Saturday, February 21, 2009

Homecoming Queen a Real Drag, War on Drugs


Shumaker-Matos
Joe Scarborough

A prominent Muslim scholar in Saudi Arabia has warned that those using alcohol-based biofuels in their cars could be committing a sin. - Christian Science Monitor

" Your two languages seem to be bad English and redneck" -Stephen Fowler

Just to show you that some folks have a sense of humor and are not afraid of diversity, here is a story about George Mason University's newly elected homecoming queen. Somehow, it reminds me of my own experience of going out in New York with my girlfriend and her friends. It involved a lot of drinking, beginning at the Hotel Pierre, and ended up in the Village at a basement transvestite karaoke bar, where I met the famous Holly Woodlawn...

"George Mason University senior Ryan Allen dresses in drag and doesn't mind being called a queen - homecoming queen, to be exact. Allen, who is gay and performs in drag at nightclubs in the region, said he entered the homecoming contest as a joke, competing as Reann Ballslee, his drag queen persona.

"I was very touched by how Mason was so supportive through the whole process of allowing a boy in a dress to run for homecoming queen," Allen said in a phone interview. "It says a lot about the campus that not only do we have diversity but we celebrate it."

The senior from Virginia's Goochland County won the pageant Saturday at a sold-out Homecoming basketball game against Northeastern University. Large portions of the crowd cheered as Allen, wearing a gold-sequined top, accepted the tiara and the Ms. Mason 2009 sash."

This morning's Rocky Mountain News had an article on the rise of medical marijuana use in Colorado, and if there's, duh, any fraud being perpetrated by applicants. Of course, state officials were nervous when they realized that all 5,000 applicants were under the age of 32... so they are thinking of tightening the application process. I'd link to the article but whomever does the online edition provided a dead link, perhaps they were partaking of the pain medication and forgot what they were doing?

I'm a firm believer in the use of medical marijuana, especially for people dying of cancer who are in pain 24/7, and for old folks who are chronically depressed because they are very, very old. In each case, to be able to ease pain and suffering is a mercy.

The Christian Science Monitor reports on the latest state to decriminalize: "Massachusetts is not the first state to decriminalize marijuana possession – 12 others have done so. But it is the first since the 1970s to eliminate criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of the drug, even for repeat offenders.

"There were changes in this direction between 1973 and 1978, but then that movement just stopped, and stopped dead," says Peter Reuter, a professor of public policy at the University of Maryland and the former director of the Drug Policy Research Center at the RAND Corp. "It revitalizes a reform movement that had put laws like this on the back burner."

The law makes possession of an ounce or less of pot a civil offense punishable by a $100 fine (with minors required to attend a drug awareness program). At issue are the specifics. Some opponents, including many law enforcement officials, say the law is poorly written and nearly unenforceable. These complaints are accelerating efforts in towns and cities across the state to enact ordinances governing "public consumption," which the law's defenders fear might edge toward recriminalization."

The scary side to the US War on Drugs is that there has been so much violence lately in Mexico, that the state may become destabilized, devolving into a bunch of warlord fiefdoms similar to Somalia. We are going to have to dome serious rethinking and overhauling of our hypocritical attitudes because we are the world's number one consumer of illegal drugs and are indirectly responsible for much of the world's criminal activity.

"About 6,600 Mexicans were killed in fighting involving drug gangs last year, and alarms are going off in this country. The U.S. Joint Forces Command, former drug czar Barry R. McCaffrey, former CIA director Michael V. Hayden, former House speaker Newt Gingrich and any number of analysts have speculated that Mexico is crumbling under pressure from drug gangs."

From ask.com's joke archive, are some classic George Bush quotes. Read 'em and weep:

"One of the very difficult parts of the decision I made on the financial crisis was to use hardworking people's money to help prevent there to be a crisis." --George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Jan. 12, 2009

"I'm telling you there's an enemy that would like to attack America, Americans, again. There just is. That's the reality of the world. And I wish him all the very best." --George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Jan. 12, 2009

"In terms of the economy, look, I inherited a recession, I am ending on a recession." --George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Jan. 12, 2009

"I guess it's OK to call the secretary of education here 'buddy.' That means friend." --George W. Bush, Philadelphia, Jan. 8, 2009

"So I analyzed that and decided I didn't want to be the president during a depression greater than the Great Depression, or the beginning of a depression greater than the Great Depression." --George W. Bush, Washington D.C., Dec. 18, 2008

"People say, well, do you ever hear any other voices other than, like, a few people? Of course I do." --George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Dec. 18, 2008

"I've abandoned free market principles to save the free market system." --George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Dec. 16, 2008

"You know, I'm the President during this period of time, but I think when the history of this period is written, people will realize a lot of the decisions that were made on Wall Street took place over a decade or so, before I arrived in President, during I arrived in President." --George W. Bush, ABC News interview, Dec. 1, 2008

"I've been in the Bible every day since I've been the president." --George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Nov. 12, 2008

"He was a great father before politics, a great father during politics and a great father after politics." --George W. Bush, on his father, George H.W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Nov. 12, 2008

"Yesterday, you made note of my -- the lack of my talent when it came to dancing. But nevertheless, I want you to know I danced with joy. And no question Liberia has gone through very difficult times." --George W. Bush, speaking with the president of Liberia, Washington, D.C., Oct. 22, 2008

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