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steve2470
steve2470's Journal
steve2470's Journal
February 25, 2015
A Senate bill that would legalize the recreational use of marijuana and impose a $50-per-ounce excise tax on growers, producers and retail stores was introduced late Monday afternoon.
SB 1176, filed by Sen. Dwight Bullard, D-Cutler Bay, is identical to a bill Bullard filed last year. That bill died in committee without a hearing.
The bill would allow adults to use, possess, transport or give away up 2.5 ounces of marijuana and up to 6 seedlings. An adult could also grow up to six pot plants at home for personal use and smoke marijuana at home and in non-public places.
Bullard acknowledges that the bill has no chance of passing this year. However, he cites his mother’s efforts in 2011 to convince lawmakers to consider amending the constitution to legalize medical marijuana.
UPDATE: Bill would legalize pot for personal use in Florida
http://postonpolitics.blog.palmbeachpost.com/2015/02/24/bill-would-legalize-pot-in-florida/A Senate bill that would legalize the recreational use of marijuana and impose a $50-per-ounce excise tax on growers, producers and retail stores was introduced late Monday afternoon.
SB 1176, filed by Sen. Dwight Bullard, D-Cutler Bay, is identical to a bill Bullard filed last year. That bill died in committee without a hearing.
The bill would allow adults to use, possess, transport or give away up 2.5 ounces of marijuana and up to 6 seedlings. An adult could also grow up to six pot plants at home for personal use and smoke marijuana at home and in non-public places.
Bullard acknowledges that the bill has no chance of passing this year. However, he cites his mother’s efforts in 2011 to convince lawmakers to consider amending the constitution to legalize medical marijuana.
February 24, 2015
(Reuters) - Nearly a third of Germans believe that capitalism is the cause of poverty and hunger and a majority think true democracy is not possible under that economic system, according to a survey published on Tuesday by the Emnid polling institute for Berlin's Free University.
The poll of 1,400 people found that 59 percent of Germans in the formerly communist east consider communist and socialist ideals a good idea for society. In western Germany, 37 percent said they considered communist and socialist ideals to be good.
The radical Left party in Germany remains strong in the formerly communist East, a quarter century after the Berlin Wall fell, paving the way for German unification in 1990.
The survey found that more than 60 percent of Germans believe there is no genuine democracy in their country because industry has too much political influence and that the voice of the voters plays only a subordinate role.
One in three Germans say capitalism to blame for poverty, hunger
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/24/us-germany-capitalism-idUSKBN0LS1AI20150224(Reuters) - Nearly a third of Germans believe that capitalism is the cause of poverty and hunger and a majority think true democracy is not possible under that economic system, according to a survey published on Tuesday by the Emnid polling institute for Berlin's Free University.
The poll of 1,400 people found that 59 percent of Germans in the formerly communist east consider communist and socialist ideals a good idea for society. In western Germany, 37 percent said they considered communist and socialist ideals to be good.
The radical Left party in Germany remains strong in the formerly communist East, a quarter century after the Berlin Wall fell, paving the way for German unification in 1990.
The survey found that more than 60 percent of Germans believe there is no genuine democracy in their country because industry has too much political influence and that the voice of the voters plays only a subordinate role.
February 22, 2015
Anyone else going to watch the Oscars tonight ?
You can watch it online here (participating cable provider required)
or here: https://www.facebook.com/ABCNetwork/posts/944609752249828 (free on Facebook for everyone else)
ETA: or here http://abc.go.com/shows/the-oscars/oscars-live?cid=Oscar_live_button
February 22, 2015
Here's an astonishing speech by U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves, who in 2010 became the second African-American appointed as federal judge in Mississippi. He read it to three young white men before sentencing them for the death of a 48-year-old black man named James Craig Anderson in a parking lot in Jackson, Miss., one night in 2011. They were part of a group that beat Anderson and then killed him by running over his body with a truck, yelling "white power" as they drove off.
The speech is long; Reeves asked the young men to sit down while he read it aloud in the courtroom. And it's breathtaking, in both the moral force of its arguments and the palpable sadness with which they are delivered. We have decided to publish the speech, which we got from the blog Breach of Peace, in its entirety below. A warning to readers: He uses the word "n****r" 11 times (my edit).
One of my former history professors, Dennis Mitchell, recently released a history book entitled, A New History of Mississippi. "Mississippi," he says, "is a place and a state of mind. The name evokes strong reactions from those who live here and from those who do not, but who think they know something about its people and their past." Because of its past, as described by Anthony Walton in his book, Mississippi: An American Journey, Mississippi "can be considered one of the most prominent scars on the map" of these United States. Walton goes on to explain that "there is something different about Mississippi; something almost unspeakably primal and vicious; something savage unleashed there that has yet to come to rest." To prove his point, he notes that, "[o]f the 40 martyrs whose names are inscribed in the national Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, AL, 19 were killed in Mississippi." "How was it," Walton asks, "that half who died did so in one state?" — my Mississippi, your Mississippi and our Mississippi.
Mississippi has expressed its savagery in a number of ways throughout its history — slavery being the cruelest example, but a close second being Mississippi's infatuation with lynchings. Lynchings were prevalent, prominent and participatory. A lynching was a public ritual — even carnival-like — within many states in our great nation. While other states engaged in these atrocities, those in the Deep South took a leadership role, especially that scar on the map of America — those 82 counties between the Tennessee line and the Gulf of Mexico and bordered by Louisiana, Arkansas and Alabama.
more at link
A Black Mississippi Judge's Breathtaking Speech To 3 White Murderers
http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2015/02/12/385777366/a-black-mississippi-judges-breathtaking-speech-to-three-white-murderersHere's an astonishing speech by U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves, who in 2010 became the second African-American appointed as federal judge in Mississippi. He read it to three young white men before sentencing them for the death of a 48-year-old black man named James Craig Anderson in a parking lot in Jackson, Miss., one night in 2011. They were part of a group that beat Anderson and then killed him by running over his body with a truck, yelling "white power" as they drove off.
The speech is long; Reeves asked the young men to sit down while he read it aloud in the courtroom. And it's breathtaking, in both the moral force of its arguments and the palpable sadness with which they are delivered. We have decided to publish the speech, which we got from the blog Breach of Peace, in its entirety below. A warning to readers: He uses the word "n****r" 11 times (my edit).
One of my former history professors, Dennis Mitchell, recently released a history book entitled, A New History of Mississippi. "Mississippi," he says, "is a place and a state of mind. The name evokes strong reactions from those who live here and from those who do not, but who think they know something about its people and their past." Because of its past, as described by Anthony Walton in his book, Mississippi: An American Journey, Mississippi "can be considered one of the most prominent scars on the map" of these United States. Walton goes on to explain that "there is something different about Mississippi; something almost unspeakably primal and vicious; something savage unleashed there that has yet to come to rest." To prove his point, he notes that, "[o]f the 40 martyrs whose names are inscribed in the national Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, AL, 19 were killed in Mississippi." "How was it," Walton asks, "that half who died did so in one state?" — my Mississippi, your Mississippi and our Mississippi.
Mississippi has expressed its savagery in a number of ways throughout its history — slavery being the cruelest example, but a close second being Mississippi's infatuation with lynchings. Lynchings were prevalent, prominent and participatory. A lynching was a public ritual — even carnival-like — within many states in our great nation. While other states engaged in these atrocities, those in the Deep South took a leadership role, especially that scar on the map of America — those 82 counties between the Tennessee line and the Gulf of Mexico and bordered by Louisiana, Arkansas and Alabama.
more at link
February 21, 2015
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — BY now you’ve seen the starkly beautiful shots of Boston buried under snow: the panoramic city under a white blanket; snowbanks so high they crest over parked cars; piercing icicles glinting for two full stories from gutters dammed with ice; coat-muffled people dwarfed by snow-walled corridors that once were sidewalks.
You may have seen the funny images as well: the man snowboarding down an all-but-empty major boulevard, pulled by his friend’s snowmobile; drunk men diving out of second-floor windows into six-foot snowbanks; windows that merely frame a wall of snow.
But for those of us living here, it’s not a pretty picture. We are being devastated by a slow-motion natural disaster of historic proportions. The disaster is eerily quiet. There are no floating bodies or vistas of destroyed homes. But there’s no denying that this is a catastrophe.
In just three weeks, between Jan. 27 and Feb. 15, we have had four epic blizzards — seven feet of precipitation over three weeks — which crushed roofs, burst gutters, destroyed roads and sidewalks, closed schools and businesses, shut down highways, crippled public transit and trapped people in their homes. The infamous Blizzard of 1978 brought around 27 inches of snow and shut down the region for a week. In less than a month, we’ve seen more than three times as much snow. The temperature has hovered between 5 and 25 degrees, so the snow and ice haven’t melted.
more at link
Much sympathy to MASS residents!
Boston’s Winter From Hell
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/20/opinion/bostons-winter-from-hell.htmlCAMBRIDGE, Mass. — BY now you’ve seen the starkly beautiful shots of Boston buried under snow: the panoramic city under a white blanket; snowbanks so high they crest over parked cars; piercing icicles glinting for two full stories from gutters dammed with ice; coat-muffled people dwarfed by snow-walled corridors that once were sidewalks.
You may have seen the funny images as well: the man snowboarding down an all-but-empty major boulevard, pulled by his friend’s snowmobile; drunk men diving out of second-floor windows into six-foot snowbanks; windows that merely frame a wall of snow.
But for those of us living here, it’s not a pretty picture. We are being devastated by a slow-motion natural disaster of historic proportions. The disaster is eerily quiet. There are no floating bodies or vistas of destroyed homes. But there’s no denying that this is a catastrophe.
In just three weeks, between Jan. 27 and Feb. 15, we have had four epic blizzards — seven feet of precipitation over three weeks — which crushed roofs, burst gutters, destroyed roads and sidewalks, closed schools and businesses, shut down highways, crippled public transit and trapped people in their homes. The infamous Blizzard of 1978 brought around 27 inches of snow and shut down the region for a week. In less than a month, we’ve seen more than three times as much snow. The temperature has hovered between 5 and 25 degrees, so the snow and ice haven’t melted.
more at link
Much sympathy to MASS residents!
February 19, 2015
China's Lenovo Group Ltd, the world's largest PC maker, had pre-installed a virus-like software on laptops that makes the devices more vulnerable to hacking, cybersecurity experts said on Thursday. Users reported as early as last June that a program called Superfish pre-installed by Lenovo on consumer laptops was 'adware', or software that automatically displays adverts. Robert Graham, CEO of U.S.-based security research firm Errata Security, said Superfish was malicious software that hijacks and throws open encrypted connections, paving the way for hackers to also commandeer these connections and eavesdrop, in what is known as a man-in-the-middle attack. Lenovo had installed Superfish on consumer computers running Microsoft Corp's Windows, he added. "This hurts (Lenovo's) reputation," Graham told Reuters. "It demonstrates the deep flaw that the company neither knows nor cares what it bundles on their laptops." An administrator on Lenovo's official web forum said on Jan. 23 that Superfish has been temporarily removed from consumer computers. Lenovo executives were not immediately available for comment during the Lunar New Year holiday in China.
Lenovo Made Laptops Vulnerable to Hacking: Experts
http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/lenovo-made-laptops-vulnerable-hacking-experts-n308926China's Lenovo Group Ltd, the world's largest PC maker, had pre-installed a virus-like software on laptops that makes the devices more vulnerable to hacking, cybersecurity experts said on Thursday. Users reported as early as last June that a program called Superfish pre-installed by Lenovo on consumer laptops was 'adware', or software that automatically displays adverts. Robert Graham, CEO of U.S.-based security research firm Errata Security, said Superfish was malicious software that hijacks and throws open encrypted connections, paving the way for hackers to also commandeer these connections and eavesdrop, in what is known as a man-in-the-middle attack. Lenovo had installed Superfish on consumer computers running Microsoft Corp's Windows, he added. "This hurts (Lenovo's) reputation," Graham told Reuters. "It demonstrates the deep flaw that the company neither knows nor cares what it bundles on their laptops." An administrator on Lenovo's official web forum said on Jan. 23 that Superfish has been temporarily removed from consumer computers. Lenovo executives were not immediately available for comment during the Lunar New Year holiday in China.
February 11, 2015
What so many here at DU and elsewhere don't understand about the GAME of politics is this....
Try running for President, and give your blunt honest opinion about everything. Just try it, see what happens. Yes, the third party candidates and "fringe candidates" can do it, with ease, because, let's be real, they have ZERO chance of winning, so why the hell not tell the truth all the time ?
You will offend and/or enrage a bloc or blocs of voters, who will then organize to come out AGAINST you. Their votes, in addition to the hard-core Republican vote (or Democratic if you are a Republican candidate) will ensure your defeat. If you think every candidate for President since George Washington has been 100% honest, open and transparent in their campaign statements, I don't know what to tell you.
Is it morally correct that, imho, this is the state of American politics ? No. Am I recommending that all Democratic candidates (or Republican, for that matter) lie their asses off at every possible moment ? No. What I AM saying, is, just use your instincts for who the candidate is.
President Obama was universes better than both Romney and McCain, or any Republican for that matter. Call me cynical or *gasp* realpolitik , this is the political world in which we live. It SUCKS, but there it is.
If someone disagrees with me, fine. I'm not going to argue or debate this.
ETA: By the way, I liked your post, 1SBM! 
February 11, 2015
ever gone from contact lenses to eyeglasses ?
After 33 (count 'em) years of contact lenses and their attendant disinfection/washing/losing them/cracking/protein deposits/being blind in the morning/having to take them out before bedtime, I'm back to eyeglasses voluntarily. Now I have to clean my glasses *grumbles* 
Still, compared to the micro-hassles I listed, I'll gladly clean my specs!
February 11, 2015
A new report from the Alabama-based Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) said its researchers have documented nearly 4,000 lynchings of African-Americans in 12 states during the Jim Crow era — about 700 more than previous comprehensive studies have found.
Titled “Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror,” the EJI report said 3,959 lynchings of African-Americans took place from 1877 – 1950 in states across the south: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
Jim Crow laws enforced racial segregation in the South between 1877, when Reconstruction ended, and the beginning of the civil rights movements of the 1950s. The disenfranchisement of African-Americans in the Jim Crow era was cemented by the widespread use of violent tactics, including lynchings.
“Racial terror lynching was a tool used to enforce Jim Crow laws and racial segregation — a tactic for maintaining racial control by victimizing the entire African-American community, not merely punishment of an alleged perpetrator for a crime,” the report said.
(xpost from GD)
New details emerge on lynchings in Jim Crow South (700 MORE than previous found)
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/2/10/new-report-on-lynchings-in-jim-crow-south.htmlA new report from the Alabama-based Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) said its researchers have documented nearly 4,000 lynchings of African-Americans in 12 states during the Jim Crow era — about 700 more than previous comprehensive studies have found.
Titled “Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror,” the EJI report said 3,959 lynchings of African-Americans took place from 1877 – 1950 in states across the south: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
Jim Crow laws enforced racial segregation in the South between 1877, when Reconstruction ended, and the beginning of the civil rights movements of the 1950s. The disenfranchisement of African-Americans in the Jim Crow era was cemented by the widespread use of violent tactics, including lynchings.
“Racial terror lynching was a tool used to enforce Jim Crow laws and racial segregation — a tactic for maintaining racial control by victimizing the entire African-American community, not merely punishment of an alleged perpetrator for a crime,” the report said.
(xpost from GD)
February 11, 2015
A new report from the Alabama-based Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) said its researchers have documented nearly 4,000 lynchings of African-Americans in 12 states during the Jim Crow era — about 700 more than previous comprehensive studies have found.
Titled “Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror,” the EJI report said 3,959 lynchings of African-Americans took place from 1877 – 1950 in states across the south: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
Jim Crow laws enforced racial segregation in the South between 1877, when Reconstruction ended, and the beginning of the civil rights movements of the 1950s. The disenfranchisement of African-Americans in the Jim Crow era was cemented by the widespread use of violent tactics, including lynchings.
“Racial terror lynching was a tool used to enforce Jim Crow laws and racial segregation — a tactic for maintaining racial control by victimizing the entire African-American community, not merely punishment of an alleged perpetrator for a crime,” the report said.
New details emerge on lynchings in Jim Crow South (700 MORE than previous found)
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/2/10/new-report-on-lynchings-in-jim-crow-south.htmlA new report from the Alabama-based Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) said its researchers have documented nearly 4,000 lynchings of African-Americans in 12 states during the Jim Crow era — about 700 more than previous comprehensive studies have found.
Titled “Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror,” the EJI report said 3,959 lynchings of African-Americans took place from 1877 – 1950 in states across the south: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
Jim Crow laws enforced racial segregation in the South between 1877, when Reconstruction ended, and the beginning of the civil rights movements of the 1950s. The disenfranchisement of African-Americans in the Jim Crow era was cemented by the widespread use of violent tactics, including lynchings.
“Racial terror lynching was a tool used to enforce Jim Crow laws and racial segregation — a tactic for maintaining racial control by victimizing the entire African-American community, not merely punishment of an alleged perpetrator for a crime,” the report said.
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