April 2, 2014

Want to see Rachel Maddow interview Chomsky, at length, on MSNBC? Check in HERE.

It's time Noam Chomsky gets some airtime on Corporate TV, whether they like it or not.

MSNBC is losing credibility fast, IMO, by NEVER having Chomsky, Chris Hedges or Glen Ford on.

Yet lying wackos get on FOX and CNN all the time (MSNBC even shows FOX excerpts,
giving the wackos even more time).

Let's figure out a way to put some pressure.

I would love to see a special, full hour interview with Chomsky,
by Rachel Maddow, on MSNBC.

I'll bet millions of other people would too.

Certainly some viewers would be uninterested. I get that. But those who would OPPOSE it,
must be frightened of freedom-of-speech.

Maybe a petition would also help?

I'm open to suggestions.

But please check-in/acknowledge here if you agree.

Thank you.

February 26, 2014

Why Japan deserves legalized cannabis—SOON

An American perspective...

Why Japan deserves to have legalized cannabis—SOON.

1. To right a wrong----Cannabis was grown for centuries in Japan for multiple uses, and
was only made illegal for the first time in 1953
during the American postwar occupation, under what was basically
corporate-economic pressure from US interests completely unrelated to stated goals of establishing
a democracy in Japan. It is time to reverse that wrongful act.
As in all countries, making cannabis legal takes away a stigma from something (and some
people) that never deserved a stigma in the first place. Crime interests lose a source of income
that is shifted to regular taxpaying citizens. A society becomes a little more honest, and
a little more free.
In the US, as legalization spreads, the only ones who could be said to be “suffering” seem to be for-
profit prisons and overly-zealous law-enforcement agencies who received extra funds for arresting
citizens for cannabis usage. As America's misguided anti-cannabis laws are gradually lifted, large
numbers of people are surprised at how this vilified herb has actually revealed itself
to be the ancient healer and pleasure-giver it actually always was—A benevolent
substance with many medical applications, far less-dangerous than alcohol, and made artificially
expensive by being falsely-labeled as a threat
by authorities with a hidden, vested interest in cannabis being illegal. When society
abandons that lie, it becomes in a true values-sense, more healthy.
2. Economic reasons---- Legal cannabis could provide thousands of new jobs in related
fields such as cultivation, sales, regulation/testing, perhaps cannabis houses
offering a traditional
variation (like tea houses) for going out with a group in a more formal
presentation, plus more informal cannabis cafes, etc.
Tax revenues from sales and cultivation licensing would be a boon
to local and/or national coffers.
Hemp would be liberated along with cannabis, and there would be the
accompanying economic and practical benefits
of a new domestic Japanese hemp industry
for clothing, fibers, hard materials, oil for
different uses, edible seed-products, etc etc
3. Medical needs----In the wake of Fukushima, the uncomfortable truth is that there are going to be a
lot more cases of cancer and other radiation-related ailments in that part of the world (and maybe
others as well). Medical cannabis would be a real gift to the
people of Japan as a cost-effective natural analgesic readily-available to the masses. If the
scientists are right in their forecasts, they are going to need it.
4. Cultural Benefits----Japan is a fantastically musical, artistic and media-fluent country,
currently going though a kind of 1960s/70s-like “Classic period” of exploding creativity
and new styles of cultural expression, IMO. Cannabis has a long connection to
musical, artistic and creative types here in the west, and is considered a stimulus to creativity, and a
boon to open-minded thinking, to many people.
A cannabis-culture in Japan would be
intensely musical and very colorful and brilliant. It could produce new additional waves of
cultural “hits” in multiple medias (film, tv shows, music, etc) and tangibly could help
the economy there as well. Cuisine is another area of possible effects or influence, as cannabis has
strong associations with food, and could be an additional spur to creativity in that area.
Legal cannabis in Japan would bring pleasure and enjoyment to millions of people,
without the risks of alcohol, and
trigger millions of intense and far-ranging discussions between people that
would not have been the same without
the gentle mind-opening influence of cannabis. It would have great social value in a
country known for close social relations.
OK, this is subjective, but how on earth can the country who gave the world Kaiju, Anime,
Manga, Yasutaka Nakata, Hatsune Miku, Katamari, 9Goats Black Out, mochi, and giant dancing
sugar-donuts possibly not have legal bud? It is a cosmic esthetic injustice, I tell you.
In my opinion, the entire world will become a better place
when Japan legalizes cannabis.

5. Cultivation Prowess----The Japanese are well-known for their fabulous achievements in
horticulture. They should grow cannabis, if only because they would be so incredibly good at it.
=====================================================================
As far as I know, there is nothing in the Japanese culture or character that is inherently anti-cannabis.
If there is a stigma at all, it is because America put it there, and Japan accepted it.
Legalizing cannabis would be a solid statement of National confidence and independence
for Japan as a nation, in my opinion, without becoming militant or aggressive in any way.

Japan is a great, wonderful, colorful country already. But, IMO, adding a touch more green
would be all good. And it would be the right thing to do.

=======================================================================

November 30, 2013

Smoking a bowl of fine herb with friends and family...

And sharing some egg nog.


Happy Holidays!

And Merry Bud-Mas!

September 17, 2013

But----WHAT ARE HIS TEST SCORES?

If Wahlberg's test scores are not high, then his teachers and his school are total failures,
and that school will have to be privatized.

In Amurka', it is the only way.

Privatizing Public Schools is God's Plan.

You know----God (or should I say, "The Gods"---Gates, Broad, Walmart, Duncan, Deasy, Rhee, etc etc).

And as we all know,
Gods know best.

Until we know his test scores, we will not know if Wahlberg was properly edumacated and
properly indoctrinated in Godly Corporate Philosophy.

Why?

Because it's all about the kidz.


Below: LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy with young student

September 17, 2013

These T-Baggerz are a sad and weak-minded bunch of TOOLS.

But many are just a foreclosure, a nearby Fracking site, or a lost job away, from being Liberals.

Liberal arguments don't make Liberals anywhere near as fast as Corporate, Big-Bank,
and Investor misdeeds and mistreatment of The Masses do.

September 14, 2013

Humorists: Let's have some fun----Let's play, "HOW IS OBAMA WRONG?"

This is a little rhetorical game that can be played even if you are one of those Progressives (like me)
who has a number of major criticisms of
Obama's administration for not being nearly Progressive enough in many areas.

Please, put those aside for a moment.

I want to satirize the GOP/rightwingers' automatic, robotic, always-predictable, knee-jerk
mindless, slamming of Obama no matter what he does, with no exceptions, ever.

Here's how you play it:

Come up with something good Obama would be described as doing, like:

A--"Obama Brings Peace to MidEast"
B--(GOP response)--"The Terrorists will just use Peace to secretly build-up their forces to attack America".

or

A--"Obama rescues child from deadly surf in Hawaii and re-starts her breathing with CPR"

B--"Obama was sexually abusing that child with mouth-to-mouth--Arrest him!"



A--"Obama reverses his stand and declares Global Climate change a hoax"

B--"Global Climate Change suddenly found to be real, and caused by Obama! That's why he wants to deny it now"


A--"Obama Praises benefits of Oxygen as a life-sustaining element".

B--"Oxygen is #1 cause of fires on Earth. Obama Loves destructive fires!"


A--"Obama fights Godzilla off the coast of Japan and drives him away, saving Japan!"

B--"Obama's regulation of Godzilla eliminates thousands of construction/repair jobs--Why does Obama hate workers?
Also, who cares about saving Japan? He only saved Japan because it wasn't America!"

===================================================================
OK, that's the idea.

This is rich ground, folks.

C'mon, you humorists out there, now give it back to the GOP lock-step rationalizers.

And I know many of you can do far better and funnier than I.

May 4, 2013

A story that shows why CANADA IS WISER THAN AMERICA: "The Cream Separator"

"During the age of expansion, capitalism gave cream to the few, whole milk to the middle classes, and a blue watery residue to the majority of farmers and industrial workers, agricultural labourers and slaves."


This brief story is told by Canadian Liberal Tommy Douglas, the man most responsible for
Canada's Public Healthcare system. It explains the universal problem with capitalism in clear and certain terms.

The video:

The text:

http://nonprofits.accesscomm.ca/srvoice/news/1999/02Sep99.htm



Just another reason to love Canada, IMO.

May 3, 2013

I'll bet...

You are exactly right, Organism.

I expect the same.

The Senate will be 51-vote majority again.
But only for the GOP.

January 28, 2013

In a way, it is satisfying to read about Parents' buyers' remorse, when the school makes them suffer

Many of these parents naively supported charter takeovers and sat idley by as fine teachers and school personnel were chased
out in favor of younger cheaper, more submissive employees.

Teachers and educators have been suffering immeasurably for over a decade since this NCLB bullshit
got going, trying to achieve ridiculous test score goals, constantly browbeated and told they are inadequate
while they watched their Union and subject departments dis-empowered in favor of outside investors
and pro-privatization principals and management, often trained and indoctrinated by philosophical
neo-liberal corporatists like Eli Broad and Bill Gates.

Some of us in teaching tried to tell others on the outside, tried to sound the alarm.
But most people didn't believe, or hear, us.

Clearly, few outside the school gave a shit.

Now, as a retired teacher, it is my turn to watch as others scream "INJUSTICE!".
Too late, suckers.

Enjoy the fruits of your ignorance of what real education is, and has always been--Multi-faceted,
multi-leveled, focused on the conceptual more than the trivial, varied, at least a little bit individualized, when possible, and MESSY.

But it's past the point of no return--Corporate America will not give back what it has taken--You'll see.
And you can be certain, your kids will not be getting a real education.

Kids are just memorizing terms for multiple-choice bubble tests.
They are not learning concepts, or truths, anymore.

Some of us saw this coming and screamed it out--To no avail.

Well America, your schools are on the way out, and there ain't nothin' you can do about it now except
make sure your kid makes your school look good, no matter what it costs you.


(P.S. You can bet that Washington's Elite kids are absolutely NOT trained to memorize
standards-based trivia & just get high test scores.
That is only necessary for The Great Unwashed----
They would never do to their kids what they think is essential for the kids of The Masses).


But you & your kids are not in The Elite.

So shut up and memorize.