cannabisnews.com: ‘Bong Hits’ Sign Ruling Chimes a Silly Tone





‘Bong Hits’ Sign Ruling Chimes a Silly Tone
Posted by CN Staff on June 27, 2007 at 07:14:22 PT
By Cynthia Oi 
Source: Star-Bulletin
Washington, DC -- About the only thing amusing in the "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" case is imagining that the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court may have had to utter the phrase repeatedly before issuing the 5-4 ruling that squeezed off another breath of free speech.Oh, to be a fly on the wall as Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito rolled up their sleeves to bat around the definition of "bong" first as a noun, then as a modifier of "hits" and conclude that their attachment to "4" and "Jesus" constituted an undermining of school officials' efforts to educate students about illegal drugs.
It's hard to believe that not one of the justices chuckled, or at least snickered. So silly an expression must have tickled even the taciturn Clarence Thomas -- or maybe not. Maybe when you get to the sit on the highest bench, you forget there's such a thing as simple youthful mischief.Evidently, the court's majority has. Otherwise, it would have chucked the case.But no. A gang of five, including Chief Justice John Roberts, felt the case worthy of attention, using it to chip off a piece of precedence and cheapen a 1969 ruling that said children do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate."The case began when an Alaska high school principal, peeved that a student hoisted a banner with the phrase along a public sidewalk when the Olympic torch was carried past the school, suspended him. She said he was advocating drug use when all the teenager was doing was trying to get on television. It was a lame attempt to claim his 15 minutes of fame.He sued, saying his free speech rights were violated and an appeals court agreed that he had cause. The principal and her school board argued they acted correctly because watching the torch relay was school sanctioned and the message on the banner was promoting illegal drug use.That's as nonsensical as the phrase is vague. Roberts admitted the phrase was "cryptic" but said it wasn't unreasonable for the principal to interpret it as pushing drugs. He applied a different standard in justifying another of the court's free speech rulings that loosened the chain on political campaign ads paid for by special interest groups. "Where the first amendment is implicated, the tie goes to the speaker," Roberts said, referring to the groups, and "not the censor," meaning campaign-spending laws. However, in the "bong hits" case, the tie goes to the censor; the speaker is muzzled.School officials have the heavy responsibility of maintaining a safe, comfortable campus environment. To do so, they've adopted myriad rules about behavior. They've made long lists of things that aren't acceptable to bring to school and crafted "values" lessons about harassment, hazing and cyberbullying.Hawaii's Board of Education has been wrestling with conduct codes, tiptoeing through a potential minefield of constitutional issues in proposing to allow school officials to search students' lockers without cause and to expand a drug-detection program.Some believe limits on students' rights do no harm. After all, they're only kids, which is what the court's majority seems to have overlooked."Bong Hits 4 Jesus" does incorporate druggie jargon, but followed by the tech-text substitute for "for" and reference to a deity would hardly induce anyone to start puffing pot, as the court and Alaska school officials argue. Maybe it wasn't just the "bong hits" part that disturbed them.Cynthia Oi has been on the staff of the Star-Bulletin since 1976. Source: Honolulu Star-Bulletin (HI)Author: Cynthia Oi Published: June 27, 2007Copyright: 2007 Honolulu Star-BulletinContact: letters starbulletin.comWebsite: http://www.starbulletin.com/Related Articles: 'Bong' Decision a Wise Onehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread23129.shtmlJustice Stevens Calls On History He Livedhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread23128.shtmlA Less-Than-Banner Rulinghttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread23127.shtml
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Comment #35 posted by museman on June 29, 2007 at 01:42:54 PT
whig
'Anti-scripture' is a good word for it. Vigilance is always necessary to prevent clever deception packaged as the truth from becoming credible and believed. Reminds me of the new movie 'The Secret' Twisting aspects of the truth to fit a certain agenda, and an attempt to justify error and evil by coating it with layers of metaphoric paint and whitewash.
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Comment #34 posted by FoM on June 28, 2007 at 16:35:24 PT
RevrayGreen 
Thank you. One of these days when I can get a high speed connection without restrictions I will have a lot of catching up to do.
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Comment #33 posted by RevrayGreen on June 28, 2007 at 16:29:05 PT
FoM
it's a song by Dave Cowan called, of course, BH4J.
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Comment #32 posted by FoM on June 28, 2007 at 15:13:32 PT
RevRayGreen
I clicked on the link but I saw it was 4 minutes and I have bandwidth constraints on satellite so I didn't let it load. Is it a song? 
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Comment #31 posted by FoM on June 28, 2007 at 15:11:36 PT
RevRayGreen
I love Bridge Over Troubled Water. Actually I love almost every song Simon and Garfunkel did. We still have the concert playing. How ironic Bridge Over Troubled Waters just started to play.
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Comment #30 posted by RevRayGreen on June 28, 2007 at 14:50:57 PT
Bridge Over Troubled Water
has been on the list of songs that will play at my funeral for years.now have you heard this ? 
vvvvvvvvvv
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw3H0Qon_jw
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Comment #29 posted by FoM on June 28, 2007 at 11:50:22 PT
RevRayGreen
I wanted to say I turned back on the Paul Simon Special and Garfunkel came out and played Bridge Over Troubled Water with Paul and it was good. I just put on the DVD from Simon and Garfunkel's Old Friend's Tour. I haven't watched it since we got 5.1 surround sound and is it great. I feel like I'm in the middle of a live concert. It's just so much better then the news on tv.
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Comment #28 posted by whig on June 28, 2007 at 11:10:57 PT
Museman
I came across anti-scripture. Look upon it, perhaps, and see what is being said.http://www.cinemaseekers.com/Christ/religion.html
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Comment #27 posted by museman on June 28, 2007 at 11:06:55 PT
Home School
My first child was home schooled until she was 12. She went to an 'alternative' (hippy) school until she was 14. We home schooled for another year, then she went into the system. She graduated from the local high school at the top of her class, went on to the U of O to get her bachelors degree in language, and recently got her masters degree in political science at Oslo University in Norway. She speaks five languages, and is now a lobbyist in South Dakota trying to get the government to set up a state sponsored system of windmills to provide alternative source of energy.Who do you think edited a great many of those papers, (except for the language translation parts) and theses, and spent hours on the phone discussing political theory and it's application in the real world? Little 'ol 'uneducated' me.My point is that one learns what they want to learn, how they want to learn it, where they want to learn, and the way they want to learn. Life lessons unfortunately are not taught in school, they are in fact quite obscured by all the propaganda of the funding government. The opportunity to avail oneself of institutional learning like a university, is a fine thing, but knowlege comes from many directions, and resides in many places. Skill can be 'described' in a book, but only by doing does it become real. Talent can not be taught. You can learn the mechanics of art, without ever reaching the inspiration that makes talent flourish. You can study the 'masters' without ever actually having an original thought of your own. Unfortunately society and it's various institutions of education (including university) places more emphasis on the 'study' than the actual learning, so we have a huge influx of paper-educated (it's on paper, but not actually real) 'professionals' with mediocre skill, understanding, and talent.Meanwhile, most of the talent languishes in struggle and against numerous obstacles of social stigma -having to do with some narrow-minded attitudes of class, economics, and surface appearances.Who is going to compare and evaluate experientially learned talent and skill against a piece of paper on the wall?The paper is meaningless, so why give it so much power?If you ask me, the ability to read well is the key to getting an education, with or without the institution. If parents spend time with their children, reading to them, and actively encouraging them to read at the earliest possible age, then they have given them the best tools to learn.
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Comment #26 posted by Hope on June 28, 2007 at 10:09:53 PT
Potpal... Those T-shirts.
Followed some links and found that even the prohibs have a a bong hits 4 Jesus t-shirt.http://tinyurl.com/yu7ocw
http://tinyurl.com/yu7ocw
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Comment #25 posted by Had Enough on June 28, 2007 at 07:03:24 PT
musemans #6
“I agree that people need to take greater responsibility in their lives, their community, and their nation, but the current system disallows such innovation.”How true that statement is. I know many people trying to do this, but more times than not something will come along and throw a monkey wrench in the gear works.On the other hand though, I see a lot of people who could care less about personal responsibility, as long as they have their upside down world, with only their material possessions to accompany them.I came across an acquaintance a while back. We talked (mostly him) about our families, He said his son was doing better than he was. He went on to explain that he makes 100,000 dollars a year drives a brand new vehicle, owns a nice mega house, yada yada yada. Then he went on telling me about his brand new Mustang he drives, on and on and on. When that was over I just thought, man this guy is really really lost in this world. His measurement of doing well is the amount of dollars he could make, and the show off possessions he could flaunt.And that is what he taught his son.
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Comment #24 posted by John Tyler on June 27, 2007 at 21:26:33 PT
on education
The people that have gotten to run the schools are such a bunch of weenies. They are fearful of any kind of controversy not for school safety but because of how it will reflect on them. They will go to any length to protect themselves. But then if they do try to be good educators they will get smacked down by the school board, or the local politicians, or the local right wing psyco-christians. Education should be a rush. Learning new things, what a thrill that is. You know, knowledge is power. Educators are fearful of controversy so they make the subjects as boring as possible so students won’t want to think about it. Take Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. A play about two teenagers in love, family turmoil, and suicide. What teenager wouldn’t enjoy that? Yet, the English teachers usually make this as boring as possible so nobody will realize how racy it really is. What, did teenagers have sex in the 1500’s? We can’t talk about that because of the school rule about total abstinence training. That is just one example. It is almost like after you learn to read. Read about stuff yourself. You will only find stuff made boring in school. You just have to take what they do give you and build on it. There are exceptions to be sure, but that has been my experience. Education was better in college where the instructors could really teach.
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Comment #23 posted by FoM on June 27, 2007 at 19:26:51 PT
RevRayGreen
I can't keep watching it. I'm getting sleepy. I don't know the people who are singing his songs. I'm glad that he got this award though. 
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Comment #22 posted by FoM on June 27, 2007 at 19:02:54 PT
Smoked Myself a Jay
They didn't censor it! I'm impressed.
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Comment #21 posted by FoM on June 27, 2007 at 18:51:54 PT
RevRayGreen 
We're watching it right now! 
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Comment #20 posted by RevRayGreen on June 27, 2007 at 18:21:17 PT
This is the best song
that I've heard about it.and right now Stephen Marley is on.........Tonight's Must-See: "Paul Simon: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song," 8-10 p.m., PBS.If future civilizations watch this, they'll think Paul Simon wrote dirges. Many of his classics are given a sleepy pace. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw3H0Qon_jw
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Comment #19 posted by FoM on June 27, 2007 at 17:32:37 PT
whig
They had plenty of the kind of social activity that the parents approved of. Guiding children is good for them. Too many parents just go what's the use. They'll figure life out. They did not have a tv either. They didn't want them corrupted by it. They read books all the time. They watched tv when they were visiting us or someone who had tv. Loving, caring, guiding and disciplining 
 your children is a good thing. They will have a sense of worth and a strong value structure when they get out in the world. They stayed within their own Mennonite Community and there was a lot of activity for them and fellowship. The oldest son who is an artist married a Catholic girl and they live in Philadelphia now.
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Comment #18 posted by whig on June 27, 2007 at 17:24:22 PT
FoM
I wouldn't force parents to send their kids to school, but I think it isn't always good for the kids to stay home. It really depends. Also I think socialization is very important and kids do need to learn how to live with other people.
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Comment #17 posted by FoM on June 27, 2007 at 17:20:56 PT
whig
My brother in law and sister in law graduated from high school. They wouldn't have considered college because they are conservative Mennonites and the mother stayed home and taught the children and the father earned a living working on the railroad. The children are well mannered and hard workers. They didn't want them exposed to the world before they had maturity so that is why they kept them out of public school. 
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Comment #16 posted by whig on June 27, 2007 at 17:07:29 PT
Hope #7
Ew?
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Comment #15 posted by whig on June 27, 2007 at 17:04:58 PT
OverwhelmSam
If the parents are very well educated themselves home schooling can be a good option, otherwise not so much.I think the old idea of the community one-room school house is a good one, where parents come in and volunteer to teach what they know, and the older students help the younger students.
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Comment #14 posted by RevRayGreen on June 27, 2007 at 15:40:36 PT
I have some shirts made
that say.......front:
NO BONG HITS 
4 BUSH,back:BONG HITS 4 JESUS
www.myspace.com/bonghits4jesus
www.myspace.com/niceriaI'll post a pic soon.
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Comment #13 posted by FoM on June 27, 2007 at 15:37:43 PT
My Opinion
Having a talent is more important then college. Being able to develop an individual talent is important. I watch a lot of shows on the Discovery Channels and wonder what makes a person do this or that. I see passion in their eyes. We should be passionate about what we do college or no college.
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Comment #12 posted by museman on June 27, 2007 at 15:20:10 PT
Sam
I concur. But I don't believe that college is the only place a person can learn 'how to think, evaluate, and assess,' though I admit that such skills aren't as widespread in their usage as they ought to be. It is fairly easily accessed and an available resource though -if one has a passport such as scholarship, grant, or just the bank account to cover it.I can appreciate that. 'Academia' however is over-rated in my opinion.
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Comment #11 posted by OverwhelmSam on June 27, 2007 at 15:12:42 PT
potpal
I love those shirts!
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Comment #10 posted by potpal on June 27, 2007 at 15:02:00 PT
Be the first on your block...
To have the t-shirt...wear it to school or work...http://www.cafepress.com/buy/bong%20hits%20for%20jesus/-/cfpt2_/cfpt_/source_searchBox/copt_ 
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Comment #9 posted by OverwhelmSam on June 27, 2007 at 14:22:47 PT
Exactly My Point
Public Education has become day care and propaganda session for the majority of children from 4 to 18 year old. Usually because both parents have to work, one to pay the income, property, gas, alcohol, firearm, trade, sales and other taxes, and one to pay the rent, groceries, utilities, clothing and medical expenses. If the parents did not have to pay the outrageous school taxes if their children were not in school, one parent oculd stay home and educate their children at their leisure.As far as college goes, yes there is a lot of information in the courses, but what students really learn in college is how to think, evaluate and assess. 
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Comment #8 posted by FoM on June 27, 2007 at 13:39:25 PT
OT: I Hope Everyone is OK in New York
I would be so afraid to be in a city if there was power problems. ***Power Outage Affects New York City***Wed Jun 27, 2007 NEW YORK (Reuters) - A power outage affected parts of Manhattan's Upper East Side on Wednesday, partially shutting down subway service, officials and witnesses said.Power utility Con Edison said it was evaluating reports of lost service, and the transportation authority said at least three subway lines were down on what a spokeswoman called a power dip.Copyright: 2007 Reutershttp://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN2731311920070627
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Comment #7 posted by Hope on June 27, 2007 at 11:19:26 PT
Yuck!!!
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n754/a02.html?397LOCAL ENERGY-DRINK MAKER PITCHES TO POT-HEADS 
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Comment #6 posted by museman on June 27, 2007 at 11:15:41 PT
sam #4
I kind of agree with you on the home schooling. I raised half of my kids that way, but economics, and the social elite control of resource, made it impossible in later years. Home schooling also -mainly because of prejudicial attitude on the part of advocates of public education- cuts out a very important aspect; the close association with generational gathering and peer grouping -socializing on a daily basis. This was the number one complaint of my children, and I eventually caved.Being able to spend hours every day with your child, to teach them what they need, is kind of difficult when you must spend your time ensuring rent, power, and sustenance -which the majority of parenting age Americans are forced to place at the top of the priority list.Some people place a lot of credibility and substance on a 'college education', and I agree that the format and structure of 'higher learning' in our colleges and universities is much more palatable to the human spirit than public education, or even the entire system of primary education itself (with a few exceptions like 'charter schools'), but the academia represented is just about as worthless. The true 'education' comes when the young minds are free to gather and discuss their thoughts openly without legislative and educational hiearchies interfering with their natural growth by 'commanding' them to believe this or that.I too began to 'figure out the truth' when I was in college, but it had more to do with the profound discoveries of Hoffman and Sandoz than anything offered as a course. The truth can be discovered by anyone, anywhere, and there is no necessity in attending proscribed perspectives on socially acceptable 'knowlege'. Having the opportunity to get the experience is a good thing, but placing so much emphasis on it (college) being the 'only' source of truth, and Higher education is erroneous, and a setup for elitism, 'superiority' complexes, and the general mess of things that we are in right now.Vigilante justice? Right now in current history, isn't that what our government is doing in Iraq, wants to do with Iran, and pretty much employs that tactic with our police force carrying out the dictates of the WOD?I agree that people need to take greater responsiblity in their lives, their community , and their nation, but the current system disallows such innovation.Just my opinionated observation.
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Comment #5 posted by FoM on June 27, 2007 at 10:55:55 PT
OverwhelmSam
If public school is as bad as it seems I don't know why home schooling wouldn't be considered. My brother and sister in law home schooled their children. One now is a professional artist and the other is an archeologist. It sure didn't hurt them. They had social gatherings for all the children that were home schooled so they had good interaction with other children thruout the years of growing up.
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Comment #4 posted by OverwhelmSam on June 27, 2007 at 10:27:47 PT
Vigilantees and Home School
Gee, since the courts have become a rubber stamp of approval for anything the government does, who needs the courts. I propose a return to gun fights at high noon. No fuss, no muss, problem solved. Now, how to deal with the idiots ruinning our schools... Home Schooling. As more Americans hit the book stores and teach their own children, we will have no further need of jerks like this principal in charge of teaching our children the government's propaganda in the name of the government's "Drug War." Public schools are increasingly a huge cost and disservice to the children of America. I went to public school, learned my abc's, basic math and government propaganda. I didn't get an education until I went to college. That's where you figure out the truth.
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Comment #3 posted by museman on June 27, 2007 at 09:49:41 PT
Supreme Idiocy
Idiocy is apparently an honored attribute in modern America. When common sense has gone so far from reality that millions of dollars must be spent to determine, 'legally' where it went, and then it remains lost, even possibly pushed further away from the grasp of those whose 'credit' 'diplomas' and 'intelligence' is supposed to represent the 'supreme,' there is a big problem. But of course when you give (certain) rich people all the power, they no longer have to conform to such things as, common sense, logic, reason, and constitutional law. Whims become doctrine, incredibly lengthy diatribes containing nothing of any true intellectual substance become substitutes for true descriptions of truth, and monkeys sit on the political throne.The system is fatally flawed. It dies as we post. Babylon is falling, watch out that you don't get hit on the head by falling debris.
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Comment #2 posted by Hope on June 27, 2007 at 09:21:30 PT
ironic
This morning, I was thinking about how I would have responded to this huge legal matter if it had happened while I was a teen in school. There are, likely, going to be little "BH4J"s on notebooks and everything else. They may be so tiny as to be unreadable...but they are likely to be all over the place now. Maybe even written in Oriental and Arabic scripts. Somebody is going to register it as a brand name. There are going to be jeans and caps and t-shirts...perhaps an entire clothing line with little "BH4J" labels worn all over the place. It may even start BH4J botiques...like GAP.BH4J will be written in indelible ink in tiny letters around the hems of jeans. It'll be written forwards, backwards, and upside down. It'll be on the bottom of shoes. Monograms. Maybe charms and necklaces. Kids love to make up new words or ways of writing words and letters. When it's happening, lots of people won't notice it at all.It'll be there...it just won't be obvious to the ones who want to keep such speech from being used.If they hadn't gotten in such a tither over it..it would all have been virtually forgotten by now."Drug" Speech... illegal for some?What about the kids forced to take behavioral drugs? They can't talk about it? I think this means we have to get DARE out of the school system. They talk about drugs all the time and many say they are actually promoting drug use in youth. Whew. What a can of worms.
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Comment #1 posted by dongenero on June 27, 2007 at 08:13:38 PT
ironic
It's ironic that the presumed pro-drug speech that Justice Roberts has deemed a dangerous message, which should not have exposure,has gone from the obscurity of a street side moment in Juneau, Alaska to being in every published newspaper, television newscast, online news or opinion sources and every political comedy program.Who has not heard of BongHits4Jesus by now? Do you think there is a high school student anywhere in the country who has not heard this by now?If the majority judges really had an interest in keeping such ideas safely away from impressionable students they would have simply thrown this case out as a teenage prank.
There would have been very little exposure.I believe the justices were more interested in pandering to the prohibitionist ideology than they were to protecting society from the potential civilization ending dangers of BongHits4Jesus.
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