Marijuana linked to psychosis

The medical journal The Lancet is publishing a study today that suggests marijuana use may lead to psychosis. A link to the AP story can be found here. A couple of things worth noting - there are a certain percentage of people who smoke pot. There are a certain percentage who are psychotic. That the two percentages may overlap does not indicate a causal relationship. A large percentage of serial killers drank milk as a child - this doesn't mean drinking milk causes you to kill people. In the middle of the article is a giant ad for Seroquel, an anti-psychotic drug that sponsored the web page. What really stands out, though, is the last paragraph - the continued effort of the pharmaceutical industry to disparage a drug that grows free in the ground. At least, that's what the voices in my head tell me...

"Two of the authors of the study were invited experts on the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs Cannabis Review in 2005. Several authors reported being paid to attend drug company-sponsored meetings related to marijuana, and one received consulting fees from companies that make antipsychotic medications."

Kinder, Gentler Dog Fighting

Why is it that dog-fighting rings always involve pit-bulls? I think it would be much more entertaining to use chihuahuas. The fights would be quicker - one growl and they'd both be cowering and shaking behind their owners' legs. In honor of Les Nessman it could be called the
Chi Chi Rodriguez Chihuahua Conflagration.

Spying Squirrels

I make no judgement on the issue, I merely pass it along. Fourteen squirrels were detained along Iran's border and charged with espionage. The state-sponsored news agency IRNA reported the squirrels were equipped with GPS, cameras and listening devices. I'm not here to speculate, but if they had cameras perhaps they were being prepared for Junior's colonoscopy?

Funny Ad Placement

Here's the funny...enjoy!

The right hand sidebar says, "Dad, what would happen to me and mommy if you died?"

Larry's Lost Lounge

Oops, never mind...

Posh Gelfling

Is it just me or does Victoria Beckham look like one of those little people from The Dark Crystal?

Live Earth

Not a lot of people in my circle of influence approached the Live Earth concerts like I did - most people listened or watched only a few minutes of it, if any at all. I started recording about 9 o'clock Friday night and continued, in one format or another, straight through till midnight Sunday night. In the course of it all, I discovered all sorts of great bands I had never heard before, and that's really what it was all about. I mean, I love Al Gore, but I'm not gonna listen to him talk all weekend. But the truth is there were three times the PSAs in between sets got me to stand up and change something in my life. Little things I could do easy enough, like unpugging the phone charger when I'm not using it. Or turning up the thermostat one degree. Of course, Rush Limbaugh reported one of the suggestions as only using two pieces of toilet paper.

And that's something that really sucks me off - the belittling by the far-right conservatives. As near as I can tell, the pro-global warming faction falls into two camps. One, those that think it's all a hoax perpetrated by liberals who want to pay more taxes. That group has shrunk drastically since Katrina. And B, those that say it's too big to do anything about - somehow, this seems to be where the converted from the first group fall. The thinking is since Kyoto and similar plans only help a little, they're not worth doing at all. Let's get just a slight bit of perspective here. Yes, it is only little things that each of us can do - the impact comes from the number of people doing them. And no, none of us can be perfect, but that's no reason to do nothing at all. There's a certain laid-back (and cute) Buddhist out there that's had me examining my views of hypocrisy lately, and ya know, maybe hypocrisy isn't always a bad thing. Maybe it's a start. I'm not talking about Bush vetoing stem cell research on the grounds that it's wrong to sacrifice one life to save others after overseeing record numbers of executions while governing Texas. That's not just hypocrisy, that's insanity. That's hearing voices in your head and saying it's God telling you what to do - God or a black lab, I get those two guys confused. But no, I mean the hypocrisy of me exercising every day but still loving McDonalds. The exercising me is where I want to go, the McDonalds me is where I am. If I waited till I didn't want fast food anymore before I started exercising, I'd never get anywhere. So maybe Madonna flew a private jet to do a benefit for the environment - although she didn't, she was already in town. Maybe Al Gore has a big house and it takes a lot of energy to heat it. Why point out the faults of others and never do anything for yourself?

Don't get me wrong, I'm no tree-hugger. I like to cruise Whole Foods parking lots and run over hippies - it's fun to watch them try to get the blood out of their cloth grocery bags with club soda. But you'd have to have a Texas education to not take this stuff seriously, and try to do something/anything, no matter how small.

This Man Wants You To Lower Your Standards

Now let me preface this by saying that I have yet to hear all of Mr. McCartney's latest album. I have just heard the song that they use in the Target ad.

Mr. McCartney is one of the most talented writers in pop music history. He is also responsible for his share of pure shit. But as of late he's been slipping. First of all he gave Linda McCartney cancer and then he got involved with a one legged whore. I have no problem with amputees or whores but you put them together and I am seriously pissed off. This is all beside the point, what I am here to tell you is that this man should have been put down in 1975. Yes that's right, I said it. Everyone was thinking it and I'm the one with the balls to put it on the goddamn internet. Mr. Paul McCartney made beautiful music with "The Beatles" and then made mediocre at best music with "Wings". In between there were a couple of albums that are amazing. "Ram" and "McCartney" both are amazing. But the thing is this, how do you go from making music that will stand for generations and then slowly slide to make music only serious fans like, that's like...not love. I'm sorry but I've had enough of his silly love song bullshit. His second to last album was produced by Radiohead's producer and his latest is produced by I don't give a damn. I won't even look online for it. I just don't give enough of a shit to spend a minute looking up who produced his latest train wreck, "Memory Almost Full". The album can be bought as a Deluxe Edition where they just take your money and you won't have to listen to the cd. That's the record label looking out for you the consumer.
A friend of mine bought the aforementioned shit and he says that it's pretty good, he says that the single is a throwaway song and that the rest of the album is cynical and dark. I believe him but don't really want to throw my life away, I'm still young.
Do yourself a favor and purchase "Ram" instead of letting him think that he should make more albums.
Paul would be so much better if John was still alive.

Smarmy

Groovy People

I was just listening to my XM Radio (everybody go buy one and listen to Opie & Anthony and call up and make cat noises meow) and I heard Lou Rawls singing about "groovy" people. You know, Lou Rawls isn't even a singer to me, he's the guy on tv talking about old peoples' insurance. Like Yaz sold hot dogs, and DiMaggio coffee. I'll know I'm old when it's Ricky Schroeder. Like, "Hi, I'm Richard Schroeder... You can't be turned down, and your premiums will never increase, due to age..." I shudder at the thought.

Why is this man smirking?

Have you ever seen pure evil? Look to the right and then you can say that you have. This man has completely disregarded the constitution and proceeds to shit on America. Why in God's name does he have the right to do what he has already done. I would go so far as to say that he is a traitor. Although he will never see the inside of Guantanamo Bay. That smirk on his face seems to say "You are all so fucked and you don't even know the half of it." This is a country that has so much potential and yet we are underperfoming left and right. I wake up every morning with a pretty good attitude and then I read something about how this administration, which includes Mr. Cheney, is running our country into the ground.
I recently listened to Pete Seeger singing "This land is our land" and it made me tear up because it is a beautiful country and it is being raped. Our government is taking this country in a direction that resembles Germany circa 1933. Except Germany was coming out of a horrible depression and America was coming from a great surplus. The state of this great nation is going down the drain. The people to thank are you and I, look around, we did this to ourselves. We made this country ripe for the picking by evil men. That's the beauty of a democracy, when something like this happens we can put the blame squarely on ourselves. I'm a bit disappointed with us but we can do better. 2008 is right around the corner and since every candidate has jumped the gun and we're already being posed with the question "Who are you going to vote for?". We have a veritable smorgasbord of candidates to choose from. I'm kind of leaning towards the gentleman from Alaska. But here's the good news, it can get better. It will get better. It's cyclical, we'll get a great president again, I just don't know who.

Good luck.

Smarmy