And don’t he make my red state…
Don’t he make my red state…
Don’t he make my red state blue!

Now without the ominous spirit of Jessee Helms hovering malevolently North Carolina can proceed to take it’s rightful place in the 21 century

Jed Clampett

Well folks, it’s official, prostitution is only illegal if the perpetrator is not a politician or wealthy, or a wealthy politician.

Elliot Spitzer will not be prosecuted for his sex crime, I imagine to protect him from having to register as a sex offender like those other peons that can’t afford to b.uy their own brand of justice. Then again, it’s not like he had a Washington bordello owner murdered and made to look like suicide or something like that.
Prosecutors must have decided that having to pay $5000 per piece of arse was punishment enough.

It’s now official, the elite’s can fu@k anyone they wish without consequences. Bend over, you’re next, guess what, we gave the Vaseline money away to Wall Street.

Peace

Jed,
If he were a little more popular, he probably would still be in office. He probably should still be a DA, he was good at that job. Peter’s principle I guess.

Jed Clampett

To me, the whole idea of making sexuality illegal somehow is absurd. Like trying to legislate whether you are a mouth breather or a nasal breather. How do you legislate a natural act, prohibit it indeed.
You have cops engaging in entrapment by posing as prostitutes or Johns on the streets but seldom do you hear of them busting a sex slavery ring where women are forced into that life even though we have ample evidence that it is quite prevalent in our society, professional lazyness in my opinion and a way of deflecting accountability from those truly responsible. As in the war on drugs, the victims of the disease are vilified and the spreaders mostly ignored.
Remember ‘memoirs of a Geisha’? That type of brutality is still alive and well in our world, but little is done to stop or prevent it because of the amounts of cash the perpetrators command. That example is however the extreme permitted by the focus on the banalities.

Take for example the case of the young man in Florida that is facing a life of hardships because of his allowing a younger girl to blow him at a party. From testimony it has been discovered that under the influence of alcohol, a well known legal gateway drug famous for it’s ability to destroy and individuals moral inhibitions, this young girl was engaging in deviant sexual conduct with several young men. Yet this particular young man is singled out because of his age, and possibly race, in order to bring prosecutors and judges into the limelight and promote their selfish political interest without regard for any of the parties involved. The rapacity of the political entities involved and their actual disregard for the security and privacy of the young people involved is merely symptomatic of how privacy and politics have been abused for personal gain in our fair nation.

Perhaps the treatment of Spitzer (whose previous achievements have been commendable despite some of it’s partisan nature) with ‘Kid-gloves’ contrasted to the treatment of the young man in Florida will help shine a light on how the political elite, with help from corporations that have monopolized the media and the way the public conscience is manipulated by this tool, can be objectively analyzed and perhaps made to work in a way that elucidates and edifies our population rather than manipulate.

Peace

Jed Clampett

“salutary science of Hierarchiology”

Thanks TFH, interesting read. I experienced the Peter Principle first hand in the corporate world.

Peace

You can’t legislate morality, as much as the right wing hatemobs wish they could.

How bad have the republicans screwed up the world and trashed America that the home of scumbags like Helms, Voted a Black man to be OUR President.

YES WE CAN.

America is TRULY the land of opportunity.

Jed Clampett

And there is number three I was wondering about involving children and guns…
First the 6 year old involved in the kidnapping with the drug gang. Then the 8 year old that shot himself in the head while firing a fully automatic assault rifle in a sheriff sponsored event; and now, an 8 year old has murdered his father and seriously injured another man.
And yet pot is still considered more dangerous than guns and alcohol, dangerous enough to destroy the lives of the people that use it. Is it coincidence that this incident happened in Arizona, McCain’s home state? I think not.

Peace

Jed, you know Pot is still illegal because the drug makers would lose at least HALF their revenue due to the inevitable fall of sales in aisle 3 (over-the-counter pain medication/sleep medication). Alcohol sales would drop. Cigarette sales would drop. And, now, the ‘powers that be’ have fought so hard for so long to keep marijuana illegal, there’s no way they can backtrack now….

Pot, non addictive, illegal.

Alcohol, completely addictive, legal.

Pot, non lethal, illegal.

Sleeping pills, completely lethal, legal.

Cars that max out at 140 mph, street legal.

Walking down the street with pot in your pocket, illegal.

Conservative ideology……Hypocritically priceless.

Conservatives, start looking FORWARD for once.

The future: Green jobs, including the production of marijuana.

Final results. “Obamaha” goes BLUE! My canvasing and phone-bank efforts did not go to waste. I’m still mystified how Lee Terry survived. Final tally there is due this week too.

media.www.unogateway.com/m edia/storage/paper968/news/200 8/11/11/News/Nebraska.Turns.pu rple.Obama.Wins.2nd.Congressio nal.District-3534696.shtml

Hilarious, Coach.

Legalize it! I am not a criminal!

Jed Clampett

Mother nature, ergo… God, created the herb and put her there for me to use and enjoy… make me as lazy as I want without making me smash my ride, bust my as$ or loose my inhibitions.
No fermentation, no bottling, no processing necessary… and that is why it’s illegal.
If it was legal, it would grow wild in the streets and they couldn’t make money by taxing it like they do the scourges, alcohol and tobacco.
Did you know it’s illegal to grow your own tobacco plants unless you are licensed and regulated?
Do you know why? Tobacco is considered a powerful alkaloid and is much different when smoked fresh and natural instead of processed and mixed with that special blend of chemicals. Try it sometime.

Peace

Jed Clampett

I see that the Mainstream Media has locked onto the story of the 8 year old murdering his father and tenant in what seems like a premeditated, methodical act of destruction of life.
Seems strange that they would practically ignore the equally appalling story of an 8 year old child blowing his head off with a fully automatic miniaturized UZI while his father and sheriff watched (probably too embarrassing and detrimental to their ‘Gun Rights’ agenda).
I can imagine they are merely using the event to focus on some political agenda that they hope to use to help the GOP in the future.

Many speculate on what could possibly drive a child this young to murder his own father with a single action .22 rifle that must be reloaded with every discharge. They say it was an emotional outburst, an aberration, an anomaly in a perfect world of sanity and mutual caring and understanding. They seem to ignore the fact that this young child in his short 8 years, only about 4 of which he’s had the ability to somewhat understand what he perceives, has been exposed to hundreds if not thousands acts of murder, hatred and the use of violence as a means to solve personal(robbery, romance) as well as public issues(war, silence an opposing view). I guess that learning by the example set by television and the movies would not be something to consider by these media ‘analysts’. How could something they keep feeding the public under the guise of entertainment possibly have the unintended consequences of promoting violence and stupidity?
Shocking!!

Well, they missed the link in the first event, that of drugs and children, exposed with the kidnapped 6 year old. I guess they need a better example, here comes a new event to help raise the public’s awareness of the harm being caused to their children and therefore their culture and safety by a media geared to profit and consumerism rather than society and education. Stay tuned.

Peace

Well it looks like we can all agree that there is no sensible reason for pot to be illegal. I’m sure we can find better ways to spend the close to $7 billion dollars annually that is wasted on anti-pot propaganda and enforcement of the laws. If they legalized it and taxed it (I’m sure some people would grow their own, but something tells me most would be too lazy and would rather b.uy it at the store) we could make money from it. Throw in the fact that no one has ever overdosed from pot and the fact that research has shown that the only reason it is a gateway drug is because of its illegal status (people have to go to drug dealers to get it, exposing them directly to more potent drugs) and it seems quite a sensible option, at least to those who haven’t spent their lives trying to demonize it.

Sensibly, Marijuana should have been legalized years ago…Europe is a convincing case that the fabric of society wont be torn apart if its legalized, not to mention the numerous (govt sanctioned) studies that have proven it to be not that bad a drug, and that the war on it has been a failure, and the money saved can go to many other areas (perhaps helping to pay for Obama’s entitlement schemes?)…bring it out into the open, with proper (limited) govt regulation and standards, and as Coach hinted US farmers would have a new cash crop. Hell state and local authorities would get to tax it, and when has the govt refused to tax something its citizens want? It works in California…the sensible way would be to let each state decide, good ol 10th amendment at work

now if we can only get to work on dismantling the bureaucratic money vacuum that is homeland security…

Gentlemen,

Salient points.

Welcome to America, land of the free, home of the brave (?) and sanctity of the stupid.

Jed Clampett

An addiction is a folly of excess, not necessarily of lack of will or intensity of the drug. Anything consumed to excess and repeatedly can become an addiction. Ever heard of a person being addicted to sex? Yet, despite all the religious right’s desires sex isn’t illegal.
To me, it’s absurd to make pot illegal while at the same time having alcohol and tobacco fully sanctioned. Or to blame a THING for the negative actions of people. Ultimately, it’s people who are responsible for their actions… unless you are willing to admit that they are succeptible to unperceived outside influences.

BTW, what’s this? (perhaps helping to pay for Obama’s entitlement schemes?)… couldn’t help trying to take a political shot that is unwarranted by incorporating a subject you’ve been steered into by the right wing media? right on FT

Peace

Want to pay for “entitlements” for the people? Just cut some of the “corporate entitlements”. Or would that be “income redistribution”? If so, BRING IT ON!

Legalize pot and tax it.

Tax religion.

Subsidize solar factories at the same rate or higher that we subsidize oil and auto.

Beat the holy hell out of the oil companies, pharmaceutical companies and automakers until they realize that they’re ALL holding us back from energy independence, eliminating certain diseases, and building automobiles that don’t need mother’s nipple every week….

Coach,

One step further. Hold the threat of nationalization over the heads of the oil folks. It IS the most important national security item there is. You know me, I’d take it farther than a threat, but I can compromise.

I just love the ‘legal/illegal’ sanctimony raised by the Right. He’s an ILLEGAL immigrant, so damn his eyes. 55 MPH was once ‘illegal’ as was, gulp, beer, or even a glass of wine with dinner. That whole legal/illegal argument is a crock. The issue is right and wrong and 90% of us have a built in moral compass that tells guides us there.

The history of man is laced with examples of how legal/illegal has been used to the detriment of mankind. Hmmm, can’t help but ‘flash’ on Cleveland Amory’s tome, “Mankind.”

Jed Clampett

I’m with you on that one DD. Except I say nationalize it now. It’s way too damn important a resource to be left in the hands of those who have proven themselves to be criminals of the worse kind, those that can destroy the planet with their actions and don’t give a sh!t if they do, as long as they have the most toys when we all perish. They’ve proven they belong to the 10% who don’t have a moral compass or choose to ignore it.

Peace

I wouldn’t call for full on nationalization as it hasn’t been successful where its been tried (Algeria, Netherlands, Egypt, Iran, Oman, Libya, Tunisia, Iraq, etc), but I would definitely argue for cutting the subsidies to oil companies…but I dont know, I dont foresee any big oil industry changes other than taxes in the coming months, unless oil keeps dropping and no action is taken…

Wow Merk, success? You raise a high bar. But success for whom? Who’s ‘reaping’ the ’success’ currently being enjoyed?

Understand, I am NOT for ‘cheap gas.’ I think the price should be fair and reflect the value. Cheap gas is abused gas.

The first thing to go, as you said, would be subsidies which should, in fact, raise the price. Okay. Perhaps the money ’saved’ therein could be used to build another refinery or two? Hmmmm.

When I was a puppy, we had things called gas wars where one station would lower its prices to compete against another. Ever see one of those hereabouts? Not likely.

I don’t subscribe to a conspiracy theory, but there has developed a culture of cooperation. Hurricanne in the gulf, all stations, all over the country, raise their prices exactly the same. Huh?

I’m not even suggesting they remove those in charge, just subject them to active scrutiny AND accountability because, as we all know, oil and gas are FAR too critical to the social and economic success of this country to be left in the hands of those who have begun to think they’re bigger than the country.

Time to take them down a peg or two, just to let them know who’s boss. You could even make it a shunshine law to expire in, say, twenty years. Just time to reverse the culture.

They’re just big children, like the stock exchange, and from time to time, they need the example of discipline. Perhaps not the ‘rod,’ but something to bank their egos some.

(Oil Company Nationalization) seems to be working for Hugo Chavez.

Jed Clampett

Could the 13 year old that won the ‘right’ to die with dignity after many years of suffering through medical procedure after medical procedure count as the third child involved event?
Isn’t it amazing that this girl had her heart destroyed by the ‘medicines’ that have been pumped into her over the years to ‘attempt’ to ‘treat’ her Leukemia, and now they are trying to FORCE her into another ‘experimental’ procedure to prolong her life as a lab rat?
Highlighting her plight would be exposing the lack of intelligence and understanding of the law of vibrations in the way we treat healthcare. But unfortunately it will not be taken very seriously in this country since people in the US look at everything through the prism of Americanism, confident that such things could not happen here, or that it couldn’t happen to them.

Peace

Dennis- Agreed, I’m just uneasy of total nationalization, as it is a risky endeavor thats not always guaranteed to help the situation

Tinfoil– I’m glad you brought up Chavez…Venezuela was, and perhaps still is, the modern example of Dutch Disease (other than the US with Iraq)…all the capital flowing in from oil has stymied industrialization in other areas (hence Venezuela has the labor problems that it does). Also, with govt help, Venezuelan oil companies are now dependent on the govt to survive…were the market not so lucrative, they would have gone the way of Algeria and Iran’s systems in the 1980s.

Merk,
I don’t disagree with you. Chavez, Morales, and their ilk are of extreme interest to those of us on the left. I don’t think they get a fair shot in the US press. If this were the 1980s they would have already been assassinated. This is an interesting time when we can look to central America as a lab for the concept of Soc.ialist Dem.ocracy. I’m not saying it will work. I just don’t subscribe to the idea that Dem.ocracy and Cap.italism are inseparable.

Tinfoil– I think China is an example that Capitalism doesnt necessarily need democracy to exist, and if left unregulated Capitalism can spin out of control into a consolidated oligarchy…

that said, open nature and free flow of info in a Democratic society are also instrumental to capitalist development, so taken to its logical conclusion, the more capitalist a society, supposedly the more democratic…I dont know if China is more democratic now, but the people certainly seem to have more freedoms (at least in urban areas) than they did before the great compromise in 89

Merk,
I was talking more about Soc.ialist Democracy. I consider China more like Soc.ialist Cap.italism. Not that these labels have any real meaning. I just don’t see that Chavez is exerting the same kind of control that Government wields in China.

Jed Clampett

No one is ever in complete control, as they attempt to impose their will on others there is always a group that becomes incensed by the brutality and inequity heaped upon them and revolt. Imposing complete control over a nation as populous China is an illusion, they may be in control now because they enjoy some support by the growing middle class that is experiencing some affluence at the moment, but there is increasing unrest in the countryside where the inequities are most felt by the poor. That said, who is in control doesn’t really matter, what they call themselves doesn’t really matter, ultimately what matters is that a great majority of the population is prosperous, able to educate their children in reasonably good schools and can save for their future and old age.

The best way to reduce our dependence on foreign oil in a hurry is to develop a way to run our current vehicles on gasoline vapors. There is a reason that gasoline vapors are explosive and gasoline liquid is merely flammable. When the vapors are exploded, the consumption of the vapors is complete and immediate, there is almost no byproduct. When the liquid is burnt, the process is slow and leaves much residue. Many have proven as much and implemented systems to take advantage of this fact, unfortunately our ‘educated’ engineers seem to have forgotten this fact and are typically incapable of taking advantage of it the way Tom Ogle did in the late 70’s. Other tinkerers have achieved success, only to be met with indifference and obstructionism if not outright hostility.

Peace

Jed Clampett

There it is, number three in the kids and guns issue. 15 year old girl shoots her ‘friend’ dead at school following and argument. Apparently television and the media has made the use of a gun an acceptable means of ending a dispute (how did she get it past the metal detectors?). And yet our gun manufacturers have a right to distribute guns without any responsible education as to their use, which is to kill, and pot is considered as dangerous as cocaine, acid and heroine. Anyone else see the hypocrisy in this?

Peace

Jed, I think you’re onto something here…..at least, a play on words: “responsible education”.

If you address that, then would that ‘responsible education’ equate to the same ‘education’ we get that allows us to drive around a screaming piece of flying metal at speeds of up to 120 mph? Look around. HORRIBLE drivers are everywhere. Gun education would be the same thing. Learn HOW to fire it, but don’t worry about how good you are……

Remember. It’s all about ‘fired’ bullets……the more the merrier, right?

The difference (as I see it) is that a car has other purposes than just killing people. We require license and registration for cars. But somehow licensing these instruments of death is an assault on the second amendment. Go figure.

Coach,

You know how they’re always saying it’s ’safer’ to fly? Hah!! I’m perpetually amazed that Americans, not to mention several well developed Asian countries (I’ve never been to Europe) haven’t killed themselves off yet with their cars.

When you think about cars hurtling down a two-lane blacktop at about 60 mph and passing one another by about 2 – 3 feet, AND when you consider WHO, or what, might be in the other car, I call it a miracle.

Or, maybe it IS safer in the ol autOmobile.

If you took the number of cars piling around, factored in the times they pass within five feet of one another (going the oppositie direction), consider the various states of disrepair in each of those autos and then considered that maybe half of the drivers are incapable of managing the machine beyond pointing it, then those air traffic safety statistics pale in comparison.

So, CA is burning again. I haven’t heard much so I’m assuming NORCA had a pretty decent year. It SHOULD be over, the fire season, up thereabouts.

Jed Clampett

As DD points out, it is very dangerous to get in a car and drive down the road or highway. It takes a certain level of trust and abandon to not constantly be afraid of the person in control of the other vehicle, who may or may not be a crazed homicidal or suicidal maniac. It also requires a certain level of awareness and instinct that most people make use of without even knowing how or why it happens. (like the trust we have in the car companies that they are doing all possible to improve efficiency and reduce oil consumption in order to protect the nation, a patriotic act IMO; and the instinct that tells us they are not)

Guns on the other hand have only one purpose, to kill. Whether you use it to defend your home from robbers or to invade someone’s home to take their property or peace, you must be prepared for the consequences of pulling that trigger. Those consequences have been muddled by our media, which only shows the act and a heroic figure benefiting from that act. I’m with Kris Rock, make the bullets expensive, like $5 million dollars, then they will only be used when absolutely necessary. I joke of course, many cops have shown me how they make and load their own bullets with ease (typically gun nuts with badges).

Peace

Jed Clampett

The intent is to actually protect the companies that make guns and are therefore the source of illegal guns on the streets. The ones that protect them are congressmen, lobbyist and broadcasters that benefit from the wealth generated from the weapons.

Peace

Jed,

I was ‘thinking’ of that trust/abandonment tonight as I wended my way along a country highway home. I believe it’s the eve of deer season (gun variety) so there’s a bit of traffic going on. The ‘best’ you can do is aim between what appear to be lines on either side and sortta aim at the car ahead of you. Without getting too close.

Speaking of guns, CA passed a law this year or last requiring new handguns in that state to be equipped with a feature that ‘marks’ the bullet.

Maybe there’s an uproar out thataway but I hear scarcely a ripple out here. (Probably too sophisticated a concept for discussion.)

Oh, and I enjoyed your analogy of the person NOT crying FIRE and slipping out of the theater.

Phew, it would probably have more ‘meaning’ if I had mentioned it was raining whilst I was driving. Duh!!

Jed Clampett

Did you guys just catch that speech Bush just made at the economic summit? Basically he just said…” we used our creativity to get around established laws with unregulated products that we then dumped into the market to steal it’s value. We concentrated risk into unbacked credit default swaps that we knew full well were not being backed by any liquidity and put most of the burden in institutions that would be considered too big to fail. We used this fake cash to enrich ourselves in a huge transfer of wealth from the treasury into our pockets. We will use this excuse of ‘too large to fail’ to award ourselves protections in the form of bail outs and avoid any loss of money, including our foreign investors. It will be quite difficult to pay for it, your children and grandchildren will have to work hard probably for generations for us to get anywhere. Even though we recognize this was a problem of refusal to enforce the laws on the books and to allow circumvention of said laws, we thing rehashing laws through congress rather than convictions is the way to go. Fortunately, “My Friends” and I will still be able to live fat on the hog while you and yours struggle. GOOD BYE!!”

What’s most galling is that on one hand he defends the ‘free market system’ and at the same time refuses to allow the market to make a natural deflation adjustment of overvalued commodities.

On a related note. Taiwan recently indicted a past president for some felonies… they may be onto something.

Peace