August 14, 2010 archive

Aug 14 2010

Duuude, New Drugs Are Out….Get’em While They’re Legal!

(Cross-posted from The Free Speech Zone)

Law enforcement and drug treatment agencies are stepping up alerts for the newest drug to begin sweeping the country.

The drug is typically marketed as incense or potpourri and known by such names as “K2,” “Spice,” “Genie,” “Yucatan Fire,” “Sence,” “Smoke,” “Skunk” and “Zohai.”

It produces a similar high of marijuana but the problem for law enforcement and others is that it is synthetic and completely legal in New Jersey and can be easily obtained in smoke shops and on the Internet.

Detective John Walker, the narcotics officer in Mount Olive, said individuals cannot be charged for possession or use of synthetic marijuana. But they can be charged if they are found driving under the influence of the drug.

People also can be charged with excessive use of synthetic marijuana under the so-called “huffing” statute that also applies to such materials as nitrous oxide and glue.

“Kids think they’re home free with the synthetic marijuana but they’re not,” Walker said.

Walker said too many people are willing to try virtually any kind of chemical if they think they will get a high. He said he is not surprised that individuals will inhale synthetic marijuana without knowing its actual contents or effects.

http://www.recordernewspapers….

Aug 14 2010

Random Japan

ANIMALS!

The head of an NPO that seeks to protect Asian black bears said that the number of recent attacks by the animals on humans is “unprecedented.” In May alone, the bears killed one person and injured 17 more.

A trainer at a zoo in Miyazaki had a couple of ribs broken when an Asian elephant knocked him over with its trunk and stepped on him.

Authorities in Ishaya, Nagasaki warned residents to steer clear of a local reservoir after three 1m-long alligators were spotted swimming in the waters. The creatures are “believed to be either abandoned or escaped pets.”

Cops were able to arrest a 35-year-old municipal worker in Osaka for molesting a woman because he left behind his jacket and ID card at the scene.

An unemployed 42-year-old Osaka man was busted for an incident in May in which he poured oil on his 14-year-old son’s back and set it alight. The boy survived but suffered severe burns.

Stay with us on this one: the 21-year-old son of a noted Hollywood-based Japanese film producer was stabbed to death by his ex-girlfriend’s new lover outside his home in Beverly Hills.

Aug 14 2010

Original v. Cover — #38 in a Series (UPDATED)

Steam Roller Pictures, Images and Photos

UPDATE:  Since this is Friday the 13th, the day couldn’t conclude without something strange happening.  For whatever reason, the poll disappeared from this essay, but should be available now.

O.K.  I’ll admit it.  I’m a sucker for a witty, well-turned phrase.

Pickup lines could potentially fall within this category, most assuredly in the minds of those who speak them, an opinion not necessarily shared by the intended recipient. But of all the pickup lines witnessed live or on the silver screen, I’m hard pressed to think of one that didn’t seem crude, cliched or trite.

Such solicitations assume many forms, some subtle, vague and indirect but in other cases, are exceedingly clear, to the point and unambiguous. Those adopting the latter approach seemingly prefer to skip past the means, focusing exclusively on achieving the desired ends, avoiding time-consuming prelinaries and unpredictable outcomes.    

Aug 14 2010

Original v. Cover — #38 in a Series

Steam Roller Pictures, Images and Photos

O.K.  I’ll admit it.  I’m a sucker for a witty, well-turned phrase.

Pickup lines could potentially fall within this category, most assuredly in the minds of those who speak them, an opinion not necessarily shared by those on the receiving end. But of all the pickup lines witnessed live or on the silver screen, I’m hard pressed to think of one that didn’t seem crude, cliched or trite.

Such solicitations assume many forms, some subtle, vague and indirect but in other cases, are exceedingly clear, to the point and unambiguous. Those adopting the latter approach seemingly prefer to skip past the means, focusing exclusively on the ends, avoiding time-consuming preliminaries and unpredictable outcomes.    

Aug 14 2010

Obama-heddo action figures:

Obama-heddo!

Photobucket

Obama’s complete bag of tricks, including poseable hands for flipping off liberals.

Photobucket

Aug 14 2010

OBAMA’S WAR ON THE LEFT HAS NO EXIT STRATEGY

Obama’s War On The Left Has No Exit Strategy:

  1. We’ve heard President Obama himself snidely mock a group of single payer Health Care advocates, at a Town Hall meeting, as:   “the little people“.

  2. We’ve heard the President’s own White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, bash all progressives (the very people who voted for him) and call them “FU*KING RETARDS”.

  3. And now we’ve heard the President’s own White House Spokesman, Robert Gibbs, derail that the Political Left as all just a bunch of “drug addicts“, and also crazy apparently as well (the equvialent of: “FU*king Retards” – hence a common theme emerges).

  4. We’ve also heard Gibbs insist that the agenda of “the Left” is solely to abolish the Pentagon in it’s entirety altogether, and claim that Dennis Kucinich campaigned on this point (even though Kucinich did no such thing).  And more Rush-Limbaugh-esque smears and attacks by Gibbs on “The Left” were that they would never be statisfied with Obama under any scenario, unless a full Canadian style Health Care system had been passed into Law (which is also more lying nonsense).

In answering the question: Did he still stand by his comments?“, Robert Gibbs said an unequivocal YES    (and this is about the only thing in the entire world that Barack Obama, and his administration, have ever been unequivocal about in their lives).

What we have been witnessing here is the real, behind-the-scenes, governing sentiment being expressed here by President Obama and his entire All-Neocon, All-WallStreet, Pro-WarCrimes, pro-BankOligarchMonopoly, faux-Reform administration…just finally spilling over the edges and into public view. Obama’s pure contempt and haterd of The Left is now undeniable and absolute, and can never be taken back. It was not simply the case, that he was outflanked by a minority of GOP politicians, or intimidated by Fox News. The truth is that Obama hates “The Left” and is committed to the wrong side (the Dark side) on all the important issues where real government reforms and government action is absolutely required (to reverse the damage to our Country over the last 8 years).

The man who cynically campaigned for Election purposes (not unlike Richard Nixon) on ending the Wars, and also “ending the mindset that got us into the Wars“, and on insincerely made platitudes of “change from the bottom-up” and “hope” while whoring for Campaign donatations from “the little people”, has now revealed himself to be a total Political Fraud, and a wholesale bait and switch deceiver of the public — both in his policy terms and choice of advisors (which are obvious), and now also even in his public messaging as well.

It’s important not to view these statements as mere abberations, or some sequence of unrelated events. What they are is just the inner monologue of Obama, and his political cronies, bursting out for the World to see. No mere teleprompter speech or scripted Press Conference could ever now erase that.  Only actual job firings, and real policy changes could ever display any indication that an End to Obama’s War on the Left could even be a remote, credible possibility. But we already know that we won’t be seeing any of that.

Aug 14 2010

GOP Roadmap for America’s Future has YOUR Security in its Sights

The Ryan Budget’s Radical Priorities

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

By Paul N. Van de Water — July 7, 2010

I. Summary

The Roadmap for America’s Future, which Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) – the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee – released in late January, calls for radical policy changes that would result in a massive transfer of resources from the broad majority of Americans to the nation’s wealthiest individuals.[1]

The Roadmap would give the most affluent households a new round of very large, costly tax cuts by reducing income tax rates on high-income households;

eliminating income taxes on capital gains, dividends, and interest;

and abolishing the corporate income tax, the estate tax, and the alternative minimum tax.

At the same time, the Ryan plan would raise taxes for most middle-income families,

privatize a substantial portion of Social Security,

eliminate the tax exclusion for employer-sponsored health insurance,

end traditional Medicare and most of Medicaid,

and terminate the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

Aug 14 2010

Photo of a Child in Iraq

Child

I can’t even remember where I found this photo, for a diary that never got written, and I never had much to say about it. It reminds me of the last line of Rilke’s poem, Archaic Torso of Apollo.

“You must change your life.”

Aug 14 2010

Friday Philosophy: The most self-aware people I know

In her essay earlier today, Allison’s Story told us about her “friend” who told her he thought she was psychotic because she chose to treat her gender dysphoria.

That’s too much of a constant in our lives.  Because we don’t believe that chromosomes, or even genitalia, are destiny, people tell us they think we are insane…and then use that conclusion in attempts to drive us from our professions.

To some people, the options we have are being thought to be insane or having a moral defect.  The truth is, in my opinion, that we are some of the more sane people around.  On the other hand, what is moral is in the mind of the beholder.

I’ve met hundreds of transfolk since I began my transition in 1992.  I actually came out on September 30, 1992, which would have been my father’s birthday if he had still been alive.  From my years of knowing him, I can assure you that informing him of my plans for the future would not have gone down well.

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