While I’ve always been a fan of libraries, I never spent much time in them, as I tended to like owning books and had computer access at home. Yet for much of the population, libraries are an incredibly important source of literary entertainment and non-TV news.
Local reader Gregg told me this week that he was at the library here in town and noticed that Drug WarRant was blocked by the filtering software. He did the right thing and took it up with the librarian. The librarian took one look at the site and said “There’s no way that should be blocked,” and immediately had it white-listed on the filtering software.
A big thanks to Gregg and the librarian. (If any of you happen to spend time at your local library, take a moment to see if Drug WarRant is available there.)
I’m in the process of cleaning and simplifying my apartment, so I then felt really good about being able to drop off 9 boxes of books as a donation to the library. They were so appreciative and assured me the books would get good use.
Note: To the other Sci-Fi fans here, I still wasn’t ready just yet to part with my 25-30 feet of Sci-Fi paperbacks, so I still have those.
Pete, I hate to tell you this, but 25 to 30 feet of paperback sf doesn’t touch it. I have at least twice that many, plus at least 50 feet of hardback sf. Moving my library has given me a great appreciation for ebooks. My whole library would fit on a couple of chips. Unfortunately, I can’t afford to replace thousands of books with ebooks.
my ex-wife didn’t know when you pack books you use medium to small boxes, not big ones… ugh, my back…
Hard times squeezed me wallet so I sold off most of my books before the eBook explosion. Used book stores used to be everywhere around Eugene, but over the last few years they’re goin’ the way of literacy and there’s prolly only a third of them left.
Great idea! I’m going to check my library this week!
Oh gawd. My wife and I do a yearly book purge. Without it, we’d be living in our car. Unless we needed THAT to store books, too…. Don’t do E-books. They aren’t really books, IMHO. (…and it’s worse when you drop your Ipad in the tub)
Pete this censorship is a real problem at the public libraries. My internet access at home has been down this week so I went to to the library. I was surprised to learn that most of my favorite sites were blocked. NORML, the drug policy alliance, heroinhelper.com, bluelight forums, opiophile.org…all blocked. Filter says “illegal drugs site blocked” when you try to load the site. Interestingly drugwarrant wasn’t blocked.
I don’t know a huge amount about how these filters work, so I went back with my own laptop and connected on their wireless network. The same filters were active. Out of curiosity I did a google search for “opioid therapeutic index”, at least half the top-ten results were blocked when you tried to click them.
I did send out some emails to NORML (letting them know about the censorship) and the library asking for clarification about how they decide what sites to block. Many years ago I actually worked at a library and we had to disable our filters, which were supposed to block porn, but also block searches like “breast cancer.” The staff decided to stop using the filters altogether, even if that meant the occasional porn pop-up. It was actually kind of funny when the occasional senior citizen was overwhelmed by porn pop-ups, but ultimately the filters were more trouble than they were worth.
I haven’t received any replies yet, its been several days so I suppose I should talk to the library staff in person. I do know that when I use the computers in the library of my alma mater (or the other colleges in my area) there are no blockers active, so I think this is only a problem at local, public libraries.
It probably has something to do with funding,,I have never known where libraries get their funding,I know they get a lot of books donated to them but the operating budget has to come from somewhere.
I had over 200 audio books,,novels mostly,,from science fiction to mountain man stories,,from driving trucks otr,,,greatest innovation they ever came up with for driving long distances by yourself,,followed closely by the comedy channel on satellite radio.
Oh, Pete –you said the L word. Every time I enter a Library, the ‘Reading Rainbow’ song always comes on (though it’s probably because the song is already playing on my I-pod every time I go in). The French Poetry section at the University with Rimbaud and Apollinaire was a good place to hit the pipe a time or two before moving onto Existentialism and Martin Heidegger for another hit: all spaced out to keep the smoke from being noticeable at the University while in between classes or after class . . . of course I never took a hit in the drug and drug war/law section –way too obvious and too many Criminal Justice Majors near that section. I bet the DOD has your website blocked in Afghanistan and Africa on the bases (maybe because of Islamic Law only), though I was able to view all the Dutch Coffee shop sites because of the language barrier on the search engines . . . but I bet its safe to say your site is viewable on all major U.S. bases not in an FOB zone. But having a military issued footlocker full of books in Iraq was better than any computer or video.
‘Chickadees made Fat using Drug Profits’
NOT FOUND sigghh
A few nights ago a sudden great banging around in the front yard!
WTF?
It was a Deer with a Plastic Bag over its Head. The Comedy! The Terror!
After some frightening Bullfighting moves, Hero here managed to grab it and tear it free.
Team Karma:10
Team BullCrap:0
aaah, Russ…
heh… to quote That ’70s Show, “Burn!”
Same thing happened to me at local library in Saluda, NC….and you betcha, that I post haste brought it to the director’s attention….one’s blocked were…Stop the Drug War, Drug War Rant, Norml, Cannabis Culture, Marijuana News…..fortunately, they got it filter changed fairly quickly…..but this gave me a good opportunity to get on my reform soapbox…..they are now very informed that this is an important topic in America right now.
That’s the key. It’s important to bring it to their attention. Most librarians may not even be aware that sites of political importance are being blocked by the filtering software. I always prefer to assume that they’re on the side of open information. Many would love not to have filtering software at all, if it wasn’t required by local political realities.
Hey dark,,,I see the WA LCB has decided,to keep the feds from attacking they’re legal market,that a strictly regulated with security and oversight from seed to customer is the only way they can minimize federal interference.
That is exactly what the feds want,,they don’t have to attack WA and CO to keep the cartels in business and the illicit market strong,,hell,no large outdoor grows doubles or triples production costs,,more state employees as inspectors and enforcement officers,,more fees and taxes for consumers to bear.
At the rate both states are going,the cartels can raise the price of brick and make more money,,just what the feds want to happen.
Haven’t seen that, got a link??
Sorry for the OT, but I’m all aflutter with national pride. My small home country has made it to the top of a couple of lists in Europe, and the Time magazine has picked up on this. Welcome to the overdose capital of Europe — Estonia!
Also, our economy is lauded as “the healthiest in Europe”, which I consider an inaccuracy, but whatever. We’re number one! We’re number one!
The amount of ignorance and hatred this piece of news has brought up in the local media — you wouldn’t believe!
Or, come to think of it, you probably would… Still, the quality of discourse over on this side of the Atlantic has some serious catching up to do.
Nice little article by Steve Chapman
The War on Pot: Not a Safe Bet
The worst you can say about pot is that it produces intense, unreasoning panic—in drug warriors.
http://tinyurl.com/ap8dskb
More victims of the War on Drugs
Police warn of contaminated ecstasy tablets after three deaths
http://tinyurl.com/a4x4nke
The name of the game is semantics; the words chosen have shades of meaning which convey a message which is unstated but understood. Currently, the accepted phrase is ‘alcohol and drugs’ which infers that alcohol is not a drug, which is not true. I propose a small change in wording. I would instead use the phrase ‘alcohol and other drugs’. The inference in this phrase is that alcohol is also a drug so to differentiate is inappropriate. If we can get the media to adopt this phrasing it will help change the mindset of the public and lead to greater acceptance of reform. One word could make a huge difference.
Triumph of the swill, part 35,298,766:
Court rejects bid to have marijuana reclassified
They say it has no medical use, but the court isn’t saying whether that judgment is correct or not; instead, they’re just finding that the DEA’s refusal to reschedule cannabis is not “arbitrary and capricious.”
So was it arbitrary, but not capricious? Capricious, but not arbitrary?
Perhaps the court decided that “absurd and unconscionable” is sufficiently different from “arbitrary and capricious” that it had no power to condemn the DEA?
I wonder if this is the end of ASA’s much-vaunted federal lawsuit…
So it’s off the the SCOTUS we go. This shall NOT stand.
Just saw this, and ran straight here. Too late. Well, reason.com’s report is here:
http://reason.com/blog/2013/01/22/in-fight-over-marijuans-scheduling-appea
“The DEA, in contrast, interprets that factor to require something more scientifically rigorous.”
How much more rigorous? “The DEA interprets ‘adequate and well-controlled studies’ to mean studies similar to what the Food and Drug Administration requires for a New Drug Application.”
Can you even conduct a study like that if the drug is schedule 1? This is the purpose of these idiotic rules right?
Yes, that’s precisely the purpose of those laws – essentially put into being in the “Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988″… (an expansion on the “Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986” which had 301 sponsors in Congress = it was *all-the-rage* at the time! damn near everyone got on-board and helped George H.W. Bush create the ‘crack epidemic’ OR at least publicized the mass marketing/sale of it, complete with scary “news stories” delivered straight from the desk of his oval office!
And the 1988 version of the Act created the ONDCP, and fallacy of a “Drug-Free America” by a certain year, the pushed the date/deadline back a couple times = But then (if I’m not mistaken) quietly stopped for fear people would laugh at them publicly over their continual failure to do the *obviously* impossible… they had even (somehow?) announced this stuff with a straight face.
Technically, it was the 1998 Re-Authorization of the ONDCP Act that put in the “Drug Czar is required by law to lie”… bit I think this was more of a dick-slap to the face to Judge Francis L. Young – or his memory… I don’t recall when he died? But the 1988 act was put in about 2 months after his ruling was overturned by DEA Administrator John Lawn – with apparently the full latitude required to plainly ignore, *or actually flat-out disregard*, based on anecdotal evidence from “doctors, health-professionals, and whoever.”
But, Yes – this was OBVIOUSLY meant/constructed to keep just this sort of challenge or attempt to reschedule it from even being feasible much less a serious possibility from a “funding the research” level, though this most recent ruling could seemingly be appealed & kicked up to the SCOTUS… IDK, if they would take it up anytime soon or not?
Reason’s is better article and includes link to pdf file
I’m tellin’ ya, excrementalism isn’t just a word in my head…
The wiggle room is right here, ‘the court wrote, “the parties’ dispute in this case turns on the agency’s interpretation of its own regulations.’ Well pardon my disgust but the plug needs to be pulled on the DEA. Shoulda been pulled long ago.
Based upon the facts established in this record and set out above.one must reasonably conclude that there is accepted safety for use of marijuana under medical supervision. To conclude otherwise, on this.
record, would be unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious. Administrative Judge Young. 1988
http://www.druglibrary.org/olsen/medical/young/young4.html
And there has been a lot more research and evidence since 1988,,just in case anyone believes our judicial system isn’t corrupted by corporate money.
Just in ase you thought our judicial system isn’t corrupted by corporate money.
http://americansforsafeaccess.org/article.php?id=7474
Does this give us an insight to how the Feds might try and go about combating legalization in CO and WA?
Mendocino County spars with feds over conflicting marijuana laws
Mendocino County is resisting demands by federal prosecutors for records on medical marijuana growers who registered for permits to cultivate up to 99 plants.
http://tinyurl.com/aggjymn
I notice that the Toke of the Town site has been inactive since Jan 14. Anyone know anything?
Steve Elliot has been charged with battery and domestic violence, he has resigned, Toke of the Town was his baby.
I commented at TotT a lot until Steve became a prohibitionist disguised as an advocate and swallowed Sarich’s line of shit hook,line and sinker over I-502,,it may be the shallowest legalization law ever written but it is still a giant hammer blow on the wall,,a blow that was heard around the world.
Dark,,here is the link you asked for earlier.
State looks to manage marijuana
http://tinyurl.com/b2euwf3
There may not be any justice for the DEA’s mis-scheduling of marijuana for now, but at least some consideration is being shown to people’s pets and pet custodians. A police officer in Colorado has been arrested on a felony count of killing someone’s pet dog.
The police objections to the charges are spurious: “The Fraternal Order of Police finds the charging of this officer outrageous, and not within the scope of the event,” the Fraternal Order of Police released. “We have our opinion as to why the DA charged the officer. In light of the atmosphere surrounding this circus, you can judge why for yourself.”
Yeah, I’m judging the DA likes dogs.
http://reason.com/24-7/2013/01/22/colorado-officer-faces-felony-charges-ov
If you kil a police dog you can be imprisoned for life and I am sure in a kill happy state like TX you would probably get a death sentence,,,by bukati.
Fuck the Fraternal in their eternal.
Please,,tape jaws shut now!
Bill filed to establish medical marijuana program in Okla.
http://tinyurl.com/b4vckfe
“”OKLAHOMA CITY – A state senator has filed bills to establish a medical marijuana program and reduce the penalties for possessing small amounts of marijuana in Oklahoma.
Sen. Constance Johnson filed Senate Bill 902 that would direct the State Board of Medical Licensure and Supervision to develop and adopt rules that allow individuals with debilitating medical conditions to use marijuana with approval from their physicians and to establish fees for the “licensing, production, distribution, and consumption†of marijuana for medical purposes.””
Damn,,a medical and a decrim bill in one move,,in OK,,tell me that CO and WA didn’t change the game.
Only through the power of prayer will one of them get passed in the Oklahoma Bible Belt within 4-5yrs. But the best action for Oklahoma is to utilize the tribes and let them know of the DEA hemp cut down on Sioux lands over a decade ago . . . remind the Cherokee what plant produced their paper and what plant they grew as much as corn and wheat. If the tribes can get casinos in Oklahoma, then I say the tribes can get hemp. Also, Native American Medical Care would be new grounds for medical pot pushes.
I agree that it has a snowballs chance in hell of passing but it is significant that OK even has a legislator that would even enter a bill,,especially if he wants to be re-elected. If he gets the Baptist mad at him he is out like a light.
It amazes me that the Baptist Press has not run an anti-pot article since those pastors in WA state endorsed I-502 because of the racial application of the drug laws.
It is important to the Bible beaters that they are not designated as racial bigots,,so supporting laws that are so starkly racially applied could have been the catalyst that shut their propaganda delivery service down,,only a guess but something tripped their trigger.
I went to grade school in Talequah,OK and I hope some tribe does decide to legalize on their reservation but I would expect the Apache or Navaho tribe before the Cherokee,,and the Comanche tribe in southern OK is a good candidate.
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