Friday, October 9, 2009

LA County prepares to raid ALL medical marijuana dispensaries

Photo courtesy of Don Bartletti / LA Times
Manwell Hernandez, an associate at the Cornerstone Collective medical marijuana dispensary serves customers from behind a stainless steel counter.Tall jars contain various kinds of dried marijuana buds that are sold only to qualified patients with a doctor's recommendation. At right, a patient reads the menu.

All L.A. County medical pot dispensaries face prosecution, district attorney says

By John Hoeffel

Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley said today that all the medical marijuana dispensaries in the county are operating illegally, and that "they are going to be prosecuted."
There are hundreds of dispensaries throughout the county, including as many as 800 in the city of Los Angeles, according to the city attorney's office. They operate under a 1996 voter initiative that allowed marijuana to be used for medicinal purposes, and a subsequent state law that provided for collective cultivation.
Based on a state Supreme Court decision last year, Cooley and City Attorney Carmen Trutanich have concluded that over-the-counter sales are illegal. Most if not all of the dispensaries in the state operate on that basis.
Click here to read the rest at The LA Times

Crackdown looming for pot dispensaries

Within a few weeks, Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley will begin more aggressive prosecution of medical marijuana dispensaries throughout the county, arguing most of them are illegally operating for a profit, he said Thursday.

Cooley's office estimates there are some 900 dispensaries operating in Los Angeles County — concentrated in the city, and particularly in the San Fernando Valley.

"Any medical marijuana dispensary that is selling over the counter for a profit is allegedly violating the law as written," said Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for the District Attorney's Office. "And it's our job to enforce the law as written. Click here to read the rest at The Daily News.

Say What? Obama gets Peace prize

  Don’t you have to do something to win the Nobel Peace prize? I don’t get it. What is this? A makeup for losing the Olympics?

I read that there were 205 nominees. And they picked Obama. Something is rotten in Denmark Oslo…

 By KARL RITTER and MATT MOORE, AP

OSLO – President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in a stunning decision designed to encourage his initiatives to reduce nuclear arms, ease tensions with the Muslim world and stress diplomacy and cooperation rather than unilateralism.

Nobel observers were shocked by the unexpected choice so early in the Obama presidency, which began less than two weeks before the Feb. 1 nomination deadline.

Click here to read the rest.

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Thursday, October 8, 2009

Two good reasons to leave Afghanistan

Cartoon by Paresh Nath, The Khaleej Times, UAE

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Cocaine Vaccine Nullifies the Effect, Helps Abusers Quit

By Susannah F. Locke

Researchers have shown for the first time today that a vaccine can help reduce drug abuse. There's currently no FDA-approved treatment to get people off of cocaine (or crack), so this could really help out the 2.5 million Americans dependent on cocaine.

Thirty-eight percent of drug abusers who were given the vaccine produced anti-cocaine antibodies. Over the course of seven weeks, these subjects were 45 percent likely to have a cocaine-free pee test, as opposed to 35 percent for those who got placebo vaccine instead.

The vaccine works similar to vaccines for microorganisms, training your body to view cocaine as a bad invader. The shots, which include a cocaine-like substance (succinylnorcocaine), encourage the body to pump out antibodies against cocaine. The antibodies bind to the coke, which prevents it from getting into the brain, and theoretically prevents people from getting high. Right now, only about 38 percent of the subjects who got the vaccine produced high levels of antibodies, so there's room for improvement.

Study leader Dr. Thomas Kosten, a psychiatrist at Baylor College of Medicine, told Popsci.com that they're planning to confirm the results in a larger study in six cities in January and that the vaccine could become widely available in two to three years.

The study was published in the October issue of the journal Archives of General Psychiatry.

Story from Popsci.com

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Society Symbols for dummies…

from http://www.loleg.com/blog

A War of Absurdity…

 Two weeks ago I weighed in on our war in Afghanistan - “History shows why we should get out of Afghanistan” – This article, on the same subject, goes into more depth than I was able to within the confines of my word limit.

Scheer also points out facts showing al-Qaida is practically a non-presence in Afghanistan.

By Robert Scheer

Every once in a while, a statistic just jumps out at you in a way that makes everything else you hear on a subject seem beside the point, if not downright absurd. That was my reaction to the recent statement of the president’s national security adviser, former Marine Gen. James Jones, concerning the size of the terrorist threat from Afghanistan:

“The al-Qaida presence is very diminished. The maximum estimate is less than 100 operating in the country, no bases, no ability to launch attacks on either us or our allies.”

Less than 100! And he is basing his conservative estimate on the best intelligence data available to our government. That means that al-Qaida, for all practical purposes, does not exist in Afghanistan—so why are we having a big debate about sending even more troops to fight an enemy that has relocated elsewhere? Because of the blind belief, in the minds of those like John McCain, determined to “win” in Afghanistan, that if we don’t escalate, al-Qaida will inevitably come back.

Read the rest here via Truthdig 

Photo Credit: Flickr/The U.S. Army

A stupid stunt by a stupid woman

Cops: Alabama mother had daughter, 13, ride in box atop minivan

Meet Jackie Knott. The Alabama woman, 37, is facing a child endangerment rap for allegedly having her teenage daughter ride in a cardboard box atop her minivan as it traveled along an interstate highway Saturday morning. Knott, pictured in the below Albertville Police Department mug shot, told cops that her 13-year-old daughter Haley was serving as a human paperweight to keep the box from falling off the vehicle (and careening down U.S. 431). While Knott explained that the box was too large to fit inside her van, it is unclear why she did not seek to simply flatten it in an effort to squeeze the box into her crowded vehicle. When stopped by cops, Knott, a Boaz, Alabama resident, noted that "the box was tied to the van with a clothes hanger," according to a police press release. That assurance did not sway cops, who arrested Knott in the shadow of a Tyson Foods poultry processing facility, according to an October 3 police report.

Photo and text via The Smoking Gun

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Tree House for Serious Tree Huggers

There was a time “tree huggers” were an issue in Humboldt County. Nowadays you just don’t hear much about them. That is until I found this article in the WebUrbanist

Written by Urbanist

So you are really passionate about trees want to take your tree house adventures to the next level? These tree houses are not just amazing to behold but are actually complex protest structures. By locking onto and relying on the surrounding trees for support they prevent logging of large old-growth trees while providing an amazing living experience to their residents.

 

Pot smoking 'saved' Kevin Smith

 The king of stoner moviemakers, Kevin Smith, never really smoked much marijuana until Seth Rogen talked him into it last summer, he says.

Now he sparks up at least three times a day and credits pot for helping him to dig his way out of a creative slump.

Not the sort of advice responsible parents, doctors or educators are likely to embrace, Smith told The Post's Don Kaplan, "I know you're supposed to tell kids not to do drugs, but, kids, do it! Do weed! Don't do the other stuff, but weed is good . . . What you want to do is what I did, build a movie empire and, at age 38, smoke it all away."

Smith is pushing his new book, "Shooting the S - - t With Kevin Smith," a project he claims he didn't even write because it's a transcription of SModcast, his regular podcast with pal Scott Mosier. "I did so little work to put this book together, but I did everything to make the podcast happen, so by virtue of that I am the author," he says.

Click here to read the rest at the New York Post online

33 Ways To Get And Keep Yourself Motivated

Being motivated is a wonderful state of your being. In that state your body leverages huge amounts of energy. Your emotional field is totally balanced, physically you’re able to climb the Everest and mentally you understand the whole Universe in a split of a second. I know you know the feeling. The good news is that you can re-create this state pretty much whenever you want. Here are 33 tips to help you get and stay motivated. By the way, if you’re into long lists, you may also check this one: 100 Ways To Live A Better Life.

1. Ignore The Unimportant

Learning to ignore is a fantastic lesson. Much more rewarding that you think. There must be an art of ignoring and they should teach it in universities. Spanning your focus in so many areas will only weaken you. Ignoring what’s unimportant will free up energy and help you stay focused and productive.

Click here to read the rest at Dragos Roua – The choice of a personal path

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Monday, October 5, 2009

Now this is how to rob a bank

The G4S facility outside Stockholm that was spectacularly robbed

“Show you have a sense of humor by placing a bag outside the cops’ helicopter hanger with the word BOMB written on it. This will stop the police chasing you in the sky.

Scatter small sharp objects on the roads around the bank you’re targeting to slow down approaching police cars.

Rather than targeting a regular bank, choose a facility that stores banknotes for them.

Get schematics of the building.

Plan the raid for the day before people get paid, so there’ll be lots of cash kicking around.

Hover the chopper over the bank while your men abseil in.

Have a pilot so good that authorities suspect military experience.

Set off some minor explosions to get to the cash.

Chuckle at the cops as they try to get into the fortified building using a battering ram.

Leave all the staff unharmed.

Return to the helicopter and fly into the pre-dawn sky.

Land the chopper in a field.

Disappear into the woods with the loot.

Roll around in your money.”

thanks to The Punch for the above photo and article.

Roomba Art: vacuum versatility is arty

People love the Roomba. Why? Because it allows you to vacuum a room while sitting on the couch. Also because it seems more attainable than the Segway. And then a cat rode one, and it was glorious. Now comes something truly groundbreaking -- Roomba art. As far as we can tell, the trend started on a blog called Signal Theorist, who got the idea to set up a camera, turn off all the lights, and take a long-exposure photo of the Roomba's path as it "did its thing." The result looked like an awesomely psychedelic electrical spider web. Now more people are getting inspired to try variations on the same technique, and the creativity seems to be concentrated in the Flickr group, Roomba Art.

Chief Red Cloud to Obama: Black Hills are not for sale

Chief Oliver Red Cloud, Lakota, issued a statement to President Obama requesting a meeting more than two weeks ago and is yet to receive a response. Chief Red Cloud, 90, told Obama the Black Hills are not -- and have never been -- for sale

Dear Mr. President:

I am the Itancan (chief) of the Oglala Lakota Band of the Great Sioux Nation and Chairman of the Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council, the traditional governing body of the eight bands of the Lakota Nation.
The Lakota Nation entered into and has always abided by the provisions of the Fort Laramie Treaties of 1851 and 1868. However, the United States of America has repeatedly violated and unilaterally attempted to abrogate the Treaties in violation of accepted international standards and codified international treaty law.

Click here to read the rest at Censored News

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Gluttons for glory -- heroes for an obese nation

 

By Dave Stancliff/For the Times-Standard

Posted: 10/04/2009 10:27:17 AM PDT

For the first time since the Civil War, American life expectancy is projected to decrease, owing to the diseases associated with obesity such as diabetes, ultimately causing cardiovascular death.”

-- Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Vol.49-Issue 16

On July 4, 1993, eating for glory became a national competition. Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest paved the way for competitive eating. The contest was so popular, watching people “pig-out” went international in 1997.

The irony of competitive eating in a country where hundreds of thousands of people die each year from obesity-related causes, seems lost on the thousands who attend and view these contests. These events have been broadcast live on ESPN since 2004.

Click here to read the rest. Photo via Kinetic Carnival – The Coney Island Blog

It's Time to Pay Up Donnie!

It's looks like there will be some prime real estate going on the market soon in New York City. Convicted rapist and former president ...