Its been about a year since Danish newspapers (and subsequently others around the world) published some cartoons poking fun and the religion of Islam. We all know the story: outcry, censorship, violence, destruction, etc.

This week, many newspapers republished the cartoons (posted below) in response to a foiled attempt to murder the cartoonist¹ . Many people claim that such cartoons are hateful and discriminatory. Check a dictionary (or better yet, the koran). They are merely descriptive.

What’s the difference between description and discrimination? Well, discrimination targets people. You might hate country music, but that doesn’t mean you discriminate against country singers. Similarly, these cartoons are not examples of discrimination, they are comments on the tenets of Islam. They do not advocate harming Muslims or hatred against any Muslim - what a ludicrous conclusion. You do not have a right NOT to be offended.

Or perhaps I have the right to kill anyone that challenges my Atheism, musical taste, or gawky posture. Any religious person that claims I deserve to suffer in hell because my beliefs should be murdered or imprisoned. That is hatred; that is musical non-religious bigotry of the highest order. Welcome to my struggle² .

1. Danish papers republish Prophet cartoon. Reuters UK. 13 February 2008. [↩]
2. English for ‘Jihad‘ [↩]

All too often, the case in defense of marijuana is tainted by prejudice, stupidity, and incoherence. In the spirit of political jargon, here’s how to defend your beliefs with more sophisticated wordplay.

Lesson 1 - Deflecting the issue

Q: You think marijuana should be legal? What are you, some kind of pothead?

A: I’ll tell you what I am. I am a firm believer in the philosophical notions of liberty and truth (this might throw off your opponent beyond recovery already). I therefore reject the continuation of a policy that stands in firm contradiction to those notions.

Lesson 2 - Give a little, Take a lot

Q: The truth is that marijuana is a dangerous substance. It causes respiratory illness, psychosis, memory loss, and other problems. How can you possibly call yourself a believer in the truth and deny these facts?

A: I’ll pretend for a moment, that your ‘facts’ are not grossly over-exaggerated and that the scientific support is unquestionable. The truth is that most of these claims are much different than the original reasons for criminalizing marijuana. The lies that it is toxic, creates murderers & heroine addicts, and that it causes permanent psychosis for all users - have long been proven false. If the original reasons for criminalizing it have proven false, there is no longer reason for it to remain criminal.^{1 234}

Lesson 3 - Flipping the Issue; Go on the attack

A: These NEW claims you speak of, pale in comparison to the originals. Should we really ban anything that might increase the risk of common ailments? Should you be put in jail for eating cholesterol?

Lesson 4 - Hardcore logic for weak associations

Q: But marijuana use leads to harder drugs and profits go towards organized crime. How can you possibly support such results?

A: Profits go to organized crime because well, its a crime. If it weren’t a crime, its profits would go elsewhere. Similarly, heroine is a crime. Those people that get heavily involved in marijuana are more likely to get involved with heroine because, the same organized criminals are distributing it. Therefore, marijuana criminalization causes heroine use, not marijuana itself.

Lesson 5 - When all else fails, lie…well

Q: My daughter got into marijuana when she was 16. Today, she’s a crack addict prostituting herself for spare change. Its people like you that allow such things to continue. How do you live with yourself?

A: My grandfather was in the military. He smoked marijuana on a daily basis in order to cope with the stress and trauma, as did many of his fellow soldiers. Without marijuana, the allies would have struggled to defeat the German’s in World War II. I think a world where your daughter is a crack addicted prostitute is more pleasant than a world where each of us is in a slave camp, mutated by genetic experimentation. Don’t you?

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1. You can also suggest that marijuana has medical applications. Here’s some references to get you started: [↩]
2. “We conclude that this CBM [cannabis-based medicine] may represent a useful new agent for treatment of the symptomatic relief of spasticity in MS.” -Christine Collin, MD, et al. “Randomized Controlled Trial of Cannabis-Based Medicine in Spasticity Caused by Multiple Sclerosis”. European Journal of Neurology. Vol. 14, No. 3, Page 290. Mar. 2007. [↩]
3. ”Smoked cannabis was well tolerated and effectively relieved chronic neuropathic pain from HIV-associated sensory neuropathy The findings are comparable to oral drugs used for chronic neuropathic pain.” -Donald I. Abrams, MD et al. “Cannabis in Painful HIV-Associated Sensory Neuropathy: A Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trial”. Neurology. Vol. 68, Pages 515-521. Feb. 2007. [↩]
4. “Treatment with cannabinoids had been shown to reduce the invasiveness of cancer cells, but the cellular mechanisms underlying this effect were unclear.” -Burkhard Hinz, PhD, et. al. “Inhibition of Cancer Cell Invasion by Cannabinoids via Increased Expression of Tissue Inhibitor of Matrix Metalloproteinases-1″. Journal of the National Cancer Institute Vol. 100, Number 1, Page 51. Dec. 25, 2007. [↩]

Fetus in a tube¹

So the age of human cloning has begun… A scientist clones himself.

And, as expected, a moral battle has ensued. Its important to understand exactly what is at issue. We are not dealing with the actual birth of any clones - the idea is to use cloning as a means to obtain stem cells for patients suffering from Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, transplant patients, diabetes sufferers, and many others. It isn’t The 6th Day or The Island people; the embryos only live several days.

But some people panic (surprise!). They think that this akin to breeding for spare parts, playing god, genetic engineering, or a small step towards much more serious experimentation. Richard Doerflinger, a representative of the Catholic Church says,

It does not answer the ethical or social questions about the mass-production of developing human lives in order to destroy them. . . . It only tells us that these questions are more urgent than ever.²

Fortunately for Doerflinger, most science does not make ethical arguments. Nonetheless, nobody is ‘developing human lives in order to destroy them’ - except maybe god.

We are attempting to develop pre-human lives, in order to save actual lives and benefit those around them. Where did this ludicrous idea of associating mysticism to the moment of conception come from anyway? If it wasn’t for the sciences of biology and anatomy, Doerflinger might accuse people of ethical malpractice for building mud sculptures. As far as religious texts are concerned, God is ignorant of fetal development.

And yet, there is something odd about this cloning business isn’t there? Though somehow I doubt it has anything to do with ‘killing’ anything worthy of our moral consideration. Maybe Hollywood did it to us; maybe it’s the danger of a black market; or maybe our prehistoric ego’s can’t accept the fact that each one of us is just a natural, duplicable, machine.

Or what do I know? Maybe there is a divine plan behind rape pregnancies, miscarriages, deformed children, and conjoint twins. But if that’s intelligent design, I’m proud to be a moron.

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1. Creative Commons http://www.flickr.com/photos/thaumata/317263639/ [↩]
2. Mature Human Embryos Created From Adult Skin Cells. Washington Post. 18 January 2008. [↩]

Back Alley on East Hastings, Vancouver¹

Main and Hastings, Vancouver, Canada: A dessert of dirt, garbage, and the concrete dust remains of human misery. A country within a country; block after block of dull washed away brick, chapels, bent shopping carts, ‘truly’ free markets, and relief societies. Here, sleeps the soul of Canada’s tropical paradise; a wasteland of death behind the mirage of salvation. Needle-by-needle, theft-after-theft, the dust storms pick up speed.

A short, balding woman, covered in dust, paces up and down the trash-riddled alley. She glares me in the eyes, fidgets uncontrollably, and fixes a manikin-like gaze near my shoes. I take three steps to the left. She…takes one forward, hunching near the pavement. Three more to the left. Then, before I can glance back, she is crouched in the corner behind me. Another takes notice. It speeds towards her in a drunken vampire frenzy. They share. Before it is time for me to leave, deja vu. Both creatures are pacing up and down that very same street; I’d swear it was the matrix, but they aren’t trembling anymore.

Where do you find hope in the midst of a hell like this? Perhaps a tiny place called Insite: North America’s only safe injection facility. For those of you unaware of this facility, it stands as a safe haven in Vancouver’s worst area. It provides clean syringes, keeps medical staff on hand, saves hundreds of lives, prevents the spread of HIV and Hepatitis, lowers public drug usage, and reduces sidewalk needle disposal. Violence, theft, and drug use have remained stable. But perhaps most damaging of all: many addicts have pursued successful addiction treatment through the facility - possibly using health care funds.

Now, for reasons I’m sure must be related to health care, Insite is under attack.

Read more

1. http://www.flickr.com/photos/stollerdos/143573967/ [↩]

I hate you. All of you. Worthless sniveling excuses of human nature. I hate people in general really, and I find it hard to muster up any kind of sympathy for you wretched creatures. You cheat, lie, steal, rape; what the hell is not to hate? Who are your idols? Child molesters and greedy self-indulgent business whores. Oh god, oh god, when will you cast down thine apocalyptic plague?

Maybe I’m being too general.

I hate dopey dimwitted blacks, avaricious jew swine, asinine fanatical arabs, materialistic menstruating women, dull impersonal asians, lazy drunken natives, foul curry indians, mexicans, africans, australians too. I hate muslims, christians, buddhists, hindus, taoists, mormons, atheists, and even those carpet-munching wiccans. Kill homos. Screw handicaps. Miss anyone? Fuck you too.

That’s right, this is the internet and I can say whatever the hell I want… asshole.

Hate is serious. Apparently 7,000 - whoops, 7,001 hate websites have been identified on the internet. Sites with games in order to attract children¹. Sites showing how to build bombs². Sites to tickle the senses of any rotten scapegoating scum. The horrifying thing about all this is that websites bypass the media filter system. Anyone can access hate now.

Hate hasn’t always been easily accessible. Hate-mongers would seek the bible or the Quran on the black market and risk molestation at the church. Camps and schools secretly existed where children were raised, from birth, to hate women and homosexuals. All of the sudden this garbage is more accessible. Or maybe it is just the new stuff?

And what about hypocritical scum like the Simon Wiesenthal Center and other do-goodder foundations seeking petty vengeance. They are worried, allegedly, at the rising number of hate websites; some more than others, I presume. Tracking down hatred all over the planet and bringing it to justice. How nobel. If they’re homosexual, two birds - one stone. These people aren’t seeking equal conditional worth for all human beings; they seek blood, as always.

Here’s an idea: Why not teach kids logic, reasoning skills. How is it, in a developed system where children go through 13 years of learning, that most will never experience the faintest glimpse of critical thinking? If society is so concerned with influential children being brainwashed by hate then maybe it should equip children with the tools necessary to resist it themselves. Haven’t we learned that trying to rid the world of effects, while neglecting the causes, is useless³?

But we can’t teach children logic, oh no. If we did that, we couldn’t brainwash them. They would question us; they would hate us for our stupidity. So let’s raise morons, together. Together we can foster hatred for logic instead of hatred for each other. Let logic be our common foe.

There is nothing wrong with us. Everyone needs something to hate.

Self-preservation at all costs.

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1. See “Ethnic Cleansing” the game [↩]
2. Anarchist cookbook and others [↩]
3. See War on Drugs [↩]

Lets all try to wrap our brains around this one.

I noticed today, in my neglected inbox of mostly dry, horrendously boring science news that something seemed a little ‘off’ about this story. Apparently, researchers at the University at Buffalo have linked the use of malt liquor (your Big Bear, Colt 45, Olde English 800, Magnum, Bull Ice, etc.) to marijuana and other substance abuse among young adults.¹ . In fact, regular users of malt liquor were found to consume an average of 19 joints per week as opposed to an average of 2. And no, marijuana use was not the factor contributing to drinking as most of the participants consumed malt liquor before ever trying marijuana. Scary isn’t it?

Now if we believe in all of the ummm… arguments in favor of criminalizing marijuana (ie. cancer, gateway to heroine, psychosis, stupidity, crime, etc.) including that flawless study I mentioned last time, then this study should be truly revolutionary right? The majority of research suggests that the more marijuana you use, the higher your risk of acquiring one of those horrifying side-effects. Last time I mentioned that heavy marijuana consumption could double your risk of developing schizophrenia! So, by the laws of reason: drinking malt liquor leads to heavy marijuana use and heavy marijuana use leads to dangerous side-effects, therefore… Malt liquor should be easily available and its advertising targeted at young adults.

Sound about right?

Indeed, the famous ‘gateway’ theory of marijuana (ie. if you smoke dope, you’ll probably smoke crack eventually) is of extreme importance here. Yes, many abusers of drugs such as cocaine, heroine, meth, etc. had experience with marijuana first. What is rarely ever mentioned, in the frenzy of major media regurgitating political jargon, is that this ‘gateway’ sequence is almost always started with alcohol or cigarettes - then followed by marijuana² . Why wouldn’t they mention it you ask? Maybe its laziness or stupidity even; most likely they don’t want to get shit on by Budweiser while they’re kissing its gigantic advertising-budget ass.

Luckily there is a silver lining in this twisted shamble of bureaucratic bullshit. Oh yes, perhaps things are not as bad as they immediately appear. Some evidence suggests that marijuana can be used as a treatment for alcohol abuse³ . Not only that, marijuana consumption has been linked with lower alcohol consumption as compared with non-marijuana smokers in Jamaica, where marijuana is often considered accepted⁴ .

So lets let teenage children drink malt liquor. If they do, there is a better chance that they will develop into heavy marijuana smokers. By doing so, they will be less likely to develop into heavy drinkers and may even kick that drinking habit all together. Thus saving thousands of lives every year! In fact, we should start selling Colt 45 in elementary cafeterias for christ’s sake… the earlier the better.

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1. Bradiaza, C. M., Collins, R. L., Vincent, P. C. (June 2007), “Young-Adult Malt Liquor Drinkers : Prediction of Alcohol Problems and Marijuana Use.” Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. 28(2): 138-146. [↩]
2. U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment (19940 Technologies for Understanding and Preventing Substance Abuse and Addiction, OTA-EHR-597 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, September 1994). pg. 74. [↩]
3. Mikuriya, T. D. (April 1970), “An adjunctive therapeutic tool in the treatment of alcoholism.” Medical Times. 98(4): 187-191. [↩]
4. Rubin, V., Comitas, L. (1975), “Ganja in Jamaica: a Medical Anthropological Study of Chronic Marihuana Use“. [↩]

You’ve heard it for years now: marijuana makes you insane. This myth has been floating around from the 30’s government propaganda publicizing that one puff of a joint could make you a murderer, to the modern notion that marijuana use may cause schizophrenia. Despite countless studies advocating tolerance, legalization, and the relative harmlessness of marijuana as compared to other substances, once in a while you find a study that pushes back. It is these fringe ’scientific’ articles that politicians seize hold of while jabbering on about increased potency, witch-hunt-like tales of smoke-induced spells, crime, and mental disorder. Aha! they say. Behold! The demon is real.

Recently The Lancet published one such article summarizing evidence that marijuana increases ones risk of developing schizophrenia.¹ They found that occasional use will increase the risk of schizophrenia by 40% and heavy use will increase risk by 50-200%. The authors claim that their results are nearly free of bias and confounds, but the summary was based on only 7 studies. These were judged by the researchers to be the “relevant” ones out of over 4800. The study admits that many of the articles they used did not make adjustments for alcohol use, mental health disorders, and most were unlikely to adjust confound statistics for all mental health symptoms. It is quite likely that those predisposed with a biological risk for schizophrenia have personality traits that make them more likely to engage in marijuana consumption.

To further complicate matters, it is unclear whether ‘psychotic’ symptoms reported during much of the research was due to intoxication or due to schizophrenia itself. So…they might not have been schizophrenic, just high. If thats not enough, of the 7 summarized research articles, 50 possible confounds were identified. Thats right 50. In other words, there were 50 other potential causes for the increased risk of developing schizophrenia that may have compromised the results. And while we’re on the topic of confounds: nearly all contributors to the study are admittedly on the payroll of large pharmaceutical companies such as Bristol Myers Squibb, Johnson & Johnson, and/or Merck. Some are even paid to investigate marijuana compounds for these companies. Companies which, to my knowledge, are not developing marijuana-derived medication of any kind, but who may be threatened should medical marijuana be made available on a large scale. Sounds like pretty definitive research doesn’t it?

There is no doubt in my mind that this type of research will be used to advocate the continued ban on marijuana. So despite the fact that less that 3% of the population is at risk of schizophrenia, that marijuana only marginally increases this risk, and that the research supporting it is questionable at best - the rhetoric is always the same: Marijuana causes insanity. I can see it already… spin doctors estimating the number of suicides attributed to marijuana based on this assessment, medical marijuana benefits trumped by the potential for psychosis in court, and fear mongering ads citing this garbage across our airwaves. Thank God for science.

If this doesn’t sound ridiculous enough for you, maybe some numbers will help. In the U.S., between 1979 and 1998: 380,000 people died from alcohol-induced incidents (over 7000 from alcohol-related psychosis ), 30,000 choked to death on food, 24,000 died falling down steps, 10,000 slipped or tripped to their death, 8,000 were accidentally poisoned to death by car exhaust, 4,000 died by accidentally lighting their clothes on fire, 1,000 were killed by bees, 200 died from sniffing glue, 65 died in sports tackles, and 33 accidentally fell to their death in a manhole.² And how many died from marijuana?

23… Just above flatulence and gas pain.

It should also be mentioned that many marijuana-induced deaths involve car accidents where another substance was abused at the same time; probably knocking it down below gas pain as a cause of death. By the way, the number of recorded human history deaths related to marijuana overdose is still running at an astonishing benchmark of 0.

But who knows! Maybe marijuana does make you crazy. Maybe its worth it to spend billions of dollars catching, incarcerating, and punishing smokers for the rest of their lives. We don’t need those hundreds of billions of our tax dollars or the hundreds of billions that could be raised by taxing marijuana. Worthless really. Health care is as good as ever, mental illness is on the decline, economy is strong, education is cheaper than ever, and our society is in pristine shape. I mean, every rich bastard needs something to blow his or her money on don’t they? We like drugs. Buying the expensive ones - baning the natural ones.

A Brave New World indeed.

I’ll leave you with one of the most historically accurate marijuana documentaries of all time to digest for now. Government sponsored of course. Oh the Reefer Madness!

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1. Barnes, T., et al. (July 2007), “Cannabis use and risk of psychotic or affective mental health outcomes: a systematic review.” The Lancet. 370: 319-328. [↩]
2. Centers For Disease Control and Prevention [↩]

Michael Moore appears on CNN to rip correspondent Wolf Blitzer a new one… Thank God someone has to guts to confront these lopsided hypocrites and expose their own ‘fudge’ tactics. CNN later apologized for getting some facts wrong in their ‘report’ on Sicko.

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and part 2….

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