freethefly

Invasion was not my proposal. What I did write; Maybe you should recommend we deal with each with a custom policy including trade agreements, boycotts, political pressure, etc with actual armed conflict being a last resort type of measure. Either that or many of those would have to be dealt with one at a time at least. Nope, your proposal isn't practical. An all out war would likely be lost, most certainly with China in the mix and likely without NATO on our side. Just not practical.*** For the record I would only support war as a last resort or if directly attacked, such as was the case with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. "...And once you're gone, you can't come back When you're out of the blue and into the black." Neil Young

The documents that GWU provides are directly from the US archives and are presented as they are without bias opinion. About the National Security Archive An independent non-governmental research institute and library located at The George Washington University, the Archive collects and publishes declassified documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. The Archive also serves as a repository of government records on a wide range of topics pertaining to the national security, foreign, intelligence, and economic policies of the United States. The Archive won the 1999 George Polk Award, one of U.S. journalism's most prestigious prizes, for-in the words of the citation-"piercing the self-serving veils of government secrecy, guiding journalists in the search for the truth and informing us all." The Archive obtains its materials through a variety of methods, including the Freedom of Information act, Mandatory Declassification Review, presidential paper collections, congressional records, and court testimony. Archive staff members systematically track U.S. government agencies and federal records repositories for documents that either have never been released before, or that help to shed light on the decision-making process of the U.S. government and provide the historical context underlying those decisions. The Archive regularly publishes portions of its collections on microfiche, the World Wide Web, CD-Rom, and in books. The Washington Journalism Review called these publications, collectively totaling more than 500,000 pages, "a state-of-the-art index to history." The Archive's World Wide Web site, www.nsarchive.org, has won numerous awards including USA Today's "Hot Site" designation. As a part of its mission to broaden access to the historical record, the Archive is also a leading advocate and user of the Freedom of Information Act. Precedent-setting Archive lawsuits have brought into the public domain new materials on the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Iran-Contra Affair, and other issues that have changed the way scholars interpret those events. The Archive spearheaded the groundbreaking legal effort to preserve millions of pages of White House e-mail records that were created during the Reagan, Bush, and Clinton administrations. The Archive's mission of guaranteeing the public's right to know extends to other countries outside the United States. The organization is currently involved in efforts to sponsor freedom of information legislation in the nations of Central Europe, Central America and elsewhere, and is committed to finding ways to provide technical and other services that will allow archives and libraries overseas to introduce appropriate records management systems into their respective institutions. The Archive's $2.5 million yearly budget comes from publication revenues, contributions from individuals and grants from foundations such as the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. As a matter of policy, the Archive receives no U.S. government funding. For further information contact Thomas S. Blanton, executive Director of the National Security Archive. To use the Archive's collections, search www.nsarchive.org, visit our reading room at George Washington University's Gelman Library, or ask your university or public library to subscribe to the Digital National Security Archive published by ProQuest/Chadwyck-Healey. "...And once you're gone, you can't come back When you're out of the blue and into the black." Neil Young

The very reason he went in is the reason he fell out. He would had done much better by forging trade agreements with Kuwait and would had saved his country the problem they are facing today. Saddam, no doubt, was a tyrant. Should the US have invaded? No. How can it reasonably be justified when there are many others like him that the US turn a blind eye to and give favorable status? China tops the list for human rights violation and enjoys favorable status. Viet Nam is also on the list and has recently became favorable. Threats such as North Korea are free to persue their nuclear ambition. Why no invasion of that country. On a technical view point we are still at war with N. Korea. A cease fire of more than 50 years. Iran will continue to persue their ambition regardless of the US's position on them doing so. Will an invasion there set things right? This planet is on a bad road going nowhere and the people who have the controls need to pull over and talk before it all goes up in flames. "...And once you're gone, you can't come back When you're out of the blue and into the black." Neil Young

This thread seems to corelate to the "war on drugs" as most home searches are for illegal drugs, Mostly marijuana. From my understanding, by listening to family members who are police officers and hearing other police officers, it is not them but, the politicians who want to continue this war at all cost. They are only the tools used by the politicians who claim high morals. More than 60 billion dollars a year with more than half of that going directly to the "war on marijuana" is wasted with no results. War, it seems that politicians just love that word. From what I have garnered is that a high number of LEO's would rather end this war and put all drugs in control of the government and lead addicts down a path of rehabilitation instead of prison where they recieve very little help (drugs are widely available behind bars) and most often come out worst than when they went in. Those who want help should get it. The majority of addicts would love to be clean. Those who don't, well, nothing can be done for them. By arresting and locking up addicts they are trapped in a revolving door that depleates funds and encourages resentment. A war that has lasted for more than 70 years and has had zero results is crazy. A lesson could be extracted from this infamous quote of Albert Einstein; " To do the same thing over and over and to expect that the results will change, is insanity." No new tactic that is only a blurred mirror image of the last will not bring about change but, lead us only further into the muck. http://www.drugsense.org/wodclock.htm "...And once you're gone, you can't come back When you're out of the blue and into the black." Neil Young

These chains of events are well documented. Only after he invaded Kuwait did he fall out of favor with the US. If he had not done so he would still be on good terms with the Feds, most likely. I find both sides to be equally creditless. The best source for for the truth is: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/ and, also, having been there. The carrier I was on, USS Okinawa LPH3, spent plenty of time off of Iran in the early 80's. Ronald Reagan destroyed my faith in government with the Iran/Contra dealings. All but going into Iraq, I agree. "...And once you're gone, you can't come back When you're out of the blue and into the black." Neil Young

St. Louis city drug task force did. Several years back they kicked in a door unannounced and shot dead a women who jumped up from her couch. The drug task force reason for shooting is that they "feared for their lives". They were at the wrong apartment. No arrest was made that day and an innocent person laid dead. The police justified that their saftey comes first. If innocent people die they say it is just the cost of "the war on drugs" and blame it on drugs and not the legislation that has created the drug problem. Maybe you would prefer a KGB type of enforcement? Would your train of thought change if it was a member of your family that is shot dead due to draconian law enforcement. Draco's answer to all types of crime was death. I believe that Draco would be very proud of the US for enforcing his way of thinking. "...And once you're gone, you can't come back When you're out of the blue and into the black." Neil Young

Oh, Wendy, Wendy, Wendy... are you trying to spark a riot... "...And once you're gone, you can't come back When you're out of the blue and into the black." Neil Young

Exactly what does this prove? Stand back and take a wide angle view of how we came to the point that we are at now. The US is in a cold war with Russia. Russia wishes to control Afghanistan. The US supports and trains Afghani Freedom Fighters (Bin Laden being one of them). Russia loses the Cold War (still on, only off the radar). US and Russia shake hands. US abandon the Freedom Fighters and dubs them "Terrorist". They form the Taliban and now have a beef with the US. US supports the Shah of Iran. There is a coup and he is overthrown. Iranian college students take control of the embassy. US supports Saddam and supplies biological and chemical warfare componets. Saddam and Iran do not see eye to eye. US has a beef with Iran and supports Iraq. US says nothing at all about the use of chemical attacks on Irans "humanwave attacks". US views Saddam as a friend. Saddam decides he needs more shoreline to conduct oil export. Attacks Kuwait. US oil interest balks. US attacks Iraq and cut ties with Saddam. US imposes embargos on Iraq. There is a Kurdish uprising and a failed assination attempt on Saddam. Saddam uses chemicals to revenge the attempt and to stop the uprising. US says nothing. Iraq falls into dispair. The Taliban is causing havoc in Afghanistan. Bin Laden attacks the US. US puts on a small show in Afghanistan and then shifts the majority of its resources to Iraq claiming that Iraq is the greatest threat. Saddam is toppled and no WMD's are found. US changes reason for the attack. The Taliban is gaining control in Afghanistan as it's US placed government is but a front. Anti American sentiments are now even stronger in the Middle East. The US claims it will revenge the deaths of its fallen soldiers and continues to send more. The insurgents will kill more. The US will kill more insurgents. We are now trapped on a spinning wheel with no end in sight. "...And once you're gone, you can't come back When you're out of the blue and into the black." Neil Young

Shifts in social patterns directly affect economic patterns. Write letters, encourage boycots, attend rallies, speak louder if you feel you are not being heard. Look at the discussion your post generated. Dz.com as well as any other site on the internet is seen worldwide and it helps to form opinion. Don't just post here, post everywhere. The internet is a great political tool. Use it to yours and your kind's advantage. Forget the uninformed rhetoric of some who reply (I won't name names). If you are at all familiar with me, you know that my fight is AIDS and medical marijuana. I look past the rhetoric of those who have nothing to say on an intelligent level (they may or may not know who they are). Sometimes it is hard to do and I slide down to their level out of frustration. If you truely have something to say say it with conviction. Shore up your arguement with sound data. It wasn't a gun nor was it Ronald Reagan that brought down the Berlin Wall. It was those who believed in what they were doing. They used the social shift to shift the economic structure of Europe. The same can be done here. "...And once you're gone, you can't come back When you're out of the blue and into the black." Neil Young

The other day I posted an article written about this woman. This is her response to the piece written by Eric Barton. Most who view mj as the greatest evil ever to grow upon this planet has formed their opinion from government propaganda designed to misinform. Who here would hold medical marijuana back from a loved one who believes in its benefits? There is over 70 years of research that has been withheld and now it is being brought out by the people who are benefiting from its power. Politicians who at one time were against it and have seen firsthand as loved ones struggled on opiates and then rebound with mj are now joining the fight. There is proof as to its healing properties. Hope you can look past the governments whitewash and see the truth. Hope you learn something. Jacqueline's Response June 15, 2006 I would like to respond to last weeks article “High Above the Law” in the Kansas City Pitch (www.pitch.com) by saying that I think using the term “high”, not so much in the title but in the story, is misleading because it misrepresents what the patient, any patient- fat, thin, short, tall, gorgeous, or ugly- is trying to do. We are not partying or trying to escape our duties as employees, parents, or proud citizens of our communities, we are healing our bodies, minds and spirits so that we can have healthier lives and relationships. We are not out to harm anyone or to hook our children on dangerous drugs. The simple truth is that cannabis is a safe natural God-given herb that can not only effectively treat (and in some instances possibly prevent) thousands of symptoms and ailments but can be used for food, shelter, and clothing as well. I’ll never understand how so many good solid Christians here in the Midwest fail to make that connection. I’d also like to take a moment to defend my hero, George McMahon; he may ramble a bit on the microphone, but it’s only because he has so much information to give people in the short span of 20 minutes. For instance, did you know that many schizophrenics find that cannabis relives their symptoms and gives them a quality of life they do not experience with other treatments despite the lies printed in the government’s million dollar smear campaign? This isn’t a war on addiction and abuse anymore, it’s a war on patients- on people who are often unable to stand up for themselves. We save the dolphins, we save the trees, we save the whales, why not these people? How can we continue to label them as criminals or oddballs? Evolving research is finding that in the United States a child is raped every four minutes and that many of the adult victims of these attacks find cannabis a natural safe effective alternative to pharmaceuticals that are now being found to have dire consequences. So are the survivors of childhood sexual abuse really more criminal than the soulless beings that robbed their innocence? Planned Parenthood might think so as was implied in their recent dismissal of a new hire because of said hire’s appearance in “High Above the Law” Personally, I don’t believe in abortion, as I proved by carrying a rapist’s child to term and then giving it up for adoption. But having done that I could never tell a woman what to do with her body and that’s why I’m glad that places like Planned Parenthood exist, at least I was until this morning when I got accused of loving to play the victim. I can’t help my life- I’ve had the most unusual experiences: I’ve been raped, I’ve broken my neck, I’ve been harassed out of college, and I’ve buried my husband. And I’m not even thirty. But the most important thing all my experiences have taught me is that we all have to work together- to support each other in our most noble endeavors; isn’t that what community is all about? And freedom of choice, isn’t that what Planned Parenthood is all about? The right for a woman to choose? Then what the hell is wrong with this choice? Why can’t a woman use an herb to treat menstrual cramps and morning sickness? They can choose to self-medicate with sex and have multiple abortions but they can’t choose to smoke a plant that just might take the edge off long enough for them to dig their self-worth back out and find closure? And anyone who opposes is fired- even being the most qualified candidate in a ten state radius? I don’t call that freedom of choice, I call that hypocrisy. Finally, my love and my thanks go out to Eric Barton for writing such a truthful and telling story- it forced me to face my demons and brought many more out into the open. It’s a shame how so many people choose to view this issue and an even bigger shame that so many of those who know better cower like abused children in the closet of their oppressors. As Thomas Jefferson once said, “Enlighten the people, generally, and tyranny and oppressions of the body and mind will vanish like spirits at the dawn of day.” The path of enlightenment is not an easy one, especially when we must sweep aside the cobwebs and deliberate mistruths of the past seventy years, but this story was an honest beginning; thank you for telling it. Humbly, Medical Mary Jane "...And once you're gone, you can't come back When you're out of the blue and into the black." Neil Young

Why not stay and fight for what you DO believe in? You know, the grass is no greener anywhere else. All countries have their share of tyranny and oppression. I have travelled and worked in a few countries and have seen just how brown the ground can be. As much as I love Canada, Mexico and South America, the US is my home. They have the same problems as the US (even though some of their problems stem from US policy, i.e; the war on drugs have created billion dollar drug cartels that have all but destroyed countries south of our southern border). I do understand your rant but not your motivation. Why wish to run when you are perfectly capable of fighting? You should take an example from people such as Jacqueline Patterson. She has endured so much in such a short time yet she is fighting a good fight and refuses to back down!!!! America has created so many wars and the majority of these wars are against its own people. Don't run like a whipped puppy but, hold your ground and fight like a pitbull. If a woman with cerebral palsy can do it so can everyone else. "...And once you're gone, you can't come back When you're out of the blue and into the black." Neil Young

NEVER!!!!! I flat out refuse to buy beer. If you want to soak your brain with that crap, be my guest. Personally, I think booze should be banned from dz's. Far too many hungover people gearing up in the morning. This also goes for TI's and AFF instructors. Covering head and running back to Speakers Corner... HEY!!!!! Stop throwing stuff at me!!!! "...And once you're gone, you can't come back When you're out of the blue and into the black." Neil Young

For whatever you may think of medical marijuana, this is a good read. I have also included pictures of Jacqueline Patterson to put a face on the article. HIGH ABOVE THE LAW by Eric Barton, (Source:Pitch) Regional News Missouri ------- She has cerebral palsy, four kids and loads of debt. Meet the unofficial spokeswoman for marijuana legalization Hearing Room No. 7, in the basement of the Missouri Capitol, is beige. The walls, the floors, even most of the suits worn by the state representatives in the front of the room are beige. Then comes Jacqueline Patterson. She wears a pink blazer, fishnet stockings and a pleated black skirt that looks more like a slip. Pink stripes line her hair. Somebody in the front of the room calls her name. She hobbles up to a microphone at a beige desk. "My name is, umm. My name is, umm, Jacqueline Patterson. I am, ahhh-umm, from Kansas City, Missouri. I have a severe st-st-stutter." So far, the representatives at this early morning hearing in April have looked uninterested by the parade of oddballs. A severely obese guy came up to the microphone in a special wheelchair that looked to be made out of roll bars and ATV tires. Some kid who sounded stoned babbled about his sick uncle. A Navy vet strung together unrelated sentences. These speakers were supposed to convince the representatives that marijuana is medicine. A couple of reps started reading the paper. One munched on an egg sandwich. Another went outside to take a call. Now, every one of them has looked up to see 27-year-old Patterson struggle to speak. "I came here today to ummmm, to ummm, to ummm, to ask you to put yourself in my shoes," she says, reading from a speech scribbled the day before in a spiral notebook. She asks the representatives to imagine growing up with cerebral palsy and being made fun of for having a limp, a right hand that doesn't work and a stutter. Even without the stutter, her voice sounds on the verge of tears or panic. Her nervousness aggravates the stutter. She stops for a moment. She often gets hung up on words that begin with vowels. They get stuck in the back of her throat, and her face contorts, as though she has just tasted something awful. The state reps gawk as she struggles to expel a one-letter word. "I -- I -- I smoked cannabis for the first time when I was 14," she says. "For the first time, my muscles were not tense. And words slid from my mouth, from gggghhh -- from me at a fluid pace instead of sssss-stuck on my tongue like a g-ghh -- like a train wreck." Pot was the only thing that made her feel normal. But getting it, she says, meant hanging out with seedy people she didn't trust. She felt like a criminal. Patterson takes them through the horrific details of her adult life. The rape. The time she broke her neck. Her husband's suicide. She's now a widowed mother of four. The politicians have put down their newspapers. The one with the breakfast sandwich listens intently. A woman in the gallery cries quietly. Then things turn. Patterson launches into a tangent about her broken neck and how doctors had to drill holes in her skull. She follows that with a diatribe about the inconsistent quality of cannabis. At least a couple of the reps look disgusted as she describes the time she begged a friend to let her smoke a bowl with him while she was eight months pregnant. She's lost all of them. Even the committee chairman, Rep. Wayne Cooper, a physician from Camdenton who has sounded pro-medical marijuana all day, looks aghast. When Patterson finishes, Cooper quickly dismisses her by saying: "OK, thank you." Patterson comes back to join her oldest son, 9-year-old Tristan, in the second row. "Oh," she says, "that didn't go so well." The hearing on House Bill 1831, which would legalize medical marijuana in Missouri, ends with no discussion from the representatives. The hearing has made it clear that those who would benefit most from legalized pot aren't the best at speaking to conservative lawmakers. They're the fringe of society, suffering from chronic pain or post-traumatic stress. They're weakened cancer or AIDS patients, strengthened by pot's ability to make them hungry. They're not the type who can connect with the beige representatives. If the pro-marijuana cause is to get a legitimate debate in Missouri, those who claim to smoke weed for their health need a lot of polishing. After the hearing, Patterson takes her son to the Capitol rotunda for a tour. School kids on field trips turn to stare at her as she limps up five flights of stairs. She can't get her mind off the idea that she failed. "I hate my speech so much," she says near the top of the Capitol. "I drrr- ... I dr- ... I drove my husband to suicide, you know." Patterson remembers the night she first smoked weed the way others remember the loss of their virginity. She was 14 and living in Texas, where her mom had moved from Kansas City after divorcing her father. A friend named Tim asked if she wanted to go for a walk in the woods. Tim was four years older. It was late, maybe 10 or so. He pulled out a small metal pipe. "Hey, do you want to smoke this?" he asked. "All right," she quickly agreed. Afterward, they sprawled out in a clearing to gaze up at the sky. It was a cool summer night. At some point in the conversation, she realized how easy the words were coming out. And her muscles, which normally felt cramped and pained, were loose. She'd never felt so comfortable with herself. "It was a release from the disease and from the emotional trauma," she recalls. Her parents had divorced when Patterson was young, and she and her mother had moved around a lot. That meant Patterson didn't know many people to get high with. She did it only a few times as a teenager. She quit when the babies came. The first was Tristan, whose father she met at a haunted house when she was in high school. She moved out of her mother's place, and not long after she graduated high school, her roommate raped her. She later gave birth to a boy she put up for adoption. ( The rapist, Michael Scott Parker, is serving a 15-year sentence. ) She had a short-lived marriage that produced a daughter, Jane, who's now 6. In 1998, she enrolled at Northern Iowa Area Community College and later transferred to the University of Northern Iowa. Misfortune followed her there, too, when she flipped her Geo Tracker and broke her neck. She spent a week and a half in the hospital, much of it with metal screws drilled into her head to help heal her rebuilt spine. In 2000, she was living with her two kids in a dorm when her future husband knocked on the door. There was something about Travis Patterson that made her think she knew him already, and she invited him in. It took a few minutes before she realized he was there to sell her magazines. He asked her out to a movie. She was a divorced mother of two who couldn't afford a baby-sitter, so no, she said, she wouldn't be going out to a movie. He came back that night with a DVD of The Green Mile. They shared stories of rough childhoods. Her stories were full of alienation, kids making fun of her stutter. His were about abuses that came back in recurring dreams. To forget his childhood, Travis smoked pot. So they shared that, too. The couple moved to Kansas City in 2001, and Travis got a construction job. They had two kids: Ulysses, who's now 4, and Fiona, 2. Jacqueline took classes at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and eventually her father let them stay in the two-story Grandview house where her family had lived before her parents' divorce. At UMKC, Patterson met Elise Max, a fellow student and an active proponent of legalizing pot. The summer after high school, Max was busted with two roaches, and the judge sent her to rehab with hardcore addicts. She says the experience convinced her that pot users shouldn't be punished alongside hardened criminals. So she founded a local chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. Once Max got involved in the movement, she realized that few marijuana users participate in marches or rallies for fear of being stigmatized as pot smokers. "It's just like when people talked about the abolition of slavery," says Max, who graduated this spring from UMKC. "It was taboo then, just like it's taboo now to talk about legalizing marijuana." After Max got her involved, Patterson discovered a talent that made her a celebrity in the pro-pot movement. Many activists who claim that marijuana benefits them medically can't easily prove the point, but Patterson can do it by puffing on a joint and speaking more clearly as she gets high. That's evident one afternoon at the small south Kansas City home that she rents from her brother. Patterson pulls a glass bowl out of a desk in the living room. She holds it deftly in her weakened right hand, her twisted index finger capping a hole in the side of the pipe. She uses her left hand to light it and takes her finger off the carburetor. She inhales deeply, holding in the smoke for a while. Her two oldest children are at school, her second-youngest is napping and the little one is eating a biscuit in a highchair. After a couple of hits, the stutter nearly disappears. "People who have disabilities are ignored," she says. "The civil rights movement is not over." When Patterson first got involved, there wasn't much of a pro-pot lobby in Missouri. Lawmakers with little influence in Jefferson City had introduced bills that quickly died without the first step of a committee hearing. In 2004, however, the movement got a boost when two pro-pot city ordinances appeared on the ballot in Columbia. The first proposed allowing those who benefit medically from marijuana to possess up to 35 grams, about 20 joints. The second stripped police of the power to arrest somebody for that same amount; instead, those caught with small amounts would get a ticket similar to an open-container violation and face no jail time, just a fine and community service. The measures passed resoundingly. In a practical sense, they haven't had much effect. Nobody has used the medical marijuana defense, says Capt. Mike Martin of the Columbia Police Department. The changes have simply reduced most possession charges to nothing more than a beer ticket. The victory in Columbia motivated the pro-pot lobby to try for a statewide change. And they've picked up some unlikely allies, potentially leading to a legitimate statewide debate about medical marijuana. Earlier this year, state Rep. Tom Villa of St. Louis agreed to sponsor House Bill 1831 -- the proposed law for which Patterson testified. It would have allowed patients who have a doctor's prescription for pot to receive a special license from the state to grow up to three marijuana plants and possess up to 3 ounces of processed weed. Villa, who works at his family's business distributing light bulbs, is anything but a pothead. When asked whether he partakes, he points to his round belly and then to his bald head. "Do I look like I do?" he quips. "I'm 61. I'm pretty boring, I guess. I have no experience with it at all." It was a sense of compassion that moved him to sponsor the legislation, Villa says. Besides, Villa is a former majority whip and has served eight terms as a Democrat from liberal south St. Louis, so he doesn't fear conservatives attacking him for a pro-pot stance. Wayne Cooper, the chair of the House's Health Care Policy Committee, seemed receptive to the medical marijuana bill during the hearing in April. He's a Republican and a former Christian missionary to the Philippines -- not exactly the type to favor medical marijuana. But advocates often find allies among physicians, who know that weed is beneficial to glaucoma and cancer patients. Cooper was alone in voicing his support during the April hearing. Most of the other 10 representatives looked as disinterested as Rep. Kathy Chinn, a 52-year-old pork farmer from Clarence. Chinn says she's against legalizing any drug. "I thought she had things she needed to express," Chinn said when the Pitch asked what she thought of Patterson's testimony. "I do not judge her. That is not what I do." Cooper had scheduled the hearing with only two weeks left in the legislative session, meaning there wasn't enough time for the bill to get a full vote from the House. But getting a hearing is something, Villa says. "There is some light at the end of the tunnel," he says. "Just not this year." This summer, proponents will hone the bill's language in hopes that the committee might send it on to the House for debate. And a debate over medical marijuana on the House floor of a state controlled by conservatives would get the movement some needed attention, says Dan Viets, a 54-year-old lawyer from Columbia. Viets has spent 20 years defending kids busted with small amounts of dope and is one of the state's most active pro-pot lobbyists. It's unlikely that Missouri will soon join the other 12 states with some form of medical marijuana law, but Viets hopes to at least send a message. "Why in the world would we not trust our doctors with marijuana when we trust them with morphine, codeine and amphetamines?" he says. Patterson has already experienced what it's like to smoke medical marijuana legally. In April, while traveling to California for a conference put on by Patients Out of Time, she visited the office of a Bay Area doctor who's known for prescribing cannabis. She smoked a joint with him in his office. She says the doctor estimated that her speech improved by 75 percent. Even more than helping to stop the stutter, pot does something else: It helps her forget. Tension between Jacqueline and Travis Patterson started building during a long cold spell back in December 2004. Travis was working construction, but the severe cold had kept his job site closed from late November. Jacqueline was six months pregnant with their fourth child, and the bills weren't getting paid. On Christmas, the kids came downstairs to find a bunch of poorly wrapped gifts under the tree. There was one for Jacqueline: gold butterfly earrings with amethyst and peridot stones. Jacqueline knew Travis had spent his last check on the presents. It was sweet, but it was also the last of their money. A couple of weeks passed before the fight broke out. Patterson accused her husband of squandering money. Another couple was staying with them at the time, so they tried to keep their shouts down to keep their friends from hearing the argument. At some point, Jacqueline took off her wedding ring and threw it at Travis. He answered by making fun of her speech, something he hadn't done before. "He stuttered the way I do," Patterson recalls. "As soon as the words left his mouth, he looked like, 'I can't believe I just said that.'" She didn't talk to him the rest of that night or the next morning. By then, the cold weather was over, and he went to work. When he came home that night, Patterson was cooking a boxed dinner, a Skillet Sensation, with green beans on the side. Travis tried to apologize, but she pushed him away. "It was just the sweetest apology in the world, but I was too mad to accept it." After dinner, Travis approached her again. She was in the kitchen struggling to take off a necklace. She's stubborn about that sort of thing. It'll take her 10 minutes to screw the cap on her youngest child's bottle, but she keeps turning until she gets it on. As Travis tried to help with the necklace, Patterson hit him with stinging words. "I would rather be raped again, a thousand times over, than get help from you." Travis went into the basement, where their friends were staying. One of them was packing a bowl of weed and offered some to Travis. Instead, he went upstairs and locked himself in the bedroom. Jacqueline stayed downstairs that night. Travis didn't come down the next morning. When Jacqueline went upstairs, she could hear a fan going inside the room, which was strange, because he hated that fan. It was around 7:30 on January 7, 2005. Jacqueline tried the door and found it locked. So she crawled out the bathroom window and shimmied along the roof outside. She could see him from the window. "The first thing I thought was, When did he get so good at doing costume makeup?" His face was blue. His purple tongue dangled from his mouth. He had taken off his wedding ring, placed it on a bedside table and used a belt to hang himself from the frame around the bathroom door. Jacqueline knew his upbringing had been tragic, but she says there's no question that she was responsible for his suicide. "If I had gone to him that night and taken his apology, he wouldn't have done it," she says. "You know, you only find the other half of you once. It might be a fucked-up other half, but I can still feel the hole from where he's not attached to me anymore." Later on, she kept thinking about how their friends had asked Travis to smoke a bowl with him. If he had stayed downstairs, if he had gotten high, perhaps he would have calmed down. It's not exactly an argument that would convince conservative lawmakers to legalize pot. But it was Patterson's motivation to get serious about the cause. George McMahon plops himself down on the small stone wall that outlines the grounds of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. He folds a rolling paper in half, takes a pill bottle out of his pocket and pours some weed across the crease. As he runs his tongue lengthwise along the joint, a wedding party strolls past. Bride, groom, bridesmaids, dad, mom. They all stare, baffled. "Oops," he says, giggling as he stuffs the pill bottle back in his pants. He decides that he ought to go someplace less conspicuous. So he walks across Oak Street and sits on the wall of Southmoreland Park, a few yards away from the wedding party. His reason for being so brash: Sitting on the wall next to him is a tin canister that looks like a large can of tomatoes. Once a month, the federal government sends him a canister stuffed with 300 joints, along with directions that he should smoke 10 of them a day. He has used the can to prove to cops that he can smoke legally. In drug circles, McMahon -- a 55-year-old former ditch digger -- is a living legend. He's one of five Americans who receive dope directly from the government. He takes part in a little-known Food and Drug Administration program that started in 1978 but was discontinued in 1992; those already enrolled were allowed to continue. McMahon credits the government-grown cannabis with helping him endure the chronic pain caused by a genetic degenerative disease. McMahon has come to Kansas City from his home in Iowa for this May 6 rally, where he'll give a speech in front of about 200 people gathered on the lawn of Southmoreland Park. Headlining the event is Patterson. Patterson talked him into coming by promising him gas money, but a week ago, she called to tell him she was broke and couldn't come up with it. McMahon drove down anyway. Patterson is near financial disaster. Her first husband sends her child support; the government sends her food stamps and a $900 disability check. But she owes her brother $500 in back rent. The phone company recently cut off her service. She can't afford to register her van. Even worse, she knows that at any moment, the government could discover her role in these pro-pot activities and take away her benefits. "Can you believe a rapist or a child molester can get out of jail and get benefits, but if they find me with pot, they will take my benefits away?" she asks. But she believes that her dead husband is watching over her. "I'm pretty sure Travis is going to keep me safe." Besides, the rally is beginning, and thinking about finances is a downer. "Hey, that's not sssss-something to worry about today," she says, standing near tables full of pamphlets promoting legalization. She takes the black wrapper off a peanut-butter-flavored marijuana candy and plops it on her tongue. "Please get wise and legalize!" the event's master of ceremonies says over the PA system. He's wearing an Uncle Sam hat, a blue blazer with white stars, and shorts and boots that look like they've been stolen from a pro wrestler. He gives McMahon a quick introduction. "McMahon, come fill some time." As a speaker, McMahon rambles. "If humans don't have some of the chemicals that are in cannabis in their body, guess what? They die," he says. Without pausing, he launches into a monologue on women being more affected by weed because they have babies. As he speaks, some people lounging on blankets share sandwiches they've grilled on a camp stove. A few people collect stickers from the tables. Patterson and her kids sit under a maple tree and dip bread into a jar of peanut butter. Few in the audience clap when McMahon finishes. Patterson is a reluctant public speaker, and the crowd's reaction to the infamous McMahon makes her even more nervous. A punk band takes over to warm up for her. She remembers her speech before the Missouri House committee. "I did horribly bad. I really bombed," she says, the words flowing easily now that she's stoned. At 4:20 p.m. -- the international time for potheads to light up -- Uncle Sam introduces the headliner. "Jacqueline, get up here," he says to sparse clapping. Patterson wears a pair of cowboy boots that she inherited from a grandmother. She made her skirt from a pair of Travis' jeans that she cut up and paired with frilly pink material. Atop her blond, pink-striped hair is a crown of plastic pot leaves. She begins by reading from the spiral notebook. "'The way we treat you is criminal.' That is the words uttered to me by aaaaa -- by aaaa - -- by a committee member during a hearing for House Bill 1831." The microphone is too tall for Patterson to read her speech while also stretching up to speak. She abandons the notebook. Unlike her stutter-filled diatribe in the Capitol basement, Patterson ad-libs with clarity. She punches words for emphasis. Soon, she has the crowd cheering with her. She promises to get medical marijuana legalized. "If we don't do it this year, we will do it next year!" she screams into the microphone. The crowd reacts with loud approval. "We need you guys to get fucking involved!" "Yeah, Jacqueline!" somebody yells. Uncle Sam introduces the next band. Patterson limps to the back of the crowd to collect her kids. Along the way, she passes a lonely-looking woman seated at a folding table. In front of her is a stack of unsigned voter-registration cards. "...And once you're gone, you can't come back When you're out of the blue and into the black." Neil Young

That is a great piece. Tells more than what you see or hear on the evening news. "...And once you're gone, you can't come back When you're out of the blue and into the black." Neil Young

He also pushed for a $15 billion program to combat He is one of the few good ones that was connected to this administration. This planet could use a few more people like him. Rat? Not at all. "...And once you're gone, you can't come back When you're out of the blue and into the black." Neil Young

There is dishonesty on both sides of the fence. Truth is nothing at all can be done about it. People will always go for what stuffs their barrel and screw those who actually need the help. What pisses me off the most is hearing about crap like a sex change operation that slipped by whoever was suppose to be watching for such bullshit or someone getting season tickets. Now, some of you who are familier with my health problems may be saying "well, you use medicare, you're just as bad". I get the very minimum of care and pay a large portion of my care out of pocket. Last week I set up an appointment to see the doc today. It got canceled on monday because I still owe over $300.00 dollars to the doctor for the visit in Feb. They're not satisfied with the monthly payment. Untill that is paid, I am shit out of luck. My summer of jumping is pretty much over. Every penny that I make with my embroidery business goes to paying down medical cost. It is a no win situation. I have been told by the medicare pencil pushers that I can get better service if I were to sell my home or pay the monthly medicaid premium of $469.00 a month. I'm pissed at both sides. A government that does not care about it's own people and the people who use every oppertunity to line their pockets. I only have been using medicare since October 2003 and only because I lost my job to cheap mexican labor. To hell with this government and the same to those who abuse an already over abused system. I don't want them to send me anything. I'd rather die trying on my own than to die in a sea of red tape that bars you from any help at all. "...And once you're gone, you can't come back When you're out of the blue and into the black." Neil Young

Sure, Bush and his merry band of criminals are nothing to brag about but, what about the so called "hurricane victims" who has abused the system that was intended to help? Football tickets? Tropical vacations? Sex change operation (WTF!!!)? Shame on them and I hope they all see serious prison time!!!!! "...And once you're gone, you can't come back When you're out of the blue and into the black." Neil Young

Let's not forget about NASCAR!!!!! YES, NASCAR is a team sport. "...And once you're gone, you can't come back When you're out of the blue and into the black." Neil Young

230 million people who don't give a crap about soccer and why would we when we have the NFL. Soccer players would not stand a chance against a 400 pound linebacker whose job is to knock your body into the next century. Now, come on, shoulder pads and those sissy soccer shorts... St. Louis Rams... Going all the way this year. "...And once you're gone, you can't come back When you're out of the blue and into the black." Neil Young

Tell them to take a flying leap "...And once you're gone, you can't come back When you're out of the blue and into the black." Neil Young

Hear tell, they have some real good hi-res camel toe shots "...And once you're gone, you can't come back When you're out of the blue and into the black." Neil Young

Not at all afraid of communism. Communism might have flourished if not for the greed of its leaders. There are no avenues for wealth distribution amongst the people. The wealth that is generated by capitalism is available to the people via stock purchase and other investment avenues. Companies grow due to the desire of the people involved to have more. Sadly, some of those involved think that they deserve it all ( Ken Lay and his band of crooks come to mind ). "...And once you're gone, you can't come back When you're out of the blue and into the black." Neil Young

Scared of what? Please elaborate. "...And once you're gone, you can't come back When you're out of the blue and into the black." Neil Young

Communism does not work because of greed. Capitalism, on the otherhand, does, because of greed. "...And once you're gone, you can't come back When you're out of the blue and into the black." Neil Young

http://www.avert.org/origins.htm Not at all. There are alot of theories on the origin of HIV as well as a good number of falsehoods and the simian-human intercourse theory just doesn't pan out. "...And once you're gone, you can't come back When you're out of the blue and into the black." Neil Young