Say Yes To Drugs

photo of marijuana mcdonalds pictures

Well, to the end of the prohibition of marijuana, anyway. And other things should be legalized, but we have to do these things slowly, apparently.

For the record, I do not care for marijuana. I do not mind other people using it—I mean, at all. It just is not my thing. And yes, I tried it a few times. It’s effects are minor and do not appeal to me, personally.

If things being unappealing to me were banned, we would live in a world without vegetables or vaginas. But I like the letter V—that’s just an odd coincidence. Um, we would not have summer weather, either. Facial hair, cigarettes, sports, and reality television would be gone forever. It would be a perfect world.

In reality, however, we cannot just ban things because we do not care for them. In most cases, we should not want to ( an exception, cigarettes, are an assault upon everyone around you, smelling awful and impairing their health—do it in private, and that means not around anyone else in your house, either—like using the bathroom, and for similar reasons). Personal recreational use of drugs is such an intuitive human right that I find it mind-boggling that that it is illegal anywhere in the civilized world, and yet it is.

There are a few drugs that present clear dangers to others than those who take them. Meth, of course. In addition to the alarming behavioral differences seen in meth-users, the making of the material is a tremendous health hazard—and potentially explosive. Even long after those who had been preparing the drug are gone, the homes in which they make it can make unwitting new residents sick. PCP is another example of a drug that sometimes makes quite reasonable people into crazed lunatics. For the most part, other recreational drugs, including a number of “hard drugs,” do not make people into dangerous people unless the people in question were fairly on-edge to begin with. Similarly, no one starts a drunken fight that they would not have considered starting when sober.

Colorado and Washington passed ..

Continue reading



You Might Also Like ...

Is This the Best Way to Immortalize the Mother of British Feminism?

Picture of Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft, a major figure in British feminism, has been lighting up the circuits.

Literally.

In an attempt to raise money to erect a statue of Wollstonecraft, a hologram of her image graced a wall of the Palace of Westminster (a.k.a. “the mother of all parliaments”) as part of a campaign known as “Mary on the Green”.

From The Guardian:

Campaigners are aiming to raise £240,000 to pay for the statuary on Newington Green, in north London, near the site of Wollstonecraft’s former home and the school where the radical 18th-century campaigner taught. They also spent two hours handing out leaflets and promoting the fact that 77 supportive MPs have already signed a petition, including Jeremy Corbyn MP, who masterminded the turning out of the lights overlooking the Thames.

Whether or not a statue is the best way to memorialize the Vindication of the Rights of Women author has become significant as it underscores the lack of women literally captured in stone, evidently a worldwide problem.

Of the 5,193 public outdoor sculptures of famous people in the US, for example, only 394, or less than 8%, are of women, compared with 4,799 of men, according to the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Art Inventories Catalog.

Earlier this year, Lynette Long, a Washington area psychologist and founder of Eve (Equal Visibility Everywhere) told the Young Feminists network in the US that this imbalance had a negative impact on young girls and their sense of equality. “Humans tend to trust the nonverbal, and the statues send a very clear nonverbal message. Girls can’t be what they can’t see,” she said.

So why go to all the trouble to get Wollstonecraft’s image out to the masses?  It might be as simple as the fact that statues of women, such as they are, tend to be of a generic nature.  While there’s the odd Abigail Adams or Phillis Wheatley commemoration, in general men rule the stone world.

Oh, and as to why this is making headlines?  It might have something to do with this …

The last time an image of a woman made headlines for its projection on the House of Commons it was a naked Gail Porter to promote a poll to find the world’s sexiest women. At least this time it is to publicise a campaign to honour one of our most radical and important writers.

So, what do you think?



You Might Also Like ...

Hanky Panky Allegations Catching Up With Herman Cain?

Photo of Herman Cain with Hands Spread

It kind of goes without saying that, whenever a politician starts to gain celebrity status, the skeletons start rattling out of the closets.  Sometimes it makes a difference, other times it doesn’t seem to matter much at all (Bill Clinton pops up in my mind here).

Allegations of sexual misconduct on the part of a Republican presidential candidate, particularly given the current political climate, are problematic, though.

Okay, I get really pissed off on a personal level when accusations of sexual hanky panky running the gamut from verbal harassment to rape are ignored.  That being said, though, I realize that there are some truly horrible women that play that card for all it’s worth (which, in my opinion, makes them almost as bad as sexual predators since they’ve in large part caused the automatic assumption of lies on the part of actual victims).

But back to Herman Cain, who’s the latest to fall under the almost par-for-the-course accusations of sexually inappropriate behavior …

Continue reading



You Might Also Like ...

Only the Rich Eat Healthy?

Photo of Grilled Salmon On Leafy Greens

inflatable sumo suitinflatable sumo suit

There’s a constant message in society today to eat healthy.  You get the message everywhere, it seems, from slams of McDonald’s to suggested ways of incorporating healthy eating into your diet.

But is there a socioeconomic disconnect between the possibility of eating “good foods” as recommended by new nutritional guidelines and the ability to do so?

Perhaps.

From Fox News:

An update of what used to be known as a food pyramid in 2010 had called on Americans to eat more foods containing potassium, dietary fiber, vitamin D and calcium. But if they did that, the journal Health Affairs said, they would add hundreds more dollars to their annual grocery …

Continue reading



You Might Also Like ...