Recently I was talking to someone and the subject of marijuana came up. This person claimed that they didn’t rationalize marijuana as a drug. An old argument that I have heard ad nauseum, and I can empathise.
I support at least the de-criminalising of the weed. When you look at it, there are far worse drugs out here, creating far more damage than ganja… and some of these are legal. Alcohol, caffeine, tobacco and a host of prescription drugs.
The war on drugs has been a costly failure, filling the pockets of a chosen few while costing lives, wasting lives and filling the prisons with people who ought not be there.
Heck, the government could make a lot taxing ganja, and also save money by not putting some users in jail. I agree with all that. But it is foolish to deny that marijuana is a drug. It is a mind-altering substance and like most mind-altering substances, strong people don’t need it.
Of course I do drugs. I drink a little wine, rum, beer and a vodka shot every now and again. But the difference with what I do and the weed smoker, is that the cops ain’t gonna arrest me for sipping my hazelnut flavoured mocha cappuccino.
I might very well support the legalization of ganja, but don’t tell me now, or even when that happens, that marijuana isn’t a drug.
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Memorial Day is Urban Week in South Beach. The last one a few weeks ago saw one major incident in which a black man was killed by the police. Remember that ‘urban’ is the code word for ‘nigger’.
Amongst other things, the Miami Beach police became a little ‘Francoist’ if you get my drift. They seized several cameras, harassed anyone seen with a camera phone, even the legitimate media, and essentially anyone whose skin was darker than JLo.
So. I saw a story on a local station by this local ‘bigwig journalist’. And he was doing a story which essentially was “Do we really need Urban Week?”. This was of course to be balanced with a perfunctory ‘investigation’ of the police action. It was such a sickening performance of journalism, he could have just have added, ‘As if anyone cares what happens to these monkeys’.
He never questioned any answer the police chief made, even wit obvious gaping holes in what the police chief said. Obviously, a pact was made, ‘We’ll just go through the motions to satisfy a minority that we hate”.
Which by the way is the feeling of many in South Beach. The shooting incident was just one incident of one man amongst over 200,000 visitors. Yet again, it is painted as if every African American in South Beach was part of a violent mob. Now I’m not saying that everyone against urban week is racist, but I know that a lot of the opposition is driven by race.
But just a moment my friend, this is where good ol’ capitalism trumps even racism. Urban Week increases visitors to Miami by over 300,000 annually. 300,000. That’s a lot of moolah pouring in to the clubs, restaurants and hotels. So guess which will win out in the end… the racist feelings of the residents, or the greedy wallets of the businessmen. I just love when 2 dinosaurs fight.
By the way, mucho violence interrupted after Vancouver Canucks lost the Stanley Cup to the Boston Bruins. The violence was far beyond what happened down thar in Miami Beach. I guess the fans must be ‘urban’, or perhaps because they are Canadians their race don’t count.
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In order to attempt to legitimise slavery, backward-facing ‘historians’ are making a big case out of ‘blacks defending the south during the uncivil war’. I have no doubt that some did. Did some even fight as soldiers? Perhaps, perhaps as bait and fodder. And guess what, when someone in blue is shooting at me because I‘m wearing grey, hell yes I’m gonna shoot back.
But one cannot use the extremes or the exceptions to create a rule or write history. It would be a lie to say that no black supported slavery. But black support would be an exception, and even an early example of the ‘stockholm syndrome’. It happens.
But did blacks in any large numbers endorse their own slavery? Hell no! Slavery is evil. Accept the misdeeds of your ancestors and get over it.
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For some time American gays have been following the exploits of a blogger ‘Gay girl in Damascus’, who not only chronicled her ‘gayness’, but her role in events happening in Syria. Then it was rumoured that she had been kidnapped by the Syrian government for anti-government activism. Many major media followed her.
As it turned out, this lesbian blogger, wasn’t gay, wasn’t Syrian, wasn’t living in Damascus, and wasn’t even a girl… but a white American hetero-male living in Scotland. It soon turned out that one of those investigating the identity of the ‘Gay Girl’, Paula Brooks, editor of a lesbian new site called LezGetReal.com, was in fact a white 58 year old American heterosexual man.
Now a rash of heterosexual men posing as and giving opinions as lesbians are being ‘outed’.
Now I understand the motivation, trying to bring the issues of gays to the forefront. But hey, many of the best writers are gay. They don’t need a hetero to write about their issues, especially when those issues eventually prove false.
Now every real lesbian website is suspect, and the gay agenda will be set back a step or two, not advanced. Want to do something. Step out as a heterosexual person and state your position. This subterfuge does no one well.
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Several weeks ago when I was talking to someone who had fears about gas prices reaching $5 a gallon by summer, I told them that it wouldn’t happen. That was just part of the media/political campaign to add to the steady diet of fear cloaking the American people.
It was obvious. OPEC had already announced that there was a glut of oil in the marketplace. And it was already reported that the increased prices were due to speculation in the American stock market. And any media person should know this. Even when prices started to fall, they kept pushing the sad-ass line.
Why? Fear is a good way to keep people unfocussed, confused and in check. Unfortunately, gas prices soon will move back up a bit. But certainly not to the fear-mongering figures of $5 a gallon.
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Here is the first of a series on collecting art.
Collecting Art is itself an art form. Living with art is not just about style but also a reflection of how you see yourself, how you feel about the world and its rich cultural history. There are several ‘accepted’ ways to collect art.
One is for investment. This is where you buy a piece hoping that it will appreciate in price depending on the artist or swings in the market. The thing is that many people end up buying pieces that they don’t really like but to which they are steered to on the belief that it will turn out to be a good investment.
But it is vile to try to live with a piece that you don’t really feel attached to, that doesn’t really appeal to you, because someday it might be worth ‘something’.
A second method is to buy decorative art. Many times people buy art (and ‘art’) to fit in with their décor. Most of the furniture is red so they buy art that has red as a distinctive color. You have seen it. The thing is the art itself is not distinctive, tends to look like it’s off some production line in Shanghai, and not much of a conversation piece… unless you think you can carry a conversation starting with ‘Oh that, I bought it for $19.99 on sale at Wal-Mart’.
And when you want to get rid of your red sofa… oops!
There is a third avenue, and that is starting a meaningful collection. Now you think that that means expense. Well, it certainly will be more expensive than Wal-Mart or Walgreens. But it will carry a much higher form of uniqueness and validity. You will only purchase it if you like it. And you will have a true conversation starter. And it will have a longer shelf life of enjoyment. And there is the possibility, that because the artist is legitimate, it could very well appreciate in the future… but that wasn’t why you bought it in the first place… that’s only the gravy.
Next time we look at how to buy art.
