effort she supports.

    “I don’t feel they violated my rights. They asked to search and I gave them permission,” Nancy Harris said.

    http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/surveillance-of-largo-hydroponic-supply-shop-ends-but-legal-growers-shook/1207647

    Stupid ****.

    • darkcycle says:

      Duncan, nothing to be done. Nothing. No matter how crazy it makes us, some people have brains of Jello. Would have served her right if they’d been feeling pressure for a bust and just happened to “locate” some illegal drugs she didn’t know she had…

  16. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .
    High-grade pot more prevalent
    Marijuana with higher THC more frequently found on Shore

    “blah, blah, blah BC Bud blah”

    http://www.delmarvanow.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20111224/NEWS01/112240326/High-grade-pot-more-prevalent?odyssey=nav|head

    Now the picture accompanying that story is just precious:

    http://cmsimg.delmarvanow.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=A7&Date=20111224&Category=NEWS01&ArtNo=112240326&Ref=AR&MaxW=640&Border=0&High-grade-pot-more-prevalent

    IQs just aren’t very popular on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

    • darkcycle says:

      There’s no cure for stupid.

      • Duncan20903 says:

        .
        .
        No, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t laugh at an ridicule these people. Seriously, is that a friggin’ incandescent bulb? The picture of that “grow” ranks right up with this classic, valued at $67,000 by North Carolina’s finest:
        https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=7354&pictureid=125708

        • darkcycle says:

          OMFG! They valued that at $67,000? It’s not worth $67.
          But…you’re gonna laugh…I will often press a wardrobe box from U-Haul just like that into service when I start a new variety from seed. It’s a quickie nursery till they show thier sex…then I take cuttings and integrate them into my perpetual garden with my standard varieties. It means I don’t need to dedicate veg space in my main garden for plants I may not use. Those cartons take 100-150 watts of CFL just right. Cut a large vent in the bottom back and convection will move enough air. I’ll admit it looks unprofessional, but it does work.

        • darkcycle says:

          …because This I Know: It does not matter how much “extra space” you plan into your garden, your garden will out grow your space in no time flat. Tell me I’m wrong, I defy you.

        • Duncan20903 says:

          .
          .
          Don’t you at least line it with aluminum foil? The bulb in the picture isn’t better than 17w if it’s a compact florescent and the color temp looks like it’s an incandescent to me. Of course a lousy camera combined with the brown absorbing all the light means we’re not likely not seeing what was really there.

          No, I can’t say you’re wrong about filling the space no matter your plans. I think that’s a physical law. But there’s a certain amount of effort and knowledge that gets you from here to there and while it isn’t rocket science there sure are a lot of booby traps waiting for the uninformed.

          Gosh I hope your sprouts are never that stretched. That’s screaming “amateur” to me. At least the ones in the forward planter don’t have commingling roots. Six plants in a single container? I’m willing to wager that “$67k” garden from NC was the sum total of the growers lifetime experience at the moment the snapshot was taken.

          Now I’ve sat and looked at the first picture from the Eastern Shore and I’m as close to certain as I can be that it’s an incandescent. It’s the shape of the bulb that cinches that conclusion in my mind.

          BTW, my wife was born in Salisbury and still has family there. I’ve been to the city more than a few times in my life and my comments were based on my own personal observations.

        • Duncan20903 says:

          .
          .
          BTW DC, your dissociative identity disorder is flaring up. I think it’s medication time. Do you still have Nurse Ratched’s number?

        • darkcycle says:

          *Grins* I didn’t say that was a good example…just that wardrobe boxes have MANY more uses than storing your winter clothes. I like my internodes 1 to 1 1/2 inches…nice and tight. If I’ve got a climber of a sativa, I’ll use “bushmaster” at 1/4 strength once at week one after transplanting to a flowering container, then again at 1/8th recommended dilution as a foliar spary when I induce flowering. Makes even Thais look like nice little bushes.

  17. ezrydn says:

    Santa’s on his way! Rudolph leads the way! Hey, doesn’t Pete have reddish hair? Lead On, Petey!!! A very Merry Christmas to all you reindeer and to the one who lights our way. And a Happy Birthday to the King of Kings!

    When you survive artillery barrages, you learn to believe in Many things. 😉 As Pete said, if you’re driving, be safe. Get blitzed after you land.

  18. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .
    In the course of extensive research I have discovered that St. Nicholas is the patron saint of prostitutes. This is the fellow that we allow to sneak into our homes in the middle of the night and ply our children with shiny trinkets and peppermint sticks? But that’s what we get for trusting a Greek with our children!

    As if all that isn’t bad enough he’s also the patron saint of thieves. So just to top off allowing a pervert to sneak into our homes in the dead of night in order to seduce our children, we also better count the silver after he’s gone. To think that there are people who allow this scallywag free reign who claim to care about the children. Go figure that one out.

    But in all fairness, he may just be a guy that likes to be a patron saint, and grabbed those two jobs because they were available. He’s also the patron saint of sailors, merchants, archers, students, the Varangian Guard of the Byzantine emperors, Aberdeen, Amsterdam, Barranquilla, Bari, Beit Jala, Fribourg, Huguenots, Kozani, Liverpool, Paternopoli, Sassari, Siggiewi and Lorraine. To think everyone believes he only works one night a year. Sheesh, when does the man find time to sleep?
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas

    Perhaps it would be better if we put out cookies and tea for St. Drogo, the patron saint of coffeehouses. St. Drogo was famous for his ability to bilocate, or in plain words to occupy two disparate places in space at the same time. I suspect it’s more likely that the people of the 12th century may have been unaware of the existence of identical twins, but all sorts of odd things occurred back in that day so who the heck knows?

    • ezrydn says:

      My cockatoo, who’s been my best bud for 34 years now, was “glued” to the computer monitor last night, watching noradsanta.org. He woke up to a pile of toys this morning and is having a blast. I give them a week, at best. LOL

    • Duncan20903 says:

      The next thing you know he’ll be farting in our general direction.
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSo0duY7-9s

    • darkcycle says:

      He’s only drawing attention to the trouncing he got. Leave him alone…he has issues. Real, clinical issues. And he’s a frikking child. He got beaten up at the bus stop, and now that he thinks it’s safe, he’s taunting us to come do it again.
      *sigh* I will tell you this, he can rationalize any prejudice he holds, he’s smart and embittered. Let’s smoke another bowl and pray for the asshole. Nothing else is gonna work.

      • allan says:

        I’m gonna take my field kit over there… I was a surgeon in a previous life. Of course we “only” had obsidian at that time. But I’m gonna wait until after xmas. Daughter is coming in from out of town, son is off work for 2 days… they hate seeing me with blood spatters all over me. It was hard enough for ’em watching me tripper-sitting at festivals. Sure gave ’em a clue about some folks behavior under the influence tho’.

        bah… humbug… and other merry xmas grumblings to you all.

      • darkcycle says:

        Allan…I went back and read that “comment of the day”. I’ll share with you a suspicion I have….I think he wrote that comment. Look at the point-for-point correspondence with things he said in responses to individuals in the prior thread. This guy is whacked. That’s a professional opinion. Let’s leave him be. For now.

      • Duncan20903 says:

        .
        .
        Have I ever mentioned before that there are some people I just don’t want on our side of the table? Just think if this man were making arguments in favor of ending prohibition! That would be embarrassing. But I will treasure the memory. There really aren’t that many people who are his intellectual equal that have achieved his level of literacy. He must be highly disciplined and dedicated to furthering his education. I’m sure he’ll earn his GED before much longer.

  19. darkcycle says:

    And this will make your Christmas Bright! Really! Watch what happens when you say the Magic Words: “Not without a Warrant.”
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7Kw9-vTJYs&feature=youtu.be

  20. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .
    No! Not the Wild and Scenic Rivers!

    Taxpayers roasting on an open fire…
    Vin Suprynowicz
    Dec. 25, 2011

    The nation’s “Forests Are Severely Damaged By Marijuana Grow Sites,” reads the headline on the Dec. 7 news release from the U.S. Forest Service.

    Marijuana cultivation sites in 20 states on 67 national forests “have caused severe damage,” said Forest Service Director of Law Enforcement David Ferrell. In California alone, the service has cleaned up and restored 335 sites, removing 130 tons of trash, 300 pounds of pesticides, five tons of fertilizer and nearly 260 miles of irrigation piping, the agriculture cop testified.

    “Natural vegetation and wildlife are killed as growers use liberal doses of herbicides, rodenticides and pesticides, some of them banned in the U.S.,” Mr. Ferrell told whatever staff members were filtering in and out of the room. “These chemicals can cause extensive … damage to ecosystems. Human waste and trash … are widespread. Winter rains create severe soil erosion and wash the poisons, this waste and trash into streams and rivers — including congressionally designated Wild and Scenic Rivers.”

    No! Not the Wild and Scenic Rivers!

    “It is incumbent on the agency to do what is necessary to ensure that the resources we manage are protected and visitors as well as employees are safe,” Mr. Ferrell told the fearless drug warriors.

    I’m glad to hear it.
    /snip/

    http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/taxpayers-roasting-on-an-open-fire-136201343.html?ref=343

    And now for the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey might say:

    /snip/
    I then proceeded to read the rest of the news release, seeking word on how precisely the Forest Service now plans to join the battle to nip this problem in the bud by seeking re-legalization of marijuana cultivation on private lands — land the owners would have an obvious incentive to keep in better shape so they can plant again the following year — since it’s clear to everyone the only reason people run the risk of having their crops regularly seized and destroyed on Forest Service land is because this popular medicinal plant has been absurdly banned from private cultivation for 80 years.

    Why? Because of racist propaganda back in the early 20th century that “the devil’s weed” was widely used by black and Hispanic males to seduce white women, and because Harry Anslinger’s Prohibition boys needed a new mission after that great saint of progressivism, Franklin Roosevelt, re-legalized alcohol (the far more dangerous drug favored by white folks) back in 1933.

    And … nothing. Instead, the Forest Service “will continue to enhance partnerships with other federal, state, local and Tribal agencies in a cooperative effort to investigate and eradicate marijuana cultivation and other narcotic activities occurring on Forest System lands,” Ferrell said.

    So, at a time when the federal government seeks bankruptcy in a lemming-like cliff dive, the agency simply wants more money to do what’s been failing so spectacularly for years. In fact, pot farming on public lands is one of America’s few remaining billion-dollar growth industries!

    Why does the service keep destroying every million-dollar harvest it stumbles on, rather than earn some return for the Treasury by selling the herb at market rates to legitimate medical patients holding legitimate physician recommendations in states that have legalized those uses? Such patients now suffer without that medicine because both federal and local law enforcement agencies flout those laws, busting even those who seek to distribute high-quality cannabis products free of charge (as I see our local sheriff’s deputies busted another marijuana dispensary last week, right here in River City).

    So what If the ninth and 10th amendments guarantee us freedom from federal intervention with our medical liberties? We’ve got federal payrolls that need growing.

    Fund more failure!
    /snip/

    Vin Suprynowicz is assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal and author of the books “The Ballad of Carl Drega” and “The Black Arrow.” See http://www.vinsuprynowicz.com.

  21. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .
    Time Magazine has announced their “Person of the Year” for 2011. I must say it’s about damn time that they got around to acknowledging me.

    http://img.timeinc.net/time/magazine/archive/covers/2011/1101111226_400.jpg

    I’d like to thank all the little nazis, authoritarians, banksters and especially the Know Nothing prohibitionists who’ve made this honor possible. Without all of their efforts I’d be nothing more than a happy go lucky nobody living my life in the obscurity of peace and the quiet enjoyment of life. Thanks to you I’m angry.

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .
      It’s not what you’ve done for me, it’s what you’ve done for me lately. But quite frankly New Year’s 2006 is a time in my life I’d much rather forget. I know I’m one lucky boy because that really isn’t a difficult trick.

      That fellow Vin Suprynowicz blog looks like an interesting place. He seems to be a staunch adherent to the Revolutionary school, class of 1776.

      I think I look much better in a burqa than as a computer monitor though. Hey, have you ever seen a burqa girl at a swimming pool? I think they need a time machine to buy their swim suits. What I don’t get is why is going bare foot OK? Don’t Muslims have foot fetishes?

  22. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .
    This is what you get when you let potheads play football:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7KPZrv7JWE&feature=player_embedded

  23. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .
    By happenstance I was looking up the warnings for synthetic dronabinol this morning and found some things I thought amusing:

    ———-
    Do not use dronabinol if you have ever had an allergic reaction to natural or man-made marijuana.”
    ———-

    ———-
    Get emergency medical help if you have any of these signs of an allergic reaction: hives; difficulty breathing; swelling of your face, lips, tongue, or throat.
    ———-

    ———-
    Continue using dronabinol and talk with your doctor if you have any of these less serious side effects:

    * feeling “high”;

    * warmth or tingly feeling;
    ———-

    http://www.rxlist.com/marinol-drug/patient-images-side-effects.htm

    Oh no! Not the warm fuzzies! Doctor, doctor, whatever should I do? I’m feelin’ all good up inside my head and my tongue is the size of an eggplant!

  24. darkcycle says:

    Good Morning! I hope everyone’s Christmas was bright. Speaking of “bright”, here’s a news story to get you back in the swing of your activism: “Man eats Cocaine out of brother’s butt; dies.”
    http://www.thebostonchannel.com/r/30037563/detail.html
    “I got upset when I saw the thing. I was pretty shocked on it.” remarked the police chief…

    Read more: http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/30037563/detail.html#ixzz1heosTwma
    Happy Boxing Day.

    • Duncan20903 says:

      I could have lived my entire life without knowing about that with no problem. There really is such a thing as too much information.

  25. darkcycle says:

    Special thanks to Brandon E., who brought that story to my attention. Thanks, Brandon… betcha didn’t even know you linked to it!

  26. Duncan20903 says:

    /snip/
    On Dec. 29, a group called New Approach Washington plans to turn in signatures on Initiative 502, a measure to legalize, regulate and tax the growing, processing and sale of marijuana in Washington, allowing it for adults in small amounts. I-502 gives legislators three options: pass it into law, let it go to the November ballot, or pass an alternative that would accompany it on the ballot.

    Legislators should let it go to the ballot. The people are ready: On Nov. 28, a KING-5/Survey U.S.A. poll found that 57 percent of registered voters support legalizing the adult possession of 1 ounce.
    /snip/

    http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorials/2017083228_edit26cannabis.html

  27. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .
    Would it be highly unethical to plant moss phlox in the yards of people I dislike and drop a dime later after it takes root? Yeah, I suppose it would be. Oh well, it isn’t even slightly unethical to daydream.

    There’s no mention in the article of why this didn’t happen years ago:

    Stunned middle class couple raided by police after sniffer dog mistakes common garden plant for cannabis (and so do local yobs who queued at door hoping for a drug deal)
    By Katherine Faulkner
    Last updated at 4:46 PM on 26th December 2011

    /snip/
    Neighbours had reported how streams of local teenagers had been knocking on the couple’s door asking to buy marijuana.

    And police sniffer dogs had picked up the unmistakeable stench of cannabis coming from the garden.

    On closer inspection, the police found that the source of the smell was not cannabis but a common evergreen creeper called ‘moss phlox.’

    Keen gardener Mrs Vincent, 57, a shopkeeper, had been cultivating the pretty flowering plant for years.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2078726/Police-swoop-stunned-couple-sniffer-dog-mistakes-legal-garden-plant-cannabis.html?ITO=1490

  28. Duncan20903 says:

    This one is appropriately placed in the “thud!” category. It’s just astounding to this almost native Virginian that this could have happened in southern Virginia:

    Time to change drug strategy
    The Virginian-Pilot
    December 27, 2011

    Federal authorities’ efforts in recent months to crack down on state-regulated marijuana dispensaries in California have increased tensions over which level of government should take the lead in defining the legal boundaries for drug use and possession.

    Marijuana, under the federal Controlled Substances Act, is classified as a Schedule I drug, the same as LSD and ecstasy. The designation means none is recognized as having any medicinal value.

    But that view runs counter to the positions of numerous doctors and scientists who’ve found the plant does, indeed, offer some medicinal benefits to individuals dealing with certain health conditions. More than a dozen states, and the District of Columbia, have been convinced and approved their own laws that either decriminalize marijuana or allow for its medicinal use.

    Such moves are based as much on science as the reality that this nation’s war on drug use has failed. An Associated Press report last year found the federal government had poured $1 trillion into boosting drug-control efforts since 1970. The result: The number of drug users in the U.S. has nearly doubled, the number of drug overdoses has climbed steadily, millions of nonviolent drug offenders have been imprisoned, and countless lives have been ruined.
    /snip/
    http://hamptonroads.com/2011/12/time-change-drug-strategy

    About editorials:
    Virginian-Pilot editorials represent the consensus of the editorial board, which is independent of the newsroom. Board members are Maurice A. Jones, publisher; Donald Luzzatto, editorial page editor; and Candy Hatcher, Daryl Lease, Shawn Day and Michelle Washington, editorial writers.

  29. darkcycle says:

    Progress. Feels good, ‘eh?

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .
      Now that I’ve gotten over the shock and am able to feel again, yes, it does. I’d rate this about equivalent to Pat Robertson’s comments on the thud! scale.

      Hey wait a second…Mr. Robertson came up in that community. He started The 700 Club in Portsmouth, VA which is all of 3 miles from Hampton Roads. Perhaps the two events are related?

  30. darkcycle says:

    Ron Paul on the drug war’s racist origins…coincidentally, right about the time those racist e-mails went out, allegedly under his name:
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/27/ron-paul-drugs-drug-war_n_1170878.html

  31. darkcycle says:

    Ya know, I’d love to vote for Ron Paul, if only because the Powers That Be want him gone soooo badly

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .
      It probably wouldn’t be of any consequence to this country to ignore his views on forcing women to carry pregnancies to term. He just doesn’t have the political capital to make it happen so it’s a moot point. But everything else being equal I’ll cast for Gary Johnson if he gets the Libertarian nomination. There’s a long, long road between here and Election Day 2012. Who knows, maybe Joe Biden will go postal and dispatch Barry to his reward, and John Boner will be POTUS.

  32. Jake says:

    http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/suspected_dealer_beaten_no_arrest_made/id_43139

    “state cops broke down the door of his first-floor Winthrop Avenue apartment Wednesday afternoon, punched him in the face, stomped on his head, and then laughed at him as they tossed his apartment looking for drugs”

    No drugs were found..

  33. INFOTCITO says:

    Siamo spiacenti, anch’io desidero esprimere la propria opinione.

Comments are closed.