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Firstmonth

Displays at Shango Cannabis shop on first day of legal recreational marijuana sales beginning at midnight in Portland, Oregon October
Screens at Shango Cannabis store on first day of authorized recreational pot sales beginning at midnight in Portland, Oregon
Reuters/Steve Dipaola
When it debuted in August 2014 Washington’s recreational business, which began slow with only 18 shops licensed to sell weed, produced $ 1 million in tax revenue.

The more powerful-than-anticipated sales might have came in part from the state’s slow way of marijuana tax, enabling more time for companies to get created.

The Liquor Control Commission, charged with controlling the drug in Oregon, had predict yearly tax revenues of about $ 8 million during the initial two years of authorized recreational bud sales.
Where bud sales are now legal, although tax structures change upon the three states, all have earmarked funds for programs that were similar – law enforcement, drug and alcohol counselling, and schools.

In Alaska, where recreational pot was legalized by voters in 2014, regulators anticipate shops to open by the end of the year.
A congressional budget bill passed bars sales of the drug until 2017 or after, although voters in the District of Columbia have legalized recreational bud also.

HOW POLITICS WORKS

Politics works like this: Big People of Big Country buy Big People of Little Country, who, by the way, will be elected in “democratic elections” thanks to big bucks; Big People of Big Country give big loans to Little Country (of course, to buy “made in Big Country”); Big People of Little Country pocket a big chunk and invest it in the Big Country, without ever investing in real development (education, health, the environment, etc); Little People of Little Country work for ever to pay back what they never got; Big People of Little Country thank Big People of Big Country in the name of Little Country, and promise to repay the big debt; and Little People of Little Country get big promises, just like Little People of Big Country. And they lived happily ever after…

HOW THE LAW WORKS… FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE LION

(This is part of a series of POLITICALLY CORRECT stories for little children, who otherwise may not be ready to live in the Jungle.)

One day the King of the Jungle, tired of being called a “Tyrant,” gathered the most cunning animals in the kingdom, chief among them the Foxes… He said to them: “It’s mighty unjust that I am not recognized for what I am. You know full well that the best of my leftovers, if any, go to the Little Animals… Well, I want you to write LAWS, so from now on it’ll be them, and not me, who would rule over this God chosen kingdom…”

After a few months of hard deliberations (and a few “private parties” and “business trips”) the Foxes (now turned politicians) returned with a long, long book of laws written in a language so hard to understand to the Little Animals that they thought it was old Greek. After translation, it started like this: “The animals with a mane will be treated like kings; the animals with paws and teeth will be above the Laws; and the animals who will represent the interests of the Little Animals, us, will be granted a raise in benefits and status… Of course, ALL FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION will be considered ILLEGAL, and will result in the Lion eating the Little Animal…”

THE LAW OF THE JUNGLE

Once upon a time, in the deep jungle, lived a Lion and a Monkey… One day the Monkey, tired of the Lion always getting the LION SHARE, and seeing that such injustice represented a danger to all the species of the jungle, demanded JUSTICE… The Lion, yawning and stretching, said, “You would have to have paws and sharp teeth…” Then the Monkey, who was very clever, devised a plan: He would go to the costume store, and look like a lion…

When the Lion saw him, noticing that the new lion wasn’t a match for him, and fearing COMPETITION, killed him on the spot –before the indifferent look of the little animals of the jungle… And that’s how the Law of the Jungle was re-established one more time…

NOTE: Other monkeys survived him…

THE LAW OF THE JUNGLE II

After killing the monkey dressed as a lion, the Lion gathered all the little animals of the jungle and announced: “Today we have successfully eradicated one of the major threats to the peace and order of our jungle… Yes, a new lion, probably envious of us, attacked without warning… Luckily –because you know how good is suffering for the spirit– your sacrifice gave me strong paws and teeth… And yes, these mighty weapons were so useful to me that I finished him off without a sweat… Anyhow, now it turns out that some other of his accomplices are roaming around and trying to attack us… So get ready for more suffering and restrictions, if not for a catastrophe… But, of course, there’s a place for you in heaven…”

Meanwhile, one of the little animals –who had been grazing all along– asked another, “What did he say?” “I think he said something about a new lion,” answered the other. To which the first animal replied, “Another one!?”

Moral: We don’t need lions or violent monkeys that become lions. No Lion No Problem!

HOW THE LION BENEFITS FROM THE LITTLE ANIMALS’ POVERTY

One day all the little animals went up to the King of the Jungle and complained about their poverty, and in particular about the fact that every time, during the dry season, they had to travel long distances to drink the precious fluid, and demanded a WATER WELL be built for them… They cited how the resources that they contributed to the kingdom were wasted in WARS and EXTRAVAGANT PROJECTS to the tastes of the King… He, however, replied with all kinds of excuses: the lack of resources, that it wasn’t a matter of him not wanting it, but that it was a matter of “priorities” –which was one of his favorite words…

Meanwhile, an Owl –who had very good eyes– had been observing life in the jungle, and thought this way: “Every time there’s a dry season the little animals must come to the little dirty waterhole where the Lion waits for them… Had they been well fed and strong, he would have had to run after them and even risk resistance. And, more importantly, the little animals are forced to fight the Lion’s wars as the only way out of poverty…”

And that’s how the Owl landed an important –and well paid– post in the brand new Astronomy Department created by the King of the Jungle –to the effect of exploring life in other planets…

Moral: The little animals need their own well (self-employment, cooperatives, etc), but no one will build it for them, but themselves…

Bharateeya Blog Mela

We also request other Indian bloggers to please publicize this on their blogs so more bloggers can be aware of this and send in entries. We are also looking for volunteers for the weeks remaining after next. Email me or Ashwini or leave a comment to reserve your slots. Thank you!Reading the MT Manual has become my hobby. I am still using the default db and thinking if I should switch to MySQL.

If all Indian bloggers put an entry for the mela on their blog today, we should have a good response by tuesday.

After all discussions between the whole Indian bloggers’ corner, we finally a settled on a traveling Mela that will be hosted by a different Indian blogger every week and will be mirrored in its entirety JK is going to host it on the 19th of this months (next week, wednesday). Please get your entries to him by emailing him at “jk at sulekha “. Note that he is not on blogspot anymore – he has a new home

UPRISING IN BASRA

BODY:
Coalition commanders fighting for control of Basra say a “popular uprising” is underway inside the southern Iraqi city, a reporter for the Sky News TV channel said on Tuesday in a live broadcast from the west of the city.

He said the uprising — details of which were not given — might have triggered a decision by coalition forces to make “a big push” for the city, using heavy artillery.

Earlier Tuesday, spokesmen for coalition forces in the Gulf said their troops faced the prospect of street fighting in Basra after meeting fierce resistance on the outskirts.

Relief agencies meanwhile warned of a humanitarian crisis in the metropolis.

Military planners had expected little resistance in the city, pinning their hopes on the Shiite Muslim majority who have long been repressed by President Saddam Hussein’s mainly Sunni regime.

The British army is reported to have three brigades to the south and west of Basra, where an estimated 1,000 so-called Iraqi “irregulars” were resisting the coalition advance.

Sky News is owned by the Australian-US media magnate Rupert Murdoch, who has expressed strong support for the US-led war in Iraq.

ARMCHAIR MILITARY ANALYSIS

What a great discovery Jurjen was. Here, he provides an excellent, useful link-filled Armchair Military Analysis of Iraq’s fighting forces. Jurgen points out that the supposedly most elite of elite Iraqi forces, the “‘Golden Division,’ is responsible for the defence of Baghdad itself, the presidential palaces and other vital facilities (which brought it into conflict with UNSCOM inspectors on several occasions) and Saddam’s person (not in the least place against any RGFC units that get ideas about ousting the “beloved leader”). It [is] commanded by Saddam’s son Qusay, and is recruited from those tribes most loyal to Saddam.

Cool. Qusay is probably dead (y”sh). If alive, he’s not exactly Patton.

Read the whole thing, and keep reading Jurjen’s blog.

WARBLOGGING

If you want an up-to-date compendium of the latest war news from conventional sources, go to Command Post. Or to Google news. I’ve also found that The Scotsman is a very good, hardhitting but not sensational paper.

If you want the latest in the Arsenal of Democracy’s gadgets, always consult the Bunny. Her joint is hoppin’.

For translations of Al Jazeera’s propaganda, go to Ribbity Blog, an Israeli who is fluent in many dialects of Arabic.

If you want to know how the war is going, don’t come here. Because I don’t know any more than you do.

I think it is a bit funny for Americans — I mean, those in America, not in the field — to claim the mantle of warblogger. What are we? Civilians telling other civilians what we are watching on television. You’ve got your own remotes.

Lynn is right; I’m going to join her in not adding to the chatter.

But I do have a recommendation: read No Cameras, a good blog written by a Dutchman living in Olympia, Washington. He’s got an excellent post about the forces being deployed in Iraq, the whys and the wherefores, and in general runs an informative, analytical blog.

He’s very pro-UN; if the UN consisted of countries like the Netherlands, I’d agree with him.

Mrs. No Cameras is one of the Evergreen alums who wrote me about….that subject.

Anybody who writes: “If history—especially that of the Cold War—teaches us anything, it’s that peace (if we take peace to simply mean “the absence of armed conflict”) and justice have an annoying tendency of being mutually exclusive” deserves to be read on a regular basis. That’s audacious thinking. It’s also right. I like it. It’s always such a pleasure to stumble across an observant, analytical mind!

I’ll be adding No Cameras to the blogroll soon.

THE BIGTIME

Well, Salam hit the bigtime today, with a mention in Howard Kurtz’s media column in WaPo. Maybe after this is all over he can do Oprah. (“I cannot believe what it must have been like during those bombings,” said Oprah, shaking her head deliberately from side to side, while checking the effect her vehemence had on the audience with a quick sidewise dart of her eyes. “Girlfriend, I would have been under that bed the whole time!”)

I have not heard from him, and as soon as I do I will post it.

I am debating whether I should shlep my computer to Queens today. God it is gorgeous out and I’ve a lot to do; I’ve decided to visit my mother at the end of the day and spend the night in her house. (For those of you new to this blog, I live in Manhattan; my mother is at the end of a long journey and is now in a nursing home near where I grew up in Queens, but will be moved upstate soon, so I want to see her as much as possible, because I may never see her again. Life and death go on, even during a war.) There’s a seductive beauty in the idea of being Cut Off, but I’m not sure I can take that….

I’ve received a lot of emails, some of them quite interesting. A man from Flanders, Belgium wrote to say that Salam was featured in a newspaper article there. I asked him to send a translation and will post it if/when he does.

Someone wrote to tell me that my defense of Salam was so vigorous that people might suspect me of being part of a CIA hoax. He said that he was writing to warn me of that, in case it happens. Thanks, she said, backing away very slowly. Slam!

Several people have written about the issue that will not go away, you know what that is. One woman was such a vicious pest that I had to block her from my box, although I wonder if she will try to get around it. It’s easy enough.

And Carolyn (one of the Evergreen alumnas) wrote offering a link to a truly interesting analysis of “the issue that will not go away” — written by her husband. She’s partisan; I’m not. Her husband wrote the best I’ve read so far, and what’s so interesting is that this blogger is not part of the defend-Israel reciprocal link family. He came to some of the same conclusions that they did about the likely sequence of events. (The link is to the blog; scroll down and look for the word Evergreen.)

I’ve got to sign off now but his post got me to thinking…and stimulated some ideas. I have to write them down later, I haven’t got the time now. But my feelings are, surprisingly, more critical of Israel than you might think. Stay tuned. Later.

Through Grasshoppa, another Kuwaiti website.

If you email me, and you want me to read past the first line, do not say that the Jews are behaving like Hitler and do not say, “I find your blog interesting, because you seem to be an intelligent person who has somehow been cowed into believing what our President is telling you.” That deserves an immediate delete. However, being the curious sort, I did scan the rest of what he had to say, and it was pure and utter horseshit. But if you want me to read you, don’t insult me in the lead paragraph.

SOLDIERS DIE CONTINUED

OK, OK, I said I wouldn’t post anymore about Rachel Corrie, but a reader sent me this link, which describes the disreputable actions of one “General” Thom Saffold, a 51-year-old clergytwerp who probably spends most of his life salivating over photos of Palestinian victims of Israeli “genocide.” I’m sure Israeli “genocide” gives him a quite a perverse thrill.

CONSIDER THE SOURCE

Iraq’s Saddam Husayn prepares to liquidate opponents in his government who oppose having Saddam’s son Qusay succeed the dictator in ruling Iraq, revealed here Thursday 30 August an Iraqi opposition group.

The group, named Islamic Unity Movement of Iraq, told Kuwait news agency (Kuna) that sources close to the Iraqi government said Saddam is preparing a list of political leaders, ministers and other government officials who are known to be against installing Saddam’s son Qusay as his father’s successor in power. These opponents will be removed from their positions, said the Iraqi opposition group. Saddam has lately been grooming Qusay for his future role as the new dictator of Iraq by appointing him in different high-ranking government posts, the group said, adding that indications are that Saddam’s elder son, Uday, suffering a physical disability from an assassination attempt on his life, has fallen into disfavour as a possible successor to his father.

Perhaps a sign that the liquidation process has begun was the sentencing of Prime Minister Tariq Aziz’s son, Ziyad, accused of irregular financial dealings, to 22 years in prison, said the group. This move against Tariq Aziz’s interests may have come because Aziz spoke negatively of Qusay’s inadequacy as a fit successor in power to Saddam, the opposition group surmised.