Today's headlines

U.S. Death Toll in Iraq Nears Record
How can the parents of these men and women bear losing their children for corporate greed? It's no wonder that so many of them are in denial.

High Court Ponders Pot Appeal
cbsnews.com
Major media reports sound discouraging. I'm waiting to hear what my friend Steve says. He was at the Supreme Court today.

What's a Tea Pad?

From The Marihuana Problem in the City of New York
Mayor's Committee on Marihuana, by the New York Academy of Medicine
City of New York , 1944. More here

A "tea-pad" is a room or an apartment in which people gather to smoke marihuana. The majority of such places are located in the Harlem district. It is our impression that the landlord, the agent, the superintendent or the janitor is aware of the purposes for which the premises are rented.....

The marihuana smoker derives greater satisfaction if he is smoking in the presence of others. His attitude in the "tea-pad" is that of a relaxed individual, free from the anxieties and cares of the realities of life. The "tea-pad" takes on the atmosphere of a very congenial social club. The smoker readily engages in conversation with strangers, discussing freely his pleasant reactions to the drug and philosophizing on subjects pertaining to life in a manner which, at times, appears to be out of keeping with his intellectual level. A constant observation was the extreme willingness to share and puff on each other's cigarettes. A boisterous, rowdy atmosphere did not prvail and on the rare occasions when there appeared signs indicative of a belligerent attitude on the part of a smoker, he was ejected or forced to become more tolerant and quiescent.

One of the most interesting setups of a "tea-pad," which was clearly not along orthodox lines from the business point of view, was a series of pup tents arranged on a roof-top in Harlem. Those present proceeded to smoke their cigarettes in the tents. When the desired effect of the drug had been obtained they all merged into the open and engaged in a discussion of their admiration of the stars and the beauties of nature.

Friday musing #2

Tonight went with Bunny709 to the Texas Freedom Network's Big Night of Comedy. Great food and beverages, great people. The evening's entertainment was provided by the stand-up commedian Judy Gold

When I came home I found this site: World Space League. I don't quite know what to make of it.

The Fourth World War

Tonight I went with Perrosamiga to the Alamo Drafthouse to see The Fourth World War. The name comes from an essay by Subcomandante Marcos, who says that the 4th world war is against all of us.

The film maker spoke before and after the fim. She was a young woman in her 20s who actually had done much of the filming herself. There was footage from Mexico, Argentina, South Korea, South Africa, where people were in the streets standing up to corporate globalization. Inspiring. Also some heartbreaking footage from Palestine and Iraq.

"The Fourth World War is destroying humanity as globalization is universalizing the market, and everything human which opposes the logic of the market is an enemy and must be destroyed. In this sense, we are all the enemy to be vanquished: indigenous, non-indigenous, human rights observers, teachers, intellectuals, artists. Anyone who believes themselves to be free and is not." -- Subcomandante Marcos.

Ponder the implications of this

"Wal-Mart has a very close relationship with China," says Duke University Professor Gary Gereffi. "China is the largest exporter to the U.S. economy in virtually all consumer goods categories. Wal-Mart is the leading retailer in the U.S. economy in virtually all consumer goods categories. Wal-Mart and China are a joint venture."

From tonight's Frontline on PBS. Read more here

Next blog>>

I hardly have time to attend to my own posting, I'm so addicted to the "Next blog" button. I told my friend Pixels (and she agreed) that it's like flying around the world, landing on some random stranger's head and taking a peek inside.

Who said it?

The National Government will regard it as its first and foremost duty to revive in the nation the spirit of unity and co-operation. It will preserve and defend those basic principles on which our nation has been built. It regards Christianity as the foundation of our national morality, and the family as the basis of national life....

Adolf Hitler, PROCLAMATION TO THE GERMAN NATION, FEBRUARY 1, 1933

Ground Zero Suicide Driven by Election

 
FOXNews.com - U.S. & World

NEW YORK — A 25-year-old man from Georgia who was apparently distraught over President Bush's re-election shot and killed himself at ground zero. Andrew Veal's body was found Saturday morning inside the off-limits site, said Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. A shotgun was found nearby, but no suicide note was found, Coleman said.

Veal's mother said her son was upset about the result of the presidential election and had driven to New York, Gus Danese, president of the Port Authority Police Benevolent Association, told The New York Times in Sunday's editions.
Friends said Veal worked in a computer lab at the University of Georgia and was planning to marry.

"I'm absolutely sure it's a protest," Mary Anne Mauney, Veal's supervisor at the lab, told The Daily News. "I don't know what made him commit suicide, but where he did it was symbolic."

Values

Reports indicate that people voted for Kerry if they were concerned about the war in Iraq and for Bush if they were concerned about "values", as if these were mutually exclusive. I wonder what happened to values that Jesus preached about......truth, "love your neighbor as yourself", mercy and tolerance. The Bible lists the "fruits of the spirit" as love, joy, peace, mildness, goodness, kindness, and self control. Since they profess to be "Christ like" why are they not concerned with these values?

Friday Musing

"The state can't give you free speech, and the state can't take it away. You're born with it, like your eyes, like your ears. Freedom is something you assume, then you wait for someone to try to take it away. The degree to which you resist is the degree to which you are free..." -- Utah Phillips

More wound licking

I need to read this piece from Daily Kos at least once a day.

A small silver lining for a very dark cloud

From Andrew Sullivan's blog

I didn't vote for Bush for lots of reasons. But it seems to me that maybe the result, much as it was not what I wanted, will be good for the country. We are in the middle of a war whose outcome is very much in doubt. We have a fiscal policy that may or may not prove successful. Issues that have seemed remote to many like abortion and the Patriot Act's definition of rights and privacy are likely to become more immediate over the next few years. Had we changed leadershop now, it would have been difficult to assign accountability, for good or bad, for these policies and decisions. I always feared, in fact, that Kerry would have had little chance of success in the face of a conservative chorus of "everything was going in the right direction in Iraq when we handed it over to you". Whatever the result, over thee next few years we all will be better able to asses the success or failure of many things that are unfinished now, and hold one team accountable.