Late show
June 1, 2007 — Mahakal / מהכאלThis is a six part series, one episode per day.
Previous episode:
This is episode six.
Late show
May 31, 2007 — Mahakal / מהכאלThis is a six part series, one episode per day.
Previous episode:
This is episode five.
Late show
May 30, 2007 — Mahakal / מהכאלThis is a six part series, one episode per day.
Previous episode:
This is episode four.
Make peace now.
May 29, 2007 — Mahakal / מהכאל
Late show
May 25, 2007 — Mahakal / מהכאלThis is a six part series, one episode per day.
Previous episode:
This is episode three.
Late show
May 24, 2007 — Mahakal / מהכאלThis is a six part series, one episode per day.
Previous episode:
This is episode two.
Late show
May 23, 2007 — Mahakal / מהכאלThis will be a six part series, one episode per day.
This is episode one.
Happy birthday Melissa
May 11, 2007 — Mahakal / מהכאל
So I have no photoshop skills. Go visit Shakesville and say hello.
Advice 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.
Montel, 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
Synchronization
April 3, 2007 — Mahakal / מהכאלI planned to make a post which would be called Synchronization, the music was to be the song, “Time After Time” by Cyndy Lauper. I intended to produce some synchronicity but did not know what it was to be.
I went to video.google.com and searched for “time after time”.
The first result follows:
I was first introduced to Eva Cassidy on April 1. She may be invisible, but she seems to be doing her thing.
Recommended listening:
Copyright be damned, and torturers go to hell real quick
April 2, 2007 — Mahakal / מהכאל
Here is Terry Jones. Via Why Now?
Call that humiliation?
No hoods. No electric shocks. No beatings. These Iranians clearly are a very uncivilised bunch
Terry Jones
Saturday March 31, 2007
The Guardian
I share the outrage expressed in the British press over the treatment of our naval personnel accused by Iran of illegally entering their waters. It is a disgrace. We would never dream of treating captives like this – allowing them to smoke cigarettes, for example, even though it has been proven that smoking kills. And as for compelling poor servicewoman Faye Turney to wear a black headscarf, and then allowing the picture to be posted around the world – have the Iranians no concept of civilised behaviour? For God’s sake, what’s wrong with putting a bag over her head? That’s what we do with the Muslims we capture: we put bags over their heads, so it’s hard to breathe. Then it’s perfectly acceptable to take photographs of them and circulate them to the press because the captives can’t be recognised and humiliated in the way these unfortunate British service people are.
It is also unacceptable that these British captives should be made to talk on television and say things that they may regret later. If the Iranians put duct tape over their mouths, like we do to our captives, they wouldn’t be able to talk at all. Of course they’d probably find it even harder to breathe – especially with a bag over their head – but at least they wouldn’t be humiliated.And what’s all this about allowing the captives to write letters home saying they are all right? It’s time the Iranians fell into line with the rest of the civilised world: they should allow their captives the privacy of solitary confinement. That’s one of the many privileges the US grants to its captives in Guantánamo Bay.
The true mark of a civilised country is that it doesn’t rush into charging people whom it has arbitrarily arrested in places it’s just invaded. The inmates of Guantánamo, for example, have been enjoying all the privacy they want for almost five years, and the first inmate has only just been charged. What a contrast to the disgraceful Iranian rush to parade their captives before the cameras!
What’s more, it is clear that the Iranians are not giving their British prisoners any decent physical exercise. The US military make sure that their Iraqi captives enjoy PT. This takes the form of exciting “stress positions”, which the captives are expected to hold for hours on end so as to improve their stomach and calf muscles. A common exercise is where they are made to stand on the balls of their feet and then squat so that their thighs are parallel to the ground. This creates intense pain and, finally, muscle failure. It’s all good healthy fun and has the bonus that the captives will confess to anything to get out of it.
And this brings me to my final point. It is clear from her TV appearance that servicewoman Turney has been put under pressure. The newspapers have persuaded behavioural psychologists to examine the footage and they all conclude that she is “unhappy and stressed”.
What is so appalling is the underhand way in which the Iranians have got her “unhappy and stressed”. She shows no signs of electrocution or burn marks and there are no signs of beating on her face. This is unacceptable. If captives are to be put under duress, such as by forcing them into compromising sexual positions, or having electric shocks to their genitals, they should be photographed, as they were in Abu Ghraib. The photographs should then be circulated around the civilised world so that everyone can see exactly what has been going on.
As Stephen Glover pointed out in the Daily Mail, perhaps it would not be right to bomb Iran in retaliation for the humiliation of our servicemen, but clearly the Iranian people must be made to suffer – whether by beefing up sanctions, as the Mail suggests, or simply by getting President Bush to hurry up and invade, as he intends to anyway, and bring democracy and western values to the country, as he has in Iraq.
· Terry Jones is a film director, actor and Python
www.terry-jones.net
Take. Eat. This is my body.
April 1, 2007 — Mahakal / מהכאל
What is six times nine in base thirteen?
April 1, 2007 — Mahakal / מהכאלThe act of writing is the means by which our consciousness can be focused and analyzed for coherence. If our thoughts are jumbled we would write in such a fashion. If we have a point to make, our thoughts can be arranged around that point. If we are searching for something which others could help find, our thoughts might be phrased as questions. If we already know the answer, it might be that in asking it of others we answer it to everyone.
What is the Ultimate Question?
You know. Life, the Universe and Everything.
Can you compute?
Following, the back of the Regional Transit Connection ID Center Processing Fee Receipt calculation, and verified by my wife, the graduate statistician.
And she cast a spell to bring down the Emperor and his works
March 31, 2007 — Mahakal / מהכאלHappy blogiversary, Libby!
March 30, 2007 — Mahakal / מהכאלLast One Speaks is four years old, yesterday.
Stoner genius
March 23, 2007 — Mahakal / מהכאל
jibbs00 (2 days ago)
this is a true thing that happens! its not a chain letter! its kinda scary at first but it really works!! paste this message into 3 comments and press ALT F1 and your crushes name will appear on the screen!!! its soo wierd
What could make Helen Thomas smile?
March 17, 2007 — Mahakal / מהכאל
Click her picture. Hat-tip Think Progress.
All life is intelligent
March 14, 2007 — Mahakal / מהכאלConsider a simple plant, which knows at a deep cellular level how to find and transform water, air, sunlight and a few minerals into complex forms of great beauty and practical utility. You may not know how to communicate with all life, but all life communicates in its own way. Herbs put forth scents and spices, which give us pleasure and medicine at once, and we think it an evolutionary accident only if we presuppose no intelligence prior to our emergence as humans.
Related post:
- Here.
Chromosphere now playing
March 6, 2007 — Mahakal / מהכאלAt this new website.
No warranty, this has been tested to work only on Firefox 2.0.0.2 on Mac OS X, and might not even so in your case.
To reduce the chance of difficulties, install the JSyn plug-in before proceeding.
Related post:
No music now, unless you read it
March 4, 2007 — Mahakal / מהכאלARTIST: The Beatles
TITLE: Golden Slumbers/Carry that Weight/The End
Lyrics and Chords courtesy Gunther Anderson
[ Ebdim7 = 
]
Once there was a way to get back homeward
Once there was a way to get back home
Sleep pretty darling do not cry
And I will sing a lullaby
/ Am7 – – – Dm7 – – – / G7 – – – / C Em Am Dm9 – / G7 – C – /
Golden slumbers fill your eyes
Smiles awake you when you rise
Sleep pretty darling do not cry
And I will sing a lullaby
/ C – F – C – / C – F – / C Em Am Dm9 – / G7 – C – /
Once there was a way to get back homeward
Once there was a way to get back home
Sleep pretty darling do not cry
And I will sing a lullaby
{Refrain}
Boy, you’re going to carry that weight
Carry that weight a long time
Boy, you’re going to carry that weight
Carry that weight a long time
/ C – G – / – – C – / 1st / G – C Am7 /
I never give you my pillow
I only send you my invitations
And in the middle of the celebrations
I break down
/ Am7 – Dsus2 Dm / G – Csus4 C / Fmaj7 – Dm E7 / Am – G – /
{Refrain, ends with / C
A / C A /}
Oh yeah, all right
Are you going to be in my dreams
Tonight
/ D – E – / A – Ebdim7 – / A – /
And in the end
The love you take
Is equal to the love you make
/ A – – – / G – – – / Bb – – F – G / C – /
Climate control
March 3, 2007 — Mahakal / מהכאלGreenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, have a certain “half-life” in the atmosphere before they are eliminated by natural processes, such as by plant respiration. When the production of new greenhouse gases has equilibrium with the elimination of circulating greenhouse gases, the climate is kept in balance.
Much discussion of reducing and controlling global warming has focused on how we may regulate the production of new greenhouse gases, and we must do so or we could never eliminate them quickly enough to prevent their building without limit and turning the earth into a place uninhabitable to humans.
It would also be helpful to begin encouraging the reduction of circulating greenhouse gases by broad based home agriculture. One green plant can reduce the carbon footprint of one person by a significant amount. If climate science has taught us anything, it’s that small changes over a large population make a huge difference.
Judge the tree by the fruit thereof
March 2, 2007 — Mahakal / מהכאלYou do not have to eat poison, and you can be sure that if you consume enough of some things you will die.
Some things are so benign you can eat them without limitation and become healthier.
Recognize the difference.
Numbers
- <!--Methodology challenged: link
-->
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: The Sword of Desirable Mindfulness.
Syndication
Cannabis News- An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.
- Indybay drugwar newswire
- Tuesday 5/14: Join WAMM Phytotherapies and the Hook Outlet at City Hall to Stand for Safe Access
- The Hook Outlet's Proposed Dispensary Project with WAMM Faces Appeal to City Council
- Thursday 3/7: Support WAMM Phytotherapies at City of Santa Cruz Planning Commission Meeting
- Support WAMM, a Champion of Medical Cannabis Access and Community Safety in Santa Cruz
- Justice for Raymond Mattia: Tohono O'odham Murdered by US Border Patrol Press Conference
- Narcomarketing: juvenicidios en México y narcocultura
- Thursday 8/31: International Overdose Awareness Day
- Graffiti Writers Paint Over Pro-Police “Street Art” Campaign Backed by a Tech Billionaire
- "Fentalyfe" Poster Campaign Redecorated
- Wednesday 8/31: International Overdose Awareness Day 2022
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