Pronoun of the Year

Jon Swift’s suggestion for a better choice of Time’s Person of the Year,

I think if Time was going to choose a pronoun as Person of the Year, the best choice would have been Them. More and more people see the world as Us against Them. They seem to hate us for some reason. And lately we haven’t been so fond of them either. Some people believe they aren’t just different from us, with different ideas or different opinions or different cultures. They are the enemy. They have to be stopped. If we don’t do something now, they are going to take over, imposing their ideas and culture on us. The funny thing is, they think the same thing about us. They think we want to impose our culture on them when in fact we are just trying to help them. I have no idea why they are so angry at us. What did we ever do to them?

Bring the troops home

America is an empire, an expansionist empire, and this is not a new development. From its inception, the territory it has claimed and controlled has expanded, the native people it has subjugated, and so Iraq fits into a larger pattern which was briefly interrupted as a reaction to Vietnam. Now I am not passing judgment on this behavior in calling attention to it, but I am saying that it is an important context to understanding current events.

The empire extended beyond its ability to control the margins of its authority, and the empire will not continue to hold territories it cannot control.

We are faced with a time of great change in society, and in our economy, which has been on a war-footing for a long number of years. The war is going to come to an end one way or another. Either by trying to hold the outlying regions and so weakening the center, or by letting them go in peace. We are striving for peace.

There may be no similarity between America of 2006 and America of 2012. This frightens people who have been brought up with certain expectations and have no idea where they will fit in a new society.

I think it is a conversation we need to be having with one another, about what we hope for and expect to happen. My hope is to reduce suffering and increase happiness for everyone.

We cannot continue to subjugate people, we cannot defend ourselves against the people we destroy, because the victims have families, and the families are not going to wait for us to destroy them. The more war you make the more war you have.

The spirit of Christmas

Hat-tip to the Xsociate.

No way, Harry

A “brief” troop increase in Iraq? I guess those who are briefly maimed and killed won’t mind, especially the sacrificing for a lost and morally wrong cause.

Bring the troops home. Their families miss them.

Hat-tip to Creature.

Thermodynamic relativity

Entropy goes from (zero, infinity). If we set E=1 at a time T=1, as time goes so entropy increases, neither reaching an end. Relative entropy does not necessarily increase.

It’s all over but the counting

Cannabis is the top cash crop in America according to a new study.

The study shows that 10,000 tonnes of marijuana worth $35.8bn (£18.4bn) is grown each year; the street value would be even higher. This dwarfs the $23bn-worth of corn grown, $17.6bn-worth of soybeans and $12.2bn-worth of hay. Marijuana is the biggest cash crop in 12 states, with the value of pot grown outstripping peanuts in Georgia and tobacco in North and South Carolina. In California, the biggest producer, it is worth $13.8bn.

Hat-tip.

Things you find on the nets

This is very interesting, a Texas prosecutors’ forum.

There are some “funny” prosecutors’ jokes there, here‘s one:

Lassie: Aarrff!

Timmy: What is it Lassie? Someone put a puppy in an oven?

Lassie: Aarff…rufff…arff

Timmy: Holy, moley! Are you serious? Two juveniles, one in blue jeans and a striped polo and one wearing khakis with a long-sleeve button-down with a hole in the pocket, came over there?

Lassie: Rrrruff!

Timmy: Wow! Can you do those movements in court for the D.A.?

Transcendence

i is imaginary, and if you don’t know the square root of negative one, you won’t understand.

Conceived in nucleosynthesis

Say hello

to Enough is Enough.

Joseph Alois Ratzinger

What did you know about the camps in Germany, and what did you do about it?

Why do you not ask for understanding and forgiveness from the world?

Who do you think you are in your fancy costumes?

Why do you not condemn torture?

*crickets*

Can you weather the storm?

Where did the buses go?

Where are the people being stored?

How many have been taken?

Ask now, there’s not much time.

National Security (NatSe for short)

Flynt Leverett wrote an op-ed article for the New York Times, however,

The White House is demanding, before it will consider clearing the op-ed for publication, that I excise entire paragraphs dealing with matters that I have written about (and received clearance from the CIA to do so) in several other pieces, that have been publicly acknowledged by Secretary Rice, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, and former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, and that have been extensively covered in the media.

These matters include Iran’s dialogue and cooperation with the United States concerning Afghanistan in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and Iran’s offer to negotiate a comprehensive “grand bargain” with the United States in the spring of 2003.

There is no basis for claiming that these issues are classified and not already in the public domain.

Read the whole statement along with background at The Washington Note.

Hat-tip to Juan Cole.

Democracy

Click here if the video does not properly embed.

With comment

Press release. Copied in full because it deserves to be read.

On Tuesday December 12th the largest single marijuana cultivation bust in the history of the DEA was dismissed in the 9th circuit courts by Judge Meredith Patel. Judge Patel ordered that all evidence and information taken from and used against Charles Edward “Eddy” Lepp in the 2004 Raid of Lepp’s home, ministry and garden (better known as Eddy’s Medicinal Gardens and Multi-Denominational Ministry of Cannabis and Rastafari) be suppressed due to the illegal service of warrants. The raid conducted in August of 2004 was a considerably large one. The DEA confiscated 32,524 plants on Lepp’s 20+ acre home and ministry taking a total of two days and using members of the local law enforcement and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Elite National Guard Wolf Team. The DEA estimated it to be an 80 million dollar bust calling it the most sophisticated cultivation they had ever seen.

Judge Patel has called for a Franks hearing on January 9th 2007 at 9:30am about the warrant from the 05 raid on Lepp’s home and ministry. At this time they will hear testimony from witnesses for both the prosecution and the defense to determine the validity of the warrant and the information used to attain it. It is the hope of the defense to prove once again the criminal behavior of the DEA by the attainment of yet another illegal warrant. This hearing is open to the public and is on the 19th floor of the Federal Court Building in San Francisco at 450 Golden Gate Ave.

Check Eddy’s Medicinal Gardens for more information on this case, updates on the next court date and to read the current court documents from this case which will be posted very soon. You may contact Lepp at 707-275-8879.