tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28340293004229999122024-03-05T10:06:36.244-06:00GREEN ASSOCIATION FOR SUSTAINABILITYGrAS EXAMINES social contracts and civil rights in a free society; DEFINES the terms of our social and political systems, and PROMOTES the paradigms of a liberal democracy: Specifically, that government is created by the will of the people, and can be dissolved by that same will. Cannabis laws are especially scrutinized as they so readily demonstrate the many political and social justice issues inherent in the legislative processes. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04120525227666965355noreply@blogger.comBlogger72125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834029300422999912.post-3687933459044518082016-11-11T17:32:00.000-06:002016-12-20T14:10:30.676-06:002016 ELECTION PLAN B: Is There A Morning After Pill for This?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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2016
Election Plan B: Is There a Morning
After Pill?<o:p></o:p></h2>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "cambria";">
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<o:p><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: small;"> </span></o:p></div>
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ELECTION PLAN B AND THE MORNING AFTER<o:p></o:p></h3>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "cambria";">
<h2 style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-size: small;">Early ballot counts inadvertently predicted the 2016
Presidential election outcome. In a nervous and surreal suspension of time,
Hillary Clinton held three electors against Donald Trump’s 19 votes,
flipping collective liberal stomachs. Watching Trump’s unexpectedly
potent challenge of liberal expectations became more than a bad
date. The blue condom literally broke, with no Election
Plan B to prevent conception.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-size: small;">Rather than spending a sleepless night in conjecture, I joined
the many who quit watching during the few minutes Clinton held a marginal
lead. After months of foreplay, we (the previously mentioned collective of now
exhausted liberals) purposefully skipped the media’s rhetorical attempts at
explaining the flawed pundit predictions and Pew polls with Polly-Ana
platitudes. I awoke the next day to news of the Trump electoral win, took
a Xanax, then went back to bed to ponder a 2016 election Plan B. No
morning after pill for this election night screw. Canada, perhaps?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-size: small;">Metaphorically sticking my head in the sand seemed the best
advice to avoid anxious apocalyptic scenarios. Scenarios, such as a
yellow fluff of hair and a screwed-up face, screaming bigoted vengefulness with
a finger on the BIG button.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: medium;">IS THIS ELECTION PLAN B OR HAS NUCLEAR
WINTER ARRIVED?<o:p></o:p></span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-size: small;">Ironically, the day after the election was so <i>dreary; </i>even
the Houston sky was sad. Checking for signs of a nuclear winter, not a
single ray of sun penetrated the overcast sky. No apocalypse, just a
grey sky in an eerie show of sympathy to Harris County’s blue feminist and
minority constituency.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-size: small;">By late afternoon, I bravely crawled out of my
sheet-tent and took the walk of shame to my
computer. Megamedia speculations analyzing the largely
unexpected Trump win dominated my home page. I searched the headlines for
an implementable election morning plan B--some intelligent assessment of sheer
stupidity. Radio host and author Garrison Keillor caught my attention with his
Washington Post opinion. In </span></span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-voters-will-not-like-what-happens-next/2016/11/09/e346ffc2-a67f-11e6-8fc0-7be8f848c492_story.html?utm_term=.a108bda328d5&wpisrc=nl_most-draw10&wpmm=1"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: blue; font-size: small;">"Trump voters
will not like what happens next",</span></span></a><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-size: small;"> Keillor analyzes the
outcome and advises brooding liberals.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></span></h2>
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</span></h2>
<h2 style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: medium;">UNEDUCATED WHITE VOTERS JOIN THE PARTY<o:p></o:p></span></span></h2>
<h2 style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-size: small;">Keillor premises that The Donald's largely uneducated white
male supporters joined the Trump movement for the <i>party</i>, small
"p". Caught up in the suddenly socially acceptable raucousness,
they joined and enjoyed the madness. Let me even further surmise and
clarify with a more accurate statement: They were in it TO
party. Trump supporters were rolling on the actual
festivities. The beer, the hollering, the groping. No one ever
expected him to WIN the damn thing (2016).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-size: small;">Prior to the election, The New York Times reported a possible
path to victory for Trump through the largest bloc of registered voters:
uneducated white males. Their caveat to this hypothesis was that only half of
this demographic failed intercourse with a ballot in the previous election,
leaving 29 million sleeping votes.
(http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/11/07/us/how-trump-can-win.html). Assured
of Clinton’s win, the opposing party brushed aside any such threat, without the
protection of an election plan B. After the Election Day results,
The New York Times reiterated their claim, and excused their caveat: The
pre-election polls were simply unable to anticipate the large turnout of rural,
white, working-class voters in key states (</span></span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/10/upshot/why-trump-won-working-class-whites.html"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: blue; font-size: small;">http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/10/upshot/why-trump-won-working-class-whites.html</span></span></a><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-size: small;">),
which begs the question, was it <i>cognitive inability</i> or <i>technical
inability?</i> I boldly claim the former, positing that critical
thinking processes were dismissed in favor of computer poll processing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</span></h2>
<h2 style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></span></h2>
<h2 style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;">
</span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: medium;">PLAN C: THE FAITHLESS ELECTORATE AND A
RIGGED ELECTION<o:p></o:p></span></span></h2>
<h2 style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-size: small;">Now that he has won the Presidential election, let the
Republicans deal with him, writes Keillor flippantly. Still, his benign words
only temporarily comfort dejected liberals searching for an election Plan
B to prevent implantation.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I’ll accept the election
results,” Trump finally acquiesces in a pre-election stump speech, his
followers clapping at the ghost of a change in his contentious “we’ll see” stance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then, after a long pause, Trump caveats his
statement with celebrity theatrics: “if I win!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The crowd roars as he rants of a “rigged” election process, possibly the
only truthful slip of the tongue during his campaign.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That he and Putin share a bed is obvious;
the depth of their affair is unthinkably unexpected.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-size: small;">By the first Monday after the second Wednesday in the month of
December, the time for an election Plan B passed, and an intense campaign to
court faithless electorates failed (</span></span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/05/opinion/why-i-will-not-cast-my-electoral-vote-for-donald-trump.html?_r=0"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: blue; font-size: small;">http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/05/opinion/why-i-will-not-cast-my-electoral-vote-for-donald-trump.html?_r=0</span></span></a><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-size: small;">). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Awaiting inauguration, Trump seems unconcerned
that more than one-half of the country want's him aborted as he fills a
nepotistic and conflicted cabinet with assorted billionaires.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;">
</span></h2>
<h2 style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></span></h2>
<h2 style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;">
</span></h2>
<h2 style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: medium;">THE TRUMP CONSTITUENCY: STUPID, SCARED
OR BOTH?<o:p></o:p></span></span></h2>
<h2 style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-size: small;">Although we cannot change America's 2016 choice without changing
our country’s founding premise of free elections, we can ignore the 2016
electoral choice…at least for the moment. Then, Americans must
examine the decline in intelligence and the rise in fear of our populace; or
more concisely, how Americans went stupid with fear. This socio-political
phenomenon, first defined by Thomas Hobbes in the 17th century, explains how a
frightened and neglected citizenry will choose a despotic leader rather than
enter into a “state of nature” (1651)</span><a href="https://draft.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref2"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></a></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _ednref2;"></span><a href="http://kimrojas.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=209&action=edit#_edn2"><span style="mso-bookmark: _ednref2;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: blue; font-size: small;">[i]</span></span></span></a><span style="mso-bookmark: _ednref2;"></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-size: small;">. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-size: small;">This is not news, yet the news missed it. Liberal
politicians and the educated electorate missed it, too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Statistical demographics of this election
largely support the hypothesis that illiteracy, ignorance and fear rule too
many American lives. By capitalizing on the seething
anger of under-educated eligible voters who suffered most in the
2008 recession, Trump re-enfranchised this previously
quiet demographic with loud propaganda and undefined promises to
"Make America Great (Again)". <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;">
</span></h2>
<h2 style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: medium;">NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL FAILURE IS NO
SURPRISE<o:p></o:p></span></span></h2>
<h2 style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-size: small;">"I am now going to pay more attention to teachers,"
Keillor writes in his concluding sentence, positing that Trump won the presidency
through the unexpected turnout of uneducated white voters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Keillor’s conclusion supports inductive
reasoning of educational failure and fearful ignorance. Presently, there
is plenty of support for this implicit claim.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-size: small;">Our educational system is broken, has failed us, and we know
it. American students rank 23</span><sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">rd</span></sup><span style="font-size: small;"> in math and 31</span><sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">st</span></sup><span style="font-size: small;"> in
science compared to other industrial countries. Greater than one out of
every four adults read below a fifth-grade level (</span></span><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/09/opinion/bennett-stem-education/index.html"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: blue; font-size: small;">http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/09/opinion/bennett-stem-education/index.html</span></span></a><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-size: small;">). In
September 2016, the Pew Fact Tank reported that uneducated white males
preferred Trump over Clinton by 14 points. The same study found that educated
white males favored Clinton by a 25-point margin. If the spread holds,
researchers then prophesized, the 2016 election “…will be the widest
educational divide in any election in the last several decades” (</span></span><a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/09/15/educational-divide-in-vote-preferences-on-track-to-be-wider-than-in-recent-elections/"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: blue; font-size: small;">http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/09/15/educational-divide-in-vote-preferences-on-track-to-be-wider-than-in-recent-elections/</span></span></a><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-size: small;">)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-size: small;">But for now, let the Republicans in power worry about Trump; roll
out your yoga mats, grow some heirloom tomatoes, and read Jane Austen one more
time, Keillor advises. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not necessarily
the election Plan B that many would prefer, and so I caveat that advice with
this thought: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">another election cycle is
in four years.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Liberals, start now
to secure impenetrable protection, and have a Trump Re-Election Plan B ready.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-outline-level: 4;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;">
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<a href="https://draft.blogger.com/null" name="_edn2"></a><a href="http://kimrojas.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=209&action=edit#_ednref2"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _edn2;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">[i]</span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _edn2;"></span></span></span></a><span style="mso-bookmark: _edn2;"></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-size: small;"> Thomas Hobbes' (1588-1679)
socio-political theory defines the "state of nature" as "</span></span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellum_omnium_contra_omnes"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: blue; font-size: small;">the war of all
against all</span></span></a><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">". Only a strong, undivided political system
could provide the social structure to prevent a "state of nature”, claims Hobbes.
Hobbes explains this behavior by concluding that man’s greatest fear is a violent
death at the hands of <span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;"></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></o:p></span>another [human being] (1651, Leviathan).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellum_omnium_contra_omnes</span></span></div>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">]</span><br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-size: small;">*Title inspired by @MxTr3y social media comment.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-voters-will-not-like-what-happens-next/2016/11/09/e346ffc2-a67f-11e6-8fc0-7be8f848c492_story.html?wpisrc=nl_most-draw10&wpmm=1"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: blue; font-size: small;">GARRISON KEILLOR: Trump voters will not like what happens
next </span></span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">
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</h2>
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</h2>
</span><br />
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</h2>
<strong>DEFINE, EXAMINE and PROMOTE</strong><br />
Join other Extremely Intelligent Followers at <a href="http://www.kimrojas.com/" target="_blank">The Green Association for Sustainability</a><br />
<em>Advocate for Your Cause, Ashes for Your Phoenix, y Queso por su Tortilla</em></h2>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04120525227666965355noreply@blogger.com0Houston, Texas United States29.636114760981208 -96.67968754.1140802609812077 -137.9882815 55.158149260981205 -55.3710935tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834029300422999912.post-29443051221679593532016-03-02T20:53:00.002-06:002016-03-02T20:58:32.846-06:00UPDATE on HB 2165: A Bill to Decriminalize Cannabis<br />
See <a href="http://www.sustainablygreen.blogspot.com/2015/06/finally-good-idea-marijuana.html" target="_blank">Finally, A Good Idea</a> regarding the Decriminalization bill. <br />
As predicted, The Texas House of Representatives failed to pass the popular <a href="http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/tlodocs/84R/billtext/pdf/HB02165I.pdf#navpanes=0" target="_blank">HB 2165</a>, claimed to be the most comprehensive and full repeal of marijuana prohibition proposal in the country (<a href="http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/51046/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=15834" target="_blank">June 6, 2015 NORML</a>). <br />
<br />
On we march.<br />
<br />
<br />
The Green Association for Sustainability Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04120525227666965355noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834029300422999912.post-83514470229353482042015-08-21T20:34:00.000-05:002015-08-21T20:44:49.044-05:00CBD OIL: Placebo or Medicine? <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRX_g9mmNrkB4ZIdzktaxe_gpTETq0emU3XmLYKuJq06DNcZWg_K89PFKyvLh7h-1J102kAW1seyojAyy1WmqCc5r6UM1mvgDnw1KaptXk2pGhM8s1VMckBt_Or_NGXMhmtARPdsfz83C8/s1600/cbdspoon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRX_g9mmNrkB4ZIdzktaxe_gpTETq0emU3XmLYKuJq06DNcZWg_K89PFKyvLh7h-1J102kAW1seyojAyy1WmqCc5r6UM1mvgDnw1KaptXk2pGhM8s1VMckBt_Or_NGXMhmtARPdsfz83C8/s1600/cbdspoon.jpg" /></a></div>
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I recently joined a lively thread on Facebook regarding the efficacy of CBD oil. CBD was approved in 2013 for medical use in a bill brought before the Texas Legislature by State Rep. <a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/john-zerwas/" target="_blank">John Zerwas</a>, R-Richmond. The House passed SB 339 on a 96-34 vote. Still, the bill had many detractors. And not just prohibitionists who feared this was the beginning to the end of prohibition, and the sale of non-psycho-active CBD in oral capsules would somehow cause more teenage cannabis use were against the bill (although I’m still a little fuzzy on the correlation between oral CBD and teenage pot smoking, let alone any causation). Even pro-CBD and pro-medicalization groups feel that the bill is “<a href="http://www.texastribune.org/2015/05/18/texas-house-approves-legalizing-cannabis-oil-epile/" target="_blank">too little, too late</a>.”<br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"></span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"><a href="http://www.greenassocforsustainability.com/?p=77" target="_blank">READ MORE</a></span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"></span><br />
/ag<br />
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The Green Association for SustainabilityAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04120525227666965355noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834029300422999912.post-72059674202266782322015-06-03T17:15:00.001-05:002015-06-03T23:28:19.580-05:00Finally, A Good Idea! MARIJUANA DECRIMINALIZATION BILL FILED BY REPUBLICAN IN TEXAS LEGISLATURE!<h1>
</h1>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9dq8R_an5keqGuwEj3Fv74bFpGgOGK_AhJiQ8kSJ9BFOeYyQqlYG25873UChS07RAcviQoOfejvgpSl-v-qCk8lcdOkGi2uxaSM6agIr2jHcUYq45TW_APj_GFdYXSBJFqtF0jcA3dHis/s1600/10+best+strains.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9dq8R_an5keqGuwEj3Fv74bFpGgOGK_AhJiQ8kSJ9BFOeYyQqlYG25873UChS07RAcviQoOfejvgpSl-v-qCk8lcdOkGi2uxaSM6agIr2jHcUYq45TW_APj_GFdYXSBJFqtF0jcA3dHis/s1600/10+best+strains.jpg" /></a></div>
<h1>
FROM NATIONAL NORML</h1>
CLICK THIS LINK TO GO TO ORIGINAL ARTICLE AND SEND LETTER TO TEXAS LAWMAKERS!<br />
<a href="http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/51046/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=15834">http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/51046/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=15834</a><br />
<h1>
Texas: Lawmaker Files Legislation To Strike Marijuana-Related Offenses From the Criminal Code</h1>
<div class="description" id="description">
Republican David Simpson has pre-filed legislation, <a href="http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/tlodocs/84R/billtext/pdf/HB02165I.pdf#navpanes=0">House Bill 2165</a>, to remove marijuana-related offenses from the Texas criminal code.<br />
“Nearly a century ago, the Texas legislature made a mistake in judgment based on misinformation and unfortunate motivations," Rep. Simpson said in letter to lawmakers urging them to co-sponsor his legislation. “Due to this mistake a relatively benign plant was made illegal to grow, possess, and sell in Texas.”<br />
Passage of Rep. Simpson’s bill would end each of these marijuana-related prosecutions in the Lone Star State. “Repealing prohibition of the plant will result in savings of millions of dollars currently being spent in the name of the war on drugs,” Simpson said. “[It] will end the destruction and disruption of thousands of lives caused by the heavy penalties for those who use the plant, and will restore freedom and dignity to all Texans.”<br />
While passage of HB 2165 is unlikely, its intended purpose is arguably to stimulate a discussion among Texas lawmakers. The conversation is long overdue. A review of state-by-state marijuana possession arrest data by the ACLU reports that some 75,000 Texans are arrested annually for pot violations – the second highest total of any state in the nation.<br />
Enter your zip code below to contact your state Representative and urge them to support marijuana law reform. You can also voice your support for separate legislation seeking to decriminalize marijuana possession penalties <a href="http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/51046/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=15309">here</a>.<br />
Additional information on these and other pending efforts is available from NORML’s Texas chapter network. Find your local chapter <a href="http://norml.org/chapters/tx">here</a>.</div>
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Rep. Borris Miles</h2>
<img class="photo" src="http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/salsa/portraits/Images/Photos/SL/TX/H/Miles_Borris_248658.jpg" width="50" /><br />
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District: <b>SH-TX146</b></div>
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Phone:<span class="phone">(512) 463-0518</span></div>
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Fax:<span class="phone">(512) 463-0941</span></div>
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Email:<span class="phone">borris.miles@house.state.tx.us</span></div>
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The Green Association for SustainabilityAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04120525227666965355noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834029300422999912.post-15220336044376888712015-01-15T17:10:00.001-06:002015-02-09T18:10:14.007-06:00DIGESTION PROBLEMS? A Massage May Be the Unexpected Answer!<br />
<div style="border-color: currentColor currentColor rgb(79, 129, 189); border-style: none none solid; border-width: medium medium 1pt; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: accent1; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0in 0in 2pt;">
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDs8MeNzkr9LopJ9hQ4GDfQhkda28l78bNruAgwKzgrVQuglZtxv8FiMpQbPk5XylmDeqzJlC1UxIspW0kuKOtkGGWZ-st7safmDEqEiUFFY_nLLY_gxlprVw1vHSWKO33vtVZH5gLQfpk/s1600/Abdomen+post.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDs8MeNzkr9LopJ9hQ4GDfQhkda28l78bNruAgwKzgrVQuglZtxv8FiMpQbPk5XylmDeqzJlC1UxIspW0kuKOtkGGWZ-st7safmDEqEiUFFY_nLLY_gxlprVw1vHSWKO33vtVZH5gLQfpk/s1600/Abdomen+post.jpg" /></a></span></div>
<br />
<o:p></o:p><br />
<o:p>THE ARVIGO TECHNIQUES OF MAYA ABDOMINAL THERAPY (tm) may help your digestion problems! </o:p><br />
<o:p></o:p><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbOzX5duTn568PhaWrQ4SUxga37pf7_yg3SJ4bSyBySAKmx8itIeRou1ZxLttUU3qbH9iogGACSUOrdjCEsWDCcgKz_mv1N3Z29CXo1Rkzc3Cs8YyQYsRElCsujXEKpQwkygFIHylAZS2T/s1600/Rowan+clip+profile.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbOzX5duTn568PhaWrQ4SUxga37pf7_yg3SJ4bSyBySAKmx8itIeRou1ZxLttUU3qbH9iogGACSUOrdjCEsWDCcgKz_mv1N3Z29CXo1Rkzc3Cs8YyQYsRElCsujXEKpQwkygFIHylAZS2T/s1600/Rowan+clip+profile.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Rowan
Twosisters, Registered Massage Therapist, and owner
of Houston’s </span><a href="http://www.urbancurandera.com/"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">Urban
Curandera</span></span></a><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> is the force majeure behind the magic
of the Arvigo Techniques of Maya Abdominal Therapy™, and I sought her out last
month, desperate for help with my gastro esophageal reflux disease (GERD), and
an inability to digest food properly. My initial expectations were simple:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hoped that the technique would get my over-medicated
gut moving, and relieve the spasms in my intestines.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 7.5pt 0in;">
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I first heard about the technique as
used in post-natal care, premenopausal and menopausal symptoms and general
gynecological health. Having had a total hysterectomy at thirty, I brushed off
the technique as interesting, but not relevant to my own health…until I started
hearing anecdotal stories of gastrointestinal symptom improvement. I was
desperate for relief from my own intractable gastro esophageal reflux disease,
which has become quite severe; it had caused my throat to swell shut from acid
irritation. Double doses of H2 blockers and Proton pump inhibiters provide only
temporary relief, and taking the oversized pills was often difficult. I slept
sitting up, and eating caused more abdominal pain and cramping than it seemed worth.
The medical tests became more invasive, and the meds became more toxic.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 7.5pt 0in;">
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Upon arriving for my first massage a positive,
healing and private atmosphere emanated from </span></span><a href="http://www.urbancurandera.com/"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">Urban
Curandera</span></span></a><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">. My first visit began holistically
with an in-depth review of systems. After our consult, Rowan left me to change
and I rested on a heated massage table. The room was comfortable, the music
played softly, and I relaxed easily.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">As a Doula, the same intuition that drives Rowan's pre- and perinatal care transfers easily to the tasks of healing and massage. The entire process was quite relaxing
as Rowan moved through the various techniques. Because my abdomen was
so tender, I was concerned that manipulation would cause pain or embarrassing
burping or gas. Neither happened, for which I was relieved (or not?). Instead,
I felt immediate relief of the spasms in my intestine. She also included
massage of mid to lower back and side areas, so it was a true 360 degree
massage of my entire abdominal cavity. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></span><br />
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Rowan worked on me for some time, and afterwards
advised me to move slowly at first, and to drink lots of water that day. The procedure itself seemed to make me very thirsty. When my
intestines cleared twenty-four hours later, I hypothesized that the procedure
helps to hydrate the organs of the abdomen.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 7.5pt 0in;">
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The night of the massage, I rested and
ate light. I expected this to be a process that might take many weeks; but I woke
the next morning hungry for the first time in a year! The next week, I
continued to improve, but was again in distress when I saw her for the second
time three weeks later.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Now also armed with self-care
instructions provided by Rowan, I had even better and longer lasting results,
and began to notice a significant improvement in my stomach symptoms. At the
third session it became very obvious to me that these massage techniques may
help common gastro-intestinal problems such as irregularity and irritable bowel
syndrome, as well as GERD, heartburn and bloating. I am now becoming comfortable
with the self-care, and appreciate that Rowan’s goal is to teach me how to
continue the benefits on my own. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 7.5pt 0in;">
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I strongly believe that the techniques
may also have adjunct therapeutic value in cases of more pernicious diseases such
as Crone’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis. Under any conditions, the Arvigo
Techniques of Maya Abdominal Therapy™ as practiced by Rowan Twosisters at </span></span><a href="http://www.urbancurandera.com/"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">Urban
Curandera</span></span></a><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">, has everyday applications beyond
gynecological benefits. </span></span><br />
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></span><br />
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">For more information, please comment or contact me directly at <a href="mailto:AmicaG@Outlook.com">AmicaG@Outlook.com</a> if you would like more information regarding alternative healing or for a referral to a massage therapist in the Houston area. </span></span></div>
<br />
c 2015 K.Marie Rojas<br />
The Green Association for Sustainability<br />
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<br />
When writing non-fiction, essay, journalism, it is easy to answer when asked, "What are you writing about?" I could just repeat my Thesis Statement using two easy formulas: Aristotle's 3 part Minor Premise, Major Premise, and Conclusion; or an abbreviated <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Toulmin" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Toulmin</a> method of Warrant, Support, and Claim. And journalism requires that the first 37 words answer <em>who, what, where, and when. </em><br />
<br />
But what about Fiction? How do I cut away the side-stories and get straight to the main plot? Here's an exercise I did that helped me to do just that. This is a process, as my WIP (Work in Progress) is in progression from a <a href="http://www.nanowrimo.org/" target="_blank">Nanowrimo</a> draft to a first draft. <br />
<br />
Within the first ten pages of her non-fiction book <em>Goosing the Write Brain, A Storyteller's Toolkit</em><u>, </u> <a href="http://www.chrisrogers.com/" target="_blank">Chris Rogers, Author and Writing Instructor</a> challenges the reader to state their idea in twenty-five words or less. She advises to create a "one-sentence concept" which defines the character, goal, and conflict. Rogers provides a detailed exercise which is easily followed. <br />
<br />
Then I started brain-storming. I started writing by hand, with a cup of morning joe and a spiral notebook. I wrote three pages of various statements (some of which are repeated below). Many were the same story with different words. I set it aside for a while, came back to it. Wrote some more. Set it aside again. Reviewed again. Wrote some more...then rinse. Repeat. You get the idea.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, I pick the best one to date, and USE IT! When someone asks what my book is about, I have a one sentence answer (though just try to stop me there...). <br />
<br />
Second, I <em>put it out there</em>. On social media, in conversations, at writing groups, workshops and write-ins (you know the drill, <em>tell us your name and what you're working on</em>). I'm observing how people react to it, making tweaks, and repeating again. <br />
<br />
In doing this, I have discovered another very helpful and motivating advantage from this process. With this concise, focused, oft-repeated statement on my mind, I am always aware of the main story line as I write. Even if I am in the middle of an intense sub-plot related scene, the Pitch statement is unconsciously guiding me to remain focused and true to my main story. <br />
<br />
I have also found this useful on a smaller scale, too. I started using this formula in my first re-write, one for each Part and Chapter, and even when writing Scenes. <br />
<br />
This is a sample of some of the pitch statements I came up with for my WIP, "GUAXU" (working title). My protagonist has a goal, BUT there is a conflict that must be overcome. <br />
<br />
<strong>An enchanted Meso-American princess with a cursed destiny wants to free her people from their wandering existence, but must first battle the witch who controls the tribes sustainability.</strong><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"> The princess of a pre-historic
clan tries to overcome a cursed destiny and free her people from a dependent existence,
but she must first outwit a powerful and controlling witch.</span></div>
<strong>A predestined Meso-American Princess of hunter-gatherers, sees agrarianism as the sustainable future of her clan; but, she must first outwit the powerful, controlling witch, who refuses to release the secret magic of the seed.</strong><br />
<br />
In Meso-America, a princess envisions an agrarian existence for her people; but, she must first outwit and battle a powerful witch for the secrets of the seeds. <br />
<br />
A tribal princess in Meso-America envisions agrarian sustainability for
her hunter-gatherer clan, but must first overcome the dictatorship of a powerful
witch.<br />
<br />
In early Meso-America an enchanted girl wants to free her people from their
hunter-gatherer existence, but must fight a powerful witch.<br />
<br />
An orphaned girl raised by a Meso-American tribe dreams of an agrarian
society, but must overcome her destiny and outwit a powerful witch.<br />
<br />
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br />
Giving Thanks to Nanowrimo, Happy Writing! Tell me YOUR experiences, processes and ideas with Pitch Statements! And while you're here, join the Green Association for Sustainability to help promote and support Social Sustainability through the Arts. <br />
<em></em><br />
<em>AG</em>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04120525227666965355noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834029300422999912.post-3173496696969604492014-09-21T11:35:00.001-05:002014-09-21T11:37:27.414-05:00Tarot Reading: What is My Character's Name? Rebekkah <br />
<br />
I used the three card day spread: The Heirophant, card Five of the Major
Aracana, landed upright in space one. Space two was filled by <em>the Two of
Wands, </em>signifying the task and flanking left of cards I One and Three,
Three being “the solution”. The final, powerful twenty-first major arcana
card of The World divined this third important spot. <br />
<br />
The “situation” depicted by the Heirophant, signifies spirituality or divine
wisdom in a traditional sense. In a story, it may represent a teacher,
psychologist, priest. It also signifies a gatekeeper of some sort. It could be
of a material item or an ethereal nature, however the totality of cards tend
towards materialism. In some way, she holds the “keys”. The kneeling monks
wear robes of roses and lillies, representing passion and purity. <br />
<br />
This is verified by the third card, the solution: The World. As the
twenty-first (last) Major Arcana card, represents wisdom and self-enlightenment.
The dancer in the center is naked. She dances a neverending cosmic dance in the
center of an expanding universe. She is a key-player in a never-ending story.
<br />
<br />
The Two of Wands, “the task”, implies she is Mistress of her dominion, and
literally holds the world in the palm of her hands. Again, the staffs are ornate
with roses and lillies, verifying her passion and purity.<br />
<br />
Passion and purity, being shown twice appears as a significant conflict with
this character. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Name ideas:<br />
<br />
These names were mentioned specifically in history/mythology, which in the
combination I felt may be applicable: Hermes, Aphrodite, Salmacis, Elusinia,
Persephone, Hades. Perhaps some alternatives or anagrams. Also, these are
characteristics/occupations/passions that may be relevant to your character, it
might inspire a name from someone with same qualities: a teacher,
psychologist, priest. A gatekeeper of some sort.<br />
<br />
A sacred promise, obligation, vow. Success. Blessings. Passion, purity, a
dancer, a champion, a nudist, a baby, a reincarnated soul. <br />
<br />
These Archetypes are associated with this reading: The Amazon, The
Anima/Animus, the artist, the creator, the destroyer, the Divine child, the
Fates, the Self, the Shaman, the Visionary.<br />
<br />
Note: One source says, “When the World card appears…plan for a book tour!
Seriously, congratulations! <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
The Green Association for SustainabilityAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04120525227666965355noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834029300422999912.post-82279983167700040572014-09-01T23:54:00.000-05:002015-01-14T23:56:11.269-06:00P4P: Examining Physicians Pay for Performance paradigms<strong><span style="font-size: 130%;">Pay-for-Performance among Healthcare Professionals: A Mathematical and Comparative Analysis</span></strong>A statement is proposed in the form of a factual claim:<br />
Pay for performance systems are effective tools for improving quality, morale, and organizational effectiveness.<br />
<br />
Quick definitive rhetoric in supportive of or hostile to such a claim is a one way trip towards making waste with a hasty generalization. Dependent factors include the amount of artificial economics being infused into the field. The compensation of employees is often considered only in bottom line terms: Labor is purchased as any other commodity, and wages fluctuate according to Adam Smith-type free market forces, depending upon demand and supply economics. Compensation, to the detriment of many employers, is often considered only as a cost of doing business. For those administrators who have begun to see employee packages as an essential human relations tool, compensation is an important link in the chain of capitalism: Compensation promotes or dissuades production; the level of production promotes or dissuades capital; the amount of capital promotes or dissuades the corporate economy; the corporate economy promotes or dissuades the organizational ability to recompense; worker compensation promotes or dissuades production…and so on.<br />
From a purely logical and mathematical perspective, these dependent factors would create a normal regression analysis equation in the form:<br />
<br />
Where βx²+βx represents the dependent variables affecting pay structure as outlined above, and represents the average base pay (Y-intercept). This polynomial is recognized as a parabola, with beta amounts reaching a peak positive or negative Y value. In other words, the value for peak performance is not a straight line in which the greater the pay, the better the performance; yet rather is a parabolic curve for which at some point, increased performance is no longer enhanced by greater pay, but rather decreases in quality. This can be the result of many different variables, including a larger patient base, less time spent per patient, and abuse of tests and procedures for financial gain.<br />
Issues surrounding pay structures of the healthcare profession are inherently complex, and becoming even more so as the healthcare crisis in America continues to deteriorate. According to the former editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association, George Lundberg, M.D., JAMA, the economics of the healthcare industry cannot be equally compared to manufacturing or even other service industries because of the amount of artificial economics infused into the US healthcare system. Although some healthcare industries are more vulnerable than others to artificial economic factors, most healthcare economies have been affected in some way by managed care, government intervention, technological growth, and a fluctuating labor market (Lundberg 2003). Imperative and life-saving services have been eliminated as government funds are relinquished for other political efforts, particularly the military-industrial complex.<br />
<br />
While patriots may think of this as part of the sacrifice and duty of wartime, which appears as a perpetual condition of the 20th Century and into the 21st Century, especially in regards to the continuing post 9-11 Middle East conflicts, giving one’s life for their country should not involve a tortuous lack of medical care and slow death by illness for our own citizens. We blow life-sustaining breath and continue compressions on foreign lands as we watch our own people flat-line in the name of Caspian Sea hegemony theories, oil, and the fear of terrorism.<br />
<br />
Healthcare systems as an endeavor into capitalism have been walking a fine line since the introduction of medical insurance in the early 20th century. To address the factual claim regarding the viability of pay for performance compensation systems, I turned to the classic sociological and communication literature of two 20th century philosophers and academics, Abraham Maslow and Max Weber. Both are icons in the field of motivation and the human condition. Consonance and dissonance of traditional and personal belief systems are weaved throughout both of their themes: For example, performance expectancies of professional knowledge, abilities and skills will create dissonance in an employee who is first concerned with the needs and safety of family; yet, a performance bonus would be consonant with the employee’s fourth-rung esteem needs. Max Weber’s wrote that the Protestant work ethics and penchant for thriftiness are in consonance with successful capitalism models; yet work for the purpose of earning riches is dissonant to these same Protestant ethics. Weber’s infamous work in the area of bureaucratic management bring consonance to the management theories between the traditional dissonance of public and private organizations. They are, claims Weber, one and the same.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs</h4>
<br />
Four common reasons bring people to enter the healthcare profession. Among these include the noble motive of a genuine quest to take care of people; and, less commonly, to reap the financial rewards traditionally associated with the industry and expanded by the massive technological advances of the 20th century.<br />
<br />
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs requires that human survival needs are necessary before any other human need can be fulfilled. The first level of Maslow’s pyramidal hierarchy is that of physiological needs. It is the base of the pyramid, the largest, most important human need and all others are built upon these physiological needs. Following closely are the “Safety Needs”. Both of these base and basic human needs are controlled to some extent by the employer. The employee’s first quest in securing employment will be to seek out an organization that can provide for the physiologic needs, and secondly, that will provide some semblance of security. Too, healthcare professionals realize that there is money to be made in this industry, as the technological advances of the 20th and 21st centuries have improved the odds of making a good living in the healthcare field have increased dimensionally. But Maslow is quick to point out that although money is essential to survival and safety needs, it is not a panacea to a fulfilling and successful career and in consequence, to the issue of motivation of workers through their compensation—more specifically, through their paycheck.<br />
<br />
Prior to Maslow’s first publication of his “needs” theory greater than 50 years ago,, motivation theory focused on specific, sustaining basic factors such as biology, achievement, or power to explain what sustains human behavior . Abraham Maslow, a social scientist and academic, synthesized a large body of research regarding human motivation into twp groupings of 8 needs. The groups were titled “growth needs” and “deficiency needs”. Deficiency needs are at the base of the hierarchy, and each need must be met before advancing to the next (Huitt 2003)<br />
<br />
The growth needs reveal characteristics such as being problem-focused; incorporating an ongoing freshness of appreciation of life, a concern about personal growth, and the ability to have peak experiences. These characteristics were differentiated into the following four needs to top the pyramidal structure<br />
<br />
Over the past 50 years, scientist and academics to continue to cite Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs as support for a number of social theories; so much so, that the Hierarchy of Needs can be inferred as generally accepted social theory. Maslow clearly shows us that the amount of pay a person receives is only motivating to a certain degree, and the affect that money will have on ones life continues to increase, but more slowly—the amount of change that more money will make in motivating an employee’s life is relevant to the employee’s physiologic needs. The amount of performance that the employer receives (dependent y factor) in return for his investment in larger pay (independent x factor) minimizes as the physiological needs of the employee are met, creating an asymptotic relationship correlating the amount of money an employer pays to the less the measurable increase in job performance.<br />
<br />
<strong>Max Weber and the economics of capitalism</strong><br />
<strong> </strong><br />
Max Weber earned his esteemed reputation when he published The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, a volume that economics specialist David Landes describes as “the most influential and provocative essays ever written” on the social sciences. Weber’s thesis was based on the warrant that Protestantism promoted the rise of modern capitalism, not by encouraging prosperity or invention, but by defining and sanctioning the everyday behaviors ingrained in Protestantism that were conducive to successful business. Weber began by affirming the underlying Protestant doctrine of predestination. Although belief in predestination did not succeed two generations, this dogma was “converted into a secular code of behavior: hard work, honesty, seriousness, the thrifty use of money and time” …both lent us by God (Landes 1998). Weber’s widely read work influenced Protestant America that a true Calvinist Protestant’s aim was not one of riches as divine favor, but of a different kind of businessman: one who aimed to live and work in a certain way; a way that mattered, and riches were merely a by-product of intrinsic value in work. As Maslow identifies the extent attached to the importance of money, Weber’s theories define the other given reason for becoming a healthcare professional: a true calling to take care of others and satisfaction with the intrinsic value of that task.<br />
<br />
Weber went on to write “Bureaucracy”, an expose of the motivational components of the government administrative human relations system. The compensation system used by the federal government is considered by many to be one of the most desirable compensation packages for American workers available. Many of these ideas are now found in current human relations and motivational literature (Stillman 1998).<br />
<br />
“Modern Officialdom”, as Weber named it, consists of enumerated items that describe the employees place in the organizational mission. Weber lists the characteristics of administrative management, and notes that government administration is not so different than private organization administration. Some of the concepts Weber espouses are noted with their relationship to healthcare management.<br />
<br />
1. The principle of fixed and official jurisdictional areas generally ordered by rules or laws: federal and state wide statutes on the practice of medicine, and separate required licenses for each state (jurisdiction).<br />
2. The principles of office hierarchy and levels of graded authority: State Licensing and education delineating physicians from nurses, nurses from social workers, social workers from lab technicians…and so on.<br />
3. Office management, official activity, and the following of general office rules or laws; (medical drugs and devices usage laws, certification, state Health department requirements, and accreditation).<br />
4. The employ is a ‘vocation’, and is set for a career; (generally true for professionals that have invested a good deal of education into their healthcare career choice).<br />
5. The ethical duty to avoid abusing the power of that vocation; (the Hippocratic Oath, the American Medical Association ethical guidelines)<br />
6. Regular pecuniary compensation according to status rather than amount of work done. (Physician compensation is greater than in nursing, which is greater than in admissions or clerical work)<br />
Finally, Weber did not exclude the economic aspect, identifying a moneyed economy as essential to the leveling and democratizing effects that are the reward of his complex ideology of administrative organizational management, and are as applicable to private corporations as to government.<br />
<br />
<strong>What type of system is fair?</strong><br />
<br />
Since artificial forces control healthcare economics, compensation plans must be devised based on the organization’s culture, missions and goals. We have established that pay for performance is only effective to the point that the employee has reached the necessary material goals relevant to that employee’s culture and values. After that, intrinsic goals are better at motivating workers than the possibility of a merit raise at the employee’s annual review.<br />
Still, that is not much help to corporate leaders, who must provide an attractive, fair and motivating compensation package for their employees, including the professionals. The US Federal government human resource systems modeled after Weber’s theories on bureaucracy are considered some of the best compensation plans, and comments to friends and family who secure a federal job seems to always includes the phrase “great benefits and security!”<br />
The successful consonance of compensation for motivation in the private sector is so rare, that when a company does achieve a successful mix of pay and benefits, the story makes journal news. Meyners and Co., an 80-person, seven-partner, 45-CPA firm in Albuquerque New Mexico has successfully implemented a pay-for-performance system based on 360-degree feedback and win-win agreements. Using bonus pay for performance rather than a merit raise, Meyners and Co. also consults other firms in human resource issues.<br />
A core competencies evaluation is essential to the plan. Core Competencies are defined as “specific skills and duties employees must be able to perform well to meet the firm’s profitability goals” (Brotherton 2003). The H-R executives at Meyners and Co. evaluate the core competencies as including 1) workplace behavior (core values) 2) business skills (core competencies); and 3) performance measures (meeting goals/win-win). . A 360-degree feedback performance analysis required the comprehensive creation of specific positional core competencies. (Refer to Rojas, K. “A Human Resource Management Plan”, for an example of a 360-degree feedback performance analysis for the RN Clinical Director position in the opiate-agonist addiction treatment field). While all three were included in the 360-degree-feedback, goal accomplishment assessment was the final analysis of a management by objectives plan, in which employees and supervisors established specific performance or educational goals and agreements that contributed to the organization’s mission (Brotherton 2003).<br />
<br />
Perhaps the most innovative structure of this plan is in the method of payment for working hard to reach those goals: Rather than adding a percentage to salaries based on a pre-determined merit schedule, pay for good to excellent performance analysis is made through bonuses. Employees received annual salary raises by means of Annual Cost of Living Adjustments (COLAs).<br />
Individualized evaluations are central to the pay for performance plan by Meyners and Co. This element is incongruent with pay for performance purist detractors’ positions, who claim that teams have become such an integral part of organizational structure that individual assessment is futile. Such across-the-board categorizing of industries—service, manufacturing, retail—is short-sighted one-way thinking that has no place in the creativity required to manage and motivate employees, whether the organization employs five or five thousand people.<br />
<br />
Conclusion<br />
<br />
Pay for performance is just one of the many issues facing healthcare today, but because of the chain relationship illustrated above, is the lynch-pin of the private autonomous healthcare care system that the United States is known for, be that good or bad. Although organizations and think tanks are busy creating rhetoric and analyzing the issue, only a handful of organizations have reached the balance that has proved effective in the Meyers and Co. example. We can infer from a comparative analysis between Max Weber’s governmental agency management theories and general tenets of capitalism that business management is universal regardless of the organization’s bottom-line. Accepting that governmental management of healthcare in the form of socialized medicine may indeed provide healthcare for all and a government compensation system that has proved itself to be effective; but must also ask if the consequences of socialized medicine are not too great a cost for the already frail democratic attempt. The recent healthcare crisis across the country has had serious deleterious effects on the rates of pay and methods of compensation for professionals, paraprofessionals, administrators, and support personnel in charitable hospitals, motivating entire medical units to close their doors to the infirm across the nation (Vaknin 2002). Imperative and life-saving services have been eliminated as government funds are relinquished for other political efforts, particularly the military-industrial complex.<br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
Works Cited</h3>
Halsall, Paul (1998). Frederick W. Taylor: The Principles of Scientific Management, 1911. Modern History Sourcebook. Accessed on 10/31/03 at <a href="http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1911taylor.html">http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1911taylor.html</a><br />
Hunt, William G. (2003). Maslow’s heirarchy of needs. Education Psychology Interactive. Accessed on 10/31/03 at <a href="http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/regsys/maslow.html">http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/regsys/maslow.html</a><br />
Landes, David S. (1998). The Wealth and Poverty of Nations. New York: W.W. Norton. Pp 650.<br />
Lundberg, George D. M.D. (2003) Severed Trust: Why American medicine hasn’t been fixed. New York: Basic Books.<br />
Vaknin, Sam. (2002) The Sickly State of Public Hospitals. Accessed on 10/30/02 at <a href="http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/text5-30-2002-19436.asp">http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/text5-30-2002-19436.asp</a>.<br />
Weber, Max. (1947). Bureaucracy from Essays in Sociology. Translated by H.H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills in 1946, Oxford University Press. Accessed in Public Administration: Concepts and Cases 6th Edition written and edited by Richard J. Stillman, 1999. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Pp 54-59<br />
Health Data Management, Apr 2009. CPOEs; Editorial; Professional Journal.<em></em>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04120525227666965355noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834029300422999912.post-23202413385060572192014-06-20T08:52:00.001-05:002014-06-20T08:52:01.592-05:00Houston IS my BFF<p>A Home Health Nurse, who had moved to the Woodlands about a year ago, came to my house last week. It was the initial informational visit prior to receiving Home Health Services, and so most of the time was spent answering Past History and Review of Systems questions. She was sweet and kind, soft and well mannered, with a sweet voice still not influenced by “Southern Drawl”, and long blond hair that curled lightly about the cream sweater she was wearing, which distracted me during the visit, wanting to feel the fabric for weight and it seeming totally inappropriate in 93* weather. Still, she seemed comfortable, and even the a/c dropped the temp to below my own comfort level, I let it run and rubbed my bare and neuropathic left foot as my toes turned blue. </p> <p> </p> <p>The only trouble I had answering the questions was the tight rope that was around my neck, squeezing with so much force that even getting breath in and out was a challenge, let alone forming words and sentences. </p> <p>Her pen checked boxes and scribbled quick notes as she worked to get through each item quickly. </p> <p>“Have you ever had asthma; rash; broken bone;…(name any illness, symptom or trauma).””</p> <p>Yes, No, Yes, Yes, No, No, Yes, and I don’t know.</p> <p>“Can you bathe, dress, brush your teeth?</p> <p>Yes Yes Yes</p> <p>The questions went on, and I answered them all until she asked me, having the information of my next of kin in two other separate states, “Why did you move to Houston?”</p> <p>I stammered. The answer was right there, but if she had to ask, how could I explain to her? Why would I choose to move to a city, where I knew no one, and would be hours away from my son in Louisiana, and a thousand miles from my daughter in Phoenix. I began thinking of all the many happenings and choices, disasters and triumphs which had brought me to this point, this place, but could not repeat them, where would I even start? The question, though, is more appropriately, why do I STAY in Houston? The crime, the traffic, the politics! </p> <p>Yes, crime is an issue; traffic sucks; the politics are…politics. </p> <p>But the people are awesome. I don’t necessarily have lots of best friends, and my life keeps me homebound much of the time. But I’m never alone, even when I’m by myself. The people I know in this town are pricelessly loving. They are creative, active, thinking, and giving. They are healers, writers, poets, musicians, scientists. They are performers, entertainers, teachers, and learners. They model their beliefs, and they are Houston. My BFFs. </p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04120525227666965355noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834029300422999912.post-8262499692084872412014-06-18T00:27:00.000-05:002015-01-14T23:34:38.452-06:00Am I Good Enough? NaNoWriMo supporters say...<br />
Facebook weaves in and out of my life, depending on my mood and schedule. I sometimes go weeks without opening the program on my computer, posting small comments, updates or pictures by telephone. I may use Facebook to see if there is anything going on in town, especially on the weekends. My initial reason for opening a Facebook account was to promote my blog writings; I find, though, that previewing my feed almost always uncovers a thread that I feel I must comment on, and often those comments trigger a larger thesis. This was the case when I read this post from the Nanowrimo blog during the April 2014 Camp Nano:<br />
<blockquote>
What if one becomes fairly certain that he or she just is not a good writer half way through NaNoWriMo... should he or she finish anyway?</blockquote>
Naturally, this frustrated Camper writing to a group of passionately committed wordsmiths, received much supportive advice: Keep going; Don’t stop before you get to the hard stuff; and my favorite, do it because you love it! For myself, this wavering esteem is all too familiar, and so I write this to both the original status poster and to that part of myself that is forever procrastinating and denying my true nature. I suffer from the malady of moderation. Then I would suggest that he or she should not concern themselves on the specific technique or outcome of their writing but rather on the <em>passion</em> with which it was written. I would suggest that one’s proclivity towards putting words on a page is more important than the order that the words were placed. Although my writing was encouraged and praised in college and Graduate School, and I have been writing consistently before, during and since then, the success I seek for my writings has not yet come to pass. Still, I continue to write. Some of my prose might end up on a blog and perhaps even read by a small group of curious Twitter followers or Facebook ‘'friends”. Do I ever think that I am wasting my time, and life would be so much easier if I didn’t put this much pressure on myself or open my self so vulnerably to criticism from those who may read it? Every day. Can I stop writing? Never. It is what I do. I may not yet be noticed, I may not yet know the formula for a fiction novel, and my non-fiction may digress occasionally; but I keep writing. When you have completed your Nanowrimo Word Count Goal, note how you feel. Proud? Accomplished? Ready for the next step? Do you feel like there are things you need to finish or change? Plot holes so big you can drive a truck through them? Not only is writing a <em>passion, </em>and an <em>art, </em>writers are both teachers and learners. The community of support that one finds with Nanowrimo will spill into your life. I had no idea how big the writing network was until I started Nanowrimo in 2010. From there, I found support and opportunities right in my own backyard, and my writing circle began to expand from my virtual world into my reality. It has colored and infused it with creativity, support, and when you need or ask for it, critique. <br />
Don’t ever stop doing what you love. “Good” is subjective. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04120525227666965355noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834029300422999912.post-63547181546045598652014-03-24T16:54:00.001-05:002014-03-24T16:54:23.170-05:00GrAS Helps Three Good and Sustainable People!<p><font size="3">The main purpose and design of the Green Association for Sustainability is one of education: Specifically, to DEFINE and ANALYZE social paradigms as well as civil laws, and PROMOTE those that may lead to a good and sustainable society. </font></p> <p><font size="3">When first deliberating on how best to learn and teach about these widely varying topics, social media seemed the best way to disseminate information over a large population, as the need to be able to sustain one’ s self and family is a very large issue. Since 2009, I have been publishing information in the blog at </font><a href="http://www.sustainablygreen.blogspot.com"><font size="3">www.sustainablygreen.blogspot.com</font></a><font size="3">. In publishing information, I can reach a large number of people; yet all around me are people who need specific help in getting that job, taking that class, passing that test, organizing their time, accomplishing their goals, or researching a relevant issue. </font></p> <p><font size="3"></font> </p> <p><font size="3">I am very proud to announce for the first quarter of 2014, that the Good Society Division (GS) of the Green Association for Sustainability has assisted three people on a one-on-one level:</font></p> <blockquote> <p><font size="3">1. Independent 24 year old Fred was given assistance in creating a resume for a specific job position, and also received job interview counseling over two sessions. </font></p> <p><font size="3">2. University business major, Chris, received three tutoring sessions in Business Statistics, and is continuing with the tutoring through the semester.</font></p> <p><font size="3">3. Already securing a serving position in a local club, Shad received technical assistance in completing the exam for TABC (Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission) Certification. </font></p></blockquote> <p><font size="3">My best wishes for their continued success, and I thank all who support The Green Association for Sustainability, making it possible to assist those who are trying to better their own lives by improving the society we all live in. </font></p> <p><font size="3"></font> </p> <p><font size="3">For more information about the Green Association for Sustainability, visit </font><a href="http://www.sustainablygreen.blogspot.com"><font size="3">www.sustainablygreen.blogspot.com</font></a><font size="3">, or on Facebook, </font><a href="http://www.facebook.com/sustainablygreen"><font size="3">www.facebook.com/sustainablygreen</font></a>,<font size="3"> or write me personally through either site. </font></p> <p><font size="3"></font> </p> <p><font size="3">Kimmarie Rojas</font></p> <p><font size="3">Administrator, GrAS</font></p> <p><font size="3"></font></p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04120525227666965355noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834029300422999912.post-33004844395600581372013-12-21T14:35:00.001-06:002013-12-21T14:44:13.442-06:00SHOULD CANNABIS SEEDS BE ILLEGAL?QUESTION: Should Cannabis/Hemp Seeds be illegal/highly regulated/prohibited, regardless of the legal or medical status of cannabis?<br />
<br />
Cannabis seeds contain zero levels of cannabinoids. However, the bractlets which surround the seeds contain the plants' Highest concentration of cannabinoids (see picture). Even washing with an organic solvent can leave trace amounts of cannabinoids on the seeds. <br />
Interestingly, even after germination and the presence of the two "seed" leaves (cotyledons), the sprouting plant has no measurable cannabinoids. <br />
It is not until the first pair of true leaves appear that a measurable amount of cannabis can be determined.<br />
SOURCE: Starks, Michael (1990) Marijuana Chemistry. Ronin Pub: Oakland.<br />
Archive photo from Bing Search.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04120525227666965355noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834029300422999912.post-24273041317042170852013-10-30T16:21:00.001-05:002013-10-30T16:21:13.613-05:00The Legalization Experiments: Colorado Compromises, Washington Misses the Point<a href="http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_24412660/denver-scales-back-proposed-pot-rules-would-allow#!" target="_blank"><strong><span style="font-size: medium;">Denver Scales Back Proposed Pot
Rules</span></strong></a><br />
<br />
Click link to read the Article. <br />
<br />
Comments: <br />
<br />
Although the proposed regulations still violate <a href="http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Colorado_Marijuana_Legalization_Initiative,_Amendment_64_(2012)" target="_blank">I-64,</a> (the initiative that legalized marijuana in Colorado)
they are touted by the author as "compromise", which is a good thing. It's most
certain that there were unforeseen issues in the original wording of the
legalization initiative, that in practice could create back-lash. Open smoking
would seem naturally disagreeable as even cigarettes are banned in most public
areas. <br />Colorado's implementation of legalization seems to be a workable,
sustainable model, though I would be interested in other opinions from those who
deal with the Colorado system. <br />
<br />
I have been concerned and consumed lately with the failing Washington state system,
which is rumored to be preparing to<em> eliminate medical cannabis
entirely</em>, under the premise that medicalization is unnecessary because it
is legally available. With a tax rate of 75%, and a "like alcohol" model in a
highly regulated "Closed Alcohol" state, this issue demonstrates how Tax and
Regulate legalization schemes play into the agendas of the prohibitionists who
want to keep cannabis illegal. Review <a href="http://www.liq.wa.gov/marijuana/I-502" target="_blank">502, the initiative
to “legalize” cannabis</a> here. Voters must have blindly trusted that the
entity administrating the initiative would be fair, compassionate and
reasonable, though many medical users are skeptical of the Liquor Board’s
ability to manage medical cannabis. The issues are complicated, however the
legalization for recreational use was to have NO consequences on the medical
marijuana program in Washington. This has turned out to be untrue, according to
<a href="http://www.ladybud.com/2013/10/29/medical-marijuana-changes-in-washington-state/" target="_blank">LadyBud, an on-line cannabis news site</a>. <br />
<br />
It is important for voters to understand the current laws in their state
before creating new laws. Although the Medical Cannabis industry in Washington
was very much opposed to I-502, the initiative passed and within days was
addressed by the Liquor Control Board, establishing their over-arching <a href="http://www.liq.wa.gov/publications/Marijuana/I-502/11-7-12-Board-Statement-I502.pdf" target="_blank">dominance in the production and distribution of cannabis</a> in
Washington State.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<strong>Thank you to </strong><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/nhome/nus-redirect?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Elinkedin%2Ecom%2Fprofile%2Fview%3Fid%3D29234983%26snapshotID%3D%26authType%3Dname%26authToken%3D1aDd%26ref%3DNUS%26goback%3D%252Enmp_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1%26trk%3DNUS-body-member-name&urlhash=Ga86&trkToken=action%3DviewMember%26pageKey%3Dmember-home%26contextId%3D98fe97a2-db7a-4636-a00f-dcfd996009ef%26isSponsored%3Dfalse%26distanceFromViewer%3D0%26nestedActorType%3Dlinkedin%3Amember%26aggregationType%3Dnone%26isPublic%3Dtrue%26nestedActorId%3Dmember%3A29234983%26verbType%3Dlinkedin%3Alike%26activityId%3Dactivity%3A5801397743318474752%26isDigested%3Dfalse%26nestedObjectType%3Dlinkedin%3Aarticle%26isFolloweeOfPoster%3Dfalse%26actorType%3Dlinkedin%3Amember%26nestedVerbType%3Dlinkedin%3Ashare%26nestedObjectId%3Darticle%3A8279813185016458228%26feedPosition%3D2%26actorId%3Dmember%3A42488706%26objectId%3Dactivity%3A5801116757057875968%26rowPosition%3D1%26objectType%3D"><strong>Timothy
Tipton</strong></a><strong> for sharing the Colorado post. </strong><br />
<br />
<strong></strong><br />
<br />
<strong>Amica G</strong><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
The Green Association for SustainabilityAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04120525227666965355noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834029300422999912.post-27488186204629218862013-10-15T11:03:00.001-05:002016-03-02T21:19:16.840-06:00TED CRUZ AND THE 2013 DEBT CRISIS: Notes on The Right and Duty to Revolt<br />
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<o:p><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></o:p><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT4Z_wUqMmQrsxQnz3dwCFCY1C_ZsQ7ay07e6inPspRMfhfM1hDoggQJFTOF2C2Ef7567caj_BEYW2ouvaRZ5mSI7bKTFnsTPGUGx1NnCN_POdZFKcDuwza4zLVT4ogya6uq2AfsuHvqpq/s1600/1014_cruz_630x420.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT4Z_wUqMmQrsxQnz3dwCFCY1C_ZsQ7ay07e6inPspRMfhfM1hDoggQJFTOF2C2Ef7567caj_BEYW2ouvaRZ5mSI7bKTFnsTPGUGx1NnCN_POdZFKcDuwza4zLVT4ogya6uq2AfsuHvqpq/s320/1014_cruz_630x420.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Photograph by J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo</div>
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Senator Ted Cruz talks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Sept. 25, 2013</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></o:p></b></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The Right and Duty to
Revolt</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><em>Have our elected representatives of the Goverment violated their Social Contract with the people who empowered them?</em></span></span></div>
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<h3 style="margin: 12pt 0in 3pt;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "cambria";">By Kimmarie Rojas<o:p></o:p></span></span></h3>
<br />
<h2 style="margin: 12pt 0in 3pt;">
<em><span style="font-family: "cambria";"><a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2013-10-14/ted-cruz-could-force-a-debt-default-all-by-himself#!" target="_blank">News Link on Debt Ceiling, Oct 2013</a></span></em></h2>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Once again news, editorials and pundits repeat claims with
varying degrees of optimism that Washington is getting closer to a deal. It is
generally agreed that any Senate "deal" will be a temporary measure
to keep the government open until about January 15, 2014, and avert a global
financial crisis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Still, it places us in
the same situation again in a few months. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">On one end of the spectrum, </span><a href="http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-10-14/ted-cruz-could-force-a-debt-default-all-by-himself#!"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Joshua Green
of BloombergBusinessWeek</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> writes that even if the Senate comes up
with a deal, Ted Cruz (R-TX) could manipulate the Senate rules preventing the
passing of any deal before the Thursday deadline</span><a href="file:///C:/Users/KIMMARIE/Documents/GrAS/The%20Duty%20to%20Revolt%20Final.doc#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";">.
Huffington Post</span><a href="file:///C:/Users/KIMMARIE/Documents/GrAS/The%20Duty%20to%20Revolt%20Final.doc#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";">
contributors McAuliff and Siddiqui are cautiously optimistic that Congress can
agree on a deal, but concerned that the legislative bodies will be unable to
complete the complicated and fragile processes and procedures before the
January 17th deadline on US borrowing capabilities. Also hopefully optimistic,
Senator Schumer (D-NY) told Face the Nation that he believed a deal would be
reached, citing the sequester cuts as a way to "spark a
conversation", while Senator McCain (R-AZ) called the sequester a
"sticking point" in negotiations.</span><a href="file:///C:/Users/KIMMARIE/Documents/GrAS/The%20Duty%20to%20Revolt%20Final.doc#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<h2 style="margin: 12pt 0in 3pt;">
<em><span style="font-family: "cambria";">Introduction<o:p></o:p></span></em></h2>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">With government services closed and only days from reaching
the Country's borrowing limit, President Obama has taken to the podium in an
attempt to define the terms that have divided Congress and shut down the daily
business of the government, specifically, the cryptic verbiage of the
complicated US budgetary system. Our elected representatives appear flippant to
the consequences of a financial default, each party, branch and faction blaming
the other while meting out fallacious arguments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">The most frequent fallacy that these professional persuaders
present is that of the false dilemma, claiming only two possible outcomes to
the current Congressional/Executive stalemate over funding the government.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet any debater worth their premise
understands that truth is multifaceted, and few issues are dichotomous: There
are as many possible outcomes to any situation as the mind is capable of considering.
Although we've been offered only two choices, there are infinite possibilities.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">"The bounds of possibility, in moral matters, are less
narrow than we imagine:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>it is our
weaknesses, our vices, and our prejudices that confine them" wrote
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, an 18th Century philosopher whose ideas were set down in
his political treatise "The Social Contract" (1769).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">"Clear them out and start over!" is an oft heard
sentiment these days as the publics' frustration with their elected leaders
grows.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Congressional approval rating
is under twenty five percent, and the majority of the Country is
dissatisfied.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While Washington makes a
weak attempt to reverse a self-created crisis, the public is becoming
increasingly vocal for change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">But how do we, the people, determine the course of action
that would create a revolutionary change of political and economic power and
policy?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How do we agree that the
government has become untenable and undeniably broken?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">An understanding of the philosophies of free and democratic
nations is essential, as is examining how other major paradigmatic changes have
come about in the past. After more than Two Hundred and Twenty years, it is a
generally accepted warrant that our Constitution is a brilliantly viable document
that has proved its ability to create the greatest nation in the world. A
cursory review of modern and contemporary political thought reminds us of the
contentious and often bloody history of western democracy. Yet the paradigms of
government by consent and the equality of man, delineate both a right and a <u>duty</u>
to revolt against an unjust body politic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Fair and open elections combined with universal,
unencumbered suffrage is the most effective, democratic, moral and nonviolent
method for changing the members of the government. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On October 14, NBC News questioned if fair
elections were even possible, claiming that assignment of districts have been
Gerrymandered (manipulated to ensure specific party dominance), assuring
re-election of the ultra-conservative minority.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Add to that voter apathy and the chances of electing an entirely new
Congress becomes even more challenging.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<h2 style="margin: 12pt 0in 3pt;">
<em><span style="font-family: "cambria";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hobbes and Locke<o:p></o:p></span></em></h2>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Thomas Hobbes (b.1588-d.1679) is considered a founder of
modern political philosophy, proposing his philosophical discourse on civil
society and authoritarianism in his analytical work <u>Leviathan. </u>This,
probably his most famous work, established much of the foundations of western
politics. <u>Leviathan </u>also developed liberal democracy fundamentals, such
as the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">right of the individual</i></b> and the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">natural equality of all men.</i></b>
Hobbes' concepts supported representative government at the will of the people.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Hobbes believed that individuals entered into a social
contract and civil society to avoid a state of war, with the instinct of
self-preservation. The civil society described by Hobbes begins with the
"state of nature", which Hobbes describes as "solitary, poor,
nasty, brutish, and short".<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hobbes
supports this under the premise that men, being rational beings, desire both power
and their own preservation; and, that men's greatest fear is a violent death at
the hands of another human. To reconcile these axioms with the state of nature,
Hobbes claims that man must relinquish his power to an authoritarian
government. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">The fallacy of this claim is ironically familiar to our
present day Legislative-Executive standoff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Hobbes gives citizens only two choices: either subjugation or a state of
nature (anarchy). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Although Hobbes prescribes absolute authority to governments,
he believed that the government derives its original authority from the people,
and maintains this power only so long as it <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">successfully keeps peace.</b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There is no place in Hobbes' society for revolution; however failure to
adhere to the social contract voids it and returns society to a state of war. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">By not providing for the financial solidarity of the
Country, has today's Legislature voided their vow and larger contract to defend
the Constitution, and their personal contract with those States they were
elected to represent?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">English philosopher <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">John
Locke</b> (1634-1704) claimed in his <u>Second Treatise of Government </u><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>that people have a <u>duty to revolt</u>
against an unjust government. The right of a people to dissolve their government
has been a generally accepted concept especially within the liberal democracy
discourse. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Locke describes two ways in which governments can be
dissolved. The first is <u>from without, </u>as when a nation is conquered by a
foreign force and the society is dissolved. The purpose of a government is to
protect the society from dissolution. If it does not, a breach of the social
contract has transpired because it "ought to have preserved them from
violence.”</span><a href="file:///C:/Users/KIMMARIE/Documents/GrAS/The%20Duty%20to%20Revolt%20Final.doc#_edn4" name="_ednref4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">[iv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">A second way that government can be dissolved is <u>from
within. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></u>Locke claims that when the
condition exists that has altered the legislature in some way, the government
is then dissolved.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According to Locke’s
principals, government can be dissolved when the legislature is no longer
acting according to the rules it has set for itself, such as when a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">government refuses or neglects its executive
powers and fails to enforce the laws in effect.</i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b>Has the legislature voided the government by withholding the necessary
elements for the executive branch to function effectively?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">All members of Congress take a vow of loyalty to uphold the
Constitution against enemies, "foreign or domestic".<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What of the dissolution of society by a <u>FACTION</u>,
foreign or domestic?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A domestic faction
which has found its way into an elected body may be even more poised to
dissolve the society without direct violence by influencing and blocking the
necessary business of the Administration, causing widespread disruption and
changes in the workings of the legislative process. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">According to Locke, individuals have a right to prevent such
happenings:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"The reason why men
enter into society is the preservation of their property".<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A government that has failed the duty it was
engaged for puts itself into "a state of war with the people and are left
to...force and violence" (qtd in Locke’s 2<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">nd</span></sup> Treatise of
Government).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<h2 style="margin: 12pt 0in 3pt;">
<em><span style="font-family: "cambria";">The Contemporary Manifestation of Revolution<o:p></o:p></span></em></h2>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">These philosophies, <u>consent of the governed</u> and <u>the
duty to revolt </u>against an unjust government have been manifested in
American contemporary politics as <u>non-violent, passive-resistant direct
action</u>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While the right and duty of
revolution in modern history (16th-19th C.) reflects the violent dissolution of
societies and their governments, contemporary thinkers harbor the concepts of
social contracts and the duty to revolt as necessary to bring about non-violent
political modernization of laws that are unjust and governments that have
become unreasonable.</span></div>
<br />
<h2 style="margin: 12pt 0in 3pt;">
<em><span style="font-family: "cambria";">Henry David Thoreau<o:p></o:p></span></em></h2>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">In 1848, Henry David Thoreau listed grievances against the
American Government, not the least of which was the issue of slavery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thoreau claimed in his famous pamphlet <u>Civil
Disobedience</u> that the current situation required "at once a better
government" and reminded the American public of their right to refuse
allegiance to a government which has become "unendurable".<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Distinct in Thoreau's approach to the right
of revolution however, was the concept of passive resistance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">It is not a man's duty to eradicate "even the most
enormous wrong", writes Thoreau of the issue of slavery, "but it is
his duty not to give it practically his support."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<h2 style="margin: 12pt 0in 3pt;">
<em><span style="font-family: "cambria";">Martin Luther King Jr.<o:p></o:p></span></em></h2>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Thoreau's concept of revolt through non-violence was the
cornerstone of Martin Luther King Jr.'s leadership in the Civil Rights Movement
and contemporary manifestation of the duty to revolt without violence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From a jail cell in Birmingham, Alabama, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.</b> advocated
"direct action", a non-violent form of resistance, against Southern
segregation laws. In <u><em>Letter from a Birmingham Jail</em>, </u>King admonishes the
white clergy for failing to support his organized resistance movement to
illegal and unjust segregation laws in Alabama, and lists in graphic detail the
suffered wrongs, this time by the Negro in the status quo government of
Alabama.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>King justifies his belief in
non-violent direct action as the best recourse for righting civil wrongs by
creating a crisis situation and establishing "creative tension" to
force the Birmingham authorities to recognize their wrongful deeds and enter
into negotiations. <u><em>Letter</em></u> was not only a call for support of the passive
resistant movement, but also came to be a prescription for the implementation
of a non-violent revolt.</span><a href="file:///C:/Users/KIMMARIE/Documents/GrAS/The%20Duty%20to%20Revolt%20Final.doc#_edn5" name="_ednref5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">[v]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<h2 style="margin: 12pt 0in 3pt;">
<em><span style="font-family: "cambria";">The Great Society Days <o:p></o:p></span></em></h2>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The late
1960's and the early 1970's saw a great outpouring of reform literature, much
of which called for a restructuring of administrative government. Social
philosopher John Rawls had much in common with early philosophers, with an
added emphasis of liberal democracy and the challenge of creating a "just
society".<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like Hobbes, Rawls also
believed that people act on self-interest; however, according to Rawls they are
capable of acting rationally through planning. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rawls' theories were presented just after the
"Great Society" days begun by President Lyndon B. Johnson. During
this period, the administration created and funded many new social programs,
such as MediCare and Welfare. The repercussion of the Great Society programs
was one of the most wide-spread anti-statism movements in history. Thus, his
philosophy was criticized for supporting the foundation of the Welfare State,
during the politically conservative era following the Great Society days.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<h2 style="margin: 12pt 0in 3pt;">
<em><span style="font-family: "cambria";">Contract with America<o:p></o:p></span></em></h2>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The 1994
"Contract with America" was another symptom of a decline in the
integrity of the American civil society and their social contract with the
American Government.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Presented by then
minority leader Newt Gingrich and Representative Richard (Dick) Armey, this
ten-point legislative program promised reform in many federal programs,
reversing the efforts of "The Great Society" days.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Based on a State's Rights argument, the
Contract awarded large block grants in place of Federal programs into the
jurisdiction of individual states. Presented six weeks before a Congressional
election, the document laid out specific legislative actions it would take to
reform the government, should the Republicans win the majority in the House of
Representatives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the GOP took over
the 104th Congress, they gave credit to the Contract with America, and chose
Newt Gingrich as the new Speaker of the House. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<h2 style="margin: 12pt 0in 3pt;">
<em><span style="font-family: "cambria";">Conclusion<o:p></o:p></span></em></h2>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Has our government become unendurable? Does the Legislative
Body represent the American ideal?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Has
there been a breach in the Government's constitutional and statutory compact
with U.S. citizens?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Does a default of
the Government's global contracts constitute a state of war among the populace
and void authority?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How does a society
agree on unjust laws and government? (See </span><a href="http://www.sustainablygreen.blogspot.com/2013/08/how-does-society-agree-that-law-is.html"><span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">How does a society agree that a law is unjust?</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><u>)</u><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">History proves the ability of a social contract to resolve
or dissolve the creation of a political order. Review of political history and
infrastructure reminds us of the fluidity of the political body and the issue
of trust in those who have been granted power over the masses. Once again, the
conversation surrounding government reform is growing. Yet for most, the
workings (or non-workings) of the Federal government creates more questions
than it does answers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;">
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<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
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<br />
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/KIMMARIE/Documents/GrAS/The%20Duty%20to%20Revolt%20Final.doc#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";">
Green, J. (2013) http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-10-14/ted-cruz-could-force-a-debt-default-all-by-himself#!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: x-small;"> </span></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/KIMMARIE/Documents/GrAS/The%20Duty%20to%20Revolt%20Final.doc#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";">
McAuliff, M and Siddiqui, S.</span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri";">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/14/senate-budget-deal_n_4099135.html<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: x-small;"> </span></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/KIMMARIE/Documents/GrAS/The%20Duty%20to%20Revolt%20Final.doc#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: x-small;">
</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">Kaplan, R.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3460_162-57607281/sen-schumer-optimistic-that-senate-negotiators-can-end-the-government-shutdown/</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="edn4" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/KIMMARIE/Documents/GrAS/The%20Duty%20to%20Revolt%20Final.doc#_ednref4" name="_edn4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">[iv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";">
Locke, John, The Second Treatise of Government, chapter 19, paragraph 211.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Orginially publshed in 1690.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Reprinted by Prometheus Books: New York. 1986<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: x-small;"> </span></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn5" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/KIMMARIE/Documents/GrAS/The%20Duty%20to%20Revolt%20Final.doc#_ednref5" name="_edn5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">[v]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";">
King, Martin Luther, Jr. (1963) Letter from a Birmingham Jail.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: x-small;"> </span></o:p></div>
</div>
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<br />
The Green Association for Sustainability</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04120525227666965355noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834029300422999912.post-58454060797345235262013-08-18T12:32:00.001-05:002013-08-18T14:01:42.250-05:00The History of the Premise of GrAS<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IJByEskdwCs/UhEaA62oc5I/AAAAAAAAAYk/SHoAzRi9fz0/s1600/IMAG0128.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="191" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IJByEskdwCs/UhEaA62oc5I/AAAAAAAAAYk/SHoAzRi9fz0/s320/IMAG0128.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br />
<strong>THE GREEN ASSOCIATION FOR SUSTAINABILITY was originally created as an archive and forum for essays, reports and other academic writings produced as an undergraduate and Master’s candidate at Northern Arizona University from 1997 through 2002. Upon graduating Magna Cum Laude with a Political Science major and a minor in Research and Statistics, the University offered me a full tuition waiver to the school’s first Graduate Level Liberal Studies program in the environmental sciences, entitled “Visions of Good and Sustainable Societies”.<br />When I began the Masters program in 1999, medical insurance and health care availability and cost containment were primary concerns among voters. In addition, the regulations surrounding addiction treatment were outdated and did not reflect current science or practice. There was also a call for parity in the insurance industry for mental health and psychiatric treatment, including addiction recovery. The millennial national election brought the issues to the forefront of the campaign, as a topic of conversation among candidates about how to fix the health care system, and a topic of contention on addiction treatment and punishment.<br />In researching my thesis, I became involved with an advocacy group that was supporting new guideline regulations for outpatient opiate addiction recovery. Authored by Senators Hatch (R-UT), Biden (D-DE) and Levin (D-MI), the bill failed to make it out of committee in 2000. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_Addiction_Treatment_Act">Drug Addiction Treatment Act of 2000 (DATA 2000)</a> was passed the next year with much celebration , and a renewed hope for further changes to the harsh drug control policies of the United States.<br />Also nearly one year after elections, the <em>Al-Qaida</em> attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 changed the course of the Country’s agenda, and the election defining issues and political promises became moot points to be argued again at a later date.<br />Under the warrant that a “good and sustainable society” cannot exist without “good and sustainable people” and supported by the issues of inadequate addiction treatment and ineffective and punitive drug legislation, I hypothesized that the vision of a good and sustainable society included better access to health care, specifically addiction treatment, and significant changes in the U.S. drug laws including an end to the failed “War on Drugs”.</strong><br />
<strong></strong><br />
<strong>This is posted as static text at <a href="http://www.sustainablygreen.blogspot.com/">http://www.sustainablygreen.blogspot.com</a></strong>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04120525227666965355noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834029300422999912.post-73141839217731884062013-08-17T23:48:00.001-05:002013-08-18T00:00:17.233-05:00How does a society agree that a law is unjust? Some thoughts and ideas…In a civil society, we take rules and laws for granted; they must exist in order to prevent anarchy, conduct business, and progress the state of humankind with civility. We also associate “laws” with the “government”, and the enforcement of those laws rests in a power that resides above us. <br />
<br />
But what happens when the laws no longer represent the consensus? <br />
<br />
What of laws that do not reflect the current social mores and tolerances of the times? <br />
<br />
What recourse is available to the proletariat when those in power enforce rules that disenfranchise one or more classes of society?<br />
<br />
How does a civil society agree that a law is unjust?<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/sarah.iozzio">Sarah Iozzio</a> writes: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
For me, the definition of an unjust law is a law that perpetrates more harm than it prevents. Getting society to agree to this definition would take more people waking up an(d) becoming aware of that harm rather than believing the propaganda of what that law is supposedly accomplishing.</blockquote>
Sarah’s first step is to create a definition. I also agree, as it seems reasonable to me that reasonable people would then find a reasonable argument compelling. <br />
<br />
While publicly elected legislatures create most laws, they are administered and enforced through Executive administrations, and upheld by the court systems at both Federal and State levels. This three tiered system of checks and balances is designed to prevent abuses, yet it is also slow and cumbersome, fraught with politics and plunders. <br />
<br />
So even if we can get people to agree, can we get change? <br />
<br />
In order to get people to agree that a law is unjust and therefore should be changed, the mindset that created the law in the first place must be denounced: People will have to admit that they were wrong. Changing minds can be a difficult row. <br />
<br />
I hope this has sparked some ideas of your own on what it takes to change a law that is unjust. The “Law” could be a local ordinance that limits the parking on your street, a State regulation that prevents a fair hearing in child custody, or a Federal policy of criminalizing cannabis. It doesn’t matter if it is at the local level or if it is a Federal issue, if the law is contrary to the social beliefs of the voters, how do we convince those whom we’ve elected to change their minds and champion our causes? <br />
<br />
I appreciate your comments and ideas. You may post them here, or on Facebook at <a href="https://www.facebook.com/mariesrun">https://www.facebook.com/mariesrun</a> or <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Sustainablygreen">https://www.facebook.com/Sustainablygreen</a><br />
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THANK YOU!<br />
<br />
k rojas<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04120525227666965355noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834029300422999912.post-76266708026278683132013-05-11T20:23:00.000-05:002013-05-11T20:28:07.593-05:00Treatment of Disease with Cannabis and Restrictions to Research<h3>
DISORDERS TREATED WITH CANNABIS</h3>
Since the medicalization of cannabis in seventeen states, the number of disorders and diseases that have been legitimately found to respond to the use of medical marijuana has grown exponentially. While the medical community originally assigned those with Cancer and AIDS as most benefited, and therefore the first to be prescribed medical marijuana, other diseases quickly followed, such as Hepatitis and Multiple Sclerosis. <br />
<br />
Only because of social media has the anecdotal evidence of the many diseases helped by cannabis become so prolifically available. In fact, many social phenomenons have been discovered through the study of social media. Some studies claim that the largest demographic of social media is the<a href="http://www.viralblog.com/social-media/social-media-and-behavior-study/" target="_blank"> 30+ age group</a>, which is also the age group most likely to be parents of school-age children. Therefore, the largest number of "social" posts would be related to the lives of this demographic. On searching the internet, it is obvious that social media goes beyond Facebook and Twitter and into very specific issues, including medical information. <br />
<br />
<h4>
ADHD, AUTISM</h4>
Searching the term "ADHD BLOGS" on BING brings up nearly eleven million results. Simply "ADHD" has nearly twenty six million results. The search for "AUTISM BLOGS" resulted in 16.6 million responses. That is 16 million social media sites for the collection of anecdotal data on Autism (<a href="http://www.bing.com/">www.bing.com</a> ) . A search for "AUTISM" alone resulted in 42.2 million sites that discuss Autism. According to the <a href="http://legacy.autism.com/treatable/drug/marijuana_org.htm" target="_blank">Autism Research Institute</a>, Marijuana has been used successfully to treat autism in many patients. Their only warning to cannabis use is regarding the legality.<br />
<br />
California's renewed medical distribution regulations in 2004 placed the determination of benefit at the discretion of the prescriber; Arizona's regulations allow for a strict schedule of qualifying diseases. Until the regulation of cannabis is either removed or becomes universal (Federal), no standard usage and prescribing protocol can be implemented.<br />
<h3>
</h3>
<h3>
CANNABIS RESEARCH</h3>
<br />
The lack of reliable research is one primary reason for the variance in states' prescribing regulations. "Current restrictions on marijuana research are absurd" wrote the editors of <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=marijuana-research" target="_blank">Scientific American.</a> Explaining the process, they argue: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Any researcher attempting to study marijuana must obtain it through the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). The U.S. research crop, grown at a single facility, is regarded as less potent--and therefore less medicinally interesting--than the marijuana often easily available on the street. Thus, the legal supply is a poor vehicle for studying the approximately 60 cannabinoids that might have medical applications. </blockquote>
<br />
<br />
Even with medicalization, and even should state-level permission and funding be provided for such research, the working institution would be at risk of seizure of assets and prosecution by the Federal Government. Still, the University of California hosts the Center for Medicinal Cancer Research (CMCR), a three year project funded by state legislation. Just this week, the Governor of Arizona signed a bill into law allowing for Marijuana research at the three Arizona public universities <a href="http://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2013/05/08/brewer-signs-bill-permitting-marijuana-research/" target="_blank">(2013 Brewer signs...)</a>. Besides removing a regulation that prohibited marijuana on any of the universities, even if by a registered medical patient, the new law will allow University of Arizona physician Susan Sisley, to perform a rarely approved <strong>federal</strong> research project on the effect of cannabis on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). It is hoped this will pave the way for further federally approved research on cannabis treatment and other pschological and psychiatric disorders (<a href="http://cannabisni.com/medicinal-cannabis-news/2588-arizona-governor-signs-law-allowing-marijuana-research-on-college-campuses" target="_blank">2013 Arizona Governor...).</a> <br />
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The Green Association for SustainabilityAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04120525227666965355noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834029300422999912.post-53089083090060705332013-05-10T19:31:00.001-05:002013-05-10T19:34:17.366-05:00IF YOU COULD CHANGE ONE THING IN THE WORLD, WHAT WOULD IT BE?<p>If you had the power to change one thing in the world that did not affect you personally (forget stuffing your bank account with millions), what would it be? Why would you change it? What’s the most eloquent argument against changing it? What makes you believe the change would be for the better? What would be the effect on a specific group of strangers? What would be some possible unintended consequences? <p>Writing prompt: Gerard, Philip. Writing a Book that Makes A Difference. 2000. Storypress. Cincinnati, Ohio. pg. 29. <p> <p>If I had the power to change one thing in the world, it would be that Cannabis (Sativa, Indica, and Ruderalis) was completely decriminalized and globally accepted as a legitimate agricultural, medicinal and industrial product. Cannabis flowers have extensive health properties that our ancestors used to heal and to thrive. The stalks of the plant can be used for tools, clothing, and shelter. The seeds are a nutritional foodstuff, contain all twenty-one amino acids and can be made into flour, oil, and nut butter. The Cannabis Plant has evolved next to humans, and has a natural and prolific environmental niche. The Cannabis plant is nature’s survival kit for humans. <p>The elimination of cannabis from the diets and consumption by humans may have contributed to the increase in certain illnesses and disorders that parents’ groups and scientists claim are from questionable etiologies. This includes allergies and asthma, and certain psychiatric disorders, such as ADD, hyperactivity syndrome, and Autism. The rise in these disorders and the increased efforts to eliminate cannabis use correlate statistically, which is the general rule by which alternative hypotheses are measured. The governments tight restrictions on cannabis purposely and strategically make research by even reputable universities and organizations nearly impossibly. <p>Even with the large increase in acceptance of cannabis, and the slow but general turn in the perception of cannabis as a healing substance, there are still many who passionately agree with the government’s reasons for not legalizing cannabis. Even though their arguments are often proved specious, the paradigms are deep rooted. For example, the “gateway theory”, or the idea that “marijuana leads to harder drugs” has been found to be untrue and after many years, is now a generally accepted premise. Still, this fact must be reminded to the public at every advocacy chance, in order to keep “urban myths” from spreading. The “DARE” program instituted by G.H.W. Bush, and still taught in elementary schools, is responsible for creating and spreading much of the misinformation about marijuana, and in 2012, the program wisely eliminated any mention of cannabis in the DARE program. <p>The abuse of any substance is a primary concern for those who are against cannabis legalization, and many medical marijuana supporters are against the general public legalization schemes. Their concern is valid: As a medication, cannabis is invaluable to many of them, and “legalization” threatens the medical paradigm. An example of this is the media portrayal of pot users as lazy hippie throw backs who are always high. A paradox lies in this imaging and the reality of cannabis use. In reality, the benefits of cannabis as a medicine, a food source, or a sustainable material, outweigh any perceived risks. The most notable risk of cannabis use lies only in it’s legal status, and the risk that the police will arrest, assault, or shoot you. Decriminalization of marijuana would effectively eliminate the risk of death by cannabis use. <p>The “regulation of cannabis like alcohol” is a popular legalization model, and has already been successfully passed by voters in two states: Washington and Colorado. These states have very different alcohol regulations; however, Washington is a “closed” alcohol state, where all alcohol is sold and distributed directly by the state. Colorado recently passed a bill implementing the rules for personal possession and commercial licensing, and plans for implementation are scheduled for 2014. Washington State is a “closed” alcohol state, and recently made news when the State solicited for and hired a Marijuana Specialist to administer the state-run dispensaries. Both sides of the aisle are curiously and cautiously watching how cannabis will be distributed differently in the state-run alcohol system of Washington versus the private ownership model of Colorado regulations. <p>While these regulatory schemes seem to be the only avenue to loosen the governmental grip on cannabis, they still provide complete governmental control and prosecutorial threat to users of cannabis, and do nothing to industrialize hemp. The reintroduction of hemp would have a positive environmental sustainability impact on the world, but would compete with other industries, including the powerful cotton lobby and those industries responsible for massive deforestation. <p>Cannabis Sativa, Indica and ruderalis are valuable plants inherent to the successful evolution of human beings. The global state control of cannabis is a phenomenon of twentieth century politics, and its prohibition has no basis. In fact, the loss of cannabis consumption by humans may have had deleterious effects on the human immune system, as well as psychological and spiritual well being. Simply granting “concessions” is a small attempt at correcting the generational errors made in the early 1900’s. The regulations that have snowballed into prohibition were originally racially and politically motivated, and furthered through fuel, agricultural and other global industrial interests. Nothing short of the reversal of the racially and politically motivated regulations that created prohibition is required for the sustainability of humans in the coming age. <p> </p> <p>c 2013 K Rojas </p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04120525227666965355noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834029300422999912.post-44202604342362991052013-04-30T16:40:00.000-05:002013-04-30T16:40:04.084-05:00Why are Food Service Workers in the United States Not Paid a Fair Wage?<span class="userContent"></span><br />
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<span class="userContent" style="font-size: large;"><strong> Re-examining the Social and Economic Etiquette and Policy in the Present Economy.</strong></span></div>
<span class="userContent">A human interest feature exposing the struggle of Food Service Workers in states that allow for unlivable wages of $2.13 per hour for waiters and waitresses who also receive tips, was recently posted by Tom Loud, and shared to the Green Association for Sustainable Societies Facebook page. </span><br />
<span class="userContent">Tom's comments were simple, concise and logical: "Tip<em>...(exclamatory</em>)" </span><span class="userContent">If it were only that easy! Yet if you believe the argument that working for $2.13 an hour in a hash house or lunch/dinner chain is acceptable because of the tips received, it is time to re-examine your paradigms of the decade's economic and social behavior. </span><br />
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<span class="userContent">Probably the most compelling argument for raising the minimum wage for food service workers is that the procedure for determining the minimum wage is flawed. L</span><span class="userContent">ow minumum wage states depend on the 'kindness of strangers' rather than a profit/loss or cost of living equation, to assure that an entire class receives a fair wage. This fact is shocking and deplorable. The duty to assure that employees receive a livable wage should be on the<em> state legislation to define</em> and<em> employers</em> to implement<em>.</em> It should<strong> not</strong> be the responsibility of the unassuming, and mostly uninformed public.<br /> </span><br />
<span class="userContent">Food service wages seem to be lowest in the poorest states, where there is more poverty and people have less to tip, and are also less likely to tip as a social grace. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_poverty" target="_blank">The Culture of Poverty theory</a> would explain this behavior as systemic: Perhaps, a non-tipper never saw their parents tip, so they have no model to reference. Only by exposure does one learn the advantages of tipping a concierge or valet well. The payoff for tipping waiters in coffee shops and dinner houses is minimal or non-existent, as the customer may have no intentions on ever eating in that restaurant again.</span><br />
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<span class="userContent">State laws limiting food service worker wages to unlivable lows should be changed for the simple reason that it is that State's responsibility to provide citizens the opportunity for the pursuit of happiness, equal employment, and a fair wage. Previous economic etiquette spelled out strict guidelines of up to twenty percent in tips for everyone from the grocery boy to the milk delivery man (The What What man?). In the 2010's, with virtual access virtually everywhere, tipping has become both a lost art and an obsolete gesture that is at the subjectability of the customer. It is no longer the rule, but rather the exception when exceptional service and an able customer meet. The States that maintain these low minimums, and the food establishments that employ them must realize their responsibility to their workers and offer a livable wage.</span><br />
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The article regarding food service workers minimum wages:<br />
<span class="userContent"><a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-25/waitresses-stuck-at-2-13-hourly-minimum-for-22-years.html">http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-25/waitresses-stuck-at-2-13-hourly-minimum-for-22-years.html</a></span><br />
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<span class="userContent">SOURCES:</span><br />
<span class="userContent"></span><br />
<span class="userContent"> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_poverty">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_poverty</a> </span><br />
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For more information on "The Culture of Poverty", listen to or read this NPR program: <br />
<a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102246990">http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102246990</a><br />
<span class="userContent">Please<a href="https://www.facebook.com/mariesrun?ref=tn_tnmn#!/groups/282344618488138/?fref=ts" target="_blank"> LIKE The Green Association for Sustainability Facebook</a> page!</span><br />
The Green Association for Sustainability<br />
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edited 04/30/2013 Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04120525227666965355noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834029300422999912.post-57451818698234506712012-10-20T15:10:00.001-05:002012-10-20T15:14:25.200-05:00CANNABIS OIL CURES CANCER<br />
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Cannabis Oil cures certain cancers. We said in the 80's, "I'll bet if pot cured cancer, they would make it legal in a minute!" We need a CHANGE IN THE PHARMACOLOGY SCHEDULING of Cannabis as Schedule I "no medical use". Schedule I prevents the "mainstream" research needed for the AMA to once again find favor with Cannabis.<br />
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The Green Association for SustainabilityAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04120525227666965355noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834029300422999912.post-69767165578340782902012-10-11T10:12:00.001-05:002012-10-11T10:12:09.869-05:00PA Voter ID Law Ruling: Judge Halts Enforcement Of Law For Election: Not Far Enough!<p><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/2012/10/02/pennsylvania-voter-id-ruling_n_1919187.html">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/2012/10/02/pennsylvania-voter-id-ruling_n_1919187.html</a> <p>Although I applaud the Pennsylvania Commonwealth court’s decision to withhold implementation of the Voter Identification requirement until after the 2012 Presidential election, I assert that it does not go far enough. <p>On October 2, 2012, Commonwealth Court Judge Robert E. Simpson Jr. withheld implementation of the recently enacted controversial voter identification requirement until after the 2012 Presidential Election. On hearing the ruling, both sides celebrated victories. The attorney for the ACLU called it a "huge win", while the State was allowed to continue running advertisements erroneously stating that voter ID would be required at the ballot box. Poll workers are instructed to ask for a government-issued picture identification from voters. Should a prospective voter not have such identification, they are given information on how to obtain such an ID, and then allowed to vote. A previous ruling from Simpson allowed those without ID to vote provisionally, their vote valid only if they return with identification within six days. This was overturned with the suspension of the regulation until after the November election. <p>According to the Huffington Post, these voter id requirements are based on the faulty premise that voter fraud is a threat to the election process. These Republican-sponsored regulations have been place by 19 states since 2010, based on the myth that to function in a "modern society", one must have a government issued identification card. Yet according to the Huffington Post, the Republican's own research does not bear this out. Researchers found that of 600 million votes cast in Presidential elections since 2000, voter fraud has been alleged only 2,068 times. Only ten cases of actual in-person voter fraud have been identified, which calculates to approximately 1.666 e -8 (.000000016%). <p>The same study shows that nearly 11% of the population does not have such identification for a variety of reasons, including disability, age, poverty, or lack of transportation. They may live too far from an "official" identification procurement agency, or may not be able to recover their birth certificate or other required information. They may not have any need for a state issued drivers license. (<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/13/gop-voter-id-data-voter_n_1773142.html">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/13/gop-voter-id-data-voter_n_1773142.html</a> ) Although governments may wish to have the vital statistics, fingerprints and a picture of every citizen, <i>they do not. </i>And in this journalist's opinion, <i>they should not. </i> <p><i><br></i> <p>Even in debating their defense for voter identification, the Republicans concede that voter fraud is rare. "What in the heavens is wrong with showing an ID at polls?” said Bill Denny, a Republican congressman from Mississippi, further illustrating the party's disconnect with the reality of America. <p><i>Wrong</i> is that these conservative based restrictions on voting rights set precedents for more specious regulations, all of which have the ultimate effect of discouragement from voting to disenfranchisement of entire demographics. Historically, these demographics are most often minorities, women, the poor, elderly, and disabled, for reasons that range from health and finance, education and literacy, and even include family social dynamics. Traditionally, these are often Democratic based voters. <p>The continued airing of advertisements claiming that identification will be required at the polls will serve to cause even more confusion to the complicated ideology and procedures of electoral politics. <p>Judge Simpson gave a timely eleventh hour ruling on an issue which thumbs its nose at fifty years of civil rights. </p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:2d5f0a2d-ebd4-4a8d-b514-ed0d98d11bd9" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/voting" rel="tag">voting</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Decision2012" rel="tag">Decision2012</a></div> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04120525227666965355noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834029300422999912.post-73707319370346943882012-09-02T13:15:00.001-05:002012-09-02T13:15:52.491-05:00GUEST BLOG: Colleen McCool shares the Cure for Cancer!<p> <h6> <p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/colleen.mccool.1">Colleen McCool</a> shared <a href="http://www.facebook.com/christine.tryon">Christine Tryon</a>'s <a href="http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=379050868832544&set=a.288567427880889.66096.100001829020267&type=1">photo</a> on Facebook, and contributed this well stated imperative. <p>Read more from Colleen at <a title="http://mccoolportraits.com/2010rebelwithjustcause.htm#Ooooops" href="http://mccoolportraits.com/2010rebelwithjustcause.htm#Ooooops">http://mccoolportraits.com/2010rebelwithjustcause.htm#Ooooops</a> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-_eXgF_Y1JlI/UEOiU2818YI/AAAAAAAAARY/XutsZbkfjS0/s1600-h/Colleen%252520McCool%252520post%25255B2%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="Colleen McCool post" border="0" alt="Colleen McCool post" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-_tExZ6B56Qg/UEOiV7USGlI/AAAAAAAAARg/2O-f_E1CnbU/Colleen%252520McCool%252520post_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="178"></a></p></h6> <h6>My Mom survived cancer but died from pharmaceutical damage to her organs. If I'd only known then what I know now...<br>The truth is out and spreading like wildfire! Cannabis cures cancer! This truth will not be suppressed, until every household knows the clamor, the swelling protest, exposing dark, dirty secrets of heinous crimes against humanity! Does anyone you know or love have cancer? It is down right sinister, a crime against humanity, for the medicinal uses of cannabis to be suppressed.<br>An internet search for "THC cancer" brings up thousands of research papers from all over the world. Ooooops! Who spilled the beans? SCIENTISTS and PATIENTS all over the world, that's who! (<a title="http://mccoolportraits.com/2010rebelwithjustcause.htm#Ooooops" href="http://mccoolportraits.com/2010rebelwithjustcause.htm#Ooooops">http://mccoolportraits.com/2010rebelwithjustcause.htm#Ooooops</a>)<br>Big pharmacy lobbyist have paid for road blocks to cannabis research. For all these decades, the medical profession has been treating cancer patients to killer cocktails of antiangiogenesis drugs that cut off the blood supply to tumors while also killing healthy cells! Ifosfamide destroys the patients bladder and kidneys. And as a last hope treatment, thaledomide, the sleeping pill that produced clubfeet and webbed fingers will also starve tumors. These poison drip cocktails come with side effects you can count on to make life no longer worth living. Radiation is another poisonous, "cure" and surgery often triggers the cancer to spread. We all know someone who has suffered these hellish treatments. One day these, "cures," will be looked on as a step back to the dark ages in medicine.</h6> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04120525227666965355noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834029300422999912.post-70749353582705651572012-07-23T12:11:00.001-05:002012-07-23T12:11:51.534-05:00Treaty or Conspiracy: Is the Gun in Danger?<p> </p> <p>I recently received a post on Facebook, from a friend swearing to “Vote Republican” in protest to a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyfkQkchlu4&feature=share" target="_blank">mock-news clip.</a> I was about to shoot a quick comment back, but did some research first, which took me deep into the darkest corners of the ICN (Internet Conspiracy Network).</p> <blockquote> <p align="left">Reading for myself Paul Joseph Watson’s writings, including his in-text linked articles, begs the question to my Facebook friend, “Why the hell are you even reading this trash, and worse yet, how can anyone take this seriously?” </p></blockquote> <p>I have to agree with @Alton Burns’ condemnation of both the “newscaster” and the author of the July 2012 article that is fallaciously warranted. </p> <p>Watson claims that the United States Military (under Commander in Chief, Barack Obama) through a yea vote to a United Nations Arms Treaty, has begun preparation to eliminate private gun ownership in the United States, with an ultimate goal of a Military State <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyfkQkchlu4&feature=share" target="_blank">(2012, Watkins).</a></p> <p>Watson comes to this alarming, alarmist, and anti-Obama hyperbole through the linkage of three documents, separated by time and space. Early July of this year, Fox News published the article “<a href="http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/07/11/un-arms-treaty-could-put-us-gun-owners-in-foreign-sights-say-critics/#ixzz21SfvD1V0" target="_blank">UN arms treaty could put U.S. gun owners in foreign sights, say critics</a>” (July, FoxNews). The article alluded without support that the Treaty had “roots” in a <a href="http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/ERC/arms/freedom_war.html" target="_blank">1961 report from the State Department on Disarmament</a>. In reality, the treaty may require that the UN receive the names of registered gun owners in the United States. </p> <p>Less than a week later, Watson had made ethereal connections between the UN Treaty, and documents he had written about on <a href="http://www.infowars.com/army-manual-outlines-plan-to-kill-rioters-in-america/" target="_blank">July 6</a> including a <a href="http://info.publicintelligence.net/USAMPS-CivilDisturbanceOps.pdf" target="_blank">US Military training manual</a> for response to wide-spread riot or civil unrest, with a goal to “restore order” under extreme large scale public disaster conditions. This document is part of a six-credit continuing education course for military personnel, and is not an unusual “manual”, as one exists in every administration for every possible crisis. This is common in business too: For example, hospitals routinely practice “Triage” and Emergency Disaster drills, and manuals exist for every possible scenario. In fact, the ICD-9 coding system used for analytics and insurance reimbursement includes a code for injury by “terrorist”. Even our children have fire drills regularly at school, and the teachers also follow a manual that would include worst case scenarios, such as happened at Columbine. The manuals are written with the hopes and prayers that they will never have to be used; yet should disaster happen, first responders will be trained, as was prophetically witnessed recently in Aurora, Colorado Movie Theater Massacre.</p> <p>Watson offers no premise for his claim, no statement or warrant that is a generally accepted statement. His support, other than his own writings, is tenuously tied to his conclusion. Any ability he may have to convince is based on an emotional appeal by continuing the slippery slope fallacy that was introduced in the Fox News article, and by placing blame directly on Barack Obama, who was still in diapers when the Cold War document was drafted. The truth, however, is much more benign, as the Fox News article at least reminds us, a UN Treaty must receive a full 2/3 Senate approval before accepted. The President just doesn’t have this much power in a tripartite government! </p> <p>The “newscaster” in the YouTube video, who continually interjected personal alarmist comments between reading selected clips of the 1961 document. This 50+ year old document was written during the cold war, and related to nuclear weapons and nation states. <br></p> <p>Although Watson’s article is eerily prophetic in the wake of the last weekend’s mass murder with an easily obtainable assault rifle, his logic is still flawed and naïve of the slow-moving, cumbersome, and inefficient international bureaucracy…not to mention the inability of our own legislative bodies ability to accomplish tasks.</p> <p><a href="http://global.christianpost.com/news/un-arms-trade-treaty-debated-senate-to-back-constitution-on-gun-laws-78564/" target="_blank">Rest easy.</a> No one is taking your guns. The Bill of Rights have withstood 200+ years of assault, and has remained intact. It will continue, at least for some time to come. </p> <p>kmarie</p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04120525227666965355noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834029300422999912.post-58955975478229340142012-02-28T11:53:00.001-06:002012-07-17T18:33:16.268-05:00CALIFORNIA CANNABIS BALLOT INITIATIVES 2012<br />
California has six cannabis reform initiatives competing to qualify for the 2012 ballot. <br />
<h4>
Repeal Cannabis Prohibition Act of 2012</h4>
With a static web site listing 4 changes this bill would make, I found the information to be “generic” and understated. The four items noted are:<br />
1. Repeals all criminal prohibitions and penalties on cannabis related conduct for adults, 19 and over <br />
2. Mandates strict rules against unlawful distribution to and by minors, driving impaired. <br />
<em><span style="color: green;">The “driving impaired” clause has had opponents in many states, as the testing for cannabis intoxication is imperfect, and many of these bills require blood or urine tests to determine the “level of intoxication”. The issue should be driving under “impairment”, which can be determined through standard road-side tests, and should not require the collection of blood or urine</span></em> <br />
3. Maintains medical rights for patients under Prop 215 and SB 420 <br />
4. Vests the newly created California Cannabis Commission with the regulation of commercial cannabis <br />
<a href="http://w.ww.causes.com/causes/650028-repeal-cannabis-prohibition-2012/about" title="http://www.causes.com/causes/650028-repeal-cannabis-prohibition-2012/about">http://w.ww.causes.com/causes/650028-repeal-cannabis-prohibition-2012/about</a><br />
<h4>
Regulate Marijuana Like Wine, </h4>
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</h4>
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Medical Marijuana Regulation, Control and Taxation Act of 2012 Initiative, </h4>
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</h4>
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California Cannabis Hemp and Health Initiative of 2012, </h4>
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Marijuana Penalties Act of 2012 </h4>
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Patient Reasonable Access Act. </h4>
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Sources<br />
ASA Forum>Access Southern California>California Cannabis Initiative Forum. susansoiree, SSDP Los Angeles <a href="http://safeaccessnow.org/punbb/viewtopic.php?pid=30183#p30183">2012-02-22 08:12:31</a><br />
RCPA 2012. <a href="http://w.ww.causes.com/causes/650028-repeal-cannabis-prohibition-2012/about" title="http://www.causes.com/causes/650028-repeal-cannabis-prohibition-2012/about">http://w.ww.causes.com/causes/650028-repeal-cannabis-prohibition-2012/about</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04120525227666965355noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2834029300422999912.post-45383486286541133652012-01-24T12:56:00.000-06:002012-07-17T18:18:45.597-05:00Are Compassionate Use laws moot?Have Compassionate Use and Marijuana Medicalization laws become moot? <br />
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After passing two unenforcable Compassionate Use laws in the 90's, and full cannabis medicalization in 2010, Arizona has failed to open dispensaries, and created extraordinary requirements (such as submitting three years of Arizona Tax Returns, and other irrelevant and illegal financial requirements that would disenfrancise the patient population deriving the most benefit from dispensaries).<br />
<a href="http://www.tokeofthetown.com/2012/01/judge_to_arizona_gov_open_the_marijuana_dispensari.php" target="_blank">http://www.tokeofthetown.com/2012/01/judge_to_arizona_gov_open_the_marijuana_dispensari.php</a> <br />
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In New Jersey, another state with Medicalization and Compassionate Use laws, an M.S. patient appealed his arrest for growing cannabis to the state's Supreme Court, which summarily sentenced him to five years in prison.<br />
<a href="http://www.politickernj.com/54244/nj-supreme-court-5-years-prison-ms-patient-growing-marijuana#.Tx7tP3_Bq1g.facebook" target="_blank">http://www.politickernj.com/54244/nj-supreme-court-5-years-prison-ms-patient-growing-marijuana#.Tx7tP3_Bq1g.facebook</a><br />
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Even after Compassionate Use laws have been passed, Medical Marijuana patients are still being arrested and imprisoned with the judicial rational that State administered dispensaries have not been implemented. <br />
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Travesties such as this may be expected in the yahoo states that have yet to pass compassionate use laws; but they have become much too common in states who's citizenry has approved and supported the medical use of cannabis. The fact that state-level medical marijuana administrations have failed in developing dispensaries should have no bearing on the impementation of the law, and acceptance of the law by the judicial system. <br />
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Advocacy and activist efforts would do well to define and promote medicalization and compassionate use plans that give more than lip service to the voters' wishes. Voters should be encouraged to deny passage of propositions and plans that rely heavily on government organization, are full of loop-holes to stall implementation, that have restrictive and irrelevant application requirements, and (especially) forbid patients to grow their own plants. Medical marijuana laws must be fair, accessible, and consistent, but most of all, they should be implementable. <br />
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The Green Association for SustainabilityAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04120525227666965355noreply@blogger.com0