Transcendental Medication

CNN on the lasting positive effects of "magic mushrooms":



I haven't shroomed in years. Now I'm tempted...

Higher Pay

Report warns troops stationed in Afghanistan could be tempted to join the drug trade.

There's a "high probability" some Canadian troops serving in Afghanistan – one of the world's biggest sources of illegal drugs – will get involved in the drug trade, a military police report warns.

"Access to illicit drugs in Afghanistan is routine," reads the report obtained by the Star.

"Easy access to heroin, hashish, cannabis presents a temptation for (Canadian) troops in the form of personal use and in the form of importation for the purpose of trafficking," it reads.

Heroic

Real life "superheroes" exposed.

Articles in Rolling Stone and The Sunday Times this month introduce us to real life superheroes, basically vigilantes in spandex with names like Terrifica, Mr. Invisible, Master Legend, and The Ace.

Uninvited Guest

Family finds man living in their attic.

Police in Plains Township, Pennsylvania, found a 21-year-old man in the attic of a duplex apartment after the occupants reported missing cash, a laptop computer, and an iPod. Footprints were spotted in a bedroom closet where a trap door leads to the attic.

Beam

Police forces may get "pain ray".

The High Seas

Semi-submarines being used to smuggle cocaine.

Footloose

Demand for the "Bush shoe" soars, creates 100 jobs.

Ramazan Baydan, owner of the Istanbul-based Baydan Shoe Company, has been swamped with orders from across the world, after insisting that his company produced the black leather shoes which the Iraqi journalist Muntazar al-Zaidi threw at Bush during a press conference in Baghdad last Sunday.

Vigilante Injustice

Of all the fucked up stories to come out of Hurricane Katrina, the shootings of black residents trying to escape the flooding by white "vigilantes" is among the most disturbing. At least 11 people had been shot and the authorities don't seem to be concerned.



At least 11 black people were shot by white gunmen in the days following Hurricane Katrina's destruction of New Orleans, and in the three years since those crimes, little has been done by law enforcement.

According to an 18-month investigation published in The Nation, a predominantly white neighborhood formed a militia after the levees broke to simply keep out people who "didn't belong."

But the investigation reveals a more sinister outcome: black men suffering brutal and unprovoked attacks from white men armed with shotguns, handguns and even assault rifles.

Read the rest here. Democracy Now! has more reporting on the situation here.

Ultraviolence

Many US teens believe "violent behavior is at least sometimes acceptable".

More than a quarter of all U.S. teenagers think violent behavior is at least sometimes acceptable, and one in five say they behaved violently toward another person in the past year, according to a new poll.

I always take surveys of young people with a grain of salt. I lied my ass off on those things back in the day.

Hacking Down the Forest

Hackers aided companies in illegal Amazon deforestation.

In what has come as a shocking revelation, it appears that hi-tech hackers have played an instrumental role in the illegal deforestation of 1.7 million cubic meters of the Amazon rain forest.

According to reports from environmental organization Greenpeace, the hackers were hired by at least 107 different companies to access and alter timber export records held by the Brazilian government. As a result, it's estimated that an area of forest the size of 780 Olympic swimming pools has been cleared illegally.

Be Happy

And now for Real Books/Fake Excerpts with comic genius Dan Naturman.

Drug War

Were the Mumbai terrorists fueled by cocaine and LSD?

"We found injections containing traces of cocaine and LSD left behind by the terrorists, and later found drugs in their blood," the Telegraph was told by one official, whose nationality and relation to the investigation were not specified. "This explains why they managed to battle the commandos for over 50 hours with no food or sleep."

Black Friday Indeed

'Tis the season to abandon reason. One Wal-Mart employee was killed & a pregnant woman injured during a stampede of customers wanting to find mind-blowing, undergarment moistening deals. Apparently they were beginning to rip the doors from their hinges. Meanwhile, across the country two men shot and killed one another in a Toys R Us.

Live by the Sword

A dude wielding two samurai swords was shot by a guard at the Church of Scientology's Celebrity Centre in Hollywood Sunday.

...the man had a history with the church but was not a member now. The tape showed the man arriving at the Celebrity Centre's Bronson Avenue parking lot in a red convertible, getting out of the vehicle and approaching a trio of security guards and waving a sword in each hand ... the man, who was described as being in his 40s, was "close enough to hurt them" when the guard fired.

Dire Predictions

A new intelligence report suggests tough times ahead.

...the latest Global Trends report says that rising economies such as China, India, Russia and Brazil will offer the US more competition at the top of a multi-polar international system.

The EU is meanwhile predicted to become a "hobbled giant", unable to turn its economic power into diplomatic or military muscle.

A world with more power centres will be less stable than one with one or two superpowers, it says, offering more potential for conflict.

Global warming, along with rising populations and economic growth will put additional strains on natural resources, it warns, fuelling conflict around the globe as countries compete for them.

"Strategic rivalries are most likely to revolve around trade, investments and technological innovation and acquisition, but we cannot rule out a 19th Century-like scenario of arms races, territorial expansion and military rivalries," the report says.

"Types of conflict we have not seen for a while - such as over resources - could re-emerge."

Such conflicts and resource shortages could lead to the collapse of governments in Africa and South Asia, and the rise of organised crime in Eastern and Central Europe, it adds.

And the use of nuclear weapons will grow increasingly likely, the report says, as "rogue states" and militant groups gain greater access to them.

Read the article here.

Moving Images

A couple photos that changed the world.





There's a nice collection of thought-provoking photographs at the link above. Just watch out for some of the nastiest, most ignorant, xenophobic and racist douche bags on the web in their comment sections.

via

Ambushed

A journalist's Obama election celebration ends in jail.

Even the police were swept up in the mood, smiling and posing for photos. An occasional handful of students would venture into the streets to high-five enthusiastic, honking motorists, only to be waved back by the police, but otherwise, it was as peaceful and well-behaved as a high school pep rally.

Then I looked up the street, to where the police had blocked off St. Paul Street with almost a dozen cruisers. A phalanx of about a dozen cops had lined up.

They began marching, and I saw one of the cops holding a pile of plastic flexicuffs. No one had a bullhorn or a PA. They just moved into the crowd and started yelling at people. There was no clear officer in charge, just a group of belligerent, angry police.

My brother came running up the sidewalk. "Some guy just got tasered!" he said. I saw some cops walking back toward us, so I crossed the street to stay out of their way. The first arrestees were being led to the paddy wagon. I pulled out my cell phone and started snapping pictures.

A beefy officer saw me taking photos and approached. I held my hands at my side and said, "I'm a journalist. I'm just taking pictures."

He slapped my cell phone out of my hand and grabbed my shirt. "Well, write a nice, long story about this," he said, spinning me around as another officer cuffed me. I was in the paddy wagon before I could even comprehend what was happening. After processing at Northern District I was thrown into a concrete cell, strip-searched, fingerprinted, and subject to the singular degradation of a long night spent in Central Booking.

Read the entire story here.

Staged Fright

Did cops stage a violent confrontation during Democratic convention?

Killing Time

5 more homeless people murdered in Los Angeles.

Five homeless people -- three men and two women -- were found shot dead on Sunday in Los Angeles area, a police spokesman said.

Several homeless people have been attacks these past few months in the Los Angeles region, a city of 10 million inhabitants where some 73,000 homeless people are estimated to be living.

Human Tracking

Sex offenders to be tracked by satellite?

Live in Fear, Die in Vain

Trick-or-treater shot to death by fearful resident.

An ex-convict who thought he was being robbed gunned down a 12-year-old trick-or-treater, spraying nearly 30 rounds with an assault rifle from inside his home after hearing a knock on the door, police said Saturday.

Patrick emptied his AK-47, shooting at least 29 times through his front door, walls and windows after hearing the knock, Police Chief Patty Patterson said.

Religious Rule

Somali woman stoned to death after adultery conviction.

Shwag Kills Forests

Another reason to smoke the chronic or pray for legalization of cannabis:

National forests and parks — long popular with Mexican marijuana-growing cartels — have become home to some of the most polluted pockets of wilderness in America because of the toxic chemicals needed to eke lucrative harvests from rocky mountainsides, federal officials said.

Weed and bug sprays, some long banned in the U.S., have been smuggled to the marijuana farms. Plant growth hormones have been dumped into streams, and the water has then been diverted for miles in PVC pipes.

Rat poison has been sprinkled over the landscape to keep animals away from tender plants. And many sites are strewn with the carcasses of deer and bears poached by workers during the five-month growing season that is now ending.

"What's going on on public lands is a crisis at every level," said Forest Service agent Ron Pugh. "These are America's most precious resources, and they are being devastated by an unprecedented commercial enterprise conducted by armed foreign nationals. It is a huge mess."

Read more here

Fire Starter

Homeless man set on fire in LA.

A man in his 20s was seen throwing gasoline on the man, chasing him, throwing more on him and running from the scene, said Deputy Chief Sergio Diaz. Scorch marks stained a wall Friday where the man was burned.

The burning horrified even officers who routinely witness violent crimes, Diaz said.

"To murder somebody who's probably suffering from mental illness issues and not bothering anyone -- just a poor wretch on the street -- you've got to be a soulless nitwit to do something like this." he said.

Cyber Siege

The World Bank Group under repeated cyberattacks?

The World Bank Group's computer network — one of the largest repositories of sensitive data about the economies of every nation — has been raided repeatedly by outsiders for more than a year, FOX News has learned.

Body Count

Mexican drug lords & their hitmen have been very busy lately.

Bodies are cut up and dumped in acid. Victims are stripped naked and hung from bridges. Others have their tongues cut out before being killed – Mexican gangs are using horrifying tactics in an escalating drugs war.

Hitmen working for the cartels have massacred 70 people in the past ten days in Tijuana on the US-Mexico border. Once a freewheeling city serving Americans tequila, cheap medicines and sex, Tijuana is being devastated by the war.

Deadly Web

Russian dissident bloggers fear for their lives.

Killer Television

Owners of satellite television channels in Saudi Arabia who broadcast "immoral" content can be killed.

Saudi Arabia's top judiciary official has issued a religious decree saying it is permissible to kill the owners of satellite TV networks that broadcast immoral content.

The 79-year-old Sheik Saleh al-Lihedan said Thursday that satellite channels cause the "deviance of thousands of people."

Many of the most popular Arab satellite networks - which include channels showing music videos often denounced as obscene by Muslim conservatives - are owned by Saudi princes and well-connected Saudi businessmen. Al-Lihedan did not specify any particular channels.

Read more here.

Trippy Chocolates

Police closed down a Berlin sweet shop after discovering the owner was selling chocolates and lollipops laced with hallucinogenic mushrooms and marijuana.

Read more here. Now why can't I find a nice shop like this in town? I couldn't find magic mushrooms these days if my life depended on it.

Beat the Press

St. Paul officials are feeling the heat after what may have been an orchestrated round-up of journalists covering the Republican's convention.

Journalists and St. Paul citizens assembled outside St. Paul City Hall today to deliver more than 60,000 letters to Mayor Chris Coleman and prosecuting attorneys demanding that they immediately drop charges against all journalists arrested this week as they covered the Republican National Convention

By Friday morning, dozens of journalists, photographers, bloggers and videomakers had been booked by the Ramsey County Sheriff's office in what appears to have been an orchestrated round-up of media makers covering protests during the convention.

"From the pre-convention raids to the ongoing harassment and arrests of journalists, these have been dark days for press freedom in the United States," said Nancy Doyle Brown of the Twin Cities Media Alliance, who delivered the letters on behalf of the nonpartisan media reform group Free Press.

"Tragically, there are stories that the world needed to hear this week that will never be told," Brown said. "They won't be told because reporters working on them were sitting in the back of squad cars, were stripped of their cameras, or were face down on the pavement with their hands cuffed behind their backs."

Read more here.

Digital Damage

Are cyberattacks the planet's biggest threat?

Under Your Skin

Folks in Mexico are getting microchipped.

Affluent Mexicans, terrified of soaring kidnapping rates, are spending thousands of dollars to implant tiny transmitters under their skin so satellites can help find them tied up in a safe house or stuffed in the trunk of a car.

More people, including a growing number of middle-class Mexicans, are seeking out the tiny chip designed by Xega, a Mexican security firm whose sales jumped 13 percent this year. The company said it had more than 2,000 clients.

Give the Puffers a Pass

Mayor's panel wants cops to leave pot smokers alone at the Democratic National Convention.

Denver police should refrain from penalizing adults for possession of small amounts of cannabis, up to an ounce, during the Democratic National Convention, the mayor's advisory panel said Wednesday.

Land of the Pee

A short but sweet video revealing the truth about cannabis, marijuana & its prohibition.



From the film: 1 in every 40 prisoners is a marijuana offender. The US is world's biggest jailer.

No More Games

A board game has been seized by police in the name of fighting terror.



Police in Kent, UK arrested some climate protestors and confiscated their "criminal" equipment, including a satirical boardgame about the war on terror. The police claim that the ski mask that came with the game could be used in a criminal act.

Whew, I feel safer already.

Deadly Game

Murder/suicide on first day of Beijing Olympics.

There has been a murder-suicide at the the "dark drum" tower in Beijing, on the first day after the opening of the 2008 Olympics.

The American man was killed and his American woman companion wounded, on Saturday, August 9, 2008, by a Chinese man who then leapt to his own death, falling approximately 130 feet.

A Chinese tour guide, a woman, was also wounded in the attack, which happened at the historic Drum Tower monument, a popular tourist site, just after noon, around 12:20 pm (local time).

Thugs of the State

This Big Brother shit is getting out of hand...

On 24 July it was reported that a painter and decorator called Gordon Williams was given an on-the-spot fine of £30 by Ceredigion council officials, after they observed him smoking a cigarette in his blue Suzuki van. You see, the officials had determined that this van was his "place of work" and therefore Mr Williams was breaking the new law banning all smoking in the workplace.

On 25 July it was reported that Haringey council officials had fined a boutique owner called Sangita Ibrahim for putting out her rubbish in black bin bags, rather than the grey sacks required by the council. The officials fined Ms Ibrahim £300 – made up of four fines of £75, one for each offending bag of the offending colour. Nicole Rosbrook, who works at the boutique, told the London Evening Standard: "The two guys who came in were incredibly rude to us – and to the customers. We were shocked, especially when they turned on the customers."

She added that "We had repeatedly asked the council for a delivery of grey bags, but it never came, so we had to use ordinary black bags. The two men actually went through the bags, leaving them open and rubbish strewn all over the pavement."

Read more here.

Raid

SWAT team raids mayor's house, kills his dogs in drug investigation.

A Maryland mayor is asking the federal government to investigate why SWAT team members burst into his home without knocking and shot his two dogs to death in an investigation into a drug smuggling scheme.

The raid last week was led by the Prince George's County Police Department, with the sheriff's special operations team assisting, after a package of marijuana was sent to Calvo's home.

Authorities say the package was part of a scheme in which drugs are mailed to unknowing recipients and then intercepted.

Anthrax

The US government's purported 'Anthrax Killer' was a registered Democrat.

Party affiliation of the now-deceased Bruce Ivins, as confirmed by his local county board of elections, adds yet another curious question to the increasingly troubling investigation into the post-9/11 terrorist attacks on American soil...