The Superlative Suppository

Ia Cthulhu F'htagn!

2006-10-10T19:27:00.000-07:00

New cradle of filth video, now every one join me in watching it over and over /fanboy.

Rumors of my demise....

2006-10-10T19:21:00.000-07:00

So I am not dead dispite that run in with a bottle of tequela and random hard objets....anyhow.

Lion 1, God 0

2006-06-10T14:35:00.000-07:00

File this one under "dumb ways to prove there is no god":

A man shouting that God would keep him safe was mauled to death by a lion in a Kiev, Ukraine, zoo after he crept into the animal's enclosure, a zoo official said Monday.

"The man shouted, 'God will save me, if he exists,' lowered himself by a rope into the enclosure, took his shoes off and went up to the lions," the official said. "A lioness went straight for him, knocked him down and severed his carotid artery."

Obligatory Zarqawi is dead post

2006-06-09T12:58:00.000-07:00

One down, I don't even want to think about how many there are lined up behind him. More air for the rest of us anyway.

Now his family wants his carcass back, I think they should get it back, right after it has been dipped in a vat of pig fecal mater.

Happy....ah fuck it

2006-04-16T12:59:00.000-07:00

He died in 30 a.d. GET OVER IT!

RIAA vs iPods

2006-02-27T10:20:00.000-08:00

Now the RIAA wants to ban ripping CDs, I am sure Apple and other makers of MP3 players are thrilled:

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has reversed its position on CD ripping and now wants the practice outlawed.

In a filing to the US government concerning digital rights management the RIAA and other copyright industry associations said the fact that CD ripping is widespread does not make it legal.

...

This is a complete reversal of the RIAA's previous policy. In last year's Supreme Court MGM v. Grokster case a representative of the RIAA described ripping a CD and putting it on an iPod as "perfectly lawful".

Hurt Hurtt

2006-02-24T07:54:00.000-08:00

Houston's police chief recently had a bright idea, force any place that had the cops called out to it more then once to install video cameras with a feed to the local police station. This includes apartment complexes and homes, how does he bely the fears of snooping? Have no fear because:

"I know a lot of people are concerned about Big Brother, but my response to that is, if you are not doing anything wrong, why should you worry about it?" Chief Harold Hurtt told reporters

Now my idea of how to deal with buricrats such as this is to knock them down, sit on their chest and tattoo the forth amendment backwards on their forheads. However, some one has a much better idea that does not involve breaking the law, snoop back:

The Hurtt Prize is a $1595 (and growing) reward for the first person who can provide definitive videotaped evidence of Houston police chief Harold Hurtt committing a crime, any crime. This evidence will posted here and forward to the Houston Police Department along with a demand that action be taken.

I am kicking in $50 and urge any others to throw in whatever they can spare.

Oops

2006-02-12T13:12:00.000-08:00

Add lousy shot to his list of flaws:

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and injured a man during a weekend quail hunting trip in Texas, his spokeswoman said Sunday.

Harry Whittington, 78, was "alert and doing fine" after Cheney sprayed Whittington with shotgun pellets on Saturday at the Armstrong Ranch in south Texas, said property owner Katharine Armstrong.

UPS in smoke

2006-02-08T09:18:00.000-08:00

I swear have had nothing to do with this, honest:

A UPS cargo plane with flames shooting from the back made an emergency landing early Wednesday in time for the pilot and two crew members to jump to safety on the runway.

achoo!

2006-02-07T09:04:00.000-08:00

Fuck look at all this dust.

Right

2005-11-19T12:44:00.000-08:00

I can't open comments, have not posted in ten days, have nothing whatsoever to add to anything that I usually comment on so I will post this link and you will follow it.

Carry on.

The nanny state has long been a cunt

2005-11-09T12:56:00.000-08:00

Turns out that some one has been arrested for wearing a Cradle of Filth tee shirt more then once in the UK, stores have even been raided by the cops to remove the dangerous shirts.

The Nanny State is a Cunt

2005-11-07T16:17:00.000-08:00

Back from yet another hiatus I come with news that makes the home grown nanny stateists not seem quite so intrusive. While here in the US young people typically just get trouble from school system petty dictators for wearing heavy metal tee shirts, in the UK they get arrested:

Adam Shepherd, 19, was reportedly convicted under new anti-hate laws which ban people from displaying religiously insulting signs.

The teenager was arrested after a woman complained to police when she saw his shirt, which shows a picture of a nun in a pornographic pose. On the back is a comment about Jesus [Jesus is a Cunt to be exact]. The top was being worn by Shepherd's girlfriend when a police officer approached her. As soon as the teenager realized there was a problem, he told the officer it was his and swapped tops with his girlfriend. But he refused to take it off or cover it up and was arrested.

Shepherd, who bought the shirt in his hometown of Weymouth, Dorset, admitted the charge. Weymouth magistrates gave him 80 hours community service and told him to pay ÃÂ£40 costs (approx. $71).

To think I actually turned up this story while shopping for a Cradle of Filth shirt.

Today's outrage

2005-10-08T15:07:00.000-07:00

You want to know why I concentrate on the moronic that want to bomb the poor farmers poppy fields into oblivion? This is why:

SHINWAR, Afghanistan In the thirsty hills of Nangarhar Province, debt is a way of life. Every autumn, sharecroppers take loans from drug traffickers to plant their poppy crops. After every harvest, they repay them in poppies, which are turned into heroin.

This year, an eradication effort has sharply cut Nangarhar's poppy cultivation, but the sharecroppers' debts remain. Now, some of the region's poorest farmers say they are being forced to repay traffickers with the only thing they have left: their daughters

This is what eradication means.

Afghan update

2005-10-08T14:22:00.000-07:00

Jumping back onto one of my favored drug war issue, Afghanistan.

It would seem that the peasants there still have this odd attachment to growing the crop that brings them the best returns, opium. The local athorties and the UN have been attempting to presuade them to grow other things by education and other things far too resoanble for the drug warriors:

At a Sept. 28 hearing of the Committee on International Relations, congressmen from both sides of the House called for wholesale eradication of the Afghan opium poppy.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, D-Calif., demanded to know why the Sate Department was not investing more time and money on eradication. Money was already available through the United Nations, he said:

"The U.N. has $12m that they have not spent on doing research on micro-herbicides, which have the potential of totally eliminating the opium crop without affecting other plants," he said. "Why is the State Department so hesitant to step forward on this?"

"You can literally force people to plant alternative crops," said Rep. Dan Burton, R-IN, lending eradication his full support. "If we can come up with a micro-herbicide that works -- and I think we can -- then by, golly, why not use it?"

Now the first thought that this pops into my mind when I hear people talk of chemical warfare against the opium poppy, other then you drooling heartless moron, is that such a program has been implmented in Columbia but has only thusfar brought us a breed of coca immune to the noxious things it is bombed with. This too is far too resoanble for the drug warriors in their view abject failure equates to sucess:

"In Colombia, eradication worked pretty well," Kathy Millar of the UNODC told United Press International.

As usual the government of Afghanistan thinks that destroying the majority of their economy outright is rather, well, stupid and they contend that the eduction in the best means of ending opium production there. But what do they know, it's only their country.

Post #98 or the return of drug war news (I mean it this time)

2005-10-08T13:55:00.000-07:00

So I spent the last few and far between posts bitching about my job, moronic celebrities breeding and whatever other dribble I slammed together and deemed a post so now I will return to the actually purpose of this blog, to comment on the drug war and various other nanny state nonsense. Perhaps I should work on my sentence structure first, mew, whatever.

RANT

2005-10-06T14:08:00.000-07:00

The main disadvantage of working at a job where they will hire anyone with little enough sense to show up, is well they will hire any one that has little enough sense to show up, hell they hired me after all. Every time I think they have finnaly scraped the bottom of the barrle they find some new manner of getting just a little bit more inepitude and idiocy from the neather reigions of lazy fucktards. . One of my new coworkers, who shall be know henceforth as DUMBKOFF, reported an injurty today. Poor baby bumped his head. DUMBKOFF has a #1 hair cut so you can clearly see his scalp and there was not so much as a bump, bruse or mark of any dsecription but due to that walking waste of flesh pipeing up and saying "WAAAAAAAAA! BOSS! I IZ HURT!" and I had little enough sense to be staning next to DUMBKOFF at the time he got hurt with the additonal lack of sense to actualy own up to being in that position I had to fill out a stack of paper work that made the mountants of packages seem like mole hills. From here on out, I did not see it. If the guy falls out of the air plane, next to me and, noticing it is DUMBKOFF, take the chance to jump up and down on his worthless hide leaving my size 13 boot prints all over his rotten carcus, I did not see it happen. Nope boss, not my boots. Those have to be some one ealse with the invterted corsses carved in them, not mine. no, no didnt see it.

/rant

AIDS hits Azeroth

2005-10-05T14:59:00.000-07:00

Well, not quite. This however is rather intresting, it seems that a bug in World of Warcraft has lead to a plague spreading among players. I wonder when/if it will hit smolderthorn, back water relm that it is.

And oh yeah, lvl 47! 60 here I come /WoW addict

Bali update

2005-10-01T13:12:00.000-07:00

The death toll has now climbed to 22 with 50 injured. I would call the Jihadists who did this swine but I would not insult pigs in such a manner.

Music industry takes aim at foot, prepares to fire

2005-10-01T07:17:00.000-07:00

Slashdot is reporting that the music industry is still not happy that iTunes is selling music cheaply and is not only demanding we pay more but threatening to cut them off all together if they do not jack up the price to some acceptably inflated figure.

Give me more money or my toe get it, you hear! I'll do it!

Yet another bombing

2005-10-01T06:33:00.000-07:00

The Jihadists in Indonesia are once more trying to destroy the livelihood of the Balinese Hindus and slaughter more of us Western Infidels, bastards.

At least the reports are saying that this time they have only managed to kill few if any people rather then the scores of dead and wounded of their last attack. But should they actually catch the sorry excuses for humans that did this do not hold your breath for them to get anything that even approaches justice given that the last ones got less then ten years for burning 202 people alive and causing horrific injury to 200 more. Good thing they didn't do something really heinous like carry around the wrong kind of herb.

Hello my name is Sistergeoff....

2005-09-29T13:56:00.000-07:00

....and I am a World of Warcraft addict. Which is the main reason why I never put any effort into this blog any more.

Should you want, need or just desire to harass me in real time I play on the Smolderthorn server and my name there is Sadera.

Must....play....WoW....

Can't blow down brown

2005-09-18T17:16:00.000-07:00

What you thought near total destruction of the entire region was going to keep us from delivering? HA! UPS back in business in Biloxi.

Back to work

2005-09-18T17:03:00.000-07:00

Right, enough wankery, back to the drug war news.

The Drug Policy Alliance blog pointed me to a new anti-drug ad that my tax dollars are being burned for that is simply disturbing. The ad shows how you can hide a joint in a marker and asks "do you know what your kid could be hideing in there?". Parents, seach your kids!

They are breeding!

2005-09-18T16:37:00.000-07:00

RUN!

This just in...

2005-09-07T08:12:00.000-07:00

Bigotry is hurricane proof.

OW! Quit it. OW! Quit it. OW! Quit it. OW...

2005-09-02T16:54:00.000-07:00

I have returned, bloodied, battred, sun burnt and mostly deaf from the glory that is ozzfest. Some short comments prior to my empending collapse:

- Wicked Wisdom was not as bad as I had imagined, they were worse. However I was too mezmerized by Mrs Pinkets' six pack to be that bugged by it.

- Arch Enemy put on possibly the best set of the entire gig but I am biased given I worship the ground that Angela Gossow spits on.

- I am tired, I can't hear a fucking thing, good night.

Do you see a pattern here?

2005-08-31T12:29:00.000-07:00

Well, do you? Fucking terrorists:

August 29: Separatist leaders in a remote northeastern state of Tripura [India] forced their cadre to perform in pornographic films to fund their cause, police said on Sunday, but rebels said authorities were trying to malign them.

Police said surrendered rebels of the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) confessed that such films were sold in India, and neighbouring Bangladesh and Myanmar.

"We have many pornographic CDs with young women and men featuring in these movies which were handed over to us by some surrendered NLFT cadres," Ghanshyam Murari Srivastava, the police chief of Tripura told Reuters.

However, the rebels denied this.

Mind, this is gutter I think you two have met before

2005-08-31T12:27:00.000-07:00

Right, so more porn news:

AP - Malaysia has authorised police officers to carry out random checks and detain people with pornographic images found on their mobile phones.

Phone shop operators who provide downloading services for porn could also be charged for its possession, which is illegal in this Southeast Asian country, the New Straits Times newspaper reported.

The offence carries a maximum punishment of five years in prison and 50,000 ringgit ($A17,500) in fines.

Deputy Internal Security Minister Noh Omar said the decision was in response to an earlier news report in the Malay-language tabloid Harian Metro that teenagers were recording images of mass sex parties and distributing them using their video-enabled mobile phones.

In other porn news

2005-08-31T12:18:00.000-07:00

From Nobody's Buisness:

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and interim U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta have decided to pull federal officers off the Crimes Against Children Unit, which handles child endangerment cases, and assign them to adult porn cases instead.

Not child porn, mind you — we're talking about pictures of grown-ups having consensual sex. Obscenity, it turns out, is a new "top priority" for the Justice Department.

Nice to know they have their priorties in order over at the justice department, stopping adults from fucking so other adults can jack off to it must be stopped! Child porn? Yeah I guess that's bad too but meh.

Note to self

2005-08-31T12:16:00.000-07:00

...keep hard drive away from British nannystateists.

HOLY FUCKING SHIT BATMAN!

2005-08-28T21:15:00.000-07:00

Hear ye, hear ye gentile people of New Orleans RUN FOR IT!:

MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS...PERHAPS LONGER. AT
LEAST ONE HALF OF WELL CONSTRUCTED HOMES WILL HAVE ROOF AND WALL
FAILURE. ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL...LEAVING THOSE HOMES SEVERELY
DAMAGED OR DESTROYED.

THE MAJORITY OF INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS WILL BECOME NON FUNCTIONAL.
PARTIAL TO COMPLETE WALL AND ROOF FAILURE IS EXPECTED. ALL WOOD
FRAMED LOW RISING APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL BE DESTROYED. CONCRETE
BLOCK LOW RISE APARTMENTS WILL SUSTAIN MAJOR DAMAGE...INCLUDING SOME
WALL AND ROOF FAILURE.

HIGH RISE OFFICE AND APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL SWAY DANGEROUSLY...A
FEW TO THE POINT OF TOTAL COLLAPSE. ALL WINDOWS WILL BLOW OUT.

AIRBORNE DEBRIS WILL BE WIDESPREAD...AND MAY INCLUDE HEAVY ITEMS SUCH
AS HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES AND EVEN LIGHT VEHICLES. SPORT UTILITY
VEHICLES AND LIGHT TRUCKS WILL BE MOVED. THE BLOWN DEBRIS WILL CREATE
ADDITIONAL DESTRUCTION. PERSONS...PETS...AND LIVESTOCK EXPOSED TO THE
WINDS WILL FACE CERTAIN DEATH IF STRUCK.

POWER OUTAGES WILL LAST FOR WEEKS...AS MOST POWER POLES WILL BE DOWN
AND TRANSFORMERS DESTROYED. WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING
INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS.

THE VAST MAJORITY OF NATIVE TREES WILL BE SNAPPED OR UPROOTED. ONLY
THE HEARTIEST WILL REMAIN STANDING...BUT BE TOTALLY DEFOLIATED. FEW
CROPS WILL REMAIN. LIVESTOCK LEFT EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL BE
KILLED.

One, two, three awwwww

2005-08-24T17:46:00.000-07:00

Seems the boys in Ironmaden have lost whatever spine they once had:

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Iron Maiden's manager has condemned Ozzfest fans who pelted the band with debris during its performance at the hard rock festival's weekend stop near Los Angeles.

. . .

"The scale, viciousness and concentration of the throwing made it obvious that this was a premeditated and coordinated attack. Assaulting musicians while performing by throwing bottle tops, lighters and eggs at them from just a few yards away is vile, dangerous, criminal and cowardly."

Waaaaaaaaaaaah! Deal with it boys, you suck, you get things thrown at you.

And oh yeah, I got my tickets.

Ship fed-ex damn it, I'm tired

2005-08-22T16:57:00.000-07:00

Blah.

Perils of Twilight

2005-08-09T09:11:00.000-07:00

To the morons that shipped the following:

A open can of brown paint the majority of which is on my pants and the floor of the ware house
Human fecal matter smeared next day envelopes
An unknown creature that had been dead for at least a week prior to being shipped

We know where you live.

That which does not kill me only make me grouchy

2005-07-30T17:30:00.000-07:00

Having now done two weeks of double shifts with another on the way and another after that I am afraid the blog is going to continue getting as little attention as my bed.

You're on your own folks.

Take the bus, or else

2005-07-17T10:03:00.000-07:00

As I have said many times there is nothing like looking at the over seas drug war to make the one here at home look respectful towards peoples' rights. It now turns out that hair brained law suits are actually worse over there as well:

...a group of French cleaning ladies who organised a car-pooling scheme to get to work are being taken to court by a coach company that accuses them of "an act of unfair and parasitical competition".

The women, who live in Moselle and work five days a week at European Union offices in Luxembourg, are being sued by Transports Schiocchet Excursions, which runs a service along the route. It wants the women fined and their cars confiscated.

Two years ago a business tribunal threw out the company's case. It is now pursuing the women in a higher court, saying their action has cost it €2 million ($3.2 million).

The women explained that for many years cleaners used the company line for the 40-minute ride across the border, which cost them €110 a month.

"Using our cars is quicker and at least twice as cheap. And on the bus we didn't have the right to eat or even to speak," said Martine Bourguignon.

You can have my Coke when you pry it from my cold dead ... Wait it's empty, nevermind

2005-07-13T10:50:00.000-07:00

Despite a valiant effort on the part of UPS (three double shifts in a row!) I remain very much alive. Having finally gotten my self away from that labor camp posing as a warehouse and installed my self back before the keyboard I find that while I was trying to burrow out from under all those damned boxes, a 90 pound specimen of which managed to score a direct hit on my left big toe, the good for you police have been working over time as well:

In a petition filed today with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), CSPI [Center for Science in the Public Interest] asked the agency to require a series of rotating health notices on containers of all non-diet soft drinks-carbonated and non-carbonated-containing more than 13 grams of refined sugars per 12 ounces. (The typical 12-ounce soda contains 40 grams.) CSPI said that those messages could include:

Â The U.S. Government recommends that you drink less (non-diet) soda to help prevent weight gain, tooth decay, and other health problems.

Â To help protect your waistline and your teeth, consider drinking diet sodas or water.

Â Drinking soft drinks instead of milk or calcium-fortified beverages may increase your risk of brittle bones (osteoporosis).

CSPI also said that caffeinated drinks should bear a notice that reads "This drink contains x grams of caffeine, which is a mildly addictive stimulant drug. Not appropriate for children."

Right...

Given this is the entiretyrty of my comment, BLOW IT OUT YOUR ASS!, perhaps I should defer to the Cato Institutes' more ratonal commentary on this bit of nanny stateism:

...the idea of singling out some foods for warning labels is preposterous. Any food eaten to excess will cause weight gain. Over the years, CSPI has attacked pound cake, grilled chicken alfredo, fondue, cheesecake, Chinese food, popcorn, hamburgers, corn chips, pizza, fried chicken, fat-free foods, low-carb foods, eggs, clams, beer, shellfish, milk, wine, and garlic bread, among others. Will all of these require warning labels, too?

(hat tip to The Agitator)

Ah Summer

2005-06-26T07:46:00.000-07:00

It's summer time, that love time of year for barbecues, beer, and pot busts with grossly inflated value estimates placed on them by the cops:

A coalition of police agencies destroyed more than 23,000 marijuana plants last week near Lake Berryessa at Cold Canyon and Wild Horse Canyon roads in rural Solano County, northwest of Vacaville. Authorities from one of the police agencies said they may have destroyed closer to 40,000 plants from five different grow sites.

I swear there must be no math requirements for becoming a narcotics officer, can you really not tell 23,000 from 40,000?

No matter the total number of plants, the bust was the largest marijuana catch in Solano County history, with the plants having an estimated street value of $117 million, according to the Solano County Sheriff's Department.

Now allow me to flex my atrophied math muscles and break that down.

First the fish story numbers:

117,000,000/40,000 = $2,925 per plant

Now the low ball, and likely slightly less bullshit, numbers:

117,000,000/40,000 = $5,086.96 per plant

$2,925 - $5,086.96 per plant? Sure maybe if no one else in the state was growing.

I suppose they just have to jack the numbers up to try to justify the cheap action movie theatrics they employ to get after those oh so sneaky and nefarious herbs:

Duncan Jensen, the CHP helicopter pilot during the June 17 siege, described it as a highly strategic and sophisticated operation by law enforcement.

"We lowered them in on a 50 feet rope (wearing camouflage and) with machetes in hand,"

It gets worse

2005-05-30T15:20:00.000-07:00

Once more I make the mistake of looking into what's happening on Ozzfest this year, once more I am horridly punished for my sins:

Ozzfest headliner Ozzy Osbourne caused controversy earlier this month when he added the...metal group Wicked Wisdom to the touring festival.

...and now Pinkett Smith plans to add insult to injury with an idea to bringing her husband [Will Smith] onstage.

I doubt that ego and those ears are going to fit onto the second stage but there is a point of light:

She says, "We're thinking about it. He's really become a real metalhead lately. He fell in love with Otep (heavy metal group) the other night, so that was really interesting. He wanted to get in the pit."

Yes, please do that.

All Hail the Mighty Maggott!

2005-05-27T15:38:00.000-07:00

New Maggott show! Download now under threat of death!

So much for the rational

2005-05-27T15:33:00.000-07:00

As if to counter act the recent surge in IQ points in my state it seems we have slipped back a good 50 years and taken up cross burning again.

More Stupid News

2005-05-27T15:01:00.000-07:00

It's now backed by science people just do not buy into those pot is evil and will ruin your life ads:

Advertisements might work to warn young people off of cigarettes, but they're not buying it when it comes to anti-pot ads, a new study says.

The research, commissioned by the Marijuana Policy Project, a group advocating pot decriminalization, says government-sponsored anti-marijuana ads aren't having the desired effect.

In fact, Texas State University researchers who conducted the study say the ads might actually ``boomerang'' - producing the opposite effect.

In the study, scientists had 123 Texas State University students watch both anti-pot and anti-tobacco ads.

Ads included a spot showing teens getting high in a car at a fast-food drive-thru, then unwittingly driving into a young girl on a bike.

. . .

"They wanted to know what kind of parents are letting a child ride on busy intersection unattended, and so forth," he said.

So what do the narcs do when their latest pet project to burn up that money they are ripping out of my check is shown to be ineffective? Why dismiss out of hand of course:

...spokesman for the Office of National Drug Control Policy dismissed the study as "sloppy science bought and paid for by the pro-marijuana legalization lobby."

Surely they are not going by a double standard where as the research they sponsor is objective and rational, despite it being anything but, where as research funded by those who are not prohibition cheer leaders is sloppy propaganda? Perish the thought...

A little extra kick in your fruit

2005-05-27T14:34:00.000-07:00

Well this explains why that driver I load for always has a banana on hand:

MIAMI (Reuters) - Customs agents inspecting a shipment of plantains thought some of the green bananas seemed unusually hard and cut them open, finding more than 750 pounds of cocaine stuffed inside what turned out to be phony fruit.

Studies in Stupidity

2005-05-27T14:21:00.000-07:00

This just in, the guy driving next to you in traffic really is that dumb:

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - When faced with a written test, similar to ones given to beginning drivers applying for licenses, one in ten drivers couldn't get a passing score, according to a study commissioned by GMAC Insurance.

The GMAC Insurance National Driver's Test found that nearly 20 million Americans, or about 1 in 10 drivers, would fail a state driver's test if they had to take one today. GMAC Insurance is part of General Motors' finance subsidiary, GMAC.

. . .

The state of Rhode Island leads the nation in driver cluelessness, according to the survey. The average test score there was 77, just eight points above a failing grade.

Those in neighboring Massachusetts were second worst and New Jersey, third worst.

Too Rational for this Region

2005-05-27T05:47:00.000-07:00

Being a citizen of the lovely, backwards, reactionary, puritanical, homophobic, bright friggin red state of North Carolina I have come to expect a great deal of nonsense be it the people being told to resign or be fired due to cohabitation (still technically a crime) or pastors tossing out the democratic members of their congregation. I have however located a point of light (Reg required or bugmenot) in the mounds of manure, in my local paper no less:

We can probably agree that too much of a good thing can be harmful to us. Intellectually, we can probably agree that a lot of things we voluntarily put in our bodies aren't even a little bit good for us. My father smoked cigarettes for over 50 years, and I watched him die much too young. When asked why he smoked, he told me he loved his cigarettes -- they relaxed him, they went well with a glass of gin, and he wasn't hurting anybody but himself.

So what do we do with adults who comfort themselves with marijuana, cocaine and heroin? Something the government has done for decades is prosecute a "war" on drugs and the adults who use them. Government picked some items that lots of adults use and declared those items and their use illegal. Government puts adults in jail, confiscates their property, spies on them, prohibits the manufacture, possession and use of certain products, and tries to tax or sue certain products out of existence.

How's it working? As we say in these parts, "Not too good!" The U.S. secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, was in Colombia, South America, recently. She said that after spending $3 billion of U.S. money on eradicating cocaine production in Colombia, we haven't seen any success, but we can't quit now.

. . .

It doesn't have to be this way. We don't have to waste tremendous resources enforcing codes of conduct on adults who want to voluntarily put a drug in their own bodies and who aren't adversely affecting anyone else's health or property.

It's worth the time to read the rest. Perhaps the tide is turning, nah no such luck.

Supporting the Troops

2005-05-25T09:44:00.000-07:00

Next time some one accuses you of not supporting the troops for something like having reservations about marching them into unneeded wars or not being overjoyed that we have done so may I suggest pointing them towards this site. Now that we have a benchmark for non-support of the troops moving right along...

Keep Ozzfest Evil!

2005-05-24T17:00:00.000-07:00

So I look around today to find the Ozzfest dates and what do I find but this insult to the butchery of eardrums and voiceboxes that is Ozzfest:

In one of the most unusual summer-tour pairings in recent memory, the Ozzfest Web site announced Monday night that there will be one final act added to this year's second-stage lineup: actress Jada Pinkett Smith's rock group, Wicked Wisdom.

[which is a]Christian-leaning rock-and-soul hybrid...

. . .

...and was the support act for Britney Spears' 2004 European tour.

Not only is it some half assed celibrety wannabe band but it's a bloody Christian rock band that just finished opening for BRITNEY SPEARS! I must say I will be highly amused to see the reaction from the mosh pit should they come on after the band I am going to see, Arch Enemy, this should be amuseing in that watching a riot from the sidelines sort of way.

Keep Ozzfest Evil!

Bitching from Brown

2005-05-17T05:26:00.000-07:00

The flyboys have yet to strike and today I got seniority as two lumps of fresh meat landed in the warehouse, hey that and $1.35 will get me a egg biscuit down the road.

<>

UPS Pilots @#$*!

2005-05-13T07:51:00.000-07:00

UPS Pilots Approve Strike Authorization

ATLANTA (AP) -- UPS Inc.'s pilots have voted to give their union leaders authority to call a strike as the union and the world's largest shipping carrier continue federal mediated talks aimed at reaching a new contract.

. . .

...the average earnings for an active UPS pilot IN 2004 was $175,830.

Ahem, dear Pilot brothers of the UPS family FUCK YOU. You over paid drag ass heaps of rancid rat shit! You make ten times what I do for not even 1/10 of the work and you are the ones going out on strike demanding better pay and benefits? Not only that while you fuckers are out on strike I have nothing to unload ergo I make zero money, thanks alot. Bastards.

Excuse me, I have to go pour exlax into the coffee urn in the pilots lounge at work, right after I burn my union card.

Hot Christian on Christian action

2005-05-07T06:15:00.000-07:00

I must say that one of my pet hates, yet I know they are legion, is how American Christians scream and cry about being persecuted for their views. This mainly takes place when they are not allowed to use the government to inflict their religion upon others, typically school kids, or when people have the unmitigated audacity to disagree with them and say as much. Calling the way Christians are treated in the US persecution is an insult to Christians and others who actually do suffer for their religious views.

That said here is some actual persecution of Christians for their views in the USA, tragically for the persecution screamers, not only is it being done by fellow Christians it is being done by their own Pastor:

WAYNESVILLE, N.C. (AP) - Some in Pastor Chan Chandler's flock wish he had a little less zeal for the GOP.

Members of the small East Waynesville Baptist Church say Chandler led an effort to kick out congregants who didn't support President Bush. Nine members were voted out at a Monday church meeting in this mountain town, about 120 miles west of Charlotte.

. . .

...40 others in the 100-member congregation resigned in protest after Monday's vote.

During the presidential election last year, Chandler told the congregation that anyone who planned to vote for Democratic Sen. John Kerry should either leave the church or repent, said former member Lorene Sutton.

This church retains its' tax free status how exactly?

Cancer vaccine opposed by FRC

2005-05-05T13:26:00.000-07:00

The Family Research Council (FRC), which likes to scream, rant and when all else fails lie about how awful any kind of sex other then married man on top of married woman get it over with quick sort is, has now crossed the line from annoying far right morons to flat out evil wastes of flesh. They are now opposing the vaccination of girls against human papilloma virus, the leading cause of cervical cancer, because it is mainly sexually transmited.

DEATHS from cervical cancer could jump fourfold to a million a year by 2050, mainly in developing countries. This could be prevented by soon-to-be-approved vaccines against the virus that causes most cases of cervical cancer - but there are signs that opposition to the vaccines might lead to many preventable deaths.

The trouble is that the human papilloma virus (HPV) is sexually transmitted. So to prevent infection, girls will have to be vaccinated before they become sexually active, which could be a problem in many countries.

In the US, for instance, religious groups are gearing up to oppose vaccination, despite a survey showing 80 per cent of parents favour vaccinating their daughters. "Abstinence is the best way to prevent HPV," says Bridget Maher of the Family Research Council, a leading Christian lobby group that has made much of the fact that, because it can spread by skin contact, condoms are not as effective against HPV as they are against other viruses such as HIV.

"Giving the HPV vaccine to young women could be potentially harmful, because they may see it as a licence to engage in premarital sex," Maher claims, though it is arguable how many young women have even heard of the virus.

Right so having a major STD go the way of small pox is more harmful then it staying around and killing thousands of women. I would go deeper into that logic but my head may explode.

29 days later

2005-04-30T10:15:00.000-07:00

I surface and dispel the rumors of the demise of my blog, not that there were any nor that any one noticed my absence. Ahem, in any case, I have returned.

Jump up and down giggling like a school girl or something.

Dumb stuff by 10:30am the next day

2005-03-30T16:08:00.000-08:00

I will now start a list of stupid things that are shipped at great expense via next day air:

Shampoo bottle lids, a whole box of shampoo bottle lids
A rear differential, without a box
Carpet, not that dumb really but who the hell needs carpet in the next morning, that stuff is heavy!

< insert amusing test here >

2005-03-30T16:04:00.000-08:00

I'm a Great Dane.

What dog are you?

Buggy Vs. Brown

2005-03-26T17:50:00.000-08:00

Just when you thought the Amish never got into traffic accidents:

According to reports from the St. Clairsville Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol, a horse-drawn buggy went left of center and struck the United Parcel Service truck before going off the roadway and overturning on a hill.

. . .

No injuries were reported. The UPS truck reportedly sustained minimal damage. The buggy sustained more substantial damage, according to reports.

What can brown do for you?

2005-03-26T17:40:00.000-08:00

I am no longer unemployed! I am now a credentialed package handler for UPS at the air port on the oh-my-fucking-non-existent-gods-it's-early-shift . Some how I managed to pass the ten year background check (I'm 22 so that's right on back into the 6'th grade) and the feds now have a copy of my finger prints so I best be a very good boy from here on out.

In 1411, 1410...

2005-03-11T09:39:00.000-08:00

For those of us trying to maintain our sanity by counting the hours until Bush is longer Grand Poobah I present the Bush Countdown Clock. Only 1410 days 23 hours and 18 minutes to go.

This sucks.

Dumbness in Zion

2005-03-07T11:27:00.000-08:00

The room tempature IQ's over in the Utah Senate have just passed a bill banning internet porn:

THE UTAH SENATE has approved legislation that will force ISPs to ban certain web sites that are defined as 'harmful to children'.

...

To make matters worse, the law will force search engines and even email providers not to display porn or face prosecution.

For their next trick they plan to ban wind from crossing the border.

Now joining the 20'th century

2005-03-01T12:51:00.000-08:00

I can now say I am American and have one less nasty thing about my country come up in the ensuing discussion:

WASHINGTON - A closely divided Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that it's unconstitutional to execute juvenile killers, ending a practice in 19 states that has been roundly condemned by many of America's closest allies.

. . .

The ruling continues the court's practice of narrowing the scope of the death penalty, which justices reinstated in 1976. Executions for those 15 and younger when they committed their crimes were outlawed in 1988. Three years ago justices banned death sentences for the mentally retarded.

Next thing you know they will have to be guilty too!

Ah, it feels so nice to no longer be classed with such bastions of human rights as Iran, Pakistan, China, Sudan, Somalia and Saudi Arabia. Score one for the good guys.

Piss here son

2005-02-27T17:48:00.000-08:00

Think you kids is using drugs? Drinking? If so shun old fashioned, outdated methods of finding out, such as talking to them, and march on down to the Melbourne Beach police department and grab your self a free testing kit!

Another Afghan Update

2005-02-27T17:34:00.000-08:00

More details about the aerial spraying of poppy fields:

KANAI, Afghanistan - Abdullah, a black-turbaned shepherd, said he was watching over his sheep one night in early February when he heard a plane pass low overhead three times. By morning his eyes were so swollen he could not open them and the sheep around him were dying in convulsions.

Although farmers had noticed a white powder on their crops, they cut grass and clover for their animals and picked spinach to eat anyway. Within hours the animals were severely ill, people here said, and the villagers complained of fevers, skin rashes and bloody diarrhea. The children were particularly affected. A week later, the crops - wheat, vegetables and poppies - were dying, and a dozen dead animals, including newborn lambs, lay tossed in a heap.

And now for the true kick in the pants, the poppys had already been destroyed in the area:

the belief that they have been sprayed has angered villagers all the more because the local police came here only 40 days before and destroyed their poppy fields on government orders, a fact that the district police chief, Abdul Hakim Karezwal, confirmed.

The farmers said they had instead planted wheat, which was now yellow and rotting along with the clover, spinach and greens they had also planted. Some farmers kept growing small patches of poppies inside high garden walls, but most of the fields in the village showed shoots of young wheat.

"Karzai lied to us," one farmer, Ahmadullah, said. "He said, 'We will give you assistance,' and he didn't. So we grew poppy to be able to feed our families. Then the president ordered it destroyed and so we destroyed it. And now he is destroying our wheat. What will be left of our lives? They destroyed everything. We will have to abandon the village."

Read it all.

We all knew this was going to happen

2005-02-26T08:20:00.000-08:00

Bill O'Rights Arrested On Drug Charges. No, I am not kidding (appropriate head motion towards Drug War Rant).

Maggott is my Uberevil

2005-02-25T09:54:00.000-08:00

It's Friday, ergo there is a new Maggott Show.

Download it now or be forced to explore your rectum with a rusty gardening implement.

Afghan Aerial Anomaly

2005-02-24T19:57:00.000-08:00

I have noted in the past that there were reports of aerial herbicide bombing of the Afghan poppy fields, despite the government there opposing such tactics, and as of right now on one has owned up to doing it. It's happening again. This time however every one involved is denying that it actually happened at all:

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan investigators have been sent to investigate fresh reports that opium fields had been sprayed with pesticide from the air despite Kabul's opposition to this form of eradication, officials said on Tuesday.

Officials and villagers in Helmand province, a major poppy growing area, have complained that several aircraft sprayed pesticide on opium fields in four villages last Thursday.

"We have sent an Interior Ministry team to investigate," government spokesman Jawed Ludin told a news briefing, adding that it remained unclear if spraying had actually occurred.

...

Afghanistan's air space is tightly controlled by U.S.-led forces, but the U.S. military and government has repeatedly denied involvement in spraying of opium fields.

A U.S. embassy statement said there was "no credible evidence" that aerial spraying had taken place in Helmand and reiterated that no agency, personnel or contractors associated with the U.S. government had been engaged in any such activity.

Well, a new day of reason has dawned at the US embassy in Kabul. Last time they blamed the drug lords. Now they have just fallen back on the ever faithful denial.

Hot dittohead singles

2005-02-24T19:45:00.000-08:00

Mr. Shean Hannity has gone from his usual regiment of blowing hot air on his TV and radio show to, er, helping arrange other forms of blowing, he has started a dating service. I think I am going to now back away slowly and try not to lose eye contact.

Sober, lonely, and angry

2005-02-21T17:17:00.000-08:00

I see the hit counter keeps on going up so some one out there has enough free time on their hands to keep on looking around here. Why you come back I have no idea given that I would be some place else were I to have some place else to go. Alas I do no so here I sit blathering on if for no other reason to just keep the cursor from blinking.

Update on my pathetic attempts at communication with the opposite sex, thus far no dice. Mainly because I have not quite gotten the testicular density required to open my mouth and ask W if she will spend time with me.

On the off chance that any one comes here to read the obscure drug war article I dredge up, take heart, they shall return once I am good and done with feeling sorry for my self.

The bender finally ends

2005-02-20T22:07:00.000-08:00

Hunter S. Thompson has committed suicide.

A toast of whatever mind altering substance is handy is in order.

All hail the succulent Maggott!

2005-02-19T09:56:00.000-08:00

Bow down to the power of the Maggott!

Every one down load the new Maggott show, now!

Rot in peace...

2005-02-15T11:08:00.000-08:00

Having now sunk to the level of bloging about my attempts at getting women I will attempt to claw my way from the depths of this pit with the following witty reference, Frank is dead.

From which bull doth it issue?

2005-02-13T20:07:00.000-08:00

File this one under I am sick and tired of blathering on and on about the news stories that I find infuriating, annoying, or on the goods days sadistically amusing. From right now, until I regain the sense to keep my fingers around my disused gentiles and away from this key board, I intend to exchange the drug war blather for blather about my personal life.

Hello there people, I am 22 years old, single, studying nursing, and have not been laid in exactly 375 days give or take 13 hours.

I am an avid gardner and last summer raised more tomatoes then I could eat. I was hauling them out of the garden in clothing hampers and then having to toss untold pounds of them into the brush surrounding my humble patch as they decayed before I could eat them. In my basement I am currently raising tomatoes under lights (yes, tomatoes, really) and am looking forward to a fresh tomato in the next few weeks. Vine ripened tomatoes in the first week of March, bow to my gardening prowess!

What I was really intending to blather about here was my intention to make a pass at this woman I am in a class with. Let's call here W. W is one of the three or four people to acknowledged my rather pathetic and shy existence this semester and for her sins I intend to attempt to entice her out to lunch, or snack, perhaps a potato chip or two, or whatever asinine excuse I can muster to get her to possibly spend time with me or at least reject me. Read faster damn it this post will not likely remain here for more then a few hours.

I am shy male, here me mutter.

Really what have I got to lose other then my self respect, status as a brooding loner, will to live, or sanity. Not like I will miss any of those things.

There is always the option of Seppuku should things go south.

Anarchy on the roof

2005-02-13T17:36:00.000-08:00

I confess, I was a teenage anarchist. I read Goldman, flew the black flag, scrawled the circle A on any and every surface to which it could conceivably be affixed. In that portion of my life (I would say misspent youth but I am still young and misspending) I drew the most inspiration from the Fight Clubesk ranting of the CrimethInc. Ex-Workers collective. The poetic fantasy found in their literature still inspires me even though I, in my current state of disillusionment, find it to be nothing but fantasy. A sample from Fighting for our lives (PDF):

We fell in love in the wreckage, shouted out songs in the uproar, danced
joyfully in the heaviest shackles they could forge; we smuggled our
stories through the gauntlets of silence, starvation, and subjugation,
to bring them back to life again and again as bombs and beating
hearts; we built castles in the sky from the ruins of hell on earth.

...

In some moments, in this insane world, anarchy appears in fragments, whispering of hidden lives that beckon from within this one...

Today I found a video that awoke the slumbering anarchist in me with one such fragment. Two members of the US army currently stationed in Iraq have set up a skate ramp on the roof of one of Suddams palaces. This struck me as the most disrespectful and anarchist thing one could do with a dictators palace short of using it as a garbage dump or perhaps turning it into a very large septic tank. I love it.

Droopy Draws Decree Dropped

2005-02-11T08:35:00.000-08:00

It would appear I overestimated the stupidity of the drooling morons in the Virginia state house. Cooler heads have prevailed and the state has decided to back off having the police enforce a dress code:

RICHMOND, Va. - Virginia lawmakers dropped their droopy-pants bill Thursday after the whole thing became just too embarrassing.

The bill ... passed the state House on Tuesday but was killed by a Senate committee two days later in a unanimous vote.

It seems that even the state Senators find the bill to be insulting:

Republican Sen. Thomas K. Norment said news reports implied that lawmakers were preoccupied with droopy pants.

"I find that an indignation, which dampens my humor," Norment said.

A real eunich's game

2005-02-08T20:27:00.000-08:00

This guy has, er, had some serious balls:

Geoff Huish, 26, was so convinced England would win Saturday's match he told fellow drinkers at a social club, "If Wales win I'll cut my balls off," the paper said.

Friends at the club in Caerphilly, south Wales, thought he was joking.

But after the game Huish went home, severed his testicles with a knife, and walked 200 yards back to the bar with the testicles to show the shocked drinkers what he had done.

Virginia fights crack

2005-02-08T19:48:00.000-08:00

Virginia has added yet one more item to their rather long list of stupid state laws:

RICHMOND, Va. Feb 8, 2005 — Virginians who wear their pants so low their underwear shows may want to think about investing in a stronger belt.

The state's House of Delegates passed a bill Tuesday authorizing a $50 fine for anyone who displays his or her underpants in a "lewd or indecent manner."

Not only did it pass, it passed 60 - 34, it now goes on to the state senate.

Who elects these people?

Setting the smugglers back, again

2005-02-07T22:08:00.000-08:00

I recall at the end of last year that the Tajik border guards were all aflutter when they got their hands of 10kg of heroine coming in from Afghanistan. Well they must be beside them selves with joy as they have now got their hands on 12kg of heroine for a whopping 53kg thus far this year!

To once more dust off my substandard math skills that set production back all of an hour and twenty minutes thus far this year. Last year they mannaged to set production back by four and a half days, hey who knows, maybe they can set them back a whole five days this year! A whole work week!

Still having fun shovelying against that tide boys?

Which foot would you like that bullet in?

2005-02-07T21:57:00.000-08:00

In the lovely land of milk and honey known as Afghanistan about 60% of the economy is devoted to the production of opium the bulk of the remaining 40% comes from foreign aid. The bright sparks over at the UN are now demanding that aid be denied to any area or village where opium is cultivated.

Again, right or left foot sir?

If the Huns and drug czar fucked...

2005-02-07T21:46:00.000-08:00

You know it's madness like this that makes our narcs seem almost benevolent:

KHOST, Afghanistan : Tribal elders in southeastern Afghanistan have threatened to torch the houses of people found growing opium and make them pay a hefty fine in a bid to stamp out burgeoning poppy cultivation.

By far the most drastic suggestion yet offered for tackling the country's rampant drug trade, the punishment failed to win the approval of Afghan President Hamid Karzai despite his anti-narcotics stance.

Well, isn't he just a paragon of moderation?

Turns out arson is a favored tactic in the area for any number of political goals:

Khost's tribal elders made the headlines in September ahead of Afghanistan's first presidential election for threatening to burn the houses of any locals found not to be voting for Karzai, who later won the October 9 poll.

Earth to drug warriors

2005-02-07T21:18:00.000-08:00

Last one speaks comments on the latest "Pot is going to turn you into a drooling moron turning tricks behind a dumpster" study carried out by the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Baltimore. They found that cannabis use may effect the blood flow to your brain. That I take next to no interest in. What is interesting is the people they studied they defined a light user as some one who smokes on average 11 joints per week, moderate as 44 joints per week, and heavy as, wait for it, 131 joints per week with the heaviest smoker smoking 50 joints per day.

Do these morons even know what representative sample means?

RIAA hits bottom, digs (literally)

2005-02-04T19:26:00.000-08:00

The RIAA has really struck out in this round of suing random people. They recently filed suit against an 83 year old woman who not only did not own a computer nor know how to use one but has been dead for close to two months.

Great work, really thorough. You guys considered working for the CIA?

#10954 and rising

2005-02-04T13:55:00.000-08:00

My ego is slightly stroked, I am now all the way up to #10954 in the pecking order in The TTLB Blogosphere Ecosystem and am among the proud order of the Slimy Molluscs. Nothing quite like having 10,953 blogs below you to make you feel like, well, just this side of a total back water. Speaking of which, meet the poor sap at the bottom of the heap, Chuck.

Ah, nothing quite like speaking ill of others to make me feel like that much less of a loser on an electronic soap box.

Nanny State Pizza Co.

2005-02-04T13:39:00.000-08:00

The ACLU has a rather amusing flash animation about privacy.

Now with 50% more bitterness

2005-02-04T13:31:00.000-08:00

I live! Well, I continue to breath, swear, and every now and then have a bowel movement so I take that as evidence of continued life in the biological sense any how. More later, oh non-existent loyal readers of this blog.

What not to do in court

2005-01-06T15:49:00.000-08:00

How on earth did this lady get past the metal detectors with that brass pair she is sporting?

FARMINGTON, Mo. (AP) - An woman is accused of stealing the gavel from the judge overseeing her case. Tammy Lynn Price, 28, was charged Tuesday with misdemeanor stealing for an incident that happened in October. Authorities gave this account:

Terrorists love prohibition

2005-01-04T08:46:00.000-08:00

It's a week of rational editorials it would seem. This one is less of a shock given that it is from a Canadian paper but all the same, how often does any one have the unmitigated hutzba to say the bleeding obvious:

Drug prohibition is terrorism's best friend. That symbiotic relationship will continue until the United States and its allies have the wisdom to dramatically change their drug policies.

Open mouth, insert foot

2005-01-04T08:34:00.000-08:00

Extra! Extra! Justice department admits defeat in drug war!

While reading a rather interesting article on movie piracy I came across a Justice Department member who really jammed his foot right in his mouth, or at least kicked his colleagues over in the DEA in the teeth:

"There are a lot of similarities with the drug war," said David Israelite, chairman of the U.S. Justice Department's Intellectual Property Task Force. "You never really are going to eliminate the problem, but what you hope to do is stop its growth."

I wonder if the the beloved Drug Lord/Czar will get wind of this?

Far too reasonable to be southern

2005-01-03T17:33:00.000-08:00

Hark! A point of light in the dim trenches of the drug war is delivered, and from my state no less. The Winston-Salem Journal carries this very reasonable editorial about medical usage of cannabis:

Advocates of legalized medical marijuana use say that it can relieve nausea and vomiting related to AIDS and cancer therapies, and that it is a useful therapy against anorexia, arthritis, chronic pain, epilepsy, glaucoma, migraines and multiple sclerosis. There is no scientific evidence to prove these claims, however.

That lack of scientific evidence stems directly from the federal government's unwillingness to allow scientists to study medicinal marijuana.

...

It is clear that politics, not medical logic, drives the federal crusade against medicinal marijuana. If made a prescription drug, it could be controlled just like any other. Nothing about marijuana makes it more dangerous as a prescription therapy than other drugs.

Another view

2005-01-03T11:24:00.000-08:00

Dave Borden over at Prohibition and the Media has also picked up on the article I commented on yesterday and has his own, shall we say more eloquent, take on the matter over here.

Soviet Suicide

2005-01-02T09:02:00.000-08:00

It's January (yeah, yeah, yeah, happy new year, my head still hurts) as it turns out later this month is planting season for poppies over in Afghanistan. Just as the destitute farmers look forward to actually making ends meet come harvest time the despicably cashed up drug warriors in D.C. are working at ways to make sure those ends never even see each other:

With the January planting season approaching, the State Department is asking Congress to earmark nearly $780 million in aid to Afghanistan, the world's largest opium producer, for a counter-narcotics effort that would include $152 million for aerial eradication.

despite President Hamid "Yes Sir, Mr Bush, Sir" Karzai having opposed aerial spraying in the past I think the fact that US aid makes up a significant portion of the 40% or soof his nations economy that is not directly tied to the opium trade will have him hopping to rather quickly when the sprayers show up. Then again perhaps the fact that he is possibly tied to the trade via his brother will make him think better of it.

There are however other people who oppose aerial bombing of the poppy fields and are not bought and sold by the traffickers or the drug warriors:

Some diplomats as well as many outside experts argue that aerial spraying ... would be folly.

"You tell them, 'You're voting for a new democratic country,' while their government is allowing foreigners to come in and destroy their livelihood?" said Barnett R. Rubin, who was an advisor to the U.N. in Afghanistan in 2001. "And if you try to destroy it and have the economy decline by 10%, 20%, 40% in one year, what will the result be? The result will be armed revolt."

While even I do not think that the drug warriors have nerfarious plots to foment civil war for their cause this would actually work in their favor. Given that it would make it impossible for the military to stay out of the war on opium. Despite the dopes trying to shove them into the drug war the military still refuses to fight the narcs battles in Afghanistan:

The Pentagon has been opposed to becoming involved in counter-narcotics efforts, viewing it as "mission creep" that distracts from the military's main job of battling insurgents.

Moreover, U.S. commanders fear that villagers will stop giving support and tips about insurgent activity if American soldiers begin interfering with their biggest source of income. In addition, many drug traffickers have been U.S. allies in the continuing struggle against the Taliban.

But the State Department and a number of lawmakers have been lobbying the military for more than a year to help the counter-narcotics effort, arguing that squeezing drug profits is essential to strangling the insurgency.

Now just read those bold sections a few times. The boots on the ground refuse to destroy the opium crops because the villagers would stop helping them and because the traffickers them selves are helping them fight against the Taliban but putting an end to drug profits is "essential to strangling the insurgency". You guys been testing the opium your selves or something?

But wait, it gets worse:

A senior administration official argued that "the single most effective way" to fight the drug trade in Afghanistan would be for the Pentagon to order that opium processing laboratories and heroin storage facilities be treated like other "core military targets."

Alright listen up you maggots! Your new task is to destroy 60% of this nations economy, now get out there and start destroying livelyhoods!

Now finally the break down of that $780,000,000 we are about to flush down the drug war toilet:

Under the State Department's budget proposal, Congress would set aside nearly $780 million in aid to Afghanistan over the next three years for counter-narcotics programs: $173 million for interdiction, $180 million for law enforcement, $5 million for a public information campaign, including broadcasting anti-drug messages from supportive mullahs, $120 million for programs to develop alternative livelihoods for farmers, and nearly $300 million for eradication programs.

Now I wonder, are they going to use that $120,000,000 to subsides the price of wheat so that it equals the $3,000 or so per field that they get from growing poppies? At least that would make the state side subsidies seem more reasonable...

Setting back the drug smugglers

2004-12-31T13:02:00.000-08:00

Over in Tajikistan the border guards are all aflutter with their recent success. It seems that they have worked with the local equivalent of the DEA and managed to rake in a whopping 10 Kg of heroine coming across the border today from Afghanistan.

Now allow me to apply my substandard math skills. Let us assume that heroine is produced at a continuous rate in Afghanistan, it is not but forget about that, and let us use the BBC estimate of 420 metric tones per year as the total amount produced. Tabulate that right up and the glorious forces of Tajikistan have set opium production back by exactly 12.5 minutes today. Add in that other eight tons and they set production back almost four and a half days.

Is it fun shoveling sand against the tide?

U.S. ups aid from $35 million to $350 million

2004-12-31T11:50:00.000-08:00

On this news my faith in humanity and my own government soars, err, climbs towards the very faint light at the top of the mile deep pit it has briefly suspended excavating.

What nature does not do to man...

2004-12-30T21:03:00.000-08:00

Allow me to preface this entry with some useful links, TalkLeft has amassed links to all the leading aid organizations here, and here if you have two dimes to rub together perhaps you can spare one.

I now return you to a screaming, arm waving, rant already in process.

Among all the horror in South East Asia I was convinced that no one had the hutzba to even think of adding insult to injury. As ever I stand corrected by none other then my own government.

The Suburban Guerilla points me to this little jewel:

(CNN) -- An American woman who was scuba diving with her husband in Thailand as one of Sunday's tsunamis roared overhead said she was oblivious to the disaster until after they surfaced, her mother told CNN on Tuesday.

...

Faye Wachs said she was impressed by the efforts of the Thai government and the International Committee for the Red Cross, but "she was appalled at the treatment they got" from the U.S. government, her mother said.

At the airport in Bangkok, other governments had set up booths to greet nationals who had been affected and to help repatriate them, she said.

That was not the case with the U.S. government, Wachs told her mother. It took the couple three hours, she said, to find the officials from the American consulate, who were in the VIP lounge.

Because they had lost all their possessions, including their documentation, they had to have new passports issued.

But the U.S. officials demanded payment to take the passport pictures, Helen Wachs said.

The couple had managed to hold on to their ATM card, so they paid for the photos and helped other Americans who did not have any money get their pictures taken and buy food, Helen Wachs said.

"She was really very surprised" that the government did so little to ease their ordeal, she said.

If these bureaucrats are still wasting my oxygen and tax dollars come Monday, well I will be in no way surprised. Typical really.

Required seasons greetings

2004-12-25T08:36:00.000-08:00

Ahem, bah humbug!

Man the sun set early...

2004-12-21T14:05:00.000-08:00

Happy solstice every one!

More M-state Manure

2004-12-21T11:39:00.000-08:00

Some time back I was following the story of a bill in Michigan that would demand that people on welfare be subject to drug testing. After it passed in the house of that state and moved on to the senate I lost track of it so I do not know if it became law or not.

In any case one of the enlightened legislators in Minnesota seem to think that it was a good idea:

State Rep. Marty Seifert, a conservative with a knack for inflammatory proposals, wants to mandate testing to determine whether welfare clients smoke cigarettes. He'd reduce their benefits if they do.

"If you're going to take the taxpayer's money, we're going to expect good behavior," the Marshall Republican said Friday.

"I'm not interested in subsidizing bad habits. It makes no sense to give out health and welfare subsidies if the payments go to smoking and the detriment of people's health and welfare."

...

...he said his proposal, which he plans to introduce in the Legislature next month, could be extended to others who are subsidized by taxpayers, such as college students on state grants.

"I only wish I could somehow test ... for alcohol and gambling, too, since there shouldn't be taxpayer subsidization of any of these unnecessary vices," Seifert said.

I am surprised he did not tack on prohibiting people on income assistance from buying condoms or other contraceptives to use for pre-marital , extra-marital , or homosexual sex. After all those are an "unnecessary vice" in many people's eyes, not to mention the people who think contraception is a vice all together.

For that matter what of tacking on penalties for buying junk food to go along with the obesity hysteria that is so popular of late?

What of making sure they don't look at porn? R rated movies?

Ban them from playing Grand Theft Auto?

Requiring them to look both ways prior to crossing the street?

Can't forget to make sure they don't piss on the toilet seat too!

I best not speak too loud lest he hear me.

(appropriate head motion towards TalkLeft)

Tin Foil Hat Feds

2004-12-20T13:41:00.000-08:00

Recently there has been some aerial spraying of the poppy fields in Afghanistan, and no one seems to want to own up to doing it:

The Afghan government has expressed concern about reports of a mystery spraying of opium fields in the eastern province of Nangarhar last month...

...

US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said the United States was looking into the spraying reports but had not done an independent investigation and did not know if any had occurred.

"But I can say categorically at this point that the United States has not done it and the United States has not contracted or sub-contracted anyone to do it," he said.

While it was speculation, he said, "maybe ... some drug-associated people may have done this in order to create the sort of distrust and problem between Afghanistan and some of its allies".

Am I the only one who finds that highly improbable?

Yet more

2004-12-20T13:11:00.000-08:00

Yet another good article about Afghan opium.

Yet more Afghan news

2004-12-20T13:02:00.000-08:00

I may have posted similar info before but this needs repeating:

U.N. surveys estimate that Afghanistan produces nearly three-quarters of the world's opium. Afghan farmers are said to grow it out of desperation. They are struggling to survive a six-year drought that has shriveled most crops and sent grain prices soaring. With malnutrition rates hovering near 40 percent, many Afghans see growing opium poppies as the only way to put food on the table. The country's booming drug trade is estimated to account for 60 percent of its gross domestic product.

Mr. Cornell said "nowadays the question 'Why don't you grow opium?' is more relevant than the one 'Why do you grow opium?'"

Can't let such minor things as people starving to death stall us in our eradication efforts now can we?

Far to reasonable to be religious

2004-12-19T13:17:00.000-08:00

Just to make up for my recent post bitching about Baptists I now offer you an example of what real Christians, according to me, act like:

The fuss over two national networks' refusal to air a commercial by the United Church of Christ denomination has been good news for the group's two Des Moines area churches. It also attracted anti-gay protestors.

...

Pater said the protesters gave him the opportunity to enforce his mission to his parishioners.

"It gave us an opportunity, from our toddlers to our longtime members, when people protested our church, it really began a dialogue," he said. "The point of what we were doing was to proclaim God's extravagant and inclusive welcome."

Pater [the pastoral care minister] said he and other parishioners went outside to offer the protesters coffee and to invite them in. None of them, he said, would come into the building.

Yeah, it aint drug war related, deal.

Brits...

2004-12-19T13:03:00.000-08:00

Have you ever wonders what people on a TV show for kids sound like when they go postal? Wonder no more.