Want Viagra? Get A Rectal Exam First, Damn It!

The level of assault on women's reproductive rights is so substantial (see this piece on how a high level cancer organization Susan G. Komen known primarily for the Race for the Cure, the best-funded breast cancer organization and known internationally for the pink ribbon, and their choice to now defund Planned Parenthood's breast cancer screenings) I thought that it was funny in Virginia, with the ultra Republican bill making women hear fetal sounds, etc. before having an abortion, that state Sen. Janet Howell (D) has decided to "level the playing field."

On Monday Howell expressed her disdain for legislation requiring the ultrasound by proposing an amendment she described as a simple matter of fairness. Her amendment said that before being treated for erectile dysfunction, a man would have to undergo a digital rectal exam and a cardiac stress test.

“We should just have a little gender equity here,” Howell said.

High five, sista!!!! It's about time the men start having to take responsibility for their impregnation of women, voluntarily or not.

Gutsy Move By Anonymous

UPDATE: 11/5/11

According to New York Daily News:

The hacktavist collective Anonymous has cancelled Operation Cartel after a member that was allegedly abducted by a Mexican drug cartel was released Thursday, the group's longtime public face announced in an online post.

WOW ... that's some fucking power!
- - - - - - - -

"You made a huge mistake by taking one of us. Release him," says a masked man in a video posted online on behalf of the group, Anonymous.

"We cannot defend ourselves with a weapon … but we can do this with their cars, homes, bars, brothels and everything else in their possession," says the man, who is wearing a suit and tie.

"It won't be difficult; we all know who they are and where they are located," says the man, who underlines the group's international ties by speaking Spanish with the accent of a Spaniard while using Mexican slang.

Apparently, Anonymous is not taking the kidnapping of one of their own lying down.

Earlier today, [Barrett] Brown tweeted: "Just hours into gathering secondary intel, we have the name of a U.S. DA and evidence of his involvement." That was followed by "Requesting the assistance of any journalist who is willing to look into a DA with potential ties to organized crime."

From CNET.

Anyone Contact You Lately To Discuss Your Prescription Buying Habits?

I once got a telephone call from a "survey" company that concerned my "prescription" drug purchases. Now, I really only have two prescriptions, one for my blood pressure, and one for relief of stress. But, I was rather surprised that this company knew my information, what drugs I took and where I purchased them from. I was aghast that my personal medical history was out there for others to pick at.

Seems I am not alone (subscription required for full reading):

The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a Vermont law that barred the sale of doctors' prescription data to drug companies, ruling the law interfered with the pharmaceutical industry's First Amendment right to market its products.

Data companies such as IMS Health Inc. gather information from pharmacies about which medicines doctors are prescribing and ...

4+20

Closing out the bar with Stephen Stills.

Finally, Some Obama Decisions I Actually Like

I know I've been all doomsday about Obama and some of his decisions since taking office, but these last two, at least, make me feel better.

Attorney General Eric Holder said at a press conference Wednesday that the Justice Department will no longer raid medical marijuana clubs that are established legally under state law. His declaration is a fulfillment of a campaign promise by President Barack Obama, and marks a major shift from the previous administration.

I got this piece off of The Huffington Post, and it is a really, really long article, but vastly informative about the emergence of the medical marijuana industry.

As for the other news:

WASHINGTON (AP) — News organizations will be allowed to photograph the homecomings of America's war dead under a new Pentagon policy, defense and congressional officials said Thursday.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has decided to allow photos of flag-draped caskets at Dover Air Force Base, Del., if the families of the fallen troops agree, the officials told The Associated Press.

Obviously, if families want privacy, that will be respected. But far too many families were dumfounded when told that no press was allowed when their loved ones were flown into Dover. These people gave their lives for this country (and not to mention in a war that was started based on a certain person's ego and on the son of a bitch's lies) and they deserved to be recognized upon their arrival back in this country, and not hidden (by the thousands) from he American public, the very public they died for.

Oh Chronic Tree (Wink, Wink)

Courtesy of skippy, who always gives me a shout out!

You CAN Change DNA Make-up

Comprehensive lifestyle changes including a better diet and more exercise can lead not only to a better physique, but also to swift and dramatic changes at the genetic level, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

In a small study, the researchers tracked 30 men with low-risk prostate cancer who decided against conventional medical treatment such as surgery and radiation or hormone therapy.

The men underwent three months of major lifestyle changes, including eating a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes and soy products, moderate exercise such as walking for half an hour a day, and an hour of daily stress management methods such as meditation.

As expected, they lost weight, lowered their blood pressure and saw other health improvements. But the researchers found more profound changes when they compared prostate biopsies taken before and after the lifestyle changes.

After the three months, the men had changes in activity in about 500 genes -- including 48 that were turned on and 453 genes that were turned off.

That is pretty amazing, when you think about it. What them damn hippies have been saying all along, proven to have some credibility! Eat healthy, exercise and meditate (or for me, medicate .. lol) Of course, if you are of the intelligent design persuasion, move along, nothing to see here.

28 Years Later - Kent State Shootings

"You know, you see these bums, you know, blowin' up the campuses. Listen, the boys that are on the college campuses today are the luckiest people in the world, going to the greatest universities, and here they are, burnin' up the books, I mean, stormin' around about this issue, I mean, you name it - get rid of the war, there'll be another one." -- Richard M. Nixon, New York Times, May 2, 1970

Two days later, we had the Kent State shootings, where National Guardsmen shot and killed students and bystanders on campus. 28 years later, this still stands out in my mind as one of the most pivotal moments in my life.

"Four Dead In Ohio" - RIP 5/4/70

Police issue zero tickets during annual marijuana celebration

I think it's funny that being a pot-head for more than 30 years, I never gave much significance to 4:20. I won't bother to go into the "legend" of 4:20, but this weekend was, of course, 4/20, and apparently every year there are gatherings (some who even wait until 4:20 p.m. -- not a.m.) that light up in public and get high.

"Nine, eight, seven ..."

A crowd of about 10,000 people collectively began counting down on the University of Colorado's Norlin Quadrangle just before 4:20 p.m. Sunday.

Yet the massive puff of pot smoke that hovers over CU's Boulder campus every April 20 -- the date of an annual, internationally recognized celebration of marijuana -- began rising over the sea of heads earlier than normal this year.

Let's Just Keep Big Pharma Self-Regulating -- NOT

Two teams of researchers with access to thousands of documents gathered for lawsuits over the painkiller Vioxx allege that Merck waged a campaign of deception to promote its drug, moving slowly to warn of possible hazards while at the same time dressing up in-house studies as the work of independent academic researchers.

The reports in today's Journal of the American Medical Association in effect accuse one of the world's biggest pharmaceutical makers of various forms of scientific fraud.

One study alleges that Merck gave the Food and Drug Administration an incomplete accounting of deaths in a clinical trial of Vioxx in people with mild dementia. Federal regulators eventually received the data, which added to growing evidence that Vioxx increased the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Simultaneously, Merck was using what the JAMA authors call "guest authorship and ghostwriting" to make it appear that research done by its employees or contractors was the work of scientists at medical schools and universities. That presumably gave the findings more credibility when they were published, in medical journals, boosting Vioxx's profile in the crowded painkiller market.

Vioxx, whose generic name is rofecoxib, went on the market in 1999. It became a "blockbuster," with $2.3 billion in sales in 2003, but Merck voluntarily withdrew it in September 2004 after several studies showed that it increased the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Since then, Merck has been named in 26,500 lawsuits by people who say the drug harmed them. Last fall, the company created a $4.85 billion fund to settle the claims while not admitting that Vioxx caused heart attacks, strokes or deaths.

Yeah, more proof that self-monitoring the industry really, really works!

Just Fucking Legalize It, Already

A large and respected association of physicians is calling on the federal government to ease its strict ban on marijuana as medicine and hasten research into the drug's therapeutic uses.

The American College of Physicians, the nation's largest organization of doctors of internal medicine, with 124,000 members, contends that the long and rancorous debate over marijuana legalization has obscured good science that has demonstrated the benefits and medicinal promise of cannabis.

It's Still An End Of An Era

"... as many people will say they did drugs with Dee Dee Ramone as claimed to have slid naked through the mud at Woodstock."

I won't claim to have done drugs with any of the Ramones, nor was I at Woodstock, despite being old enough, but I did see them in San Diego at SDSU's Aztec Center back in 1979, when they opened for, of all bands, The Babys!

It was so trippy, because that was back when none of the songs really had a start or an end, and you didn't really know when the new song started except for the "1, 2, 3, 4" count off.

The end of the disco era, and the start of new music, which at the time was all combined into the "punk" genre. Eventually, that split into "new wave," which included Talking Heads, (which spawned one of my favorite bands, Tom Tom Club), Elvis Costello and Blondie, and "punk" which included Ramones, New York Dolls and Sex Pistols.

I've never been to CBGBs. Nor have I been to any Hard Rock Cafe.

A Little Mary Jane Helps The Brain

Puff Puff 

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) -- Good news for aging hippies: Smoking pot may stave off Alzheimer's disease.

New research shows that the active ingredient in marijuana may prevent the progression of the disease by preserving levels of an important neurotransmitter that allows the brain to function.

Researchers at the Scripps Research Institute in California found that marijuana's active ingredient, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, can prevent the neurotransmitter acetylcholine from breaking down more effectively than commercially marketed drugs.

THC is also more effective at blocking clumps of protein that can inhibit memory and cognition in Alzheimer's patients, the researchers reported in the journal Molecular Pharmaceutics.

It is funny how more reasearch into marijuana use, more beneficial properties keep being discovered. And, what is even more astounding is that such discoveries point to the fact that brain cells do not die, but, in fact, regenerate and/or help brain functioning!

Time to roll my morning doobie and get my cup of java. Puff, puff.

Where's My Bodega?

I don't think John put the part up where Tweety asks him if he likes to speak in Spanish because it's more "up-beat," and Villaraigossa look at him like he's a mental patient and says he was born in the United States and English is his first language.

From firedoglake.

I read part of that interview. Whatever drugs he's on (not the mayor), I want some.

Speaking Of Drugs ...

D.C. Council member Marion Barry tested positive for cocaine use in the fall in a drug test ordered by a court after he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor tax charges, according to two sources familiar with Barry's case.

What A Trip

Albert Hofmann remembers very clearly the moment when, on a spring afternoon, riding his bicycle, the whole world - and his life - changed.

"Everything in my field of vision wavered and was distorted as if seen in a curved mirror," says the chemist, who celebrates his 100th birthday tomorrow. "I had the feeling that I could not move from the spot. I was cycling, cycling, but the time seemed to stand still." It was 1943, and Hofmann was experiencing the world's first LSD trip.

This article is dope! Ha ha, no, seriously, this is a good read. For those that did not know the history of LSD, it was used primarily, after discovery, in the treatment (and understanding of) psychotic disorders.

I've taken a few acid trips. None of them, mind you, in the 60's, when the rest of my counterpart baby boomers were doing drugs. I didn't begin experimenting with drugs until I was 24 years old, and an adult. I do not advocate, and I do not approve of, drug use by adolescents, or children. But, I am not opposed to adults using recreational drugs. End of story.

Back to LSD, though. Actually, my first trip was not off LSD, but MDA, in 1977, in Hollywood. To induce the onset of the effects, I walked around the block, Hollywood Blvd. residential district area, west of La Brea. I peaked sometime thereafter. It was an interesting first trip. I was attending one of those typical Hollywood dinner parties, with the guest list an intriguing mix of artists, actors and musicians. You know, the ones with the five course meal, and a different wine with each course. I puked at the end of the evening, and most of the trip was uneventful.

My second MDA trip (before I used LSD) was in Northern San Diego County, and was by far, the most fun. It was a day trip, spent with the same person I took the MDA the first time in Hollywood. I remember when I peaked, Amtrak was going by. The silver of the train streamed for way longer than the train was actually there!

The fun part was exploring the communities of Encinitas and Leucadia. We actually discovered a tree house, that really had electricity wired into it, and a "dude" lived in the house. We climed up the tree and surprised the "dude" and pretty much told him we were "tripping" and could we just sit in his house and enjoy it. Back in the 70's people were cool to that.

My first LSD trip was actually very funny. I had been dating a comic, and hung out with comics. We were given a tab of Goofy (that's a piece of paper with the mark of the Disney character Goofy stamped on it) and told it was great stuff. My date and I took it and zero happened. The next morning we hooked up with the rest of the comedic group, and they asked us how we thought the stuff was. We figured they gave us bogus LSD and were trying to see if we had a trip anyway. We called them on it, and my friends were rather perplexed. They indicated it was great stuff, and before I knew it, one had pulled out this small vial, and dropped a few drops in my mouth, and said "there, try THAT." The rest of the group laughed, and took a few drops. In about fifteen minutes, I began the most extreme trip I'd ever had.

The only problem was ... it was moving day. Yup, the guys and I were all prepared to move me out of my apartment that day. Ha ha ha. Yes, we all were on acid moving. The long story short, I couldn't find the apartment I was moving to, and it took weeks to track down my furniture that had been loaded up and driven away!

I enjoyed tripping with a few friends over the latter part of the 70's, including once on Thanksgiving. We always took low doses so that we just got the giggles and saw "pretty colors." The last time I did LSD was on my 30th birthday. I was still living at the beach, and we had an open house. It was still very much the drug culture era circa Studio 54, so, at my birthday open house, I had a bowl of Goffy tabs of acid, a bowl of cocaine, an ice bucket full of bottles of champagne, and joints rolled. It was an all day open house, and oh, what a house I had, with glass windows overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

Ah, youth ...

"That's What It Said In The Manual"

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) has been accused of being so concerned about the possibility of a terrorist attack that it failed to prepare properly for a much more inevitable natural disaster.

That's bullshit. They've been accused of squandering the money it was given, under the guise of being so concerned about the possiblity of a terrorist attack. The failure was because they were unprepared for any circumstance, attack or otherwise.

After the authorities in Baton Rouge had prepared a field hospital for victims of the storm, Fema sent its first batch of supplies, all of which were designed for use against chemical attack, including drugs such as Cipro, which is designed for use against anthrax. "We called them up and asked them: 'Why did you send that, and they said that's what it says in the book'," said a Baton Rouge official.

That's what it says in the book? Who the fuck are we kidding?

The authorities in Baton Rouge say they have tried to raise such problems with Fema representatives deployed to the city but were told all decisions had to be relayed to Washington. "They sent down Mike Brown [the head of Fema] for television interviews, but everyone else is really low-level," an official said.

Well, duh. If anyone has been thinking otherwise, it was always the intention of the federal government to drag its feet. I mean, first you have Dubya on continued vacation, playing guitar and giving pointless Iraq is hard work speeches. You have that black tart bitch shopping in New York, buying thousand dollar really ugly shoes. You have that pink fat pig VP off fishing. This is a government that truly shows it represents only the white very rich people of America (note to black bitch, you ain't white, honey).

Federal officials have defended their response. Michael Chertoff, head of the homeland security department, which has responsibility for Fema, said: "We are extremely pleased with the response of every element of the federal government, all of our federal partners, to this terrible tragedy.

That would be all and well, if one could actually point to every element of the federal goverment's actions, as well as those actions of their federal partners, to this terible tragedy. How about pointing to one element?

As usual, they just say they did even though they didn't.

They lie about everything

Fucking Assholes.

As global leaders gathered in Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum in January, officials from President Bush's $15 billion anti-AIDS program issued a news release citing their accomplishments. Nowhere were the numbers more impressive than in Botswana, where 32,839 AIDS patients were receiving life-extending treatment with the help of the U.S. government, they said.

The operations manager of Botswana's treatment program, Segolame Ramotlhwa, called the U.S. figures "a gross misrepresentation of the facts." His boss, Patson Mazonde, who as deputy permanent secretary for health services had overseen the program since its inception in 2002, called the Bush claim "false" but suggested it was merely a mistake.

They agreed on the number of patients in Botswana who had been put on treatment because of the Bush program: zero.

Impeach Bush.
Impeach Bush.
Impeach Bush.

Back to our regularly scheduled program.

Let's not forget this truly egregious cut and paste hatchet job by this administration:

A State Department release from Monday doctored remarks from U2’s Bono, twisting his quote to mean the very opposite of what he apparently believes. Here’s the State Department paragraph, two graphs below the lede [besides underlining, excerpt appears exactly as published]:

Bono, lead singer of the Irish band U2 and longtime activist for aid to Africa, echoed Geldof’s praise for President Bush as he told an American television interviewer June 26, “[Bush] has already doubled and tripled aid to Africa .… I think he has done an incredible job, his administration, on AIDS. 250,000 Africans are on anti-viral drugs; they literally owe their lives to America.”

Real comment by Bono, before Dubya's SSI got involved:

The most important and toughest nut is still President Bush. He feels he’s already doubled and tripled aid to Africa, which he started from far too low a place. He can stand there and say he paid at the office already. He shouldn’t because he’ll be left out of the history books. But it’s hard for him because of the expense of the war and the debts.

I need another drink.

Bernie Sanders On Outrage -- Where Is It?

Reposted, courtesy of Yahoo. Read more at Elect Bernie Sanders.

One of the difficulties many of us have in dealing with the Bush Administration and the extreme right-wing group that now controls Congress is that the word "outrage" has increasingly lost its meaning. Virtually every day there is another action, another lie, another assault on the very foundations of what our country is about--so much so that we cease to be shocked or appalled. We shrug our shoulders and say "what's new?"

What does "outrage" mean anymore when we have an Administration that took us into a war under false premises--a war that has cost us over 1,600 dead, 12,000 wounded and $300 billion--in addition to the terrible suffering of the Iraqi people?

What does "outrage" mean anymore when we have a Majority Leader in the House who threatens our independent judiciary; who leaves the voting rolls open for three additional hours while he secures the votes he needs at five in the morning to win a prescription drug bill written by the pharmaceutical industry; who calls a special session of Congress to address a tragic situation affecting one family?

What does "outrage" mean anymore when we have a White House that tells us how much they love our troops but threw 140,000 veterans off of VA health care several years ago, and brings forth a budget this year which devastates health care for our veterans and leaves the VA totally unprepared to take care of the thousands of soldiers who are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan?

What does the word "outrage" mean when, at a time when the US already has the most unfair gap between the rich and the poor in the industrialized world, we have a President who provides hundreds of billions in tax breaks to the very richest people in our society and cuts back on health care, education and affordable housing for low and moderate income people?

What does "outrage" mean anymore when the White House and the Republican leadership are some of the very few people in the world who do not understand the profound dangers of global warming and who, day after day, aide and abet those who are destroying our environment?

What does "outrage" mean when we have a president who tells us in every speech how much he believes in "freedom," but who proposes legislation like the USA Patriot Act and other bills which are undermining the basic freedoms and constitutional rights of the American people? All this talk about "freedom," and yet he wants to deny the women of this country the freedom to control their own bodies?

Sadly, I could go on and on telling you what the Bush Administration and the Republican leadership are doing, but you already know all about that. And you also know, as I do, that our political challenge is not simply talking to each other about the horrendous republican record.

Our challenge now is to determine how we bring people together to end this horrific period of American history, and how we create a government which represents all of our people, and not just the CEO's of large corporations and extreme right-wing fundamentalists.

I will tell you what the major issue will be: and that is the collapse of the middle class, the increase in poverty and the growing and obscene gap between the rich and the poor. It is not acceptable to me that for the first time in the modern history of the United States, the younger generation will likely have a lower standard of living than today's adults--despite a huge increase in worker productivity.

We must put an end to the disgrace of the United States being the only major country on earth without a national health care program that guarantees health care for every man, woman and child. We will also continue our efforts to lower the outrageously high cost of prescription drugs.

We must end our absurd trade policies which are costing us millions of decent paying jobs, and are driving wages down. Workers in the united States must not be asked to compete against desperate people in China who earn 30 cents an hour and go to jail when they try to form an independent union. Corporate America must start re-investing in the United States, and creating good paying jobs here.

We must put an end to the reality that many of the new jobs that are being created in our country do not pay a living wage or provide decent benefits. That is why we must raise the minimum wage to a living wage. It is incomprehensible that the national minimum wage remains an obscene $5.15 an hour.

We must put an end to the anti-union national labor board approach which is making it almost impossible for workers to form a union. Employers, with impunity, fire labor organizers and harrass those who are fighting for collective bargaining. The right to form a union is a constitutional right and must be protected so that workers can negotiate fair wages and working conditions.

We must end the absurd national priorities of the Republican leadership which provide hudnreds of billions in tax breaks for the wealthiest one percent, and then cut back on health care, education, affordable housing, veterans needs and programs for the poor.

And lastly, of course, we must end this absurd effort to privatize Social Security and destroy the most successful anti-poverty program in american history. Not only must we not privatize social security, but we must strengthen it and make absolutely certain that it will be there for our grandchildren and great grandchildren.