Sunday, August 23, 2009

Festering pile of shit

I suppose I owe an explanation of my last post. The bill in question is as big an assault on personal freedom as marijuana prohibition, and equally as pointless. If you live in Vermont at voting time, I highly recommend not voting for Sen. Leahy again. The guy is out to get you.

This bill S. 1147 or PACT Act as it's being called will effectively ban all internet, phone, and mail-order sales of tobacco products (except cigars), not just the one's bought from outside sources. It really seems like a fuck in the ass with the price of smokes these days. I just found out that the price of a pack went up $0.60 today and there was just an increase like 4 months ago. Now I understand how everyone feels about smoking and tobacco, but persecution is persecution and it's bullshit. I quit smoking recently by way of a switch to a Swedish product called snus. You can read about the small ton of studies that have been done on it at SnusCentral.com. The fact is that regardless of the "snus"-type product that RJ Reynolds is currently selling on the American market; they still refuse to say what's in the shit. Swedish snus has an ingredients disclosure and must only contain food-grade ingredients, as well as the requirement that it comply with food safety law in Sweden. The only problem here, is that if I (and countless others like me) would like to limit our risk by using Swedish made snus instead, we have to buy it online from a vendor in Sweden because hardly any shops in America carry the stuff. This law would effectively make this impossible.

If by some off chance my local tobacconist started carrying a decent selection of Swedish made snus I would buy it there and deal with the local taxes, until then I believe it's my right as a consenting adult to be able to use the product of my choice, regardless of whether I buy it in a store or from a website.

Someone else wanna tell me why in hell cigars are exempt?

Saturday, August 22, 2009

I don't complain to much about tobacco legislation but this PACT Act is the biggest pile of bullshit I've ever seen. I've created a petition on Care2.org protesting it. Please sign it to protect personal freedom.



Saturday, August 1, 2009

BEER!!!

Has the Republican party completely run out of reasons to complain about the president? I'm starting to think so. If you check out the latest news threads on Obama you'll find a few pieces ridiculing him for having a couple brews with some people at the white house. I'm starting to wonder if republicans are required to fail American History. It's common knowledge that quite a few of the greater accomplishments of humanity were brought on by beer. Refrigeration for instance, was invented by a German for the sake of being able to brew lager year-round. During the American colonial period beer was held in high regard. George Washington declared that all soldiers in the revolutionary war were to have quarts of porter included in their rations. Today it's still the single most popular alcoholic beverage on earth, with women starting to take positions as brew master in breweries around the country (a previously male dominated field). It's impossible to keep track of exactly how many brewers there are in this country due to places like Vermont that have an astonishing number of small brewers spread across the state. Just because I grew up there, I'll take the time to mention that Vermont has the highest number of craft breweries per 1,000 people of any state in the country. Most of them are damn good too. Regardless, beer has a deep history in the United States, and if the President wants to have drinks on the lawn with some people, I'm willing to concede that it's probably the most authentically "American" thing any president of recent times has done. Beyond that, what's wrong with having a beer in the first place, president or not? I bet the person that complained went home, drank a 12-pack, and probably beat the tar out of his wife while she was in labor with their 42nd kid (no abortions or birth control, remember?).

Maybe that was a bit harsh, but politics has turned into a dick-waving contest in the last 20 years. What ever happened to "for the people, by the people"? Our government is run by people that already have to much money for their own good. Now they want to pound religion into the swollen abscess that is the democratic system in America. Don't take me for an atheist (though I'm not far off) or anything, but there's no place for religion when your job involves making important decisions for over 300 million people. These "representatives" are mostly 50-ish white men with special interests. They by no means represent the diversity of the population. They were chosen by a "vote" that is participated in by people over 40. The largest demographic in the country (18-24) accounts for less than 10% of the actual vote while they represent over 30% of the population. If they all got out and voted for the same person, they could change the course of any given election. So no, even though I voted in 2008, I don't feel truly represented by my elected officials. I believe the old saying "If you don't vote, don't bitch." becomes painfully true here. Unfortunately the younger demographic doesn't pay attention in the first place. They're too busy with figuring out which new gadget they need, which songs they're going to download from iTunes, and whether or not they look trampy enough to go to the bar for the 5th night in a row, instead of trying to make sure that some old farts with PTSD (probably have it because of Vietnam) don't make bad decisions on their behalf.

It takes 10 minutes to vote. It's free to register. What is the problem here?

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Welfare problems

Some days I'm forced to wonder if people really pay attention or not. I was on my facebook page last night when I ran across an opinion quiz pasted to a friends wall asking the question "Do you think people should be drug tested before getting a welfare check?". For obvious reasons that just set me off.

Drug testing is a wide screen that includes people that eat poppy bagels and shit. The tests are non-discriminating, doesn't matter if the item that gave a positive test was acquired legally, a positive is a positive. People lose jobs that way all over the country. As everyone knows, I don't feel Marijuana deserves the flak that it receives. The problem with testing welfare recipients is that it doesn't take into account the people that spend all their money on booze. Therefore producing a discriminatory practice that I believe is a violation of my rights. Drug testing is only acceptable in occasions that could involve death if you're not dead sober (ie., pilot, heavy equipment operator, etc.). Furthermore, the current layout of the welfare system doesn't allow for people to recieve any kind of cash disbursment except in extreme cases (usually wheelchair bound elderly people). You'll end up homeless and sleeping on the beach with your kids before they even think about giving you money. It's also damn hard to trade food stamps for drugs; everything is on a card these days.

The real problem within the welfare system that desperatly needs to be addressed is the people that bullshit the system to get onto programs they don't otherwise qualify for. Here's an example I personally witnessed: I was in town near the county building waiting for MY appointment so I could get the wife some health insurance to cover her for her pregnancy. I was standing outside the office smoking a butt when I watched this asian woman roll into the parking lot in her nice shiny new BMW X5 (a $40k+ car). She steps out with 3 of her friends and starts walking toward the office. I figured she was an employee.... til she stood outside and took all of her GOLD jewelry off, put it in her purse, handed the purse to her friend and went inside while her friends waited outside. When I say all the jewelry I mean everything including her wedding ring. About an hour later she walks out with an EBT (food stamp) card and they all take off. I'm down at that office trying to get insurance for my pregnant wife when collectively we have a monthly income of $1000 with $750 rent. Can we say FRAUD? The only reason this works is likely because her husband owns a business and falsifies the numbers to make them qualify. It makes you wonder how often shit like that happens. I mean I had to tell these people about the 1 share of AMD (worth $3.74 yesterday) I hold in an account I haven't used since the recession started or I ran the risk of my wife losing her insurance mid pregnancy, and this bitch is driving a new fuckin' BMW! So if you think for a moment that drugs are the problem with the system you're way off the mark. The problem with the system is the fuckin' people in this god forsaken piece of shit country. No one here wants to help the less fortunate, unless it also benefits them somehow. Anyone still wondering why the rest of the world hates the whole lot of us? I'm not. It's time for a revolution people. This shit needs to be fixed. How about we start inspecting the homes of each person that applies for welfare before we give it to them, just to make sure they don't live in a $500k house and drive a $40k car, while walking around town wearing $2k work of gold and looking for a handout? Seems like a better idea than drug testing. to me. That woman could've pawned 1 piece of her jewelry and fed her family for a week or more. Contrary to popular belief, everything is not 15x the mainland price here on Hawai'i, a gallon of milk is only $3.85 and flown in from California. That's all I care to say about this. You'll find a copy of the comment string I left for a couple people toward the bottom of this post.






Response to someone after seeing the opinion poll on facebook titled "Drug test for welfare check?"

Comment 1: lets make an observation here. They don't give out welfare "checks" anymore. Furthermore, the problem I see down here in Hawaii is related to otherwise well-off people BULLSHITTING the system to get shit they're not entitled to in the first place. Drug tests are a wide screening as well as an invasion of privacy. While I don't believe that marijuana users should be treated in the harsh manner they are while alcoholics can drink themselves to death by choice and legally. If you want to screen for drugs you should specify the actual problem substances and realize that regardless of what DARE tells you, no harm has come to anyone by way of the direct consumption of marijuana recreationally. I smoke pot.... daily. I have a job, a family and pretty much everything that you'd expect the average person to have for a "normal" life. I don't drink. So why is my intoxicant of choice vilified exactly? Whoever set this question up on facebook is a bigotted, pea-brained, imbecile with llittle....

Comment 2:
... ability for independent formation of opinions, and likely believes every line of shit the government has ever spoon-fed the public. Consequently, I believe that polarizing questions such as the above mentioned retarded shit has no place on a social networking site. for more on my thoughts please read my blog @ http://riseupandbeheard.blogspot.com

Comment 3: as far as the BS'ing i mentioned earlier. I was in town in the vicinity of the welfare office, and I watched a woman drive up in her MF'ing BMW, take off ALL her GOLD jewelry, put it in her DESIGNER bag, and have the balls to go apply for welfare. It's not the drugs you have to worry about, it's fucking people in general.

Comment 4: for reference you've got to be damn near wheelchair bound to get any "money" from the gov't

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Re"hash"ing History

Alright fuckers.... I left you alone on the weed thing for a while to see if any of your stoner asses would actually put down the spliff and sign the damn petition. I've been keeping track of the petition. As far as I can tell, only 3 of you signed the thing. I swear to Dog the next stoner I run into that starts bitching about how "it shouldn't be illegal" is getting the red smacked out of his/her eyes. It's a pathetic occasion when a group of people with a common interest can't get out of their own way to fix something. Need we go over this again? I hope not, I don't have the energy for it twice.

Does anyone remember anything about history? Bet you were to busy getting stoned to show up for history class. The Ford Model T had components that were made of Hemp. The original diesel engines from Europe ran on a fuel similar to hemp biodiesel. It was used as a medicine nearly everywhere in the world until the US got this "we hate beaners" mentality. We brought the Mexicans here to help build shit, then suddenly, when they're done we go "lets get em out of here, they're not white enough" and so the story of Marijuana persecution begins. Marijuana has a history around the world as a medicine and ceremonial item. Certain Native American cultures used Marijuana as a sacrament. Prior to prohibition in the 1930's the roots were commonly used in a tincture to treat rashes. Since then we've found that it works for Wasting Syndrome (the cause of death for most AIDS cases), alleviation of digestive disturbances brought on by chemotherapy, Glaucoma, and countless others. Fuck, the FDA approved Marinol which is nothing more than delta-9 THC with a fancy name - Dronabinol. The problem with Marinol is that if your stomach is fucked up, that greasy pill isn't staying down long. Hell, there was a Supreme Court Justice that called Marijuana one of the safest, most therapeutically useful plants on earth, ordered that the plant be rescheduled (for those of you that don't understand that please search for The Controlled Substances Act online) from Schedule 1 (which bans all research) to a lesser schedule, which would have allowed for the proper research to be done.

The large majority of people in jail for a simple possession charge are there for Marijuana. The Netherlands legalized back in the 1980's and their drug related crime rate has dropped like a rock, but they also cracked down on the "hard" drugs at the same time, thus lowering the rate of drug use nationwide. They generate a lot of tourism from that policy, mostly from Americans.

Hemp once grew in fields around Mt. Vernon, the residence of George Washington. Being one of the few fibers that withstands salt water, early sails were made of Canvas, which was made from hemp. Almost all of the hemp fiber available for sale in America is grown in Canada, where hemp farming is a lucrative, sustainable occupation. Hemp oil can be eaten, rubbed on the skin, or used to fuel a car or generator (as biodiesel). Hemp is naturally rich in good proteins, containing a nearly full set of amino acids. It's also no where near as hard on the soil as cotton, and can be grown at a much higher density per acre.

As far as it's use as a drug, this has likely been going on nearly as long as man has had fire. Wouldn't it just fuck with you if that was why fire was sought after in the first place.... to smoke a shitload of weed. Or if the wheel was created to help bring more weed back to the "cave". I doubt either of those are true, but it's fun to entertain the idea. Seriously though, no one has ever die from smoking pot, not even Bob Marley (gangrene from an untreated broken bone). It's physically impossible to overdose, except maybe if you could somehow get your hands on 400-500 high potency Marinol pills, but you've got a better chance of getting chewed on by a shark in a landlocked lake than getting that much Marinol at once. So, it's just out of the question.

What great harm has this plant ever done to society? Can't think of any? Me, either. One voice can change the world, it's just got to get out of the little debbie aisle first.

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Hawaii

I'm starting to see why people are generally happier when they don't read. I've been reading the local and national news quite a lot as of late, and the state of Hawai'i is next in line for a good ass-chewing.

I can understand why they don't want more resorts built, we already have a TON of them here on Maui, let the tourists pick from the existing ones, there's no need to fuck this place up any more than it already has been. But I have to wonder what these people are thinking when they protest the installation of a solar observatory on top of Haleakala. The mountain was picked from a lengthy list of other locales as the best possible place on earth to install said observatory. The environmental impact from it is minuscule in the grand scheme when compared to the atrocities that the residents commit on their own. They want high-tech industry but the minute some entity is interested they protest the ever loving hell out of it, effectively destroying the possibility of any non-tourism dependent jobs. Most of the high school grads here leave state to go to college, end up with a degree they can't use in Hawai'i and never come back. They bitch about "Haoles" (which is the local term for any non-pacific islander) coming here and taking over, but the people you see littering most are locals, not Haoles. I was sitting at the bus stop one day when a car with some high school age kids (of either asian or islander heritage) drives up and tosses a half full soda out the window of the car and drives away with its occupants laughing. Everyone here owns a car and the businesses around here won't hire you if you ride the public transit lines. I was hired and fired within a 3 day span without ever once working a single hour for the company because I rode the bus. Walking around the streets here you see more broken glass, cigarette butts, and general trash on the ground than I've seen in NYC. NYC is filthy. The only places on Maui that are actually clean are the places the tourists frequent: Lahaina, Kihei, Wailea, Ka'anapali, etc. Everywhere else, good luck trying to find a trash can to put your garbage in, they just don't exist. Maui is also not pedestrian friendly, unless you're in one of the previously mentioned tourist locales. Here in Makawao there's no sidewalks until you get into the downtown shopping district, if you don't own a car, you're walking down the side of the road inches from traffic for almost a mile before the first patch of sidewalk. Now keep in mind that there are a bunch of morbidly obese people here, more than I've seen in just about any other place I've been (and I've been all over the country). If it weren't for the trade winds that blow over the islands constantly this state would probably have a smog problem that would rival places like LA and Hong Kong. Maybe then the people would take note of the fact that driving your car down the fucking block for a can of spam was a waste of gas, and an obscene amount of carbon waste released into the air for a product that no one's quite sure what's in it.

On another topic, there's a movement here to ban cigarettes from the beaches because the smokers here can't seem to understand that kids play on the beaches and will put just about anything in their mouths. I being a smoker, still agree with this, I put my butts in my pocket till I can find a place to throw them away in a proper receptacle. They still allow glass bottles on the beaches though, and on more than one occasion I've nearly stepped on jagged shards that you can barely see in the sand.

For all it's beauty, Hawai'i has a lot of growing to do before they can actually say they "care" about the 'aina. These people refer to themselves as kama'aina which roughly translates to earth children. Would you seriously do this shit to your mother?

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

In defense of Obamaland

Browse some political forums today and you'll likely find that there's a variety of opinions on President Obama. Mostly it seems to be negative. You've got to think about it though, the poor bastard got stuck with a thoroughly fucked system and had to fix it at the demand of the populace. Everyone complains about the near trillion dollar spending he's engaged in since taking office. Figure this, Bush eliminated laws to protect us from things like this. One notable bit was his deregulation of the banking system, which led us to our current situation of bailing out banks. Once deregulated the banks were free to do anything they wanted, including taking risks with their account holders money that wouldn't have been permitted before, such as sub prime loans. Those sub prime loans turned out to be the the straw that broke the camels back. Compound that with the banks fudging their SEC filings and you've got a ticking time bomb. For those of you that don't understand the sub prime loan problem, here's a simple explanation. Sub prime references loans taken out with an interest rate that defies the current "prime" rate dictated by the Federal Reserve. These loans are almost always given to people with less than good credit. They end up with interest rates around 10-14% where the prime rate was 6%. People with poor credit tend to have limited means as well, making it harder for them to make the larger payment forced upon them by the banks. Hence mass defaulting. With all that piling up, it's near impossible to keep the country from slipping into some seriously ugly place without the use of heavy government spending. If it hadn't been for the $787 billion dollar bailout bill, we'd probably be in much, much worse shape right now. Unemployment is at a 20-year high with most of the country experiencing 10+% jobless rates. The author has been without work for over 8 months. Something needed to be done and Bush was just making it worse. We're spending $5000 per second on the war right now. That comes to $12 billion per month. Think about that.... $12 billion per month for the last 8 and 1/2 years. That brings the entire cost of this war as of the writing of this piece up to $1.224 Trillion dollars. With state governments across the country predicting $500 million or better budget deficits, it stands to reason that this war is slowly killing us. If you want to see the actual statistics on it click here. While I'm thinking about it, the author of this blog does not support any political party or individual, all opinions are my own heavily researched thoughts, I am not paid to write this.

Monday, June 29, 2009

Plea to the masses

I don't need to tell people about the unequaled beauty of Maui. I need to bitch at them about not taking an active role in the operation of the country in which they live. Thus leaving the major decisions up to a group of people that are fucking ancient. We're talking about the reefer madness generation for fucks sake. If you don't voice your opinion to these people and vote with YOUR opinion, then they vote however THEY feel. We didn't vote them in to have opinions. They're public SERVANTS, we pay their wages with our taxes, and they still don't listen cuz no one says anything. We vote along party lines like fucking sheep, regardless of how fucked up said candidates views are. Speak up! Take control! If they don't play by the rules vote them out in the next possible election! Our grandparents just listen to the government and the news like Jesus is speaking to them directly or some shit. Is independent thought dead? Is there not one person that can formulate an opinion without having it fed to them by the most corrupt group of people to ever walk this earth? We're talking about a government that has consistently lied to the masses. Need examples?? Here's a few:
-There were never WMD's in Iraq
-The government tested thermonuclear weapons on unsuspecting masses during WW2 where they gave people dosimeters and put them in harms way to find out what the shit did
-Marijuana prohibition was just a way to deport Mexicans after we brought them here to help build the fucking country
-The CIA SOLD CRACK during the 80's, and numerous people died trying to prove it
-Torture was used on detainees recently after many denials from the government, a direct violation of the Geneva Convention (I swear I will kill the first person that says it was justified)

Consequently we end up with a totally submissive population that's primarily concerned with how much money is in their pockets rather than improving the quality of life within the country. We just turn a blind eye to the atrocities committed in the name of "freedom", a word that has totally lost the meaning it had in 1776. Now we stoop to a new low using the tactics of our "enemy": torture, subversion, and deceit. We gave up freedoms to feel more secure, and now we have neither. Ben Franklin once said "They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." I think it's fitting to bring this up in recent times with the institution of the Patriot Act that allowed warrant-less wiretapping of civilians. It was passed because someone hid the Amber Alert laws within it. It should have been rejected and the author should've brought the Amber Alert bill back on it's own.

This quagmire of a war we're in currently was the best example of the government bullshitting the entire country. We did exactly what the "terrorists" wanted, started a war. We're TRILLIONS of dollars deeper in debt now, and we still haven't found the fucker. They got what they wanted. I bet this was Osama's line of thought: "We'll crash a couple planes into some shit in America, they'll start a war trying to find me, I'll just go back to Saudi Arabia where they'll hid me for a while, America will spend trillions trying to find me and it will cripple the country." I think it worked. Don't you?

Friday, June 26, 2009

Marijuana Legality

The current count of people in the US that use marijuana for personal reasons is sitting at around 14 million people. But of all the petitions I see going to the people that make the decisions, the highest count for signatures is 100. How the fuck does it work out that only 100 people can come out and sign a damn petition to legalize their intoxicant of choice? Anyone remember reading about alcohol prohibition... IT DIDN'T FUCKING WORK!!!! Know why? Cuz the drunks came out of the walls and threw a damn fit that's why. Is it the paranoia that seems to accompany smoking pot that causes this issue? I'm not really sure, unless 13,999,900 of the potheads in the US just started smoking and can't figure out how to handle their buzz yet, I doubt it. American stoners are the sorriest bunch on the planet. Can't even take the 5 min it takes out of their session time to sign a fucking petition so the cops won't kick their door in. I mean think about what's at stake here; long prison sentences, revocation of federal financial aid, etc. Is it so much to ask? We all sit around pissing and moaning about how it should be legal with joints in hand worrying about whether the cops are coming to bust down our door for a dime bag, but only a handful of us actually take some kind of action on the issue at hand. There's 14 million of us. With that kind of population we could sway every politician in the country out of fear of being voted out of office. 14 million votes guys, that's a HUGE margin! There's a NORML sponsored petition to the government floating around right now that only has 75 signatures. Wanna talk about a chance to make a difference, there is it. As you all know there aren't many topics that get me as riled up as marijuana prohibition, except for maybe phillipinos treating me like shit just cuz I'm white. Have you ever heard of a bunch of people getting together and passing a dutch, then starting a HUGE fight or killing someone? FUCK NO!! We sit around, watch some TV, eat a ton of food, and pass the fuck out. People get drunk and then rape, beat, and kill others. I say make weed legal, tax the hell out of it, just like tobacco. The tax revenue alone would probably bring us out of the hole we're in. I'm gonna include a link at the bottom of this entry for anyone that would like to sign this petition (if your have EVER smoked, I recommend you do). Does anyone realize the number of people in this country that are locked up for a simple possesion charge right now? It's in the vicinity of 60% of the prison population. We're paying for that, at a rate of $35k per person, with our taxes. To anyone that reads this and enjoys a toke from time to time, I say "GROW A SET!"

NORML's legalization petition on Care2.org
Here's a link to NORML's site where you can really bitch up a storm.

Now please, sign the petition at Care2, and go on to the other site and put some pressure on the right people with letters, their site generates and e-mails them for you, all you have to do is enter your info. Then please, pass it on to everyone you know.


Part of what fired me up today was watching the documentary "Jesus Camp". I decided those people might calm down a bit with the application of good ganja. Scary fuckers they are. If you haven't seen it, you should. Bible-bangers to the extreme.