Went to the store yesterday, the grocery store that is, to find something for dinner, something cheap, non budget busting, yet filling and hopefully flavorful. This economic downturn with its rising food prices has sent me scurrying back to the days of when I was trying to become a vegan. In other words rationalizing my inability to buy meat with my meager food allowance.
I Convinced myself I was trying to eat healthier by eliminating meat and becoming vegetarian.
Never made it. Did good for several years until I developed a protein deficiency and had to return to a meat fix for a quick protein fix. And I will admit it, I'm a happy carnivore. I like my ribs, once in a while.
But you see, at the time I didn’t like beans and you need them for protein if you don't eat meat. But I wouldn’t eat them, not no way not no how. Except for green beans, either raw or french cut. Love those.
But I’m talking about black beans, navy beans, great northern beans, or black eyed peas...didn’t have to eat them growing up and didn’t want to start once I grew up. I like my mom’s baked beans. But that’s like eating candy, way too much sugar and bacon in them, but man are they good.
However, I’ve had two people come into the my life who like beans, and knew how to cook them so that I would like them. Then they gave me the recipes. So now with the downturn in the economy, if I’m short on funds I can compensate by buying bag of beans, finding some smoke turkey parts, adding some seasonings, some onion and garlic and a jalapeno pepper, tossing it into a crock pot and I’m good to go. I even have enough to freeze for other days.
So anyway, I was cruising the meat counter looking for some less expensive cheap cuts and came across a package of meat marked "miscellaneous." It caught my eye because it looked funny, you know what I’m talking about....unidentifiable parts of obvious meat, but from what animal..kind of funny looking.
The meat wasn’t fresh. Looked like it hadn’t been fresh for a couple of weeks but it was still on sale. At first glance it looked like fat fingers cut from the hand of a very big man. That’s why I picked it up to look closer. With further exploration the parts must have been chicken wing parts mixed with cut up parts from other parts of chicken, I think. However they looked like stuff that must have been scooped up from the floor of the butcher shop, and shrink wrapped onto one of those Styrofoam trays.
And it was marked "miscellaneous."
We all know what mystery meat is.....all of us grew up eating it in school lunch rooms across the country at least once a week. My school even served spam for lunch. Spam is the original mystery meat. We trusted mystery meat, because we were hungry and we really didn’t think our school was out to poison us.
But miscellaneous meat? Makes you wonder what’s going on.
I know that back in the day, people ate all parts of all animals..but they knew the animal and at least you could recognize what you’re eating.
This was not recognizable at all. I guess the butcher shop has been told to sell everything edible.
Well it may be edible but I think to sell it, people need to be able to identify it first. Especially since no one trusts big business to do the right thing in the first place.
I looked at that package and immediately thoughts of Charleton Heston jumped into my brain...
You know the one...at the end of the movie SOYLENT GREEN...when he discovers just what Soylent Green is actually made of..................
"Soylent Green is People!"
Ugh!
2.28.2009
2.24.2009
Pre-State of the Union Address
Bold, Inspirational Strokes in Tough Times....
After listening to Bobby Jindal deliver the GOP response to Obama tonight....Obama’s biggest opponent in coming days, will be himself.
He made some mighty big promises tonight. It remains to be seen if he can deliver. Personally, I feel that he can...
The GOP response that Jindal gave was written before Obama took the podium. But, it may as well have been written 30 years ago for all that was said, because nothing new was said, by the thin brown hope from Louisiana.
Like his party, Bobby Jindal is dead on arrival. There was no warmth in his delivery. There was nothing that made you want to embrace him. In 37 years on earth, he hasn’t yet learned to smile with his eyes....
There is a coldness that comes from his eyes, that makes me uncomfortable.
His delivery almost makes me believe that zombies do exist in the voodoo land bayous of Louisiana, and one of them has made it to the governor’s mansion.
By the same token, Obamaville is alive and well and holding a tent revival on Capital Hill. The Repubs in the Chamber were trying to be cool..But their body language gave them away...
They actually like this guy....Even if they don’t agree with his politics....He makes them feel good and they can’t hide it....They smiled....they laughed...they applauded and they sought his autograph as he walked by....
Rather than trying to return this country to the politics and policies of failure...Maybe Jindal would be better off writing a speech to explain to the unemployed of Louisiana just why he is refusing stimulus money to extend their benefits...
And rather than go on TV to do it ....call everybody together in a town hall setting and tell them in person where he has to look them directly in their eyes....
After listening to Bobby Jindal deliver the GOP response to Obama tonight....Obama’s biggest opponent in coming days, will be himself.
He made some mighty big promises tonight. It remains to be seen if he can deliver. Personally, I feel that he can...
The GOP response that Jindal gave was written before Obama took the podium. But, it may as well have been written 30 years ago for all that was said, because nothing new was said, by the thin brown hope from Louisiana.
Like his party, Bobby Jindal is dead on arrival. There was no warmth in his delivery. There was nothing that made you want to embrace him. In 37 years on earth, he hasn’t yet learned to smile with his eyes....
There is a coldness that comes from his eyes, that makes me uncomfortable.
His delivery almost makes me believe that zombies do exist in the voodoo land bayous of Louisiana, and one of them has made it to the governor’s mansion.
By the same token, Obamaville is alive and well and holding a tent revival on Capital Hill. The Repubs in the Chamber were trying to be cool..But their body language gave them away...
They actually like this guy....Even if they don’t agree with his politics....He makes them feel good and they can’t hide it....They smiled....they laughed...they applauded and they sought his autograph as he walked by....
Rather than trying to return this country to the politics and policies of failure...Maybe Jindal would be better off writing a speech to explain to the unemployed of Louisiana just why he is refusing stimulus money to extend their benefits...
And rather than go on TV to do it ....call everybody together in a town hall setting and tell them in person where he has to look them directly in their eyes....
A SPORTS SEQUE
What has happened to American Women’s tennis...there are only two Americans in the top ten in the World and both of them are named Williams...
Serena ranks number one
Venus ranks 5th
Venus also won Dubai this past weekend and she had to beat Serena along the way.
Work it, Girls!
The next ranked American after Venus is ranked 38th...after that it’s Jill Craybas at 89th...
And that’s it for the top 100
-0-
The one legged golfer aka Tiger Woods is back this week...This time the man has two good legs...Ought to be fun to watch...
-0-
I like Charles Barkley...I realize he has to do his time..
But he seems like such a happy drunk...
He’ll be okay..
One of the cooler guys in sports...
The Round Mound of Rebound..still is..
-0-
Serena ranks number one
Venus ranks 5th
Venus also won Dubai this past weekend and she had to beat Serena along the way.
Work it, Girls!
The next ranked American after Venus is ranked 38th...after that it’s Jill Craybas at 89th...
And that’s it for the top 100
-0-
The one legged golfer aka Tiger Woods is back this week...This time the man has two good legs...Ought to be fun to watch...
-0-
I like Charles Barkley...I realize he has to do his time..
But he seems like such a happy drunk...
He’ll be okay..
One of the cooler guys in sports...
The Round Mound of Rebound..still is..
-0-
2.19.2009
Taking the GOP Gangsta!
Michael Steele Looking for Street Cred to Win Back the White House
Michael Steele is promising an "off the hook" campaign to get the GOP back on track and in control of America. He said today that he is going to make the republican message resonate in the "urban-suburban" setting so that even "one armed midgets" will understand...
After I picked myself up off the floor from laughing so hard, I got this picture in my head...well actually two pictures....One of Steele in street cred gear..or his version of it.....sideways ball cap...oversized Shaquille O’Neal jersey over a white tee...unbelted cut off at the knees big jeans sagging to reveal his Calvin Klein undies... with socks and orange colored Jordans....big gold chain around his neck...standing behind the podium throwing up Dick Nixon peace signs at a room full of old white guys in too thin ties, white shirts, brooks brothers suits and wing tips shoes....
The other picture came from my teenage days....remember when white people didn’t know how to dance...couldn’t find the rhythm with a flashlight? The hipper kids at high school always turned to us to teach them how to move...
Well that’s where the GOP is now...searching for the rhythm...to help them dominate the dance floor again....
Trouble is...they’ve asked Urkle to teach them how to dance....
Sad....
Michael Steele is promising an "off the hook" campaign to get the GOP back on track and in control of America. He said today that he is going to make the republican message resonate in the "urban-suburban" setting so that even "one armed midgets" will understand...
After I picked myself up off the floor from laughing so hard, I got this picture in my head...well actually two pictures....One of Steele in street cred gear..or his version of it.....sideways ball cap...oversized Shaquille O’Neal jersey over a white tee...unbelted cut off at the knees big jeans sagging to reveal his Calvin Klein undies... with socks and orange colored Jordans....big gold chain around his neck...standing behind the podium throwing up Dick Nixon peace signs at a room full of old white guys in too thin ties, white shirts, brooks brothers suits and wing tips shoes....
The other picture came from my teenage days....remember when white people didn’t know how to dance...couldn’t find the rhythm with a flashlight? The hipper kids at high school always turned to us to teach them how to move...
Well that’s where the GOP is now...searching for the rhythm...to help them dominate the dance floor again....
Trouble is...they’ve asked Urkle to teach them how to dance....
Sad....
2.14.2009
Some Thoughts on the Stimulus Bill
Thinking about the stimulus drama of the past week, reminded me of a Nina Simone set during the Jazz Festival in Cincinnati Ohio, one year when it was really a Jazz Festival, back in the day.
At one point during her set, Ms. Simone wanted the audience to join her in singing the Black National Anthem-Lift Every Voice. She said she wanted all Black people in the audience to sing, and she told the white people in the audience to sit quietly because:
"it’s not that we don’t like you...it’s just that we choose to ignore you, right now."
I think Barack Obama should take that approach to the GOP on Capital Hill. He is wasting too much time and drama trying to get these fools to see that they need to change their thinking and way of doing things. Bipartisan is great when it happens.
But it’s like trying to cure an addict of his addiction-it’s not going to happen unless the addict is ready for it to happen. The American people staged an intervention. However it is clear that the GOP has hunkered down inside its padded cell and is refusing to take the meds or to attend counseling sessions.
I say leave them alone. Soon enough, they will get hungry and be willing to come out into the light.
And Paul Krugman et al who are painting this stimulus bill as a sorta defeat for Obama....C’mon now..As I write this Obama STILL has not been in office a month yet and already he’s a step closer to delivering help to the American people..No it wasn’t pretty if you were waiting for a bipartisan love fest...
Yes, there were stumbles....But then even Neo failed to make his first jump....so lighten up...it’s early...way early....Congress is still obviously filled with Mr. Smiths....not the updated ones...the old ones...who have limited speed....and their age is showing...
Obama has got to learn how to control the message better...The GOP is still boss when it comes to getting its talking points in the mainstream talk fests that pass as news, while the real message gets covered up and drowned out...
So let’s move on...there is still much work to do..
At one point during her set, Ms. Simone wanted the audience to join her in singing the Black National Anthem-Lift Every Voice. She said she wanted all Black people in the audience to sing, and she told the white people in the audience to sit quietly because:
"it’s not that we don’t like you...it’s just that we choose to ignore you, right now."
I think Barack Obama should take that approach to the GOP on Capital Hill. He is wasting too much time and drama trying to get these fools to see that they need to change their thinking and way of doing things. Bipartisan is great when it happens.
But it’s like trying to cure an addict of his addiction-it’s not going to happen unless the addict is ready for it to happen. The American people staged an intervention. However it is clear that the GOP has hunkered down inside its padded cell and is refusing to take the meds or to attend counseling sessions.
I say leave them alone. Soon enough, they will get hungry and be willing to come out into the light.
And Paul Krugman et al who are painting this stimulus bill as a sorta defeat for Obama....C’mon now..As I write this Obama STILL has not been in office a month yet and already he’s a step closer to delivering help to the American people..No it wasn’t pretty if you were waiting for a bipartisan love fest...
Yes, there were stumbles....But then even Neo failed to make his first jump....so lighten up...it’s early...way early....Congress is still obviously filled with Mr. Smiths....not the updated ones...the old ones...who have limited speed....and their age is showing...
Obama has got to learn how to control the message better...The GOP is still boss when it comes to getting its talking points in the mainstream talk fests that pass as news, while the real message gets covered up and drowned out...
So let’s move on...there is still much work to do..
2.12.2009
Questions...Questions!
If Women Ruled the World
It wouldn’t be in the shape it’s in now. ...that’s not me...that’s a study released today saying that the reason men screw things up is that they don’t use both sides of their brain, have too much testosterone and are too impetuous...so what else is new!
But.....I don’t like the idea of a totally woman driven world either...Sitting around while a group of women "process" and "discuss" is like getting my teeth pulled with no anesthetic...
Let’s let women with more than an average dose of testosterone handle things... Trinity, Storm and Zena to rule the world, maybe? How about a little Callisto for crazy to keep it interesting..yeah...let’s send Callisto after Osama B...Bet she could find his cave....
-0-
Mr. President,
I’m all for bipartisan workings...however the GOP has demonstrated very loudly that it doesn’t give two s**** in a tin can about this country. You tried to get them to help...you failed...not because of anything you did...but because they don’t want you to succeed... and they think that electing a black man as their chairman is going to magically erase their inbred racist tendencies.....F*** Em if they can’t take a joke...
Let’s move on shall we..the country needs help and the stimulus package is only the beginning..
-0-
Salmonella Blues
Why is the peanut butter fool still walking around free? We have plenty of jail cells. This man is responsible for 8 deaths and more than 500 getting sick from his stuff. Yet he goes to congress and hides behind the fifth amendment?
Lock him up forever with a diet of pb&j from his factory for as long as he lives..
-0-
KBR
Why is KBR and Haliburton still winning contracts from the government after they got caught paying bribes to Nigerians? KBR paid a fine of 579-million dollars. Doesn’t somebody need to go to jail...Shouldn’t all KBR and Haliburton contracts be terminated and re-rewarded to an honest contractor?
-0-
BUSHCO to Jail
I’m with Congressman Leahy....We should be moving ahead with prosecuting Bush and Company for crimes against America. I don’t think any of them will go to jail, but I do think they need to be made to own up to what they’ve done to this country and the Constitution.
-0-
AIDS CURE?
Reports today that stem cells from a donor have apparently cured a guy of AIDS. He is no longer on the drug cocktail that he has been taking for the past 10 years. I certainly hope this report is true.
It was revealed several years ago that certain white people carrying a gene making them immune to the HIV virus. The stem cell donation in this case, came from a person with that natural immunity.
-0-
Michael Steele
I want to know if Michael Steele and Alan Keyes are the same black man? The GOP uses them interchangeably and you never see them together or at the same time.
Now that Steele has been made Captain of the Titanic, where is Keyes? Did ya’ll stick him back in his trunk to sleep until the need arises for another chocolate covered puppet, who needs a hand up his butt in order to talk?
-0-
PETA
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals....demonstrated outside the Westminster Kennel Club dog show this week, wearing KKK hoods and robes...hmmmmmmmmmm
I’m all for free speech and free expression....However..
Use of imagery that reminds me of the bad old days of being black in America...makes me realize that the bad old days of being black in America still are not over...
Just because we have a black president and a sort a black chairman of the GOP....doesn’t give PETA the right to insult an entire ethnic group.
This is one group that really, really needs to get it’s head out of its ass on a number levels...
-0-
Last Question................How do you drive 17 miles with a body stuck to the under chassis of your van and not realize it...Guy did this in New York last night....Ran over a body...and kept driving....said the van was steering funny............Police are back tracking looking for the victim’s body parts...
It wouldn’t be in the shape it’s in now. ...that’s not me...that’s a study released today saying that the reason men screw things up is that they don’t use both sides of their brain, have too much testosterone and are too impetuous...so what else is new!
But.....I don’t like the idea of a totally woman driven world either...Sitting around while a group of women "process" and "discuss" is like getting my teeth pulled with no anesthetic...
Let’s let women with more than an average dose of testosterone handle things... Trinity, Storm and Zena to rule the world, maybe? How about a little Callisto for crazy to keep it interesting..yeah...let’s send Callisto after Osama B...Bet she could find his cave....
-0-
Mr. President,
I’m all for bipartisan workings...however the GOP has demonstrated very loudly that it doesn’t give two s**** in a tin can about this country. You tried to get them to help...you failed...not because of anything you did...but because they don’t want you to succeed... and they think that electing a black man as their chairman is going to magically erase their inbred racist tendencies.....F*** Em if they can’t take a joke...
Let’s move on shall we..the country needs help and the stimulus package is only the beginning..
-0-
Salmonella Blues
Why is the peanut butter fool still walking around free? We have plenty of jail cells. This man is responsible for 8 deaths and more than 500 getting sick from his stuff. Yet he goes to congress and hides behind the fifth amendment?
Lock him up forever with a diet of pb&j from his factory for as long as he lives..
-0-
KBR
Why is KBR and Haliburton still winning contracts from the government after they got caught paying bribes to Nigerians? KBR paid a fine of 579-million dollars. Doesn’t somebody need to go to jail...Shouldn’t all KBR and Haliburton contracts be terminated and re-rewarded to an honest contractor?
-0-
BUSHCO to Jail
I’m with Congressman Leahy....We should be moving ahead with prosecuting Bush and Company for crimes against America. I don’t think any of them will go to jail, but I do think they need to be made to own up to what they’ve done to this country and the Constitution.
-0-
AIDS CURE?
Reports today that stem cells from a donor have apparently cured a guy of AIDS. He is no longer on the drug cocktail that he has been taking for the past 10 years. I certainly hope this report is true.
It was revealed several years ago that certain white people carrying a gene making them immune to the HIV virus. The stem cell donation in this case, came from a person with that natural immunity.
-0-
Michael Steele
I want to know if Michael Steele and Alan Keyes are the same black man? The GOP uses them interchangeably and you never see them together or at the same time.
Now that Steele has been made Captain of the Titanic, where is Keyes? Did ya’ll stick him back in his trunk to sleep until the need arises for another chocolate covered puppet, who needs a hand up his butt in order to talk?
-0-
PETA
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals....demonstrated outside the Westminster Kennel Club dog show this week, wearing KKK hoods and robes...hmmmmmmmmmm
I’m all for free speech and free expression....However..
Use of imagery that reminds me of the bad old days of being black in America...makes me realize that the bad old days of being black in America still are not over...
Just because we have a black president and a sort a black chairman of the GOP....doesn’t give PETA the right to insult an entire ethnic group.
This is one group that really, really needs to get it’s head out of its ass on a number levels...
-0-
Last Question................How do you drive 17 miles with a body stuck to the under chassis of your van and not realize it...Guy did this in New York last night....Ran over a body...and kept driving....said the van was steering funny............Police are back tracking looking for the victim’s body parts...
2.10.2009
And Babies Make 14!
I’ve been riveted by this story since Nadya Sulieman gave birth a couple of weeks ago to eight babies. Man, you know she’s got PC America in between a rock and a hard place...For instance, how do you talk about someone who:
looks like she may be of Arabic descent....is single...no husband...no boyfriend...lives with her parents...is unemployed and already has six kids at home...three of whom are reportedly disabled... she’s on food stamps, gets disability checks for some of the kids, and....they are all under the age of 8....and...they were all conceived through invitro fertilization...
She looks like she’s had some kind of botox injections to her face...which is her right....she talks and sounds like she is a couple of bricks short of a full load..she says she is just consumed with having babies......my question....is she raising them. Really raising them....or is that her parents job?
She has a mother who is giving interviews and mom seems to be very pissed off...about the whole situation...her daddy has gone back to Iraq to be translator and to make more money for the family...he doesn’t seem like a happy camper either....Mom says she does buy a lot of toys but does little else in the house....
So what do you do?....The medical board may go after her doctor for implanting more than the standard two or three embryos...
But can they really do that? I mean the constitution guarantees a woman’s right to choose...
and she chose to have 14 kids......
limit her right to have the embryos implanted and you’ve got the right to life people on your case...they want all babies conceived, to be born....Okay... but quality of life never enters the argument..
Because I have to wonder....and I’m sure so do a lot of people....what kind of life are these little people going to have?
I hope it’s a good one....Having babies is not a lark, or just something to do....it is one of the most important things a woman can choose to do.....
I also don’t believe that all women should have children... even when they can...you need a license to drive a car....maybe it's time for a license to procreate...
looks like she may be of Arabic descent....is single...no husband...no boyfriend...lives with her parents...is unemployed and already has six kids at home...three of whom are reportedly disabled... she’s on food stamps, gets disability checks for some of the kids, and....they are all under the age of 8....and...they were all conceived through invitro fertilization...
She looks like she’s had some kind of botox injections to her face...which is her right....she talks and sounds like she is a couple of bricks short of a full load..she says she is just consumed with having babies......my question....is she raising them. Really raising them....or is that her parents job?
She has a mother who is giving interviews and mom seems to be very pissed off...about the whole situation...her daddy has gone back to Iraq to be translator and to make more money for the family...he doesn’t seem like a happy camper either....Mom says she does buy a lot of toys but does little else in the house....
So what do you do?....The medical board may go after her doctor for implanting more than the standard two or three embryos...
But can they really do that? I mean the constitution guarantees a woman’s right to choose...
and she chose to have 14 kids......
limit her right to have the embryos implanted and you’ve got the right to life people on your case...they want all babies conceived, to be born....Okay... but quality of life never enters the argument..
Because I have to wonder....and I’m sure so do a lot of people....what kind of life are these little people going to have?
I hope it’s a good one....Having babies is not a lark, or just something to do....it is one of the most important things a woman can choose to do.....
I also don’t believe that all women should have children... even when they can...you need a license to drive a car....maybe it's time for a license to procreate...
2.06.2009
Short Sighted GOP
Do the Republicans REALLY want to filibuster Obama’s stimulus Package?
It’s time for Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi to grow some cojones and get tough about this stimulus package. The GOP members of congress have obviously forgotten the part they played in creating this mess in the first place.
They still think that tax cuts are the answer to everything....even after it’s been shown that is stupid economics. They still think the Americans are dumb and listening to them about what is best for us.
Their philosophy has trashed the middle class..we're losing our homes....we’ve lost our pensions...our savings....our jobs....and our kids and grandkids and great grandkids are going to have pay for this mess....
And they still think we are turning to them for guidance?
The GOP has absolutely NO CREDIBILITY...NONE! Yet they act as if they won the election.. They act as if they are still in the White House and in control....
As for Mr. President.....he didn’t grow up in a black neighborhood.....so he may not readily recognize what is happening in Washington.....
THE GOP IS TRYING TO PUNK, HIM! THEY THINK HE IS SOFT...AND THAT THEY CAN GET OVER ON HIM....
This is the time that you have pull up your drawers and kick ass....plain and simple....or spend the rest of your life running from these fools...
Beat one....you’ve beaten them all.....Take McConnell behind closed doors and dare him to call a filibuster....then arrange a news conference to tell the American people what is happening...then schedule a news conference for McConnell..
And let him explain it to the American people...as to why we don’t need the help that Wall Street and his rich friends do....
It’s time for Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi to grow some cojones and get tough about this stimulus package. The GOP members of congress have obviously forgotten the part they played in creating this mess in the first place.
They still think that tax cuts are the answer to everything....even after it’s been shown that is stupid economics. They still think the Americans are dumb and listening to them about what is best for us.
Their philosophy has trashed the middle class..we're losing our homes....we’ve lost our pensions...our savings....our jobs....and our kids and grandkids and great grandkids are going to have pay for this mess....
And they still think we are turning to them for guidance?
The GOP has absolutely NO CREDIBILITY...NONE! Yet they act as if they won the election.. They act as if they are still in the White House and in control....
As for Mr. President.....he didn’t grow up in a black neighborhood.....so he may not readily recognize what is happening in Washington.....
THE GOP IS TRYING TO PUNK, HIM! THEY THINK HE IS SOFT...AND THAT THEY CAN GET OVER ON HIM....
This is the time that you have pull up your drawers and kick ass....plain and simple....or spend the rest of your life running from these fools...
Beat one....you’ve beaten them all.....Take McConnell behind closed doors and dare him to call a filibuster....then arrange a news conference to tell the American people what is happening...then schedule a news conference for McConnell..
And let him explain it to the American people...as to why we don’t need the help that Wall Street and his rich friends do....
2.05.2009
The Drug War, White Women and Racism
A Comment on Michael Phelps Drug Use....The Need to Legalize Drugs
America’s latest sports hero turns out to have feet of clay, just like the rest of them. They are simply human and caught up, just like the rest of us, except they have more money. Michael Phelps will swim through this like he cuts through water...
However, there is a deeper thing going on here....America’s bogus war on drugs. The war on drugs has been going on officially since 1875 in this country. That is when the first anti drug law was passed. It happened in San Francisco and it wasn’t about health or the fact that drugs are bad for you. It was about racism, like everything else in this country. The history of the war on drugs in America was begun because of prejudice against the Chinese.
In 1875, the first anti-drug law was passed because officials at the time were afraid of Chinese men luring white women into sexual activities by using opium. In the early 1900's, a “Negro Cocaine Fiend” was talked and written about as someone who was prone to violent sexual rampages, again, against white women. So cocaine went on the watch list as something to keep away from blacks. But it was still okay for white people.
Marijuana was outlawed in 1937. It was a law directly aimed at Mexican migrant workers who were crossing the borders to get jobs during the Great Depression Marijuana was supposed to promote violence within the so called “degenerate races”. However, nowhere in the history of the war on drugs is this violence in evidence. It’s never been verified even today in modern times. There is not one verified case anywhere in America of a marijuana fueled overdose or violent attack of some kind.
Any college student can tell you what happens when you smoke a joint. You get happy and hungry, that’s all. The American government puts out statistics that tell us that nearly all drug busts are for drug dealing.....That’s not true....Most drug busts...and you have to look at government stats unfiltered....and you will see that most drug busts are for having a joint...one joint...not dealing....just having some pot...on your person...or in your car... that's possession, not trafficking....And these people are being sent to jail...over and over and over...
Drug laws actually go back even further to the days of the “discovery” of America by the Spanish and Europeans. First Native Americans were conquered by the invading Europeans and Spanish, then they were victimized by the first anti drug laws created by the Spanish conquistadors bent on converting Native Americans to Christianity. Before Christopher Columbus thought he’d discovered America, Native Americans and their Mexican cousins practiced religion which included the use of hallucinogenic drugs derived from the peyote cactus. The drug is called mescaline.
Spanish explorers spent as much time trying to make religious converts as they did stealing land and killing people. The explorers equated mescaline use, not with religion, but with cannibalism and witchcraft. More lies to make their point. So they passed laws banning the chewing of the cactus plant. They successfully drove the religious practices underground for the next four centuries.
During the civil war a Native American Shaman brought back the practice and by mixing it with Christianity and a belief in Jesus, was able to spread the hybrid religion which used mescaline, to other tribes as far north as Canada. In 1918 the Native American Church was formed to preserve the peyote practices. However, states continued to pass laws making Native Americans felons for simply practicing their religious beliefs. In 1970, Congress passed the Controlled Substance Act, which specifically prohibited the use of peyote. Although the Native American Church was automatically issued an exemption, the possession of peyote became subject to federal regulation.
Up until 1990, federal courts refused to penalize Native Americans, by repeatedly affirming their right to sacramental use of peyote or mescaline, within the confines of the Native American Church, which had grown to have more than 250,000 members.
The war on drugs kicked up its intensity with the coming of the Reagans to the White House and passage of the Rockefeller drug laws with its unequal sentencing for powder and crack cocaine. The Rockefeller drug laws literally painted a target on the backs of black folks..Racial profiling remains the main tool of law enforcement when choosing their targets for prosecution and incarceration.
Black men are stopped for bogus traffic violations. It happens so often that it has a name-driving while Black. While Barack Obama has come out in favor of reforming these archaic drug laws, and for increasing funding for education, and treatment, this new approach will still not go far enough.
Decriminalization of Drugs and an immediate end to the bogus drug war is the only real way to approach this problem. Classic example is the prohibition of alcohol. The country had the same violent, money sucking problems trying to keep alcohol away from people. Even Al Capone favored prohibition, not because he didn’t like alcohol, but because he said it was a great way to make money. Take away the black market, make it legal....new tax base...reduction of violence in neighborhoods...Those who are going to be addicts....make them buy their weed from the state in state stores...just like liquor stores.....
America’s latest sports hero turns out to have feet of clay, just like the rest of them. They are simply human and caught up, just like the rest of us, except they have more money. Michael Phelps will swim through this like he cuts through water...
However, there is a deeper thing going on here....America’s bogus war on drugs. The war on drugs has been going on officially since 1875 in this country. That is when the first anti drug law was passed. It happened in San Francisco and it wasn’t about health or the fact that drugs are bad for you. It was about racism, like everything else in this country. The history of the war on drugs in America was begun because of prejudice against the Chinese.
In 1875, the first anti-drug law was passed because officials at the time were afraid of Chinese men luring white women into sexual activities by using opium. In the early 1900's, a “Negro Cocaine Fiend” was talked and written about as someone who was prone to violent sexual rampages, again, against white women. So cocaine went on the watch list as something to keep away from blacks. But it was still okay for white people.
Marijuana was outlawed in 1937. It was a law directly aimed at Mexican migrant workers who were crossing the borders to get jobs during the Great Depression Marijuana was supposed to promote violence within the so called “degenerate races”. However, nowhere in the history of the war on drugs is this violence in evidence. It’s never been verified even today in modern times. There is not one verified case anywhere in America of a marijuana fueled overdose or violent attack of some kind.
Any college student can tell you what happens when you smoke a joint. You get happy and hungry, that’s all. The American government puts out statistics that tell us that nearly all drug busts are for drug dealing.....That’s not true....Most drug busts...and you have to look at government stats unfiltered....and you will see that most drug busts are for having a joint...one joint...not dealing....just having some pot...on your person...or in your car... that's possession, not trafficking....And these people are being sent to jail...over and over and over...
Drug laws actually go back even further to the days of the “discovery” of America by the Spanish and Europeans. First Native Americans were conquered by the invading Europeans and Spanish, then they were victimized by the first anti drug laws created by the Spanish conquistadors bent on converting Native Americans to Christianity. Before Christopher Columbus thought he’d discovered America, Native Americans and their Mexican cousins practiced religion which included the use of hallucinogenic drugs derived from the peyote cactus. The drug is called mescaline.
Spanish explorers spent as much time trying to make religious converts as they did stealing land and killing people. The explorers equated mescaline use, not with religion, but with cannibalism and witchcraft. More lies to make their point. So they passed laws banning the chewing of the cactus plant. They successfully drove the religious practices underground for the next four centuries.
During the civil war a Native American Shaman brought back the practice and by mixing it with Christianity and a belief in Jesus, was able to spread the hybrid religion which used mescaline, to other tribes as far north as Canada. In 1918 the Native American Church was formed to preserve the peyote practices. However, states continued to pass laws making Native Americans felons for simply practicing their religious beliefs. In 1970, Congress passed the Controlled Substance Act, which specifically prohibited the use of peyote. Although the Native American Church was automatically issued an exemption, the possession of peyote became subject to federal regulation.
Up until 1990, federal courts refused to penalize Native Americans, by repeatedly affirming their right to sacramental use of peyote or mescaline, within the confines of the Native American Church, which had grown to have more than 250,000 members.
The war on drugs kicked up its intensity with the coming of the Reagans to the White House and passage of the Rockefeller drug laws with its unequal sentencing for powder and crack cocaine. The Rockefeller drug laws literally painted a target on the backs of black folks..Racial profiling remains the main tool of law enforcement when choosing their targets for prosecution and incarceration.
Black men are stopped for bogus traffic violations. It happens so often that it has a name-driving while Black. While Barack Obama has come out in favor of reforming these archaic drug laws, and for increasing funding for education, and treatment, this new approach will still not go far enough.
Decriminalization of Drugs and an immediate end to the bogus drug war is the only real way to approach this problem. Classic example is the prohibition of alcohol. The country had the same violent, money sucking problems trying to keep alcohol away from people. Even Al Capone favored prohibition, not because he didn’t like alcohol, but because he said it was a great way to make money. Take away the black market, make it legal....new tax base...reduction of violence in neighborhoods...Those who are going to be addicts....make them buy their weed from the state in state stores...just like liquor stores.....
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