Maybe?

Male and female are very different. I see it even in animals. Females of any species seem to be more cautious than the males. When it comes down to actual bravery though, they seem a match for the male in everything but brawn and sometimes they find ways to make up for that. Of course there are always individuals who throw that theory to the wind. I've seen stallions be as protective, gentle, and loving to foals as any mare.

One of our horses I call the "Sheriff", because I can see it's his business to protect the whole herd, even the cows, from what he considers to be a threat. Coyotes beware! He never ever makes the mistake of looking down on the rest of the herd though...which are all mares. Protecting them? Yes. But looking down on them in any way doesn't seem to be a part of his "job description". He's the biggest and the most powerful physically...but he respects the females in his "family". I don't know if he would respect a younger male in quite the same way. The young bull doesn't bother him. He just sees him as more of his "jurisdiction".

Women are necessary to life and women are definitely necessary to our movement, I believe.

But I believe they are in the minority. I prize peace and proudly consider myself a hippie. Most of us guys abhor violence as well, but know in the final analysis, we must defend ourselves with whatever tools are at our disposal.

I hope we can accomplish it through education of the public. That has been the basis of all my activism over the years.

I suspect one reason may be the reason I didn't say much until a certain time. That time? When my children were grown and I knew that no one would be trying to steal them from me because of my disagreement with their "war".

We are up against and have always been up against "impossible" odds...we all know that. But that's what we've doing...trying to change that which was "impossible" to change, and we're doing it.

I hate to dwell on the dark side, but if the Bush cabal gets their way, they will have all of us who have fought so hard for reform in prison, or worse. Look at what they're trying to do to Marc Emery.

And yes...people should be angry. I'm angry. But we've got to be better people than they've been to us in these situations, I believe.

The prohibitionists probably deserve to be punished for all the grief and sorrow they've caused...but I'm not going to judge them or punish them...I just want them to stop hurting people with their hideously misled "war" on other citizens. Not having the schadenfreude complex...I just want them to stop their persecution of others. I have no desire for revenge or persecuting them for what they've done.

Anybody who has spent time there knows there are a few folks there who just love to shock people's sensitivities, and will say just about anything to get a rise out of folks. I'm sorry about that. That is not my style, but I also think we should be very cafeful about going down the road to censorship. When trying to arrive at the truth, allowing for the free expression of ideas is crucial.

As for anger and hatred, I cannot fault anyone for these feelings who is on the receiving end of the persecution The decades long oppression of the cannabis culture with over 700,000 people given a permanent "criminal" record EACH YEAR certainly warrants it. Yes, we can suggest they channel that anger in more effective ways, but we cannot fault them for it. I'm extremely angry myself and if we lived in earlier times when such an action would have had a chance, I'd probably join the revolution. I think we have at least as much justification as the folks at the Boston Tea Party.

Personally, as long as people don't make personal attacks on other posters, (which IS a problem), it doesn't bother me to see folks vent. It's probably healthy.

After all, they declared WAR on us. And it is a war in a very real sense. Don't forget, things are not static. We are on a continuum that could easily shift into a Nazi-type persecution.

For what it's worth.

I remember a few years ago having to leave the New York Times drug discussions because there were people there talking about retribution big time and "body bags" and extreme violence. They even shut the board down for a while after that. It was scary and I didn't want anything to do with it. Wrong is wrong...whoever is doing it.

Anger wells up in all of us from time to time...and sometimes it's thorougly righteous anger. Anger, as we know doesn't have to lead to hatred. If we're throwing Old Testament quotes at them occasionally, rather than molotov cocktails...I still feel pretty safe among my gentle friends.

It's not time to run out on us yet.

DEAR VOTERS:

We look down on you with contempt, we think you're all a bunch of lemmings, but if you don't vote for us, we'll say really mean things about you on the Internet.

**************************************************

Oh yes, I can see this approach being very effective.

Yes persecution makes you special, it gives you the right to hate, and why give up the strong hot sexy pleasing feeling of hate for something stupid and weak like actual freedom?

I think the end of this war will be the saddest day, not the happiest day, for some people here, because then who else will they hate and look down on?

Beause absolutely nothing that is good can ever ever ever come out of a hateful person.

A hateful person who believes in the Iraq War is morally identical to a hateful person who is against the war.

If this is a hate movement, then stop pretending that you have any moral beliefs whatsoever.

You just want what you want because you want it, you are devoid of any kind of human love or feelings, and people are right refuse to believe anything you say.

People are rght to refuse to listen to hateful people even if what the hateful people are saying is true.

Hateful people cannot be trusted, because they lack the capacity to love, and only love builds trust.

You can't make people trust you by throwing facts at them in an angry abusive manner.

You can only get people to trust you by taking that couagegous first step of love.

If you're incapable of taking that courageous first step, then you are an emotional coward, and people are absolutely right not to trust you.

I am against the war in Iraq, but once again, I observe that at east 80% of the activity in these movements is just plain old Bush-hating. I won't be around hateful people and so the antiwar movement can just get along without me.

I am quitting the Democratic Party soon because I can't stand how hateful it's become. Of course I don't like what Bush has done. But hate is just hate. Hateful people of any stripe cannot count on me for support.

And now it looks like I have to quit this movement, becaue it's all about hating the enemy, right?

Sorry folks that we had to part this way. I believe that all humanity is worth some kind of basic respect.

You're allowed to believe differently but so am I and I can't stoop so low as to be asking people for votes and calling them nasty names at the same time.

***

From Bruce Mirken, director of communications, Marijuana Policy Project

Saturday, October 15, 2005 Page A28

Washington -- There's a substantial body of evidence showing that marijuana's active components -- cannabinoids -- protect brain and nerve cells from many types of damage (Study Turns Pot Wisdom On Its Head -- front page, Oct. 14).

A recent study in the Journal of Neuroscience, for example, reported that cannabinoids can protect against some of the brain damage seen in Alzheimer's disease. Other studies have documented that these marijuana components protect nerve cells from the degeneration seen in a variety of conditions, including multiple sclerosis.

When you look in those vacant eyes

How does it harmonize

With the things that you do?

I think that we can't change those with vacant eyes but there are those who don't know how they feel and those people will understand like many of us here have.

He chose to show no respect for his fellow man. He was content with bearing false witness. It was a means to achieve an end.

All of this 'unnatural' debasement of the human condition could have been avoided had simple common decency prevailed.

Killing the messenger gains nothing. Speaking the truth can get you into hot water.

Internecine battles are reserved for the Bush Cabal, the Neocons and the Republican Party. It's coming fast and hard, too.

Maybe observer stepped out of bounds with regard to the lemmings comment. He's only human. However, he is free to say anything that comes to his mind. There is no limit to his brain. I prefer that all the stops are pulled.

I know I've made lots and lots of mistakes. I have to pick myself up off of the ground and dust myself off when I do. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak sometimes.

I won't be an Old Adam and gleefully point out somebody's faults. I've got a log in my eye. It's too heavy to pull out, even. 'Even' with a Snagglepuss tonal inflection.

'To err is human, to forgive divine'

To love thy neighbor as thine own self isn't easy to do.

Ask a prohibitionist, they know.

Love

1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Huh. And there I was, thinking that it was good to use all scripture.

''All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.'' - 2Tim.3:16-17

''Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.'' 1Cor.10:11

Wait ... isn't this New Testament:

''But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.'' - Rev.21:8 etc.

(And for those who may not know better, "lemmings" aren't mentioned in the Bible.)

For those who may think my characterization of the blind followers of prohibition (or authority in general) as "lemmings" is off the mark, I'd direct their attention to things like the Milgram expirement http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment

the percentage of participants who are prepared to inflict fatal voltages remains remarkably constant, between 61% and 66%

that's about what I meant.

"Islamic haters of Infidels" use later writings of Mohammed's that are not as compassionate as earlier writings.

If you look down on people, then they have every single right in the book to look down on you.

And there we'll stay. Just looking down on each other.

Whatever. It sounds prety stupid to me.

I wont go on about my soul,

Neither your soul,

In spite of those nails

On some rugged cross

Being white

I never had a nigger "slave"

Maybe it was them "joints"

Cannabis, that brought me

Understanding, Compassion

Lighted my next step,

Just beyond what I could see,

The turbulence that caught my eye

Was filled with such violence,

,

Took a break,

Came back,

Wondering,..WWJD

What can I do

Fact is, he uses it and it can cut like a knife.

Galileo saw through the Catholic Church's 'Divine Right' and was convicted of heresy because of it. He simply said that the sun was the center of the solar system and the earth revolved around it. The Catholic Church thought otherwise at the time. The Catholic Church was proven wrong and had to eat crow.

http://deoxy.org/galileoc.htm

Giardarno Bruno was having none of Catholicism's teachings, also. He paid the price with his life.

Lincoln, who has now earned some disdain from contemporary political thinkers from the Mises Institute, did rightly observe that all men are not created equal. "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." With those words, Abraham Duncan flatly states that all men are not created equal. Some have more brains than others.

J. Robert Oppenheimer had a few more than most. He also died an embittered man. McCarthyism did him in. He was branded a communist. He resented the US government until the day he died for being blacklisted.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/04/23/MNG5I69UIJ1.DTL

I do believe in a higher authority, no doubt in my mind. One look at the heavens precludes any doubt. However, to be irreverent is a fun thing to do.

If God condemns me straight to Hell for being so, I'll be sorry. I'll see you all in Hell.

A good friend of mine never misses Mass on Saturday at five o'clock. He also curses God with the best of them. I won't try to figure it out.

My brains are starting to hurt something awful. overload.

Reefer time.

My time at George Washington University wasn't all wasted.

The green plants in our world, can never be dominated by the Judges, Lawyers, DEA and and all those fathful "Law" Enforcement Peace Officers, for under the Next Rock may hide some new High, that Will Ultimately bring "all" of us, to a better understanding and closer to our souls, and those "minds" that have yet not caught the draft, that blows all so much closer, that we will be that Light, that Forever, Lights and Stand in Testament, the Holy Spirit, can never be denied, this spirit is in the building, be good to your children,..

the "Christians" used it ...

Now that we have proof of our superior intellect (not to mention superior health, both mentally and physically), I hope that the rest of the earthlings will start listening to our wisdom.

Of course, the staunch neo-cons will immediately see cannabis as even more evil than they had originally suspected. Heaven forbid that the masses be allowed to increase their own brain power! That goes against every scheme that they have pulled (such as "No Child Left Behind") to curb intelligent thought in this country.

Here in NJ, there is NJWeedMan who is running for governor in the state of NJ.

http://njweedman.com/

NJWEEDMAN say's: I'VE STOPPED BITCHIN ABOUT OUR GOVERNMENTs WAR ON US "I'M TRYING TO START A REEFER REVOLUTION"

"LYNCHING"

Is done differently today!

The "war on drugs" has replaced JIM CROW. For a Black man to speak-out against the drug war can be just as dangerous as speaking out against Jim Crow segregation in 1964!

spARk A REEfER REvoLUtIoN!

Mohammad's words have a old, more forgiving, section and a later, more angry, section.

Christianity has the Old Testament, angrier, and the New Testament, the story of Jesus, loving, compassionate.

Activists in each religion focus on the "Angrier" writings to bolster every harm done to a human being they can imagine, and complete.

WWJD means a thing and look who co-opted it ... the more active ,,, they use it on one hand and use the other hand to slap-down any who dare to differ with their misshaped beliefs.

I'm wondering whether that's true, actually. Maybe you like feeling superior to the rest of the world. Maybe you just have contempt for normal people. If that's the case, then it's sacrilege for you to use the Bible to defend your point of view.

I had a wisdom tooth pulled day before yesterday...but I don't think that's what made me sick. Somehow it caused another attack from that dang Leviquin, which apparently will lurk in my system for as long as two years. It was just like the Levaquin sickness all over again. It's strange stuff with strange, weird side effects, so strange that it's recognizable. I lost nearly ten pounds in one heinous day. Sweat was gushing from every pore of my body. Then freezing...then sweating.

What are the prohibitionists going to say to St. Peter when he goes through the long list of lies that they perpetrated while on this mortal plane? They will have lots of 'splainin' to do to their maker.

So-called 'intelligent design' is proving to be not so intelligent and not much of a design.

Science seems to have the upperhand and looks like it has the trump card, too.

I think the Lord will maketh this knowledge foolish too.

''I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself; That frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh diviners mad; that turneth wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish...'' - Isaiah 44

Government/politicians/police and other powerful vested interests make up lies about pot as fast as they can talk. But there is One who frustrates the tokens of those who lie about cannabis.

Prohibitionists screamed that pot would cause cancer, because they hoped it would be so. But the opposite turned out to be true. Prohibitionists promised us that pot killed brains, because if true, that would make for good propaganda. But the opposite turned out to be true.

By John Roberts

October 14, 2005

Canadian researchers discovered that a cannabis-like chemical found in marijuana stimulates brain cell growth and helps fight anxiety and depression, according to a study released Oct. 13, 2005.

The finding is in sharp contrast with the common belief that abuse or chronic use of additive drugs inhibit the growth of new brain cells, cause memory loss and impair learning, among other problems. In this respect, marijuana may not be such an ordinary additive drug. Researchers cautioned that marijuana may be the only exception among the additive drugs.

In the study, researchers injected a high dose of a cannabis-like or cannabinoid chemical in rats twice a day for ten days and observed as the chemical promoted the growth of new brain cells or neurons – a process known as neurogenesis in the hippocampus.

The hippocampus is the part of the brain that keeps generating new cells or neurons throughout one's lifetime. The hippocampus is associated with memory, depression and mood disorders.

In addition, researchers performed tests on rats and proved that cannabinoids have anti-anxiety and anti-depressant effect. Rats treated with the marijuana compound twice a day for ten days had reduced anxiety and/or depression.

The researchers suggest that there is a positive correlation between increased generation of new brain cells or neurons and modified behavior following chronic cannabinoid treatment.

Although the study used a high dosage of a synthetic cannabinoid found in marijuana, smoking marijuana may have the same effect, according to the researchers. However, researchers are uncertain how much marijuana one should smoke to achieve the same effect.

Use of marijuana is common in many countries. "Cannabis (marijuana, hashish or cannabinoids) has been used for medical and recreational purpose for many centuries," researchers wrote in their article. "Cannabinoids appear to be able to modulate pain, nausea, vomiting, epilepsy, ischemic stroke, cerebral trauma, multiple sclerosis, tumors, and other disorders in humans and or animals."

Researchers suggest that the marijuana chemical may be used to fight anxiety and depression.

The study was conducted by Dr. Xia Zhang and colleagues at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada. The study appeared online on October 13 in advance of print publication of the November issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Copyright: 2004-2005 by foodconsumer.org

Journalists have traded on the power of having a group they are allowed to mock without mercy.

It's no longer okay to bash the intelligence of blacks or women, but since Cheech and Chong, it's been okay to make people laugh by insulting the intelligence of marijuana users.

They should title this story: Cheech and Chong Were Wrong

Notice that BBC spat the story out like they'd been chewing ground glass.

The Globe and Mail actually shows some interest in the science.

New study suggests the chemicals may also act as anxiolytics and antidepressants.

By Graciela Flores

Cannabinoids promote neurogenesis in embryonic and adult rats, and produce anxiolytic- and antidepressant-like effects, according to a new report in the current issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation. The effects appear to contradict those seen from other studied drugs of abuse, the authors note.

"Most drugs of abuse such as nicotine, heroine, and cocaine suppress neurogenesis in these cells, but the effects of cannabinoids weren't clear. We show that cannabinoids, in fact, promote neurogenesis," study author Xia Zhang of the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada, told The Scientist.

During the study, Zhang and his colleagues analyzed the effect of the synthetic cannabinoid HU210, an agonist of the cannabinoid receptor CB1, on neural progenitor cells in the hippocampal dentate gyrus. They found that HU210 increased cell proliferation in vitro, and did so in vivo after chronic treatment. Antidepressants produce a similar pattern of cell proliferation, inspiring the authors to examine the influence of HU210 on behavior, explained Ronald Duman of Yale University School of Medicine in an Email.

The authors measured anxiety and depression using a novelty-suppressed feeding test and a forced swimming test. They found that, indeed, HU210 produced effects similar to those of antidepressants and anxiolytics.

Furthermore, irradiating the hippocampus blocked the agonist's effects on both neurogenesis and behavior. "This provided further support for CB1 induction of neurogenesis at a functional level," explained Duman, who did not participate in the study. HU210, like antidepressants, may produce antidepressant and anxiolytic effects by promoting neurogenesis in the hippocampus, the authors note.

Although Duman found the paper "interesting and potentially promising," he advised caution in interpreting the results. "There is limited clinical evidence demonstrating that cannabinoid administration produces an antidepressant response. Thus, it's difficult to conclude that the current studies indicate and support a therapeutic action of CB1 agonists," he said.

Duman said he's also cautious about the behavioral findings, because the novelty suppressed feeding paradigm is an anxiety model, not a depression model. In addition, the forced swim test is a test for antidepressants that is responsive to acute antidepressant treatment, he noted, not chronic administration. He added that he believes the authors also did not conduct a sufficient number of controls to demonstrate that irradiation decreased neurogenesis and blocked behavioral effects, without additionally damaging hippocampal neurons and cells in other brain regions.

"This criticism is reasonable," replied Zhang. "I'm fully aware that there are no reliable clinical studies available that examine the effects of cannabinoid on mood, but the test for antidepressants mentioned in our paper has been successfully used by several groups to examine the chronic effects," he said. Zhang added that he and his colleagues followed published control methods.

Amelia Eisch of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, who was not involved in the research, found the paper "intriguing." She said she was particularly interested in the correlation between the neurogenesis findings and the behavioral effects, and the promise that HU210 may serve as a novel antidepressant. "It is especially exciting to have a study challenge the hypothesis that all drugs of abuse decrease neurogenesis," said Eisch. "That being said, I think it remains to be seen how relevant these findings are for addiction. It's not at all clear whether HU210 is an addicting drug in these animals."

In a 2001 paper, Zhang and his colleagues confirmed previous findings that chronic HU210 injection produces dependence in rodents, but for Eisch, dependence is just one aspect of addiction. "This paper urges examination of the 'rewarding' or enforcing properties of HU210. Such information would provide tantalizing insight into how drugs of abuse regulate adult neurogenesis."

Eisch added that this study also raises the question of how vasculature is involved in regulating adult neurogenesis and the correlated behavioral effects. "There is some evidence that cannabinoids can cause vessel relaxation, and thus increase blood-flow. Maybe the effect they are seeing (on neurogenesis) is secondary to an effect on the vasculature," said Eisch. "The role of the vasculature is an issue for to everyone in neurogenesis research these days."

Copyright: 2005 The Scientist

Scientists at Cornell first proved, in 1999, that each human is capable of producing new brain cells in the hippo, some adults as many as thousands per day. Bird scientists have known longer that the canary produces new brain cells to learn a new song.

After much internet study as well, I worked out the Alzheimer's riddle, wrote an article about how marijuana must dissolve the Beta Amyloid particles-then a guy proved how marijuana protects against Bet Amyloids as well.

Then my mom got Alzheimer's and I saw firsthand just how potent some tea could be (20 day trial-immediate response first cup after 20 minutes!). She called me 11 months later to advise that the "fog & cloud" had returned. One cup did it that time (and since).

Of course, I lost my law license because they wouldn't believe me about the anxiety and depression treatment benefits. (Four years later, ah).

The walls are crumbling faster and faster. Remember, in Illinois we now have 15 towns that have decriminalized and issue mere parking tickets (mostly $50-some of the new recruits down south are gouging to $500 or so, similar to Daley's revenue source-plan for Chicago).

This is some nice wind in the sails, though. PAUL PETERSON