Hmmm. I’ve got a question. Why not let Marlboro sell packaged marijuana just like they do normal cigarettes or clove cigarettes? If one can believe the stats in the article below, the cost to fight the Pot war is simply amazing!

Arrests for marijuana possession — not sales or trafficking, just possession — totaled 738,916. By comparison, there were 611,523 arrests last year for all violent crimes combined.

Wow! I don’t understand that on so many levels:

1. How do so many people actually gain access to an illegal drug like that? I wouldn’t have a clue where to go buy some pot, and I’d be scared to ask anyone!
2. If 3/4 of a million people got CAUGHT, there must be 50 people for each one that got away! I mean, America must love it’s pot!
3. I never heard of anyone high on pot committing violent crimes. I thought it had the opposite effect? Making you tired and lazy, right?

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I have to start this article out with a story. I was talking to a young guy, who shall go un-named, and he was relating the tale of a date he went on with a girl he really liked. He was smitten with her, but unsure as to whether the feeling was mutual. The story went something like this:

One of my friends introduced us at a party last week. After e-mailing back and forth a few times we decided to meet at a bar after work. When I arrived, she was waiting for me and asked if we should go to the bar or get a table? I figured it would be quicker to go to the bar so we did. She had a Coke, and I got a beer.

After we hung out at the bar for about 30 minutes she mentioned that she was hungry, and there was a Subway nearby so I suggested we go grab a sandwich. She thought that sounded great, so we met over there and ate and chatted for about an hour. This chick was awesome! She even paid for my beer at the bar, and picked up her own dinner at Subway! She’s supposed to e-mail me about going out this weekend.

My dear, cheap-ass friend. Trust me, she’s not interested. Young guys always make the mistake of thinking that just because a lady is laid back and seems to enjoy hanging out, that it means she’s actually content. No, my little naive buddy. Every woman - without exception - enjoys being treated specially, so you must make a concerted effort to romance them.

Here are 14 tips on how to be romantic. HINT: Meeting a girl at Subway to watch her eat a sandwich she paid for is not on the list!
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Folks, I’m neither a Democrat, nor a Republican. But my mom asked me to give her an unbiased, factual rundown on the political platforms - so what my mother wants, my mother gets! Here you go Mom…

I’m making the presumption that the two candidates who are going to actually be running for President are Barack Obama, and John McCain. So, below I’ve taken the liberty of narrowing down all the data to these two guys. What you need to do is line up as many of your political ideal matches and then you can rationally choose who you are voting for.
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Although I can’t read a word of his blog, Fouah al-Farhan has been taken into custody by the Saudi government for posting some remarks critical of the government.

They are supposedly holding out for a written apology, so if indeed we do see one expect it to be completely bogus. I mean, lets face it. If someone arrests you for excercising free speech and then you apologize for doing so, you’re clearly lying through your teeth.

Those of you that are regulars can guess what I feel about this. Frankly I don’t care what country you live in, freedom of speech is the most basic human right. From it all other freedoms flow. In my opinion any government that decides it can no longer tolerate free speech is one that should be overthrown by the people - from whom all power is truly derived.
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Holy crap. Has anyone heard of the film / book called The Secret? I hadn’t, but after watching this funny little video I feel fully informed.

After reading through the massive Wikipedia entry on The Secret, you’ll learn it:

…uses a documentary format to present the “Law of Attraction.” This law is the “secret” that, according to the tagline, “has traveled through centuries to reach you.” The film features short dramatized experiences and interviews of a team of personal transformation specialists, spiritual messengers, feng shui masters, and moneymaking experts.

Well, I’m glad they didn’t forget the moneymaking experts!
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Here is some breaking news. This video was only released yesterday, and it demonstrates a clear and frankly unbelievable abuse of power by a Utah Highway Patrol officer.

Some guy was pulled over for speeding and argued with the police officer a bit about the speed limit. It’s a bit hard to hear but it sounds to me like the guy was going about 60, but the highway speed limit changed to 40, and that is exactly where the cop pulled him over. I’m guessing it was a classic speed trap.

Anyway, the police officer writes him a ticket, which he refuses to sign, so the cop pulls him out of the car and tasers him. Meanwhile his pregnant wife is freaking out!
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The other day I sat down to watch The Princess Bride for about the 10,000th time. Man that is a great movie! Anyway, when I was watching the part where Vizzini, the Sicilian, was answering the question as to how smart he is, he said:

“Let me put it this way. Have you ever heard of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates? Morons.”

So, I decided to mosey on over to the Interwebs and find a list of people with the highest IQ ever measured, and lo and behold I couldn’t find one! So for the sake of future searchers, I compiled the following information. Enjoy.
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Chris Langan is the World’s Smartest Man. That’s not an opinion, it’s a statement of fact. Mr. Langan’s IQ is nearly 200. Oh, and he’s spent 20 years being a bouncer at a bar.

This guy has had a rough life. As a kid he was abused by other kids and even his step father because he was smarter than all of them were. And if you listen to this entire interview with him you’ll see why he’s kind of pessimistic.
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Today’s post is unfortunately a sad one. We lost a very close family member this weekend to a long battle with a number of ailments including Cancer. It was one of those situations where our loved one was taken decades before her time, but at least it was not something that just occurred suddenly.

It’s been a very sad weekend, but at the same time one that reminds me how precious life is. I also came to the personal realization that grief is for the living, not the dead. We have to continue on through this world forever missing a part of ourselves that can never be refilled.

This weekend also reminded me of a commitment I made some time ago to help Stanford University’s Folding@Home project which researches fundamental causes of diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Mad Cow (BSE), CJD, ALS, Huntington’s, Parkinson’s disease, and many Cancers and cancer-related syndromes. Cancer and Parkinson’s have both impacted my family and I believe that with enough emphasis we can cure these crippling diseases.

And you can help Stanford’s research by simply running a tiny piece of software on your computer that only uses the spare cycles when you don’t need them.
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Folks, I’ve been saying that if you haven’t already, you NEED to see An Inconvenient Truth. If it doesn’t change the way you look at the world, then you probably have no heart. (Grin!)

I also previously reported that Gore had been Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize. This is not just because he made a movie and won an Oscar, it’s because he has devoted his private life to the cause of climate change - and like it or not many, many, many people happen to agree with him and are happy he is carrying out this work.

So, today Albert Arnold (Al) Gore Jr. was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 2007 along with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC):

“for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change”

It’s too early to see the announcement on video, but Nobel has a YouTube channel which will no doubt post the video of this announcement shortly. View it here.
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Lately I’ve been getting increasingly more angry whenever I visit either Costco or Sams Club. I buy a LOT of crap at these places and I’ve got the top membership levels, so why is it that they always want to see my receipt before I leave the damn building?

I mean, let’s face it. I just waited in some horrendous line, they don’t even bag your stuff up for you, and then 50 feet from the checkout they want me to stand in another line and then reproduce my receipt to allow some lackey to glance at it, glance at my cart and draw a line on it with a marker? What the hell is up with that!?!
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October is Black History Month in the UK (it’s February in the US), and one very unique individual is Gil Scott Heron, an American poet and musician known primarily for his late 1960s and early 1970s work as a spoken word performer.

Mr. Heron recites a poem in which he uses sarcasm and wit to make the point that the white people who “discovered” Africa weren’t exactly discovering anything, and certainly weren’t good for the indigenous people.
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