Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Hash Bash Video Poem

 This is the only video footage I can find of me speaking in front of 5,000 people at Hash Bash last April. Four words at 41 seconds, "dismantle the drug war." A lovely piece really.



Hashsourcing... A Video Poem from Jesse Cherniak on Vimeo.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

You Can Love Your Work

by Charmie Gholson

originally published in Current Magazine, June 2004

In 1996, I was managing at Whole Foods Market. I liked my work, liked my co-workers, but I was not a spectacular bakery supervisor.

One day, my favorite teacher from high school came in. I was carrying a story with me, obsessing about it, working on it during breaks. I asked him to read it.  He said sure. I was elated.

He was back the next day. "What are you doing behind this counter?" he asked. "You need to go back to school and make a living with your writing."

"I can't," I told him as I handed a customer their bread. "I'm a single parent. I work."

Monday, August 2, 2010

US CO: Medical Marijuana To Treat Tourette’s?

Yes, I know there's a great joke in here somewhere.

 I"m basically just posting this because I'm so jealous that Colorado has it's regulatory act together, compared to Michigan. And at least one CO legislator understands that legislator aren't physicians, that they should honor the will of the voters. When will Mi get there too?

Pending approval this fall, people with Tourette’s Syndrome may be able under state law to use medical marijuana to help quell symptoms of the disorder. Colorado voters approved a citizens initiative in 2000 allowing the using of medical marijuana to treat a variety of ailments. State regulators wield the authority to fine-tune the list of allowable uses of medical marijuana.


A formal request, as required by law, by the health department to add the disorder to the list of treatable ailments was submitted Tuesday to the Department of Regulatory Services, which has the authority to approve or deny the request. Tourette’s is a neurological disorder that causes involuntary motor or vocal “tics” that are repetitive and rapid such as blinking, twitching, or grunts. Symptoms range from moderate to severe, and treatments vary.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

END THE DRUG WAR Michigan’s’ Civil Asset Forfeiture Laws Encourage Policing For Profit



This article was originally published in The Midwest Cultivator, summer issue


Ed Boyke, a former General Motors employee who served in the Navy, became disabled in 1996 after undergoing two brain surgeries due to a tumor and epilepsy. 

Boyke was approved for medical marijuana due to a pinched nerve that causes him severe back pain. He is his own caregiver and also a state-sanctioned caregiver for one additional patient.

On April 15, Boyke stepped outside of his Saginaw Township home and was surrounded by Saginaw County Sheriff’s deputies and U.S. DEA Agents. With weapons drawn, they served Boyke with a federal warrant to search his residence, based on confidential information that he had violated marijuana laws. They handcuffed Boyke while they executed the warrant.

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Thanks Homeland Security! Naked pictures=Safety!


Opposition is growing to the use of full body, see –through-your-clothes scans at airports, brought to you courtesy of our US Office of Homeland Security.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center has filed a petitition for review and motion for an emergency stay, urging the District of Columbia Court of Appeals to suspend the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) full body scanner program.

Friday, July 30, 2010

Did YOU know about this pipeline before it started leaking?


Did YOU know there is a 30-inch pipeline that carries millions of gallons of oil each day from Griffith, Ind., to Sarnia, Ontario? How many others are there, like this one now leaking crude oil into the waterway leading to the Great Lakes, our Earths largest reserve of fresh water? How many "warnings" have they all received about insufficient monitoring? What are the consequences of their neglect? Of our ignorance or downright denial? I bet Tyson Slocum knows...

Monday, September 14, 2009

Using a minotaur to gore detainees a form of torture?


This special report offers intelligent discussion for those of us who ask the question, "Is using a minotaur to gore detainees a form of torture?

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Dear California Attorney General:




Dear Attorney General

As you know, this is the monster who kidnapped Jaycee Dugard and kept her for 18 years.

In 2006 a neighbor called 911 to report suspicious circumstances involving young children in the home's backyard, and said Garrido was psychotic and had a sex addiction. The responding deputy spent about 30 minutes interviewing Garrido on the front porch and left after warning him that people living outdoors on the property could be a code violation.

"We're inundated with sexual assault cases"

That's Captain Terry of the Contra Costa County sheriff department, lamenting about how stretched thin his staff is, regarding both registered sexual offenders and those that haven't yet been caught. He needs more money, I'd bet, and manpower to really police the situation.

Where-oh-where might they get more money?

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Why Didn't Costa County Use Thier Armoured Tank To Save Jaycee Dugard?





Police continue to seek answers to how a convicted sexual predator was able to kidnap a young girl and keep her, along with the two children she bore him, in captivity for nearly two decades.

I honestly have compassion for Sheriff Warren Rupf and the department he oversees. This Contra Costa sheriffs department in the San Francisco Bay area is going to have some tough questions to answer in the upcoming weeks.

In the past few years, authorities had several chances to uncover the ramshackle backyard compound where Dugard and her children were kept, a missed opportunity that Sheriff Warren Rupf said was unacceptable. He also promised changes.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Elderly Farmers No Longer Terrorizing Their Community By Growing Plants

http://www.salem-news.com/articles/march072009/pot_shooting_dth_3-7-09.php

Salem-News.com (Mar-07-2009 16:55)
Man Killed by Deputies Serving Marijuana-Related Warrant Identified
Tim King Salem-News.com

A warrant for pot charges served at 10:30 p.m. on the rural Mulino home of two senior citizens led to the police shooting of one.

(CANBY, Ore.) - Three days have passed since a man was shot to death by deputies in Canby over marijuana related arrest warrants. He has been identified as 68-year old Hubert Henkel.

80-year old Marjorie Frances Crawford was arrested on a warrant for charges she and Mr. Henkel were both wanted for, relating to growing, possessing and providing cannabis to another person.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Face cream; $49.95. Knowing who you are--


PRICELESS

My yahoo email account regularly flashes these ads for wrinkle/fat/crows feet/lip line remover . They're pretty intense. A bar moves across a womans face/thighs/abdomen and replaces whatever "ugliness" aging has brought to her body with smooth, clear, vibrant, desirable, youthful skin.

I see it. I hate it. I know in the pit of my stomach that these images only make me hate my body and hate myself. I know that you can't sell stuff to contented people, that's why they have to give us a constant barrage of these images.

I know if I want to start a revolution I should stop hating my body.
Right?