Month: January 2009

With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.

Steven Weinberg, quoted in The New York Times, April 20, 1999
US physicist (1933 – )
Author: harold

The mind of a bigot is like the pupil of the eye. The more light you shine on it, the more it will contract.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
US jurist (1841 – 1935)

Author: harold

WASHINGTON (CNN) — A 13-year-old Arizona girl who was strip-searched by school officials looking for ibuprofen pain reliever will have her case heard at the Supreme Court.

The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether school officials were right to strip-search a student over ibuprofen.

The justices accepted the case Friday for review. They will decide whether a campus setting gives school administrators greater discretion to control students suspected of illegal activity than police are allowed in cases involving adults in public spaces.

Arguments are expected to be heard in April.

Samuel “It is oaky to search 13 year old girls if you think they have drugs on them’ Alito will write the opinion for a 5-4 decision over turning the Appeals Court. Steavens will write the decent. I bet’ya

I wonder what Uncle Paul and Uncle Bob might say about this and Uncle Maxie would give silent approval to whatever they said.

My cousin 4 times removed (The daughter of a deceased cousin of my maternal grandfather) married a man 46 years of age, she was 13 at that time. The gentleman intended to marry her mother but she refused and told him to marry the daughter. My records indicate this took place on May 22, 1919 in Hart County Kentucky. Thing are little different 90 years later.

Author: harold

The intellect of we alcoholics are such we will analyze any activity we engage in, as justified. We do not wish to admit we cannot, without severe consequences, do what others carry out without thought of retribution.

I often use humor that will not be considered as, “You are telling me I can’t…..”, to show powerlessness.

a. Don’t Drink
b. Don’t piss into the wind
c. Don’t pull on Superman’s cape
d. Don’t piss off an alligator until you cross the swamp
e. Don’t go around kicking hornet’s nest
f. Don’t get into a pissing contest with a skunk

Author: harold

Five Essential Things We Must Do to Stop America’s Idiotic War on Drugs

4. Our Veterans Are Self-medicating from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

People use drugs for both pleasure and pain; there is no doubt that much drug use is self-medication. One group that will be dealing with self-medication for a long time is U.S. soldiers returning from war. How does one deal with the pain of having friends die in one’s arms? What does killing other human beings do to one’s emotional stability? What is it like being away from family for a year or more? It’s not hard to imagine how such experiences could lead to post-traumatic stress disorder, which in turn can lead to drug addiction, homelessness and even suicide.
It’s easy to demand that everyone “support the troops.” But if we’re going to talk the talk, we had better be ready to offer compassion and treatment to our brothers and sisters who need to heal from the damages of war. And once more people realize that incarceration for petty drug law violations is not an appropriate response to veterans’ suffering from addiction and depression, then hopefully people will question the logic of giving long jail sentences to others in our society who also could be self-medicating for pain and trauma in their own lives.

This statement does not surprise me. All this drug war bullshit got in gear when our ancestors came home from the Civil War and they were addicted to optimum derivatives and cocaine. Wonder what the cause was? If my memory serves me correctly we dealt with the same in 1975 at the end of the Vietnam War. Reckon we might be on to something here?
Author: harold

eco-guides:
guiding homeowners on the path to sustainability

Hello eco-guides homeowners and service partners!

We hope you enjoyed the holidays and the unusual weather we had in Portland last month.  While we personally got out the sleds and enjoyed the forced slowdown, we didn’t enjoy the spike in our energy bills.  You can read more about that on our new blog.  Look for (not quite daily) tips and musings around all things ‘green’ from your eco-guides at  

eco-guides tips:

• Bookmark our blog, and join us in the discussion of all things “green” in Portland.  Expect more in the near future on solar, good “green” reads and some innovative water conservation devices.
• Attend a Fix-it Fair sponsored by the Portland’s Office of Sustainability.  You might just see Laura Baldschun there acting in her role as Master Recycler.  Congratulations to Laura on completing her course last fall!

eco-guides happenings:

• eco-guides now offers presentations for groups.  If you know of a group that would like to hear more about “Sustainable (Grocery) Shopping” or “Our Path to Lowering Our Carbon Footprint”, let us know.
Let us hear from you – how are you working towards a more sustainable and healthy home?

Kind regards,
Lisa Ard
Owner

Author: harold

I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly.

Michel de Montaigne
French essayist (1533 – 1592)

This 1/11/09 on ABC Paul Gigot said, ” In the Reagan years we built aircraft carriers to win the cold war.” You gotta be a Harvard Graduate and a Rhodes Scholar to come up with that bullshit.

We can do a little better than that in KY

Author: harold

I am a manic depressive/alcoholic I have not had a drink for 33 years and I have been stable on mood stabilizers for 23 years. I come in contact with so many people who have come through the court systems that I know to be mentally unstable and are using drugs they think will help their condition. They are my friends. I am convinced the justice system is not the place to help these individuals. We spend so much money on these people via drug prohibition, courts, prisons, that we have forgotten our goals. Many, many of my friends have done nothing to harm our way of life. They are just mentally ill and are searching some form of relief. Most would never be noticed by our society if not for the over zealous effort to enforce drug prohibition laws.

I propose that we stop giving grants to local law enforcement to purchase equipment used to enforce these laws, such as drug sniffing dogs, SWAT equipment, chemical assessment work and many other grant. This would reduce the need for more jails and prisons.

People employed in these fields could be employed as better highway law enforcement, better enforcement of FICA laws, better REGULATED drug laws and etc.

Monies saved could go into local government structure to make our capitalistic system more sound.
Author: harold