Several have mentioned this in comments – it’s definitely worth watching. Bill Maher on the militarization of police.
http://youtu.be/b7JADq4tTsc
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A shame that Bill Maher spends so much time sticking up for Israel, a hyper militarized society, and regularly spouts racist and sexist crap.
He is NOT sticking up for a hyper militarized society in this video.
If hostage situations or active shooter scenario’s were the reason for the introduction of SWAT and military force, police routinely go far beyond that justification now.
One day they will use mk19s, SAWs, 50cal on vehicles during chases. We did in Iraq.
If they keep arming the police like they are the Nation Guard we will.
Excellent. Going to send this around. Not a big maher fan, and I’m not sure why he singled out the tea party since politicians on both teams support this kind of thuggery equally.
Of course we’ve all been reading these stories from you and radley balko for years. It’s nice to see this issue get some light shed on it.
Perhaps if the tea party spent as much effort fighting against the jack booted thuggery as they do tossing their sabots into the machinery of government, they would get a lot more respect. It’s the hypocrisy of decrying big government while ignoring the very real danger of heavily armed police forces.
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Did you know that there was $1.5 million (constant 2014 dollars) worth of tea destroyed during the Boston Tea Party?
I’ve really got to admit that I just can’t figure out why people who would join an organization which employs the memory of that event in its very name would have members who can’t deal with principled law breaking. Sheesh, what’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.
He COULD have left the insults to the Tea Party out of it, they are fighting against the police state, too, just as hard as we are; but I guess liberals just gotta hate conservatives of all stripes, including we who are libertarians (rather than conservatives), even though Maher claims to be libertarian himself (he ain’t even close except on this single issue).
I wonder how the guy that closed the door on the showers in Dachua justified his job?
Humphreys usual drivel with no comments allowed,,he mainly focuses on “marijuana abusers”,,but he has never said anything that would justify worrying about any person becoming a hazard or harm to society if they are a raving marijuana addict,,as with caffeine,chocolate and sugar addicts if the substance is legal the only person they may possibly hurt is themselves.
Since marijuana addiction has less severe withdrawels than either chocolate or sugar addiction I think society can adapt to it.
http://tinyurl.com/o7renpz
I suppose Kieth got tired of having us hand him his ass and shut off comments.
WTF? Seriously, what is that chart even supposed to prove? The people who use most often, consume the most. Um, duh? A kindergartner could’ve figured that out.
That chart is almost entirely useless. Make the same chart for beer or coffee, I bet it looks even worse. News flash: Daily use is not an airtight indicator of abuse, or any other problem… Ugh.
You can put that chart into just any context to sell whatever you want. Thus his ridiculous “Envisioning”:
Pray tell, could you define what a life is that has been “set right”? Somehow, I don’t think your meaning of life is the same as mine…
NO. Public health advocates wouldn’t and shouldn’t give a shit about taxes. They should by now recognize that the “primary risks” are not caused by cannabis dependence, but are a symptom of whatever is going on in the individual’s life. No doubt that those symptoms are exacerbated by heavy substance (any substance) use, but the blame doesn’t fall on the substance. I’d put dollars to donuts that a significant percentage of those daily users are Medical users who NEED a lot more raw product, especially for creating edibles or oils.
A public health advocate who tries to heal with taxes doesn’t know a thing about health.
I worked up, I’m gonna keep going.
No doubt there are some greedy CEO’s who think this way, but it’s disingenuous to label an entire brand new industry with that mentality. Case in point: Harborside CEO Steve DeAngelo.
That’s probably pretty spot on. That’s close to what I’d imagine a detached politician would say. The “We care” is especially disturbingly accurate.
To summarize, it’s Monday, and I’m frustrated and disappointed that there are so many self-important monkeys in charge. On top of that, some of them have learned enough to use a keyboard or a pen, and they think that makes them smart.
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I think they’re seeing that pandora’s medicinal cure-all box has been opened, and they’ve realized that the high profitability aspect of the whole medical system could be in peril, and that is terrifying.
When an inexpensive cure for cancer (and so many other things) exists, expensive and toxic ‘treatment’ options don’t make any sense anymore, and that is the elephant in the room that no one is going to acknowledge, as it is toxic to their financial model.
It really illustrates how the system focuses on making money which may have the side-effect of helping people rather than helping people with the side effect of making money. Yin and Yang all mixed up. The psychic inertia that keeps it all going is propelled by greed. It’s quite sad.
We should be so lucky as to have monkeys in charge.
I can’t understand why there isn’t more outrage about this situation – from either the left or the right.
Here’s another curiosity:
“…marijuana addiction has less severe withdrawels than either chocolate or sugar addiction…”
The withdrawal symptoms are exactly the same: nonexistent.
As someone who grew up in the 60’s and 70’s, I find it quite strange to hear talk of “marijuana addiction” again. What will they revive next, the Red Scare?
I particularly enjoy the prohibitionist parasites who use a definition of the word “addiction” which makes a person an addict in one jurisdiction but the same person not an addict in another. By some “definitions” of the word I suffer the fiction of merrywanna addiction, no doubt. But if I get on a plane and fly to Uruguay I wouldn’t suffer from addiction provided that I jump through the hoops set up by Uruguayan authorities. Disease dictated by geography, isn’t that just precious?
that’s actually a longtime mantra of we dpr types… where’s the outrage? Lord knows there’s an abundance of rot to be outraged over.
Most of the outrage since the mid 60s, until just recently, has come only from the libertarians and cannabistas.
Yep, Clay, right along with the rest of ’em. On the posts that have comments enabled, your comment will end up in moderation purgatory unless you’re a registered guest in good standing. At least that’s how it’s gone for me ever since they turned the place into the “Reverberation-Based Community”. They lost most of their commenters in the process — the comments sections look like ghost towns these days. I hope they’re enjoying the echo-chamber they’ve built — and why not? It’s not like they ever gave comments they disagreed with the slightest consideration before.
I think that site exists merely as a BS homegrown – “Reference” for them to “cite” from, at best its basically a ‘hybrid’ combo of a peer-review/circle jerk.
If you’ll excuse the crude term – But, “it is what it is”…
The downing of a plane full of passengers near Donetsk is truly shocking. Is this to be the new normal? Is this to be a shining exemplar of the drug free world at UN forums? President Obama should summon their ambassador and suspend air transport until there is an explanation. What is the point of all this DHS checks that Joe citizen is subject to. No more business as usual!
Aside from being scared of the cops, Rep. Steve Cohen tweeted about the other side of this coin:
http://youtu.be/_Pz3syET3DY
meant to comment on this earlier…
anybody else notice the uh… ads on top right? We’ve said cop and police and law enforcement so much every ad is criminal justus related. The one w/ the image of the SWAT team made me think they had raided the couch… it was only a momentary disconnect but man, spooky…
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Goddammit, somebody needs to kick the AI machine!
Give this a try allan, it’ll make those pesky cops disappear. Well, at least the virtual ones.
http://adblockplus.org/
Partnership for a Drug Free Canada is up to no good shenanigans again.
http://www.canadadrugfree.org/ontario-safety-league/
They’re trying to take down the corner variety store that sells “paraphernalia” . That’ll solve the drug problem for sure and make it a little harder for these poor store owners working long hours for small money.
Do they have any idea how entrenched the paraphernalia industry is ? We have people in Toronto who have glass bong style art collections worth thousands,a glass bong making competition at the Toronto Champs Hemp Expo and lots of nice cannabis themed accessory shops.
And they’re bugging poor hardworking immigrant families living above the store.
” But no problem… they ( storeowners ) can’t afford lawyers and the PFADFC comes out looking good.”
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Those people just can’t make up their minds! Over here they claim to have developed a test to be able to tell if a person actually suffers from the fiction of merrywanna addiction! But it requires merrywanna parfenellia. So how the heck are they going to be able to figure out whooza junkie in Canada if there’s no merrywanna pairoffinnellia in Canuckistan? Isn’t that just like a prohibitionist? It does take talent (or very weird feet) to end up with egg on your face when you shoot yourself in the foot.
Seeing Drug Paraphernalia Triggers Brain’s Reward Areas Differently In Dependent And Non-dependent Marijuana Users
Now isn’t that just plain precious? Say, does anyone know if our very favorite lady brain scan addict has any patents on brain scanners and/or the software needed to definitively label someone a statutory addict? (Oh my, now that’s a good one. Statutory addiction, that would be to addiction the same as statutory rape is to rape. …and a new way to make fun of prohibitionist parasites and their sycophants is born.)
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OK, from time to time I speculate about the possibility that the enemies of freedom have a substantial number of “scientific” studies kept on a shelf which basically require the Ts get dotted and the Is crossed before it can be trotted out on demand.
Madras displays the typical attitude of a right wing conservative. Any kind of change is evil. However, that is exactly how the brain works to retain information. It changes itself.
Bertha Madras would believe the human mind is evil. It’s a slippery slope in the mind-change game. Because changing one’s mind falls within her definition of evil, Dr. Madras will never change hers when it comes to drugs. She’s little Miss Goody-goody.
Behavioral Neuroscience. It typically investigates at the level of neurons, neurotransmitters, brain circuitry and the basic biological processes that underlie normal and abnormal behavior. Also known as biological psychology or PSYCHOBIOLOGY.
Coming from the(former)White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, its also known as scaring adults and children with the best results money can buy. That’s how you change behavior with neuroscience. You decide whats abnormal and go from there. Solid. Real Clockwork Orange kind of thing if you ask me. http://tinyurl.com/2qwt8n
Like I keep saying, the more desperate they get, the more they will drag out of the attics the Crazy Uncles they’ve kept in reserve (and thick leather restraints) all these years.
Bertha Madras… one more prohibitionist “scientist” to add to the list…co-conspirator with Nora Volcow in passing off prejudice disguised as research… next up will be “Dr” Andrea Barthwell. Quack quack!
The key phrase there being = “Madras served as Deputy Director in the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.”
I’m presuming she’s talking about the “Dunedin study” – No?
Brain scanning to explore the prohib theory of what constitutes pr0n for a cannabist? And our tax dollars went for this?
Where’s Proxmire’s Golden Fleece Award when you need it? These fruitcakes have definitely earned it.
http://www.chron.com/opinion/outlook/article/Gary-Hale-Pot-legalization-is-no-longer-a-trend-5626411.php
I would love to hear Pete and the normal crews take on this. Not too sure who Gary Hale is other than ex-DEA, but he is at Rice also. Seemed like strong words.
In a word: Inevitability. A 31 year ‘veteran’ of DEA is urging his fellow agents to hang it up on cannabis prohibition.
Of course, the doomed-to-fail argument is made that doing so will allow the DEA to concentrate on more dangerous drugs…but there simply won’t be much need for as many DEA agents as we presently have. And the purveyors of such drugs will defend their market share with even more violence.
Only one way out of this, and they know it. Otherwise, it becomes a form of Russian Roulette for them; which agent is assigned to the really bad guys who think nothing of throwing duffel bags full of severed heads into disco bars…and don’t care whether those heads belong to Mex or Gringos.
That’s the sound of desperation in the distance & a sign he’s seen the inevitable – and hopes they can keep at least it on the Schedule, IF they we’re all being 100% honest, it would be removed from the “schedules” and placed into the exceptions category – with alcohol & tobacco.
And – he’s (no doubt) hoping he can get back some degree of credibility for LEO’s and the DEA.
I think they’re right. I must confess to lusting over the latest techy looking vaporizer in the store display.
And I’ve bought several.
My last paraphernalia purchase was a pack of Justin Trudeau rolling papers and I don’t smoke.
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/02/18/justin-trudeau-rolling-papers_n_4811150.html
I’m not worried…I can quit paraphernalia whenever I want.
those rolling papers could be the start of the gateway process. you ll buy a vape next and before you know it the house will full of your collection of hand twisted glass bongs, and finally you ll be mainlining it with a chillom. boom shanka!
Who would want a return to the bad old days, when women would work themselves up into a reefer-soaked frenzy, tear their own clothes off, and then have sex with the nearest stranger?
the only people who could want that would be ” negros and jazz musicians”
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Well this is definitely a never before seen event. Great stuff if you find yourself feeling compelled to engage the “there’s no such thing as medical marijuana” crowd in a battle of wits. This one is from the “I have seen the writing on the wall” category:
Oregon has its legalization bill – we vote in Nov! Word from Anthony Taylor is the national anti-ganjanuts are preparing a poll to see if they will campaign here against us. ick… that would mean the usual suspects soiling my fertile Oregon soil. That is just not ok. But I have extra barrels, neighbors have chickens and there is no shortage of poles here and plenty of rail lines leading out of state…
Speaking of Oregon, former governor Vic Atiyeh (and uncle to my friend and former boss, George Atiyeh) has passed. Condolences to the Atiyeh family and thanks to Vic for working his off to make Oregon politics work. W/o the Atiyeh family Oregon would not have saved Opal Creek, what has rightly been called Oregon’s uncut gem. Opal Creek gave me an appreciation for the tactics of front line skirmishing. Nothin’ like bein’ a tree hugger in logging country… and it was very testy back then. George used to always have his “stumps don’t lie” bumper sticker on his trucks.
I guess I like me a good fight now and again. 🙂