Why?

With this plant glaucoma sufferers would be able to grow their medicine in their back yards for minimal cost. Because of the law that congress passed in 1937 pharmaceuticals are able to charge hundreds of dollars for minute amounts of synthesized THC marketed as Marinol. That fact speaks volumes.
That fact explains why Democrats and Republicans will continue to continue to wage the "war on drugs." The pharmaceutical industry buys more congressmen from both parties than Jack Abramoff. That's one more reason why we need another political party to challenge the complacency of the current duopoly.
The so called war on drugs also continues because our intelligence agencies need a black market in which to raise funds for their black ops. Does anybody remember Ollie North rhapsodizing about the "stand alone, self financing off the shelf organization"?
This culture glamorizes the use of drugs for everything from erections to regimented sleep patterns. The FDA continues to give quick approval to the latest pharmaceutical wonders while the peddlers misinform the authorities about the efficacy and safety of their products. Lawsuits are making their way slowly through the courts as a result of the deaths that resulted from the shady approval of Vioxx.
Some over the counter pain reliever whose name I've managed to block from my mind is running some commercials in which the characters say that for every new pain they needed a new medication. And you want me to believe that we're fighting a war on drugs?
We sorely need to define our terms. What drugs are we waging war on? What are the criteria that we use to decide which drugs get the FDA blessing? It seems that the primary requirement is that the drug be manufactured by a large, for profit corporation; nature's way is verboten.
This particular war of which I speak is actually a war on our freedom to pick the intoxicant/medication of our choice. Gussie Busch and the rest of the alcoholic beverage industry spend lots of good money to make sure that theirs will continue to be the only legal intoxicant.
The common thread through all these reasons why the hemp plant is illegal is greed. Not only does the black market create a need for more jobs in law enforcement and corrections, the opportunities for corruption are endless. Even members of the military at Fort Huachuca and Davis Monthan AFB have been busted smuggling illegal drugs. Countless Border Patrol agents have also given in to the temptation of easy money. Al Capone and the latter day, cocaine dealing Scarface made their millions because of prohibitions which define vices as crimes - thus making them irrationally profitable. But that's precisely why the Republicrats will keep the black market in business.

Rebel With Claws

Flying the wrong way
Bird brain on a one way sky
Doesn't care which way

The Earth and the Sky

Saguaro and ridge
The essence of Sonora
Like earth tones and blue

From the Redwood Forest...

A field of shamrocks.
A clearing, a splash of light
Deep in the forest

What words can one use?
What wisdom can we harvest
Among these ancients?

Moss clings to the fence
And trees in all directions.
Stone wall adds texture.

Russian River flows
Nearby, heading for the sea's
Mythic Golden Coast.

The Lord Helps Those Who Help Themselves?

Offbeat News
Sunday, Dec. 18, 2005
Army officer charged in Iraq fraud scam

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Army officer was arrested on Thursday for stealing between $80,000 and $100,000 in funds from the U.S. governing administration in Iraq and using the money to install a deck and hot hub in her New Jersey home.
The U.S. Justice Department said Army Reserve Lt. Col. Debra Harrison, 47, who served with the Coalition Provisional Authority, was arrested on charges involving bribery, money laundering and fraud.
Harrison is the second army officer and the fourth person charged in the past few weeks in connection with the scheme.
The Justice Department said Harrison was on active duty for the U.S. Army in 2003 and 2004, and was responsible for developing contract solicitations and ordering contracts for reconstruction efforts for the Coalition Provisional Authority -- South Central Region.
According to court papers, Harrison and her co-conspirators accepted money and gifts in return for using their official positions to rig contract bids.
An affidavit filed in the U.S. District Court in New Jersey said she used the money to add a deck and put in a hot tub at her home in Trenton, New Jersey, accepted a Cadillac Escalade worth about $50,000 and a $6,000 airline ticket from a contractor in return for rigging the bids.
Harrison was also accused of laundering funds from the CPA.
In the affidavit, Harrison was also charged with numerous firearms charges, including conspiring to embezzle and possess pistols, automatic machine guns and grenade launchers bought with CPA funds.
She is charged along with her co-conspirators of using the CPA funds to buy dozens of firearms and related military-grade hardware in North Carolina for their own use.
If convicted, Harrison faces up to 30 years in prison.

Mundane Epiphanies

My place in the sun!
Soaking up December's warmth;
Loving the desert!

Scooter with hammock,
Garbage and recycling cans -
Still life in carport.

Sunshine on my hat
Makes me happy. John Denver
Knew what I'm saying.

Bug eyes under hat...
Dreams of a Futurama
Electric mantis

Merry Xma$

Does anybody really believe that Jesus of Nazareth was born on December 25th? If you do I've got a few items I'd like to sell you. Please explain why the sheep were in the hills in the dead of winter. It's an accepted historical fact that the early Christian church used December 25th as Jesus' birthday in order to compete with the solstice celebrations of the pagans. The truth is that it's impossible to know what year Jesus was born, never mind what day. One thing seems certain, the sheep would have been wintering in barns trying to grow a new coat of wool.
I'm so fed up with the holier than thou crowd trying to pretend that the holiday is not about commerce. Let's be honest about it, call it Xma$, a celebration of consumerism, and celebrate Jesus' birthday sometime in the spring in a more dignified manor.

Sonja Henie's Tutu!

They tell me that it's
Evolution, well, you know
With a face like that...In the early days of Car Talk Click and Clack used "Sonja Henie's tutu!" as an exclamation. At the time Ms. Henie was the youngest Olympic Figure Skating Gold Medalist. Since then Tara Lipinski dethroned Ms. Henie and the brothers ocassionally exclaim "Tara Lipinski's Tutu!" This statue somewhere in Finland immortalizes the famous tutu.

ET has gone home
Curtis Martin has sat down
The season's been tough

'Nuff said

Billion$ for war! Don't forget to cut our taxe$.

Have you noticed how the same people who support Bush's big Iraqi adventure squeal the loudest about the need for more tax cuts?

I think I might need a support group to get me to vote for a Democrat for Congress next year. I'm painfully aware of the need to dismantle the Republican machine; but the Democrats are such assholes! It's the same old dumb and dumber dilemma; tax and spend Democrats or spend and spend Republicans

Hey Santa, how 'bout a credible candidate for Xmas?

December Pipedreams

Yours truly driving.
A latter day Ralph Cramden -
A touch of NortonOutside the window
The Sonoran desert bakes
Shrubs and saguaros
Approaching Tucson;
Catalinas from the north
Backlit by the smog

Home going mobile,
Freight train rocking down the tracks.
Postmodern daydream...

Some Recent Sightings

Watercolor Sky
It's red in the morning
Sailors take warning

A streaking comet?
Blazing across the heavens
Hallucination?

Fast moving white clouds
Looking out from a porthole
Coming or going?

Moondance in moonlight
Everyday miracle
We bid you goodnight

Tucson Skies

Fire in the sky

Nature's lines draw conclusions
In the sky, you see?
Roiling lilac sky
Hails the Sonoran sunset
Serenity Soothes

My urban skyscape
Reflections of man-made lines
And Nature's splendor

Mushroom cloud fire
My Blazer slumbers darkly
My mind roams the sky

Confessions of an Infojunkie

The digital video recorder (DVR) that I'm renting from the cable company gives me the ability to see picture in picture (PiP) even though my TV isn't made for that. For an infojunkie that's like doing a speedball. With PiP I can watch the McLaughlin Group while I keep track of a football game, without sound. For those who can chew and walk at the same time this no major feat. The score is almost always onscreen and most jockentators say nothing worth listening to so this is the best of two worlds. Tony Blankly's smug stupidity provides a good target for venting at. Imaginary studies have consistently shown that a good tongue lashing administered to some opinionated miscreant on TV is good for your soul.
As a Jets' fan in Arizona I don't have much opportunity to watch their games on TV, since I'm not willing or able to pay for the NFL package on Sattelite; as it turns out, it's a good thing I didn't give in to the temptation to get Sirius radio to catch the games that way. I did buy the Real Network online access to streaming audio of all the NFL games. This allows for megadosage of inforushes.
Added to the aforementioned scenario of listening to topical commentary while tracking the progress of an NFL game on the small P of the PiP, a laptop with broadband access to the internet is like the steamed milk, topped with chocolate, that transforms a double espresso into a perfect cappuccino.

As the morning ends and the Sunday talking heads go back into their boxes, the audio is switched to the NFL stream of the Jets' game, which I had been tracking (the Jets lost another offensive lineman and another game) through the handy Live Gamestats that NFL.com provides online. The muted TV now has two games - thanks to PiP - while the audio tracks have the Jets game and Willlie Nelson's Countryman CD, and the laptop gives me instant access to all the scores and other news I might want.

An Infojunkie's paradise!

Seen on Hardball

Tom DeFrank of the NY Daily News said on Hardball that even the Republicans who are wringing their hands and crying about where Bush has led them are saying that they still have 3 things going for them, Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid.
Funny, and it also happens to be true. It reminds me of the Red Stripe commercial in which the claim is made that Red Stripe puts their beer in an ugly bottle in order to make the buyer look good in comparison. The Republicans are down to arguing that Democrats are more reprehensible than they are; the "lesser of 2 evils" argument. For a while it seems that the Dems were wisely heeding Lincoln's counsel that "Tis better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak up and remove all doubt."
If ever the time was ripe for a third major party, this is it. The idiocy and greed that govern our legislators is aided and abetted by CNN and the rest of the media elite that use the leaders of only two parties for comments on current events. James Carville and Bay Buchanan to opine on Iraq; hmm, lets see, one will support the administration and one will criticize? Surprise, surprise!
What do Libertarians think? And the Green Party? Let's not forget the old tradition, the Communist Party. The conspiracy to enforce the two paty system has helped to put blinders on the American electorate. Two choices, black and white, dumb and dumber, stay the course or cut and run; our choices are artificially limited by a de facto conspiracy of jackasses whose holy scriptures are written on spreadsheets.
Will Joe Lieberman replace Rumsfeld? What are the political calculations? One less Democrat in the Senate; but he would probably be replaced by a Dem who votes like a Democrat and not Bush's lap dog.
Let's call the holiday Xmas and keep Christ out of the crass commercialism that is the spirit of the season.