DEA Declares War On Water

A friend posted a report that the DEA continues to regard marijuana as a dangerous drug requiring a high level of illegality. A lengthy series of interesting comments followed. I'm really not feeling well enough to repost them, so anyone reading this blog will have to do without them. Nevertheless, the discussion was interesting enough that I also commented.

My post: The government's position is, and has been since its inception, irrational and self-destructive. John Erlichman has stated that:

“You want to know what this was really all about?” he asked with the bluntness of a man who, after public disgrace and a stretch in federal prison, had little left to protect. “The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”

Other former members of the Nixon administration have insisted that this must have been a satirical, non-factual statement. This is almost irrelevant. The effects of the war on drugs have been essentially identical to conducting a decades long assault on American society.

An enemy nation would be hard pressed to plan a more effective method of destabilizing and damaging the United States economically, socially, and morally. I sincerely doubt they could effectively implement such a plan.

When the war on drugs was first announced, I was still a student. At that time many of us immediately responded, "Isn't this just Prohibition all over again? Wasn't that a miserable failure? Isn't this just going to make gangs more powerful and hurt the people it is supposed to protect?"

In Washington, and sadly much of America, the obvious is irrelevant.

(For the record, I don't use marijuana. I don't even use it medically.)

The One Way

http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2014/08/22/341898975/a-picture-of-language-the-fading-art-of-diagramming-sentences?utm_campaign=storyshare&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social

This is a most interesting post. I am generally regarded as good with words, yet I always found diagramming sentences onerous and difficult. I thought it was a pointless and obfuscating exercise with no benefits. Then one of my colleagues told me how much she loved it when she was a child. She declared it had given her much insight and helped her to write better and comprehend more.

A good teacher teaches in many different ways because students learn in many different ways.

I went to preschool reading years ahead of expected grade levels. Phonics was a senseless burden for me -- confusing, meaningless work.; but for other students phonics opens the door to reading itself.

Good teachers teach in whatever way it takes for their students to learn.

Whiny Guy 7 The Reset

Forget the best of times...though the worst of times is not quite here. It's odd that I have made so many posts today. I've barely made it through today. I don't remember making all those posts. But there they are. And here I am posting again. Odd.

I forgot a pill yesterday morning. By the time I realized that, it was too late to take it because the next dose was due in a while. This only happened once before, and I was sick for four days before my body got back in balance.

Today was very confused. It was mostly a dark silent room day. I made sure I took my pill, but it didn't really help. I should eat regular meals. That helps a great deal. But food was and is quite disgusting. I made myself to eat one light meal and I managed to eat most of a second meal at night. That didn't help.

I only made it to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee this morning. I really need to make a pot of tea for the day but I didn't manage to do that. The kitchen is too many steps away. Thankfully, the bathroom is closer. Bills are not getting paid and things aren't getting done, but somehow I made all these posts. And I am making this post. Nothing really makes much sense right now.

Hopefully, things will get better tomorrow. Until then this is your friendly local whiny guy, whining all he can.

Sometimes getting through the next hour is very, very hard.

Justice Or Just Cash?

http://www.newsweek.com/black-lives-matter-slavery-reparations-criminal-justice-reform-policy-hillary-486198

As strongly as I support the Black Lives Matter movement this is a foolish, divisive, evan a self-destructive concept. It can only cause resentment and exacerbate racial divisions. Black people don't need special help. They need justice and a fair chance like every other American.

Consider the possible ramifications. If a person is half Black and half White, it can be argued that they should receive no reparations since 50% of their genetic ancestry cancels out the other 50%. Also, how would a possible recipient prove that their ancestors were here in America held in slavery as opposed to having come to America at a later time or under different circumstances? Shouldn't a White person who could prove that their ancestors were abolitionists be exempt from the reparations? Maybe they should even receive some reparations themselves.

And if we grant reparations to slave descendants, what about American Indians? What about French and Spanish individuals who had their land stolen by American settlers without any compensation? And so on, ad finitum.

Reparations? Of course, for anyone who was held in bondage. Not for their descendants.

Note: There are living individuals who suffered under Jim Crow laws...

The Inner-City Of God

From http://bizstandardnews.com/2015/08/20/jim-bakker-urging-followers-to-buy-real-estate-in-heaven

"I’m urging people to make these regular donations so we can offer up special prayers to guarantee their homes in heaven,” Bakker said. “People need to look at this like a down payment on their heavenly mortgage.”
Bakker and his ex wife Tammy Faye were among the most flamboyant televangelists of the 1980s, until they were brought down by financial and sex scandals. Bakker went to jail, but has resumed his ministry.
“Heaven has all kinds of property, ghettos, shacks, apartments, starter homes and mansions,” Bakker said. “Send in your love offering to ensure you have a palatial mansion in heaven. You want to make sure you are in a good heavenly neighborhood.”

There are bad heavenly neighborhoods? They must be in the ghetto. You know, the inner-city of God.

Well... In one of the lost Gospels, a wealthy man hires an apostle to build a mansion. When the wealthy man checks he finds that the apostle has been using the money building homes for the poor. Confronted, the apostle replies that by building these homes for the poor here in this world I have built you a mansion in heaven. Sorry, can't remember which lost Gospel it was.

Of course, the lesson of that parable would be the opposite of what the preacher man is saying. Building actual mansions for an actual rich man is not quite the point.

Ever wonder why people are so upset with self-proclaimed "Christians" these days? It's not persecution. It's disgust.

New Lows, Who Cares?

Response to the following article which lead Michael to state, "If this doesn't convince, nothing will.":


Nothing will. The Trumpsters want a powerful man who bullies everyone else into doing what they want. It doesn't ever occur to them that Trump might end up bullying them as well.

No, they don't want a Hitler. They want a Mussolini. As I have pointed out before, Mussolini was at least competent and effective. Trump is neither.

Also, never forget that right up to the moment he was murdered by partisans, Mussolini maintained a core support among a few of the Italian people.

Nothing would change their devotion.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/07/trump-pleas-for-russia-to-hack-classified-american-information/493244/?utm_source=atlfb

Economics

In response to a post from my friend, Charles which asked who agreed that the media was responsible for promoting racial division, I responded:

Well, yes. In the same sense for that the drug dealer is responsible for spreading drugs around. If nobody came to buy the product, they would sell a different product.

Remember that even supporters of the right wing media lie machine state freely that the "Conservative" venues were created in order to give conservatives the news they wanted to hear as opposed to all the news they didn't want to hear. They don't understand that the news they wanted to hear wasn't being promulgated because it was lies and deceit. The bottom line is millions of Americans are saying, "I will make you rich, famous, and powerful if you tell me the lies I want to hear."

Is it so surprising that there are people out there willing to sell that product?