I’m against the legalization of marijuana

I have dread locks and I’m against the legalization of marijuana. It’s true.. I’m really really against it. Let me tell you why.

1. Legality status is almost always an economic decision cleverly masked as a personal libery issue. Take the American Revolution as an example. We romanticize the memory of the Revolution as an epic battle for “liberty and justice for all.” Yet the catalyst to the war was the Boston Tea Party. People wanted the British government to stop taxing their shit and taking their stuff. The freedom and liberty and all that was cool but the motivation was MONEY.

Today, when the government has a stake in the outcome and private companies have profits to worry about, THEN we start to consider the legality of something like marijuana. The only reason the legalization of marijuana is being considered is for the money: the revenue generated from taxation for the federal government, and the potential profits for big businesses.

NOT for personal liberty. NOT for freedom. And NOT so you can smoke pot.

2. This is strictly speculation, but I believe legalization will result in more marijuana-related arrests for the reason I stated above. It is a simple concept in business that, if you are looking to maximize profits, you do your best to eliminate the competition. For big businesses to sell marijuana and maximize profits, they must own most – if not all – of the production of it. That means somehow eliminating the buy-it- off-your-drug-dealer-friend option.

Same for the government. It is illegal to sell ANYTHING without collecting sales tax on it. If you were to sell your friend pot, the government would not receive that tax money. This leads to all sorts of regulations, making it extremely difficult for individuals to maintain a small-scale operation legally. History does not favor small businesses.

The best example I can think of is Time Warner Cable. TWC is a monopoly that controls how you receive cable TV and the internet. You can, with your own brain and ingenuity, construct a box that can deliver cable television to your home. However, that is illegal. But wait…. cable TV is not illegal, and neither is the internet…. if AND ONLY IF you buy it through Time Warner Cable.

It really does pain me to destroy the utopian hippie dream where legalization of marijuana means cultivating acres of pot on your own land, but that’s not what it means. Legalization means regulation, and regulation is not freedom.

3. I would be suspicious of the quality of “marijuana cigarettes” I could buy from big businesses.

Think McDonalds. Think dollar store brand Macaroni and Cheese.

Companies are treating consumers like shit today unless they have thousands of dollars to spend, which most of us don’t. They do not need or want those of us living on a tight budget.

Have you noticed the increase in options for everything you can buy? There used to be yogurt before “Greek Yogurt.” Now, if you want actual yogurt and not thin, watery crap, you spend more on this “Greek” stuff. What I’m getting at is this: Whatever it is you are looking to purchase, there are numerous price options available to you. However, the cheapest option is an empty option to make you feel like you have affordable choices. It is a trick. I like to call this “less for more, and more for more.” That’s the way the economy works now. It will be the same with marjiana.

Pure, effective marijuana will be a commodity reserved exclusively for the rich.

4. I don’t know anyone personally that has fought the good fight and neither do you. So who is pushing for the legalization of marijuana? What are their motives? I’m cynical, so I automatically don’t trust them. They don’t have my best interest in mind.

This scares the shit out of me.

5. The whole idea of buying Marb marijuana cigarettes is disgusting. We can just look at what cigarette companies have done to pure tobacco to see what would happen (see #3 above).

I do not want business to regulate the price of marijuana.

I do not want want marijuana cigarettes available for purchase at Walmart.

I certainly DO NOT want a greased up cowboy trying to sell me weed!!!

What else does legalization mean, when it comes down to it? Like I said, it certainly does not and will never mean you can legally buy marijuana off a friend. It will mean you can buy marijuana the way you’re supposed to: In line at Walmart. In a controlled environment. Under a camera. Asking the cashier to get you a pack from behind the locked cage.

If that isn’t the most anti-pot thing you can think of, please comment with something more horrifying than that.

It was never okay that anyone got arrested for possession of a plant. It’s silly and embarrassing. Just because I am “out” against legalization does not mean that I support the criminalization of marijuana. I’m just like you. I have my sights set on hippie utopia. Legalization is not the way to get there.

“government” “shutdown?”

I have a few ideas and questions I would like to pose about this “government shutdown”:

1. It is shut down because some people are for “Obamacare” and some are not? So the budget does not get passed because it must be passed to include Obamacare? How are they going to slip this one by us, folks? This does not make sense.. the whole government shuts down because one facet of government (public medicine) cannot be decided on? So we can’t have parks open because why, again? Oh yeah, a health care bill. Right..

“The media, the corporations, the politicians… have all done such a good job of scaring the American public, it’s come to the point where they don’t need to give any reason at all.”
-Michael Moore

2. Shit is seriously going wrong, and our economic system is where it begins to become very clear how much we CANNOT do when we rely on the exchange of money for things like food, water and good health (aka life). Case in point: there used to be a time when voting Yes or No on something didnt shut the whole damn government down. Which makes me start to think something else is going on here…..

3. A word on mass psychology for a moment.

Edward Bernays is known as the grandfather of propaganda and Public Relations. He researched mass psychology and was the first to manipulate mass consciousness. For example: In the 1930s, he used his research to convince women that green was the color of the times. The smartest, prettiest and best people wore green and wanted green things. Sounds unreal, but it preyed upon peoples’ very real and uncontrollable psychological needs for things such as acceptance and importance. Since we all want those things, the logic of it goes, then if we make green things associated with such positive emotions, people will buy green things. Guess what…. it worked.

He was contracted by Lucky Strike to sell their cigarettes. Which were in a green package. He never once said “Buy Lucky Strike.” He manipulated emotions about a color to sell a product. This is mass psychology. Substitute “the color green” in the above (and now commonplace) psychological manipulation tactic (propaganda) with “government shutdown.”

“In the 1930s, he attempted to convince women that Lucky Strike cigarettes’ forest green pack was the most fashionable color. Letters were written to interior and fashion designers, department stores, and prominent women of society pushing green as the new hot color for the season. Balls, gallery exhibitions, and window displays all featured green after Bernays got through with them. The result was that green did indeed become a very hot color for the 1934 season and Lucky Strike kept their pack color and female clientele intact.”

Well, if all that effort was put into selling a pack of cigarettes.. you can only imagine the level of psychological tactics the government employs.

4. The government can say and do and report anything it wants, because if it doesn’t own the media it’s using, it censors it. Consider the radio. If the government doesn’t own the radio towers, it regulates what can be said using the FCC. This is common knowledge but I just wanted to remind you now. Don’t assume you are being told the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

5. Back to the subject of bullying (remember that? when every kid everywhere was going to commit suicide if they were called macaroni head on the bus?): Your government is a bully and bullies get their way by scaring you into submission. Whatever this is about, and the easiest thing to say is its about Obamacare, the main idea is not the money or the budget. IT IS ABOUT FEAR and, really, what you do after you’re afraid (like when Bush said the best way for americans to bounce back after 9/11 was to spend their money). That’s where the mass psychology comes into play.

If you need proof that it is about keeping you afraid………… remember some time ago when the phrase “government shutdown” was first used and nothing happened?………………………….

And when terrorism was not real, and now it’s all around us?

Since this particular event is so blatantly illogical, you should see that it is a distraction. From what, we don’t have the slightest idea, because we aren’t making the rules here. I couldn’t even speculate what these men in suits think about when they make these decisions because they are so far from my reality and my morals. I’m also not saying something evil and sinister has to underlay every government action, but I AM saying it’s healthy to recognize the government for what it is. It NEEDS you to think the same way as everyone else and if you won’t there are ways to manipulate you. They have found the best way to sell a product, or an idea, is through fear. It is the most destructive emotion when it comes to making us behave irrationally.

And this won’t be the last time.

Marilyn Manson on Columbine, a quote I find relevant every time I read the news.

Marilyn Manson: The two by-products of that whole tragedy were, violence in entertainment, and gun control. And how perfect that that was the two things that we were going to talk about with the upcoming election. And also, then we forgot about Monica Lewinsky and we forgot about, uh, the President was shooting bombs overseas, yet I’m a bad guy because I, well I sing some rock-and-roll songs, and who’s a bigger influence, the President or Marilyn Manson? I’d like to think me, but I’m going to go with the President.

Michael Moore: Do you know that on the day of the Columbine massacre, the US dropped more bombs on Kosovo than any other day?

Marilyn Manson: I do know that, and I think that’s really ironic, that nobody said ‘well maybe the President had an influence on this violent behavior’ Because that’s not the way the media wants to take it and spin it, and turn it into fear, because then you’re watching television, you’re watching the news, you’re being pumped full of fear, there’s floods, there’s AIDS, there’s murder, cut to commercial, buy the Acura, buy the Colgate, if you have bad breath they’re not going to talk to you, if you have pimples, the girl’s not going to fuck you, and it’s just this campaign of fear, and consumption, and that’s what I think it’s all based on, the whole idea of ‘keep everyone afraid, and they’ll consume.’

inaugural mess

Inauguration day is a day to say something heartfelt about the US. So off the top of my head, something like this:

This is a special day to be American. This day is an end to our President’s first term, but also the beginning of something new for America. We stand together, united, with pride in our President and in solidarity with our troops overseas. Today: what a perfect day to reflect on what makes us proud to be American. God bless.

That’s out of the way. Now let me propose something outlandish (and more me). Maybe Inauguration Day could be an occasion for us to get pissed because we have stars in our eyes, and in our ears, and bugs in our brains, and they are on parade today. This is Inauguration Day: there are two inauguration balls, a plethora of embarrassing performances (Kelly Clarkson? Beyonce? Really?) and a fucking parade with floats. Do you remember the last time you attended a parade with floats? YOU WERE IN HIGH SCHOOL. But presumably there is a demand for entertainment of this kind, or it wouldn’t be included in an event attended and watched worldwide, so congratulations to us. We collectively possess the attention span of a high school freshman in British Literature class. I mean, maybe we learned a great deal more building a float than we ever did in class, but that’s because we are all programmed for flashy colors and glitter.  Knowledge bores us. Again I should say, I am so proud to be part of this country. I get really pissed at myself mostly. I write and think I’m doing something to force people to care, to think, but I’m not. I just end up offending, but that’s because we are all buried with guilt. Writing, literature, poems, sagas, plays… these have been the mediums of communication for some of the most brilliant minds, who were desperately trying to tell us something.

Today, trying to desperately tell you something means there is no other choice but to write to you. You tell me one other place you could maybe hold a sign and not be told to leave within twenty minutes by law enforcement. Actually, just tell me something I can say that will get you so angry you will retaliate not against your welfare neighbors, but against a life that creates a need for welfare. Or how I can get you to refuse to work in the fast food or retail industry, so when I refuse to work at McDonald’s, they can’t just find someone else who will. Tell me where idealists can contemplate a future where things are different and not be called domestic terrorists for threatening the way of life now. In light of this, I’m still free for the most part to write whatever I want, uncensored, on this here blog. Still monitored, but yes, but it’s a beautiful thing, really. Soooooooooooooooooo wake up, wake up, wake up. Or finally, when you decide you can’t put up with it anymore, Beyonce will be president. Or Mitt Romney. Sorry, but we paid them all the money, and that’s what we need now.

“But we can’t do anything to stop it Jami. We have jobs and mouths to feed.” Then maybe the pursuit of the THREE needs we all share as living organisms… THREE… just three (shelter, food, water) should not be a trap to keep us complacent. I do deserve food that isn’t owned by Walmart, or Tops, or Wegmans, or if that’s not possible, sufficient land to grow my own. If you argue I don’t deserve this, then I don’t deserve to live. And if buying food from these “distributors” is the viable option instead of just deserving to eat, then you are arguing I deserve to live only if I work. This is a basic extension to the argument of working for a living, taken to its ultimate endpoint (requiring logic). We have computers manufacturing our goods and speaking to us as if they are human, but we refuse to use technology to feed the world.

We like inauguration days with performers, entertainers, and parades, because these things don’t make us feel. I’M TRYING TO MAKE YOU FEEL. No black kid in Africa dies if we don’t have to work 50 years just to feed ourselves. I feel what you feel every day, you just don’t voice it. Maybe you don’t know how. Maybe your feeling is broken. But your instinct is not. Things are bad. Things are getting worse. When we cannot go anywhere outside our homes without either trespassing or buying something (leaving our house to go to some other box), there is a serious issue we should be attending to. I like going out to eat (I’m not totally pessimistic), but I am unfulfilled that that’s basically all I can do legally to get out of the house. When WalMart owns a realty group, we need to be concerned. When your neighbor walks into a canal to drown because she got diagnosed with cancer, something is wrong!!!! Because the cancer itself is not a death sentence, but relying on insurance companies is. But your relatives and friends work for insurance companies, as do mine. They don’t kill people! No, that’s the genius of the working man.  We have to be the middle man for these companies. We don’t even know who they are, and while we “make a living,” they control access to health care. That’s not give and take, that’s being hustled. Like a hoe to a pimp.

The scariest part of me telling you to care, to be emotional and angry, promote change? I’m scared. Because we have no avenues left to pursue. Freedom of speech? Freedom of assembly? These are unknown concepts. And no Patriot Act or president took them away, we are to blame. We gave these away by fearing. If there is a terrorist next door and you want them gone, then there must be executive power for someone to enter homes and remove terrorists. Well jeez, anything to make me feel safe. So there that goes. What did you expect to happen? And we wanted, and wanted, and wanted more and more and more. Now we have commercial properties everywhere to give us our wants! “But we have freedom of speech in the public, not private sector. For instance, you can stand in a field with an offensive sign, just not at Target.” Well, no. Remember: private property, or trespassing. There is no public land left. You know that because any place that looks relatively free is not. You can walk your dog at a state park, but try to stage a protest there. And the Target has a fleet of corporate security.

The insides may be rotted and corrupt, but it’s okay, the outside is pretty. Now would be a good time to brush up on why we even have corporate structures like Target and Wal-Mart when we can all agree they are detrimental to our communities and lives. Here’s a quote you may like to consider about the psychology of our buying habits, from the father of advertising and PR:

The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. …We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. …In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons…who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.

This is why we both accept Wal-Mart into our lives and communities and hate it vehemently. We don’t even determine what we want to buy for the most part, it is subliminal and permits room on the shelf to include Olay, Pantene, Aussie, Herbal Essences and Head & Shoulders as “choices,” but they are the same product from the same company (the “small number of persons,” in Bernay’s words).

If you can think about these aspects of our society every day and feel nothing, just work, and live, and work, and live, then at least consider that this is exactly what you are supposed to be doing. Do you not complain about the things around you because you don’t want to be seen as the person who always complains? The broken record? The hypocrite? This is fear. You still have these emotions and they aren’t going away. Start complaining, start talking. Start writing! Start sharing. Complain about Inaugural frivolities because you know they are wrong.  That is where this discussion started (if you can remember), and that’s where it needs to begin. Today.

Goldie lives in a tank in the kitchen. He has shelter, water, and food. But he doesn’t have the freedom to move. His scenery may change from time to time, like the purple plastic leaf instead of the pink one, but it’s the same. It’s not real, it’s not the ocean.. but at the end of the day, he’s alive… right?

poor people college blues

Let me share with you how poor people go to college.

I was going to jump right in. But first, good intelligent poor people do their research. They ask: well, how much is this going to cost me? Because that is all that poor people care about. So, they take a trip to the college website and they see this:

And they are all like, okay. $16,467 for tuition, fees, and books. No problem, good start.

Alright, so. Starting the real work.

Number one: They apply to the college in question; here, we are talking about Finger Lakes Community College. They get an application fee waiver (good for twenty dollars) because they are poor.

Number two: They fill out their Free Application for Federal Student Aid. They wait for the government to get back to them.

Number three A: The government gets back to them:

Number three B: Decipher what the government says. They say for a family with an estimated contribution of zero dollars (a poor family has zero dollars to contribute to their son/daughter going to college), the government will give a grant of up to $5,500 dollars for the year. 2 semesters per year means $2,750 dollars per semester. Alright. Some poor people math: $16,467 (remember this is tuition plus books plus fees) minus $5,500 = $10,976 dollars short.

Note: As per the government, you cannot apply as an independent student, even if you are living on your own and incurring your own bills and rent like most lucky 22-year-olds, until you are 35.

Number four: Come up with $10,976. ALRIGHT. There is another option for New York State residents. On to applying for TAP, through New York State Higher Education Services Corporation. TAP crunches some data and spits out this number:

Alright. Poor people math again. The remaining balance for the year is $10,976. Have no fear, TAP is here with $3,654 free dollars. Remaining balance = $7,322.

Number five: Alright, so come up with $7,322 dollars. Here, we revert back to the step one before the real work. Research. What are those fees? What does that tuition cover? Are there any optional fees? Let us find out.

Well, these fees are a bitch. See, what really sucks the most is that these fees do not include tuition, are not optional, and, in poor-people-luck fashion, include the major we are considering in this scenario, which is music. So, let us add all applicable fees that come along with a music major to the grand total above and see where we are at.

Remaining balance: $7,322
Extra fees attached to required music electives: $214 each, for a total of $856
Extra fees for labs: No exact number here. Range given by college to be $5-$50 per course that has a lab. Required courses for music major that require labs = 4. So, minimum charge: $20. Maximum charge: $200.
Extra fee for required physical education courses (good for two credits total): $14.
For a total remaining balance of: $8,212 (low) $8,392 (high) (because of the unknown lab fees).

Number six: Come up with $8,392 to go to a Community College.

For fun, let us do a hypothetical. In some cases, poor people get PAID to go to school (receive extra financial aid and get a reimbursement). We all know the kid who did that and took the extra money to buy a car, cause it’s cheaper than getting “financed” by a “bank.” So, if that happens, in FLCC’s case:

So, you can use your excess financial aid money to “help cover housing, food, transportation, and personal expenses.” After you pay for your housing, food, transportation, and personal expenses, as those are obviously due before are allowed to go to school, not during the 6th week when you receive your refund.

The end.

And, hey:
I write sarcastically. It is meant to be offensive, because I am sick of hearing all these fallacies and make-believe worlds where people in this country go to school for free, if they are poor. It simply is not true. Hate the message, hate the messenger, just stop repeating what you were told; what the commercial said about student aid and affordable tuition. Realize that there are in fact two scenarios, and they are both terrible, out of touch with reality, and, like everything, with strings attached no matter what. Of course you CAN get your entire tuition paid for if you are “poor enough,” whatever that means, and trust me, because you are not in control of the money you are asking for, you are not going to be deemed poor enough without jumping through some serious hoops, if you get that far. But hey, this is the land of opportunity. Worried that your next paycheck won’t buy Imitation Pasteurized Processed Cheese Food Product for some grilled cheese? Apply for college, it’s free! The other option is you cannot apply as an independent student until you are 35, so your financial aid is dependent upon what your parents make until that point (and whether you even know or talk to them is irrelevant). Sounds like a scam to me.

reality fallacy

Sometimes I want to write a book. And then I realize, I really don’t have that much to say. So it makes sense that lately I have been relying on poetry to express my ideas. Poetry, as it is called, can be brief and to the point, with some artistic liberty. I have tried tirelessly to write a detailed account of what I believe would explain how the idea of money and an economy is just bullshit, but then poetry just lets me comment on one piece of the bullshit matter-of-factly… like, if I said: Small businesses buy their items from Walmart and then resell them to you. From this you can easily deduce that when you say you are supporting Joe Schmo’s family by buying from Schmo’s mini mart, you believe in a fallacy. You are just re-buying what has already been bought at Walmart. You may as well just skip the more expensive middle man, or at least stop with the denial.

In Walmart world, it does not matter where you go. They profit regardless. They know the only possible way a small business will get their hands on products and get them cheaply, in order to then make a profit reselling them, is through Walmart (Walmart representing any monopolized goods-provider here). They know the choice to patronize a small business makes you feel better. You are always sold an idea or a feeling. It does not matter whether we are talking about Grandma’s Onion Mustard spread made locally in the Finger Lakes or a local restaurant. You are vicariously paying Walmart. But enough about Walmart. Think about it. 10 percent of the population possesses the world’s wealth. What we buy, we buy from the 10 percent. ALWAYS. If we did not, they would not be astronomically wealthy.

“Well, CEO so and so started locally and he grew his business to what it is today.” Well, no, not really. Fallacy again. Fallacy runs this whole damn thing, and your job, the entertainment business, the meds… they are meant to distract you, and do so effectively enough that Apple can sell you an Ipad, then a mini Ipad (an Ipod), then a Macbook (an Ipad with a keyboard), then an Iphone (a mini Ipad), all for the amount you think is acceptable. Which is a lot, by the way, because you have been sold a feeling (everyone has one) and an idea (you need these things to keep in touch with your friends/family). So yeah, to you, the phone/laptop is priceless, so you’ll pay a couple hundred dollars. But in reality, just like everything else, I-whatevers are products of dirt cheap labor. That’s how they make money, folks, and a lot of it. The less you spend making a product, the better. The most you can get away with selling it, the better. And you sell it expensively by attaching emotional value to the object. The economy is quite simply a hoax.

Never has a hoax been so intricate than the recent event of a concert being held for Hurricane Sandy victims. And somehow, Madison Square Garden was filled by the graceful, good-PR-hungry hands of Chase, and Visa, and State Farm, and celebrities (who are only called “celebrities” because of their wealth), who ask you at home for money to help, and we feel compelled by this to give money (if we did not, then this new genre of hoax, “relief concerts,” would not exist). Do you understand that Madison Square Garden is an arena in New York City? That, before your televised eyes, millions of people are being entertained by the fact that millions of people need help? That Rolling Stones could own New York City if they wanted to? That Chase and Visa literally do?

And the fallacy continues. Joe Schmo can fill his convenience store shelves with tax-free purchases from WalMart (tax-free being a humble gift from the Walton’s), he can go to Chase and open a checking account and be charged $12/month to do so and then, with a valid bank account, he can donate ten bucks to any and every hurricane relief effort he can fathom. And when lots and lots and lots of people die from hurricanes, blame Joe for not giving enough. It must be his fault; Alicia Keys asked him for money and he must have said no. And when Joe makes more money on government assistance than he does trying to keep his convenience store afloat next to a Walmart, continue to blame Joe. When he wakes up to the stark realization that he can “make too much money” to send his kids to college or be so dirt poor than they can go for free, blame Joe. Blame Joe. Blame Joe. Watch your TV show, and don’t forget to blame Joe.

Have you realized who the bad guys are yet? If not, blame Joe. He does not have a dedicated PR team to reconcile his public image. And YOU had to pay for his kids’ education with your tax money, so don’t forget to blame Joe for not working hard enough. He saw the American dream, and did not like it. And do not forget the fact that Joe is leading the same exact life that you are. Have you realized who the bad guys are yet?