Breathe easy, tokers. Smoking marijuana in moderate amounts may not be so bad for your lungs, after all.

A new study, published in this month’s Journal of the American Medical Association, tested the lung function of over 5,000 young adults between 18 and 30. After 20 years of testing, researchers found some buzzworthy results: regular marijuana smokers (defined by up to a joint a day for seven years) had no discernable impairment in lung activity from non-smokers.

In fact, researchers were surprised to find marijuana smokers performed slightly better than both smokers and non-smokers on the lung performance test. Why? The most likely explanation seems to be that the act of inhaling marijuana—holding each puff in for as long as possible—is a lot like a pulmonary function test, giving marijuana smokers an edge over their cigarette smoking counterparts.

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Take a look around. Anyone with eyes in their head can see that the country is in deep trouble! Our government is faltering. Besieged on all sides by the three greatest evils ever to befall mankind. Racism, partisan politics,  and religion. The majority of the seats in the House and Senate are occupied by men and women who, on the one hand, believe that the entire human race is condemned  because roughly six thousand years ago a woman let a talking snake convince her to take a bite from a magic apple and on the other hand, care more for advancing there own party’s agenda than for the good of the Republic. The Republicans are on record stating that they will do whatever it takes to block Obama’s policies and see that he is not reelected regardless of the damage it does to the economy and the country. “We’ll fix it once he’s out.” Don’t get me wrong. The Democrats are no better. Were the shoe on the other foot, I have no doubt their conduct would be identical. There is absolutely no cooperation between the two parties. It’s a constant game of “one-upmanship” with everyone trying to “score one for the team” and no thought given to the people whom they are sworn to serve. It’s truly a mess worse than a teenager’s room and that rotten smell is more than dirty socks shoved in a corner. It’s the smell of death!

The impending death of the Republic as we know it!

So, who’s fault is it?  Who has brought us to this point? Standing at the brink, staring into the abyss. It’s our own fault. “We the People.” That’s right. “WE THE PEOPLE!”  We have become complacent and apathetic and in that condition,  have allowed these self serving morons and religious idiots to convince us that we no longer have a voice in the process. In a nutshell, “we the people” have stopped participating in the system.  A system which is flawed to be sure but when properly executed is still the most effective in the world. We’re just not holding up our end of the log!  The simple truth is, despite the seemingly unlimited funds and armies of lobbyists employed by mega-corporations, the people still hold the real power. We’re just not using it. I guarantee that if every person in the current OWS movement would write just one letter to each of there respective Reps and Senators informing them that if they don’t dispense with counter productive “partisan politics” and start putting the good of the republic ahead of their party’s agenda, they will be voted out of office and replaced with someone who will, the prevailing winds in DC would switch directions over night.

The Republic is dying! American democracy is a joke. The people stagger around in a semiconscious stupor while our freedoms are slowly stripped away, whimpering and whining “There’s nothing we can do about it.” That’s bullshit! There is something you can do about it. Get off your lazy ass. Put down that beer or that pipe and pick up your pen or your phone. Write letters. Make phone calls. Learn the issues and vote! Tell them if they don’t start putting the good of the republic ahead of their partisan agenda they will be replaced with someone who will!
It all starts in the house. People should take advantage of resources like votesmart.org. Study the voting records and vote accordingly. Get good people in the house and you’ll end up with good candidates for president. Vote the record, not the party. Let them know you’re watching them!

Wake up people.

TAKE BACK YOUR GOVERNMENT!

Just in time for Christmas! The perfect gift for any man.

Movers And Sheriff’s Deputies Refuse Bank’s Order To Evict 103-Year-Old Atlanta Woman

Yesterday, a Deutsche Bank branch in Atlanta had requested the eviction of Vita Lee, a 103-year-old Atlanta woman, and her 83-year-old daughter. Both were terrified of being removed from their home of 53 years and had no idea where they’d go next.

But when the movers hired by the bank and police were dispatched to evict the two women, they had a change of heart. In a huge victory for the 99 Percent, the movers “took one look at” Lee and decided not to go through with it. Watch WSB TV’s Channel 2?s video report about the incident:

The stress of the possible eviction made Lee’s daughter ill; she was rushed to the hospital the same day. Lee had one message for Deutsche Bank: “Please don’t come in and disturb me no more. When I’m gone you all can come back and do whatever they want to.”

Link to original article

The Republican controlled Senate in Michigan recently passed an anti-bullying law that allows Christians to bully homosexuals or any other student they don’t agree with on religious grounds. In response to the tragic string of bullying occurring across the country, Congress is considering anti-bullying legislation called the Safe Schools Improvement Act and the Student Nondiscrimination Act. These pieces of legislation would better protect students from being bullied. But Linda Harvey of Mission America in Ohio doesn’t agree in the slightest.

Linda Harvey opposes anti-bullying laws because she believes such laws lead to indoctrination. Specifically speaking, she opposes the laws because she thinks schools will be turned into indoctrination camps that will force kids to accept homosexuality. Here is what she said on her radio program.

As we’ve found out time and again, so-called conservative, pro-life politicians are sometimes wrongly persuaded that homosexuality is a worthy lifestyle and cause. This amounts to promotion of these lifestyle’s to kids brought into schools in the Trojan Horse of anti-bullying programs. We already have these programs in many schools, but federal involvement adds a troubling new dimension. If these amendments pass, they do nothing to protect kids that isn’t already available at the local level. The only thing they will do is threaten local school districts with a cutoff of federal funds if the schools aren’t turned into indoctrination camps where conservative viewpoints are systematically silenced all to fulfill the fondest wishes of those who want traditional morality to disappear.
Special rights for homosexual behavior are not needed. This makes me very sad for every child in our schools who will be subjected to this deception. There is a very well-traveled path out of homosexuality that every child deserves to hear about. But no, this will become like California in every state, a bigoted mandate to force everyone to accept and approve of homosexuality. Please call our Ohio senators, Rob Portman and Sherrod Brown, tell them in that in the upcoming, big education bill, we don’t want the federal government using bullying prevention as a tool to force approval of homosexuality and gender bending on children, teachers and families.

Linda Harvey is a bigot and she is a very misguided one at that. Anti-bullying laws are not tools for indoctrination. They are tools to protect kids from hate and intimidation. In no way is a kid going to be forced to accept homosexuality. Anti-bullying laws protect every child from being bullied, including Christians. Harvey is just fuming mad because she believes Christians have the right to hate, intimidate, and bully those they don’t agree with. Perhaps someone should bully her and show her what it’s like.

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In a breathtaking assault on the First Amendment, The town of Bay Minette, Alabama has decided to give non-violent offenders a “choice”: jail time or a year of attending church.

 

Operation Restore Our Community or “ROC”…begins next week. The city judge will either let  misdemenor offenders work off their sentences in jail and pay a fine or go to church every Sunday for a year. If offenders elect church, they’re allowed to pick the place of worship, but must check in weekly with the pastor and the police department. If the one-year church attendance program is completed successfully, the offender’s case will be dismissed.

Make no mistake about it. This is a test case to bring before the Supreme Court. The goal here is not to “change the lives of many people heading down the wrong path” as Bay Minette Police Chief Mike Rowland claims. The goal is to circumvent the First Amendment entirely.

According to Chief Rowland:

…the program is legal and doesn’t violate separation of church and state issues because it allows the offender to choose church or jail…and the church of their choice.

If you’ve been following me for a while, this highly dubious line of reasoning should sound disturbingly familiar. I covered this exact legal chicanery back in July:

The Establishment Clause forbids government money to be used to by an organization to evangelize as part of the disbursement of those funds. In other words, if you take government money to feed the hungry, you cannot promote your religion while doing so. Also, under no circumstances, can you withhold  services based on your religious beliefs.
Vouchers, on the other hand, eliminate this prickly proselytization problem. The legal argument goes like this: Since the money is not coming directly from the government, all bets are off. By giving the voucher to the “consumer,” the choice of where to spend that money is solely up to them. The Establishment Clause does not apply.

By making it a “choice” the powers that be in this town are looking to set a precedent that would have far reaching ramifications. Much like the repeated attempts of Creationists to force religion into schools, so, too, would this force religion into the courtroom. No doubt the more conservatively religious the judge the more stark the choice will become. Six weeks in jail or one year of church for littering. A $10,000 fine or two years of church for jaywalking. The opportunity for abuse and proselytization become limited only by the fanaticism of the judiciary in a given area.

If you doubt this, ask yourself this: What are the chances a Christian judge would offer the condemned the opportunity to serve their sentence at a Mosque? Yeah, that’s what I thought…

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Just above the “GO” button you’ll see a box with the word yes in it. Change that to NO and click “GO” and your done. No more problem.