Not a single trick-or-treater all evening. I admit I was driving up I-55 to Chicago at 70 mph at the time, but come on… I had candy. Surely there was some witch on a broom willing to match trajectories!
While driving, I watched an incredible professional fireworks display in Braidwood, Illinois, viewable for miles and miles. As there were no exploding ghouls or goblins, I imagine it represented some long awaited re-scheduling of a summer celebration cancelled in fear of heat and conflagration.
After I passed Braidwood, the brilliant and almost full moon took over the duties of drawing me inexorably toward my destination, until, a mere two miles from McCormick Place, the fickle orb ducked behind a sudden cloud cover, leaving me the view of the gorgeous trapped Chicago skyline lights, as if enclosed in a shadow box.
And now, I relax in a comfy corner room of the Hyatt Regency, to which I was inexplicably assigned for this conference.
I am away from home too much this fall, yet I continue to find special moments wherever I go.
corner rooms are the nice rooms
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Another spam-fail.
Enjoy your trip, Pete. Sounds like you had a lovely drive. Don’t worry, cabin fever is right around the corner.
I would go nuts in the cold winter time if not for my cabinet,,opening it and seeing growing plants even with snow or freezing rain outside raises my spirit to spring levels.
I gotta build me one of those!
Happy trails, Pete!
And now for something completely different. Gansters in Rio de Janeiro have issued a death warrant on the best of local drug-sniffing dogsa, reports The Daily Telegraph.
Mexico Study: Legalizing Marijuana Would Cut Cartel Income by 30 Percent
The draconian prohibitionist policies in the US have contributed to record drug profits on the part of the cartels
http://news.antiwar.com/2012/10/31/mexico-study-legalizing-marijuana-would-cut-cartel-income-by-30-percent/
The propaganda wizards have reduced the amount of profits from marijuana by half,,July,2011 the FBI and the ONDCP reported to congress that profits for the cartels from marijuana were 60% of their income. They also reported the cartels made appx(conservative est sccording to them) 40 billion dollars per year,however just 2 months later Rand(ONDCP’s goto statistics source boarded by a pharmaceutical executive) researched for the ONDCP and lowered it to under 3 billion a year,,,amazing what a pencil can accomplish.
Soon their accountants will determine that MJ export is actually costing cartels billions a year and, therefore, prohibition should be continued.
83.7% of statistics are made up on the spot.
Are Obama, Romney ignoring Mexico’s drug war?
http://tinyurl.com/bejg99v
“”Mexico City (CNN) — “Poor Mexico, so far from God and so close to the United States,” is something I heard a lot growing up in Mexico in the 1980s. How that saying, first coined by President Porfirio Diaz around the turn of the 20th century, resonates today.
With the U.S. election next door, Mexico seems not only far from God, but forgotten. In the past six years, 60,000 people have died in drug-related violence. Some say the death toll could be as high as 100,000. Yet the violence here didn’t make it into the last U.S. presidential debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.””
Ignoring it because they both agree on it’s failed policies and the main contributors to campaign funds tells the too.
A fun ploy I make with some folks:
Tell them to google the following terms:
Obama Clinton June 6 2008 Chantilly Virginia
and them have them google:
Romney June 6 2012 Chantilly Virginia
They met with the very same banksters who got filthy rich off of the drug trade, which kept them above water as they sank the rest of us.
Bite the hands that feed them and lifted them to the (bankster-controlled, figurehead equivalent of a little kid’s ‘high chair’) throne of the Presidency? You gotta be kiddin’!
There was a drug dog working the SD/TJ border crossing that had a contract out on it. One day, a 14-yr old passenger in a car just stepped out and blew the dog away.
I don’t understand why the cartels don’t just spray every vehicle with hemp tea going across the border,,about a week of searching every vehicle would remove the dogs from the equation.
A few years back, when the British Columbia Ferries stated they wanted to bring drug-sniffing dogs onbaord to harrass the citizens, cannabists up there threatened to bring spray bottles of bongwater aboard with them.
The plan was scrapped before implementation because the narcs knew the cannabists would do it.
That’s sad. The dog was doing his dog thing, sniffing for the treats he gets from his handler when he finds “the toy”. The dogs aren’t knowing participants in their master’s games. They are just playing dog games.
One of the more fucked up, but under-appreciated aspects of the drug war.
These dogs and their handlers are a team. Once the dog bonds with the handler, it won’t work with anyone else. Seeing as the dog is an innocent participant in the game the human is playing, wouldn’t it be more appropriate to put out a contract on the not-so-innocent handler and thereby remove the dog without killing it? Killing the dog means they just get the handler another one.
Did anyone know that today, November 1st, is International Drug Users Day?
I thought every day was International Drug Users’ Day?
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It was Halloween yesterday which means that annoying little street urchins have carte blanche to knock on my front door for the purpose of panhandling. I got yelled at last year because the fire hose w/meter tap was just too darned effective and some of the local urchins are crybabies. Boo flippin’ who.
Well the 2012 Halloween masquerade ball was a really interesting experience. I went as an undercover jackbooted thug. That’s really easy, a couple of classic prop guns and shoulder holsters and one of the ankle. Cheap suit, cheap oxfords. Then all I need is to locate a grocery store style paper bag (not plastic) cut the eye holes and and now I’m ready to roll.
The wife and I coordinated our costumes this year. She went as a big lovable dog. Think Wilfred. (Holy hannah, is that dog using a bong? That’s just plain silly. Everyone knows that dogs can’t use bongs because of the way their jaws are shaped…they just can’t get an airtight lip seal which renders a bong useless to a dog)
She even had a motorized tail wagging device which could be activated on demand and also it was programmed to wag the tail at random times.
At random intervals I’d yell “Freeze! DEA we have a warrant” then “shoot” her dead or when I thought it fit into the script. Then say something clever like ‘I bet you rue the day that you decided pot is harmless! Now look at you” or “hey, killing that dog made me go over 100 dogs for the year and it wasn’t even a Dalmatian.”
Maybe next year I’ll buy a bunch of specimen jars and demand urine samples from the other people at the ball.
(I’d like to offer a sincere apology to The Unknown Comic and The Gong Show.)
“Maybe next year I’ll buy a bunch of specimen jars and demand urine samples from the other people at the ball.”
You know, Duncan might be on to something. It starts off as parody…and gets serious real fast when you point out that this is the joke, but the reality of all those who are forced to submit to “Pee for Pay” also being forced to surrender their rights as well is anything but funny. Especially when you come off as some sort of obnoxious authoritarian jerk.
Reminding them makes them more than a little uncomfortable. Maybe uncomfortable enough to do something about it…like pass re-legalization resolutions, which spell the death-knell for employee drug testing.
Not only would the cop have one less reason to harass you, but so will the boss-man, especially if he gets hit upside the head with a lawsuit which proves once and for all that presence of metabolites does not always equal impairment.
It just goes to show just how much is riding on these initiatives; they have ramifications far beyond the obvious and immediate…
Marihuana legalization will change our social atmosphere as much as hemp production will change our economy and both will be better.
Watch. (O/T)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ha0STe3UJ7A&playnext=1&list=PLDC88CBE54777CD85&feature=results_video
posted this to the last thread by mistake: U.S. Government working WITH the cartels. Right up to and including allowing assassinations on U.S. Soil. This is criminal in the extreme:
http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/crime/item/13457-feds-let-mexican-cartel-hit-men-kill-in-us-senior-lawman-told-stratfor
I wish I could say this surprised me.
I am just completely baffled by this one.
Couple arrested after reporting drugs found in rental home
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local/couple-arrested-after-reporting-drugs-found-rental/nSs8Q/
Possible explanation:
Having found the huge stash of meth, the local cops decided to steal it, but in their haste to secret it away they un-wittingly left a few bags behind. Now they’re all angry and scared.
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Keeley said that when he found the bags of meth in the bathroom wall, he took them out and left them. He then immediately called the ICE agent he’d spoken to earlier. “He said, ‘I’m on my way and call 911,’†Keeley recalled Thursday. After calling 911, Keeley said he and his wife briefly left the residence.
When he returned to the home a second time Sunday around 10 a.m., Clayton police had already arrived and the ICE agent arrived around 10 minutes later.
When the ICE agent eventually left, the landlord said, “the whole atmosphere changed.â€
Keeley said the Clayton officers began intensely interrogating him and his wife and questioning him about calls he’d made that morning, many of which Keeley said he’d made trying to reach the ICE agent.
“’Who is this person you called? Who is this person you called?†Keeley said the officers demanded to know until they “snatched my phone.â€
Keeley said police still have his and his wife’s cellphones. He was able to remotely retrieve a voicemail from the ICE agent, who had been at the home earlier.
“He was apologetic. He said he did not authorize, he did not know, he had no knowledge that they were targeting us for arrest,†Kelley said. “He thanked me for being a help to them in the past.â€
When contacted Thursday, a Clayton County police spokeswoman would only say that the case was being investigated by ICE, and not Clayton police even though the evidence tampering charge was state and not federal. Efforts also were being made to get comment from ICE.
http://tinyurl.com/ct2x5l8
Biggest mistake – calling the cops! Time and time again we see that involving police only makes matters worse.
Shame – some people still believe they “Protect & Serve” the public.
Calling 9-1-1 and asking for the police anymore is the equivalent of spinning the Wheel of (Mis)Fortune, with most of the choices comprising of pictures of gun barrels aimed at you when it stops. Whether you get shot or not is the question…
As the old cop saying went, “If you don’t like the way we work, next time you’re in trouble, then call a hippie!” Nowadays, you’d be a damn sight safer doing just that…
Kap’n, learned my brutal lesson many years ago. A friend and I were randomly assaulted outside his apartment. I sat with him laying against me while I applied pressure to the stab wounds in his chest as a scared sobbing 16 year old. Afterward I spent over an hour cuffed, laying over the hood of a squad car while officers took turns threatening me,banging the hood next to my head and poking my sides with their clubs. The whole time I was drenched in his blood. All of this trying to get me to take the wrap for stabbing my dear friend despite the dozen or so witnesses and THE victim saying otherwise. Pure evil, I think the police enjoyed it.
We are still close pals to this day.
Thanks for the added info. That’s the meat of the story right there and was cut from both the TV report and other local papers.
ICE involvement sheds additional light and makes the cops involved look quite suspect. The Keeleys were probable not supposed to be there that day or that early… I wouldn’t be surprised if the charges were dropped thanks to the media attention.
If you want a real mess instead of just a little bother, call the bulls.
Some of you already know this, but I just learned that the US territory of American Samoa has the worst draconian law in the empire. If you get arrested for simple possession of any amount of any drug it’s a mandatory five years in prison. That’s longer than Dubai!
This leads me to wonder: how much does federal law apply to the incorporated territories? If they don’t need to worry about federal pre-emption then maybe we’ll see quicker change there.
This one is from the “there’s more than one way to spin a headline” category:
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I’m wondering if we’re not at the starting point for a public relations effort to cast sniffer dogs as heroes. What makes me wonder that? Well the newest episode of CSI featured the story of a drug cop and his faithful K9 sidekick. The cop was murdered by an evil methamphetamine pusher. The dog didn’t rest until he had hunted down and brought the cop killer to justice. For the love of god they staged a lineup to see if the dog could identify one of meth pusher’s henchmen. As they’re taking the culprit into custody Capt. Brass whispers, “good work Fido” to the dog.
I think that this one may well be from the “jumping the shark” category.
Have fun with this one: http://tinyurl.com/bm98y2o
here is an o/t story that reminds me of the cancer study black out from 1974. it turns out giving the rich tax relief doesn’t “create” any jobs. the wealthy laugh all the way to bank. they already have enough servants. no need to hire more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/11/02/congressional-research-service-pulls-study-that-crushed-republican-tax-theories/
This one is from the “prohibitionists say the darnedest things!” category:
And your point is……? Don’t be too hard on the hookers. Here in Canada prostitution has never been illegal, and we have no problems to speak of with prostitution. Likewise, when drugs are legal, we won’t have nearly as many drug problems as we do now, mainly because more people will get high and fewer will get drunk.
My point? My point was to present Mr. Chabot as laughing stock. The man is a flippin’ idiot. Damn, I thought that was res ipsa loquitur.
I was responding to the quote in your item, attributed to the idiot, not questioning your intent. Sorry if I was obscure.
Hell yeah,,ain’t nothing better than a couple of hookers to help me deal with coming down off that merryjewanna.
the article has been corrected to show that Chabot is NOT a congressman. He IS an anti-drug lobbyist (funded by that nutbag in FL prolly).
Yeah, wasn’t Chabot at Sabet’s old job at ONDCP before Kevvie??
probably funded by his victims, the tax-payer
Heh, just saw this one on the “Reality-Based Community”.
Mark Kleiman calls bullshit on everyone in the article, then spreads some bovine scatology of his own:
Just one thing: there aren’t 45,000 Americans in prison for marijuana possession. There might be 45,000 people in prison convicted of marijuana offenses (for some of them, along with other offenses) but at least 95% of them are in for production or sales, not mere possession. There’s a difference.
My response:
I’ve raised my objections to this deception many times on Kleiman’s blog, and I’ve never once gotten a response from him.
“I’ve raised my objections to this deception many times on Kleiman’s blog, and I’ve never once gotten a response from him.”
As have we all. He’s not going to ever respond to that one.
Yep DC, I’m betting you’re right. About the only thing that might get a response out of him would be if Pete wrote a front-page post challenging his intellectual honesty on the point, and then he’d just say we’re wrong due to intellectual inferiority or call us liars and simply repeat his position.
Election night coverage of the Marijuana vote, live with Jodie Emery:
http://www.cannabisculture.com/content/2012/10/30/Watch-LIVE-Election-Night-2012-Coverage-Pot-TV
P.S., don’t expect any mention of this issue in the MSM.
Glad this will be on,,don’t have to watch Obama get elected again
Just received this comment in response to one of my own over on a cnn story.
When that guy is ready to legalize, you know we’ve won.
And all we can do is hope that bonehead never finds the grace of the lady.
PS:go throw the carbon removal factor of cannabis plants compared to others,,that should round his education out nicely.
Karma has a way of kicking your ass in humbling ways.
Well, “walking tampons”… first time I’ve heard that one. But clearly we’ve simply worn them out. Let’s go out there and bitch some more!
BTW, butterhead? WTF? Butterhead?! He seriously called you that? Huh.
I seriously doubt if this guy could’ve beaten a rat through a maze. JMO.
occasional hyperbole is hardly criminal. Hiding and demonizing a substance showing effective results against cancer is criminal. Raiding citizens’ homes under false pretense is criminal. Traitorous some might say…
Yep, that’s a point I sometimes make. Cultural bigotry and ignorance I can live with; prohibition I can’t. If you want to feel smugly superior to/ hate / refuse to associate with cannabis users, that’s fine. I think you’re missing out on knowing some wonderful people, but that’s your right (and your loss). But for God’s sake, just put down the gun!
Maybe he was thinking of cannabutter? I don’t know what he meant. All I know is that it hurt. 😉
aaah, que lastima francisco… ffffffff… ‘ere… take this… ffffff…
I know. People just don’t seem to appreciate that we’re human beings with feelings, too. Linda Taylor reduces me to tears every time I see her(because I always cry when my eyes are dipped in acid).
OT but speaking of cannabutter, it has been suggested to me that it is better to use organic extra virgin coconut oil over dairy butter when making that cannabis baking ingredient. What say you all, anyone agree or disagree?
I use coconut oil for a lot of cooking (and also on my skin), but I also use butter for a lot of cooking and also bacon grease (bacon grease ROCKS for flavor) plus lard, hemp oil, olive oil, walnut oil and almond oil (depends on what I’m cooking/baking, each one has its own distinctive flavor and is best for particular uses).
I REFUSE to use canola or corn oil or any form of synthetic like margarine.
Windy – try clarified butter. I just don’t like the taste of coconut oil – much prefer butter.
It’s a bit of a chore to clarify the butter, but afterwards it stores without refrigeration and will not go rancid. Also has a higher smoke point and is better for cooking and sauces.
Incidentally, the German climber who climbed Everest without supplemental oxygen only carried one food for the trip – clarified butter. MOst nutrition per ounce of any food!
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IMO you need fractionated coconut oil (FCO). Fractionating allows the oil to be liquid at room temp. I can’t for the life of me seem to recall why but something happens in the digestive tract because it’s fractionated which gets it absorbed by the digestive tract faster and more efficiently. Sort of how champagne gets into the blood faster than non-carbonated drinking alcohol. I seem to recall that 2/3 of the THC passes through undigested with other methods of infusion.
Shop around if you decide to buy the FCO. There was an absurdly large price difference between vendors. Looking for supply at a local bricks and mortar retail stores was a waste of time. Most of them don’t carry it and the ones who do are very pricey. The only place I could find it locally was a bookshop that catered to born again Christians, and they certainly weren’t worried about saving their customers pocketbooks. It has been a while since I ordered any FCO but this is where I found it for one of the better prices: http://aromathyme.com/
If you want a testimonial I thought that it made a huge improvement over olive oil. I certainly think that it had a significant improvement in available potency. It sure hit me like a ton of bricks that first time as I didn’t titrate the dose when I ate those cannabrex. I was so cannabis addled that I got lost in a Wal-Mart for over 5 hours before I could find the exits. Of course it then took me another 90 minutes to locate my vehicle in the parking lot.
Please don’t do a butane extraction. That shit is dangerous.
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P.S. I find the FCO to be almost taste free. It certainly doesn’t taste like coconuts. I hate the taste of coconut. But then I buy capsules and load them rather than mixing it with food so the taste to me is irrelevant. I always end up eating way too much when I infuse food.
Back to the point… Pete, I call those “Silver Lining Moments.” Some can’t see them.
We had a point? I thought this was a chat room.
Had one last nite siting on my porch and watching the waning moon when a meteorite cut across between us and it,,it froze my mind,,of course the big bong hit I was taking helped.
and i thought this was the Group W couch… and thusly our point was as broad as that made by Arlo in Alice’s Restaurant. And (correct me if I’m mistaken) couldn’t a broad point point be considered a blunt object?
my place here out in the flats of the south Willamette Valley is full of those moments. Geese flying over the farm under the full moon or in the fog at sunrise and sunset is pretty darn sublime… perfect for a pothead peacenik like me. my sky is almost a circular 180º and hills rise up on 3 sides… i can hear the train that sends carloads of logs to China, all day, every day, in the distance…
Silver creek and the Nooksak river are my surroundings. Herons and tree frogs.
yeah, I’ve got them little frogs creaking on my front porch, out in the copses and wetlands. Great stuff… and it’s pretty peaceful until the sheep are put out in the field.
Then I get those darn carloads of Republicans driving by, hootin’ and hollerin’… shameful I say. It’s said that in Utah the only virgin wool coming outta there anymore only comes from the sheep that can outrun the republicans and mormons… bada boom
Thats why Utah retailers only sell button up Levis,,,sound of a zipper stampedes the sheep.
Voted for Gary this past week. I’m 36 second time I have ever bothered to vote. I have never voted Red or Blue.
I’m with you, Dr. Woo. 😉
I returned my ballot today, with Johnson as my choice also. I even voted for I-502, but at the same time I sent an email to the legislature (well 18 legislators, anyway) requesting they legislate that DUID feature OUT of the law (with lots of documentation why it is unscientific and arbitrary), immediately, and add in the right of ALL users (recreational and medical) to grow their own. Not certain if they can legally do anything about those reforms for two years, tho; WA law says the legislature cannot alter a citizen’s initiative for two years; hopefully there is a way around that rule in this case.
I don’t think they can delay putting the law in effect but they could delay purchasing the saliva testing devices Philips is trying to sell congress,,making roadside testing impossible.
I think I would have a no smoking ban in my auto just to be sure no odor gives the police a reason to test.
Hubby and I both have a no smoking of anything policy in our vehicles and our home, we initiated that policy 24 years ago, when our daughter was pregnant with our first grandchild. We make an exception with our motorhome when it is just the two of us but we do it with the vent fan on and smoke directly under it.
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I’m still looking for someone that’s been investigated for cannabis addled driving who wasn’t smoking in their vehicle immediately before the cop decided to do the field test. Almost 35 1/2 years now of chosing to enjoy cannabis and I’m aware of only one person that’s been investigated and convicted. That was the guy who smoked a bowl in a parking lot and then backed into the police car driven by his arresting officer.
Thats why Utah retailers only sell button up Levis,,,sound of a zipper stampedes the sheep.
It used to be a lot like that over here —you could just walk into any field, pick up a sheep and start pumpin’ away. But because of recent pressure from the German and French governments, the Dutch authorities, with the exception of certain designated areas, no longer allow it.
is there a problem w/ sheep tourism?
Nah, just a loads of people smelling of sheep dip 🙂