Archive for October, 2009
California Marijuana Ban Gets Legislative Review After 96 Years
Ryan Flinn and Michael Marois report for Bloomberg:
California’s Assembly will consider lifting its 96-year-old ban on marijuana, decriminalizing the drug and taxing it like alcohol, as the state seeks ways out of its worst financial crisis since World War II.
The Assembly’s Public Safety Committee will discuss the social, fiscal and legal implications of legalizing and regulating marijuana in Sacramento today, said Quintin Mecke, a spokesman for Assemblyman Tom Ammiano.
It would be the first time the issue has been considered by the Legislature since the ban on marijuana use went into effect in 1913, according to a statement from the San Francisco Democrat.
“It is time to take our heads out of the sand and start to regulate this $14 billion industry,” Ammiano said in the statement. “By doing so, we can enact smart public policy that will bring much-needed revenue into the state and improve public safety by utilizing our limited law…
DeFOX America
From our friends at Brave New Films:
FOX News is on a witch hunt. Their goal is simple: to destroy the Obama administration and the progressive movement. They’ve already forced Van Jones out of the White House. They’ve badgered Congress into passing unconstitutional measures to defund ACORN. Glenn Beck actually keeps an enemies list on a blackboard that’s a regular part of his show.
ACORN is just the beginning. FOX has an enemies list, and they’re going to keep destroying progressive champions until we stop them.
Tell your Congressperson: If you vote to extend the “Defund ACORN Act,” you’re just assisting FOX in their anti-American witch hunt.
Secret Plan For European Union Income Tax
The UK’s Daily Express is claiming that something unthinkable is in the works: an EU income tax. Remember, EU residents, that US residents once thought there would never be a US federal income tax either…
Secret plans to seize more than £4billion a year from Britain and make its citizens pay taxes direct to Europe emerged last night.
The leaked proposals, seen by the Daily Express, state that Britain should lose the billions of pounds in rebate that was agreed by Margaret Thatcher 25 years ago.
The plans – with a foreword by European Union Commissioner Jose Manuel Barroso – would cost every British family at least £155 a year.
They would also mean Brussels being given the power to dip straight into taxpayers’ pockets.
The proposals prompted fury last night…
KFC’s Colonel Sanders tricks his way into UN to pose for ‘official’ photo
From The Telegraph:
A man impersonating the Kentucky Fried Chicken founder Colonel Sanders managed to dupe his way into the UN headquarters in New York and shake hands with a senior official.
Dressed in the fast food icon’s familiar white suit and black bow tie, the actor evaded tight security to gain access to the restricted areas of the complex. He even posed for a photograph with Ali Treki, the new president of the UN General Assembly, before the alarm was raised and he was ejected. A spokeswoman for Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, yesterday said that an investigation had been launched into the security breach, which was dreamed up by KFC as a promotional stunt.
“It should not have happened – that I will stress, and very strongly,” Michele Montas told Canwest News Service, the Canadian news agency.
[Article continues at: The Telegraph]
Protesting Against U.K. Police Tactics
From The Guardian:
Worried about police surveillance? Then use data protection laws to take action – we only have the rights we assert.Today’s Guardian splash revealed that the police are gathering and storing the personal information and images of thousands of activists who attend political meetings and protests. This wasn’t news to me and my case offers a “how to”, for any individuals interested in discovering what data the police hold on you.
I was shocked and a little afraid when I first noticed the police taking photos of me on demonstrations, back in 2000. There were police officers outside public meetings and benefit gigs too, in uniform, photographing and seemingly taking notes on my arrival and departure. I wondered why were they gathering all that information on me, just for showing up to the occasional demo. More disturbingly, what were they doing with all that data?
After two Data Protection Act requests to the…
Senators Who Could And/Or Will Screw Up Health Care Reform
From The Huffington Post:
The public option: it (sort of) lives (maybe)! Or so says Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who boldly announced in yesterday’s anxiously-anticipated press conference that the bill would contain something public option-esque. Since then, it has quickly become the fast-moving subject du jour.
Naturally, it’s worth pointing out that Reid didn’t manage to get behind the so-called “robust,” chipotle-flavored public option that progressives favor. Nor is it the Chuck Schumer, “cool-ranch” version of the public option.
Instead, we get the “opt-out” public option, in which various states could choose to bail on the program after a year, if their public servants so desired. Political mavens are fascinated by the “opt-out” possibilities, because it flips the “Waterloo” script and dares Republicans at the state level to risk their political careers to deny their constituents this insurance option, potentially giving Democrats a brickbat with which to swat their opponents. Of…
Mystery Stone Linked to Knights Templar
From The Scotsman:
What appears to be the carved top of a sarcophagus was unearthed when builders were excavating and reinforcing a wall alongside the old ruined church in Temple, Midlothian. But the inscriptions, which include symbols similar to those found in Viking monuments, in medieval graves and in West Highland Celtic carvings, have baffled archaeologists. Crispin Phillips, who is renovating a house alongside The Old Parish Church, said: “I was on a mission to repair the wall – which was falling into the graveyard. We got near the bottom of the foundations and found something buried there. “We found one stone carved with a cross and then another with these carvings on it.”
He added: “We spent about half an hour in philosophical discussions about what we should do about it. I felt we should do something, rather than just bury it again.” Mr Phillips contacted Historic Scotland and East Lothian…
Privacy Is Dead, And Social Media Hold Smoking Gun
Pete Cashmore, founder and CEO of Mashable, makes a very controversial argument in his opinion piece for CNN.com:
A U.K. firm is set to launch a camera to capture every moment of a person’s life. While you may reel at the privacy implications, I’d wager that the high price of not capturing and sharing every moment of our lives will soon dwarf the cost to our privacy.
The SenseCam, worn on a cord around the neck, will retail for $820 and capture an image every 30 seconds. Originally developed by Microsoft Research in Cambridge, England, the technology has been licensed to Oxford-based Vicon, which will produce a version for Alzheimer’s and dementia researchers by the year’s end and a consumer version in 2010.
It’s easy to see the associated risks of a life-logging device. From stalkers to identity theft, recording such information (and to unlock its true value, posting it online) makes us…
Trial of Nazi Hit Man Opens in Germany
From the Wall Street Journal:
AACHEN, Germany — An 88-year-old former member of Adolf Hitler’s Waffen SS went on trial Wednesday for the wartime hit-style killings of three civilians in the Netherlands.
While in captivity after the war, Heinrich Boere admitted to the killings to Dutch authorities. But he has managed to avoid prosecution for decades — first escaping from the Netherlands before he could be brought to trial, then successfully eluding the courts in Germany.
Teun de Groot, the son of one of Mr. Boere’s victims and a co-plaintiff, said before the trial he hoped Mr. Boere would be convicted on the three counts of murder.
“I feel like it will go to a good result,” he said.
Inside the court, cries of “Nazis get out, no fascists here” broke out as two skinheads wearing black neo-Nazi-styled garb took seats in the back.
Mr. Boere faces the possibility of life in prison if convicted of…
One More Reason Not To Give Kids Psychotropic Drugs: It Makes Them Fat
Nathan Seppa reports for US News & World Report:
Many young children and adolescents taking drugs for severe psychiatric problems gain substantial weight and, in some cases, show increased levels of LDL cholesterol and triglycerides in their blood, researchers report in the Oct. 28 Journal of the American Medical Association.
Although the data from this study need to be replicated over a longer time frame, the findings nonetheless raise worrisome questions about anti-psychotic drugs that often benefit children who have schizophrenia, autism, tics, severe bipolar disorder or aggressive behavior.
“We are between a rock and a hard place here,” says study coauthor Christoph Correll, a psychiatrist at the Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks, N.Y. These mental disorders are severe and can lead to suicide or to educational problems and emotional scars, he says. On the other hand, weight gain during youth predisposes an individual to chronic health problems later in life, he…
Is Cancer Research Being Blocked By Patents?
The ACLU just joined 20 plaintiffs – including the Public Patent Office – fighting to invalidate an exclusive patent on the genes associated with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. The patent has given Myriad Genetics exclusive rights to diagnostic tests – which they sell for over $3,000 – plus control over the rights to even conduct experiments on these genes!
“Gene patents undermine the free exchange of information and scientific freedom,” argues the ACLU, saying the patents also compromise the integrity of our bodies and eventually our health.
Ultimately this case could answer the question of whether it’s legal to patent a gene…
Karzai’s Brother Is Said To Be On CIA Payroll
The New York Times reports:
KABUL, Afghanistan – Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the Afghan president and a suspected player in the country’s booming illegal opium trade, gets regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency, and has for much of the past eight years, according to current and former American officials.
The agency pays Mr. Karzai for a variety of services, including helping to recruit an Afghan paramilitary force that operates at the C.I.A.’s direction in and around the southern city of Kandahar, Mr. Karzai’s home…
Open Season for Scientology Bashing
Now it’s Salon’s turn to whale on Scientology (more please mainstream media, you have a lot of catching up to do):
When Paul Haggis, the writer of “Million Dollar Baby” and “Crash,” kicked his faith to the curb after 35 years, he did so as only an Oscar-winning scribe could: with a badass screed. His resignation letter, dated Aug. 19, emerged on ex-Scientologist Mark Rathburn’s blog yesterday and promptly went viral.
In his letter, Haggis explains, “for ten months now I have been writing to ask you to make a public statement denouncing the actions of the Church of Scientology of San Diego. Their public sponsorship of Proposition 8, a hate-filled legislation that succeeded in taking away the civil rights of gay and lesbian citizens of California — rights that were granted them by the Supreme Court of our state — shames us.” Though the Church claims not to dictate personal sexual practices and has…
World’s Largest Pyramid Discovered, Lost Mayan City Of Mirador, Guatemala
Just in time for the 2012 craze, CNN reports on a brand new massive Mayan pyramid discovery, including an amazing stone frieze showing the Maya sacred creation story, the Popol Vuh:
Church of Scientology Convicted of Fraud in France
The AP is reporting another example of the ‘Church’ of Scientology finally coming in for the critical attention it deserves but that the media has been afraid of for fear of costly litigation:
A Paris court convicted the Church of Scientology of fraud and fined it more than euro600,000 ($900,000) on Tuesday but stopped short of banning the group as prosecutors had demanded.
The group’s French branch immediately announced it would appeal the verdict.
The court convicted the Church of Scientology’s French office, its library and six of its leaders of organized fraud. Investigators said the group pressured members into paying large sums of money for questionable financial gain and used “commercial harassment” against recruits.
The group was fined euro400,000 ($600,000) and the library euro200,000. Four of the leaders were given suspended sentences of between 10 months and two years. The other two were given fines of euro1,000 and euro2,000.
However, the court did not order…
Mice That Play Quake
Molecular biologists at Princeton University created a special version of Quake II that’s played by mice! “Rather than earning points or power-ups, the mice were rewarded with water from a head-side nozzle,” and the harnessed mice walk on floating styrofoam balls — like a treadmill — to navigate the virtual corridors.
For the first time the experiment lets researchers record the responses of the individual neurons associated with spatial navigation. “Such precision may be decisive in determining how cells in the mammalian cortex encode location – our “sense of direction,”" the article notes.
And check out the amazing video!
Never Trust A Patriot: More on Michael Moore
From Nick P. at Black Sun Gazette
I recently wrote a review of Michael Moore’s latest film Capitalism: A Love Story. While the film is not without its merits, Michael Moore seems to be, on a balance sheet, a negative fixture in American culture. If anything, his value lies in being a foil for legitimate leftists.
While a lot can be said for how he raises sharp questions about key issues, the more important point to me is the role he plays in shielding the Democratic Party from the left. Indeed, as I have stated time and again, I consider those who constantly provide cover for the Democratic Party to be among the most dangerous and destructive forces in American politics. They act as apologists and lawyers for the plantation party which keeps the working class from acting independently and effecting meaningful change.
In his latest article for Huffington Post, “My Action Plan: 15…
The Mainstream Media Plucks Up Courage and Pulls Back the Veil From the ‘Church’ of Scientology
The mainstream media, led by the broadcast networks, have been notoriously reluctant to air any negative news or views regarding the ‘Church’ of Scientology, largely due to that organization’s penchant for costly litigation intended to financially drain critics so thoroughly that any thought of following in their footsteps is squashed by network lawyers before any brave young producer or journalist can finish the idea.
Perhaps the wind has changed, however, with an in depth investigation by ABC News’ well-respected show Nightline, which has a variety of reports about Scientology here, as well as a lengthy ‘Inside Scientology’ video report from Martin Bashir (click that link to go to the full ABC News video site; the YouTube clips below are partial):
Nearly One in Three People With HIV Do Not Know
A very scary statistic as reported by AFP:
Almost one in three people infected with the virus that causes AIDS do not know they have the disease, increasing the risk of infection, the European Commission warned Monday.
In a document on combatting AIDS more than a quarter century after it surfaced, the EU’s executive arm said now was not the time for Europe to drop its guard, noting that the figure was up to double in some neighbour nations.
And while efficient treatments exist to slow the evolution of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), no vaccine or cure has been found.
