Beyond The Broken Spectrum

“They found a little bump on his rib cage and cut him open,” Simpson says. “He went from 200 pounds down to about 130. In 1972, we were having a drink and he collapsed right in front of me. I knew damn well it had to be the cancer coming back. They gave him six months to live, and he made it through three. I was 22 years old and didn’t know anyone who had died from cancer. He was down to about 50 pounds when he died on November 18, 1972. I used to shave him, and it was like trying to shave a skeleton.”

Two years after his cousin died, Simpson was listening to his car radio when he heard the results of a medical study at the University of Virginia claiming that THC reduced brain tumors in mice. “I stopped my car and just stared at the radio,” Simpson recalls. “At the time, I didn’t smoke pot or anything, although most of my friends did. The guy on the radio was laughing like a fool. Like this was all a big joke. I never heard anything more about it, so I thought it must be a joke.” (more…)

GARLAND, Texas — Tim Timmons is not your average pot smoker.

The former risk management consultant, college professor and stand-out athlete has never considered himself a hippy or a pothead.

Even so, Timmons has been smoking marijuana nearly every day for the past six years. He doesn’t smoke to get high. According to him, he’s just taking his medicine.

Timmons is slowly wasting away from Multiple Sclerosis, a painful disease that attacks the nervous system.

“I would be considered in one of the final stages of the disease right now,” Timmons said.

Diagnosed 22 years ago, the former football player and bull rider is now confined to a wheel chair. He is paralyzed from the waist down and no longer has control over his bladder or bowels. Timmons relies on his wife to help him go to the bathroom, take a bath and get in and out of bed.

In addition to losing control of his muscles, Timmons must also live with a great deal of pain and frequent muscle spasms. Read the story at KSAT

Over a dozen U.S. Senators, led by Virginia Democrat Jim Webb, are seeking to establish a blue-ribbon commission to review America’s criminal justice policies — and the criminalization of nonviolent drug possession in particular.

Senate Bill 714, The National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009, seeks to initiate a comprehensive re-evaluation of America’s drug and prison policies.

Writing in Parade Magazine on March 29, Sen. Webb explained why this review is necessary:

“America’s criminal justice system has deteriorated to the point that it is a national disgrace. … The United States has by far the world’s highest incarceration rate. With 5% of the world’s population, our country now houses nearly 25% of the world’s reported prisoners.

… Drug offenders, most of them passive users or minor dealers, are swamping our prisons. … Justice statistics also show that 47.5% of all the drug arrests in our country in 2007 were for marijuana offenses. Additionally, nearly 60% of the people in state prisons serving time for a drug offense had no history of violence or of any significant selling activity. … African-Americans — who make up about 12% of the total U.S. population population — accounted for 37% of those arrested on drug charges, 59% of those convicted, and 74% of all drug offenders sentenced to prison.

… It is incumbent on our national leadership to find a way to fix our prison system. I believe that American ingenuity can discover better ways to deal with the problems of drugs and nonviolent criminal behavior while still minimizing violent crime and large-scale gang activity. And we all deserve to live in a country made better by such changes.”

Senator Webb’s analysis is accurate and his intentions are courageous.  It’s been many years since a federally appointed commission has taken an objective look at American criminal justice policies, and it’s been nearly 40 years since federal lawmakers have undertaken a critical examination of U.S. marijuana policy — a topic that will likely be included in Sen. Webb’s review.

As introduced, Senate Bill 714 will establish a `National Criminal Justice Commission’ to “undertake a comprehensive review of the criminal justice system; make findings related to current Federal and State criminal justice policies and practices; and make reform recommendations for the President, Congress, and State governments to improve public safety, cost-effectiveness, overall prison administration, and fairness in the implementation of the Nation’s criminal justice system.”

Specifically, the Commission will examine “current drug policy and its impact on incarceration, crime and violence, sentencing, and reentry programs, [including] an analysis of the general availability of drugs in our society, the impact and effectiveness of current policies on reducing that availability and on the incidence of crime, and in the case of criminal offenders, the availability of drug treatment programs before, during, and after incarceration.”

The proposal has been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee. A hearing has been scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 3, 2009.

Please take time today to urge your senators to support Senate Bill 714. If your senators sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee, then it is especially important that he or she hears from you.  For your convenience, a prewritten letter will be e-mailed to your member of Congress when you enter your contact information below.

After you have written your senators, please take a moment to write or call Sen. Webb and thank him for raising this important issue.  You may contact him here.

Thank you for assisting NORML’s federal law reform efforts.

Billed as the First Annual National Government Sucks Day Rally, the event is being held by and for small government and no government activists only.

Karen De Coster, writing from her lewrockwell.com web page, has extended an open invitation to all “Libertarians, Anarchists, Objectivists, and followers of Ron Paul. Front porch radicals and independents are free to attend, as well. No Astroturf’ers allowed.”

That last refers to widespread evidence that many Tea Party protests, whether openly or covertly, have been hijacked by the Republican Party, and since the 9/12 Project is the brainchild of conservative Fox News ranter Glen Beck, both movements are seen by many libertarians as primarily anti liberal government rather than anti big government. (”Astroturf” in this context denotes a “fake grassroots” event.)

As Kevin Tuma’s postings on Facebook Causes make clear, this event represents:

• One day to tell the government how we feel
• A true libertarian convergence full of harmonial goodness

The rally takes place in Hillsboro, Texas on Saturday, November 7, at the site of the Middlefaire Renaissance Festival.

The lineup of scheduled keynote speakers, as of this writing, include:

• Karen De Coster – Libertarian activist, freelance writer, LewRockwell.com columnist, and self-described “theoretical Rothbardian.”
• Mary Ruwart – Longtime Libertarian Party activist and candidate, and former board member of ISIL, FIJA, and the Michigan chapter of Heartland Institute.
• R. Lee Wrights – writer, political activist, American History buff, Libertarian Party At-Large Representative, and co-founder and editor of the free speech online magazine Liberty For All.

  

Other speakers, according to the Libertarian Party of Texas newsletter, include Texas LP Chair Patrick Dixon and Executive Director Robert Butler.

Also scheduled is a “Special Event” by Kevin Tuma, enigmatically called “The Kangaroo Court Military Tribunal of Uncle Sham.”

Tuma is best known as the prolific creator of uncompromising freedom movement political cartoons (many examples of which can be seen at Kevin Tuma’s Blog and Tuma’s Toons) but is also a freedom writer at Tuma’s Voice.

Organizers also hint at “a few various renaissance faire entertainment acts.”

And they definitely invite one and all to stick around for the bonfire at dusk.

Here is everything you need to know about:

THE FIRST ANNUAL NATIONAL GOVERNMENT SUCKS DAY RALLY

• Village Square at Middlefaire Renaissance Festival
• Hillsboro, Texas
• FREE ADMISSION
• Saturday, November 7 – 11 AM until Dusk
• Drinks and Hot food available for purchase (BYOB)
• Spacious flush toilets – no Port-a-Potties
• Voluntary donations to benefit National Government Sucks Day and the Libertarian Party gratefully accepted.

For location, directions, and map see the Middlefaire website.

Thanks to the Examiner

All across the world, collections of global-warming protestors financed by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund gathered on October 24 to call for forceful “climate change” action at the United Nations summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, this December. Most of the gatherings were minuscule, even in big cities, but the effort did receive widespread publicity. According to organizers cited by Agence France-Presse, over 5,000 demonstrations were held in more than 180 countries.

The protestors rallied around the motif of “350” — the supposed level of carbon dioxide in parts per million that some scientists claim is an acceptable ceiling. They carried signs and unfurled banners reading 350, even forming themselves into giant human numbers to illustrate their point.

“We had no idea we would get the overwhelming support, enthusiasm and engagement from all over the world that we’re seeing,” explained Bill McKibben, a climate-change activist who founded the Rockefeller-funded organization 350.org that coordinated the day of protests. “It shows just how scared of global warming much of the planet really is, and how fed up at the inaction of our leaders.”

Ironically, recent surveys indicate that most Americans do not believe global warming is a serious problem or even caused by human activity at all. And several other ironies in this saga become immediately apparent as well.

The continual charge that so-called “deniers” are financed by oil companies should finally be put to rest, considering that a significant share of the Rockefeller family fortune came and continues to come from oil. Several oil companies have financed past McKibben efforts as well. Story continues at The New American

Six of the twenty protesters outside DEA headquarters were arrested on Tuesday for trespassing when they planted hemp seeds on the Drug Enforcement Administration’s lawn. The protesters say they are arguing that the plant is a crop and not a drug, as it does not contain enough of the THC content needed to make you high.

For more information about hemp, visit the  North American Industrial Hemp Council website.

California NORML Release – Oct 12, 2009

Paypal, the well-known internet payment company has told California NORML that it will no longer accept payments to our “type of business” because we accept listing payments from cannabis-recommending physicians.

After years of offering free listings to physicians and collectives at our website http://www.canorml.org, CaNORML began charging a yearly listing fee to cover our costs last year.

PayPal froze CaNORML’s account in June, saying that by accepting listing fees from collectives, we were violating their Acceptable Use policy, which says, “you may not use PayPal in the purchase or sale of narcotics.” Although narcotics were not being sold over the CaNORML site, we reluctantly agreed to stop accepting listings fees from collectives that dispense medical marijuana, recognizing that even though they are legal under state law, they are illegal under federal law. However, we continued to accept payments online from doctors, attorneys, and members.

Now PayPal has stopped accepting payments from the CaNORML site because we continued to accept listing payments from physicians.

Under a ruling upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court (Conant v. Walters, 2003), physicians have the first amendment right to discuss and recommend medical marijuana for their patients, although they may not distribute it or help patients in finding it. PayPal was informed of this and wrote back, “We are not arguing the legality of this issue; we are simply stating that we have made the business decision to not be involved with this type of business.”

Because of its discriminatory policy and disregard of physicians’ first amendment rights, CaNORML submits that PayPal is not the “type of business” to be used by those who advocate for human rights. We will file a complaint with the federal banking committee over their practices.

Located in San Jose, California, PayPal was founded in 1998 and was acquired by eBay (California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman’s company) in 2002.

Complain to: PayPal, 2211 N 1st St, San Jose 95131 – (408) 376-7400

The California Nurse’s Association had a press release back in January of this year claiming that a “First of Its Kind Study” had been completed on what benefits we would see from a universal, single payer health care system.

According to the study, establishing a national single-payer style health care reform system would provide a major stimulus for the U.S. economy and we would see these immediate benefits: 317 billion in increased business and public revenues, 2,613,495 new permanent jobs at an average of $38,262, 100 billion in additional employee compensation, and 44 billion in increased tax revenue. These are some pretty staggaring numbers, but are they substantiated? From my perspective, of what I could make of the study, no where did it actually substantiate these numbers. Not to mention that there are no other studies to compare it to or fact check it. I’m just a regular guy, so I could be wrong here, but it seems to me that the CNA making this study likens to tobacco companies making their own studies.

I would recommend reading up on the study and making a decision for yourself here before believing me or even a press release that promises all these goodies. In all likelihood, we’re being fed a line crap here and this study likely has no merit.

A few things to be considered as well is what has the study not taken into account. I see a lot of number crunching “not even that”, but no consideration for the people involved. What of the people who do not wish to obtain insurance through the government? What of those medical companies that do not wish to do business with a government plan that has a monopoly on prices? Market economics dictates that without competition, price goes up and quality goes down, and the government is no exception. Just have a look at our post office, a sluggish and inefficient monopoly that is burden to tax payers and allows for very little competition in the private sector, which is limited to package delivery.

I assume they have considered and know full well that money will have to be taken from some in order to give care to others. Can that be justified? I’d say no. Also, with such ease of access to go to the doctor, won’t people be going substantially more since they know that ultimately they won’t be paying for it? I can’t say yes for sure on that last question, but it seems so in my mind. This last question would also depend on whether or not someone’s rates would go up based on their usage, and how much their co-pay would be.

Ultimately, this plan does not take into account those that would not want to participate. It is the right of those people who don’t want to participate to not be forced into such a plan. Cold, hard, government bureaucracy generally doesn’t take into account the human side of the matter, only the numbers. Many people know this all too well and are very skeptical of government involvement in their lives, all with good reason. Others would just prefer to be left to themselves, which is their right. However, if some people wish to be apart of such a plan and such a plan would not be a drain on other tax payers, then I support you on that matter. Otherwise, it would be nothing short of slavery to the government system.

Choice, we all have a choice, at least we should all have a choice. This isn’t always the case though, and that is the most atrocious thing government can do to a person short of killing them, taking away the individual’s right to choice. It seems that a single-payer system imposed on everyone would do just that though.

Greta Christina challenges you to give deep thought to The Ethics of Public Sex

A well thought out article that discusses sexuality in public, the different cultures of sex, and where we should draw the line.

I very recently had a “discussion” with two conservatives concerning their support of Texas Governor, Rick Perry. I wouldn’t quite call it a discussion, as much as I would say that I made some very good points, and the other two guys largely rambled and managed to call me a Liberal. Hardly the case.

Before I get started with this little back and forth, I would like to say something about conservatives. I know full well you’re not all idiots and that there is just a large faction of you that seems to run loose and control the conservative agenda. I know many conservatives that are good respectable people that have much respect for the right of the individual, its just a shame that there aren’t more of them. (more…)