Frank J of IMAO has got to be one of the funniest political satirists in the blogosphere! I love his Rumsfeld character to no end. :)

Click for the rest of the piece: IMAO: In My World: Die, Leakers, Die: "'According to this leaked memo,' the anchorwoman announced, 'Rumsfeld is about to purchase a quart of milk, bananas, and a gallon of whiskey.'

'That's my shopping list!' Rumsfeld screamed as he picked up the T.V. and smashed it on the ground. Chomps, the world's angriest dog, then eagerly attacked the broken pieces. 'Who is leaking my memos?'

Rumsfeld thought for a moment. 'I have two options to end the leaks: find the leaker, or murder all reporters.'

'Grrrrah!' Chomps growled, snapping at the air angrily.

'No,' Rumsfeld answered, 'Killing all reporters will take too long. We'll need to find that leaker and kill anyone who stands in our way. To the Buick!'

* * * *

Senator Daschle went flying out the front door of the Capitol building with Chomps running to fetch him. Rumsfeld then emerged holding up Senator Leahy by the neck.

'I don't know anything! I swear!" Leahy cried, "I'm a member of Congress, for Christ's sake; I couldn't find my ass with two hands and a flashlight!""

Tucson was under a pall of haze today.

California burning, heavy in our skies.

If I didn't know the fire was in the next state, I would have guessed that it was in the next valley--that's how thick it was.

Absinthe & Cookies (a little bit bitter, a little bit sweet): Let's Go Shopping!
Clearly Ith was listening to the same radio that I was. :)

Last quarter the GDP grew at an annual rate of 7.3%. That is GREAT news!! The point that the guest host on EIB was making (dang I forgot who, was it Roger Hedgecock?) was that the mainstream press was not going to make the connection for us, that 19 years ago was two years after the first Reagan tax cuts. Now it is two years after the Bush tax cuts. Somewhere Arthur Laffer is laughing...

Trickle down baby! TRICKLE DOWN! Hahahahahahaa!!!

You could say that by next year we'll be heading full steam into the best economy in twenty years. What a great campaign soundbite THAT will make!

Well I am relieved to find that The Gender Genie believes that I am male, based on a sample of my blogging.

UPDATE: Laurence at Amish Tech Support ran this test on the Gender Genie with hilarious results!

Nanofactory Design--A How-To Guide for the Compleat Geek

ChristiansForCannabis responds to a Pharisee.

HOO HOO! This one got forwarded to wifey just as fast as I could hit the "send page to mail recipient" button! :D :D

CNN.com - Study: New study shows that fellatio may reduce the risk of breast cancer - Oct. 2, 2003: "Study: Fellatio may significantly decrease the risk of breast cancer in women"

EDIT: link removed, because the story was removed. Dang. Oh well, it was quite funny while it was up. It was a spoof, not really an AP story...

libertyblog:
"Dear brother in jihad -

You have by now seen the reports that the second day of our long-anticipated Ramadan Offensive produced only one police station car bombing and a meager half dozen casualties, an eighty percent reduction from day one. No major international relief organizations were targeted today. Also, there has been no rocket attack on the Zionist-American cabal in over 48 hours.

There is only one word that can describe this: quagmire.

It is now clear that our leadership had no plan for this jihad. They launched this attack without a clear mandate from the Arab League and no support from our allies. Some of the terror organizations that are part of our so-called coalition are ones you could buy on eBay."

Go read the rest! This is a good parody. :)

This snippet in an article about Brad and Jen caught my interest:

Star Magazine: Brad and Jennifer caught in drug scandal: "While many celebs like Brad and Jennifer think pot smoking is harmless, they're dead wrong, says Amy Seifert, a counselor at the renowned Hazelden rehab center in Center City, Minn. 'Too many times Hollywood stars mistakenly think marijuana is not dangerous and not habit-forming,' says Seifert, who has not counseled the couple.

'Not only do the vast majority of pot users go on to experiment with more potent drugs, they also run a real risk of smoking marijuana tainted by pesticides or laced with stronger, mind-altering drugs.'"

Is that the honest to God best they can come up with?? The discredited "gateway drug" argument, and oh no! maybe your weed is contaminated? So legalize it and regulate the quality and purity then. Legalize it, so it is no longer a "gateway drug" to other illegal drugs. If crossing the legal-illegal barrier is the doorway to all sorts of danger, then for the sake of the children, move marijuana to the legal side of the door! And from what little exposure I have to the marijuana-using community, many if not most who do go on to try other drugs tend to return to marijuana as their preferred recreational substance. Why is that? It's relatively safe, it feels good, and doesn't seriously mess up your life (so long as you don't fall into the jaws of the drug war machine).

And why this horrified mention of "mind-altering drugs"? In and of itself, what the heck is wrong with altered states of consciousness (drinkers of alcoholic beverages, caffeine, and smokers of cigarettes, not to mention anti-depressant users, and parents of kids on Ritalin, please consider)? Why the focus on altered perception? As if being mellow or giggly or euphoric or focused was, in itself, some unspeakable societal harm. C'mon beer drinkers! Caffeine fiends! Stop with the hypocrisy already.

The real focus of the drug war, if there is to be one, should be on harm reduction. Does use or abuse of a particular substance cause irreparable harm to the user or to those around him or her, and how can we as a society best minimize that harm? Prohibition as an answer to this question is an abyssmal failure. Prohibition was the wrong answer to alcohol abuse, even though alcohol abuse causes tremendous harm to the alcoholic and to those closest to him or her. And prohibiton is the wrong answer to marijuana, which is, on balance, probably significantly less harmful than alcohol.

As a percentage of the population, overall illegal drug use has not diminished in the slightest over the long run, and drugs are as available as they have always been. In fact surveys of teens report that they are more available than cigarettes or alcohol. Billions have been poured into the drug war over the last twenty years. Are more draconian enforcement measures (locking up users longer than murderers??), more billions of dollars poured into the bottomless hole, more militarization of police forces, more very real loss of life and liberty, not just of users, but of otherwise law-abiding citizens, more prisons, ruined families, ruined relationships, ruined careers, really the answer? THINK for a second, willya? Try to control you kneejerk. The cure should not cause more harm than the problem. In the case of the drug war, it has become patently obvious that the "cure" is now itself the problem.

Anti-War protesters take note:

Patterico says: "I have a question for anti-war protestors: do you explicitly support the enemy and want the United States to fail? Assuming you answer "no," perhaps you should know that the groups putting together your anti-war rallies include a group that does, explicitly, support the enemy.

It appears that International ANSWER, a group which helped organize a recent anti-war rally, says on its web site: "The anti-war movement here and abroad must give its unconditional support to the Iraqi anti-colonial resistance."

Eugene Volkoh has more:The Volokh Conspiracy: "The anti-war movement here and around the world must give its unconditional support to the Iraqi anti-colonial resistance."

Yup, that's right. They fully admit it: They want people to give unconditional support to our nation's enemies, and a particularly evil set of enemies at that. (What do you think will blossom in Iraq if 'the Iraqi anti-colonial resistance' will win? Democracy? Religious freedom? Women's equality? Gay rights? Free speech? 'Civil rights & civil liberties,' which the International ANSWER Web site urges people to defend?)

I wish I could remember my source so I could reference it, but I recall that ANSWER is actually a front organization for the international Communist party. That would go miles toward explaining their positions. Anti-capitalism trumps American security any day in their mind, other principles be damned. I ask you anti-war protesters, do you consider yourselves to be communists? If not, do you realize that you are playing into the hands of communists?

MPAA on an insane rampage!
WorldNetDaily: Why hackers love Hollywood: "Under the MPAA-sponsored legislation, unless your service provider has expressly authorized use of your specific firewall device, then it is a criminal act to use a firewall to protect your network.

Nearly all firewalls incorporate a number of security mechanisms. One of the most useful has been IP address spoofing using Network Address Translation (NAT). When used as part of a firewall solution, what this does is hide all of your computers behind a single address on the Internet. Therefore, anyone on the Internet can only get to the one 'public' device on your network, namely the firewall. This measure alone provides tremendous protection against a cracker taking control of any of your computers. It also provides for very efficient use of Internet addresses, allowing the service provider to burn a single address while allowing you to support a virtually unlimited number of devices through that one address.

Under the MPAA-sponsored legislation, the use of NAT is illegal.

In short, under these laws it is illegal to protect your network against attack."

Have they gone utterly stark-raving mad?! This is so when RIAA gets permission to trash the computers of file-sharers, there won't be any pesky firewall in the way, eh? SOMEONE stop these lunatics!

IMAO: Bite-Sized Wisdom

* So, if a suicide bomber is rushing in on a truck, what would Jesus do? I think he'd jump on the hood while firing through the windshield with his .44 magnum.

* Sorry, that was 'What would Dirty Harry do?'. Jesus would probably have some solution where no one gets killed, but everyone has his or her own style.

ROFL!

A Doctor Speaks Out Against the War on Medical Marijuana
Oakland Tribune Online - Opinions/Editorials: "I have known too many patients who have lived miserably or died painfully to have patience with the Bush administration's intrusive attempts to bar them from discussing medical marijuana with their doctors.

I've seen one too many old men spend their final hours nauseated and vomiting while their distressed and helpless families watched. One too many women with cancer who linger, bone-thin and languid, as their loved ones beg for 'something' to make them feel better.

And I, like so many doctors, have witnessed the therapeutic relief that many such patients experience after using marijuana. Their illnesses become less miserable, their difficult deaths are made more tolerable."

click for the rest of the story
thanks to Pete Guither for the link

Drug War Rant

This is very clever! Go see. He has t-shirts, mugs, etc. with this image and more.

Weekly World News: JUST ONE MONTH after their gay marriage rocked the world, ecstatic newlyweds Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein have adopted a shaved-ape baby to make their family complete.

And while the news is sure to set terrorists' hearts aflutter, the animal-rights group that delivered the chimp to a go-between who promised that the 9-month-old was going to a "good home" say they were lied to -- and they want the little critter back.

But it seems unlikely that will happen anytime soon, because nobody -- not even the CIA with its Al Qaeda moles -- has any idea where Osama, Saddam and Robert, their new "son," might be.

Given the best intelligence available, the trio are on the move "somewhere in the Middle East."

Click for the rest.

I would say this is a very funny parody, but unfortunately some people take allegations published in this kind of paper dead seriously...

courtney.blog-city.com

Candidate!
Another cute conservative-libertarian for the blogroll...?

UPDATE: It doesn't look like she is maintaining this site--last post was early September. We'll wait and see.

Congress OK's $3 Billion for Fighting Wildfires

Just to get a perspective on that $87B the president requested for Iraq, of which $20B is for Iraqi infrastructure improvements, this article notes that next year, the US will spend at least $20B managing national parks, forests, and other public lands in this country, and $3 billion just to fight wildfires!

Somehow in that context, $20 billion doesn't seem like quite that much, considering how comparatively important seeing a positive outcome in Iraq is, to the fight against terrorism.

California Burning

I tracked the Aspen Fire in Tucson back in June on this weblog, but the fires raging around San Diego are making the Aspen Fire look like peanuts in comparison!

The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins

For Hobbit fans: this one leaves me bewildered and shaking my head every time I see it. WTF!? in a big way. :D

Link courtesy of Primal Purge

The Cheese Stands Alone: Lost in the Wilderness: How to Be a Better Blogger: by The Lord High Master of Cheesy Monkey Punditry

:D

More tasteless (and very funny) humor. DO NOT CLICK!
Who Let The Dogs Out?!

Link courtesy of Primal Purge

What in th' tarnation is that Cat cussin' up a storm fer, Mabel?

/rant on

"A Naked Soul in Cyberspace". Yep, that means exactly what it sounds like it means. If I think it, and want to say it, I say it. The whole point of this space is that I have more to say than the people around me care to listen to. I need more victims to unload my drivel on. Lucky you. And sometimes the stuff I think may be a bit "rich" in idiomatic expression. (NO! Can't be?! Christians never cuss, even in their own craniums, do they?!)

So I lied. I'm not quite naked most of the time. I do try to keep a bathrobe on in here. But sometimes it slips and I show off my hairy hiney for a second. Especially when I get on a rant. Oops, sorry to offend. But hey, that's the price of admission to my cranium.

And yes, it is true. Cat chortles at earthy humor, and even occasionally finds a well-written humor piece of the potty-variety to be particularly mirthsome. Sorry if that's a disappointment. I guess I'd better turn in my Sanctified Bretheren membership card now...

Gol durn if I don't also sometimes lust in my heart, curse other drivers on the road, slack off at work, even steal pens and notepads sometimes (though I usually bring the pens back--I'd bring back the notepad too, 'cept I wrote on it). Worst of all, I'm a selfish bastard who generally doesn't give a rat's-ass about the vast bulk of humanity on the face of this planet.

But that's just me, no reflection on Him. And if it is, then I'm sorry to find I have been placed on such a pedestal. If there's a decent shred in me, it's His. If there is a kind word or loving deed or charitable act that comes through me, it's His, not mine. Yes, it is true! I'm just as much a despicable schmuck as the rest of you all, and "working out my salvation with fear and trembling".

"I yam whats I yam and thats all I yam!" -Popeye



Here's hoping the additional clarification in the subtitle takes care of any future problems.

/rant off

I'll just shut up now...

www [dot] margilowry [dot] com: It's all her fault
Not tonight, dear, I have a modem.

>snrk!!< HOOT! :D

dong resin's joint >> dong resin vs. the very modern toilet >> October 19, 2003

This is a very very funny piece. Make sure you are somewhere that you can safely laugh out loud before you read it!

Well I had to ask. Apparently more than you want to know...


You are Proverbs.


Which book of the Bible are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

I suppose I could go to quizilla myself. But I just browse on over to Ith's site to see which ones she has put up.

Now after the previous rant, we return to our usual trivial programming:


Congratulations! You're a Long Island Iced Tea!


What Drink Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

How many more of these "what kind of ___ are you?" quizzes are out there??

I need to warn you my faithful readers (all 5 or 6 of you), rant ahead! If Cat does not get this off his chest, he is going to have an aneurysm:

Life is too damn short to waste any time being an uptight [rich idiomatic expression deleted]! It is really short! Your life and my life here on God's Green Earth is so painfully short in the great scheme of things, that it is almost enough to break my heart thinking about it. We have NO TIME for triviality, for TV, interpersonal [rich idiomatic expression deleted], for spending any but the briefest moments angry at anyone we love, for "projects" or other diversions that aren't going to mean a hill of beans in ten, twenty, or fifty years time. Ask yourself this question: "When I am 85 years old, lying flat on my back in a nursing home, unable to get up to [rich idiomatic expression deleted] by myself anymore, is what I am doing or saying now, or how I am spending my time right now going to make a difference to me then?"

You see, debility and death are inevitable. What will matter then, once it is too late to do anything more, is whatever you did up until then that was worthwhile and was something you would do again if you could. You will never say to yourself, "[rich idiomatic expression deleted], I sure wish I had watched a few more reruns on tv...", or "[rich idiomatic expression deleted], I wish I would have held that grudge against my sister a few more years", or "I sure missed out on working later at the office all those years. I should have worked more weekends too."

Another thing, there is no Shangri La on this earth. There is nothing anywhere like paradise. Nowhere is perfect, no one is perfect to live with. There are places better than others, people better than others, but it is a waste to focus your life on trying to find better than good enough. Life is so short, you will lose it all in the end anyway if you are not living your life looking beyond the portal on the other side of the "long valley", and into eternity.

But there are slices and slivers of the perfect all around you. Bits and pieces that are easy to miss and hard to capture if you are striving hard and trying to find it whole. The closest you and I will come to finding paradise on this earth, is if we fill our lives with seeking, chasing after, and capturing, if only for a fleeting moment, these "butterflies of paradise", these little moments of wonder and mystery and beauty and awe.

Once you come to the end, flat on your back, with no one to help you get up anymore, you can close your eyes and remember, remember the "summer of 100 years" that you experienced one fleeting moment at a time over the course of your 85 or 90 years. And it will flow like a river, like it was all there ever was. And then it will have been worth it, and it will be enough. And it will be okay then, to get up and step through that portal.

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Jesus actor struck by lightning

I'm beginning to wonder if maybe The Big Guy is not as happy about this film as I would have expected. Or maybe on the contrary, since the actor was not seriously injured either time, it is...A SIGN!!! :-O

ROFL!

Absinthe & Cookies (a little bit bitter, a little bit sweet): Ooooooh!: "Today is United Nations Day.

Can you feel the excitement?"

Matt Drudge on Rush's show this morning. He says, 'you too can do what I do!', re: his website.

Dang. He's pretty good. I had no idea his talent extended to being able to do talk radio as well as cutting edge blogging!

"Matt Drudge--Lord of the Links"
Heh!

EDIT: Ok, I didn't know this before, but Drudge has been doing a weekly radio show for a few years now. That explains it.

Serenity's Journal: A Conservative I Am

Just a day after I identified her as a "conservative woman with attitude", Serenity lets 'em have it with both barrels!

I couldn't agree with her more. But I don't want to steal her thunder, so go read it yourself. :)

What I would add to Serenity's rant, is that one reason liberals fail to comprehend conservatism of this sort, is that their definition of compassion is different from ours. In our case, compassion means seeing someone with a genuine need and reaching out to help. In the liberal case, compassion more often means seeing someone with needs and agitating to force someone else meet the need.

Glenn Reynolds: Instant punditry on culture, politics, and the law

Glenn Reynolds tells us how the war on drugs leads to diminished respect for the law (well he doesn't refer to the drug war per se, but the point can be applied):

"There are too many laws -- many of them contradictory or obscure -- for any person to actually avoid breaking the law completely. And given that many laws are dumb, actually following all of them would probably bring society to a standstill...

The other problem is that law is like anything else: when the supply outstrips the demand, its value falls. If law were restricted to things like rape, robbery, and murder, its prestige would be higher. When we make felonies out of trivial crimes, though, the law loses prestige. As the old bumper stickers about the 55 mile-per-hour speed limit used to say: "It's not a good idea. It's just the law."

And when we make the "crime" of marijuana consumption carry a greater prison sentence in some cases than the crime of murder, it serves to dramatically trivialize both laws against murder and laws against substantially more harmful drugs such as heroin or methamphetamines.

Armed Liberal over at Winds of Change has further commentary on Reynold's article. Also Pete Guither at Drug War Rant applies Reynolds' commentary to the drug war.

One Soldier's Heroism
Winds of Change.NET: Medal of Honor: SFC Paul Ray Smith
"According to the citation, his actions killed 20 to 50 Iraqis, allowing the American wounded to be evacuated, saving the aid station and headquarters (as well as possibly 100 American lives). Fellow soldiers credit Smith with thwarting the advance of well-trained, well-equipped soldiers from the Special Republican Guard, which was headed straight for the 2-7 Task Force's headquarters (Tactical Operations Center), less than a half-mile away. The battle captains, commanders and journalists huddled at the operations center were trying to protect themselves against tank fire and snipers in the nearby woods They had no idea about the possible onslaught of Republican Guard from the nearby complex."

I am moved and deeply grateful for his sacrifice, and also highly impressed that this soldier single-handedly took out nearly half of the attacking Iraqi force of 50 to 100 Special Republican Guard, and that as part of a force of only 15 to 20 American engineers, mortarmen and medics. Gives new meaning to the slogan, "An Army of One"!

The Cat's choking back tears in his cube today...

Serenity's Journal--About Me

Ok, anyone with a pic of a black jaguar under a full moon on their "about me" page is nine-tenths of the way to a listing on the blogroll. I had to go recover my keyboard from the next cubicle after I sprung wood seeing that!

EDIT: I have to admit I am a sucker for conservative women with attitude, especially ones with looks! On the "weBlogs of Note" it goes!

Sd'EA: Textos/ Tradicional Entheogenic and Intoxicating Substances in the Mediterranean Area"Speech of Dr. Josep Maria Fericgla in the International Conference on Entheogenic substances in San Francisco, USA, in 1996."

This is an interesting, if somewhat long, transcript. However some of the information he presents leads me to an interesting conclusion, that the Inquisition hasn't really ended. It's just taken on new language and new forms. I have been trying to understand the reasons for the persecution of entheogens and other psychoactives, and this conclusion makes more sense than anything I have come across so far.

Amanita muscaria

I finally mustered the courage to take a look at Peter's Drug War Victims page. I must say I am sickened by what I read there.

Anyone who happens by this page and casts a jaded-eye my way, for my opposition to the current "war on some drugs" READ THIS, and tell me these deaths are justified?! Tell me now, that there is a good and sufficient reason for innocents to be dying in the name of this misguided war by the federal government against the people of this country.

You don't need to be in favor of drug use to be vehemently opposed to the "war on drugs", as it is currently being fought. You just need some gray matter between your ears, and a heart somewhere just above room-temperature.

I need to confirm which day, I think I heard Friday, but the news is:
Matt Drudge to Guest Host Rush Limbaugh Show, later this week!

This should be *very* interesting!

According to this quiz, I am equally a spatial thinker and a naturalist thinker. Lesse--I'm an engineer who loves to garden and go hiking on the weekends, yep! That's me!

Just call me Leonardo da Cat, Renaissance Feline!

"You are a Spatial Thinker
Spatial Thinkers:

* Tend to think in pictures, and can develop good mental models of the physical world.
* Think well in three dimensions
* Have a flair for working with objects


Like other spatial thinkers, Leonardo had a talent for designing buildings and machinery. He also invented a new style of map making.
Other Spatial Thinkers include Pablo Picasso, Michelangelo, Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Careers which suit Spatial Thinkers include
Mechanic, Photographer, Artist, Architect, Engineer, Builder, Set designer

You are a Naturalist Thinker
Naturalist Thinkers:

* Like to understand the natural world, and the living beings that inhabit it
* have an aptitude for communicating with animals
* You try to understand patterns of life and natural forces


Like other Naturalist thinkers, Leonardo longed to spend time in the countryside. He spent hours watching birds to understand how they flew.
Other Naturalist thinkers include Charles Darwin, Jane Goodall, Johnny Morris, David Attenborough

Careers which suit Naturalist thinkers include
Biologist, Meteorologist, Forester, Farmer, Astronomer, Alternative therapist"

Thanks to Ith for the link.

I have often asked this question myself. I can't understand why it is illegal. When I look at the "info" coming from the drug warriors, it is mostly hyped-up propaganda that is easily debunked. And the so-called "gateway drug" argument is debunked thus: If it were legal, it would no longer be a gateway to illegal drugs (if it ever was). Otherwise you could just as easily argue that tobacco and alcohol are gateway drugs to hard drug use.

I don't necessarily agree with all the conclusions presented below, but he does have a point with some of them:
WeedTalk - Marijuana forum: "Well I haven't started a thread yet, and I hadn't seen this topic specifically listed so.... tell me all the reasons you think cannabis is illegal. From health/policitical/manufacturing/conspiracy angles. All is good. Let me get the list started:

- government really cares about our health and thinks that it is another harmful substance that it needs to protect us from (I know this is BS propoganda -> but get the bad out of the road first);

- cannabis as a plant cannot be patented and having a multitude of medical uses (which have been largely suppressed) poses a threat to pharmeceutical industries. Why? - grow your medicine in the backyard for no cost;

- cannabis as the most widely used illegal drug could threaten the alcohol and tobacco industries of serious revenue. Given slush funds/campaign money, and the seriously tainted link between politics and big business, this is a biggie;

- cannabis/hemp has huge potential to impact on other manufacturing industries given it's potential use as a renewable energy source (read: replaces some/all fuels). Hemp can also be used for threads, clothing etc and is far more durable, environmentally friendly and could threaten industries such as cotton. In fact i think that jack herer said that it had thousands of uses and if it had wide application, could solve many of our environmental problems (see Jackherer.com);

- philosophical ie cannabis helps you think outside the box, regardless of your education level and helps you realise how much bullshit is going on in society/big business and politics. That is, a free thinking majority is a danger to the market economy model whereby they want 'sheeple' to work their 40 hour week, consume BS material goods which make you feel good, and basically confine you to a slave wage market whereby you think you are living a 'really good life'. Instead of thinking about inequality in society between rich/poor, and how you are really being f*&ked over;

- cannabis users are an easy target for police ie they are generally law-abiding and passive, and thereby not a threat when arresting and putting through the justice system. Since the majority of drug arrests are pot related, this keeps numbers up for the police who are 'cracking down on crime'; while not really endangering themself in the process. They are wasting time on chasing bong smokers instead of real criminals like rapists, murderers and peddlers of hard drugs like heroin (who are more dangerous etc). This supports police funding for their fancy equipment, bankrolls lawyers and other court-related people judges etc. This also encourages the prison industry to grow and imprison more people (dangerous pot smokers who they would like to isolate and disenfranchise through criminal convictions etc);

- focus on illegality of cannabis and other drugs allows the government to step towards a 'big brother' scheme of governing the people. ie more groundless searches, erosion of civil liberties, drug sniffing dogs, further testing whilst driving/working etc. This is a favourite backdoor scheme of government to create a police state by pretending to focus on 'community concerns' over the 'drug epidemic'. Also this allows more chance of busting people for illegal activities which funds government coffers through reposession of goods acquired through illegal drug proceeds (read: you bought your house etc with profits from drugs);

- spiritual. ie cannabis helps get you in touch with the environment, forces in nature, God (if you believe in such) etc. This is dangerous to government because it takes you out of a materialistic manner of thinking eg 'I will be happy as soon as I own that new Commodore, house etc'.

- government can also attack minorities who are the easy target in society -> which is a vote winner. eg a lot more poorer people, mentally/physically ill, racial minorities tend to use pot. So this is really an institutionally engrained means of discriminating against these minorities without really appearing to do so;

- cannabis engenders feelings of peace/relaxation/contentment. This is dangerous to government because how can they exclaim the 'ills of society' and the 'fabric of society being torn' etc if everyone is contented with their life. That just won't do if they are to justify radical/intrusive measures to interfere with our privacy;

Hell, I could go on and on..... but I would love to hear your ideas. Note: this is from a person who had not smoked until 3 years ago and was previously a strict believer in pot being illegal for 'good reasons' LOL!!!!!!!!

Cheers

eliiemay"

Special Dispatch Series - No. 592: "Iraqi Daily: Saddam Ordered Training of Al-Qa'ida Members"

Here's a little gem! This was translated from an independent Iraqi newspaper, detailing the training of Al-Qa'ida members in hijacking techniques at Nahrawan and Salman Pak terrorist, two months before 9/11. Thanks to LGF for the link.

IMAO
For reference--I might have to add this one to the weBlogs of note too.

UPDATE: Ok, I'm sold! This is too funny!

Who is Bill Whittle? I don't know, but someone quoted him, and I quote the person quoting him, because this is a brilliant analogy, explaining how Noam Chomsky lies through his teeth while telling the truth.

Bill Whittle said it best, so I'll let him do the talking:

"This is how you lie by telling the truth. You tell the big lie by carefully selecting only the small, isolated truths, linking them in such a way that they advance the bigger lie by painting a picture inside the viewer's head. The Ascended High Master of this Dark Art is Noam Chomsky.

"I have long admired Noam Chomsky. It must be absolutely intoxicating to be able to write so free of any ethical constraints. Chomsky flitters and darts through the vast expanse of human experience, unerringly searching out those few, isolated data points that run contrary to the unimaginably vast ocean of facts crashing ashore in the opposite direction.

"Here's a Noam Chomsky moment for those of you without enough duct tape to wrap around your heads to keep your brains from exploding while you actually read his works:

"Let's say we stand overlooking the ocean along Pacific Coast Highway. From high atop the cliffs, we look down to the waves and the sand below. I ask you what color the beach is. You reply, reasonably enough, that it is sandy white. And you are exactly right.

"However, there are people who cannot see the beach for themselves because they are not standing with us on this very spot. This is where Noam earns his liberal sainthood. Noam takes a small pail to the beach and sits down in the sand.

"If you've ever run sand through your fingers, you know that for all of the thousands upon thousands of white or clear grains, there are a few dark ones here and there, falling through your fingers. With a jewelers loupe and an EXCEEDINGLY fine pair of tweezers, you carefully and methodically pluck all of the dark grains you can find - and only the dark grains - and carefully place them, one by one, into your trusty bucket.

"It will take you a long time - it has taken Chomsky decades - to fill this bucket, but with enough sand and enough time, you will eventually do so. And then, when you do, you can make a career touring colleges through the world, giving speeches about the ebony-black beaches of Malibu, and you can pour your black sand onto the lectern and state, without fear of contradiction, that this sand was taken from those very beaches.

"And what you say will be accurate, it will be factually based, and you will be lying like the most pernicious son of a bitch that ever lived...

"Shortly after 9/11, and somewhat before the "Taliban forces did finally succumb, after astonishing endurance" St. Noam thundered that America's "Silent Genocide" in Afghanistan would kill - pick a number, any number -- somewhere between 3 to 4 million civilians. At one point, he intimated that up to 10 million could die.

"The real number was around 500.

"Being Noam Chomsky means you get a pass for being wrong not by a factor of ten to one, or even a hundred to one. In Afghanistan, Chomsky was wrong by a factor of 20,000 to one. . .

"Misdirection. Unsubstantiated allegations. Undocumented assertions. Counting a few scattered hits and ignoring millions of misses. You can prove anything in this manner, if your audience is a willing accomplice and refuses to challenge you.

"Michael Moore used exactly this technique to make people believe that America is a land of terrified, racist murderers who are armed to the teeth solely because of their fear of black people. For this he was given an Academy Award, and Bowling for Columbine has been called 'the best documentary film ever made.'"

Six Months After the War, America is Losing the Peace The taste of victory had gone sour in the mouth of every thoughtful American I met.

You simply must read this! Then check the date.

Roger L. Simon: Could It Be More Depressing? Interesting discussion here about the recent spike in anti-semitism.

Primal Purge

This woman writes very well and very funny--possible candidate for the weBlogs of note. Go take a look!

baldilocks: Not Holding My Breath: "Not Holding My Breath

Greg Easterbrook of the New Republic, in a scathing review of the new Tarantino movie, Kill Bill, makes some arguably anti-semitic remarks in his blog (and subsequently apologizes). The Los Angeles Times lets an anti-Christian screed about a US Army General--who happens to be a fundamentalist Christian--slip by its editors into print.

My question: when are the powers-that-be in Christianity and Judaism going to issues their versions of a fatwa?"

Um hm. There won't be, of course. So much for the notion that there is some sort of "equivalency" between fundamentalist Christians and Jews, and fundamentalist Muslims. Go read the rest of her post.

Shameless cut and paste from Peter's site. Click through for the article he is referencing:
Drug WarRant Wow! What a massive operation! Look at all those agencies. Must have cost a fortune! But obviously a success, right? After all, 33 indictments, must have been a major drug ring...

Nope. No drug ring. Just a bunch of students and staff at a university selling marijuana and other drugs (much as you would find at any university in the world, without needing 15 months of investigation). They weren't even connected. And what did they seize? $20,000-$22,000 worth of drugs. That's about $650 per person indicted.

Each could face up to 10 years in prison. If so, the cost to taxpayers would be approximately seven million dollars, not counting the costs of trials and the 15 month investigation.

So how do you like your drug war?

/sarcasm on
As a fiscal conservative, it makes me so damn proud my federal bureaucracies are working so hard and spending so much of my hard-earned money to remove this little smidgen of pot from the street...
/sarcasm off

I like the title this newspaper puts on the story! But it is matched by the perspective they offer in the body of the text.

VIEW
American Might Triumphs in UN - The Times of India: "What then explains the sudden change of heart at the Security Council? Call it back-door diplomacy or old imperial tactic of divide-and-rule, but the US broke the Franco-German will to hold out by bringing round the Russians to their side. A little bit of clever word-play on the question of Iraqi sovereignty ensured that Moscow would drop its "principled" opposition for some old-fashioned opportunism. The details of the deal struck between Washington and Moscow is, of course, a mystery for the moment."

I may not have been closely scrutinizing news stories on this UN vote, but I certainly do not recall hearing this part of the story. On the one hand I am not surprised, given the level of cooperation we have seen between the US and Russia over the last few years. But I am amazed when I look back over my (recent) lifetime at how much has changed. When I went to college the first time, I studied political science with a focus on international politics. Then, the USSR was in Afghanistan fighting a bloody guerrilla war, Cold War tensions were still high, and President Reagan said to the Soviet leader, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

A few years later the wall was torn down by the people of East Germany themselves, and now there are even a handful of US troops stationed in former Soviet republics! I could not have imagined it back then.

Today it is reported that the US and Russia worked together to undermine France and Germany in the Security Council. What has the world come to? ROFL!

Mi Esposa says my weblog is boring.

Geez...

I'll go burn my computer on a pyre now, to spare the world the pain...

Or maybe I'll just trade 'er in for a new model... the computer I mean! Er...yeah.

Teddy Kennedy has really fallen off the wagon this time!

Moments after the UN Security Council approves international reconstruction money for Iraq, he is on the floor of the Senate berating the US for insisting on "going it alone" in Iraq?!

The man is living in the X-files version of reality...

We're getting more support from France, Germany and Syria (!!) than we are from the Democrats in the US Senate!

UPDATE: Here's a lovely parody by Scott Ott

Nothing marks you as a "slow coach" like driving an old pickup truck with an ugly topper...

Is it just that none of them are capable of exceeding 35 mph?

Ron Marr Comments on Pledge of Allegiance Case

The Separation Of Church & State: "But really, I can't repeat this enough. Get a life. The separation between church and state is well defined. What the First Amendment bans are 'laws respecting an establishment of religion.' That means the feds can't mandate that you worship under the auspices of Baptist, Catholic, Buddhist or Methodist. It means the government is prohibited from building a giant reptile and insisting, under penalty of law, that you bow down to it as the creator of all life and head honcho of the deity brigade.

For awhile I thought that might have been happening during the Clinton years, but then I realized that Janet Reno couldn't help the way she looked. My mistake. Sorry. Those shiny scales and razor sharp talons confused me."

rofl! Go read the rest.

Which Mythological Form Are You?

You are Form 1, Goddess: The Creator.

"And The Goddess planted the acorn of life.
She cried a single tear and shed a single drop
of blood upon the earth where she buried it.
From her blood and tear, the acorn grew into
the world."

Some examples of the Goddess Form are Gaia (Greek),
Jehova (Christian), and Brahma (Indian).
The Goddess is associated with the concept of
creation, the number 1, and the element of
earth.
Her sign is the dawn sun.

As a member of Form 1, you are a charismatic
individual and people are drawn to you.
Although sometimes you may seem emotionally
distant, you are deeply in tune with other
people's feelings and have tremendous empathy.
Sometimes you have a tendency to neglect your
own self. Goddesses are the best friends to
have because they're always willing to help.


Which Mythological Form Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla


Heh, now this is kinda funny, kinda embarassing. I'm not going to argue with the analysis tho...
Ok if I just accept the affinity to Jehovah God and the Gaia spirit, and dispense with the title "Goddess"?

Thanks to The Patriette for the link!

Donald Luskin on Paul Krugman, Damocles, and Imminent Threats on NRO Financial

Krugman seems, like many leftists, to be addicted to predicting gloom and doom. It's kinda funny to read how long he's been at it, and how wrong he's been over the years...

Drug WarRant--Supreme Court refuses to hear appeal of 9th Circuit Court decision.

Just an observation on this ruling: This ought to cement Erowid's first amendment rights to continue to act as a repository of information about drugs and various psychoactive and entheogenic plants. I love this site. I could browse in there for hours.

A prediction: While it may not seem highly significant now, this ruling may represent a sea-change in marijuana policy. I think we've seen high-tide of the drug war, and the feds are likely to be in retreat from this point on many fronts.

Let's get real. They *have* to be. Terrorism is a far greater threat to this nation than MJ will ever be, and there's only so many resources to go around. If there is another attack because the feds refused to shift gears away from the drug war and toward thwarting terrorism, heads *must* roll!

I shouldn't say this but...

The Rush prescription drug story has given this line of his, new meaning: "Having more fun that a human being should be allowed to have..." :D

Fair and balanced, after all. I don't recall hearing about these reforms, so I'll give them a plug.
GeorgeWBush.com :: Official Blog :: October 2003 Archive: "What's the story you haven't heard on the President's environmental record? More Easterbrook:

Bush has implemented three major new environmental reforms for which he has received zero credit. He ordered that diesel fuel be reformulated to reduce its inherent pollution content -- over the howls of his natural constituency, Big Oil. He ordered that new diesel trucks and buses meet significantly stricter emissions standards -- over the howls of House Speaker Dennis Hastert, in whose Illinois district sits an enormous diesel-engine factory. Third, he imposed new emissions standards on a range of previously unregulated machines -- construction vehicles, outboard motors, all-terrain vehicles and others.

Taken together, Bush's three dramatic anti-pollution decisions should lead to the biggest pollution reduction since the 1991 Clean Air Act amendments. "

Together with the research money he earlier committed to hydrogen fuel cell technology, so much for his "abysmal" environmental record.

Kevin Sites Back in Iraq
Kevin Sites Blog

This could be interesting and worth following. Kevin Sites is now in Iraq--working for NBC this time--and back to blogging. Maybe we can get some hard answers to the question of why the major media filters out the positive and emphasizes the negative. Kevin has his perspective on the question, and it's already being challenged in the comments section. Go see!

"Another Senator, Greg Thomas from Wyoming, chides the media for not doing enough positive stories on Iraq. It is a common criticism, though one I have trouble digesting. The media frequently obliges the accomplishments of the CPA. Every American television network covered the on-time opening of the Iraqi school year with thousands of students treated to rehabilitated buildings, new desks and textbooks. But when American troops are killed in Iraq--no one can argue which story should take precedence. It is the first principle of journalistic ethics, "learn the truth and report it." Responsible media don't pursue these casualties as just a policy scorecard, but as an indication of the actual human costs of this endeavor as well as a documentation of the sacrifice made by those individuals."

Kate replies:
"Well, I'm going to argue. Yes, it is important to cover the occurance of casualties in Iraq. But, to do so in the order of precedence you state is to ignore the fact that they are there to conduct a mission. The mission's progress is story number one, not story number two. To extend your logic to it's ultimate conclusion is to suggest that all deaths in the military worldwide should eat up our airwaves, night in and night out. This approach takes the sacrifice out of context, and in so doing, belittles it."

To this I would add that "responsible media" should be examining the overall effect of their reporting priorities to ensure that the full story, the true story, the "fair and balanced" story (if you will), is being presented. This is where journalistic objectivity comes into play. Maybe they believe they are telling the true story. But it certainly looks as if their "template", their "filter" is having a distorting effect on the overall picture.

/sarcasm on
Funny that he says: It is the first principle of journalistic ethics, "learn the truth and report it." I thought journalists were among the people who do not believe in objective "truth".
/sarcasm off

Baghdad Residents Want US Troops To Stay

Gallup has conducted a new poll of Baghdad residents regarding US troop presence in their country. The results are available on Gallup's subscription site, however AP has a nice summary of the results. Click for the rest of the story:
Welcome to AJC!: "The Gallup poll found that 71 percent of the capital city's residents felt U.S. troops should not leave in the next few months. Just 26 percent felt the troops should leave that soon.

However, a sizable minority felt that circumstances could occur in which attacks against the troops could be justified. Almost one in five, 19 percent, said attacks could be justified, and an additional 17 percent said they could be in some situations.

These mixed feelings in Baghdad come at a time when many in the United States are urging that the troops be brought home soon.

Almost six in 10 in the poll, 58 percent, said that U.S. troops in Baghdad have behaved fairly well or very well, with one in 10 saying ``very well.'' Twenty 20 percent said the troops have behaved fairly badly and 9 percent said very badly."

Here's a nice rant on another one of my pet conservative/libertarian causes--gun control. Makes me glad to be an Arizonan:

Kim du Toit - Daily Rant

Now here is a drug war RANT for ya!
Go read!

Why They Won't Let Us Take Drugs

Why We Went to War

Ted Kennedy should be placed in stocks and have his eyelids glued open with this article in front of him to read until he has it memorized. This is verifiable history, not "fiction" manufactured in Texas. Read the extensive quotes from former President Clinton from July of this year, explaining what he and his administration knew the facts were in Iraq. Review the facts that Iraq admitted to, what the UN inspectors verified were true, and the disconnect between known stocks of WMD and what the UN inspectors were actually able to account for.

Then try to tell me that Bush lied.

It's really too bad that the Democrat party has to resort to obfuscation and outright dishonesty in order to try to score some points with the electorate. Compared with the current crop of Democrat candidates, Clinton wasn't half bad.

The WMD and the WMD precursor chemicals are somewhere. They may no longer all be in Iraq. I suspect Syria is holding a bunch of stuff. I also find it odd we haven't heard more about those three (?) "radio silent" cargo ships that supposedly left from Syria a few months before the war and occasionally make port calls at jihad-friendly ports, but do no other shipping activity.

It is politically embarrassing to the Administration to have had this difficulty in locating the WMD, but the fact that they definitely did exist and are now unaccounted for, is not seriously disputed by *objective* analysts.

"A Few Thoughts About Rush Limbaugh" by John Averyt

John Averyt does the same--echoing many of the same points I have been making this weekend. Dang, it feels good to be cutting edge. :)

"There is a fundamental difference between street addicts and those who fall victim to prescription narcotics. The prescription addict initially seeks the relief of actual, physical pain. It takes more and more painkiller to stop the pain. As their resistance increases, addiction sets in.

Some will say Rush has damaged not only his own credibility, but also that of the conservative cause. Certainly feet of clay make it difficult to ride a high horse of morality. Others, not so quick to judge, who perhaps share human failings, will more readily understand. All must stand before the law. On the other hand, innocent until proven guilty must also apply to the famous."

Rush Limbaugh and the Grandmother Test

Jim Quinn is saying essentially what I have been saying all weekend about Rush's situation and how it differs from the situation of the recreational user of psychotropic substances.

I have a confession to make.

Since it is right out there in the open for all to see, I have to confess to a bit of code snatching. At the bottom of Absinthe and Cookies was a little javascript call I just had to have for my own site. Cool!

"...I am neither.
I am a Dancing Moon Creature
Trapped in a dungeon..."

Which Art Movement Are You?

Well this was an interesting quiz. I guess I already knew this...






which art movement are you?

this quiz was made by Caitlin

"You should know something about this, it's the Renaissance! As for style, "...artists studied the natural world, perfecting their understanding of such subjects as anatomy and perspective." (artcyclopedia.com.) They loved science-y things and labored for perfection and harmonious beauty, a goal with which you sympathize. You're probably pretty smart, too. Anal-retentive much?
Famous Renaissancers (lots!): Michaelangelo, Da Vinci, Raphael, and You."

Thanks to Ith for the link.

Monkeys Control Robotic Arm With Brain Implants (washingtonpost.com): "John P. Donoghue, a neuroscientist at Brown University developing a similar system, said paralyzed patients would be the first to benefit by gaining an ability to type and communicate on the Web, but the list of potential applications is endless, he said."

OMG! Do you realize the implications of this technology for bloggers?! Get a brain implant and blog as fast as you can think! :D

:-o

The Register: "Realizing it had little to gain through legal action, SunnComm has backed down from threatening to sue a Princeton student who broke the company's CD copy protection technology simply by holding down the Shift key. "

Damn. I was hoping for a fight that would cream them, either in court or the court of public opinion.

Has anyone got the name "Mental Floss" yet for a weblog?

"Picking bits from the teeth of the 'filter'..."

Nah. Too obvious. Someone must have thought of that one...

Tucson Meet Yourself

I went to the "Tucson Meet Yourself" festival this afternoon. This is an annual gathering held downtown in Presidio Park, a chance to get a sample of the diverse cultures that are part of Tucson. In practical terms, that means ethnic food booths (!!!), plus music and dance on the several stages around the park. The festival has rightly earned the nickname "Tucson Eat Yourself", because it is an opportunity to munch down on a wonderful variety of different food styles! That's why I go anyway. :)

After sampling food from five or six different booths, I split an Indian Fry Bread with mi esposa. Fry Bread is a decadently delicious dough cake, fried up 'til it's light and puffy and crispy-chewy, and then sprinkled with powdered sugar or honey or cinnamon sugar. It can also be spread with chili or other ingredients and eaten like a taco. But I got us the powdered sugar version. MMMhhh!!! I shoulda gotten us two!

Thomas Sowell's Analysis of the California Recall
click for the whole story
Thomas Sowell: Is California crazy?:
"The California recall election and its surrounding hoopla may have confirmed the suspicions of some people in other parts of the country that Californians are crazy. But not all Californians are crazy -- just the most affluent and highly educated ones.

Many of these people are over-educated, in the sense that they have spent many years in institutions which have propagandized them with the politically correct vision of the world -- even if they have not taught them much history, economics, or other mundane things.

Someone has said that people are not born stupid, but are made that way by education. Certainly that is true of what too often passes for education these days. You don't have to be crazy to want to keep Governor Gray Davis in office, but it helps."

Ith has a perspective on the Rush story with a personal twist:

Absinthe & Cookies (a little bit bitter, a little bit sweet): "It Can Happen To Us": "And while I'm sure their are people who are addicted to these medications that are no longer suffering from the original pain the pills were prescribed for, many more who are addicted are still in pain. And that pain will still be there when they stop taking the pills. I've watched my mother battle chronic pain since the seventies, when a surgeon slipped and cut a nerve in her spine during back surgery. Then not long after that, we were in a car accident which crushed vertebrae in her neck. But she's one of those people Rush spoke about on Friday, the ones who didn't fall prey to addiction. But when I see her year after year, in constant pain, sometimes I wish she would take medication. It's hard watching someone you love suffer and you can't do anything to help. I also know, but for the grace of God, how she could have had Rush's problem.

No, what happened to Rush hits way too close to home for me, and I can't and won't judge him, or anyone else that battles addiction and pain on a daily basis."

Reuters News Article: "The straight-talking Hollywood action star's election win in California has had an electrifying impact on Germany, leading to calls Friday for top politicians to voice clear ideas in simple language or be swept away at the polls."

This is good. :D

Whatever the people of America think of Arnold's ascension to the California governorship, the people of Germany are clearly impressed with his style and pine for their own Schwarzenegger.

"But Germany urgently needs something Schwarzenegger-like: a can-do spirit, unconventional thinking, courage, strength and vision. We're facing the worst crisis since the war," he wrote.

Manfred Guellner, managing director of the Forsa polling institute, said there is widespread discontent with politicians.

"The dissatisfaction is growing every day," he told Reuters. "Germany and Europe are ripe for the same sort of phenomenon. People feel they're being messed with. They want simple language and simple remedies."

There you have it, ladies and gentlemen. After serving his terms in the fifth largest economy of the world, perhaps he will turn his attention to what it takes to run for chancellor of Deutschland!

www.AndrewSullivan.com - Daily Dish: "WHAT WE HAVE ACHIEVED: Here's a more prosaic account of the extraordinary work that the U.S. armed services have been doing in Iraq. It's from the CPA's new official website. Yesterday, Paul Bremer gave a brief overview. (And, believe it or not, even the anti-war New York Times covered it.) My highlights:

Six months ago there were no police on duty in Iraq.

* Today there are over 40,000 police on duty, nearly 7,000 here in Baghdad alone.
* Last night Coalition Forces and Iraqi police conducted 1,731 joint patrols.
* Today nearly all of Iraq's 400 courts are functioning.
* Today, for the first time in over a generation, the Iraqi judiciary is fully independent.
* On Monday, October 6 power generation hit 4,518 megawatts--exceeding the pre-war average.
* Today all 22 universities and 43 technical institutes and colleges are open, as are nearly all primary and secondary schools.
* Many of you know that we announced our plan to rehabilitate one thousand schools by the time school started--well, by October 1 we had actually rehabbed over 1,500.

Six months ago teachers were paid as little as $5.33 per month.

* Today teachers earn from 12 to 25 times their former salaries.
* Today we have increased public health spending to over 26 times what it was under Saddam.
* Today all 240 hospitals and more than 1200 clinics are open.
* Today doctors' salaries are at least eight times what they were under Saddam.
* Pharmaceutical distribution has gone from essentially nothing to 700 tons in May to a current total of 12,000 tons.
* Since liberation we have administered over 22 million vaccination doses to Iraq’s many children.

This is what some in this country want to stop. This is what would never have happened if we'd let Saddam Hussein stay in power. It's simply beyond me how anyone can describe this war as about "oil" or about "imperialism" or about "greed" or "militarism." It remains one of the most humanitarian acts in modern history. And, if successful, it could turn an entire region around - a region that has been the main source of real danger to itself and to the West in my lifetime. I'm banging on about this not simply because it's by far the most important issue in our politics right now, but because a wilful and petty disinformation campaign is being waged to distort this achievement, undermine it, and reverse it. We mustn't let that happen. We cannot let these people - and ourselves - down again."

This falls into the category of "stuff that needs to be widely disseminated since the media has been failing us". I need not add more to that, except that I'm glad to see that the truth is trickling out past "the filter". Also glad to see the NYT is responding to the spanking the media has been taking on this topic.

Absinthe & Cookies (a little bit bitter, a little bit sweet)

I have not a good explanation for why I am adding this blog to the weBlogs of note, except maybe a) The name is intriguing (much like Amish Tech Support) b) She seems like a cat-person from her writing. c) That red velvet background.

That's pathetic, isn't it? Still I like what I read there, and I can't explain why...

There is an important distinction I haven't made, and many seem to be missing when castigating Rush for his previous comments in regards to drug abuse. Rush was using prescription pain killers to deal with very real pain, which led to his addiction. This puts his use much more in the category of medical marijuana users. His use of Oxycontin is as different from those who crush the pills to get a recreational high, as medical marijuana users are different from recreational users of marijuana.

This is an important distinction, because there is a much higher level of support in America for the legalization of medical marijuana than there is for legalization of recreational marijuana. Likewise, I think much more of the country will be willing to look upon his situation with sympathy, that it would if he had been discovered to be using Oxycontin just to get high.

Many are crying "Hypocrite!", but it would be quite out of character for him, for his addiction to have originated in any other way than it did.

Rush on the Record: Rush Limbaugh Statement on Prescription Pain Medication Stories

Here is a link to the text of his statement. There's also a link to audio of his statement if you click back to his homepage.

There is a shockwave rippling through the country. I can feel it in my gut. I don't know quite yet what the end result will be, but I know this is stirring a tremendous amount of mixed emotions across the political spectrum, and from supporters and opponents of the drug war.

I am not surprised at his admission. I deduced from what he has said over the last week or so, that some part of the story was in fact true. I think it is taking a lot of people quite by surprise, however. Some on the left, mostly the statist left, will no doubt take this opportunity to simply kick sand in his eyes, a la Jeff Jarvis. Other left leaning thinkers have expressed support and sympathy, in hopes that this will lead to a more open-minded approach to the current war on drugs. I am sure many on the left will be torn between these two sentiments. The statist right is likely to be appalled, and feel that a hero has fallen. Some are likely to lash out in anger and reject him now that he is proven to be human. The libertarian right however, of which I tend to count myself a member, seems more likely to see this as an unfortunate chapter in his life, and will be waiting for his return to the airwaves with faith undiminished. Like the libertarian left, I am also hoping this episode will open his eyes to the excesses and abuses of the current war on drugs, and perhaps cause a change of attitude on his part toward casual drug users as well as toward those who get caught in the downward spiral of drug addiction.

Perhaps this is wishful thinking on my part, but I would like to be pleasantly surprised.

Rush speaks out on prescription pain-killer story

Well, it turns out that portions of the stories we have seen are in fact true. Rush is addicted to prescription pain killers. The problem started about 5 years ago after a failed back surgery. He is also currently suffering from herniated disks in his neck. He also confirmed that he has twice attempted to break free of the addiction in the past. On the advice of his doctor, he will be entering a 30 day rehab program in an effort to break the addiction once and for all. In the mean time, the show will carry on with the guest hosts that have become a familiar fixture on the program.

Rush also noted that he takes full responsibility for his condition, and does not consider himself a victim in any way. He also notes that he does not want to be thought of as some kind of "hero" for facing and dealing with his problem. Unlike some sports figures who are idolized as some kind of a role-model for going through rehab, he does not wish to be looked upon as a role-model of any sort in regards to this issue.

He expressed appreciation for the support he has received since the story first broke. He has asked us for our prayers toward the success of his rehabilitation experience.

God bless you, Rush! We will eagerly look forward to news of your successful addiction recovery, and to your return to the show next month!

Princeton Student Sued Over Paper on CD Copying (TechNews.com): "Three days after a Princeton graduate student posted a paper on his Web site detailing how to defeat the copy-protection software on a new music CD by pressing a single computer key, the maker of the software said on Thursday it would sue him."

Right here is about as graphic as it gets in terms of the contrast between free speech rights and some of the more egregious provisions of the DMCA. Somebody with bucks please step up to the plate, pay for the defense, and see this through to a rousing defeat of some of these provisions of the DMCA, and of RIAA and it's minions!

Steve Wynn Gives Exclusive Interview
Bimbo With Big Hair Prompts Tiger Attack!

Well *that's* certainly a different twist on the story! :-o

The Patriette

Another one for my weBlogs. I keep running into her all over the blogosphere and...well, she has the right attitude... :)

Forbes.com: Is Sex Necessary?: "Having regular and enthusiastic sex...confers a host of measurable physiological advantages, be you male or female."

Hey! It's not only fun, exhilirating and satisfying, but it's actually GOOD FOR YOU! W00t! Oh wifey...?

Great article, btw! Read the rest.

Accuracy In Media - Guest Columns - Reid Collins - Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright: "Awful as it seems, there is a certain redemptive aspect to what happened to Roy Horn of the Las Vegas act, 'Siegfried and Roy.' It was the redemption of verity. A truth.

Call the tiger by its pet name, 'Montecore.' Train it for years. Put your face next to its mouth. Make it jump through hoops. One day it will summon verity and will try to kill. This is what tigers do. And not all the relativism of this modern world will penetrate that ineluctable truth. Whatever framed that fearful symmetry is not to be mocked.

As fellow homo sapiens, we must root for Roy, wish him well in recovery, sympathize with the 267 employees of the famed tiger training act who are now out of work, yet regard that act of 'Montecore' for what it is, the reassertion of a verity in an age where truth is benighted"

Re: Plame outing

If this was really about finding out the leaker, the press already knows who it is, and could tell us.

But since it is not, the press will sit by demanding the leaker be outed by an investigation, making the Administration squirm, all the while having the answer in their back pocket.

This is dastardly.

It probably won't be anyone in the President's inner circle anyway, certainly not Karl Rove. It could even end up being a leftover from the Clinton Administration. But we won't know anytime soon, and meanwhile the press will sit there with their smug shit-eating grins smeared across their faces.

It's not dissimilar to the press telling us with mock-straight faces that the results of the polling in California weren't known until, magically at 8:01 PM, they suddenly knew beyond a doubt that Arnold was the clear winner. Thanks to Drudge, we know the real story...

Excite News: "Hoping to win back alienated customers, personal software maker Intuit Inc. (INTU) is formally apologizing to users of its popular TurboTax program who rebelled against an anti-piracy feature the company introduced last year.

ntuit hoped to boost TurboTax sales with an activation code that chained the program to a single computer. The company instead faced an angry backlash from customers who abhorred the restrictions and feared product activation might allow Intuit to spy on their computer hard drives.

Although Intuit insisted many of the complaints were either misguided or unfounded, the chastened company decided in May to dump the effort."

Wake up and smell the coffee! D'Ya think RIAA will ever get the same clue?

Slate's Democratic Debate Drinking Game - Get drunk on political discourse! By June Thomas
ROFL! I'm sure by the end of the debate I would be smash-drunk! :D

little green footballs

Ok, it's time I put this in my weBlogs list--not because you all don't see it on virtually every right-leaning weblog, but because I want a quick link for myself... ;>

I've done a little post-mortem analysis on the California recall election. I know Rush had a bit of analysis, but I don't recall if he picked up on this anomaly. I haven't scoured the blogosphere to see if anyone else has yet either.

4,415,341 voted YES on the recall
3,559,400 voted NO on the recall

7,974,741 total voted on recall question

3,743,393 voted for Arnold Schwarzenegger
1,026,481 voted for Tom McClintock

4,769,874 total between Arnold and Tom

4,769,874 for Arnold and Tom - 4,415,341 for the recall = 354,533

That would seem to suggest that some 350,000 voters said "No" on the recall question and "Yes" to the Terminator! :D

That's almost ten percent of the voters who voted their guilty "party loyal" conscience on the recall question, then rooted for Arnold anyway!

By the way, Bustamonte and Camejo together only got 2,645,502 votes. The rest (about 250,000) were for Mickey Mouse and his minions.

Vote2003
I couldn't find this info on the major media sites, but Drudge had it, and here it is: the official results from the election in California.

Richmond County Daily Journal Online: "Make no mistake about it, the problem is not what was said, but who said it.

Limbaugh is a conservative, white man who, in the eyes of the overwhelmingly liberal media, has no right to talk about race. As soon as the word 'black' comes out of his mouth, he's a racist.

On the other hand, if you're a minority or a liberal, you can say pretty much whatever you want and the press, ever the rooter-out of racism, has nothing to say about it."

Again on the topic of hypocrisy, media double standards, and Rush. She has more to say. Click the link for the rest.

Drug Policy Alliance: Drug Policy Alliance Says Rush Limbaugh Should Not Face Criminal Prosecution For Alleged OxyContin Offenses"Whether you like or hate his politics isn't the point here," said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. "As long as no one else was harmed as a consequence of his drug use, Rush Limbaugh should not face incarceration or otherwise be punished for what he chose to put into his own body."

"First and foremost, we hope Mr. Limbaugh's life isn't destroyed by bad drug laws," said Nadelmann. "But we also hope that the experience opens his eyes to the plight of the hundreds of thousands of nonviolent drug offenders behind bars in this country."

Dittos to that!

Occam's Toothbrush

This one might be a candidate for my weBlogs of Note...

DRUDGE REPORT 2003

By the time you read this, it ought to be official, but Drudge has reports of Schwarzenegger winning by a landslide!

Before you let the howlers on the left deafen you to the truth, read this excerpt from Kay's report (the link is to an excerpt from a WSJ editorial, subscription required for the whole piece):
GeorgeWBush.com :: Official Blog :: October 2003 Archive: "'We have discovered dozens of WMD-related program activities and significant amounts of equipment that Iraq concealed from the United Nations during the inspections that began in late 2002.' ..."

No canisters of nerve gas ready to fire, and the left shrieks "HE LIED!!" But the programs were all in place, ready to resume as soon as the inspectors left. That does not make me sleep well, how about you?

"The team found new research on "BW-applicable agents, Brucella and Congo Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF), and continuing work on ricin and aflatoxin," none of which were made known to the U.N."

Just think if Gore had been president with Madam Halfbright at the helm of State. How long after the last inspector got on a plane for Geneva would it take before Saddam was able to blackmail the world with these weapons? A few weeks? A couple of months at most, perhaps.

The Proof Is There For Those With Eyes--NY Post
"Did Kay find nuclear-tipped ICBMs on their launch pads?

Of course not.

But evidence of biological, chemical and nuclear programs in various stages of development - from just-getting-started to possibly can-be-deployed-in-a-week?

Yes. And he found massive evidence of big-time coverups by Saddam and his evil elves.

And Kay says he's barely scratched the surface - though, again, what's been found already is impressive enough.

There's more - like reports by Iraqi scientists of the development of a production line that "could be switched to produce anthrax in one week if the seed stock were available."

Why hasn't even more been found?

"Iraq's WMD programs spanned more than two decades, involved thousands of people, billions of dollars and were elaborately shielded by deception operations that continued even beyond the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom," said Kay.

He noted that two key scientists were shot after talking to his team. And that chemical weapons might be stored at any of 130 known Iraqi "Ammunition Storage Points."

How many have been inspected? Ten."

And yet the Ted Kennedy's of the world, for the sake of their own partisan advangage and at the expense of our homeland security, continue to churn out the lie that there was nothing found, no justification for war. When will Senator Kennedy pause for a breath and speak with Senator Clinton about what she knows, via her husband? I'm no fan of Clinton, but I recognize she has the sense not to get on Senator Windbag's bandwagon.

GeorgeWBush.com :: Official Blog
Here is the official campaign blog that was just started up. My donation dollars at work. W00t!

Enjoy better sex! Legalize and tax marijuana!
Marijuana Reform, Education, and the War on Drugs : Change the Climate

So say some ads running in the DC area in subway stations.

Heh!

Hey! Hey! In the name of "fair and balanced", ya gotta read this bit about Gray Davis' violent tantrums!
annika's journal and poetry

Ok, time for a non-political blog entry.

This last weekend my wife and I spent up in the Chiricahua Mountains in southeastern Arizona. The weather in the valleys was in the 90's, which made the weather at 8000 feet 70 degrees and beautiful! We drove up to the Barfoot Park area and stayed at the old Camp Victorio site--an undeveloped dispersed camping area.

The last twenty miles of the road in was twisting, turning, dusty washboard gravel roads. But the ol' DesertCatMobile made the trip with no problems. We arrived Saturday morning and had our choice of campsites. Besides dayhikers and birders passing through, there were no other campers within eyesight or earshot. That's a funny thing about Arizonans. They don't seem to like autumn camping in the mountains.

Saturday afternoon we hiked up to Barfoot Lookout, an old forest service fire lookout atop a ridge above the campsite. The views were fantabulous, of course. We could see most of the Chiricahua range, and beyond the desert valleys many other mountain ranges on the horizon. Staring at the far horizon, the sky looked like a great blue bowl holding the puffy cumulus clouds. Melinda and I lazed about the peak for a half hour or so, watching the buzzards lazily circling the valley below. Gazing down into the forest in the valley, I became intrigued by what secrets lay within its embrace. We hiked down a different way and passed through a magical pine forest, lit by the rays of the late afternoon sun. At the bottom there lies a meadow fed by a spring, and on the other side was our campsite. I wanted to go back to the meadow after dark to dance, but the moon was not yet full, and it didn't seem right. We lit our campfire and roasted our hotdogs while the twilight came on. Soon the stars came out and Melinda went in for the evening, leaving me to gaze lovingly at the moon as she rose.

Sunday we threw on our daypacks again, and headed back up the ridge toward Rustler Park. There had been a fire in the area maybe ten or fifteen years ago. My map showed a trail from near our campsite heading straight over the ridge to Rustler Park, but I had not seen it on the way down the previous day. But this morning, we located it--a faint track leading off the main trail. So we took it, with me leading the way and "trail dogging" the 1 mile or so up to the ridge.

"Trail dogs" was the nickname for the trail maintenance crews who worked on the trail system in Glacier National Park, where I spent two summers back in the mid-eighties. So "trail-dogging" refers to trail maintenance. I removed fallen logs and boulders on the trail, which appeared to have not been maintained since shortly after the fire. Which is too bad, because it was a gorgeous trail that few appear to have taken recently. It led first through the deep pine forest to a grassy saddle between a knoll and the ridge, and then it turned sharply left and headed up the ridge to another saddle. After cresting the ridge at the saddle, we stopped for lunch, as I had begun to get shaky by that point from the exertion.

It was hard to wrap my mind around just how beautiful a day it was. There were the white puffy clouds and a gentle breeze whistling through the pines. The views led down from the saddle, across pine-topped ridges, to rose-tinted cliffs and beyond to the desert below. The recent rains had made a green carpet of grasses and ferns below the trees, and here and there, late summer wildflowers poked through and added a dash of color. We sat on a fallen log and munched our crackers and cheese, and listened to the jays calling in the pine trees.

From there a well-travelled trail led to Rustler Park and beyond. I found another poorly maintained trail that promised to lead back to our lunchtime saddle by another route. But this one petered out, so I decided to take us over the ridge, instead of around. That was a good choice. From the top of the ridge, we were treated to the same fantabulous views we had enjoyed the previous day from the lookout. At a peak on the ridge was a metal post that bore graffiti dating back thirty years or more. To the well-worn paint, I added my own love note to "mi amore, mi esposa"! Just beyond the peak, the gentle wind whistled about us in a meadow full of flowers and butterflies.

After that, we descended to the saddle, and from the saddle, down the trail I had re-opened, back to our camp. We spotted three whitetail deer on the trail about halfway down. Then we packed up and drove off into the sunset through the ruddy countryside of southeast Arizona, back to our Tucson home.

New Group Intended To Speed Iraq Efforts (washingtonpost.com): "Bush defended his administration's efforts in Iraq yesterday, saying that improvements there have been obscured by news coverage that his aides contend has emphasized American deaths and reconstruction setbacks at the expense of more upbeat developments.

'Listen, we're making good progress in Iraq. Sometimes it's hard to tell it when you listen to the filter,' Bush said at a brief news conference. 'The situation is improving on a daily basis inside Iraq. People are freer, the security situation is getting better.'"

I find it interesting his choice of words. He refers to the mainstream media as "the filter". That's great! :D It's almost like he's been listening to us (right wing bloggers and commentators), or someone in his administration is, and seems to be adopting our language.

At the least, I'm convinced the Administration sometimes listens to Rush to get the pulse of conservative thought in the country. I can't count how many times Rush has said something ought to be done in response to such-and-such, and within days the Administration starts talking it up. At least if they agree. But then I'm also convinced Rush responds to stuff bouncing around in the blogosphere, whether he'd ever admit it or not. It's all a big feedback loop! And great fun to participate in.

Thanks to Annika for the link and mention! I appreciate any traffic that comes the way of my humble little blog.

As long as we're still on the topic of hypocrisy...

Let me first clarify--the reason I am so glib about the Schwarzenegger groping story is that, more than anything, it illustrates Democrat hypocrisy. I certainly don' t condone his alleged behavior, and I think the women who find that attractive, and would vote for him as a result, are silly noodleheads. But that aside, it is a real gas to find the same crowd who shouted from the housetops about Bill Clinton: "LET"S MOVE ON!!", jumping on Arnold for his alleged indiscretions.

So which is it? Does this kind of thing matter in a politician or not? We were supposed to ignore Juanita Broaddrick's rape allegation, but are supposed to take Schwarzenegger's alleged groping into account? We were supposed to overlook Clinton's serial perjury, because it was sex he was lying about under oath, but we simply cannot overlook the fact that some women were allegedly offended by Arnold some years or decades ago?

Which is it? "I never had sex with that woman!" takes care of it, even though it was a lie. But, "Yes it is true, I behaved badly and I am sorry", just doesn't cut it?

Does the fact that some Republicans are willing to overlook these allegations against Schwarzenegger make they hypocrites, since they wanted to hold Clinton accountable for perjury? Careful Demos, where you point that finger! Because with your recent history on this topic, for every finger you point, there are three more fingers on your hand pointing back at you. If hypocrisy is the only "true sin", then you have a lot to answer for.

HOOT! Did I not call this one? ROFL! :D
I said, "Wow! This ought to get him a HUGE surge in the polls amongst the "arousal gappers"!"

Arnold's Female Fans Reject Groping Tales (washingtonpost.com): "'Maria Shriver is no pushover,' she said. 'Arnold's wife is not the kind of woman who would just sit back and let her husband behave that way.' Shriver, part of the nation's most famous family of Democrats, joined Schwarzenegger during his bus rally from San Diego to Sacramento, attracting her own share of adoring fans and requests for autographs along the way. In Modesto on Saturday afternoon, three young women admired Shriver's prominent cheekbones and declared afterward that they needed to diet. 'Then maybe I'll get someone like Arnold,' said Tiffany Lopez, 21, who 'definitely, definitely' planned to vote for Schwarzenegger -- her first vote, ever. The women issue? 'Not an issue at all,' she said. 'I'd let him grope me any time!'

Other women said much the same. Or they said that they were sure the women who accused Schwarzenegger of molesting them had instigated the incidents. Osborn, the computer engineer, said that she had seen Schwarzenegger on two occasions in Orange County many years ago, when he was Mr. Universe and her ex-husband, a body builder, had taken her to competitions. 'The women were all over him,' she said. 'He didn't care about them; they wanted him.'"

Robin Tamas, 35, a registered nurse in Pleasanton, where she attended a Saturday afternoon rally for Schwarzenegger, said that her experience with women has taught her that they often flirt with men and then accuse them of misbehaving. "The allegations don't sway me at all," said Tamas, a registered Republican. "I'm very pro-woman. But unfortunately, because I work with women, I know how silly they can act."

BuzzMachine... by Jeff Jarvis: "Second, I do abhor hypocrisy. The reason I so gleefully go after Limbaugh (or Bennett before him or various televangelists before them) is precisely because they do set themselves up as moral beacons and when they fall, they deserve every nya-nya they hear. Limbaugh went after Clinton; now he's fully fair game. Hypocrisy is his sin."

It used to be said that "hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue". Now it seems with some people that the only true sin is hypocrisy itself.

Personally I see nothing wrong with hypocrisy, as long as you are willing to admit you are being hypocritical if it is pointed out. It means you are human, but you have standards nevertheless that you may not always live up to.

Some people would say "then lower your standards to match your behavior". I would ask why? Standards are there for a reason as something to aspire to.