This was a part that was often left out in discussions by prolegalization groups when pushing for changes in laws. While the potential harms are significantly less, I agree with the video of not dismissing that there are harms.

One part that I often have an issue with is the studies relating driving impairment with cannabis use. Well, some are well designed, controlled studies that ensure that cannabis is the only drug involved. Some studies are only looking back at police enforcement numbers for accidents. Often those reports will not break down the difference between cannabis only or the person having multiple drugs in their system at the time. In addition, the fact that the tests for cannabis will come out positive for weeks after use further complicates the issue. I'm not making an argument for driving impaired while on cannabis, just noting some things that many of the conclusions on studies often leave out.

No longer dating the wrong woman.

In reply to this comment by ponceleon:
You are dating the wrong women.

>> ^curiousity:

So God is a woman...

Ahh...

Well, it's not a waste of money. This isn't the first class in this series. My teacher is quite good and emphasizes that you need to first learn to code by hand so that you understand what you are doing. Even though we have started using Dreamweaver in class, we still only create in code view or split view (but still typing code.)

In reply to this comment by xxovercastxx:
I meant the money you spent on the class.

I'm far from a professional web dev... heck I'm pretty far from an amateur web dev... but I'd steer clear of any class that teaches Dreamweaver or any other WYSIWYG HTML tool.

Actually it's the school's copy so I haven't bought anything yet.

It just that I watched the "Working with CMS frameworks" from http://www.lynda.com/home/DisplayCourse.aspx?lpk2=59959 and it looked extremely useful because I learning Drupal right now.

I admit that I'm new to this field and have only used Notepad++ beyond the tools at school. Are there any that you would recommend?

In reply to this comment by xxovercastxx:
>> ^curiousity:

we are just starting to use Dreamweaver.

Is it too late to get your money back?

In reply to this comment by Farhad2000:
It was masterful distortiontainment. Remember, "I can see Russia from my house!" Palin never said it. It was Tina Fake on SNL.

Bullshit. As is the rest of your comment.

"As Putin rears his head and comes into... the airspace of America..."


Nice post. Being a QM watchdog could be a full-time job!

In reply to this comment by JiggaJonson:
It wont sink in, but thank you for at least trying to talk some sense into the jerk offs on this site. Speaking of which, am i the only one sick of the "Bill ORiley" account?

In reply to this comment by curiousity:
>> ^quantumushroom:
Liberals should be joyous America responded so milldly.
On September 12th, 2001, Afghanistan should've been a glass parking lot.


I agree.

This is why whenever I see a person jaywalk, I shoot everyone within 100 yards of that person. They allowed that person to jaywalk and deserve to die. Then I hunt down their families - by not properly raising them, they are supporting lawbreakers! It keeps me busy, but anything less of a response would mean that I'm a "qm liberal"... and I couldn't face that.

****

I actually used to converse with QM about issues because he would respond intelligently about issues and back up his opinions with information. I felt that our ideas and beliefs are different, but we could at least discuss them. It seems that the election process turned QM into a child or brought that part of his nature out. It seems that he will resort to childish antics such as "B. HUSSEIN Obama" comments, etc. With his change of direction, I have changed my responses. Instead of discussion anymore, I mock; I make smart-ass comments trying to point out the silliness without actually engaging.

So I guess I'm guilty of acting childish too!

Nice post; it was a pleasure to read. Thanks.

In reply to this comment by Farhad2000:
Coming from you QM that's just hilarious, especially since you have said that my entire region should be nuked countless times. I mean the middle east doesn't really dictate shit in the world over the US. But it's cool you do have a valid point. Yes I was angry as well.

Regarding the litany of comments trying to understand why and how this person came to be this way, its simple, there is no real focus on the rights and civic responsibilities of the citizenry in the US. Before you all get railed up and say this was cut and pasted into a clip to make news BS, this point of view has been pushed around and expressed countless times, its like endemic now.

It's a given to be thought controlled into trusting your government, only through a seasoned analytical education looking at maybe just the last 50 years of political history can you readily understand how the US government in most cases works against it's citizenry rather then for it (bay of pigs, star wars, vietnam, watergate, countless shit form both sides of the aisle).

But we don't need analytical thought provoking education anymore, we need fact machines that are just enough to earn a GED and maybe work a computer to succeed. Half of your education now is based more around studying towards test taking rather then actual information or processing that information, since accumulation of facts is not the same as actually thinking through those.

I mean look at something like Discovery Channel, before you could actually watch that a learn something new about Quantum Physics or the Cuban revolution, now it's all a sitcom about busting some dumb fucking myth or Orange County bikers or some rebuild of some fucking car.

But it doesn't matter really though, for most people in the US the only place that exists for them is the US. That's why it's so easy to rally around bombing some poor third world nation from the bronze age back to the stone age, its so far and unimportant and our media paints such a nice picture of it.

This all connects back to belief and comfort, its comforting to let your blind belief in God or the FSM dictate your life, because then you aren't responsible for your actions, because then everything becomes preordained.

Think how comforting it is to know that God made 9/11 happen because America is a sinful nation... rather then a passive aggressor who has push into action countless covert and non covert military operations in Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan because it thought it was doing the right thing without actually thinking of possible blow back stemming from supporting religious nut case such as the Taliban.

What's easier to believe and swallow? God or Facts?

Yes there are many people in the US who are not like this person and are actually aware, and engage in educated discourse from both sides of the coin but really that doesn't count at all for me.

Because this person is demonstrating a total lack of BASIC FACTUAL knowledge about what has happened in this (once great) nation for the last 8 years. I mean seriously. WTF. That's just intolerable, its like decades later we will all do an about face and declare Bush some kind of great war hero, even though he terminated some of the most basic tenants of what make America a kick ass nation (no torture, haebus corpus, no spying on its own citizens and so on)

I have browsed FORA quite a bit because I like to hear intelligent debate on subjects instead of a one-sided news story. It gives me a little more information from both sides to help build a base for an semi-educated opinion.

One of my strong passions is for personal liberty. With personal liberty comes personal responsiblity and personal rights - it's a group package in my mind. Being American has no doubt subjected me to countless years of conditioning of the great dream is to own your own house and land. (Of course being more aware, I know this is not strictly an American dream.) Eminent domain is needed for public function, but I've seen it abused (and then justified by the Supreme Court) to not build public projects, but buildings for private profit. I think that is wrong.

It's akin to picking on the unpopular kid in grade school. It's akin to police using the Patriot Act to spy on regular criminals when the entire basis of it was to catch terrorists. It's used because it shortcuts personal liberties. It is supposed to be hard to convict someone. That what protects personal liberties. In my experience when I bring this up, people will question if I don't want the criminals caught. WTF? Any functioning society needs rules and 'punishments' for those who break the rules. In every society there will be criminals. Period. Not every society will value or protect personal liberties though. Which is more important? On which side shall we error?

Well, I seemed to go off on a mini rant there. Have good day!

In reply to this comment by marinara:
In reply to this comment by curiousity:
Glad you enjoyed it. It's an issue that seems to whimper through the night unless it is your property they are taking.



I never thought I would be interested in eminent domain, but the video was exciting, perhaps it was the personality of the debaters?

I have a housing forclosure crisis playlist here on videosift, and I like CSPAN type stuff.

So do you just browse through the FORA website to find stuff? or what focused you on the eminent domain issue?

Glad you enjoyed it. It's an issue that seems to whimper through the night unless it is your property they are taking.

Are you looking for more on eminent domain or more like this style of debate?
If it is stories on eminent domain, my first comment in that sift has links to two other sifts on eminent domain. If it is the style of debate, I'll let you know when I come across more.

In reply to this comment by marinara:
finally got the time to watch Cato Institute Debate: Property Rights(21st Century America)

if you get anymore like this let me know

thanks! A recent thought brought him up and made me search around for some video of him that had not already been sifted.

In reply to this comment by schmawy:
Awesome find. A great man. Thanks. Kurt's in Heaven now.

Great comment. Thank you.

In reply to this comment by Farhad2000:
The creation of an enemy is one of the topics covered in Loss of Innocence, a documentary about the seductive appeal of War to man.

The basic argument is that the creation of an enemy is necessary for successful psychological push to convince a population that a war is beyond all means necessary. The historical record with regards to this idea is filled with evidence, consider World War 2.

Prior to Pearl Harbor, the US population did not want to engage with any war with either the 3rd Reich or Imperialist Japan. However the attack on Pearl Harbor solidified the case for war instantly, nearly a million Americans signed up, internment camps were created. Propaganda posters from the time show the Japanese as beastly beings, with slit eyes, yellow skin, fangs and claws. The enemy is dehumanized and generalized, even though in reality hegemony is never achieved, however there is a need to inherently dissolve their individuality to make them our enemies. The word 'Jap' became a derogatory term, in fact vocabulary is key in dehumanization of an enemy.

Vietnam followed the same path, with the Gulf Of Tonkin incident that made it seem like the NVA attacked US ships even though this was proven false. Vietnamese were portrayed as red communists, part of a larger threat embodied by Red China and the USSR based around the Domino theory. The words from that time - 'Gook', 'Victor Charlie', 'VC' and so on.

Iraq, Gulf War 1, the main drive for war publicly was the false testimony of Kuwait Embassy, the daughter of the ambassador was couched by a PR firm to relate a story of Iraqi troops pulling infant babies out of incubators. The public support increased instantly for going to War. The words - 'Sand nigger', 'Towel head', 'Hajji' most repeated now in the current war.

What is fascinating to me is that the enemy creation is necessary for violent acts of war, the same time it's seductive, its easy to psychologically develop an us vs them stand point, its simple. They are all guilty, they are all the enemy, so they must all perish so we can develop a better life for ourselves. But how do you tell a terrorist from a civilian? How do you not lash out at civilians who support the insurgents? Just like US troops lashed out at civilians in Vietnam because they knew or believed they helped the VC and NVA? When getting shot on a day to day basis by an unseen enemy, how does one not give into the urge to lash out against the civilians who you see everyday, there is a man there is his early 20s, he looks fiercely at your OP, his hands formed into tight fists, eyes like bullets. He bends down to pick something up, is it a stick? is it an RPG? Do I aim and pull the trigger?

To end evil we must commit great evil in kind, but we risking becoming evil ourselves for when we stare into the abyss the abyss stares back at us.

Sorry about the long intro. WEB 2.0 is basically describing the ability/culture of everyday people creating material (whether original or modification of another's original material.)

I sure there is a better explanation on the web, but I'm very strapped for time at the moment.

In reply to this comment by marinara:
tried to watch this but the introduction is so long..... so long just to find out what a web2.0 is