Talby

Most so-called reality TV is really, for the viewer, bad porn without the sex...getting off on watching people get degraded. I think the degradation is the moral problem with any of this, not the sex.

What about all the oral users? I assume that people who chew them up or just swallow them are alright, and the people who don't are dirty drug users who deserve chilli pepper in their nose (shades of Idi Amin torture)... Not to mention possible heart attacks and bad reactions from combining an oxycontin rush with that nasal jalepeno explosion...anyone wanna volunteer for that? Of course, you would only expect U.S. companies to jump on the bandwagon, Mexican companies would not, and their drugs would make it into the USA as they always do... I know nothing about this study, but it has that reek of fraudulence and party-line toeing that the Nat'l Institute on Drug Abuse loves to hear, and wouldn't be surprised if they or someone similar funded it. This is such a misguided and idiotic idea (you don't take care of the opiate craving by switching a snorter to a pill-popper) that it might just get tried out in the US, "science" in the servitude of neo-con politics is a big national malaise. [ 16. September 2005, 22:00: Message edited by: Talby ]

This has implications far beyond the rave scene -- basically, I think the peace activists and anyone who protests the war over here should be aware of this. Not to mention musicians. It's unbelievable. And of course, we have the usual press blackout over here, the same as with the Marc Emery case -- not a word. Thanks for posting this. I don't follow the rave scene and might not have heard about this. This story has got to be spread far and wide all over the american empire and the rest of the world. I wonder who, specifically, ordered the raid?

I don't know about the finances of speakers. The bands and DJ's that commited their time there are probably completely screwed. Assuming that none of them are Sony/BMG (big label) artists, there's almost certainly thousands of dollars down the toilet, for the bands, at this point. [ 21. August 2005, 07:17: Message edited by: Talby ]

Good points, Torsten, gerbil, Rev. and I have to add that as far as everything I've heard for 15 plus years, Atropa Belladonna is about the worst if not THE worst tropane to be messing around with. Christian Raetsch talks about this in his well known lecture about Henbane, Mandrake, etc ("Sacred Plants of Ancient Europe)... Belladonna contains a hell of a lot of Atropine, which is very dangerous, even more than the scopolamine and so on you'll get in datura, henbane, etc. I've heard of NO ONE using Belladonna recreationally, perhaps someone could enlighten me on this and the chemistry, but the *&(@ plant is named after Atropos, the fate that severs your life's cord at death, for a reason! There's a nice Belladonna plant at the botanical garden in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. A very beautiful, powerful, dangerous plant that no one should be messing about with, for dilletante purposes, without an expert around, and even then, I think most of us would pass on the chance, unless we were serfs in the middle ages who had no other access to painless surgery available.

amanito -- I agree that Christiania is romantic! I had a nice love affair there once. It's kind of unique in that it's in the middle of a city, but it's still a model that such places are possible and can be done. The Danish right are stupid idiots wanting to shut it down. It's become another essential, fascinating district of Copenhagen that everyone either tolerates or grooves on.

JL Hudson's last update had hostillis seeds...he's usually pretty good about ID's, I wonder if they're the real thing?

My God, she's gorgeous! :D Straight outta Gauguin...

What a setup, RJ. Avicenna would have dug it for breakfast. Hate to say it, but the kinds of kratom that sound like U.S. gasolines ("premium", "super premium") are the good ones to eat and the commercial grade stuff is for the birds. I've had emetic experiences off the later, no fun! You're right -- on the latter the dose to get high is dangerously close to the nauseating dose. Well, maybe it is with the premium as well, but at least you can easily callibrate it -- with a teaspoon. Your recipe is so much classier than the Frat-Boys-Raiding-the-Fridge, coca-cola-with-caapi- kind of stuff so often seen on our beloved Erowid/Lyc public screening rooms...thank you.

The list is curious, to say the least. If all the hubbub is about kids taking datura, which grows almost everywhere, then what are mimosa hostilis and anadenathera spp. doing on the list? They might grow in Lousiana, but they're not exactly popular landscaping plants. Obviously, somebody's been lurking around some ethnobotany sites. This bill is a template for future omnibus anti-plant legislation, I fear, due to the ease with which this list can be cut and pasted into other docs by any small time polititcian looking to make a name for himself. It certainly falls under Ott's definition of a "constitutionally vague" law, to say the least.

quote: Many people, even professional commentators, have not seen the real america. They have only seen the west coast and Northeast. That's so true, and it's also true that many people in Hollywood and Washington DC have no clue about a "heartland" that many of them detest. South Park is a good example of this, and "Million Dollar Baby" getting the acadamy award, even if it contains the most repulsive stereotypes of "welfare-grabbing white trash". I'd say the hardcore religious nut percentage is a lot less than 50/50, more like 25-30%, but they're loud enough and active enough and supported by the media enough to influence every single reform attempt in this country. quote: what do they put in the water over in the USA? LOL. Having one of the worst education systems in the western world is a pretty good start, though. And if you brainwash them everyday in the media, you can count on most of the 75% of fundamentaly OK people who aren't relgious nuts to shut up and be good drones. [ 03. March 2005, 03:46: Message edited by: Talby ]

Russia's media is a lot more free than ours is these days. I haven't heard a thing about this. I'm sure it's on page 14 of some Tennessee paper. Pisgah is right, this shit happens all the time here especially in the south or sw (texas) but it happens everywhere. You'd think with the love of sadism on TV shows this tape will probably show up somewhere without any reference to the war on drugs, no reference to what this guy was accused of. Exploitative non-sexual pornography can be seen any night on the tube and it's apparently OK with the powers that be, but no questioning of the war on drugs. [ 02. March 2005, 02:15: Message edited by: Talby ]

Depressing and completely typical for this administration. :mad: This is more proof for the argument (made by delysid elsewhere) that it's the states of mind caused by certain drugs that they're going after in some cases. People in OZ have all heard about Gonzales and his relationship to Abu Ghraib, of course..?

Thanks for the enlightening summary of moderrn Indonesian history, D. Like a lot of people in the States I know vagueries about colonial history, and a lot about government slaughters of civilians carried out with U.S. weapons. But I know hardly anyone that's been there recently. I'm probably making too many connections to the Southwest US/Mexico border region where I live, where the word of customs officials on either side are to be taken with a grain of salt (or other powder) at best. I'm not sure how far I'd trust a sworn-in customs official at any level. Surely at best there's room for doubt. However, quote: Fuck Schapelle Leigh Corby - a spoiled and ignorant Australian child! Come on, man, a shred of compassion, please, and not just on the ethereal level. You know why I say this? Because: quote: she fucked up; she came from our society, with every captured resource at her disposal, yet she ventured into a weaker neighboring culture - apparently clueless - and failed to act intelligently. OK, maybe true, but hypocritical for myself and quite a few others who did more dangerous, idiotic, clueless things in our twenties than we'd like to remember. I really know nothing about Schapelle or her case personally, and was more trying to raise protest against "Death Penalties for Drug Possession" in any country, including Indonesia. Death penalties for drug possesion in countries like Indonesia are a disgusting remnant of the colonialism you described,t that these governments feel they have to kowtow themselves to the master empire in this way to have pride. Of course Corby's case is a drop in the ocean of human violence, in the Indonesian govt's record of violence, etc., and her death would be one more figure on a very long list. quote: Why the hell would you travel with pot? Exactly what I was wondering.

quote: When overseas your playing by there rules , no exceptions.It may be unjust but a laws a law. That's how I see it in general but since my government (and yours, probably) have a lot to do with these nazi's being in power in the first place, I feel somehow complicit. quote: It just reeks too much of a setup. Yeah, Gom, it does smell fishy. I wouldn't put it past the Indonesian power-junkies, not at all. And even if she is somehow guilty, my tax dollars are going to support her murder (at least since wolfowitz is trying to bring back full support for the indonesian millitary, which congress has banned for a few years) I certainly wouldn't dream of going to Bali on holiday now, and it's a place I always wanted to go. quote: I also wonder how long (...)are going to be able to operate in Bali without drawing some official attention. I didn't even think about that, horrible thought...maybe they should move to Vanuatu pronto.