Political Myths WE Live By by Peter Lach-newinsky Whenever most conversations I have these days move around to matters political I often find myself in a quandary. I have the choice of either accepting the tacit assumptions behind the other person’s remarks or questions, or else remaining largely silent and trying to change the topic. This is because I don’t share the tacit assumptions. I would classify most of these usually unexamined assumptions as social democratic or liberal. They dominate all corporate media for reasons that will become obvious below. 1. If ‘democracy’ means ‘rule by the people’, it isn’t. 2. Just like any communist party, when it comes to the crunch, the major parties are all run top-down from head office. 3. This reduces the core political notion of freedom to the freedom to choose between the two wings of the one pro-capitalist and neo-liberal party. The key investment decisions are not made by politicians and thus elections are only of secondary importance. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. It isn’t. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.
Western Philosophy If you support keeping drugs illegal… by Tom++, June 27, 1995 From the Talk.Politics.Drugs Usenet newsgroup You support robberies and assaults on innocent people. The high prices of drugs caused by prohibition force many drug addicts to turn to robbery in order to pay for their drugs. You support clogging our prisons and jails with nonviolent people. Nearly 50% of all people in prison and jail are serving time for nonviolent drug charges. You support organized crime and drug cartels. Huge drug cartels and criminal organizations thrive off the enormous profits caused by drug prohibition. You support environmental destruction. Underground cocaine and methamphetamine labs use toxic chemicals to produce those drugs—the wastes are recklessly dumped in forests and streams. You support drug dealers and street gangs. Drug dealers and street gangs fight over drug territories. You lure thousands of young people into quitting school. You do nothing to keep drugs away from kids or out of schools. Drug users can only hurt themselves.
What Republican Policies Have Done It all started in 1980, when Reagan convinced people that his "trickle down" economics (or as the first George Bush called it -- voodoo economics) would create a richer country for all Americans. He said if we removed regulations and allowed the corporations and the rich to make unlimited profits, those profits would be shared by everyone. He lied. There were unlimited and record-breaking profits, but it all stayed in the bank accounts of the richest Americans. George W. The recession in 2007 and 2008 hurt all Americans, but the bottom 90% were hurt the worst because they had the least they could afford to lose. Now the recession is over for the rich and they are once again making record profits and enjoying record bonuses (after being bailed out by the rest of us). That would be a terrible mistake because they still cling to the policies that got us into this economic mess in the first place. Link to original post
An Essay by Einstein -- The World As I See It "How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he sometimes thinks he senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people -- first of all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for the many, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy. A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving... "I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves -- this critical basis I call the ideal of a pigsty. "My passionate sense of social justice and social responsibility has always contrasted oddly with my pronounced lack of need for direct contact with other human beings and human communities.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world, Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people, Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law, Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations, Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms, Article 1. Article 2. Article 3.
Listen Up Democrats: Fuck Bipartisanship am angry. I'm tired of pundits and know-nothing media gasbags. I'm tired of snarky "inside politics" programming. I am sick of the bigotry and hatred of "birthers" and faux patriotic cranks and their GOP puppet masters. And I'm really pissed at the Democratic Party that confuses having a plate of limp noodles with having a spine. I'm going to vomit if I hear the word "bipartisanship" one more time. It was "bipartisanship" that gave us this activist conservative Supreme Court. "Bipartisanship" gave us the Patriot Act and FISA and illegal wiretaps and two wars and "free speech zones" and "no fly" lists. I get nauseated every time the Senate explains how it takes a super majority to do anything for the American people. When some Tea Party crank says, "I want my country back," I respond, "No madam, you want your country backward." When a deficit-mongering politician says, "How do we pay for this?" Yes, I can hear it now: "You are naïve and simplistic. Bite me. G-O-P = Greed Over People. Really?
Cannabis Caviar: $1,400-an-ounce marijuana promises a bang for your buck So you think you're a connoisseur, what with your cans of Beluga, Kobe steaks and stash of 1998 Dom Perignon? Think again if you haven't gotten your hands on cannabis caviar, a new kind of top-shelf marijuana popping up at Colorado dispensaries that sells for the astronomical price of $1,400 an ounce -- nearly four times the average price of other high-grade strains. "This isn't stuff you are sitting around puffing all day," says Jake, general manager of the ReLeaf Center, a Denver dispensary that's selling caviar made in house for $60 a gram. "This is the definition of a one-hitter quitter." It ain't your grandpa's pot. The result is a potent marijuana smorgasbord: high-grade marijuana, with between 5 and 20 percent THC, infused with 30 to 80 percent THC hash oil. People looking for a smooth-tasting product should look elsewhere, he says. That's putting it mildly. And with stuff like caviar, we just might have one up on our marijuana-loving neighbors to the west.