A trait I make no bones about finding admirable...

I don't actually go looking for trouble, as it finds me all too easily. But I cannot stand hypocrisy and lies, and these forums provide a perfect way to both inform the unknowing about illicit drug issues...and chastise the blindly or (even more satisfying) the wilfully ignorant and mean-spirited amongst the opposition. Of which there are far too many. If I can plant the seed of doubt in at least one of their minds with my postings, then I will have accomplished what no amount of money ever could.

Here's what I think. Words have the power we give them over us. We can allow words to be used to denigrate us and make us feel bad, or we can wear them as a badge of honor. There is a good argument (and you made one) that we shouldn't take pride in derogatory words because they were intended to give offense and we should demand to be treated with more respect. But we cannot make people stop using the words we don't like, it's only in how we respond to them that we can exercise some control.

Different groups have been called names at different times and have responded differently. There is a lot more emphasis on political correctness on some than on others. Yesterday I gave the historical example of "yankees" being used for the rebellious colonists. You just gave the example of "nigger" being used for blacks. Neither term stopped being used, but one of them stopped being used hatefully (well, south of the border they still use Yanqui as an epithet but it doesn't probably bother most Americans).

Or consider the gay community that proudly use the word "queer" in certain contexts. Yes, it's intended as a hurtful word but I think it carries less power when gays themselves will chant that they are "here, queer, get used to it."

And Libby at LastOneSpeaks http://lastonespeaks.blogspot.com/ often scoops me by a day or two. She finds some items and has insights on them that I often miss, so I stop by every day.

And Radley Balko of The Agitator http://www.theagitator.com/ can always be counted on for roasting the prohibs over the coals as they so richly deserve. If you like your libertarianism straight up with some tabasco, I suggest you take a look. I'd comment there, but he's had problems with spammers and turned it off.

For more of the same, with a Southern flair, try Hammer of Truth http://hammeroftruth.com/ Stephen Gordon doesn't pull any punches and takes no prisoners when it comes to the DrugWar and libertarian (Upper and lower case "l") opposition to it. You'll find my poor efforts at commentary showing up there, as well.

For the curious, at Sukoi's invitation, I've been posting at Political Crossfire http://www.politicalcrossfire.com/forum/index.php in the "Politics and Government" section (as my usual Net persona) and a few other places http://thehive.modbee.com/?q=blog/236 (as "Nichivo") where the opportunity exists to mix it up with prohibs.Most of whom are verging on either mental deficiency (given their apparent inability to engage in rational discussion) or rabidity.

Needless to say, true to their nature, they rarely last more than a few postings before they either stick their fingers in their ears and scream over and over "You're wrong! I can't hear you! You're wrong!" ...or run with their tails between their legs, yelping all the way http://www.politicalcrossfire.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=56447 (I didn't post anything on the last link, as I was on vacation for two weeks, but many excellent debaters such as Sukoi, Malcolm, J, MalignantPoodle and others did a bang-up job on a classic narrow-minded prohib, and sent her wailing away).

It's been singularly gratifying to watch my theories about the prohibs' seeming inability to defend their positions - and why - be vindicated. It's especially heartening to see that they read what I write and it usually sends them into a 'hissy fit'. Good clean fun.

A regular thing on his show was to send kids to those awful boot camps or something VERY harsh to "break" the kids.

He would parade in military, big brute looking loud talking types and they would get in the children's faces and scream at them and take them away, forcibly to Straight like BootCamps...but with professionals to belittle and humiliate them.

I didn't like him AT ALL. Some of those kids were sent off for smoking pot.

This is an epithet, a curse, an attempt to make you less than what you are, to rob you of your dignity and humanity. . Ask any Black man how the word 'nigger' makes him feel when it is said harshly. Ask any Gay person how they feel when someone meanly uses the word 'faggot' or 'dyke'. The same dynamics are at work, here. Words do have power; as I pointed out, every person here can conjure up a negative stereotype in their minds when they hear or read that word. That was deliberate, as deliberate as someone swinging a hammer at your head with intent to crush it.

Its difficult to see any way that the persecuted can ever communicate with their oppressors, yet it is a complex thing, this world or plantation and history does reveal that of the many large plantations and empires, they all fell to ruin. It should be understood that these faded empires actually were absorbed by the emerging forces in the new empires.

Perhaps we might consider ourselves as an emerging force an empire that is growing in the heart of the big empire, as someone once said, the kingdom of god is within.

I sometimes get a glimpse of this new empire, fueled by hemp oil, with incredible hemp clothing, hemp building materials sustaining our homes, cars, paper, medicines the list is long and the idea though it is only an idea, sometimes it only takes a good idea to start a revolution.

By refusing to rule on "the harm principle" in Canada and twisting the Commerce clause to include non-Commercial activity in the United States, the Supreme Courts of both countries have dropped the ball. They essentially ruled that Parliament or Congress has the right to make arbitrary laws based on whim and disregard for scientific facts. This is a dishonest and egregious violation of their Constitutional responsibilities for oversight of the laws.

I can only assume that the Justices were more afraid of an FDR-style court-packing, than the consequences of violating their primary mission of legal oversight!

Those thoughts don't really happen to me because war is self defeating. Someone will always be angry with someone for killing someone so on the war goes. The only way to stop war is to talk and listen. Wars end ultimately but how many people die until then? What's their worth?

This is a revolution but we are peaceful. We will not offer violence. We will not take up arms. We will not do these things because they will be done to us forever if we do not stop picking them up. No more swords. Not a single blow.

You want to defend yourself against the attacker? He is stronger than you. He has more guns. He will kill you.

You cannot fight this with force. You cannot prevail in arms.

But what we can do is speak. Speak true and sing strong and be steadfast.

a whole human being

and can see and be witness

in your world, your city,

your village, your family,

We can spend all of our money,

To find some way to keep our eyes open,

The process of Life and Growth,

Are mutually connected to Understanding,

That all of us exist,

In this reality,

Our songs and moans of pain

We act out before the stage of these Principalities,

It is required

It is an abomination,

The roots of prohibition,

Have as an underlying base,

That most dreaded fear,

That realization,

What is overlooked is the disproportionate effect that the disparity of wealth has. The cheap easy plant that anyone can cultivate is forbidden yet expensive concotions are allowed. Rich people can afford the pharmas and guess who fills the jails? It is PATHETIC that we even have to fight for such basic stuff. It's just depressing.

I had not listened to the hearings that Taylor121 posted a few threads ago but I reccomend everyone listen to the people before him, the doctor particularly.

"Allowing marinol while cannabis is illegal is like saying it's ok to have vitamin c but we are going to outlaw orange juice."(paraphrase)

Montel should get a Volcano, ... he can afford $2400 worth of pharmas per month...

On one hand we have medical use advocates like Montel who still believe that the state should 'control' drugs with doctors as the 'guadians'. On the other there are those of us who push for full legalization knowing that the medical usage would be also facilitated once the prohibition is gone. I have seen some debate on the notion that medical usage advocates are actually blocking progress on cannabis law reform.

The state (et al) does not stand between the citizen and what he consumes, that is the first underlying assumption that needs to be addressed. The attempted control of vice via the justice system is a throwback from less enlightened times.(maybe not ... ) The continual push of 'drug control', prohibition, as the only means to deal with non-sanction pleasure seeking activities, totally undermines the states authority because it is selling us delusions. Only those who believe the delusion(s) actually support prohibition.

The second is the paternalistic nature of the drug laws. We, the adult citizens, are not 'children' of the 'big daddy' (brother) state who never reach true adulthood. The notion that laws can be made to protect us from ourselves subjugates us in a way that we are naturally conditioned to accept. After all, your daddy has your best interest at heart right?

The third and worst is the belief that prohibition prevents suffering. The opposite is actually true. We all share the same uncertainty with respect to life, the same emotional states with respect to its uncertainty (and impermanence), and share similar desires. Who, leader, peasant, business man, would deny their loved ones relief from horrible suffering because the 'law is the law'? Only the hard-ass who beleives himself 'strong and principled' because he is willing to suffer for the benefit of a few ill-placed words in a musty old book? Many of the drug warriors are more than willing to be the cause of much suffering for millions because it is not they who will suffer.

Call it cognitive dissonance, if you want to. He's stated he's only for medicinal use. Seeing that cannabists in general are members of an offically despised group (See our Observer's DrugSenseBot page http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/pg/propaganda/ for an explanation) Mr. Williams is knowingly distancing himself from cannabists in general to ensure that he doesn't get slapped with the sobriquet of being a 'pothead', a stereotype he seeks to avoid being used against him by trying to make the distinction. If that happens and is not sufficiently and successfully repelled, his chances of being taken seriously are diminshed.

Think about it. What is the mental image that comes to mind of a 'pothead'? The one that society has been conditioned through the propaganda process to accept as a reality, when vanishingly few cannabists actually match it. There is no countering stereotype to use against it...save that of the legitimate medicinal user.

However, the fact is, even though I'd venture a guess the less politically savvy prohibs would like to 'tar' him with the 'pothead' stereotype, Mr. Williams has the race card to hold them in check if they try. If the prohibs try to pull that stunt, they will be called out immediately on it, and it won't make them look good.

It's why, ever since he had Andrea Barthwell on his show (and practically ripped her a new one publicly) the prohibs have been assiduously avoiding any possible confrontation with him, as he's proven to be both knowledgeable and combative. The issue is intensely personal, not an academic one for him as it largely is for the prohibs, and Mr. Williams has shown how quickly he would repeat what happened to Barthwell on his show with any prohib who tried. The ferocity of his counterattack left Barthwell diminshed, and they know it. They're scared of him, and rightly so.

Florida -- Irvin Rosenfeld hesitated when his company rewarded him with a vacation this weekend to the Bahamas.

Before accepting, the stockbroker from Lauderhill wanted to clear his medical prescription with the Bahamian government.

But he never got the official OK because his medicine is illegal there. The drug he uses? Marijuana.

The Party Line has been given, and all good little aparatchiks must disseminate the Party Line throughout the land. Because, the old Party Line ("Marijuana has NO medical uses!") is no longer in play. Can't be, now that people like Andrea Barthwell, who once made the old Party Line her mantra, are now working for liquid marijuana producing companies. Kinda embarassing, isn't it?

***

June 9, 2006

TRENTON — Before he was a famous TV personality, Montel Williams had a career in the Navy and started an anti-drug program for children.

So Williams choked up yesterday while testifying before the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee about how only marijuana — not prescribed painkillers — have helped ease the pain multiple sclerosis has dealt him since 1999.

"I'm not only the poster child for MS around the world, I'm the poster child for pot," Williams said. " ... What angers me so much is that all people consider me a dopehead when all I want to do is wake up in the morning and go to work without pain."

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