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Military Taser Has 200 Foot Range
11.06.2009
07:45 pm
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Discover Magazine reports on a new military-grade Taser which has a 200-foot range and has raised concerns about lethality. As opposed to what, um, guns and all that OTHER stuff the military uses? Hey, I just hope mall cops don’t end up with them…

If you?

Posted by Jason Louv
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11.06.2009
07:45 pm
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Obama’s Brother Meets The Chinese Press
11.04.2009
12:51 pm
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After flying well below the radar for the last few years, Barack Obama’s younger brother, Mark Okoth Obama Ndesandjo, surfaced yesterday—his first public speaking event—to promote his new, autobiographical novel, Nairobi to Shenzhen.

Speaking from Shenzhen, where he lives with his Chinese wife, Ndesandjo said little about Barack, but he did say, “We are family.  I love my family and we are in touch.”  Seeing his brother win the Presidency helped Ndesandjo come to terms with his painful past—enough, anyway, to finish the book, what the Brown and Stanford-educated Ndesandjo calls a search for “identity and self.”

In the 255-page novel, self-published through Aventine Press, Ndesandjo’s character is called David.  He makes no reference to his brother, Barack.  But he depicts their Kenyan father as an abusive alcoholic who beats David, and David’s Jewish American mother.

Barack Obama Sr. married Mark’s mother, Ruth Nidesand, while he was studying at Harvard, after divorcing President Obama’s mother, Stanley Ann Dunham.  The elder Obama and Nidesand lived together in Nairobi, Kenya, where Mark spent much of his childhood.  How much of the book is true?

‘It’s a work of fiction, but there’s a lot going on in there that parallels my life,’ Ndesandjo said.

 
The Washington Post: Obama’s Brother Speaks Out For First Time

Posted by Bradley Novicoff
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11.04.2009
12:51 pm
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Pair Demand Apology Over Racist Receipt
11.04.2009
10:57 am
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A student and his girlfriend are outraged after being called a ‘black couple’ on their receipt by staff at a London pub.

Johnson Abraham, 24, and Roxanne Duhur, 21, claim they were the only couple dining when they received their bill at the Slug And Lettuce in Islington Green.

Mr Abraham, a mechanical engineering student from Dalston, was at the pub last month with Ms Duhur to celebrate her new job as an estate agent.

They ordered at the bar, without a table number, before going upstairs to find a seat. When they went to pay for the meal the comment ‘upstairs blk couple’ was printed on the bill.

Mr Abraham said: ?

Posted by Tara McGinley
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11.04.2009
10:57 am
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Guant?ɬ
11.03.2009
03:48 pm
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According to The Telegraph, some residents of Guant?ɬ

Posted by Bradley Novicoff
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11.03.2009
03:48 pm
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Mathieu Young?
11.03.2009
01:02 am
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From Good:

The ongoing battle between medical marijuana advocates and law enforcement has begotten some tricky legality, which has lead to all sorts of uncertainty regarding growth and distribution, and, ultimately, prosecution (or non-prosecution) of distributors. Meanwhile, in places like Northern California?

Posted by Tara McGinley
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11.03.2009
01:02 am
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10,000 faithful disappointed as Virgin Mary fails to show
11.02.2009
11:03 am
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imageMore than 10,000 people were left disappointed in Ireland Saturday as the Virgin Mary failed to appear as predicted at Knock Basilica.

By 3 p.m. Irish time (10 a.m. EST) about 7,000 people had crammed into the Basilica with a further 3,000 people outside.

Dubliner Joe Coleman, the man who had predicted the apparition left the Basilica at about 4 p.m. saying he had seen Our Lady as anticipated.

Coleman, who says he is ?

Posted by Tara McGinley
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11.02.2009
11:03 am
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America Clocks Out Ahead of Schedule
10.28.2009
03:42 pm
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This rather grim tale has been circulating the lefty net. This version is from The Nation. Pic related.

In November 2008, the National Intelligence Council (NIC), an affiliate of the Central Intelligence Agency, issued the latest in a series of futuristic publications intended to guide the incoming Obama administration. Peering into its analytic crystal ball in a report titled Global Trends 2025, it predicted that America’s global preeminence would gradually disappear over the next fifteen years—in conjunction with the rise of new global powerhouses, especially China and India. The report examined many facets of the future strategic environment, but its most startling, and news-making, finding concerned the projected long-term erosion of American dominance and the emergence of new global competitors. “Although the United States is likely to remain the single most powerful actor [in 2025],” it stated definitively, the country’s “relative strength—even in the military realm—will decline and U.S. leverage will become more constrained.”

That, of course, was then; this—some eleven months into the future—is now, and how things have changed. Futuristic predictions will just have to catch up to the fast-shifting realities of the present moment. Although published after the onset of the global economic meltdown was underway, the report was written before the crisis reached its full proportions and so emphasized that the decline of American power would be gradual, extending over the assessment’s fifteen-year time horizon. But the economic crisis and attendant events have radically upset that timetable. As a result of the mammoth economic losses suffered by the United States over the past year and China’s stunning economic recovery, the global power shift the report predicted has accelerated. For all practical purposes, 2025 is here already.

The article concludes:

How much longer will Washington feel that Americans can afford to subsidize a global role that includes garrisoning much of the planet and fighting distant wars in the name of global security, when the American economy is losing so much ground to its competitors? This is the dilemma President Obama and his advisers must confront in the altered world of 2025.

It’s get off stage gracefully or try and take everyone else with you, I think. Bush tried the second one. It doesn’t work, and the planet doesn’t have the resources to support it.

(The Nation: Welcome to 2025: American Pre-eminence Ends Fifteen Years Early)

Posted by Jason Louv
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10.28.2009
03:42 pm
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One Million Clicks Against Poverty
10.27.2009
02:01 pm
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Pretty neat ad campaign from Amnesty International; there’s a big image of “what global poverty looks like” that it’s going to take a million clicks to unveil. Seems to be steadily progressing. Go carve your gang tag in.

(Amnesty International: 1 Million Clicks Against Poverty)

Posted by Jason Louv
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10.27.2009
02:01 pm
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The Radha Look: Hindu Leaders Displeased with Cross-Dressing Radhas
10.26.2009
03:00 pm
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imageSome men aspire to be gods, while others just want to shack up with them. The latter is the case for V K Saxena, a 72 retired railway man from India, who has donned bangles, skirt and makeup in imitation of Radha, the goddess lover of Krishna.

Saxena claimed that he felt more spiritual awakening in this form.

He also added, ?

Posted by Tara McGinley
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10.26.2009
03:00 pm
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Has anyone told Trutanich? L.A. voters support medical cannabis dispensaries with a strong majority
10.23.2009
07:15 pm
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Limelight-loving L.A. City Atty. Carmen Trutanich has been making headlines and television appearances in recent weeks with his all-out legal assault on medical marijuana dispensaries. Unfortunately for Trutanich, U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric Holder feels that prosecution of medical marijuana patients should be a low priority for law enforcement officials and said so in a memo released Monday. Ouch. Trutanich and L.A. County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley got another setback on Monday as well when a circuit judge ruled that the city’s moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries was illegally extended. Double ouch.

But what might be the most compelling reason of all for Trutanich and Cooley to back off the cannabis biz is the overwhelming support for medical marijuana of the voters who elected them both in the first place.

As John Hoeffel reports from the L.A. Times local desk, over three-quarters of eligible voters are strongly pro-medical marijuana and would prefer to see the dispensaries regulated and taxed, not forced to close:

The poll, completed Monday and Tuesday, also found that 74% support the state’s medical marijuana law, while 54% want to see marijuana legalized, regulated and taxed.

The Marijuana Policy Project, based in Washington, D.C., commissioned the poll by an independent firm, Mason-Dixon Polling & Research, after Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley threatened all dispensaries in the county with prosecution.

—snip—

The poll of 625 voters found that 77% of voters want to regulate dispensaries, while 14% want them closed. Both Democrats (83%-7%) and Republicans (62%-30%) support regulation over prosecution. The Los Angeles City Council is on the verge of adopting regulations after two years of debate and almost 13 years after voters passed Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act.

Even with the stated 4% give-or-take margin of error of the Mason-Dixon poll, this is a uniquely compelling report for Trutanich and Cooley to pay close attention to, especially since it will be these very same voters who’ll be determining their reelection prospects in the future.

Medical marijuana poll: Most L.A. voters support dispensaries by John Hoeffel

Cross posting this at Brand X

Cannabis Orbs by Sookie Sooker

Posted by Richard Metzger
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10.23.2009
07:15 pm
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