I went and heard Eric Schlosser speak last night ("Fast Food Nation")...

[Oracle]

And his latest # 1 NY Times betseller "Reefer Madness, Sex, Drugs and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market"

He was in Arcata, CA (on the Humboldt State University campus, near the ocean and in the redwoods.)

Both excellent, witty, preceptive informative books.

I have both books and I'm just finishing up the latter...

He's a good speaker, he seemed amazed about the lack of fast food restaurants or chains in Arcata, there's only a "Subway" in the immediate area of Arcata (and Arcata itself and the people reminded him of what I took from it, Berkeley in sixties.) but he said mostly what was in his books for the students and those who haven't read them. And I thought he went to
Q & A too fast, so I left.

However, one fact he talked about that blew me away and you may be aware of it...that one out every three Arfican-American males (over eighteen) are either in prison, jail, on probation or parole or controled by and in the system in some way...ONE OUT OF THREE!

He's researching his upcoming book about America's prison system...(The imfamous Pelican Bay State Penitentiary is about two hours away maybe that's why he made a stop over in Acata?)

Also he mentioned, to a very delighted Humboldt County audience...
how pot was illegal simply because it's the drug of choice for non-conformist and how it's the only drug you can not, absolutely can not OD on...or as he put it one would have to smoke a hundred pounds a minute for fifteen minutes to OD on pot...and some in the audience I'm sure wanted to see if his facts were straight and give it a shot.

If you get a chance to read his books, take the time...or go hear him speak, very liberal progressive thinking by Eric Schlosser.