Twan's List

Filmmaker Kevin Booth’s New Documentary:
How Weed Won the West

I always support Kevin Booth’s efforts to raise awareness and exposing the ridiculous and dangerous draconian drug laws in the USA. I first learned about Kevin Booth many years ago, by being a huge fan of the late great comedian/satirist Bill Hicks. Kevin and Bill had been childhood friends. I feel that part of Bill’s long-silenced voice is still heard through he works of his friends such as Kevin Booth.

Free Preview Screening
Venice Beach, Feb. 13

On Saturday February 13th at 8:00PM, the new feature length documentary from Sacred Cow Productions, “How Weed Won the West” will be screened at the Organica dispensary in Venice Beach (13456 Washington Blvd.), the site of the LAPD raid from last year as shown in the film.

“How Weed Won the West” is the story of the people who probably would not die if you took their weed away. People who feel it is their right to smoke a dried flower instead of ingesting dangerous pharmaceuticals for medicine, or alcohol and cigarettes to simply catch a buzz.

I received a message from the Drug Policy Alliance with a request that I compose and send a note to President-elect Barak Obama to help guide him in who he will choose to be his drug czar.

Based on suggestions provided by the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), I wrote the following letter to Obama. Feel free to copy it, change it, enhance or use it in some way to create a custom letter of your own to the new President of the United States. Once you compose your message you can send it to Barak Obama via his new website: www.change.gov. The process is quick and simple. And well worth the small effort.

Don’t be fooled. You make a difference. You make an impact. The more proactive you are, the larger your impact. It only takes a moment to compose and send a letter like the one I wrote below:

Drug Reform Message to Barak Obama

Dear President-elect Obama,

Please choose a drug czar who will champion drug policy reform in the USA. This is a very important step in delivering the change you and I and a majority of our great nation and the world so obviously desire… and need!

It’s easy to understand why you are considering to nominate Republican Congressman James Ramstad to be your “drug czar”. Rep. Ramstad is in recovery from alcohol abuse and has a track record in support of increasing access to drug treatment. However, Ramstad is still mostly married to the failed punitive drug war policies of the last 30 thirty years. This is a no-brainer: These policies don’t work. Never have. Never will.

These failed policies need to change. More importantly, we need to do something different. Just as you had so boldly stated: “Doing the same things over and over again and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity”, WE MUST do things differently in drug reform in order for profound change to occur. I figure that you already know this somewhere deep inside your obviously good heart. Please step into it, and we will support you.

Ramstad has voted against medical marijuana five times. He has voted against making sterile syringes more available to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS three times. Even though his colleagues are increasingly supporting sentencing reform, including eliminating the crack/powder sentencing disparity, he hasn’t stood up on the issue. Perhaps Ramstad is not the right choice.

Our nation’s next drug czar should be chosen based on the following criteria:

1. Are they committed to enacting and supporting evidence-based policies? ONDCP should make decisions based on science, not politics or ideology.
2. Are they committed to reducing the harms associated with both drugs and punitive drug laws? We need a new bottom line for U.S. drug policy.
3. Do they think drug use should be treated as a health issue not a criminal justice issue? To paraphrase former Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke, we need a surgeon general not a military general or police officer.
4. Do they welcome and encourage debate and research? We need a drug czar who is open-minded and willing to consider every alternative.
5. Are they committed to reducing the number of nonviolent offenders behind bars? Our country’s next drug czar should be fully committed to major sentencing reform.

President-elect Obama, who you choose as your drug czar will affect everyone. Please nominate a drug czar who supports marijuana law reform, syringe availability and treatment instead of incarceration.

Thank you for your time and consideration,

Best regards and best of luck,

Your Name

Where to Send Your Drug Reform Letter

Once your message is ready don’t forget to send it to www.change.gov.

Bill Hicks on British Kerrang Radio Feb. 26th

Today marks the 14th anniversary of the sad and unfortunate passing of comedy legend Bill Hicks, arguably the best stand up comic social commentarian that ever lived. In honor of this great man (who was hugely popular in Great Britain), listen in on internet radio:

Kerrang Radio – Featuring Bill Hicks

Tonight at 12 Midnight (London Time) or 5PM (US Central) or 3PM (California)

Nick Margerrison is the host of The Night Before will interview Bill Hick’s producer/ friend/ biographer Kevin Booth on the 14th anniversary of Bill’s passing. Topics will include – Mushrooms – Flying Saucers – Waco – Bill’s longevity and a plug for a live tribute show for Bill taking place in NYC Feb, 26.

If you happen to be in London, you can listen over your WW2 ham radio or whatever you use in London, or tune in to the Karrang Radio Website – Bill Hicks Tribute

A message and an invitation from the one and only Dr. Groovy:

This week: I am back from Tanzania and Kenya and will have stories of Nairobi, Shirati, and the clinic there and my climb up Kilimanjaro (I made it!) and a little bit of London thrown in for my friend Nick. I may even mention the peaceful days at my parents’ farm in Virginia (beautiful)

Sit back, tray tables in the upright and locked position and join me on the quest for understanding…

Dr. Groovy

Saturdays 4:30-6 pm Pacific time

on

Phrequency&Phrenology

• aol IM: killradiostation
• phone: 213-252-0998

You can also check out old shows by getting to the downloads here

Coming soon… “Ask Dr. Groovy” on YouTube!!!

Yeah baby yeah-

Peace,

Dr. G

Phrequency&Phrenology 4:30-6pm PST

Saturdays on killradio.org

You might find the following study fascinating. It explains a lot. I found it out of the blue on the Wikipedia.

Dunning-Kruger Effect

The Dunning-Kruger effect is the phenomenon whereby people who have little knowledge systematically think that they know more than others who have much more knowledge.

The phenomenon was demonstrated in a series of experiments performed by Justin Kruger and David Dunning, then both of Cornell University. Their results were published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in December 1999.

Kruger and Dunning noted a number of previous studies which tend to suggest that in skills as diverse as reading comprehension, operating a motor vehicle, and playing chess or tennis, that “ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge” (as Charles Darwin put it). They hypothesized that with a typical skill which humans may possess in greater or lesser degree:

1. incompetent individuals tend to overestimate their own level of skill,
2. incompetent individuals fail to recognize genuine skill in others,
3. incompetent individuals fail to recognize the extremity of their inadequacy,
4. if they can be trained to substantially improve their own skill level, these individuals can recognize and acknowledge their own previous lack of skill.

They set out to test these hypotheses on human subjects consisting of Cornell undergraduates who were registered in various psychology courses.

In a series of studies, Kruger and Dunning examined self-assessment of logical reasoning skills, grammatical skills and humor. After being shown their test score, the subjects were again asked to estimate their own rank whereupon the competent group accurately estimated their rank, while the incompetent group still overestimated their own rank. As Dunning and Kruger noted:

Across 4 studies, participants scoring in the bottom quartile on tests of humor, grammar, and logic grossly overestimated their test performance and ability. Although test scores put them in the 12th percentile, they estimated themselves to be in the 62nd.

Dunning and Kruger

Meanwhile, people with true knowledge tended to underestimate their competence.

A followup study suggests that grossly incompetent students improve both their skill level and their ability to estimate their class rank only after extensive tutoring in the skills they had previously lacked.

Mind States, Costa Rica

Wednesday, June 13, 2007 – Sunday, June 17, 2007

Featuring presentations by:

• Joe Coleman, apocalyptic artist
• Erik Davis, author of TechGnosis and The Visionary State
• Earth Erowid, co-founder of erowid.org
• Fire Erowid, co-founder of erowid.org
• Jon Hanna, author of The Psychedelic Resource List
• Jonathan Ott, author of Pharmacotheon
• Mark Pesce, futurist and author of The Playful World
• Alexander “Sasha” Shulgin, chemist & pharmacologist
• Ann Shulgin, co-author of PIHKAL and TIHKAL
• Tommy Thomas, gentleman farmer
• With Sheelo Bohm, facilitating morning Holotropic Breathwork sessions.

Held at an eco-resort on a 2000 acre sanctuary of virgin rain forest set at the juncture of two rivers near the town of Horquetas de Sarapiqui. Swim by natural waterfalls or in the pool, relax in a hot tub, enjoy refreshing beverages at the bar, challenge one of the presenters to a paddle boat race, marvel at the botanical gardens, or arrange a zip-line canopy tour, horseback ride, white water rafting trip, or massage through the resort.

Price includes admission to lectures and workshops, one spot in an incredibly spacious double-occupancy room, and all meals (vegetarian and vegan available).Not included in the price are airfare and transportation to the resort (about 1.5 hours outside of San Jose).

• Space is limited–purchase your ticket soon.
• Cost is $1,400 per person afterwards.

Payment can be made with a credit card through the Mind States site

Or you may send a check or money order to:

Mind States
P.O. Box 19820
Sacramento, CA 95819

For more information, please visit the Mind States Web site

The occasionally overwhelming darkness of life can seem to be all encompassing. Depressing beyond belief. Beyond hope. I’m looking at life through those dark filters at the moment. Actually, for quite too long now… It’s not pretty… but I’ve seen uglier, and lived through worse.

They say that god works in mysterious ways…

But something has lifted my spirits, if even just a little bit. I’m here watching the end of a mediocre movie called “Devil’s Advocate”. It’s not all that great. But in it, Al Pacino plays Satan in human form… an attorney, no less… And he is giving a belligerent, indignant speech about God, his nemesis. It is this speech that has given my spirits a boost and a grin for the day. A ray of hope and sunshine. Redemption can come in odd, unexpected ways. I’ll take it! I accept!

I hope you enjoy this transcript as much as I enjoy bringing it to your attention:

God? …..Is that it..?

…God!?

Well, I’ll tell ya… let me give you a little inside information about “god”:

God likes to watch.
He’s a prankster.

Think about it :

He gives man instincts…
He gives you this extraordinary gift…

And then what does he do..? I swear, for his own amusement… his own private cosmic gag reel…

He sets the rules in opposition. It’s the goof of all time:

Look… but don’t touch…
Touch… but don’t taste…
Taste… but don’t swallow…

Ha ha ha!

And while you’re jumping from one foot to the next, what is he doing?

He’s laughing his sick f cking ass off..!

He’s a tight-ass..!
He’s a SADIST..!
He’s an absentee landlord..!

Worship *THAT* !?!…

NEVER!

Al Pacino as Satan in Devil’s Advocate

Even though Pacino is playing the devil… that particular description doesn’t sound so devilish at all… Sounds pretty logical to me! And I don’t have much use for those bankrupt, irrelevant concepts known as ‘god’ and ‘devil’….

Update: OK.. I finished watching the movie since I originally posted this message.

Twan’s quick capsule review:

“Piece of Shit!”

But that doesn’t diminish the quoted text above. That much is golden!

(Update: You can now view a 5 minute video of John Perry Barlow’s “interview” on the Steven Colbert show.)

I just got notice that a fine freakish friend of mine will be on the dumb television tonight. Fellow Burner John Perry Barlow has worn many hats. Most likely best known as one of the chief songwriters for the Grateful Dead for over two decades, he’s also one of the founders of the vital, important, and necessary EFF, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is effectively a watchdog against government incursions into the internet in regards to censorship, privacy, and 1st Ammendment issues. Rather than explain, just visit the EFF website…. and donate money! I do as much and as often as I can (being an internet addict and all…)

Here’s a picture of Barlow and I in July 2006 at a Barlowfrendzie in Malibu, photgraphed by the lovely and talented Shiho, baby!:

Tonight, as is detailed below, Barlow will be on the Colbert Report facing off with Steven Colbert. This should prove to be a bit of fun.

TWO WHITE GUYS SITTING AROUND TALKIN’

JP Barlow wrote:

Since I don’t watch television – not even the “good” stuff – I’d never heard of Steven Colbert until he soared into my consciousness with what I think was the bravest act of humor since Jonathan Swift wrote “A Modest Proposal.” (In this essay, Swift, a compassionate Englishman, suggested that the Irish might address this famine bother they were experiencing by eating a few of their own children, of which most of them had in rather greater abundance than potatoes.)

I refer to Mr. Colbert’s astonishing address to the White House Press Corps (most of them too scared to laugh) during their annual dinner last April 29. If Congress conferred medals for courage in the service of dark laughter – which, although it’s a good idea, the current Democrat-controlled Congress is even *less* likely to do – they’d have no choice but to give Steven Colbert the Congressional Medal of Humor with oak leaves and clusters.

I mean this guy eats dinner seated between George and Laura Bush and then gets up to the podium and compares the Bush administration to the Hindenberg! (If you haven’t seen it before, I strongly recommend that you watch this video. If you do, observe the weird displacement of The Decider’s head in relation to his body over the course of the address. I didn’t know cervical vertebrae could do that.)

Anyway, this speech made me a devout Steven Colbert fan. He didn’t convince me to start watching television, but he did convince me that if I were to watch television, it would be mostly so I could watch him and his kind (if he has one).

Turns out my next opportunity to watch him will be at close range. He is interviewing me on his show tonight.

I think it will air at around 11:30 pm in a lot of places, but I really have no idea when it might be on in your area. Those of you who still navigate The Vast Wasteland probably know how to find it. If you don’t watch enough television to have developed such tracking skills, don’t start now on my account. It’s not worth the risk. You can maybe catch it later on YouTube.

With any luck, it will be worth catching. I don’t know what he wants to talk with me about. (Though I kind of doubt that he wants to talk about EFF’s recent legal intervention when The Colbert Report was trying to get a MoveOn parody of the show stricken from YouTube.)

When I asked about the topic, the staffer said, “everything.” Ah, television. An environment where they think you can cover EVERYTHING inside of six minutes. Describe the Universe. Give two examples. Break for a commercial.

We won’t accomplish such a feat as that, but it could be pretty good anyway. For one thing, you ironists ought to enjoy the sight of someone who looks, talks, and behaves like a Republican, but isn’t, interviewing someone who fits none of the contemporary Republican stereotypes, but is.

I tried being a Democrat for a year. Hated it. I traded my sense of humor for sanctimony and gutless indignation. I was nearly overcome with impulses to save people from themselves, using force if necessary. I found myself becoming hysterical, brittle, and cowardly.

I am not a comfortable Republican – and I’m no Republican at all if George W. Bush is to be the measure of the GOP’s beliefs from this point forward, but I do have balls. So I ended up switching back. I may be the last Republican who believes that the party stands for limited government, personal freedom, prudent fiscal policies, genuinely free markets, and a deep wariness of foreign military adventures. Just as I didn’t flee my country when I saw it being taken over by religious zealots, plutocrats, fratboy incompetents and make-believe soldiers, I won’t flee my party on the same grounds either. (Though I’m starting to think that there is a grand new party waiting to be born in the space vacated by these latter-day Republicans.)

I strongly suspect that when Mr. Colbert is just kicking around the house, his ideology and cultural style differs from what his persona projects on-screen. Nevertheless, I have decided to take him at face value and contest him as I would his “mentor” Bill O’Reilly. In fact, I will take him on as the very sort of pious, closeted gay fascist who decided to become active in the GOP when he learned that poor people and weirdos could actually vote and that the Episcopalian church didn’t field political candidates. I have even prepared a defense of wild, marauding bears. So it should be fun.

Anyway, I probably won’t see you tonight, but you stand a good chance of seeing me.

Yippie-ti-yo,

Barlow

Blogger Steve Pavlina has some good insights regarding “unemployment”.

If only more of us could figure out how to make our unemployed status work (so to speak!)

• These 10 reasons are a good place to start.