Great infographic on the failed drug war

The truth about the war on drugs is obvious. It's failed. In the process it has destroyed many people.


[Via: Medical Coding Certification]

See also: Glenn Greenwald, Cato report on the success of drug decriminalization in Portugal.

On July 1, 2001, a nationwide law in Portugal took effect that decriminalized all drugs, including cocaine and heroin. Under the new legal framework, all drugs were "decriminalized," not "legalized." Thus, drug possession for personal use and drug usage itself are still legally prohibited, but violations of those prohibitions are deemed to be exclusively administrative violations and are removed completely from the criminal realm. Drug trafficking continues to be prosecuted as a criminal offense. Glenn Greenwald

I just got buzzed or, Help! I am being followed!

If Google went down tomorrow, I'd pretty much have to kill myself. I use Gmail for my business because it available to me anywhere, and my ability to organize and integrate it with my other data and apps is stunningly useful. And no spam.

I use Google Street View to check out businesses that might have a use for my rear projection digital signage business line, which is designed to be displayed in windows. I "go" down the street looking for businesses that have a suitable window and then I contact them. Saves hours of riding around, and it's free.

I have a lot of my business information and important documents stored on Google docs, which I also use to collaborate on projects. This blog is on Google. I use their calendar, their "to do" list. It just goes on and on.

Today I hooked up Google Buzz, it was easy, too easy, just like the rest of the Google happy dust. To my surprise (shock?) I am being "followed" by someone I don't know - but who once posted on this blog. And with several hundred other "contacts" I am sure that this is just the beginning.

What can he see? According to Google:

"Your Google Reader shared items, Picasa Web public albums, and Google Chat status messages will automatically appear as posts in Buzz. To edit your connected sites or change privacy settings, view connected sites."

Is even this too much? Sure I have public Picasa albums, I use Google reader (Feedly actually, but they are integrated into the matrix, sorry Google), but I don't know... this just feels invasive.

What really bothers me though, is that unlike our other shadowy masters, Steve and Bill, I know almost nothing about about Sergei and Larry, other than they are very smart and very very rich. Jesus, they might even be Republicans! Are you scared yet?

"Don't be evil", Google motto.

Larry and Sergei have information, lots of it. Absolute power and all that.

Google indexes every word on every web page in the world.

Google, or "The Google" as I like to call them - is a problem.

Every email I send, they store. Every email I get, they store. Their robots read my mail to serve me ads. You too. Is that all they do? Who knows? Google does!

Has Barack Obama ever visited bigtits.com, or made some intemperate remarks about white people in his emails? I have no idea, but Sergei and Larry do, and if he did, they could, if they so chose, blackmail him, with that one little data point, they would, in effect, own the President. You too of course, same for all the senators and members of the congress, one false step on line and the Google has got your number.

They have all the passwords. They know where you went and what you searched for. And it's not going away. Can Larry and Sergei resist using the 'ring of power' , the largest database of personal information ever assembled? Are they as good and Bilbo and Frodo?

If you don't believe me, just Google it.

Gil Scott Heron, extraordinary new recording

I don't work for the record companies, so it's just from me when I say that this new album by Gil Scott Heron is something very special. Have a listen. Then have a Listen.

Happy New Year. Real men go to Sana´a

It's a new year. A new decade. Still no agreement on climate change. Obama is still bombing, most lately in Yemen, the new front in the now official "war on al-Qaeda".

And it's been almost a decade since 911, and still no new investigation. Still though, there is hope.

Someone just sent me this, the latest "Hitler Rants..." video, which is well on it's way to being the most edited video clip in history.

For those of you how believe Obama will get rid of nukes or something... Onward to Mars!

It's an absolutely hilarious idea. Obama is going to get rid of nukes! When? How?

Remember when someone told Bush that Mars was a planet, and that people could go there, and he said that sounded swell, and that America should go! This is like that. Bullshit.

A lofty sounding "goal" for the proles to chew on. Nothing more.

Of course the irony, the cosmic irony, is that contrary to popular belief, nuclear weapons actually do prevent war! Does anyone here doubt that WWIII would not have broken out over: Korea, Suez, Vietnam, Cuba, etc if it were not for the fact that had the central actors actually had gone at one another, we'd all be dead? Why has North Korea not been attacked? Nuclear weapons! Why did America not attack China? Yup. Why did America not attack Russia? Same reason!

WWII is pretty good proof that we did not need nukes to wipe out civilization. The most deaths caused by bombing were not at Hiroshima or Nagasaki, the most deaths caused by bombing were at Dresden, and Tokyo. Today, we can kill much better than that, a global war, even without nuclear weapons would easily destroy billions of lives, not to mention our environment.

No, nuclear weapons have prevented, not once but many times the utter destruction of the Earth. Obama probably does not know this, but it doesn't matter because he is entirely insincere about eliminating nuclear weapons. It's impossible for a dozen good reasons, and that he does know.

If Obama actually is serious about getting rid of nuclear weapons, his idiocy will result in WWIII and be the death of us all. And for that he gets a Peace Prize?

reposted from Salon

Attack on Iran - Are "secret sites" the New Anthrax?

I have been predicting it for years. As have many others, but the attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities hasn't happened. Why?

There is a debate over the attack, even in Israel. Even there, the serious military types worry that a strike, (actually weeks and weeks of strikes - see Kosovo) might be enough to trigger an Arab nations onslaught. And they worry about the hundreds of SRBM's that Iran could credibly place on Israeli targets. Never mind the certain disruption in oil supplies which would trigger a global economic catastrophe, which would be exponentially worse than the current one. And did I mention that Iran has dozens, if not hundreds, of hypersonic Russian and Chinese Sunburn, Mosquit and Silkworm ship killer missiles that could credibly destroy many of the American ships now operating in the Persian gulf?

It also now seems that even though Cheney supported an attack, Bush did not. That matters. Without US acquiescence at least, and support at best, any Israeli attack would fail. So America is critical. And to date, no green light has been given.

This does not mean that the fanatics, religious and otherwise, who occupy the Israeli government, won't make the calculation that if they attack, the United States MUST come in on their side to avoid, wait for it, ANOTHER HOLOCAUST.

Meh, I tend to depend on the good old MAD doctrine which worked so well with those "crazy", "ëvil" Russkies. All this talk about a "suicidal" leadership is just propaganda. As Sting said, even the Russians love their children too.

Is Ajad nuts enough to do it anyway? I don't think so, aside from the fact that he lacks the political power to order a strike, AND IS YEARS AWAY FROM HAVING A WEAPON! The real question is, Does Khameni want one? And the answer is that is that the Supreme Leader has declared atomic weapons "unislamic" .

Khamenhi knows that it would be the literal end of Iran, and even if the former mayor of Tehran wanted to nuke Israel, the military would never comply. The Ayatollahs would have to be mad to support such an adventure, and they are not, despite all the press to the contrary. They would be annihilated as Hilary said. In fact if Iran were to nuke Israel, even I would support glassing the entire country as a lesson to the next lot of maniacs.

The real danger will come from those "serious" journalists and politicians who will try to convince us that a "limited" strike is possible, just like the good old days at Osirak. Only those days are gone.

I think the real "fear" of an Iranian bomb is that the West and America in particular, will have to treat them as equals, and not "little people" who we can lord over and order around as we do with so many nuclear armless countries around the world.

So it's on again, off again. The name of the game is Maniacs/fundamentalists vs the Sane. Unfortunately for us all, there are many pushing for an attack, whatever the cost, it is up to we the people, to push back even harder, with facts and appeals to morality and common sense, thin as the latter are on the ground. I see no other way forward.