Month: August 2012

In yesterday’s news, Paul Ryan has created divisions among Log Cabin Republicans: Since his pick as Mitt Romney’s running mate, Paul Ryan has not spoken about his position on gay rights. But the Log Cabin Republicans, one of just two conservative gay rights groups in the country, has pointed to him as a model for…

Pure misinformation. One of the strongest drugs known to man. And once tolerance develops you can never get enough.

That’s how Barack Obama was recently described. Not by a Tea Party leader or conservative radio talker, mind you, but by Bill Maher: HBO’s Bill Maher on Tuesday blasted President Barack Obama over his administration’s decision to ramp up prosecutions of medical marijuana dispensaries. “This is one place where Obama has been such a dismal…

I bought what I thought was a good bicycle U-lock the other day. It certainly is well constructed, made of hardened steel, and it would be a pain in the ass to open through brute force. Sawing it would take forever, and prying it open would be near impossible unless you had a hydraulic jack…

I don’t know whether she realized it or not, but Maureen Dowd has paid Paul Ryan the highest compliment yet: I’d been wondering how long it would take Republicans to realize that Paul Ryan is their guy. He’s the cutest package that cruelty ever came in. He has a winning air of sad cheerfulness. He’s…

I was discussing how America was assisting one drug cartel in Mexico in its war against the other major Mexican cartel. Commenter John Thomas, who is well aware that about 70% of female heroin users were sexually abused in childhood, had this to say about that (emph added): I can understand how many would not…

While there have been entirely too many of them this summer, I’m especially horrified by the latest shooting incident because of what appear to be quite blatant political motivations. WASHINGTON (AP) — A man suspected of shooting and wounding a security guard at the headquarters of a Christian lobbying group on Wednesday made a negative…

The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of Conservatives is to prevent mistakes from being corrected. Even when the revolutionist might himself repent of his revolution, the traditionalist is already defending it as part of his tradition. Thus we…

They get bored. And when they’re bored (at least, so goes the narrative), they beat complete strangers nearly to death: NORTH COLLEGE HILL, Ohio (AP) — Police say that six 13- and 14-year-old boys charged with robbing and badly beating a man told officers they were bored and looking for something to do. The Cincinnati Enquirer…

Opium use in Nantucket 1792. Do anyone know of any scholarly discussion of the following statement by Crevecoeur on women’s use of opium in Nantucket (from Letters from an American Farmer of 1782)or, for that matter, on drugs generally in early America? === Stone, ed., Letters, p. 160: “A singular custom prevails here among the…

Opium growing in Manchuria? Japanese involvement? The Wiki has it. The opium poppy was grown to obtain opium. In November 1932 the Mitsui Zaibatsu conglomerate held a state monopoly for poppy farming with the “declared intention” of reducing its heavy local use. Fixed cultivation areas were set up in Jehol and northwest Kirin. For 1934-35,…

Running the drug money laundry is very profitable. Laundering drug money through HSBC is as imprtant a job in the international drug trafficking industry as being a coca grower, or even a Cartel Honcho. And its got more perks. As we witnessed three years ago when Wachovia Bank admitted to laundering a stupefying $378 billion…

Everyone is talking about Social Security these days, and I’ve been pondering the issue, but I just can’t decide. Clearly, we need some form of social security, but I’m trying to make up my mind over which of the following pictures makes a better statement in favor of the kind we most need. This granny?…

As someone who not only believes in God, but who also believes in working towards an alliance between libertarians and social conservatives, I am frustrated. Perhaps I should explain, perhaps not. The problem is that whenever I try to say what I think (especially regarding religious issues), it is nearly impossible not to have people…

Well isn’t this interesting? The bloody Drug War in Mexico is not about stopping the flow of drugs. It is about determining who controls the flows. In cahoots with the US government. The more information uncovered throughout the investigation of Operation Fast and Furious, the more incriminating and controversial it becomes. According to some recent…

Speaking of savages, I think the word is entirely appropriate to describe the actions of a group of armed thugs who forced their way into a home, shot and killed the family pet, chained up the children, and forced them “to sit next to the carcass of their dead and bloody pet for more than an…

Over the weekend, I read several attacks on Paul Ryan which bordered on hysteria and centered on his alleged slavish devotion to Ayn Rand. The attack premise is simple. If Ryan is a lockstep Rand cultist, then it is only necessary to cite one among many of Rand’s loony or ill-tempered remarks. There is no…

  Shut up and listen. All the rest is commentary. If you prefer the kinder gentler version in fewer words: Be quiet. Listen.

The left is loudly sounding the alarm about Paul Ryan, who among other things is being painted as a cruel man who wants to cut off senior citizens’ Medicare benefits and watch them die. A “lunatic” supply sider. So the Dems are said to be gloating: Democrats are celebrating. Are they overdoing it? Ryan is…

On Youtube, I found some music from my childhood. I used to watch American Bandstand when I was a kid, and I remember seeing this very song — “Baby Talk” by Jan & Dean: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppJtKtmCebo&feature=related 53 years ago. It would be scary if I took the time to think about it.