I’ll believe drugs are victimless when a pot activist gets off the couch for an issue other than access to his addiction

I know as many functional drug users as victims of substance abuse addiction, so it’s a complicated issue for me. I’m against drug criminalization fueling our prison industrial complex, but marijuana rights activism seems too guided by self-interest for my comfort. Is your access to pot more urgent than suffering, injustice and inequity? Of course that may be my privilege speaking. It’s a condescending bugger.

Philip Seymour Hoffman did not OD, he was collateral damage of War On Drugs

A young doctor I once met travelling in Thailand told me that a heroin addiction would be his ideal state, provided his supply remained stable. A person could function, maintain a job even, regularly dosed with heroin. Unlimited financial means wasn’t required, just a regular, regulated source. That detectives found a full pantry of heroin in the late Philip Seymour Hoffman’s home indicates someone in his household was nursing his habit. Given the actor’s prolific and excellent work, it’s hard to consider Hoffman a victim of addiction. Hoffman didn’t die from an overdose, he died from a toxic batch, a result of drug production and distribution being illegal. The War on Drugs killed Philip Seymour Hoffman. He was rich enough to support a drug habbit, but not inhumanely so to afford a royal poison taster.

That’s no mystery woman, that’s my wife

Curious the class distinction made with media persons of interest. Mrs Kim Jong Un is appointed an air of notoriety by nature of having been previously unidentifiable to the West. There’s not much mystery to a retroactive mystery. So what about every other North Korean? Mystique surely does not apply to anyone not already on the media’s social register. But that surely says something about the “made” personalities of celebritydom. If the corporate media doesn’t know their provenance, say, back to their apprenticeships at Disney, then those potential loose canons will remain without celebrity title until their personalities are known entities ie bondable to the system’s image of itself. Conversely, look at the treatment of the otherwise scandalous Tetra-pack heir melodrama.

Unfamiliar to the general public, a billionaire Tetra heir lost his wife, her body went undiscovered for five days, remember that headline? Eventually we learned she was lost to drugs. The billionaire heir ignored her body after her overdose, himself still on a binge, but you wouldn’t get to that side of the story until five paragraphs into it. Even though the police only came upon the scene because the heir addict had been interrupted driving erratically. If the couple hadn’t been philanthropists, the headline would have told of billionaire addicts, given their names where not household variety. Their chief interest in philanthropy was to support an addiction recovery program, it turns out obviously a kind of tithing in lieu of quitting drugs themselves. So their philanthropy was a whitewash as much as the obit and police blotter was in the end.

Moms For Pot, damn the kids

For Mother’s Day I was wondering about… MOMS FOR MARIJUANA. Are you kidding me?! Could cannabis users choosing motherdom as commonality for a niche advocacy group be any more half-baked? Motherhood is more than a special interest, demographic or hobby; it bears maternal responsibility. Women For Marijuana for example, doesn’t imply there are children around. One infers from Moms For Pot that there’s a role for drugs in the mothering process, a Just-Say-Yes policy in store for her children, if even there’s an age of consent.

How literally do you want to chain yourself to the adage that an apple doesn’t fall far from the [stupid] tree? Let’s set aside the stupor-addled myopia. Where is that child supposed to go to school? I wouldn’t want a Moms For Pot parents participating with my school. Remember the permissive mother who let kids drink in her basement because they’re going to drink, she rationalizes, why not somewhere safe? But this is worse, more than the condoning of drug use, it’s advocacy of drug use, as a medical treatment, as home remedy, as cure for cancer, who knows, she might recommend it for acne.

I think Moms For Pot are taking a big gamble that pot legalization happens before their kids reach school age. Who is going to be the first one suspected of dealing in school, having the most obvious ready supply? Who will be called to always explain his mother’s public preoccupation with addiction? If the pretext is Medical Marijuana, does he have to describe her as disabled? Will he have to denounce her public advocacy or be accused of being in denial? All pretty heavy for a kid.

Instead of a family leg up, this is a push off the cliff, but not out of character with the drug abuser mentality of me me me.

CLARIFICATION: I’m in favor of drug legalization, and MMJ, just not pushed on kids. And I’d like to see people, for whom chemical dependency doesn’t upset going about their normal life, give serious thought and empathy to the large number who succumb to pot’s worst predations. I know far too many victims of pot and alcohol than can be ignored.

Black Friday is Buy Nothing Day

BND Nov 27The big day is upon us, the Black Friday meme is in full force, doorbuster deals are pitched to begin as early as 4am. Everyone wants to catch the early worm shopper, and NMT is no exception. We call your “growing excitement” and raise you one BUY NOTHING DAY. Consume nothing, except comestibles, go nowhere except by self-locomotion, and reclaim your pre-industrialized sustainable nature.

That’s to attack the consumer culture addiction from the abuser’s side. Stop buying what you don’t need.

This BND, Adbusters is going after the problem from the supply side by declaring a General Wildcat Strike, because how are we to arrest the consumer culture juggernaut without calling on the workers at the cogs? But it’s asking a lot of a social class who can afford it least.

Many of us already aren’t scheduled to work on the day after Thanksgiving. I’m not going to work, probably neither are you. But if you’re a retail clerk, unprotected by unions and armed with neither sick days nor savings, you can hardly risk giving your boss the finger on the day he’s expecting to earn a bonus.

Taking down the marketing megalith is going to involve enlisting the working class, but not for one day. They’re already to be the front line casualties of any successful attack on consumerism.

But you on the couch: turn off, tune out, drop down and show us some effort.

Ten reasons to oppose I-70 expansion

Stop I-70 expansionHigh Country Earth First has set its sights on halting expansion of Interstate 70 through Colorado. This is more than a fight over urban neighborhoods, or Rocky Mountain foothills to be despoiled. The expansion of I-70, like I-29 and others, is about bulking up America’s commercial trucking thoroughfares, the infrastructure critical to greater NAFTA globalism, and the veins into which America feeds its addiction to oil.

Here’s the HCEF flier being distributed to Denver residences.

TOP TEN REASONS TO OPPOSE I-70 EXPANSION

Environmental Racism – More than 90% of the people in Elyria / Swansea neighborhood are people of color and about 30% are officially low-income. Even the government’s official Draft Environmental Impact Statement admits the expansion would have a disproportionate impact on minority and low-income people.

Pollution – I-70 expansion would multiply the long-term impact of noise and air pollution on the community in Elyria / Swansea. Emissions of some air pollutants are expected to increase by 50% in the next 20 years if I-70 is expanded. During the three years of construction, additional noise and air pollution would be created.

Displacement – I-70 realignment would demolish 18 to 53 homes in Elyria/ Swansea. The neighborhood post office would be lost, and residents would have to travel 2 or 3 miles to the nearest post office. Many low-income residents will have to find housing outside of Denver, increasing community destruction.

Job Loss – I-70 realignment would displace 52-58 businesses. The National Western Stock Show, which hires many local residents for temporary labor, would be moved to a new location. Other neighborhood emplowers will also be displaced by expansion or re-routing. Food Access – One of the two grocery stores in the neighborhood, a Latino grocery, would be demolished. The area of North Denver is already underserved by grocers; eliminating more only increases the problem.

Recreation – The I-70 realignment plan would place a vehicle bypass near Elyria Park, increasing vehicle noise, and would create new barriers to the Park by way of increased traffic. This will further the death of the neighborhood by making it even less enjoyable to live in.

Hazardous Wastes – Construction would disturb over 100 acres of hazardous materials sites where arsenic, lead, cadmium, and contaminated soil and groundwater are located. Increased trucking on I-70 will bring greater amounts of haz-mat through the area as well, increasing the risk of accidens and spills.

Land Use – The plan requires over 300 acres of urban land acquisition including 10-41 residential properties, 101-142 commercial properties, and 17 acres of Open Space, space that could be used for homes, schools, gardens, playgrounds, parks, and, more.

Cost – Expansion would cost between $1.3 and $1.9 billion, plus $7 to $10 million yearly in additional maintenance. This at a time when human services is facing massive cuts and education is on a $300 million chopping block.

Wildlife – Realignment would destroy 220 acres of resident mule deer area, 205 acres white tail deer overall range, 50 acres bald eagle winter range and winter prey, 21 acres prarie dog habitat, and increased invasive/noxious weed infestations.

The real solution isn’t expanding the highway, but reducing the traffic. Rather than displacing a neighborhood, destroying the environment, and contributing to global warming, lets create solutions that reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and cars.

The I-70 expansion, what is it? The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) has decided that Interstate 70, the main east/west freeway through Denver needs to be expanded in the section which passes through north Denver, from its intersection with I-25 to Quebec street.

There are two main proposals being considered by CDOT. The first would expand the current viaduct from six to ten lanes and keep I-70 in its current location. The second proposal, and the one favored by the power brokers in Denver, is to reroute (detour) I-70 north from its intersection with I-25 along the Platte river/Brighton boulevard area, and then connect up with highway 270 to where in reconnects with the current I-70 path at Quebec street. This expansion/detour would be eight lanes and add roughly 2 miles to the length of I-70 through this section. The cost for these proposals ranges from 1.25 to 2 BILLION dollars. Either expansion will gut the neighborhoods of Globeville, Elyria, and Swansea, and increase air pollution in other North Denver neighborhoods. These plans are discussed in detail in the Environmental Impact Statement which can be found at www.i-70east.com/

But do we even need an I-70 expansion? CDOT justifies this expansion by saying that we need to expand I-70 to meet future traffic needs, based on growth in the eastern suburbs. However, this urban sprawl is completely unsustainable and may not even happen considering the housing market. The real reason CDOT wants to expand I-70 is to decrease congestion for cross-country truck traffic. Minor slowdowns in urban areas can cost trucking companies millions of dollars; CDOT is really working for the trucking companies, not us.

There’s no real reason to expand I-70. And considering the costs, financially and otherwise (see other side) it seems like more than just a stupid idea but also a downright bad one. Several groups are working to prevent the expansion. They need you to succeed.

Email: noi70expansion@gmail.com to get involved.

Addict, pederast dies, much fanfare

But let’s look past the innuendo and unproven transgressions, to celebrate the man’s contribution to the cannon of Western popular music product. Please!

I hear celebrities dismiss the allegations of Michael Jackson’s pedophilia like too much water under the bridge, which would be true I suppose, if Jackson’s victims were more like John Wayne Gacy’s, buried under Neverland, instead of tucked into San Fernando Valley homes, divvying multimillion-dollar payoffs with their enterprising panderer parents. Will the confidentiality clauses stand between the public ever knowing which pederast was the more prolific? That innuended, I do concur those bottoms were small fry compared to Jackson’s true sick imprint on America.

The Michael Jackson TM projected a perversion of role models. Not even a cynical anti-hero, the self-crowned King of Pop was the nul-idol. Jackson rejected his skin color, his sexuality, even his place of belonging among mortals. Other than pathos for the sick dance-cyborg who never had a childhood, what humanity did Jackson share to communicate? To be fair, it wasn’t Jackson who kept the spotlight trained on his black/white Icarus act, foisting the unnatural deception that man can soar with a single glove.

Now dead, Jocko is heralded as among the greatest. But MJ was an internationally recognized poster child for enfeebled humanity, a glorified counter-renaissance man, resembling a human being like a drag queen pretends femininity. He may have channeled vinyl High Fructose Corn Syrup like no other, walking backward while dancing and such, but worth what legacy exactly? Jackson shares the ignobless of the Big Mac, the Lucky Strike cigarette, and DDT. Iconic and good riddance.

Michael Jackson did nothing for black emancipation, or acceptance of homosexuals, or the plight of the children of poverty. The vast majority of the world’s children are “robbed of their childhoods,” you narcissistic rich dumb-ass, and that didn’t stop you from amassing your vast fortune at their expense.

Jackson probably did more to amplify the phobia against pedophiles, the single minority he did incarnate, by denying the preponderance of indicators, by vilifying his accusers, instead of taking his riches to Dubai right from the start, to show the world into what true debauchers wet their willies.

He might even have championed sympathy for plastic surgery binge-purgers, but he lied about that worm-hole until his nose literally fell off. I remember when Jackson made public appearances in surgery masks, feeding the fiction that he was a germophobe. Meanwhile everyone in Hollywood knew from their own rhinoplasties about the actual face-saving purpose of those masks.

Perversely, it was Jackson’s least aberrant eccentricity that killed him. Drugs. Even as TV viewers watch Jackson’s body pass from helicopter to ambulance, over a red carpet no less, Big Pharma makes sure that the talking heads refer to Jackson’s narcotics as “pain-killers.” Jocko was in constant pain, apparently, like Rush Limbaugh and all overachievers etc, hence their susceptibility to addiction. You’d think the alibi would eventually defy credulity.

Prescription drugs circulate among the well-to-do, with the same ease with which the rich have access to good lawyers. The difference between street and medical drugs is that no one cares about the heroin or crack addict’s “pain.”

All the celebrities speaking in tribute to Michael Jackson want to minimize the ugliness Jacko paraded, even, and especially his drug habit. Some who profess to have been close friends express their utter shock at Jackson’s passing, at his frail condition and the magnitude of his drug use. How close could they have been?! Or how culpable are they still on Big Pharma’s not-yet-upped jig?

Jackson was the King of Sick Culture. His collaborator eulogizers are its second tier whores. What contemptible shills, who’ve got theirs, behind their Beverly Hills gates and their own golden narcotics tickets. Even at the premature passing of a unique creative soul, due without question to drug abuse, his peers don’t want to aggravate the corporate forces which continue to pervert the human social animal to beyond self-recognition.

Rush would have been 20, 21st hijacker

Rush Limbaugh Republican GOP starComedienne Wanda Sykes can joke that Rush Limbaugh would have been the 20th hijacker on 9/11 but for his Hillbilly Heroin addiction, but if Rush were ever to fly commercial, having to eschew his cigars and Oxycodone, I’m sure there would be no end to complaints, even if he did stuff his ugly corpulence into the obligatory two seats, from whoever had to sit in his sweaty vicinity. Sykes joked that she hoped Limbaugh died of liver failure. The media pundits who think she went too far pretend there is honor among thieves.

Is John McCain Sarah Palin’s grandpa?

Seven years after 9/11, and Bush still isn’t interested in catching Osama bin Laden. The only time he ever even thinks of him is around election time, when he uses him to scare up the voters. Well, that’s a Republican for you.
tough questions

On Sept. 11, 2002, John McCain was already trying to lie the country into attacking Iraq.

CREW issues it’s annual 20 Most Corrupt Congressmen report.

Corruption: it’s the Republican way. Bush Interior Dept. mired in scandal.

Unfit to be VP. Judge repeatedly warned Palin to stop attacking her sister’s ex.

CBS orders YouTube to remove McCain ad that deceptively misuses a quote from a CBS anchor to make it look like McCain has CBS’ support.

Don’t go near that dirty old man, son, he’s a Republican. John McCain goes after the child molester vote.

Just say NO to McCain. How John and Cindy McCain covered up her drug addiction, and their retribution against the man that exposed it.

Drunkest drinking game ever: take a drink every time McCain or Palin tell a flat-out obvious lie.

Excerpts from Thomas McCullock’s 9/11 notes, thomasmc.com.

Fox Mulder’s abduction by oversexed creatures from another planet

fox mulderFox Mulder has been abducted, and not even Agent Dana Scully can help him out now! He is now at a clinic being treated for ‘sex addiction’! But wait the plot gets thicker, so for reliable news of this sort one turns to the Murdoch Express Press! That would be Fox News!

Agent Fox Mulder is addicted to INTERNET PORN and not addicted to sex! Or so say the aliens at the addiction clinic where he has been abducted?

At first I thought, the poor guy… He has been spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on call girls and ordinary prostitutes. He has fallen into the gutter! But it seems that the FBI has merely detected material on Agent Mulder’s hard drive! An excessive amount of it it seems! So aliens working for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (probably at the Roswell office) have abducted Agent Mulder and are now holding him in some X File somewhere hidden away?

We wait for the next episode of this very strange case. Will Agent Mulder come out still alive? Will all his private parts be as before? Stay tuned!

If stupidity were an energy source, Republicans could save the world!

Desperate Clintonistas. Psychopathic liar (as proven by not one, but TWO lie detector tests) Larry Sinclair arrested at press conference where he again claimed he was Barack Obama’s crack whore.

John McCain, creepiest presidential candidate, ever!

So, Ms. McCain thinks it’s ok to go after a presidential candidate’s wife? Ok, who’s going to be the first to ask her about her past – and possibly current – drug addictions? If the McCain camp is smart, they will lock her up until after the election. Her proving she’s a cold-hearted bitch isn’t going to win him any votes, especially when she is contrasted with a class-act like Michelle Obama. Cindy McCain thinks that just being filthy rich somehow makes her classy. It doesn’t, and her mouth proves it. Her only talent is scaring small children. Between her facial plastic surgeries, and pulling her hair back as tight as possible, she looks like she’s falling backwards into a black hole.

Transcendental Politication.

Dennis Kucinich says if Judiciary Committee ignores his 35 articles of impeachment for 30 days, he will reintroduce with 60.

If stupidity were an energy source, Republicans could save the world!

Excerpted from Thomas McCullock’s June 19 notes, thomasmc.com.

Putting lipstick on a big fat pig

McDonald’s feng shui’dBrazenly pandering to a large local Asian population and hoping to attract members of a nearby Buddhist temple, a California McDonald’s has gone feng shui. The restaurant’s owners say the designs are aimed at creating a soothing setting that will encourage diners to linger over their burgers and fries and, of course, come back again and again.

Feng shui is the ancient Chinese practice of arranging objects to promote health, harmony and prosperity. The basic principles of feng shui include placing strategic representations of five natural elements — earth, water, fire, metal and wood — around the room to increase the flow of chi, or energy. The McDonald’s in this Los Angeles suburb boasts a wood ceiling, silver-coated chairs, rich leather booths, and red accents throughout the dining area to symbolize fire and good luck, laughter and prosperity. The textured walls patterned after ocean waves symbolize life and relaxation.

What could be more ludicrous than McDonald’s, one of the original fast food restaurants and a major contributor to overall American un-wellness, using interior design to promote health and prosperity? Maybe they mean franchise health and corporate prosperity? McDonald’s feng shui’dI can’t imagine that freely flowing chi is a pressing concern for diners who’ve just stuffed themselves with 1500 calories, none of which have provided them with any nutritional benefit whatsoever.

I will admit that the restaurant looks quite appealing. If only McDonald’s had anything on the menu worthy of consumption, a cup of coffee even, I might pop in for a bit to open up my chakras and seek enlightenment. But they don’t, so I won’t. And I hope no one else does either.

Britney -just what big pharma ordered

Star Magazine prognosisBritney Spears is not just the latest celebrity substance abuse train wreck, nor is she just the opportune diversion for our media eager to obscure private grand theft of the public sector. (Ignore war, warming and the economy, give me more Britney!) Ms. Spears is now also the poster child for corporate America’s biggest crime partners, the pharmaceutical industry.

Is there a medicinal remedy for alcoholism, for a methamphetamine habit, or any chemical addiction? Not really. But there certainly is a burgeoning market for psycho stabilizing, mood tempering meds. And Britney is their “it” girl.

Unlike Clara Bow, or for that matter Mary Pickford forward to Lindsey Lohan, Spears is being pegged for mental disorder normalization, not behavior correction. There’s a well paved road of drug and alcohol excess in Hollywood. Some stars overdose, some recover, just as you or I in anytown, anystate USA far off the tabloids. Frances Farmer was an unwelcome trend setter in the days before Lithium and Thorazine. Imagine if Ed McMahon had been able to pitch Paxil in the wings like Alpo.

Poor Brit. She’s got something the drug companies can cure and they can cure you too if you exhibit her symptoms. Lord knows it’s not uncommon, driving intoxicated, clinging to your children as they are taken from you because you are being judged unfit. Take heart, the diagnosis is not alcoholism which would require government intervention, education, diminished alcohol sales and advertising revenue; it’s not illegal drugs, which would mean more education and law enforcement; it’s not prescription drugs which would require more regulation, education, and a big hit to drug company profits. It’s… would you believe it? MORE PRESCRIPTION DRUGS!

A quick fix for Britney. She’s not drunk, she’s not addicted, she’s certifiable! She’s psychotic, bipolar, manic, etc, it’s treatable! Have you been feeling angry, depressed, tired, driven mad yourself? The pharmaceutical peddlers have a remedy for you. Not less booze, less drugs, or less meds, but more meds. Everyone’s a winner!

The solution to gluttony isn’t fewer potato chips but more of the Olestra butt leakage variety. Consumer-temperance paradox averted. patient’s infirmity stabilized, IV firmly tapped into bank account. Have you seen the prices of the insanity-normalizing medications? Insane! You’re going to wish you had universal health insurance. Or that you could just stop drinking.

We have met the neighbor and he is us

Squidward
I love Spongebob Squarepants. The show and the person. I revere his inimitable optimism. Patrick I find likewise adorable for his straightforward ineptitude. Squidward would be the foil obviously, a sort of puritan Malevolio ill-joy, a neighbor like Mr. Wilson to Dennis the Menace, but I am determined that Squidward No-pants is something more.
 
Probably we’re talking the usual protagonist, deuteragonist and tritagonist, as comedic trios go. But I chiefly mean to assert that as foil Squidward is no antagonist. Our main character may learn valuable lessons through his misadventures, we may see Squidward suffer over the course of his, but in the end it’s the butt of the joke who sees the light.

Spongebob’s stumblings result from no more than a child’s curiosity and enthusiasm. His tragic flaws are his strengths actually. Squidward on the other hand fails because of deep irredeemable character failings.

What is the literary term for the audience’s mirror? I don’t feel too self-consciously a curmudgeon or bald self-aggrandized buffoon to say I see Squidward. And I refuse to believe it’s because I may be an above average age viewer.

With which Bikini Bottom dweller do you most identify? I know someone who’ll say Spongebob, but we’d all like to say Spongebob. He is, after all, the heroic figure. But in terms of a plot proponent with thoughts in his head, with idiosyncratic prejudices and with human frailty, I’m certain we really know ourselves in Squidward. We know what it feels like to be persecuted, lampooned, belittled and ostracized, even deservedly so. I’ve seen poor Squidward horribly, near-irrevocably marginalized. But there are just enough sweet episodes, salvation in my sentimental opinion, to reveal that the Square Pants creative team favors Squidward as hero.

When Squidward puts the lie to Krab’s motto “we will not deny our guests even the most ridiculous request,” when he ventures the impossible to pull together an orchestra to salvage his ego, when he conceals a newfound addiction to krabby patties, or when he decides, most unlike himself, to stir up a squid-only residential berg, we madly love ourselves.

Am I wrong? How very Squidward of me.

We’ve fallen! And we won’t get up!

There’s been much hand-wringing over the news that the United States lags behind 41 other nations with regard to life expectancy. Oh my, they say. How could the richest nation in the world be surpassed by lesser mortals? We’re #1! We’re #1!

We’re #1 alright. Thanks to our gluttony and laziness (with kudos to the food industry and the government), we have the highest rate of obesity on the planet. A third of adults over 20 are considered obese. Two thirds are overweight. We gorge ourselves on fast food. Know nothing about nutrition. Refuse to exercise. So, duh, we’ve got heart disease. High cholesterol. High stress. Depression. Anxiety. Addiction.

Thanks to our avarice, we also have record foreclosure rates. A negative savings rate. High expectations for our personal prosperity but an unwillingness to work for its attainment. Or, conversely, we are workaholics who spend our lives like rodents in a wheel, running to pointless exhaustion. The rest of the time we sit, slack-jawed in front of the TV or the computer, passively enjoying life from our Lay-Z-Boy deluxe armchairs. Not exactly Heidi in the Alps.

Many of the nation’s problems are tied to our lack of self-care and low standards for our own health and well-being. Quick to place blame, we are rarely the culprit. We rely heavily on others to slap expensive Band-Aids on the woes we’ve created for ourselves. We are Americans. We are entitled. To whatever we want. From whatever pocket.

What do we want? Whatever we want! When do we want it? NOW!

It’s a twisted existence we’re living. We are ruining ourselves. We are ruining the rest of the world. I’m overjoyed that our life expectancy isn’t the highest. I’ve already had enough and I’m only halfway there.

Addiction

Food, drink, drugs, sex, love. The hedonist’s playthings. But when does pleasure become addiction? When does not-quite-enough become too much? I’ll tell you. When you become double-minded about the pursuit. When you know that what you seek is not what you really want. When you’d rather be free, but you find yourself enslaved. When you act against your better judgment, for whatever reason.
 
Time to change. Reclaim power and peace of mind. Move on.

Life in the fast lane

Have you ever fasted? We all have heard about people who do, but why do they fast? Why on earth would they fast? Self deprivation and delayed gratification have no place in the American way of life. Growing up Catholic we always tried to give something up for Lent. Usually it was something that we didn’t much care for to begin with, like black-eyed peas. But to truly take oneself out of a state of constant satiation seems unnecessary, if not downright crazy.

I’ll tell you something unbelievable. Fasting is fantastic. It is healthy. It is powerful. Physically, the process of digestion consumes more energy than nearly anything we human beings do. It is nonstop and tiring to the body. The garbage we put into ourselves on a daily basis overwhelms our systems…thanks in part to gluttony but with big kudos to the food industry who has meddled with the food supply to the point of absurdity.

The absolute best way to fast requires copious amounts of fresh fruits and vegetables, an expensive juicer, lots of time. A simpler fast that I’ve discovered has been around for 50 years or so. 3 ounces of fresh-squeezed lemon or lime juice, 3 ounces of Grade B maple syrup (this is not the syrup you buy at the local supermarket….look at a health food store or buy it via the internet). 2 or 3 capsules of cayenne pepper. 24 ounces of distilled water. Drink this all day long.

Day one is the most difficult. The body begins to release toxins. You may feel sluggish. You’ll certainly feel your addictions to various foods. Day two is a bit easier. By day three or four you’ll begin to feel powerful…akin to runners’ euphoria. Your body is free, your mind is unencumbered, you are living life on a higher plane.

Jesus fasted in the desert for 40 days. Do you think that this was a sacrificial act? If so, it certainly pales in comparison to death on a cross. No, I believe Jesus fasted to release himself from the bonds of human frailty….to put himself in contact with the divine. That’s why yogis fast, why Muslims and Christians fast. Why I fast. Try it. It will certainly change your body. Perhaps it will change your life.

Pornology- is it available at Poor Richards?

I just learned about this book, Pornology, over at alternet where they had an article about it. So I’m wondering whether I should go over to Poor Richard’s and get a copy?

You see, like so many sad individuals of my sex, I have a porn addiction. I wrestle with this devil (sometimes day and night!) for weeks at a time. I am hoping that the female author, named Ayn (wonder if her parents gave her this name due to their studious readings in Ayn Rand Thought?) Carrillo-Gailey, of this work can give me insight to help cure me of this nasty affliction? Wonder if New Life Church could help?

I’m wondering, also, if I could go insane as so many have done through the ages due to their inability to focus on realities while under the curse of obsession with their affliction of onanism? Luckily, District 11 has a middle school course in endocrinology and abstinence that will probably inoculate our children from becoming addicted to this vice. I just wish that they had had this course back in the ’50s and ’60s when I was a kid. Plus, I was altered by not having alternet to alert me to finding fine books on this delicate subject such as Pornology seems to be.

Please Poor Richard have a copy available for me when I get to your store. This definitely looks to be good writing!

Map of GDP comparisons

How does the US economy compare with other countries? Check out The Map. Kind of explains the US ruling elites’ addiction to imperialism.

East Timor has the distinction of being the world’s most pitiable economy, closely followed by other places that US foreign policy has helped make absolutely miserable; places like Somalia and the Gaza Strip.

The Map given above is only one estimate of world and state economies, and may be dated. Here is another grouping of the numbers

How the Democratic Party supporter’s sectarianism holds back building the antiwar movement

John Walsh has just published an outstanding article at Counterpunch about how the sectarianism of the leadership of the national UFPJ (united for Peace & Justice) is holding back the construction of a much larger and more active antiwar movement.

The UFPJ is one of two national antiwar coalitions, and is dominated by Democratic Party supporters that refuse to work with others in a united manner. Control is what this ‘coalition’ is about, and central to that is their desire to use control to help elect Democratic party politicians who often go on to betray the antiwar cause.

As the Democratic Party continues to rot, some liberals just refuse to let go. Their grandparents believed that the DP was the party of change, as did their moms and dads. These liberals just refuse to deal with the basic reality that through the generations, all the ‘change’ the DP has brought has been from a net BAD to a net much WORSE. To these types, this addiction to the Democrats has been much harder to fight than even that of being addicted to food, alcohol, heroin, and tobacco.

Let’s be real. The UFPJ has failed to mobilize the American public into the streets in protest, where asses if they had this war would have already been over. The issue of stopping the US military from rambling along zonkers under the Bush Administration direction should unite us all, Libertarians, liberal Christians, Socialists, Anarchists, and the Democratic Party liberal voters, too. Unfortunately, each group has often acted as if they owned how opposition to Bush should be allowed to unfold. The net effect has been a diminished response to any action from the public at large.

The UFPJ has been about the worst of the sectarian offenders due to the obvious fact, that the Democratic Party leadership itself is not really antiwar, but just mildly anti-Republican instead. The UFPJ leadership is made up of liberal democratic Party voters who hope only to lobby to put the DP into offices, and not oppose very much the Democrats politicians already there. Letter writing, lobbying, and prayer are the type of strategies they most often want to engage in. That, and action that gets people arrested, such as sitting down in the middle of the street, or crossing onto military property or into recruitment offices. Working with non liberal Democrats to enlarge public protest rallies and marches is not anywhere much on their radar.

Unity, not sectarianism. And unity not just to elect Democratic party politicians, but unity to stop US militarism in its place and then to roll it back and out of American life altogether.

Ho hum, which country did we invade today?

Where is the John Birch Society when we really need them? For decades they posted big bill boards around the US warning us of the dangers of the UN and ‘one world government’. We have it now for sure, as the US invades and bombs country after country and all pretense of international law has been thrown in the garbage can. The US runs the United Nations which stamps every illegal Bush activity with its followup stamp of supposed legitimization. Except the moral authority of the UN is about at the same level as the honesty of the Bush Adminstration. Low. Very low.

Almost nowhere in the world do any people really see any legitimacy in their rulers. Everywhere it is pretty much the same, with an exception or two to prove the point. Why such lack of faith in the rulers? it’s pretty much because all of them go along with the group of thugs misleading The American Empire. International hate for our own native US ruling thugs rubs off into becoming a growing hate and disrespect for all the local country klans that follow along behind this constant US government terrorism. How much longer will the world just go along silently with all this? They’re going to begin to tear their own local ruling classes of whores to shreds pretty damn soon because this hate can’t just continue to build without any release.

And what is it about our leaders’ addictions to kicking the poor of the Third World in the teeth again and again? They tromp around and pat themselves over and over on the back, but in essence they are the most despicable bullies. The type of bullies whose grandparents murdered off the natives, and held Blacks as property which they treated worse than today we treat our dogs and cats. And everybody knows, too, that America’s ruling class still treats its dogs and cats better than they treat the children of the world. No Humane Society for those kids murdered while I write this commentary, in the very same hours that the US military now rains down its weaponry on its newest found victim, Somalia.

The liberal community here seems numb by this new assault. But it’s time for some indignation instead of prayer. Stop this new miserable escalation of fighting that Bush and The Invertebrate Party are bilaterally engaging in. Always begging, lobbying, and voting for the Invertebrate Party politicians turns the voter him/herself into a spineless jellyfish, too. Get out and demonstrate YOU spineless lazy wimps! I’m talking about the American liberals now. You Tory Republican turds aren’t spineless. Just dumber than shit, that’s all. Not even shit for brains most of you DittoDips. But what’s the excuse for the inability to get indignant and move… for the spineless, lazy Ass kissing liberal?

The Alamo and the war on terror.

This one is a blatant insult to everybody’s intelligence. It’s one of those “c’mon, man, you’re shittin’ me” type deals.

I was watching teevee a couple months ago, really bad habit and fortunately I never developed it into the stupor addiction that seems to be running across our land like a horrible Biblical plague.

There was one of those History Channel shows, Histories Mysteries or some bullpoopoo title, examining the myth, legend and whatever evidence remains from the battle of the Alamo. One of the most controversial things about the show, they spent 15 minutes of air time(about a third of the entire show) on the subject of the evidence that Davey Crockett didn’t fall in a hail of bullets and flashing swords as depicted so often in the romantic press.

The theory has been, since the seventies, that Mr Crockett and a few others actually surrendered, but were lined up and shot anyway. Which would have been an atrocity, right? Even more so than the order to give No Quarter.
But this one Texas historical society (and there are a lot of them running around, we just usually manage to keep them confined to Texas, where they are safe) insists that the Very Idea of Crockett Surrendering was slander against Mr Crockett. And the others who were apparently shot with their hands behind their backs.
They pointed to the source of the Slander, a Mexican lieutenant, as being proof positive that the thing was made up. Ignoring that the only Anglo types who survived were some women, children and Colonel Bowie’s slave Moses, who was manumitted (legally set free) in Bowie’s will.
And they were held in the chapel until the bodies were disposed of, so there was no way for them to witness whether or not the killing stopped before or after, lacking or in spite of, a surrender by some of the men.
This account was also written down by some of the women in their journals.

And in Texas it is traditional to treat General Antonio Jose y Maria Lopez de Santa Ana as the worst kind of villain, and it is also generally thought that Fannin and his men surrendering at Goliad and then being massacred took naught away from their status as Heroes.

But here is the sicker kicker….
The spokes-dude for the historical society went on and on about the 70s being a time when it was acceptable to question the (undoubtedly) spotless history of morality of the US military.
(and ignoring the fact than neither the Alamo nor Goliad was officially a U.S. military endeavour.)

And then said that not fully believing and accepting at face value the John Wayne portrayal of Davey Crockett’s last stand was so anti-patriotism that it actually encouraged al Qaeda to attack America….

I know, I know…just take a few deep breaths, pick your jaw up off the floor… breathe in, out, relax. ommmm calmmmm ommmmm…

And said that Americans needed the absolute faith in these legends to keep up the Morale of Our Troops while they face down the relentless brown hordes. And made the insinuation that “historical revisionists” were traitors and complicit in the terror America is so bravely fighting now….

And this show has aired at least twenty times in the past year.

This is the mindset facing us.

The Borriello Brothers secret ingredient

The best pizza in Colorado Springs is made by the Borriello Brothers at the foot of General Palmer’s statue, on Platte Avenue between Nevada and Webber, across from Palmer High School.

I followed some fans from a YMCA basketball game and was warned that addiction would ensue. I can report only that they were right, and I have no idea as to the secret ingredient. I think it’s cheese. I felt like a loser not knowing which delicacies to request for the toppings, but I followed the youngsters’ request for plain cheese pizza. Now there’s no turning back, it’s plain cheese for me, and from nobody but the Borriello Brothers.

Now if they could use only non-BGH dairy products and whole grain ground wheat, I could feel good about my new diet.