It's always struck me as strange how the conservatives who push the strongest for small government also push the hardest for drug criminalization.
Hmmmmmmmmmm...
I've advocated smaller government, lighter taxes, and pay off the damned debt without spending more on top of it for decades now.
I'm also in favor of a scaled back military, an end to American military bases on every corner of every city in every country on the planet. And I've pretty much talked about my position on drug criminalisation as well.
Hell, we could fund Canadian style healthcare for everyone with the cash we spend on the War On Drugs...
Cannabis is used in order to get high. To get and stay high is pretty much only thing it is good for.
It also works pretty damned good as something to help control nausea when you're taking chemotherapy, and there's also some anectdotal evidence it might help relieve glaucoma symptoms. This should be studied.
(And some of us think the government is doing such a bad job of 'fighting the war on drugs' because it isn't really sincere about the effort and would rather keep the prisons full).
A lot of the problem with the WoD is, the cops are under pressure to produce arrests and convictions, the more the better for the department. What looks better in the papers, a story about how a 3 year investigation nailed the #1 source of $DRUG or 75 street-level arrests that put 70 'dealers' behind bars for 15-30 years? Which story gets mayors and district attorneys re-elected? It's not so much that they don't want to nail #1, but the street-level guys are just so damned convenient to bust, and for every one of them you put behind bars, there's another ready to take his place on the corner to make it so much easier to 'rinse and repeat'. And a lot of local police departments depend on that Federal WoD funding to stay in business.
Personally, I say, legalise it, tax it like booze and cigarettes. Turn it from a cash drain to a cash cow.
In addition, natural selection and cross breeding takes time and other plants and animals have time to also evolve and adapt to the changes. GM plants change overnight with no time for everything/else to catch up.
There's a strain of coca plants in South America reputedly resistant to Roundup that wasn't genetically modified per some scientists that tested them. Seemed to be naturally resistant, and when the farmers noticed them surviving the aerial spraying, propagated the hell out of them. Links are in this thread someplace. Seems to me that natural selection is at work here...
I can almost guarantee this case will change nothing and do nothing but waste the time of quite a few attorneys.
Dude, at the end of the day, it's all about billable hours. Somebody told me a few years back that there were more kids in law school than there were practicing lawyers at the time. Somebody's got to guarantee them the ability to buy this year's BMW. When your entire culture is a tossup between flipping burgers and suing somebody, guess which gets priority?
But therein lies the solution. Get Monsanto to genetically modify pollen from the plant to include huge quantities of THC. Release pollen into the wild. As the THC levels in the plants rise, tell the stoners that pot may be illegal but this stuff isn't even on the radar. Inform Frito-Lay to ramp up production. Then I guess I'll just stick a few ???'s in here and declare profit!
In this case, the ??? is for Monsanto to sue stoners under DMCA for smoking unlicensed GM super-weed.
The thing is, a preponderance of managers are stupid, and it's getting _worse_ not better, so these kinds of decisions are being made more and more often.
Not so much stupid as not thinking everything through. Most American jobs were designed with interchangable workers. In fields like software development, talent isn't a recognisable commodity to the boards of directors. Want to cut development costs? Dump the expensive American coders with interchangeable $OFFSHORE_NATION coders. They're cheaper.
Since talent isn't looked at, from the beancounters' viewpoint, outsourcing is win-win. And they're the first to bitch when the $OFFSHORE_NATION coders have problems understanding the initial design of the application.
Food isn't usually taxed, so someone who doesn't eat would probably pay more sales tax per dollar (that's "progressive").
Here in La Zona, food is taxed, if it's prepared and served to you, like in a restaurant. But it's just the local sales tax being applied. Food you buy in the grocery store isn't.
Viewing the rover video has convinced me the US will go through with this space program. Real work, real schedules, real tests, capable technology. I wish NASA and the US all the best with the upcoming establishment of the lunar base.
Viewing the Congresscritters in office at the moment, I tend to believe that it won't go through. The 'Spacer' faction is just too small to defend the budgets.
What Shuttle could have given us was a delivery of a couple 'transfer stations', modular components for a small station to build 'lunar ferries' to build a fucking colony via the earth orbital rendevous flight profile. The crew would dock and transfer to a ferry in Earth orbit, fly it to the Moon and land in it, do the mission, then return to Earth orbit, dock with the landing capsual, transfer back, and leave the lunar ferry in orbit for the next lunar mission.
Now, park the lunar ferries (say, 3 or 4 of them) at a transfer station itself, built from components, and big enough to 'wetdock' a ferry to do any needed repairs or upgrades for the next set of flights as well as science on any samples, etc. I'm thinking we coulda done this for a few measly billion...
Um, no, you don't wanna do that, and here's why...
Presidential succession goes from Prez to VP, to Speaker of the House, to President Pro Tempore of the Senate, to Secretary of State. Now, if we loaded the Prez, VP, & all the Congresscritters up on the Shuttle & blow it up, the 'next one standing' is Hillary Clinton.
Not really. Many astronauts get assigned that sort of managerial duty between flight assignments.
Middle management, yeah. But not department heads. Col Lindsey is chief of the Astronaut's Office. Col Drew is currently Director of Operations at Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center at Astrograd.
... seems to be a bunch of hangers on at Kennedy getting their last ride up. Per the article, they're mostly NASA management types with a semirookie pilot. I wouldn't expect any science from these guys, I'm thinking they're up there for the photo opportunities.
America has completely lost it as far as copyright law is concerned. Why are they still enforcing these stupid laws when they're so utterly broken and unjust.
Because of the money, of course. The Usual Suspects believe that any time a file is shared they're losing out on revenue that is their God-given right to collect on forever and ever and ever, Amen.
The number of them seems to be getting to the point where we're going to need to start culling them like deer. Perhaps a tag system... say two per year per person. Ahhh... I can almost see the BMW and Brooks Brothers logos up over the fireplace as you tell the grandkids "Yep, that one was a civil lawyer... got him from 250 yards"
They mark trees to be culled with a big red X painted on them. Howbout we mark the lawyers with Bluetooth headsets?
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Hmmmmmmmmmm...
I've advocated smaller government, lighter taxes, and pay off the damned debt without spending more on top of it for decades now.
I'm also in favor of a scaled back military, an end to American military bases on every corner of every city in every country on the planet. And I've pretty much talked about my position on drug criminalisation as well.
Hell, we could fund Canadian style healthcare for everyone with the cash we spend on the War On Drugs...
It also works pretty damned good as something to help control nausea when you're taking chemotherapy, and there's also some anectdotal evidence it might help relieve glaucoma symptoms. This should be studied.
Actually, the drugs killed him.
Back in 'The Day', I tried out acid. It was very educational. Taught me 2 things:
1. Some people really shouldn't take acid.
2. I'm one of those people.
A lot of the problem with the WoD is, the cops are under pressure to produce arrests and convictions, the more the better for the department. What looks better in the papers, a story about how a 3 year investigation nailed the #1 source of $DRUG or 75 street-level arrests that put 70 'dealers' behind bars for 15-30 years? Which story gets mayors and district attorneys re-elected? It's not so much that they don't want to nail #1, but the street-level guys are just so damned convenient to bust, and for every one of them you put behind bars, there's another ready to take his place on the corner to make it so much easier to 'rinse and repeat'. And a lot of local police departments depend on that Federal WoD funding to stay in business.
Personally, I say, legalise it, tax it like booze and cigarettes. Turn it from a cash drain to a cash cow.
What, high school kids don't do keggers anymore??? DAMN, I'm getting old...
which seems to be what a lot of the Earth Firsters really want, as long as they continue to reap the benefits of civilisation...
There's a strain of coca plants in South America reputedly resistant to Roundup that wasn't genetically modified per some scientists that tested them. Seemed to be naturally resistant, and when the farmers noticed them surviving the aerial spraying, propagated the hell out of them. Links are in this thread someplace. Seems to me that natural selection is at work here...
Perhaps the GMed corn just didn't taste like food to the chickens...
Dude, at the end of the day, it's all about billable hours. Somebody told me a few years back that there were more kids in law school than there were practicing lawyers at the time. Somebody's got to guarantee them the ability to buy this year's BMW. When your entire culture is a tossup between flipping burgers and suing somebody, guess which gets priority?
Or, run it through a methane digester and run a small generator off the gas, making local electricity.
Gotta love those off the grid solutions...
I, for one, welcome our glowing radioactive plant overlords.
Better yet, invest in Frito-Lay & 7-11's.
Once you splice in those genes & they become dominant, just book the Grateful Dead & Willie Nelson to a series of concerts in the area.
Not so much stupid as not thinking everything through. Most American jobs were designed with interchangable workers. In fields like software development, talent isn't a recognisable commodity to the boards of directors. Want to cut development costs? Dump the expensive American coders with interchangeable $OFFSHORE_NATION coders. They're cheaper.
Since talent isn't looked at, from the beancounters' viewpoint, outsourcing is win-win. And they're the first to bitch when the $OFFSHORE_NATION coders have problems understanding the initial design of the application.
Here in La Zona, food is taxed, if it's prepared and served to you, like in a restaurant. But it's just the local sales tax being applied. Food you buy in the grocery store isn't.
Viewing the Congresscritters in office at the moment, I tend to believe that it won't go through. The 'Spacer' faction is just too small to defend the budgets.
What Shuttle could have given us was a delivery of a couple 'transfer stations', modular components for a small station to build 'lunar ferries' to build a fucking colony via the earth orbital rendevous flight profile. The crew would dock and transfer to a ferry in Earth orbit, fly it to the Moon and land in it, do the mission, then return to Earth orbit, dock with the landing capsual, transfer back, and leave the lunar ferry in orbit for the next lunar mission.
Now, park the lunar ferries (say, 3 or 4 of them) at a transfer station itself, built from components, and big enough to 'wetdock' a ferry to do any needed repairs or upgrades for the next set of flights as well as science on any samples, etc. I'm thinking we coulda done this for a few measly billion...
Presidential succession goes from Prez to VP, to Speaker of the House, to President Pro Tempore of the Senate, to Secretary of State. Now, if we loaded the Prez, VP, & all the Congresscritters up on the Shuttle & blow it up, the 'next one standing' is Hillary Clinton.
So, think very carefully about that idea...
I am a US citizen, so the cutbacks really piss me off.
Middle management, yeah. But not department heads. Col Lindsey is chief of the Astronaut's Office. Col Drew is currently Director of Operations at Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center at Astrograd.
Not if Congress has its way. It'll get the ax in favor of more entitlements for the rich & not famous.
Robert Heinlein once said that humans will colonise space, but not to count on them speaking American English.
And yeah I'm bitter that they didn't pick me.
I'm not a gamer, but there are a couple MMOs that use p2p to issue game updates and such.
I know women who believe that. Never bothered dating them, they were just too weird for me...
Because of the money, of course. The Usual Suspects believe that any time a file is shared they're losing out on revenue that is their God-given right to collect on forever and ever and ever, Amen.
Seriously, dood, you must be new here...
They mark trees to be culled with a big red X painted on them. Howbout we mark the lawyers with Bluetooth headsets?