It’s a straight forward no bullshit assessment of our current economic condition and a viable solution to California’s budget crisis. The time is now to embrace the decriminalization of marijuana and move past the “War on Drugs”. Have we not had enough war in this lifetime? Smoke a fricking joint and relax for the sake of our economy

Smoke This Recession / It’s simple: First we tax the booze. Then we legalize the pot. Done.

Really now, could there be a better time to decriminalize/fully legalize pot? Or, more fully, to decriminalize pot, and then spread respectable pot shops and vending machines and dispensaries far and wide, instill quality control and decent oversight and then tax the living hell out of the glorious, stress-reducing goodness, as we stop wasting billions fighting its grand ubiquity and instead sink into profitable pools of warm, hazy progress? Don’t you already know the answer?

I’m a Gator!!

Gators rally to win SEC title — South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

If the sound of the current typically comes before the actual crash of the waves, the Florida Gators couldn’t help but hear it all week.

How the stakes of a national championship semifinal would create a fourth-quarter classic instead of another Gators blowout. How playing Alabama wasn’t simply about stats or execution but about who could impose their will in the most physical nature. How special players always prevail.

That’s when wide receiver Carl Moore got a feeling about his quarterback.

“I knew [ Tim Tebow] was going to step up big time, I just knew it,” said Moore, who caught the first touchdown pass of Florida’s 31-20 win over Alabama. “Everyone in our locker room knew that he was going to win this for us at the end of the game.”

O.J. Simpson was convicted and sentenced to 15 years. This is the saddest brother in the whole world. This  man got away with the crime of the century as it has been called and he ends up screwing it all up in Lucky 13 years. How funny is that?

I saw the family of Ronald Goldman, the boyfriend O.J. killed with his wife Nicole, on the news boasting about how they had hounded him into this. Seems a recent book deal he had set that they were able to shutdown was the last straw and financially he was done.

He orchestrated a robbery that he claimed was an attempt to recover his own personal effects and the people he brought along had guns and held a sports dealer in a hotel room in Vegas. The judge cut him some slack and could have easily sentenced him to much more. He faces a maximum of 33 years and is eligible for parole in 9.

O.J. spent a fortune to hire  the dream team of lawyers who were able to manipulate evidence and the jury into an acquittal on a case with DNA evidence. I might start writign to him in jail because I just have to hear what happened and how he didn’t see he was being setup.

O.J. Simpson gets at least 15 years in prison – CNN.com

Simpson’s conviction came October 3, the 13th anniversary of his controversial acquittal in the killings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Goldman.

TheStar.com | sciencetech | 2,700-year-old marijuana found in Chinese tomb

OTTAWA – Researchers say they have located the world’s oldest stash of marijuana, in a tomb in a remote part of China.

The cache of cannabis is about 2,700 years old and was clearly ”cultivated for psychoactive purposes,” rather than as fibre for clothing or as food, says a research paper in the Journal of Experimental Botany.

The 789 grams of dried cannabis was buried alongside a light-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian man, likely a shaman of the Gushi culture, near Turpan in northwestern China.

The extremely dry conditions and alkaline soil acted as preservatives, allowing a team of scientists to carefully analyze the stash, which still looked green though it had lost its distinctive odour.

“To our knowledge, these investigations provide the oldest documentation of cannabis as a pharmacologically active agent,” says the newly published paper, whose lead author was American neurologist Dr. Ethan B. Russo.

Remnants of cannabis have been found in ancient Egypt and other sites, and the substance has been referred to by authors such as the Greek historian Herodotus. But the tomb stash is the oldest so far that could be thoroughly tested for its properties.

The 18 researchers, most of them based in China, subjected the cannabis to a battery of tests, including carbon dating and genetic analysis. Scientists also tried to germinate 100 of the seeds found in the cache, without success.

The marijuana was found to have a relatively high content of THC, the main active ingredient in cannabis, but the sample was too old to determine a precise percentage.

Researchers also could not determine whether the cannabis was smoked or ingested, as there were no pipes or other clues in the tomb of the shaman, who was about 45 years old.

The large cache was contained in a leather basket and in a wooden bowl, and was likely meant to be used by the shaman in the afterlife.

“This materially is unequivocally cannabis, and no material has previously had this degree of analysis possible,” Russo said in an interview from Missoula, Mont.

“It was common practice in burials to provide materials needed for the afterlife. No hemp or seeds were provided for fabric or food. Rather, cannabis as medicine or for visionary purposes was supplied.”

The tomb also contained bridles, archery equipment and a harp, confirming the man’s high social standing.

Russo is a full-time consultant with GW Pharmaceuticals, which makes Sativex, a cannabis-based medicine approved in Canada for pain linked to multiple sclerosis and cancer.

The company operates a cannabis-testing laboratory at a secret location in southern England to monitor crop quality for producing Sativex, and allowed Russo use of the facility for tests on 11 grams of the tomb cannabis.

Researchers needed about 10 months to cut red tape barring the transfer of the cannabis to England from China, Russo said.

The inter-disciplinary study was published this week by the British-based botany journal, which uses independent reviewers to ensure the accuracy and objectivity of all submitted papers.

The substance has been found in two of the 500 Gushi tombs excavated so far in northwestern China, indicating that cannabis was either restricted for use by a few individuals or was administered as a medicine to others through shamans, Russo said.

“It certainly does indicate that cannabis has been used by man for a variety of purposes for thousands of years.”

Russo, who had a neurology practice for 20 years, has previously published studies examining the history of cannabis.

“I hope we can avoid some of the political liabilities of the issue,” he said, referring to his latest paper.

The region of China where the tomb is located, Xinjiang, is considered an original source of many cannabis strains worldwide.

This line in the article pretty much sums it up:
“In recent years autism has been blamed on everything from discarded iPod batteries to mercury from Chinese power stations, from antenatal ultrasound scans to post-natal cord clamping, from diet to vaccines,” Fitzpatrick said in a statement.”

There are more than one reason for the condition called autism and trying to figure it out is useless. It’s become a blame game with the medical establishment throwing out garbage science to confuse people and avoid being caught poisoning our children. What we need to do is figure out how to make the world a safer and better place for these people. The common thing I have seen in most autistic children is an inability to defend or protect themselves in the face of danger. Most autistic children are simple happy people who focus more on the lights in a room rather than whether or not someone is trying to take advantage of them. They need a world where their neighbor isn’t willing to use them to get ahead.

It seems to me like autistic people are an evolutionary step forward with new abilities they have a difficult time understanding or managing. My son cannot control the things he hears and is easily distracted by the everyday sounds of life we all tone out. He will probably never drive a car or even hold a normal job but he will make music one day I m certain. By taking a step forward inn evolution this new generation has lost some of those base abilities we take for granted. My son has a hard time tying shoes but he loves anything slip on or velcro. He’s defenseless against many people and a pushover when it comes to dealing with others. Even much smaaller and much younger children can easily overpower or take addvantage of my son because he rarely faces confrontation or defends himself. He allows people to take things from him and he wont say anything about it.

In the world we live in now he is weak and sure to become a victim of the nasty hard world around him. He has evolved while society and the world around him has de-evolved into a nasty uncivil place where my sons unequivocal trust of man is a liability and not a trait to be admired as it should be in an evolved society. We will spend billions in search of the reasons for autism and billions more on the search for a cure when what we should do with that money is use it to force the evolution of society into a better and safer world for all of us.

Autism linked with rainfall in study | Health | Reuters

Children who live in the U.S. Northwest’s wettest counties are more likely to have autism, but it is unclear why, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday.

Michael Waldman of Cornell University and colleagues were searching for an environmental link with autism, a condition characterized by learning and social disabilities.

They got autism rates from state and county agencies for children born in California, Oregon and Washington between 1987 and 1999 and plotted them against daily precipitation reports.

“Autism prevalence rates for school-aged children in California, Oregon and Washington in 2005 were positively related to the amount of precipitation these counties received from 1987 through 2001,” they wrote in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

Dr. Michael Fitzpatrick, a London physician who wrote “Defeating Autism: A Damaging Delusion”, expressed doubt, noting that autism diagnoses are on the rise in all climates.

No one know what causes autism, whose symptoms range from severe social avoidance to repetitive behaviors and sometimes profound mental retardation.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about one in every 150 children has autism or a related disorder such as Asperger’s Syndrome. Rates in many countries have been rising, although that may be partly due to increased reporting and diagnosis of the condition.

Doctors agree there is a genetic component to autism. They also theorize that something in the environment and possibly conditions in the womb can trigger the condition.

The researchers said their study supports this idea.

Perhaps infants and toddlers are kept are kept indoors in front of the TV more in rainy climates, and that somehow causes brain changes, they said. Or perhaps they breathe in more harmful chemicals while indoors.

Vitamin D deficiency caused by insufficient time in the sun might also be a trigger, they said.

“Finally, there is also the possibility that precipitation itself is more directly involved,” they wrote. Perhaps a chemical or chemicals in the upper atmosphere are transported to the surface through rain or snow.

“In recent years autism has been blamed on everything from discarded iPod batteries to mercury from Chinese power stations, from antenatal ultrasound scans to post-natal cord clamping, from diet to vaccines,” Fitzpatrick said in a statement.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has launched a long-term study to find the causes of autism and other childhood conditions.

The Revolution Will Not Be Organized

The revolution will not be organized,
the revolution will not be organized.com,
the revolution will not be Yahoo Grouped, Meetuped,
downloaded, uploaded, QWERTY’d, or blogged.

The revolution will not be handled by webmasters,
think-tankers, authors of policy position papers,
authors of anti-policy position papers,
secretaries, executives, executive assistants,
insiders, whistle-blowers, informants, counter-informants,
committees or sub-committees.

Your neighbor with excellent leadership qualities
will not lead you into, through, or out of the revolution.
The revolution will not be inspired, instigated, managed
or controlled by him, her, or them.
The revolution will not be organized.

No matter if you eat at McDonald’s and can barely walk,
no matter if you drive an S.U.V. and rarely walk,
no matter if you were public school indoctrinated,
vaccinated, humiliated, ostracized, terrorized, minimized,
no matter if you live in a house owned by BofA,
no matter if you eat cat food, dog food,
Puppy Chow for your inner child,
no matter if you shop at Salvation Army, Saks, TJ Maxx,
when the Cold Hand of Power touches you,
it touches revolution.

They will come to chip you, rape you,
tell you you are theirs, imprison you in FEMA camps
because you spoke out,
because you doubted the official story,
because you looked with your own eyes,
spoke from your own heart.
They will come for you in black uniforms, black helmets,
swinging black batons, symbols of the New Authority,
and you will say,
“No, my children and I will not come with you.”

You will say no — not because Charlie Sheen
inspired you one night on FOX News
to look more closely at falling towers.
You will say no — not because Alex Jones
led you through the darkness with a bullhorn.
You will say no — not because Howard Zinn
handed you the Book of Truth on a silver platter.
You will say no because you are your own
star of truth shining the way.

At your unique hour, in the dark,
beneath a burning paper currency moon,
the Cold Hand of Power will touch you and revolt you.

At your unique hour,
when they come for you because you asked questions,
because you did not lower your eyes,
because you did not bow down,
at your unique hour,
in your unique circumstance,
you will find yourself in the grip of a courage
you have not known but which you are.
You will stand in front of black helmets with invisible faces,
and you will say,
“No, my children and I will not come with you.”

Daughters and sons of revolutionaries,
blood burning for freedom,
eyes set toward tomorrow,
each of you alone in the darkness,
beneath tender constellations burning gold and silver,
each of you will remember the path to take
when the Cold Hand of Power comes for you,
each of you will make your way without direction or encouragement,
as those before you made their way without direction or encouragement,
forging history, embracing destiny.

You will not march in file.
You will not march.
The revolution will not be organized.

In your darkest hour,
beneath the burning moon,
you will pledge allegiance to the truth,
as those before you pledged allegiance to the truth.

The truth cannot be organized.

“The Revolution Will Not Be Organized”
written by Jock Doubleday
September 24, 2008

Here is an excellent article on the importance of bicycles. I’m not riding as much as I would like but I do have my bikes here in Jamaica. I should be taking in some world class mountain biking and instead I’m dragging a trailer with the kids around the beach and West End Negril.

I’m having fun withe the family and the bikes but I’m feeling the need to hit the trails soon. I’m going to start riding more often as soon as things cool off a bit. It’s so hot here in Jamaica that I melted three pairs of shoes into junk last month. I’ll post a pic of that next.

4 Ways of Looking at a Bicycle | Your America | Reader’s Digest

AS A LIFESAVER
Health care workers in Senegal, Namibia, and other African nations usually walk miles over dusty roads to deliver food, medicine, and companionship to people with HIV/AIDS. But with the donation of 1,500 single-speed bicycles by BikeTown Africa, caregivers now visit as many as six times more people in need. The program, a partnership between Bicycling magazine, Kona Bicycle Company, and Bristol-Myers Squibb, has a broad mission: Says Steve Madden, editor-in-chief of Bicycling, “One bike at a time, we can solve big problems and change the world.”

I think it would be cool as hell to have been today. 6/6/6 wouldn’t be so bad. It’s a great conversation starter. You can be the kid born on the Day of the Beast. Although it hasn’t felt very beastly yet.

Sweet. I think Lance is the king of road cycling and I would never want to see him dethroned. I am certain he doped but I blame society and his doctors for pushing him to super human feats. The guy has heart and style and has done so much for cycling and America in general that a little doping won’t phase me. I’m glad Lance is publicly clean and the kids have someone to look up to thats worth a damn.
Thanks Lance for inspiring me and many other riders to give a shit. Your Wheaties box from 1999 still sits here on my desk with the cereal inside and I want to keep it that way. Did you know that Alfie loves you?]]> http://www.alfredmoya.com/2006/05/bbc-sport-other-sport-cycling-armstrong-cleared-in-epo-inquiry/feed/ 0