Are we getting the right message?

The first decade of the second modern millenium is coming to a close, and we never even got so much as the slightest idea of what to call it, or more importantly what it has meant. I’m fairly sure that we no longer have any idea of where we are going as a society, for that matter.

I think these are problems that have plagued every society in human history.  It has never been easy to “play nice” with other people within our own culture, much less different ones.  But the last decade has given full rise to globalization of both commerce and terrorism, and has seen the development of a technological infrastructure that puts nearly everyone at our fingertips.

Strains on resources and between religions are also currently threatening to bring us all to our knees once again.

As we plow head on into the next decade I can’t help wondering if our more humane ideals will continue to erode at the alarming rate of the last ten years. I’m not talking about morals in the overly specified religious sense, I’m talking about the higher, more generalized moral compass.

While we speak of recessions here in the Western world, over One Billion people are starving worldwide.  Temperatures and populations are on the rise,  species are in free fall, and right under everyone’s nose, water, our most precious substance, is becoming both scarce and privatized for sale rapidly. I don’t have to tell you that we are not hurtling toward some pleasant situations at the moment. If our willingness to let each other starve in the past has been any indication, this may make for some hungry,  thirsty and crowded people in the coming decade. It may make for a lot of death and misery.

And yet for all the fear running rampant in the international dialogue today, I can’t help feeling a strong sense of hope, and clarity, moving into this new year.  People do change; things can get better.  We have proven ourselves better than we’d imagined before, and I believe that we will find a way to do it again.

After all, it isn’t our core values that need changing (they’ve always been the same deep inside)–it’s our perspective.  It’s really about changing the filter that we see our individually constructed worlds through.  Making a switch from one of selfishness and hate, to one of compassionate  service and mutual respect. Money cannot continue to be our only measure of value over the next decade. We must learn to identify the value in intangible things such as character and respect.

I am hoping as I write this that all of you who read it are in good health and feeling content in your hearts.  We all get so caught up in our desires and I myself constantly struggle with the anger and frustration that come with judgment and self-service.  These are struggles that define what it means to be a human society–therefore we rise above them globally by starting that change locally in our own hearts.

I am hoping that our country and our species find a way to rise above it all in the next decade to come. I vow to seek these changes in my own thoughts.  I wish you all the best in your new year–make it count!

The Cathedral of Junk

My wife and I took some time in a slow Sunday afternoon yesterday to get out of the house and go catch up with some Austin culture. Or more fitting perhaps, to visit a monument to unwanted things just down the road from our house. I’m referring to the aptly-named Cathedral of Junk here in South Austin, Texas. Or at least, when a close friend of mine wrote a journalistic article on it a few years back that’s what he called it. But he’s got a way with words so I’m not sure if that’s his name or the architect’s. Either way would take nothing away from the impressiveness of the structure and the scope of the idea.

Started in 1989 by South Austin local Vince Hannemann as nothing more than some chicken wire and other miscellaneous items, The Cathedral has become a hulking three-story structure over the years with multiple sections that include a mini artificial pond complete with lily pads, collages of old Cds ,beer cans, skis, doors, and just about anything else you can think of all wired together to form one cohesive structure. There are no nails, there are no boards. Slivers of re-bar wired in here and there serve as it’s only frame. And yet it astoundingly sturdy. Rumor has it that a city building inspector once confirmed this after a neighbor’s complaint, and declined to tear it down. Only in Austin could I see that happening. We love our eccentrics ’round here.

I’ve only been to The Cathedral three times, but what has struck me each time is the sense of reverence you feel while you’re there. All of these items– cds, televisions, tin foil, car radiators, metal road signs, shopping carts– were once important to someone or something. All would be in some landfill for the next 10,000 years if not here. It’s like a giant schizophrenic kaleidoscope of past lives and discarded memories, a montage of the material change that guides the years away from us. It’s also a monument to the waste-driven “material first” capitalism that is bringing the planet to its knees one slurpy straw at a time. But that’s another article.

Never has “garbage” had such a profound effect on my psyche. I don’t know how to fully explain it, but the structure has a presence. Not many people would build such a thing in their own back yard. Even fewer would open that backyard every day during daylight hours to anyone and everyone who wishes to experience it. I can’t help feeling that this is the exact type of thing that most promotes community and togetherness. How many of us would want strangers in our backyards each and every day? How many times do we stop and look at what’s amassing in our wake as we walk through this life? How often do we see so many parts of so many lives all bound together?

The project is ongoing and donations are welcome–which I feel is an acknowledgement that something like this cannot be built by one person alone–it’s a collection of all our junk, and a reminder of what societies in the distant future will find when they come looking for us. No, it takes a Village to raise this Cathedral. I’d like to think that we as a society are so much more than the sum of all this material, and for me The Cathedral supports this conjecture–it may look like a big pile of junk, but contained within it are memories from thousands of lives all banded together like a society of things no one wants anymore. Things that are not ready to be wanted just yet. Contained within it’s structure are the slightest inklings of the spirit of the people who let these things fade into their past. I highly recommend that you check it out, and spend some time just hanging out there, being silent and imagining where each item came from, and where it will be going one day, and what this means for the future of our culture and our planet. It might blow you away to discover the profound effect garbage can have on your spirit when you view it through the proper lens.

Check out a video on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVunhjh2HQs

VISIT THE CATHEDRAL: 4422 Lareina Dr, Austin, TX 78745

Taken from the Associated Press announcement of the bill)

“The measure represents the most moderate [and thus doomed] health care proposal in Congress so far, compared to legislation approved by three committees in the House and the Senate’s health panel. Obama’s top domestic priority is to revamp the health care system to provide coverage to nearly 50 million Americans who lack it and to rein in rising costs. [Obama's second priority is not getting shot by all these worked up crazies]

The bill includes provisions to keep illegal immigrants from obtaining health coverage [Turns out YOU lie Joe Wilson, or else you're just too stupid to comprehend what you read] through the new insurance exchanges — reflecting the White House‘s newly stringent stance on the issue after a Republican House member interrupted Obama’s speech last week to accuse him of lying about it.

The bill also would prevent federal funds from being used to pay for abortions except in cases of rape, incest, or if the life of the mother would be endangered. It’s all but certain that the Baucus provisions will not be the last word on either of those volatile issues. [It's almost certain that someone will shoot someone to prove that killing babies is wrong, but not killing adults, which is more of a grey area.]

The bill would set up a verification system to make sure people buying insurance in the exchanges are U.S. citizens or legal immigrants, using Social Security data and Homeland Security Department files.  The bill would impose penalties for fraud and identity theft.

While only legal residents would be able to buy coverage through the exchanges, illegal immigrant parents would be able to get insurance for their U.S. born children. [I don't care who you are children need to be taken care of, they have no choice on where they are or what they do and yes that means non-white children too]

The bill would prohibit abortion from being included in any minimum benefits package. However, plans in the exchange could offer unrestricted coverage for abortions, provided that no funds from government subsidies are used to pay for them. Women who want coverage for abortions would have to pay for it with their own money.

Wednesday’s bill release follows months of negotiations [that's news-speak for bickering] among Baucus and five other Finance Committee senators dubbed the “Gang of Six” — Republicans Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Mike Enzi of Wyoming and Olympia Snowe of Maine, and Democrats Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico.

Enzi said he couldn’t support the Baucus bill and preferred an incremental [intentionally vague language makes this suggestion easy to talk about but hard to discuss, and thus a great way to stall the conversation] approach. “Let’s start by focusing on the issues where we already have broad, bipartisan agreement,” he said. [Let's stop ignoring the issues just to be difficult and petty and partisan]

In the end, Democrats believe Snowe may be the only Republican to support the bill, though she wasn’t ready to commit her support Tuesday night [because she wants to stay in office]. “Hopefully at some point through the committee process we can reach an agreement,” she said. [Translation: Hopefully at some point if we stall and throw enough fits they'll give up on trying to bring America into the modern age and we can get back to doing whatever we want soon, with no consequences]

The bill drew quick criticism from Republican leaders. [who probably didn't even bother  to read it though they'll be quoted all about it in days to come]

“This partisan [it isn't partisan if you are given many chances to participate, and concessions are made to you  but you won't make any of your own--that's just you being difficult and partisan and then blaming the opposition for it] proposal cuts Medicare by nearly a half-trillion dollars, and puts massive new tax burdens on families [I challenge you to find this effect anywhere in the bill] and small businesses [again not in the bill I suspect], to create yet another thousand-page, trillion-dollar [once again they insist on inflating the number by almost double to create negative publicity and spread inaccurate information] government program [Keeping in mind that the last 2 trillion dollar program the government was involved in is a little conflict we know as the Iraq War--money for killing= good, money for saving life= bad--unless it an unborn  baby],” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. “Only in Washington would anyone think that makes sense, especially in this economy.” [Only an intelligent person would think that makes sense. And I'm certainly not intelligent and don't want my kids growing up to be intelligent or think for themselves either]

Many liberals also have concerns ["Now that Obama's in office we should get ALL our way with no input from them"]. Some wanted Baucus to include a public option [which would certainly kill the bill], while others fear that, in his effort to hold down the price of his bill, Baucus didn’t do enough to make health coverage affordable to working-class Americans.[legitimate concern to some degree but the money has to come from somewhere] Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., a member of the Finance Committee, said Tuesday that he couldn’t support the bill in its current form.” [Translation: It's politically beneficial for me to hold out for a little while but I'll come over in the end because that's the kind of shit I'm into] “

I think that so far the  bill seems to be shaping up to be a decent compromise, surprisingly.  Though I may sound liberal on some issues I’m all for everyone being represented equally, as long as their requirements are not that others be treated less equal, which seems to be the case. They’ve trimmed tons of fat off the bill and made provisions for stopping illegal imigrant use, preventing abortion from funding except in the most SEVERE cases, etc.

I REALLY LIKE THE IDEA OF INSURANCE FROM PRIVATE NON-PROFIT COOPERATIVES.  Non profit sounds much better than the current EXTREME PROFIT MODEL. If you don’t agree with that then you either work for an insurance company or like spending too much money.

Like anyone I’m not into having my taxes raised, but I do believe that we can find a way to fund this thing by unfunding other wasteful programs–Every other major democracy on the planet has already done so. Wanna know how far America has declined? We used to be the leader into these types of equalities (see the Constitution for additional details on this subject) but now we are at best behind the times, at worst, no longer interested in equality or liberty, just money.

You don’t have to support the bill in its current form. But you need to read it in its entirety. I plan to.  And if you choose to have opinions on it they’d better be based in good, logical fact, not word-bending and misrepresentation. If we continue to fight each other,  the future and the world will pass us by. We should be leading, not following, and not making enemies of our countrymen.

We all need to work together for a plan that benefits rich and poor, young and old, black and white. If you disdain the process so much that you ignore it or scoff at it,  then you have no right to complain ever again.  DEMOCRACY REQUIRES INVOLVMENT, EDUCATION, AND A SENSE OF COMING TOGETHER IN SPITE OF OUR DIFFERENT VIEWS.  I for one plan to do everything I can to have my fair say in the laws that will govern my future.  But I  refuse to approach it as though we’ve already failed, or as though my needs are the only important ones.

What is the meaning of value? What does it mean to value something? I only pose these questions because I’m noticing more and more that we’re forgetting as a society what it means to value anything of real worth at all anymore. I think that materialism has made us so sick of ourselves that we’ll do anything to avoid confronting that reality: Even if that means burying our heads in the sand and waiting out the storm that ensues by waking up each morning.

The unusual thing is not that I would be pondering these issues (I often think about these things), but rather the subject that sparked my thoughts. Oddly enough it was Kanye West’s rampage at the VMAs, or rather the overwhelming response to it, that got me thinking. People are understandably up in arms over his impulsive, disrespectful, and egotistical actions. Anti-Kanye adds and polls are popping up all over facebook and the web. The problem for me is that we recently saw this exact type of behavior on a much more important stage: The hallowed halls of government.

I have yet to see the “Ban Joe Wilson from Congress” movement on facebook, despite the fact that his actions last week directly mirrored Kanye’s actions. They both suffer from the same dillusion that what they hold as opinion automatically becomes fact, and that they can just speak up about this whenever they like in whatever way they like. Both are disappointed and enraged when reality disproves this time and again. What bothers me most isn’t Joe’s behavior: I think everyone has come to expect childish unfounded tantrums from the Extreme Right Wing; It’s the American people’s lack of true response to this absurd behavior that unnerves me.

How fucked are we when people have no problem forming lynch mobs if a 17 year old girl is “robbed of her TV moment,” but they can’t get up the proper amount of disdain for someone who has insulted the highest and most hallowed office in America? A few politically motivated distancing comments from his peers in the Republican party are hardly enough. You’d think they knew that you have to give respect to get it in this world.

Giving just isn’t their thing though. And don’t give me any crap about socialism or big government or what your gradchildren will have to pay for all this: They’re already paying $2 trillion for Iraq’s future instead of our own, but that’s beside the point.

Political views are irrelevant here: we’re talking about having respect for America as an institution; for the President as Commander In Chief. A respect for ourselves as a country that has been lost in the material shuffle. Although, had someone yelled at Bush that way they’d have been taken out back and waterboarded , but again that’s beside the point. His people were ruthless and we all realize that now.

But it didn’t happen to Bush. Even while he spent his way to becoming the highest spending president since LBJ with the worst deficit EVER following the biggest SURPLUS EVER, and then some, I didn’t see a soul on the Extreme Right saying a word. When he took liberties with our Constitutional Rights to privacy no one seemed to mind all that much. There were no big government accusations, even as he expanded government to its largest size EVER. There were no “Bury Bush’s privatizing social security with Regan” signs. There were no complaints about how our grandchildren will be paying the $2 trillion bill on the Iraq War, which was started by outright lies (history has embraced this as fact).

I do not see one inclination that Extreme Right Wingers believe one word of what they run around saying to anyone who is forced to listen to them. Nearly everything that comes out of their mouths is altered and unreliable and easily proven so, if we only take the time to read up for ourselves. The people are supposed to tell the government how to act, not the other way around. The thing is that would require a level of self-informing research that almost nobody takes the time to do anymore. Hence so much un-based fear about everything: People literally have no idea about what’s really going on in most cases. But again I digress.

Why do we find Video Music Awards so sacred, while most people can’t even name their own Congressman or Rep, who are people that make decisions that affect every single aspect of your life? How did the advertising agencies become so successful at turning our intellect off and impulses on? Where will this lead us as human beings?

We have become completely centered around vanity and superficiality and outright greed. These are the driving forces behind just about everything we do these days–and it was designed to be that way. In a modern age where psychological effects are observed and mapped extensively, it is no wonder that the world has become so good at dragging us so far from the things that matter: Health, Justice, Peace, Equality, Happiness. None of these things hold much weight in our decision making as a society, in spite of our country literally being founded on these principals. None of these things depend on material goods or excessive amounts of money.

Why, in a country where so many people claim to be religious, do religions’ true teachings not show? Easier for a camel to pass through the eye of the needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, right? And yet how many spiritual leaders are extremely wealthy? Worse, how many Americans strive with all their might to get rich, at all costs? Why is there such a gap between what we say and what we do? The time has come to wake up, but I doubt we’ll take it. The materialism train leaves every morning as soon as we turn on the television or computer, and it doesn’t stop until we hit the bed to dream of all the thing’s we’re going to buy tomorrow. The only reading material on board is the ads we’re learning to live our lives by. Too bad Freedom isn’t for sale……..

leaving it alone is the last thing we need to be doing....

The Aspen are dying. All across the Western Rockies, they’re dying off in droves. How could this happen? How could the largest organism ON EARTH be dying off, and so quickly? Science is now pointing to human-induced climate change as the culprit. More specifically, a species of beetles seeems to be responsible for much of the problem–without cold enough winters to kill off this beetle population and reset their life cycle each year, there is nothing to stop them from overpopulating and eating the trees to death.

Now I know this is just one of many signs that something needs to change if we’re going to continue living. But having spent an extensive amount of my time living on the Western Slope out in Colorado, something about the death of the Indian Summer really drives home the gross incompetence we have shown in the decisions that have shaped the direction of our societies on earth. I’d like to talk about one specific one today that could have far reaching implications for change, assuming we pop our elected heads out of their asses: I’m talking about the demonetization of Industrial Hemp, and Marijuana as a whole.

Marijuana and Hemp are such complex subjects that we could never begin to even remotely have a contextual discussion of their places in our society within the confines of this blog. Ironically, hemp has perhaps more human industrial uses than any other plant on earth, and most of these uses are EXTREMELY eco-friendly. Let’s look at a few fun facts about hemp before we begin our discussion, taken from the North American Industrial Hemp Council: (note: I took out all bullet points that distinguished hemp from Marijuana, becauase it is my belief that these are facts that hemp promoters are forced to use due to a false STIGMA that has been purported on Marijuana as a whole and so I will not reprint them, though trust me hemp is NOT psychoactive in any way)

• Hemp has been grown for at least 12,000 years for fiber (textiles and paper) and seed (food and fuel). It has been effectively prohibited in the United States since the 1950s.
• George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both grew hemp. Ben Franklin owned a mill that made hemp paper. Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence on hemp paper.
• Because of its importance for sails (the word ‘canvass’ is rooted in ‘cannabis’) and rope for ships, hemp was a required crop in the American colonies.
• Hemp was grown commercially (with increasing government interference) in the United States until the 1950s. It was doomed by the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, which placed an extremely high tax and made it effectively impossible to grow industrial hemp. While congress expressly expected the continued production of industrial hemp, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics lumped industrial hemp with marijuana, as its successor the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), does to this day. (note: the Marijuana Tax Act was used to circumvent the constitutional problems associated with prohibition, in other words they had to find a way to beat the constitution to make it illegal)
• When U.S. sources of ‘Manila hemp’ (not true hemp; rather sisal and jute) was cut off by the Japanese in World War II, the U.S. Army and U.S. Department of Agriculture promoted the “Hemp for Victory” campaign to grow hemp in the U.S.
• While the original ‘gruel’ was made of hemp seed meal, hemp oil and seed can be made into tasty and nutritional products.
• At a volume level of 81%, hemp oil is the richest known source of polyunsaturated essential fatty acids (the ‘good’ fats). It is quite high in some essential amino acids, including gamma linoleic acid (GLA), a very rare nutrient also found in mother’s milk.
• Hemp can be made into quality papers. the long fibers in hemp allow such paper to be recycled several more times than wood-based papers.
• Because of its low lignin content, hemp can be pulped using less energy and chemicals than wood requires, resulting in less pollution and energy consumption. Its natural whiteness can obviate the need to use chlorine bleach, which means no extremely toxic dioxin being dumped into streams. Rather, when required, hemp can be whitened with hydrogen peroxide. Therefore, hemp paper is acid-free, which can last 1,500 years. Wood-based papers have a shelf life of 25-100 years. This means that Hemp paper is of a higher archival quality than wood paper.
  
• Construction products such as medium density fiberboard (MDF), oriented strand board, and even beams, studs and posts can be made out of hemp. Because of hemp’s long fibers (bundles of 7 feet long can be common), the products will be stronger and/or lighter than those made from wood (a Douglas fir tree’s fiber is at best 3/4 inch long).
• Hemp can yield 3-8 dry tons of fiber per acre. This is four times what an average forest can yield.
• The products that can be made from hemp number over 25,000.
• Hemp grows well in a variety of climates and soil types. It is naturally resistant to most pests, precluding the need for pesticides. It grows tightly spaced, out-competing any weeds, so herbicides are not necessary. It also leaves a weed-free field for the following crop.
• A 1938 Popular Mechanics article described hemp as a “New Billion Dollar Crop.”
• Hemp can be made into variety of fabrics, including linen quality.
• Hemp can displace cotton which is grown with massive amounts of chemicals harmful to people and the environment. fifty percent of the world’s pesticides are sprayed on cotton. “Cotton, the natural fiber;” think again.
• Hemp fibers are longer, stronger, more absorbent, and more mildew-resistant than cotton. The original Levi Strauss jeans made for the Sierra gold miners were made of hemp sailcloth.
• Fabrics made of at least fifty percent hemp block the sun’s harmful UV rays more effectively than other fabrics.
• Hemp can displace wood fiber and save forests for watershed, wildlife habitat, recreation and oxygen production, carbon sequestration (reduces global warming), and other values.
• Many of the varieties of hemp that were grown in North America have been lost. Seed banks were not maintained. New genetic breeding will be necessary using both foreign and ‘ditch weed,’ strains of hemp that went feral after cultivation ended. Various state national guard units often spend their weekends trying to eradicate this hemp, in the mistaken belief they are helping stop drug use.
• Henry Ford experimented with hemp to build car bodies and interiors. He wanted to both build and fuel cars from farm products. [See Popular Mechanics “Pinch Hitters for Defense.”]
• BMW is experimenting with hemp materials in automobiles as part of an effort to make cars more recyclable.
• Seeking to put more environment-friendly materials in its cars, Daimler-Benz may replace fiberglass matte with industrial hemp. [See Popular Mechanics “Putting Cannabis Into Cars.”]
• Rudolph Diesel designed his namesake engine to run on vegetable oils, including hempseed oil. GREENHOUSE EMISSIONS FROM ENGINES THAT RUN ON HEMPSEED OIL ARE COMPLETELY OFFSET BY THE AMOUNT OF CARBON THE FIELD THE HEMP WAS GROWN IN, MEANING SWITCHING TO HEMP SEED OIL WOULD REDUCE GREENHOUSE EMISSIONS FROM OUR VEHICLES TO ZERO, MAJORLY COUNTERACTING CLIMATE CHANGE.
  
• Hempseed oil once greased machines. Most paint, resins, shellacs, and varnishes used to be made out of linseed (from flax) and hempseed oils.
• Much of the bird seed sold in the United States has hempseed (it’s sterilized before importation), the hulls of which contain about 25% protein of which is more easily digestible than soybean protein.

Now I’ll give you a second to digest all of that while trying to keep in mind that this product is illegal in the United States. I’m sure at least a few of you are having “Come to Jesus” moments as you read this. How could you not? I don’t care who you are, there is no way you could have read those stats objectively and still be anti-hemp. If you are your an ignorant douchebag and please stop reading my blog.

I’d like to get back to explaining why I left out all the stats that sepperate hemp from Marijuana as a whole. It’s simple: For every industrial use I just listed for hemp, there are equal medical benefits associated with Marijuana. In fact, this slew of benefits is the reason ironically that the drug companies are so against ending Marijuana prohibition: because you can’t patent the chemical makeup of a plant, and these companies earn profits through chemical formula patents for their drugs.

Pfizer doesn’t want you getting access to a medicine that you can grow as easily as tomatoes in your backyard, and has the potential to replace about 80% of the products they make. These include products for pain, nausea, loss of appetite, headaches, stomach aches, reduction of involuntary shaking etc. in MS patients, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. Let’s talk about Marijuana prohibition VERY briefly, and how it came about.

Marijuana prohibition and racism are inextricably linked. Prohibition began based largely on false claims made in the media that suggested to white people that blacks and mexicans smoked marijuana, became violent, and preyed on innocent white people (all us white folks know how innocent we’ve been as we’ve moved around the world stealing land and enslaving colored people for 600 years).

There are no recorded overdoses, deaths, or instances of lung cancer from strictly marijuana use EVER RECORDED. That doesn’t mean they are rare, it means there is NO MEDICAL EVIDENCE THAT IT HAS EVER HAPPENED. On the other hand, cigarettes kill more people a year than the next three causes of death (car wrecks, cancer, alcohol) COMBINED, and have NO medical or industrial use. Yet while we cannot grow hemp or marijuana in the United States, our government and private companies don’t hesitate to export American tobacco to nearly EVERY country on earth. Tobacco kills more Americans in a month than cocaine does in a year. So why are we iradicating cocaine in Columbia while shipping them cigarettes? That seems backwards.

After World War two, when congress again elected to keep Marijuana outlawed, they did so for the opposite reason from the original: Originally they outlawed marijuana saying it made people violent and sex-crazed. After world war two it was decided to keep it outlawed because it made people “lazy and calm, meaning the communists would send it here to take away our work ethic and beat us that way.” Nobody ever talks about this flip-flop by the government, why?

In the early 1970′s Richard Nixon had the best government scientists available run extensive tests on Marijuana to prove its evils. The results of these tests were suppressed and discarded when it came back the opinion of these scientists was that marijuana was virtually harmless, and that prohibition should be ended. There were less copies of this study printed than there were members of congress, it’s results were suppressed, and Nixon decided instead to declare a WAR ON DRUGS that is about 90% focused on marijuana and it’s users TO THIS DAY. This means that about 10% of the Drug War funding are going to fight the combined forces of Heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, METH, etc., while 90% is going to arrest pot smokers for simple possession. Still support the war on drugs? In fact, there have been thousands of studies done now, many by Nobel Laureates, Harvard Medical Professors, Harvard Economic Professors, and many other of the greatest minds on earth, and each time they come back the same: Marijuana is virtually harmless, and prohibition should be ended.

A study done by 5 Harvard professors, including three Nobel Laureates, noted that the government passes on a potential 10-14 BILLION dollars a year by not legalizing and taxing Marijuana. combine this with the savings of not fighting the drug war anyomre, and we’re talking about more like 20 billion dollars a year. TALK ABOUT FUNDING NATIONALIZED HEALTHCARE.

I could go on and on here, but you probably get the point. If you’re a smoker, it’s time to stand up and give back to the thing that’s given so much to you, and has so much potential to give to others. If you’re not a smoker, it’s time you see the benefits of ending prohibition on this non-dangerous, non-lethal, natural substance. If you’re a farmer, it’s time you got back to your American roots and worked toward the production of Industrial Hemp being legalized in the United States.

I want to hear some of your opinions here. What follows are a slew or resources on Marijuana and Hemp, and what you can do to get involved. These plants have the potential to slow or halt global warming, reduce the presence of drugs with dangerous side effects currently being forced into the public medical sphere, and also the runoff from producing these drums that ends up in our water sources.

IT’S TIME TO WAKE UP PEOPLE AND STOP PRETENDING. Marijuana isn’t dangerous or bad and the control whores know this, what they find dangerous is the way marijuana makes you think about and question the blind assumptions that have been forced on you as truth for you entire life. Big Brother doesn’t want that, they want nice, clean-cut folks who work the same shit job for 40 years, mow their yards meticulously, and NEVER question why the government is so caught up in it’s Industrial War Complex.

I’ve never heard of anyone getting high and starting a war…… (AND YES, I SMOKE MARIJUANA EVERY DAY, and have done so for the last 15 years of my life happily, safely, and with no side effects, and will do so until the day I die, no matter the legal repercussions. I also train jiu-jitsu three times a week, run three miles multiple times a week, workout in the gym, and spar with my MMA teammates, with NO NEGATIVE side effects on my cardiovascular system. I also have a bachelor’s degree, own my home, own my business, write, read, and most of all always question the things that are presented to me as “TRUTH”.) I am also in the process of switching all of my clothing to hemp, as it is the most eco-friendly fiber on earth, as well as the strongest and longest lasting.

USEFUL LINKS

IF YOU DON’T FOLLOW ANY OF THE LINKS BELOW, AT LEAST WATCH THE DOCUMENTARY FILM TITLED “THE UNION: THE BUSINESS BEHIND GETTING HIGH” WHETHER YOU AGREE OR DISAGREE WITH IT YOU WILL FIND THAT THIS FILM HAS A SLEW OF INFORMATION ON MARIJUANA AND HEMP PROHIBITION. www.theunionmovie.com

http://www.prohibitioncosts.org/

www.norml.org

http://www.marijuanaprohibition.org/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemp

http://www.naihc.org/hemp_information/hemp_facts.html

www.hemp.net

THERE ARE MANY MORE, this was a quick rundown…..

These weapons have one use--killing other humans.

I’d like to apologize in advance today for having to stray once again onto such serious subject matter in this blog. But some scary shit is going on and I feel the need to speak on it. Now I don’t care what your political affiliation is, really I don’t. I like to believe that down deep most human beings have some form of both compassion and intelligence. But some people are out to prove me wrong, and I’m running out of patience for the other side.

I was appalled to read that conservative protesters in Arizona recently resorted to carrying loaded weapons at their protest of President Obama’s Healthcare Town Hall meeting. Even though the protesters were within their legal rights (Arizona is an “open carry” state, so as long as they’re visible, they’re legal), there is something very wrong with this.

It is clear to everyone, and even the mentally benign news media, that these are veiled threats. One man went so far as to carry a loaded AR-15 over his shoulder. The AR-15 has no other use but killing human beings. It was designed for war, not deer hunting. True story.

Now I remember how the Democrats acted under the 8 years of “W,” and I know many nasty things were said about the guy. Words are one thing. But invoking the faint suggestion that the President (the leader of the free world who was fairly and legally elected by a majority of your peers) should be shot immediately, is a vicious, horrible tactic, and shows how desperate these people have become to switch back to their failed policies and one dimensional approach to government (MONEY FIRST!!!).

And let’s be clear here, these guns were not brought to the rallies as a symbol of the second amendment. They were brought as a threat to the President.

What I don’t remember is anyone carrying a gun at any of those liberal protests. In fact, I remember the majority of them being protests for peace, protests against sending our young men off to the slaughter again without a solid reason. I’m no democrat, but I hate to say it, this is why they got my vote. Because they fight for human rights and equality and fair access to government, even if some of the things they do are ridiculous, such as getting blow jobs etc.

On the other hand, Republicans fight for guns, money and elite access to government. Democrats are open to the inevitable changes that are prerequisite to breathing. Republicans fight them tooth and nail, even going so far as to invoke the name of God, the creator of all things, as their reason for hate and destruction and greed and murder.

Fiscally I resemble a Conservative. I’m for trim spending and cutting all ineffective programs, and I’m for each state making their own decisions. I prefer more personal freedom and less control. However, this is only the game that conservatives TALK. Nothing about the way they govern could be further from the truth.

Think I’m lying? I seem to remember the federal government under Bush kicking in the doors of cancer patients growing marijuana withing the confines of California law. I guess in that case states’ rights weren’t what they were interested in. They threatened over and over to cut California’s federal funding under Bush if they didn’t comply with Federal law. That’s not very conservative to me. Obama has agreed to back the DEA off and let the states decide. Who is really for states’ rights here?

The last democrat in office (Clinton) balanced the budget and reigned in spending in the process. George Bush ran up the highest deficit we’ve ever seen, only to have his followers protest the economic stimulus like that was the real problem. False.

The real problem is letting corporations do whatever they want all the time while the government stands by and watches private citizens trickle slowly down the economic ladder toward the gutter, while 5% of our population gets filthy rich. None of this represents fiscal conservancy or morality in any way.

As if we hadn’t seen enough crazy people recently, now we’ve got Mike Huckabee limping around the Middle East and Israel in particular, screaming to anyone who will listen that a Palestinian State in “The Jewish homeland” would be an abomination and misstep. Clearly this guy wants WWIII. News flash, Mike–these people have been fighting for thousands of years, and will probably continue to fight until every fake religion on earth is extinct.

Which is slowly becoming the best possible option in light of all of their recent behavior. Mike, of course, is a Southern Baptist Minister–so Armageddon, Hellfire and hate are pretty much what he does in his daily routine. Those people scared the shit out of me when I was a boy with all their talk of hell. They love fear like dogs love catshit. Without getting anymore offensive, I grew up with these people and I’ll just say no thank you to turning my brain off and my crazy dial up. It only causes problems.

The real point of this post isn’t to hate on anyone. The point is to try and understand why these people want to watch everything burn. They are insistent on war, all the time, anywhere, as violent as possible. Now we’ve got their counterpart extremists overseas intent on blowing us all to hell as a result.

Some of us just don’t want to be in the middle of all this. And while nobody on either side of that conflict deserves death, what’s clear is that both sides have been asking for it for a long time. If you don’t believe that, then you are no doubt a person helping to fan these flames.

Maybe we could ship all the religious extremists to Antarctica and let them kill each other in the snow. It’s not that I want to see all those people dead, but it sure beats having them kill so many uninvolved people every day. And it sure would save us having to hear the extremists here in America complain about the government trying to serve everyone’s interests, instead of just their personal ones.

Barack Obama is the freely elected leader of this country, meaning a majority of people don’t agree with you. If you really hate democracy that bad then leave.

Those crazy liberals sat it out while conservative Golden Boy “W’s” administration and leadership pissed the economy and our international reputation down the drain. Looks like these conservatives are going to have to sit back and watch while the new administration tries to restore balance to that system, and steer the country away from future disasters. If they fail, so what. So did your guy.

If you shoot Obama you’ll only rally his supporters behind him as a martyr anyway. The man ain’t Kennedy, he’s much more beloved even. So go ahead, put that last nail in your own coffins if you’d like. Kill the man for being brave enough to stand for those who don’t have the money or power to stand for themselves. Show the world what you really are–selfish, self-serving, hateful monsters who value their bank accounts over human life, and who cite the least violent or greedy Being in history (Jesus Christ) as their reason for acting that way. That sounds reasonable. Poor Jesus, I fear that everyone misunderstood him.—MDP

Apparantly this is what my insides look like

So I failed miserably at my attempted weight cut. Looks like I’m only getting down to that weight the honest way. That is, through months and months of nutrition and training. But I feel good about it, actually. It sucks depriving yourself of everything you enjoy. I even had a beer earlier. My decision came to a head after I got tossed around my brother’s Boxing gym the other day. I was WEAK from lack of proper nutrition, specifically carbs.

I’m starting to get back on track now though. I’ll know for sure when I get on the mats tomorrow. No heavy sparring this close to the tourney though….

I’ve decided not to take competition too seriously at the moment. It will be fun going in and seeing how I fare with bigger opponents at the tournament, who cares if I win or lose?. After all, it’s about competing, not winning, right? In the end it’s the art that really keeps me interested day to day anyway.

I’m taking my time about working into fighting MMA at the moment. Right now I’ve been training for about 21 months, so don’t get me wrong, I’m comfortable with the idea of it. But I’ve seen how sloppy some amateurs look in their first couple fights, and I’d prefer not to look that bad in front of 2,000 people. Actually I’d prefer to choke someone out if possible, and that means building those instincts up now. My skills are coming along every day, I’m part of an AWESOME academy here In Austin at Relson Gracie Jiu-Jitsu.

In the meantime the first 40ft cargo container of inventory for Freedom Drums, our percussion brand, is arriving in Houston tomorrow after 6 weeks at sea. It’s been a year in the making, from designing the first products to now, so you can imagine we’re foaming at the mouth to get them into our warehouse and on the market.

Now it just depends on whether customs decides to unload part of it for inspection or do a simpler scan with machines. I’m assuming this is wholly dependent on how they feel in that exact moment. Hopefully nobody over there just discovered they have Chlamydia or anything else that might disrupt the flow of our company in a negative manner. I’m dying to get started with all the picture taking etc. for our new website and mailer campaign (check out our Freedom Drums Facebook products page for more info and help us out by becoming a fan!!!)

It was nice spending time with my family this last weekend down in Tyler, Texas. East Texas is beautiful, even if it isn’t the most fun place to live or hang out. We had a blast out on Lake Palestine anyway, and it had been a good while since I’d done that. I’m looking forward to more opportunities to enjoy myself starting immediately after the tournament. A road trip could be necessary very soon. At least I hope so. —-MDP

Assuming I get back to training this evening, I guess it’s time to start drilling my sweeps obsessively. If I choose to skip cutting weight and compete in the heavier division, I’ll probably spend some time on my back, as most of the competitors will be bigger than me. That’s all fine and great, except I’ve been feeling like a bit of a chump this week. There is no other way to put it except that my game is simply off. Everyone has these days where they’re just not firing on all circuits, but right before a competition is a bad time to be getting owned up on. You need to be building yourself up. I haven’t felt very lucid on the mats lately and it’s made me pause to think when I should just react.

This could have been my expression after the morning I've had....

We’re on step 87 of 88 in getting the PS3 / Hulu connection figured out. Now the problem is that the processor on the old shitty streaming computer is too slow. The picture looks great but it stalls constantly. However, I remain convinced that we’re going to beat this fucking thing once and for all in the coming days. At least the computer’s viruses are gone now. That’s more than I can say for my stomach. 180 here I come……..MDP

I started the day off today with a vicious session on a stairset at the Lamar Street pedestrian bridge. Fifteen minutes of running up and down stairs will really put the whipping on you, I’ll say that much. But once I got past everyone staring at me like I thought I was Rocky Balboa it actually felt really good. I’d say it’s exactly the kind of thing I need to be doing every day if I want to be in proper shape for the tournament. At least it’s a small but significant portion of the training that needs to happen. I’ve been eating like a saint.

As I jogged for a few minutes after the stairs, I noticed that there were lots of people out on Town Lake in kayaks. I then very suddenly realized just how much fun I’ve been missing out on all this time. And here I thought I knew what was up in Austin! These people, now they’ve got it figured out with their river shoes and paddles. I plan to get one asap. As a matter of fact, it makes my soul hurt to realize that this confounded PS3 could be at least half a kayak right now. What kind of world am I living in where I makes bad decisions like that?

Speaking of the PS3, I think we’ve neared a solution finally. Which means that soon enough you won’t have to hear me jabbering on and on like a 14 year old about corporate conspiracies and bastard children. At the suggestion of our friend, we found a website that will allow us to view hulu in coordination between a computer and the PS3 (I’d tell you the site but there’s no way I’m jinxing this fucking thing, I’ve come too far). The only catch is that computer must be a PC. Guess who has a mac?

The solution has only cost us another $$75 and counting so far. We dug out Jazz’s old PC laptop and are in the process of bringing total annihilation on the Trojan virus that shut it down to begin with. We’re going to use it to stream the aforementioned website onto the PS3 and finally end this bloody conflict once and for all. We also had to buy a new wireless card for the PC. All in all, my plan to save money while waving the shocker in Time Warner’s face has officially backfired. So be it, as I already mentioned I’ve come too far to quit now. I’m determined to bend this fucking technology to my will, at any and all costs (not to exceed another $150 of course, as I’m not exactly rich).

One last thing and then I gotta get on with my day. I’m not nearly sophisticated enough to know how many people view this blog, or if anyone views it. I’ve been writing for a long time but blogging is totally new to me. Thus any tips any of you have regarding finding an audience, or things you’d like to hear me rant about, are always appreciated. I want this blog to be a place where you can come and take a break from your day to laugh at mine, and maybe to hear something strangely profound in it’s cynicism every now and again. I hope you will work with me to make it the best that it can be. Communication and connection are, after all, the whole purpose of writing and reading. Thank whatever God you believe in for that. It’s made all the difference. –MDP

Could somebody please turn the heat off? I don’t know who reads this thing or where you live, but unless you live on the sun be thankful you’re not in Central Texas right now. We’ve got a pretty nice little summer going down here, something like 30 straight days above 100 degrees. Some days it’s upwards of 105. That’s hot enough to make you question your sanity at least once a day.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Austin, Texas. It is, without a doubt, my favorite city in the United States, and if you disagree with me it’s probably only because you’ve never spent much time here, so take my word for it, it’s fucking awesome. Please don’t move here though. It’s also crowded. Not that I have any right to say that but still.

Only a fool would wrestle around in their best winter pajamas (formally known as a jiu-jitsu gi or kimono) with other sweaty men in heat like this. Unfortunately I’m that fool. I’m training for a jiu-jitsu tournament here in Austin on August 16, and in spite of weighing 183 right now, I plan to make the 173lb cutoff in order to be competing with men more my natural size (cutting weight is like a religion to some of these freaks). All this is fine except that I’ve had to eliminate most of the complex carbohydrates from my diet. For the less intelligent people out there, that means no bread, no rice, no cereal, no potatoes, chips, etc. I do get about 1/4 a cup of raw oatmeal mixed into a protein shake in the morning, but that’s not much.

From an athletic standpoint, eliminating all these carbohydrates from your diet is something akin to eliminating the gasoline from your sports car’s engine. Let’s just say she don’t run so smooth after that. Factor in some high-level competition and let’s just say I got choked out about 9 times this afternoon. Not that I was counting or anything like that. But alas, this is how we learn– by being forced to quit for lack of blood to the brain.

In other news, the festering saga continues with the PS3. We’ve decided to keep it in spite of it’s apparent uselessness. I’m trying to get pumped up about UFC Undisputed 2009, which is lots of fun. I’d just about guarantee you that if I could control the real Anderson Silva with a game controller from my PS3 he’d be the baddest fucking thing since jail tattoos. Oh wait, he already is. So much for that.

The real problem now is not with the PS3, but with Time Warner. You might remember in my last post that Time Warner has been the scourge of our existence for the last year or so. They have this “pricelot guarantee,” which really only guarantees that you have to use their service for one year, and also automatically renews if you don’t cancel it after 11 months for another year. If you’re not already pissed off just reading about this scam, just wait a bit, I’ve got more information on the subject.

We opted out of our contract on time, but we didn’t ever receive proof of this. Well now they “don’t have any record of that transaction.” Sound familiar? So while I was having an oral kaniption fit in the background, Jazz battled the rep on the phone. In the end I think she diffused the situation until Monday, when according to my records they are set to resume jackhammering us again. Should be nice. I’ll keep you posted on how things turn out, but I foresee that some screaming and salivating like a wolf while gnashing my teeth at the phone and making obscene gestures with my hands is almost certainly in my near future. I guess these things happen.

If any of you have similar stories about Time Warner or other Cable Scum that’s been hammering you, I hope you’ll take the time to post your experiences here in the comments section, so we can all have a giant Goddamn-the-Man certified pity-party together here on my blog. Until then, stay cool out there my friends.