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Michael Jackson Autopsy Allegedly Reveals Brittle, Ailing Star
Posted on June 29th, 2009 10:30 AM by Free Britney linkbee.com
The autopsy on Michael Jackson's body revealed him to be in terrible shape, with only pills in his stomach when he died, according to a report out of the UK.
These findings seem to substantiate allegations made by former Jackson nanny Grace Rwaramba, however, neither story has been independently confirmed.
The Sun, which claims to have obtained the autopsy results, claims:
Michael Jackson's hips, thighs and shoulders were riddled with needle wounds.
There is unexplained brusing on Jackson's knees and on the fronts of his shins.
The star was bald at the time of his death and suffered several broken ribs, probably from the failed attempts to revive him.
There were four "injection sites" near his heart, where rescue workers reportedly shot adrenaline into his heart to restart it.
The graphic below outlines what the newspaper claims it learned from the autopsy results, which did not officially determine Jackson's cause of death:
Whether or not these claims are substantiated remains to be seen, so take it all with a grain of salt. In related news, the lawyer for Jackson's personal doctor, Conrad Murray, claims now that when Murray found Jackson, he had a faint pulse.
Murray's lawyer, Edward Chernoff, says Murray went into Michael Jackson's bedroom and saw he wasn't breathing, then immediately began administering CPR.
Chernoff told the AP, regarding his client, that "He just happened to find him in his bed, and he wasn't breathing. Mr. Jackson was still warm and had a pulse."
In response to a major story circulating, Chernoff says Murray did not prescribe or give Jackson Demerol or OxyContin at any point in his treatment of the star.
Rumors have surfaced that Jackson OD'd on Demerol. Chernoff says any drugs Murray prescribed were given in response to a specific complaint from Jackson.
In this Dec. 6, 2002 file photo,TV pitchman Billy Mays poses with some of his cleaning products at his Palm Harbor, Fla., home.
Television pitchman Billy Mays — who built his fame by appearing on commercials and infomercials promoting household products and gadgets — died Sunday.
Mays, 50, was found unresponsive by his wife inside his Tampa, Fla., home at 7:45 a.m. on Sunday, according to the Tampa Police Department.
Police said there were no signs of forced entry to Mays' residence and foul play is not suspected. Authorities said an autopsy should be complete by Monday afternoon.
"Although Billy lived a public life, we don't anticipate making any public statements over the next couple of days. Our family asks that you respect our privacy during these difficult times," Mays wife, Deborah, said in a statement on Sunday.
Mays was well known for his numerous television promotions of such products as Orange Glo and OxiClean. He was also featured on the reality TV show "Pitchmen" on the Discovery Channel, which followed Mays and Anthony Sullivan in their marketing jobs.
Born William Mays in McKees Rocks, Pa., on July 20, 1958, Mays developed his style demonstrating knives, mops and other "as seen on TV" gadgets on Atlantic City's boardwalk. For years he worked as a hired gun on the state fair and home show circuits, attracting crowds with his booming voice and genial manner.
After meeting Orange Glo International founder Max Appel at a home show in Pittsburgh in the mid-1990s, Mays was recruited to demonstrate the environmentally friendly line of cleaning products on the St. Petersburg-based Home Shopping Network.
Commercials and informercials followed, anchored by the high-energy Mays showing how it's done while tossing out kitschy phrases like, "Long live your laundry!"
Recently he's been seen on commercials for a wide variety of products and is featured on the reality TV show "Pitchmen" on the Discovery Channel, which follows Mays and Anthony Sullivan in their marketing jobs. He's also been seen in ESPN ads.
His ubiquitousness and thumbs-up, in-your-face pitches won Mays plenty of fans. People line up at his personal appearances for autographed color glossies, and strangers stop him in airports to chat about the products.
"I enjoy what I do," Mays told The Associated Press in a 2002 interview. "I think it shows."
Mays was on board a US Airways flight that blew out its front tires as it landed at a Tampa airport on Saturday, MyFOXTampa.com reported.
US Airways spokesman Jim Olson said that none of the 138 passengers and five crew members were injured in the incident, but several passengers reported having bumps and bruises, according to the station.
Authorities have not said whether Mays' death was related to the incident.
Discovery Channel spokeswoman Elizabeth Hillman released a statement Sunday extending sympathy to the Mays family.
"Everyone that knows him was aware of his larger-than-life personality, generosity and warmth," Hillman's statement said. "Billy was a pioneer in his field and helped many people fulfill their dreams. He will be greatly missed as a loyal and compassionate friend."
Panelists warn of the revival of eugenics under Obama’s modern healthcare through the denial of care to millions who would be judged ‘not fit to live’, just as in Nazi Germany.
Historian Anton Chaitkin also alleges that Ezekiel Emanuel, brother of Rahm Emanuel, in working with Obama, has also called for the Hippocratic oath to be ‘junked.’
Video: The Population Reduction Agenda For Dummies
There are still large numbers of people amongst the general public, in academia, and especially those who work for the corporate media, who are still in denial about the on-the-record stated agenda for global population reduction, as well as the consequences of this program that we already see unfolding.
We have compiled a compendium of evidence to prove that the elite have been obsessed with eugenics and its modern day incarnation, population control, for well over 100 years and that goal of global population reduction is still in full force to this day.
The World’s Elite Are Discussing Population Reduction
As was reported only last month by the London Times, a “secret billionaire club” meeting in early May which took place in New York and was attended by David Rockefeller, Ted Turner, Bill Gates and others was focused around “how their wealth could be used to slow the growth of the world’s population”.....continue at: dprogram.net
www.kpho.com PHOENIX -- A new Web site is stirring up controversy by accusing hundreds of people of having sexually transmitted diseases.Cyrus Sullivan said he started stdcarriers.com because of a personal experience."I had an unfortunate situation of being informed by my ex-girlfriend that she had herpes and she knew about it before we even met," said Sullivan.The purpose of the Web site is to warn people about the health of their potential sexual partners.
But the Web site is designed so that anyone can post a person's name without proving they have an STD."Now you're really taking a risk," said attorney Blake Whiteman.Someone could sue for libel if they were falsely accused on the Web site."If there's any question at all if it's true or not, do not make the statement," said Whiteman.Sullivan said he will remove a person's name if they prove that they do not have an STD, and he admits the inherent potential for personal harm that comes with the Web site.But Sullivan said he believes in the end, the good outweighs the bad."If one person doesn't get aids or herpes or any other STD because of this Web site, then it has accomplished its mission," he said.
Their Mission Objectives
1. Prevent
- We aim to prevent the spread of disease by optimizing the flow of information. Knowledge is power and what you don’t know can hurt you. The more you know the more capable you are to make better decisions in every aspect of your life. When it comes to STDS information is especially important when many are infected and either don’t know about it or worse, they know about it and don’t tell their partners. Listing the names of people infected both provides a warning to potential victims of dishonest partners and informs former partners of diseases that they may have been exposed to and unknowingly carry. Prevention is the best medicine and with no way to eliminate the risk of infecting a partner during a sexual encounter knowledge is the best tool to prevent infection.
2. Educate
- We aim to educate the public about the facts, dangers, and myths about the transmission, prevention, and treatment of STD’s. STD’s are transmitted by direct contact between mucous membranes, blood, and bodily fluids. Mucous membranes are present in the mouth, anus, vagina, and on the penis. Fluids associated with these areas can cause an infection when they come into contact with mucous membranes or exposed wounds. Infected fluids dont' just come into contact with mucous membranes during sexual intercourse, but also from oral sex, anal sex, kissing, blood transfusions, and sometimes seagulling. The risk of infection when exposed depends on a combination of factors depending on what STD you are exposed to and the health of your immune system. Many STD’s like Gonorrhea and Chlamydia can easily be treated with antibiotic medication while others including Genital Herpes, Genital Warts, HPV, Hepatitis C, HIV, and AIDS have no known cure. HPV has been linked to cervical cancer in women. Hepatitis C can cause severe and potentially fatal liver problems. HIV and AIDS weaken the immune system and have been responsible for millions of deaths. Risk of infection during sex can be reduced significantly using condoms; however you can still get infected while using condoms. STD’s can happen to anyone regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, or personal character. Remember that just because someone has or might have a STD does not indicate that there is anything mentally, morally, or ethically wrong with that person.
3. Protect
- We aim to protect the physical health, mental health, and rights of the public. Physical health should be protected by making sure everyone is aware of the dangers they face in any given situation as much as humanly possible. Making available the STD status of potential partners allows people to make more educated and thus better decisions about their sexual activity as well as providing an incentive for past partners of the infected to get tested and possibly prevent themselves from unknowingly infecting others. Mental health should be protected by deterring those who would post false information about others regardless of their reasons by assisting in the identification and punishment of those individuals. We will protect the confidentiality and free speech rights for all who use our service in accordance with our Terms of Use.
5. Improve - Anything that can be done can be done better and as such we are always looking for ways to make this site better. If you look at this site on a regular basis you will notice all kinds of development tools being tested. These techniques are part of the development of NoLimitList.com a global classified advertising and social networking site being developed to take on Craig's List. This site and STD Merchandise will serve as testing grounds for features that might be used on No Limit List.
Want a new life? How about the life of a millionaire Brit?
It could soon be yours, for the bargain price of only 20 pounds (about $33).
English banker Andrew Paul is auctioning off his life after his recent divorce, saying he wants to "make a fresh start," Luxist.com reports.
And it's a pretty fabulous life, up for grabs are his £1.1m ($1.8m) five-bedroom house, a £160,000 Aston Martin DBS and his £200,000 Sealine 35 Sport motor boat. The first prize is either the property or the car plus the speedboat and £85,000 in cash to help with insurance and fees. The first prize winner can also choose opt for £1 million in cash. There are also ten runner up prizes of his and hers sets of Omega Seamaster watches.
"My wealth is self-made. I have worked hard my entire career but now I want to slow the pace of my life a little," Paul told the Daily Mail.
You can check out Paul's life at WinANewLife.com. In order to win you need more than luck, you also need a little skill. Once you pay the fee you need to estimate where a golf ball would end up in a photograph. Winners will be determined based on who ever is closest to the actual placement. The competition is scheduled to end August 19th but could end sooner if the tickets are all sold.
Paul hopes to sell 200,000 tickets. If he does sell that number of tickets, he will make a hefty profit.
Brooke Greenberg continues to baffle her family and doctors.
At 16-years-old, Brooke weighs 16 pounds and stands 2 feet, 6 inches tall, MyFOXChicago reported. She can’t speak, but she can express frustration and happiness.
In other words, Brooke’s body and mind are that of a toddler.
“Why doesn’t she age?” Brooke’s father, Howard Greenberg said on ABC News. “Is she the fountain of youth?"
Brooke, who lives in Maryland, still has baby teeth, and her bones are those of a 10-year-old. However, her hair and nails grow consistently.
Doctors think Brooke has a genetic mutation that inhibits her growth.
“Without being sensational, I’d say this is an opportunity for us to answer the question why we’re mortal, or at least test it,” Dr. Richard Walker of the University of South Florida told ABC News. “And if we’re wrong, we can discard it. But if we’re right, we’ve got the golden ring.”
To learn more about Brooke, watch "Child Frozen in Time" at 10 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 2 on TLC.
Update: We initially reported that Apple had blocked the app, but it now appears that the developer's servers were simply overwhelmed (Apple's servers distribute the app, but the images themselves are pulled from the developer's server). We'll have further updates as the story continues to evolve.
Back when Apple first launched its App Store, Steve Jobs showed a slide with six categories of apps that would be verboten: "Porn, privacy, bandwidth hog, illegal, malicious," and "unforeseen." Well, on Wednesday Apple allowed a developer to add nude models to the 17+ rated app "Hottest Girls," ushering in what may--or may not be--a new era for iPhoneapps.
When news of the nude images first leaked out, the Mac enthusiast site Macenstein proclaimed, "And then there was porn." The headline was followed by the rather titillating lede: "Today the iTunes app store became a man, having finally seen its first adult app. Meaning nudity. Meaning boobies."
As noted, "Hottest Girls" ($1.99), carries Apple's 17+ rating (for "Frequent/Intense Sexual Content or Nudity.") and until recently only featured women in lingerie and bathing suits. But Hottest Girls' developer Allen Leung told bloggers Wednesday that, "We uploaded nude topless pics today. This is the first app to have nudity."
Macenstein noted that the announcement rivaled "the first transmissions from the moon landing in importance."
That was Wednesday. On Thursday, TechCrunch discovered that it couldn't download the application and immediately assumed Apple had blocked it. But it now appears there were just too many people trying to download the application at once.
A note on the developer's website reads:
"The Hottest Girls app is temporarily sold out. The server usage is extremely high because of the popularity of this app. Thus, by not distributing the app, we can prevent our servers from crashing. Customer satisfaction is more important to us than profits. Those who already have the app will still be able to use our app. To answer the question on everyone's mind: Yes, the topless images will still be there when it is sold again."
Of course, this brings into question the whole notion of just what "porn" is--and isn't. In some parts of America, an app that boasts "completely naked pics" would be considered indecent, plain and simple. But in parts of Europe, well, Hottest Girls is just a day at the beach.
What do you think? Is this good news? And how relaxed do you think Apple will be? Or is it just a matter of time before the company shuts down tawdry apps like this because it potentially damages its reputation?
Pair had a huge argument right after civil ceremony, wanted annulment
BERLIN - A Polish couple living in Germany fell out after tying the knot and decided to end their marriage on the same day.
"He said he never wanted to see her again and wanted an immediate annulment, and she said the same thing," a spokesman for police in the northern city of Hanover said Thursday.
Right after the civil ceremony Wednesday, the 50-year-old man began rowing with his bride and tried to cut her hair with a kitchen knife, police said.
The 34-year-old woman called police, who issued the man with a restraining order, which he readily accepted, police said.
Two attempts at a rapprochement later that evening by telephone ended in more shouted exchanges before the man went to spend his wedding night in a local shelter for homeless people.
(CNN) -- Farrah Fawcett, the blonde-maned actress whose best-selling poster and "Charlie's Angels" stardom made her one of the most famous faces in the world, died Thursday. She was 62.
Farrah Fawcett rose to fame in the 1970s, thanks to a best-selling poster and the hit show "Charlie Angels."
Fawcett's death was confirmed by Paul Bloch, one of her representatives at Rogers and Cowan, an entertainment public relations firm.
Fawcett, who checked into a hospital in early April, had been battling anal cancer on and off for three years.
Bloch told CNN that Ryan O'Neal, Fawcett's romantic partner since the mid-1980s, and her friend Alana Stewart were with Fawcett at Saint John's Hospital in Santa Monica, California, when she died.
"Although this is an extremely difficult time for her family and friends, we take comfort in the beautiful times that we shared with Farrah over the years and the knowledge that her life brought joy to so many people around the world," O'Neal said in a written statement.
O'Neal is the father of Fawcett's son, Redmond O'Neal, born in 1985. Redmond O'Neal is in an intense rehabilitation program conducted in the Los Angeles county jail, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve Whitmore told CNN on Thursday.
Fawcett's son was informed on Wednesday night by a grief counselor and a chaplain that his mother's death was imminent, and a grief counselor and chaplain also told him when she died, Whitmore said.
The young man, who is currently with a chaplain, has spoken with his father, Whitmore said.
Ryan O'Neal had recently told People magazine that the sex symbol was declining.
"She stays in bed now. The doctors see that she is comfortable. Farrah is on IVs, but some of that is for nourishment. The treatment has pretty much ended," he said in a story posted May 7.
Fawcett's cancer journey has been documented in a television special partly shot by the actress. Fawcett began shooting "Farrah's Story," by taking a camera to a doctor's appointment. Eventually, the film expanded to include trips overseas in hopes of treating the cancer.
Fawcett's beauty -- her gleaming smile was printed on millions of posters -- initially made her famous. But she later established herself as a serious actress. She starred as a battered wife in the 1984 TV movie "The Burning Bed." She appeared on stage as a woman who extracts vengeance from a would-be rapist in William Mastrosimone's play "Extremities."
She reprised the "Extremities" role on film in 1986. Other Fawcett films include "Logan's Run" (1976), "Saturn 3" (1980), "The Cannonball Run" (1981), "The Apostle" (1997) and the Robert Altman-directed "Dr. T and the Women" (2000).
To many, Fawcett will always be best known for her red-swimsuited image on the pinup poster, which sold a reputed 12 million copies after its release in 1976.
Fawcett was a model best known for bit parts, commercials and as "Six Million Dollar Man" actor Lee Majors' wife when she shot the poster in early 1976 at the behest of Pro Arts, a Cleveland, Ohio, company.
Photographer Bruce McBroom placed Fawcett -- then known as Farrah Fawcett-Majors -- in the Indian blanket-draped front seat of his 1937 Chevy and snapped away. Fawcett did her own hair -- a long, tousled cascade of blonde locks -- picked out the red bathing suit and chose the frame later used for the poster, according to a story in the Toronto Star.
The poster, with Fawcett's million-dollar smile front and center, became a sensation.
Soon after the photo shoot, Fawcett was asked to join the cast of a new Aaron Spelling TV show, "Charlie's Angels," about a trio of female detectives who work for a mysterious man named Charlie, whose only appearance in the show was through his voice (supplied by John Forsythe).
Fawcett, who played Jill Munroe, was the last to be cast. Co-star Kate Jackson was the known name at the time, but thanks to her poster, Fawcett became the breakout star.
The highly rated TV series kicked off what came to be known as "jiggle TV," series full of pretty actresses who appeared in bikinis at the drop of a hat.
"Denunciations of 'massage parlor television' and 'voyeurism' only brought more viewers to the screen, to see what the controversy was about," wrote Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh about "Charlie's Angels" in their indispensable reference, "The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows."
ABC's "Three's Company" and CBS's "The American Girls" were among the shows that immediately followed, and shows such as "Baywatch" owe "Charlie's Angels" a debt.
But Fawcett didn't stay with "Angels" long. At the end of the first season, unhappy with her contract, she left the show and was replaced by Cheryl Ladd.
Fawcett's career stagnated for a time after "Charlie's Angels." She appeared in a handful of forgettable films and divorced Majors.
But her career received a major boost with her starring role in "The Burning Bed," a 1984 TV movie co-starring Paul Le Mat. Fawcett played an abused wife who sets fire to her husband's bed as he lies sleeping. Fawcett received an Emmy nomination for her performance.
Fawcett also became romantically involved with O'Neal around this time. The pair had a son, Redmond, in 1985.
In recent years, Fawcett has appeared sporadically in the public eye. She posed nude for Playboy in 1995. In 1997, she appeared on "The Late Show with David Letterman," an interview that became notorious for Fawcett's apparent incoherence. She later said she was just having fun with Letterman.
She reunited with her "Charlie's Angels" co-stars, Jackson and Jaclyn Smith, for an awards show in 2006.
Fawcett was born in Corpus Christi, Texas, in 1947. She married Majors in 1973; they divorced nine years later.
(CNN) -- Entertainer Michael Jackson has died after being taken to a hospital on Thursday after suffering cardiac arrest, according to multiple reports including the Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press. CNN has not confirmed his death.
A Los Angeles fire official told CNN that paramedics arrived at Michael Jackson's home after a 911 call.
Jackson, 50, had been in a coma at the hospital, sources told CNN.
Brian Oxman, a Jackson family attorney, said he was told by brother Randy Jackson that Michael Jackson collapsed at his home in west Los Angeles Thursday morning.
Family members were told of the situation and were either at the hospital or en route, Oxman said.
Fire Capt. Steve Ruda told CNN a 911 call came in from a west Los Angeles residence at 12:21 p.m.
Ruda said Jackson was treated and transferred to the UCLA Medical Center.
Asked specifics of the patient's condition, he said he could not discuss them because of federal privacy laws.
The music icon from Gary, Indiana, is known as the "King of Pop."
Jackson is the seventh of nine children in a well-known musical family.
At the medical center, every entrance to the emergency room was blocked by security guards. Even hospital staffers were not permitted to enter. A few people stood inside the waiting area, some of them crying.
Marijuana remains illegal even though public attitudes are clearly changing on this topic. It is illegal even though 100 million Americans have smoked it and suffered little if any negative side effects. It is illegal even though 40% or more of Americans currently support legalization. It is illegal even though it is not physically addictive; you cannot overdose on marijuana; and the dependency rate of marijuana is lower than alcohol.
Marijuana remains illegal even though prohibition is incredibly expensive. The federal government spends at least $10 billion per year specifically on marijuana prohibition. Approximately 60,000 people are in prisons in America on marijuana violations only. If all 15-25 million Americans who smoke marijuana monthly were imprisoned, the country would spend $365 billion per year to incarcerate these people. Considering the country could reap approximately $6.2 billion per year if marijuana were taxed and regulated like alcohol, the war on marijuana easily costs somewhere in the neighborhood of $20 billion per year.
Marijuana remains illegal even though prohibition has miserably failed. After 35 years of a war on drugs largely targeting marijuana, the same number of high school students now say marijuana is easy to get and they had used it as answered those question in the affirmative in 1975. It remains illegal even though the Obama administration has declared an end to the “war on drugs,” while at the same time laughing off marijuana legalization.
Marijuana prohibition continues even though it empowers Mexican drug cartels. Approximately 60-70% of the profit of Mexican drug cartels comes from marijuana sales. If marijuana were taxed and regulated, this black market would virtually disappear, Mexican drug cartels would be much weaker, and our border would be much more secure.
Despite these facts, most politicians continue support marijuana prohibition. Commission after commission and newspaper editorial board after board may endorse marijuana legalization, but it continues to be ignored in state capitals. Grassroots activism does a great job keeping this issue in the press, but politicians continue to ignore it. Few politicians see it in their narrow interests of reelection to come out in favor of legalization of marijuana.
What follows is a brief analysis of some of the factors that continue to propagate the inertia of marijuana prohibition:
Facts don’t matter
When it comes to marijuana, statistics don’t seem to matter. Costs don’t matter. As noted above, no matter how many billions per year it costs to enforce marijuana prohibition, there seems to be no cost too high to prohibit it. Prohibitionist seem to be saying that there is no cost to high to attempt to limit marijuana use.
Overall use and teen use is lower in countries that have legalized (Amsterdam) or fully decriminalized marijuana (Portugal, Spain, Britian) than in the United States. There is no real evidence that marijuana is a gateway drug (in fact research shows that marijuana is largely a terminus drug - meaning people use nothing more than marijuana throughout their lives).
In Colorado alone, 13,000 people are arrested every year on marijuana charges. Another few hundred are in prison on marijuana charges. In total, Colorado spends around $85 million dollars per year on marijuana prohibition. If Colorado taxed and regulated marijuana, the net gain for the state coffers would be $150 million per year.
None of this seems to matter to those in favor of prohibition. Instead, the debate turns on value judgments and justifications not tried to any empirical data. While those favoring legalization should continue to insist that we deal with empirical data, facts alone will not legalize marijuana.
Prohibition is a hangover of the 60s culture war
By far the greatest impediments to living in a world where marijuana is not criminalized are the left over stereotypes and culture wars from the 1960s and 70s. Those where the decades when the counterculture made widespread marijuana use synonymous with alternative lifestyles and an implicit rejection of mainstream traditional American values.
The classic narrative of drug use in America is that while it may have started out as an innocent and idealized behavior in the 60s, the 70s and early 80s saw the “drug culture” deteriorate into a narcissistic world of selfishness and excess. The irresponsibility of some early users saddled the next several generations with the general notion that marijuana users were not good citizens and their lifestyles did not produce healthy communities and families. Simply put, prohibitionist have succeeded in branding marijuana users as irresponsible and not serious. That perception must change, even if it means more people “coming out of the closet” and showing that marijuana use can occur in conjunction with healthy, intelligent lifestyles.
Marijuana Prohibition Criminalizes Youth and Leads to Skewed Electoral Results
The classic pattern of marijuana use is that people begin experiment with marijuana near the end of high school. Experimentation steadily tappers off through their late 20s and for most people by their mid-30s, marijuana use is a rare or nonexistent experience. As people acquire more responsibility (marriage, children, mortgage), they find less room in their lives for marijuana.
This trend also explains why political change is so hard. As marijuana withers from adults’ habits, they are less likely to pursue or advocate for reform. By a person’s mid-30s, he or she has already quit using marijuana so they have no incentive to seek its legalization. This leads to the general atmosphere of marijuana reform, which is that too few people remain directly affected throughout their lifetimes so as to care about changing marijuana laws. Those that continue to “care,” perhaps care too much and are seen as radicals by the establishment. The reform movement needs to engage past users to help change marijuana laws.
Free rider problem and Selective Enforcement
For those that will continue to use marijuana throughout their lifetime (perhaps 6%-10% of users), there also is little incentive to advocate for legalization. As few as 2 in 100 people ever suffer criminal justice sanctions as a consequence of their marijuana use. Because so few stakeholders feel the effects of prohibition, those with the most at stake in legalization are not in the streets demanding change. The difference between the gay rights movement and marijuana proponents is that by advocating for marijuana rights people immediately subject themselves to criminal prosecution – something no longer possible for gay activists.
Related to the free rider problem is the low stakes involved in most marijuana arrests. With the exception of a few states in the deep south and Utah, in most places marijuana arrests result in a small fine and perhaps community service and/or drug counseling. The popular stereotype that our prisons are filled with people who only smoked marijuana cigarettes is not accurate. Small time users generally do not go to jail, but cultivators and distributors do. Therefore, the lack of serious sanctions has also deflated the potential movement against injustice because the stakes are so small. Why would a doctor or lawyer risk his or her reputation seeking to legalize marijuana when the sanctions are already so slight? Again, these free riders need to be convinced that advocating for marijuana legalization is a “gateway issue” to reforming the larger failed drug war and that they may not avoid prosecution forever.
Inability to have an honest discussion about drugs – lack of acknowledgement of responsible use
Another barrier to societal acceptance of marijuana is the inability to have an honest dialogue about the potential positive benefits of marijuana use. Universally, when drugs and marijuana are discussed in public, the frame of debate is that marijuana use is a self-destructive and unhealthy activity. There is little public acknowledgement that for millions of people occasional and responsible marijuana use has greatly enhanced their lives, such as by making a walk in nature powerfully introspective, by resulting in riotous laughter, or by making their sex lives more fulfilling. Instead, those who are usually the most outspoken about marijuana’s positive aspects tend to preach in a manner that makes marijuana use out to be an unmitigated good, refusing to acknowledge any negative consequences of abuse. The message of legalization must be that while legalization may marginally increase some irresponsible behavior, the savings from ending the war on marijuana will far outstrip any harms.
Just say no is an easy message for parents
Parents have always had a hard time discussing drug use with their children. Many parents are conflicted on this issue because a large percentage of parents once experimented with marijuana. Keeping marijuana illegal gives parents an unassailable reason why their kids should not use it: because it is illegal. The simplicity and utility of prohibition is a major reason that many parents passively support it, even if they privately don’t believe marijuana is harmful. Parents need to be shown alternative methods for keeping their children away from marijuana, such as science based drug education.
A long term minority without a constitutional right protecting them
The main Constitutional defense to marijuana prosecution is that it violates rights to privacy under the 5th and 14th Amendment. Unfortunately, other than Alaska, most experts believe that state privacy rights are not strong enough to protect marijuana use in your own home. There are no other significant constitutional guarantees that can be expected to protect marijuana users. Unlike racial minorities or gays and lesbians, it is unlikely that marijuana users can seek refuge in Constitutional clauses for their activities. With only 15-25 million regular users, about 10%-15% of all adults in America, it is unlikely that a majority of American adults will ever use marijuana on a regular basis as long as it is illegal. Without a constitutional right to protect them, it is unlikely they will be able to muster electoral majorities in the next 10-15 years to end their persecution.
Discomfort with Freedom
Despite America being the “land of the free and home of the brave,” in practice there appears to be a significant resistance and discomfort with giving people the freedom to make potentially bad choices. Regardless of how many can use marijuana safely or responsibly, if some abuse it, many will oppose legalizing it. This inherent discomfort with the actual practice of freedom is a major cultural hurdle to legalization.
The many have always paid for the poor choices of the few. Marijuana prohibition is by definition a preemptive war which seeks to criminalize all who use marijuana because a few may abuse it. While America seems to recognizing the futility of preemptive wars, there is still a strong undercurrent of support for this type of reaction.
Discomfort with Marijuana Intoxication Compared with Alcohol
There is no principled distinction between alcohol and marijuana intoxication. The Attorney General of Colorado says that people can drink alcohol in “sub-intoxicating doses,” which seems only possible for those chronic users of alcohol who are not affected by small amounts. Of course, the mild psychedelic or psychological aspects of the marijuana are different than alcohol. The paranoia resulting from marijuana use in a small number of users is among its most common psychological negative effect. While most people experience great insight and pleasure from the use of marijuana, others experience this paranoia. The general discomfort with psychedelic or spiritual experiences related to marijuana use lead many to a conclusion that it should not be widely used. Again, this is the many paying for the negative consequences of the few.
Conclusion
Marijuana legalization is gaining steam. I believe firmly that in my lifetime it will be legal for both medical and recreational purposes. What seems necessary at this point is to build a movement of tolerance for responsible marijuana users’ rights to be left alone. This tolerance will also need to acknowledge that a small minority of people may abuse their freedom if marijuana is legalized and that society will need to deal with those negative effects. Surely all the money saved on incarceration and prohibition would cover the costs of any negative effects of legalization. Rather than spending another generation toiling under a failed system, I hope we can end this failed preemptive war on marijuana soon. However, it will not end until the reform movement addresses the above concerns and transforms the debate back into a human-centered fact-based dialogue which focuses on reasonable solutions rather than ideology.
nbcsports.msnbc.com CLEVELAND - The Cleveland Cavaliers are close to acquiring center Shaquille O’Neal in a trade with the Phoenix Suns, a person with knowledge of the deal told The Associated Press on Thursday.
The teams have reached an agreement in principle on the deal, which would unite O’Neal with Cavaliers superstar LeBron James, the NBA’s MVP.
O’Neal will join Cleveland in exchange for center Ben Wallace, guard Sasha Pavlovic, a second-round draft pick (No. 46 overall) and cash, said the person who spoke on condition of anonymity because the league still must approve the deal.
Yahoo! Sports first reported the deal.
The trade, which the sides had been discussing for months, gives the Suns financial flexibility in the future. O’Neal has just one season left on a $20 million contract and Wallace, who ended last season saying he may retire, is in the final year of a $14 million deal.
In Cleveland, O’Neal could be the missing piece for James to win a first championship. The 7-foot hoops icon certainly gives the city a surge of star power.
O’Neal’s addition gives Cleveland some much needed size in its frontcourt. The Cavs couldn’t stop Orlando center Dwight Howard in the Eastern Conference finals, losing the series in six games and seeing a 66-win regular season and deep playoff run come up short.
O’Neal can still bang inside, which is why Cavaliers general manager Danny Ferry tried to acquire him before the trading deadline in February.
The Suns were a West-leading 34-14 when they acquired O’Neal in February 2008. He averaged 17.8 points and 8.4 rebounds last season and appeared in his 15th All-Star game, stealing the show with a goofy dance during pregame introductions at U.S. Airways Center.
O’Neal answered to “the Big Cactus” in the desert, but the plodding 7-foot-1, 325-pounder seemed a strange fit with the up-tempo Suns.
Popular coach Mike D’Antoni, who reportedly pushed management to acquire Shaq, left at the end of O’Neal’s first season. D’Antoni was replaced by Terry Porter, who was fired in midseason after a failed attempt to get the team to play better defense.
The Suns won one playoff game in O’Neal’s 1½ seasons — and last spring they failed to qualify for the postseason for the first time since 2004.
Soon after the season ended, speculation began to grow that the club was looking to deal O’Neal while his trade value was still high.
Stephen Baldwin Getty Images If you ask us, there's no better way to start off a news week than with some seriously nauseating Stephen Baldwin news. The always interesting actor has quit 'I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!' for a reason that we feel is totally legitimate: He has lots of insect larvae in his leg. Baldwin says that within the first few days of taping the reality show in the Costa Rican jungle, he received 125+ bug bites, including 30 on his left leg. "Within about 72 hours they were these half dollar-sized lumps under my skin that were probably about an inch thick and were situations where they just weren't a reaction that were the same as the others - 123 so to speak," Baldwin told blogtalkradio.
The actor says that the medic on staff "explained that in his opinion at that point he didn't think that it was the 'implantation of insect larvae into my flesh', but that - oh gosh - that's what it could be... So they tested these things and sure enough, Stevie B was 'pregnant'." In order to rid himself of said larvae, Baldwin had to undergo a medical procedure to remove them ... which he says he videotaped. What does such a procedure look like? The "creepiest thing that you could think of," Baldwin says.
Before his journey to the jungle, Baldwin stopped by the PopEater offices to discuss what his demise might be ... and what do you know, he thought it'd be bugs! However, he was talking more in the sense of eating them than birthing them... tomato, tomahto.
Woman defends hereself against armed intruders. Fights for her life after family is murdered. By 790 KNST News Team Wednesday, June 17, 2009 Chilling new details into last month's deadly home invasion in Arivaca - about ten miles north of the Arizona/Mexico border.
The Pima County Sheriff's Department has released the 9-1-1 call, made by one of the female victims inside the home, in the early morning hours of May 30th.
Bresenia Flores, age 9, and her father Junior Flores, were both killed by the intruders.
The woman heard on the tape, the girl's mother, was able to fire back, wounding one of the intruders, though she suffered a gunshot wound to the leg. Three people, including a woman and two men, remain in the Pima County Jail in connection with the home invasion.
Investigators tell 790 KNST News, they believe the suspects were looking for drugs and money inside the home. The slain father, 29-year-old Raul Junior Flores, was believed to be involved with drug trafficking, police say, but officers don't think the assailants found much cash or drugs in the home.
Former Everett woman's arrest rekindles interest in other cases
Now that a self-styled anti-immigrant crusader is sitting in an Arizona jail, charged with killing a man and his 9-year-old daughter, police in Everett say they are re-examining two earlier incidents in which her then-estranged husband was shot and she suffered what she claimed was a gunshot wound.
In December, Shawna Forde's estranged husband was shot three times in his Everett home by a stranger. A week later, Forde claimed on her Web site that she had been beaten with a bat, cut with a knife and raped by three attackers who spoke Spanish and wrote the number 13 on her floor.
A few weeks later, Forde, a self-styled anti-immigration crusader, was found by police in an Everett alleyway, suffering from what she claimed was a gunshot wound to her right forearm.
No one was ever arrested in the incidents.
But now that Forde is sitting in an Arizona jail, charged with killing a man and his 9-year-old daughter during a botched home-invasion robbery May 30 in the small town of Arivaca, Everett police say they are taking another look at two of the earlier incidents.
"The lead detective is looking to see if there is any information that might be helpful in solving our cases," Everett Police Department spokesman Sgt. Robert Goetz said Tuesday.
Forde's recent arrest has not only rekindled interest in the Everett cases. Police in California also are looking into whether Forde and two men charged in the Pima case — Jason Eugene Bush, 34, and Albert Robert Gaxiola, 42 — are connected to another home-invasion robbery on June 8 in Shasta Lake, Calif.
According to the Redding Record Searchlight newspaper, friends of Forde's biological mother, who lives in nearby Redding, were robbed at gunpoint by two men in U.S. Marshals uniforms who bound their wrists with cable ties and took a large amount of cash.
The couple said that Forde had cut the hair of one of the victims, a woman. They said Forde knew that the woman had just received an inheritance and was keeping the cash at home because she didn't trust the banks, the Record Searchlight reported.
Shasta County sheriff's Sgt. John Hubbard said the person who drove the robbers away from the home could have been Forde. "Shawna [Forde] has been to the house and knows them and knows they have money," he told the newspaper.
But the timing of the Shasta Lake home invasion — eight days after the Arivaca incident — could cast doubt on a connection.
Bush was arrested Thursday in Kingman, Ariz., just three days after the Shasta Lake robbery. He is in a Kingman hospital recovering from a bullet wound after he was shot in the calf during the Arivaca home invasion.
Bush, who has ties to white-supremacist groups, was charged last week in Chelan County Superior Court with the 1997 killing of a Hispanic transient in Wenatchee. An informant told Wenatchee police that Bush had bragged about killing "a Mexican" behind a store, according to court documents. Prosecutors say he was linked to the death through DNA evidence.
Forde, 41, Bush and Gaxiola were charged last week with first-degree murder in the May 30 slayings of a father and his 9-year-old daughter.
According to the Pima County, Ariz., sheriff's office, three people dressed as law-enforcement officers forced their way into the victims' home and shot the father, mother and child.
The mother survived and shot and wounded Bush, the sheriff's office said. The Pima County Sheriff's Department has said Forde was the founder of the Minutemen American Defense organization, an anti-illegal-immigration splinter group, and had been trying to fund a border-watch campaign with the fatal home-invasion robbery.
According to Everett police, Forde's former husband was home alone at the couple's house in the 2200 block of Rockefeller Avenue on Dec. 22 when he was shot several times by a "narrow-faced" stranger.
A week later, in the same house, Forde claimed on her Minutemen American Defense Web site that she had been "brutally attacked," beaten with something like a bat, cut and raped by as many as three assailants. She claimed they talked about drowning her, one of them spoke Spanish and they left a sign linking them to a gang or Mexican drug cartel.
On Jan. 15, she claimed she was walking alone to a friend's house when she saw two cars that she'd seen circling her house two weeks earlier, ducked into an alley in the 1800 block of 24th Street and was allegedly shot in the arm, according to a report in The Herald newspaper of Everett.
Forde claimed in a February interview with the newspaper that the shooting of her husband and the two reported attacks on her were connected to her work near the border, where she said she conducted "desert surveillance and undercover investigations aimed at curbing illegal immigration and drug smuggling."
In the same newspaper story, however, she also implicated friends of her son in the attacks. At the time, her son was in prison on unrelated weapons charges.
Everett police said Tuesday they continue to investigate the shooting of Forde's former husband and the alleged attack on her in the alley. Goetz said Everett police are waiting for the state crime lab to analyze evidence collected during the investigations.
The Dec. 29 case, in which Forde claimed to have been attacked and raped, has been closed.
"We just don't have any evidence to follow in that case," Goetz said.
More on Shawna Fordes Anti-Illegal Immigration Movement here
NBC Chicago Forty pounds of weed in a federal court room can make a point.
In this case, U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk displayed a huge pile of uber-potent marijuana at the Dirksen Federal Building to say this: super pot is super bad.
"Kush" is the street name for a type of marijuana making the suburban rounds with THC levels more than five times higher than pot from the early 1990s. Congressman Kirk stood before nearly $200,000 worth of the drug because he wants stronger penalties for selling it.
"If you make as much money selling pot as cocaine, you should face the same penalties," Kirk said of the marijuana that can go for as much as $600 an ounce.
Kirk was joined Monday by Lake County law enforcement officials, who have seen more "Kush" in recent years. The drug is more potent because of the advances in hydroponics and the control of light, temperature, humidity -- and ultimately, THC levels.
Kush
A strain of Cannabis, almost solely of the Indica variety. The name "Kush" originates from the Hindu-Kush mountains where it was cultivated for thousands of years. This sweet smelling plant is part of the Cannabis Indica family, which leads the plant to be short and squat in appearance. Some forms of Kush, however, are in fact a hybrid between Cannabis Indica and Cannabis Sativa...which leads to greater harvests. Varieties of the Kush plant include,(But are not limited to), Hindu Kush, OG Kush, Purple Kush, Master Kush. Many crossbreeds exist as well.
chicagobreakingnews.com Cops: Teen details half-sister's killing June 16, 2009 10:23 PM | keithrandulich.jpg
A Mokena teenager told police that he cut his 4-year-old half-sister's throat with a steak knife and stabbed her while his younger brother played a wrestling video game upstairs, according to a search warrant affidavit filed by a Mokena detective in Will County Circuit Court.
In a bizarre statement allegedly given to the police, Keith Randulich, 18, confessed to stabbing his half-sister, Sabrina Clement, a few hours after an argument in which his mother refused to buy him a gun, the affidavit said, because he couldn't get a gun to kill the person he believed was abusing the little girl, according to court documents filed recently. He wanted to kill a person he thought had been molesting Sabrina for two years and he was too big to kill without a gun.
Court records say that after the May 22 killing, police removed a bloody carpet from the sub-basement, along with six desktop computers, a collection of horror films and heavy-metal CDs and a rubber clown mask. Police said they also found disturbing writings in the house.
The horrific killing has shocked Mokena, a southwest suburb of about 15,000 people. Randulich, who has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder, is being held in lieu of $10 million bail. He is due back in court Monday.
According to the statement Randulich allegedly gave police, the teen called 911 at 7:54 p.m. on the day of the slaying, then met police at the door, his pants covered in blood.
"It was me," he said in a soft voice, according to the affidavit.
Inside the home in the 19400 block of York Drive, police found drops of blood leading up the carpeted steps from the sub-basement across the white ceramic kitchen floor to a wall-mounted phone with a handset covered in blood. Randulich had called 911 three times after the slaying, saying "come over quick" and "get over here" in two separate calls, the affidavit stated.
The court document said Randulich confessed to taking Clement into the sub-basement, straddling her as she struggled and screamed, and stabbing her.
The Lincoln Way East High School senior, who was a week away from graduation, returned home from school about 3 p.m. and fought with his mother about buying a gun, which he'd recently been licensed to own, the court document said. His parents and 14-year-old brother later left for a school event.
Randulich's 16-year-old brother told police he was upstairs playing a video game, unaware that anything was wrong until he saw flashing police lights through his bedroom window, the affidavit stated. He went downstairs, saw Keith covered in blood and asked, "What did you do?"
Mokena police did not return calls Tuesday. One of Randulich's two public defenders did not return a voice message.
None of Randulich's family attended a May 26 court hearing and his relatives have declined to comment when reached by phone.
Yes I am a fan of Janet Evanovich and have read all her books. Fast reading and fun, you will get wrapped up in Stephanie Plum's crazy world as a bounty hunter with attitude. In Stephanie's opinion, toxic waste, rabid drivers, armed schizophrenics, and August heat, humidity, and hydrocarbons are all part of the great adventure of living in Jersey.
She's a product of the "burg," a blue-collar pocket of Trenton where houses are attached and narrow, cars are American, windows are clean, and (God forbid you should be late) dinner is served at six.
Now Stephanie's all grown up and out on her own, living five miles from Mom and Dad's, doing her best to sever the world's longest umbilical cord. Her mother is a meddler, and her grandmother is a few cans short of a case.
Out of work and out of money, with her Miata repossessed and her refrigerator empty, Stephanie blackmails her bail bondsman cousin, Vinnie, into giving her a try as an apprehension agent. Stephanie knows zilch about the job requirements, but she figures her new pal, fearless bounty hunter Ranger, can teach her what it takes to catch a crook.
Her first assignment: nail Joe Morelli, a former vice cop on the run from a charge of murder one. Morelli is also the irresistible macho pig who took Stephanie's virginity at age sixteen and then wrote the details on the bathroom wall of Mario's Sub Shop. There's still powerful chemistry between these two, so the chase should be interesting......
By BRETT ZONGKER and MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN, Associated Press Writers Brett Zongker And Michael J. Sniffen, Associated Press Writers – news.yahoo.com 6 mins ago
WASHINGTON – One Metro transit train smashed into the rear of another at the height of the capital city's Monday evening rush hour, killing at least six people and injuring scores of others as the front end of the trailing train jackknifed violently into the air and fell atop the first.
Cars of both trains were ripped open and smashed together in the worst accident in the Metrorail system's 33-year history. District of Columbia fire spokesman Alan Etter said crews had to cut some people out of what he described as a "mass casualty event." Rescue workers propped steel ladders up to the upper train cars to help survivors scramble to safety. Seats from the smashed cars spilled out onto the track.
D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty said six were confirmed dead. Fire Chief Dennis Rubin said rescue workers treated 76 people at the scene and sent some of them to local hospitals, six with critical injuries. A search for further victims continued into the night.
A Metro official said the dead included the operator of the trailing train. Her name was not immediately released.
President Barack Obama sent his condolences to the victims of the crash.
"Michelle and I were saddened by the terrible accident in Northeast Washington, D.C., today," Obama said in a statement issued Monday night. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families and friends affected by this tragedy."
The president also thanked rescue personnel who helped to save lives.
The crash around 5 p.m. EDT took place on the system's red line, Metro's busiest, which runs below ground for much of its length but is at ground level at the accident site near the Maryland border in northeast Washington.
Metro chief John Catoe said the first train was stopped on the tracks, waiting for another to clear the station ahead, when the trailing train, one of the oldest in the Metro fleet, plowed into it from behind.
Officials had no explanation for the accident. The National Transportation Safety Board took charge of the investigation and sent a team to the site. DC police and the FBI also had investigators at the scene to help search the wreckage for any overlooked injured or dead passengers and evidence.
Officials would not say how fast the train was traveling at the time of the accident. The crash occurred in an area with a sizable distance between rail stations in which trains are allowed to travel at higher speeds, Metro spokeswoman Candace Smith said.
Investigators are searching the wreckage for the trains' devices that record operating speeds and commands, NTSB member Debbie Hersman said.
Each train had six cars and was capable of holding as many as 1,200 people. Hersman said the trains were bound for downtown. That would mean they were less likely to be filled during the afternoon rush hour.
The trains had pulled out of the Takoma Park station and were headed in the direction of the Fort Totten station.
More than 200 firefighters from D.C., Maryland and Virginia eventually converged on the scene. Sabrina Webber, a 45-year-old real estate agent who lives in the neighborhood, said the first rescuers to arrive had to use the "jaws of life" to pry open a wire fence along rail line to get to the train.
Webber raced to the scene after hearing a loud boom like a "thunder crash" and then sirens. She said there was no panic among the survivors.
Passenger Jodie Wickett, a nurse, told CNN she was seated on one train, sending text messages on her phone, when she felt the impact. She said she sent a message to someone that it felt like the train had hit a bump.
"From that point on, it happened so fast, I flew out of the seat and hit my head." Wickett said she stayed at the scene and tried to help. She said "people are just in very bad shape."
"The people that were hurt, the ones that could speak, were calling back as we called out to them," she said. "Lots of people were upset and crying, but there were no screams."
One man said he was riding a bicycle across a bridge over the Metro tracks when the sound of the crash got his attention.
"I didn't see any panic," Barry Student said. "The whole situation was so surreal."
At Howard University Hospital, Dr. Johnnie Ford, an emergency room doctor, said a 14-year-old girl suffered two broken legs in the accident. A 20-year-old male patient "looked like he had been tumbled around quite a bit, bumps and bruises from head to toe," Ford said.
Homeland Security Department spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said less than two hours after the crash that federal authorities had no indication of any terrorism connection.
"I don't know the reason for this accident," Metro's Catoe said. "I would still say the system is safe, but we've had an incident."
Monday's crash was the third major subway or commuter rail crash in a big city in the past nine months. In the earlier accidents:
• In September 2008, a commuter rail train and a freight train crashed in Los Angeles, killing 25 people. The crash was blamed on an engineer on the commuter rail sending text messages on a cell phone.
• Last month about 50 people were injured in Boston when one trolley rear-ended another. The conductor admitted to sending a text message when the crash occurred.
No reason was given for the Washington crash, but some safety experts are concerned about the recent increase.
"I'm not sure if everyone in the safety system is paying the proper attention that needs to be paid," said Barry Sweedler, a San Francisco-based safety consultant and former investigator and manager at the NTSB. "These things shouldn't be happening."
However, Robert Lauby, a former NTSB rail investigator, said the increase in accidents could well be mere coincidence.
"Just because you had them doesn't mean there's a specific issue that caused them," Lauby said.
The only other time in Metrorail's 33-year history that there were passenger fatalities was on Jan. 13, 1982, when three people died as a result of a derailment underneath downtown. That was a day of disaster in the capital — shortly before the subway crash, an Air Florida plane slammed into the 14th Street Bridge immediately after takeoff in a severe snowstorm from Washington National Airport across the Potomac River. The plane crash killed 78 people.
