Stoners need a makeover!

Stoners need a makeover!

I've always said stoners are our own worst enemy when it comes to how the non-toking citizens perceive us. What is the first image that comes to mind when you hear the term stoner? Is it Jeff Spicoli? How about Cheech & Chong? Ok then there's a "Friday" in the title right? :D

While I wouldn't change a single thing about stoner movies the problem is many non-tokers don't get our humor. They don't 'get it', all they see is the stereotype stupid stoner and believe yep...that's it, that's how they all are. Naturally without the stereotypes the humor is not there to begin with and like all good stereotypes they are all based in truth. Also like all good stereotypes it's not the rule it's the exception.

The gateway drug theory

The gateway drug theory, stoner PR and COPS.

There are no gateway drugs, stoners need a make-over and COPS...well...

CNN helps stir the cannabis pot!

CNN helps stir the cannabis pot!

Sorry I just couldn't help myself. :)

I love that CNN is stirring the debate about cannabis legalization but Ruben Navarrette Jr.'s OP-ED piece "Legal pot in California a big mistake" is wrong, misinformed and to be honest at times, a bit scary.

I'm glad to see mainstream media outlets giving more exposure to the topic of ending cannabis prohibition. CNN along with other outlets such as CNBC and the WSJ have been giving a good amount of air time recently to the topic and I think that's exactly what needs to happen if this country is ever going to come to it's senses.

I believe nationally syndicated columnist, NPR commentator and regular contributor to CNN.com, Ruben Navarrette Jr. to be...one of the senseless.

Obama fiddles on as the 43rd Presidency slowly slips beneath waves of oil in the Gulf of Mexico.

Obama fiddles on as the 43rd Presidency slowly slips beneath waves of oil in the Gulf of Mexico.

Do I really need to say more than defining moments for readers to know exactly what I'm talking about?

Mr. President if the worst man made environmental disaster in history is not a defining moment for your presidency sir I have no idea what the hell has to happen to make it on the list.

Not only has this president dropped the ball in handling the situation but the people around him are either too stupid to see it or they don't have the balls to stand up and say something. Mishandling the situation would be bad enough but for reasons I would LOVE to hear Mr. Obama explain he has refused to allow foreign ships to enter U.S. waters to help. Are you serious? Ships I should add that were designed specifically for dealing with oil leaks. Both the clean up and stopping the damn leak. Manned with experienced crews.

Skimmer vessels that could help save the coast lines, it's inhabitants and wildlife of over 25% of the continental U.S. Not to mention all the island and other countries that will no doubt see some part of the oil from this leak.

What the hell is going on?

Trust me I'm just getting started so please do hit the link and read on.


A 1920's protectionist trade law prohibits these foreign ships from entering U.S. waters and although the president has the power to suspend the law in situations like this he has refused to do so. Bush did it many times and needed no prodding to suspend the law after Katrina. Why on EARTH would the man refuse the aid our kind friends around the would are offering? Especially when we're not talking about aid in the form of supplies we already have here and are mobilizing "as we speak". No this is very skilled aid being offered during the worst man made environmental disaster in history.

Meanwhile oil continues to gush into the gulf at a rate that started out at Oh don't worry it's only 1000 barrels a day, we'll get it plugged and cleaned up in a jiff to a staggering 35,000 - 60,000 BARRELS of oil a day. That was the last official estimate from the head of the coast guard but MSNBC was reporting that the expert came up with that range said the coast guard misquoted him, that's the range for the LOW END of his estimate and he really has no idea just how how high the high end could be.

35,000 barrels a day. In US barrels that is 42 gallons per barrel. Imagine 42 jugs of milk right? Times 35,000 is 142,000 gallons. 35K is the lowest estimate, we have room, lets call it 150K gallons a day. PER DAY. For the last 60 days comes to a grand total of nine MILLION (9,000,000) US gallons of raw crude oil dumped into the gulf and counting.

One of the other things that has me pissed in all this is the people saying we should continue current drilling operations because of a fairly safe track record. I fully understand and support the plight of oil company workers who have been affected by this industry shutdown and if there are any kudos belonging to the Obama administration in this debacle is the agreement worked out with BP part of which is a $100 million dollar fund to make sure all these oil company workers now out of work get paid like nothing happened. I have no idea who's ideas belong to whom in this deal, whether it's a matter of BP stepping up with this plan to do the absolute right thing or if the White House had to negotiate for it. Either way I don't care BP is doing the right thing and the President made sure to get ample funds secured from BP to cover both those out of work oil workers wrongly affected by this and $20 BILLION dollars to go to legitimate claims made from people who's lively hoods have suffered. These funds are on top of BP paying the cost of clean up. Kudos to BP for doing the right thing and Obama for making sure everyone is covered. Back to what's pissing me off. What the people saying "keep drilling" don't understand is what they are really saying is the same the thing Russians said when they built nuclear power plants like chernobyl with no containment systems.

I saw an interview with one of the men who was on the clean up crew after the first accident exposed the reactor core at chernobyl who said the official Russian thinking on containment systems at the time was "Russian built nuclear power plants wont blow up, their Russian made". No kidding.

The Russians blew up some steam pipes or something doing some tests and it ripped part of the building off exposing the core to the atmosphere and tossing a radioactive dust cloud around the globe. It's bad but nowhere near the potential world of hurt a reactor core melt down like what happened at three mile island could have turned into. The core went into meltdown exposing the core but because we planned for the worst case scenario and built containment systems I don't have a constant green glow on the horizon to my west.

Our respective track records of "running reactors safely" had nothing to do with it. No the difference was we had a containment system that worked.

The oil industry has no containment system. It's 60 days later and you people have no idea how to stop the leak. I understand a problem of this nature and magnitude is always a unique situation that has to be assessed to find the right solution but oil companies have a responsibility to do as much research and development into dealing with worst case disasters like this.

R.I. Office of Health Regulations Files Final Rules and Regulations Relating to the Medical Marijuana Program [R21-28.6-MMP]

In an email to any interested parties the Office of Health Regulations has announced they have filed the final rules and regulations for the states new Medical Marijuana Program. [R21-28.6-MMP] These amendments take effect March 18, 2010.

The Rhode Island Dept. of Health will license 3 non-profit compassion centers to grow and distribute medical marijuana to an unlimited number of patients in the state. R.I.'s MMJ law, one of 14 states to allow sick people access to medical marijuana, also allows for patients to grow their own or designate a caregiver to grow up to 12 mature plants (defined as "plant which has flowers or buds that are readily observable by an unaided visual examination") AND 12 immature plants (defined as "plant with no observable flowers or buds"). Caregivers are limited to 12 immature plants no matter how many mature plants they are allowed grow. (Caregivers could grow for more than one patient and would be allowed 12 mature plants per patient they care for.)

Timothy Lynch of the Washington Times says the drug czar should go.

Posted by News Moderator 420magazine.com - Drug Czar Should Go

Originally Posted by User
Voters are disgusted by the reckless spending of politicians in Washington. The backlash is coming, so policymakers are now scrambling to do something, or at least be seen as doing something, about the enormous federal debt. Now is a good time for Congress to abolish government agencies that are outdated, dysfunctional or just unnecessary.

A prime candidate for abolition is the office of the so-called "drug czar."

Small Magellanic Cloud

This infrared portrait of the Small Magellanic Cloud, taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, reveals stars and dust in this galaxy as never seen before.

...and it also looks like a squirrel check out the hi-res version and tell me you don't see a squirrel...

clipped from www.nasa.gov Download Image › Full Size› 1600 x 1200› 1024 x 768› 800 x 600 Little Galaxy With a Tail This infrared portrait of the Small Magellanic Cloud, taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, reveals stars and dust in this galaxy as never seen before. T

Great blog on the L.A./Cali medical cannabis battle.

The War on Drugs is a War on Me

A Medical Cannabis Patient's Battle for Freedom and Comfort


Cheryl is an LA resident, MMJ patient and a good writer fighting for what she believes in. Be sure to check her blog out for current info on laws in LA and California in general.

Here is a quote from her blog that should tell you all you need to know to love this woman. *edit* did I mention she's cute?

"Warning to all politicians, don't mess with medical cannabis patients. We know how to fight for our lives, so we sure in the hell know how to fight for our rights."

GO CHERYL!

My personal stash is open for business

Shameless plug here, I've finally got my stash together and thought you might like some of the cool products I've come across.

Shop my personal stash! Powered by Amazon.com

I do not advocate anyone break the law but there are now 14 states where medical cannabis is legal and in some of those states (CHECK YOUR LOCAL LAWS INCLUDING STATE, COUNTY AND CITY BEFORE GROWING CANNABIS FOR PERSONAL MEDICAL USE) patients are allowed to grow enough for personal use. Many of us know the joys of gardening already from growing our own vegetables or flowers so the leap to growing your own meds is a no brainer. For those who don't know how much fun and rewarding keeping a small garden can be, let me explain micro gardening.

Lets take a small vegetable garden for instance.

First there is the satisfaction you get from growing your own healthy foods. Seriously what could be better than that? Knowing exactly where the seeds/plants came from...none of that gene altered frankenplant crap, total control what goes on and in your plants. No harmful pesticides or fertilizers. If you want everything can be 100% organic. Your harvests will be better for you, cheaper and better for the planet. You can't get more local than your backyard or indoor growroow!

Second, gardening is a zen activity. It's one of those things that everyone can learn to do fairly quickly and eventually the actions become so simple that your sub-conscience mind is free to do the amazing things it can do when it no longer has to find something for the rest of your mind/body to do. When it's free from babysitting. A peaceful and relaxing labor that has sewn the seeds to many a great idea and invention I'm sure. It's one of those therapeutic things you come to love to do.

Third, when talking about gardens many people think you need to have a lot of space or a plot of land to garden but today you can grow more than enough vegetables for 1-2 people in a very small space. Even indoors! They also think "work" but tending a small personal garden can be as easy as caring for a few plants. With advances in CFL and LED lighting and in the area of hydroponics growing ultra small or "micro grows" capable of supplying a few people is as easy as having a fish tank. In some ways it's easier!








This is the rest of the post

Remove cannabis revenue from the pockets of narco terrorists.

The business of cannabis is over 100 billion dollars every year in the U.S. alone. A large portion of these funds funnel back to narco terrorists and worse. Legalizing marijuana and allowing for adults to grow their own small gardens would cut this revenue stream that funds terror. It puts money back into American pockets and if done right would create jobs and generate tax revenue.

Cannabis is safer than any other drug on the market. Read the studies and tell me it's not.

Combine all this with the economy and it should be a slam dunk for someone who has toked and has a brain...Mr. Obama.

I would think national security demand we do anything intelligent to undermine the flow of OUR HARD EARNED CASH into the hands of people that would just as soon do us harm and back into our own pockets.

Sometimes it just makes sense to makes changes no matter how unpopular an idea is to the minority. Trust me they will get over it eventually, once they see it helps keep them safe and it's good for the economy.

People need to make our lawmakers aware of how they feel. Once enough see it's an issue that falls squarely in the middle politically and realize, that's a lot of votes...

Pot is not the same as the other dangerous drugs terrorists profit from, I'm not saying legalize those I'm only advocating we take back the funds from cannabis. $50B is a lot of money and that is less than half the market every year. Much less then funnels back I'm willing to bet. That takes a lot of weapons off the streets of the world. Think about it.

Legalize now!

Supreme Court hands down one of the most polerizing decisions in history.

Citizens United v. Federal Election Comm'n

The U.S. Supreme court ruled to remove the ban on corporations and unions to use their own money to fund political media campaigns sighting constitutional rights afforded groups of people under the First Amendment.

While I fully support the First Amendment and would defend it in ALL cases it's quite obvious how this is not a good thing for America. Many people seem to see this as a black or white issue but it really is somewhere in the middle. As far as I see it there can be no argument with that. First Amendment rights are absolute and belong to every person no matter what.

The other side of the coin though is a tough question. Is a corporation the same as "one person" and if so do they deserve the same rights? It's a group of individuals right so it should deserve the right to say something as a group right? I want to argue against this idea but every time I work up a lather I see why the First Amendment protects groups as well as individuals. You can't bar all groups from speaking their views and a corp is a group of shareholders just trying to make money like most of the rest of us. So what do you do?

Campaign reform is the real issue here. Somehow we need to fix that system so it's fair for everyone who wants to run. I don't know what the answer is but there is no way for-profit corporations should be allowed to sway elections with unlimited funds. The president of the United States earns a $400,000 annual salary, along with a $50,000 annual expense account, a $100,000 non-taxable travel account and $19,000 for entertainment. Even if he could pocket it all it's $569,000 a year. Corporate America was spending millions on campaigns under the old laws and this gives ALL corporations (unions too I suppose...) from around the globe the green-light to buy any seat or office they want.

I just thought about foreign unions possibly buying politicians. I'm sure it could be done. Can you imagine what would happen to jobs then? Scary...Just like I don't want my country to be the world police I don't want unfettered access to buying govt. offices and jobs by foreign interests. I don't care if U.S. Citizens are shareholders or not. Property ownership is not the same thing as citizenship. Votes can be cast by anyone without the responsibility of citizenship in the form of money now. Something clearly needs to be done.

Once upon a time it was taxation without representation. Now I think it's representation without citizenship.

We like to think of ourselves as an open society but the truth is we can't afford to be a totally open society. We can not take in everyone in the world. It's just not possible so to think we're an open society and try to act that way when it's not in the best interest of our security is a futile effort. Not to mention disingenuous and just gives the rest of the world something to point at and say "see, the U.S. says one thing but they do another".
By TwistMasterDeluxe

Still suprised at common misconseptions about medical marijuana

The Press of Atlantic City had an article Sunday wherein Robert Goldberg, director of medical oncology at Shore Memorial Hospital in Southern New Jersey is quoted as questioning if some of his patients who have a hard time inhaling now could use it. He has no clue one need not smoke cannabis to use cannabis.

Thank you Project Porchlight!

www.projectporchlight.com

CFLs contain mercury Please recycle where facilities exist
See www.earth911.org

I wanted to thank everyone involved with giving me and almost 3 million other people a free porch light. I was opening a new 4 pack of 15W CFL bulbs converting the rest of our household lighting to low voltage lighting I remembered I had not done that.

These bulbs are great (if you've been living under a rock for a few years and don't already know) I was able to take a two bulb ceiling fixture that put out two much harsh light with 2x60W bulbs and not enough with one 60 or 2x40W to 2x15W CFLs and my eyes feel better already! I use to hate the light in this room and now it's perfect for half the wattage. Bulb prices are great making it THE time if you haven't already done so. Start with one bulb if you have to but trust me it's worth the money.

I still hate the fixture but it's not because of the bulbs anymore :D

I already had a CFL porch lamp when you dropped one off but I'll have you know I put it right to use in this lamp within minutes of someone being on my porch!

I had to laugh because I asked for these for x-mas and I think it's one of the best presents I've ever received. I have to convert the older style fluoros yet but two 23W bulbs are going to do the trick in the bathroom with 3x15W in the kitchen. A savings of over 50% in electric per year on every light we have in the house it's awesome and we can feel like we're doing our part!

Fresh² Odor Eliminating Light Bulbs?

***Update*** Just tried to order the 2 for $19.99 deal on the manufacturers site and had a problem with submitting an order. I'll let you know what happens as soon as customer service gets back to me. You might want to wait to order these or get them from 10000bulbs.com or elsewhere on the web they are available.

A light bulb that eliminate odors...say what?!?

No kidding, and reviews have been good. If I get some of these I'll be sure to post my own.

Fresh² Odor Eliminating Light Bulbs Review

by Judie Lipsett on July 2, 2004 · 14 comments

in Home Tech

Product Requirements:
An uncovered light socket or light
fixture

I am not going to kid you for a moment – when I heard that there was a
light bulb claiming it could eliminate odors, I thought it was the biggest
bunch of flimflammery ever.

But you know me, I am willing to give anything a try…

Technical Consumer Products, Inc. (TCP),
makers of compact florescent lighting, have created a bulb that they claim
will eliminate strong offensive smells such as fish in the kitchen, musty
laundry room odors or even pet smells – kitty box, anyone? Do these bulbs live
up to the hype? We’ll get to that in just a moment. But first I would like to
tell you a little bit more about the fluorescent bulbs themselves…

Fresh² Florescent
Bulbs are similar in style to other compact fluorescent bulbs in that they
resemble a long white tube that has been bent into a spiral and they can be used
in a regular light socket instead of a traditional long fluorescent light
fixture.

Read the full post on the gadgeteer.

Medical Marijuana in NJ. IT'S THE LAW!

Corzine signs medical marijuana bill into law

I'm proud to say I actually lived long enough to see medical marijuana laws passed in NJ, this state has been the WORST in the union for marijuana laws for as long as I can remember so I never really thought I'd see this day. EVER! Even though it's the worst law of the 14 states to legalize medical buds it's a HUGE step forward and a great sign for the future.