No real than you are
August 10, 2007 — Mahakal / מהכאלReuters has video.
Chickenings writes:
Seems like it is an actual thing:
http://www.egoleonard.com/And just on the off-chance your Dutch isn’t quite fluent just yet, here’s a bit of what it says…
“My name is Ego Leonard and I greet you from the virtual world. A world which for me stands for luck, solidarity, everything green and blooming, and without rules and restrictions. Recently, my world has been flooded with luck-seekers and those who want power. Many new meetings in my virtual world have left me very curious as to your surroundings. I am here because I thought of your world and wanted to discover and understand it. Show me all of those beautiful things which your world has to offer. Be my friend, and tell me tales, take me on your travels to beautiful landscapes, show me your words and gestures.”
Hat-tip Doug Stych, who is now proud to be called a liberal though I don’t think he’s a parasite.
Looks harmless? Was it made in China?
August 1, 2007 — Mahakal / מהכאל
MSNBC (hat-tip Bryan @ Why Now?):
WASHINGTON – Toy-maker Fisher-Price is recalling 83 types of toys — including the popular Big Bird, Elmo, Dora and Diego characters — because their paint contains excessive amounts of lead.
The worldwide recall being announced Thursday involves 967,000 plastic preschool toys made by a Chinese vendor and sold in the United States between May and August. It is the latest in a wave of recalls that has heightened global concern about the safety of Chinese-made products.
The recall is the first for Fisher-Price Inc. and parent company Mattel Inc. involving lead paint. It is the largest for Mattel since 1998 when Fisher-Price had to yank about 10 million Power Wheels from toy stores.
Poisoning Big Bird is not nice. Boo.
How many children have been exposed?
Related post:
Do you pledge allegiance to the flag of the Corporate States of America?
July 4, 2007 — Mahakal / מהכאל
Hat-tip Tengrain.
Playing with food
June 25, 2007 — Mahakal / מהכאלHow does it make you feel?
June 21, 2007 — Mahakal / מהכאלVideo by Demetrius, Renee’s husband (in Ohio).
Time to end “Most Favored Nation” status yet?
June 14, 2007 — Mahakal / מהכאל
Children’s toys, above, poisoned with lead paint.
(Article from the Consumerist forwarded by my wife.)
Apologize to John Conyers
June 5, 2007 — Mahakal / מהכאלHouse Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI):
“Fox News has a history of inappropriate on-air mistakes that are neither fair, nor balanced. This type of disrespect for people of color should no longer be tolerated. I am personally offended by the network’s complete disregard for accuracy in reporting and lackluster on-air apology.”
Hat-tip Josh Marshall.
Related post:
Update: Take 2.
Much better.
Make peace now.
May 29, 2007 — Mahakal / מהכאל
Comments enabled
May 6, 2007 — Mahakal / מהכאלFrom the CBS PublicEye (via Pam Spaulding, hat-tip Lindsay Beyerstein):
Today CBSNews.com informed its staff via email that they should no longer enable comments on stories about presidential candidate Barack Obama. The reason for the new policy, according to the email, is that stories about Obama have been attracting too many racist comments.
“It’s very simple,” Mike Sims, director of News and Operations for CBSNews.com, told me. “We have our Rules of Engagement. They prohibit personal attacks, especially racist attacks. Stories about Obama have been problematic, and we won’t tolerate it.”
CBSNews.com does sometimes delete comments on an individual basis, but Sims said that was not sufficient in the case of Obama stories due to “the volume and the persistence” of the objectionable comments.
Of course cutting off abusers makes sense, but blocking all comments about Barack Obama is just as much as giving the racists what they want.
John Lennon made lots of money too
May 3, 2007 — Mahakal / מהכאל
John Edwards is a very rich man. He can afford a $400 haircut. He has made no secret of this.
He has not unjustly enriched himself, to my knowledge.
This cannot be said of Republicans who profit from human misery.
What do you get when you cross the Atlantic with the Titanic?
April 25, 2007 — Mahakal / מהכאלSaturday Cartoons
April 21, 2007 — tiredinsideMy daughter found this one. What’s uncanny is I could swear Oscar is actually singing the song in places. Enjoy….
Did someone say Godwin’s Law had been suspended?
April 12, 2007 — Mahakal / מהכאלYeah, it’s still early days… Soon everyone will say it.
April 12, 2007 — Mahakal / מהכאלAdvice from Kurt Vonnegut
April 12, 2007 — Mahakal / מהכאל
Update: I have been hoaxed, as Ombudsben points out in the comments below. The commencement address was never given, and it was not by Kurt Vonnegut. Here is one account of the story.
Still, it’s good.
Pictures of beautiful women
April 11, 2007 — Mahakal / מהכאלDon Imus is more despicable than anyone I can think of. Not only does he have the need to be insulting and rude to his audience and guests, he thinks that in the life of a young woman who has achieved some accomplishment deserving praise, she ought to be cussed at with racist and sexually offensive terms. Don is a wealthy, wealthy man. He’s got everything money can buy, doesn’t he? And all he’s got for it is hatred and disgust for himself and everyone on the planet.
Yeah, I’m big pimpin’ alright. I’m telling you. These are women who deserve respect.
But you gotta go read the General, so you know what this is about. Inform yourself about the people you see on television and listen to on the radio, see the victims of their hatred, and be disgusted. I won’t demand anyone be fired, no. If his employers intend to convey the message he conveys, they should keep him on, and they should wear him as a badge of pride, such as cometh before the fall.
Update: MSNBC has reportedly fired Don Imus. No word on CBS yet.
Update 2: CBS has also canceled his contract. Hat-tip Waveflux.
Ten things I hate about commandments
April 8, 2007 — Mahakal / מהכאלEurocentric, but good.
April 8, 2007 — Mahakal / מהכאלMy generation remembers, and we do not forget the terrible price inflicted. We need a time to heal.
The times in which this was made and broadcast, we were children, they could say no more than this much. We can say more now. We need to learn to live in peace with one another and to respect our different traditions, while allowing our children to go outside our old traditions. We need to acknowledge that the sins of our forefathers are visited upon their victims, and make our own apologies for having the fruits of injustice. Yet the good that our fathers did may outweigh any incidental harm if we can all find a way to share the fruits of joy and love with one another.
I ask forgiveness of all who may think I have done them a harm by existing, or by accepting any gift which helps to sustain my life, if it ever occurred at your expense and without permission. I do not wish to be led astray from the truth by hopes of wealth, but I wish to preserve and protect that which is valuable to all of humankind.
If you feel I have done a greater harm, or if I have done one that could not be avoided that requires more explanation, I will ask that I be told. This is not the place for putting personal grievances which require knowledge of who I am, but to what you see before you. If you feel I am unjust or wrong, tell me so.
Break on through to the other side
April 4, 2007 — Mahakal / מהכאלMontel, today
April 3, 2007 — Mahakal / מהכאל
From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch today. Hat-tip Cannabis News.
Medical use of marijuana should be legalized
By Montel Williams
04/03/2007
You probably know me as a talk show host and, perhaps, as someone who for several years has spoken out about my use of medical marijuana for the pain caused by multiple sclerosis. That surprised a few people, but recent research has proved that I was right: right about marijuana’s medical benefits and right about how urgent it is for states to change their laws so that sick people aren’t treated as criminals. The Illinois General Assembly is considering such a change right now.
If you see me on television [10 a.m. weekdays on Channel 4 in St. Louis], I look healthy. What you don’t see is the mind-numbing pain searing through my legs like hot pokers.
My doctors wrote me prescriptions for some of the strongest painkillers available. I took Percocet, Vicodin and Oxycontin on a regular basis, knowingly risking overdose just trying to make the pain bearable. But these powerful, expensive drugs brought me no relief. I couldn’t sleep, I was agitated, my legs kicked involuntarily in bed and the pain was so bad I found myself crying in the middle of the night.
All these heavy-duty narcotics made me nearly incoherent. I couldn’t take them when I had to work, because they turned me into a zombie. Worse, these drugs are highly addictive, and one thing I knew was that I didn’t want to become a junkie.
When someone suggested I try marijuana, I was skeptical. But I also was desperate. To my amazement, it worked after the legal drugs had failed. Three puffs and within minutes the excruciating pain in my legs subsided. I had my first restful sleep in months.
I am not alone. A new study from the University of California, published in February in the highly regarded medical journal Neurology, leaves no doubt about that.
You see, people with MS suffer from a particular type of pain called neuropathic pain: pain caused by damage to the nerves. It’s common in MS but also in many other illnesses, including diabetes and HIV/AIDS. It’s typically a burning or stabbing sensation, and conventional pain drugs don’t help much, whatever the specific illness.
The new study, conducted by Dr. Donald Abrams, looked at neuropathic pain in HIV/AIDS patients. About one-third of people with HIV eventually suffer this kind of pain, and there are no FDA-approved treatments. For some it gets so bad that they can’t walk.
This was what is known as a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, the “gold standard” of medical research. And marijuana worked. The very first marijuana cigarette reduced the pain by an average of 72 percent, without serious side effects.
What makes this even more impressive is that U.S. researchers studying marijuana are required to use marijuana supplied by the federal government, marijuana that is famous for its poor quality and weakness. So there is every reason to believe that studies such as this one underestimate the potential relief that high-quality marijuana could provide.
In my case, medical marijuana has allowed me to live a productive, fruitful life despite having multiple sclerosis. Many thousands of others all over this country — less well-known than me but whose stories are just as real — have experienced the same thing.
Here’s what’s shocking: The U.S. government knows marijuana works as a medicine. Our government actually provides medical marijuana each month to five patients in a program that started about 25 years ago but was closed to new patients in 1992. One of the patients in that program, Florida stockbroker Irvin Rosenfeld, was a guest on my show two years ago. If federal officials come to town to tell you there’s no evidence marijuana is a safe, effective medicine, know this: They’re lying, and they know it.
Still, 39 states subject patients with illnesses like MS, cancer or HIV/AIDS to arrest and jail for using medical marijuana, even if their doctor has recommended it. It’s long past time for that to change.
Illinois state Sen. John Cullerton, D-Chicago, has introduced a bill — SB 650 — to protect patients like me from arrest and jail for using medical marijuana when it’s recommended by a physician. Similar laws are working well in 11 states right now.
The General Assembly should pass the medical marijuana bill without delay. Sick people shouldn’t be treated as criminals.
Television talk show host Montel Williams is the author, with Lawrence Grobel, of “Climbing Higher” and other books.
Special to the Post-Dispatch
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