Roundup
(1) Hasan Piker celebrates and mocks Charlie Kirk’s death with a crowd of happy haters:
We have seen protesters on the left around the country mocking the assassination of Charlie Kirk, even reenacting his murder. Hate traffickers like Jennifer Welch have even justified his assassination. It is all shocking and depressing, but none reached the level of Hasan Piker leading a huge crowd in mocking Kirk and his faith. Before he was murdered, Kirk debated Piker and called him a “socialist hypocrite.” What is shocking is not the utter depravity and cruelty of Piker, but the ecstasy of the crowd in relishing the death of someone with opposing views. It is part of the conditioning in an “age of rage.”
In the video, Piker leads the crowd in the meme song “We Are Charlie Kirk” at a stop of his “Fear& LIVE” tour, including such lines as “We are Charlie Kirk, we carry the flame. We’ll fight for the Gospel, we’ll honor his name.” His co-hosts and the crowd seem to be laughing with joy.
(2) I guess it’s okay to be a “journalist” and not only celebrate Kirk’s death but make up fake quotes from him. The WaPo is forced to reinstate an employee who did just that.
(3) The Huck Finn wars.
(4) In the California governor’s race, Hilton is gaining on Becerra in the polls.
But I think there’s no way Hilton wins. However, I’d love to be pleasantly surprised.
(5) Boomers are doing more cannabis.
(5) All kinds of THC goodies for pain. Been testing the syringe distillates (not for shooting) — even tried some vaporizer vape thingie. 80 years old and don’t need to be that high…tho an 1/8th inch of distillate on a broken Cheez-It is nice for a long time. They have price wars. Great time to be old in America! 😉
I love the idea that Hilton might beat Becerra, who is a real cipher, but the way Nithya Raman came from behind and beat Spencer Pratt says all anyone needs to know about vote counting in CA. Raman was a lackluster candidate (still is) against a very good Pratt, but as the vote count continued in the days after the election, Raman gradually climbed above Pratt. Even if Hilton comes out ahead when the first votes are counted, you can count on a gradual trickle of Democrat votes to come in for a week after. And anyone who thinks Gavin Newsom let the voters of that state down miserably will see that with Becerra in office, the state can get even worse. A lot worse. What a disaster California has become!
Gonna have start thinking up a sardonic meme song for Piker when he gets Charlie Kirked.
To be old and befuddled. Neuter what neurons remain.
Huck Finn deciding, “All right, then, I’ll go to hell,” is the most important line in American literature…
So pleased to read that. I thought I was the only one that thought so. Have told my kids that many many times.
Hasan Piker wasn’t just mocking Charlie Kirk, he was mocking God and so were those in the crowd who joined in with ghoulish delight.
Residence in hell is earned.
Islamicists are vile, Marxist islamiscists even more so.
Re: Cannabis
These days I find it pleasant to be able to buy a decent ounce for $75 legally and smoke daily.
I’ve now been at French for 3 1/2 years. I’ve read over three million words. Today I finished my 49th book in French, “Goldfinger,” in 18 days.
I write as well as anyone here in this talented crew. IMO better than most.
So I’d say my neurons are in good shape. I’m not impressed with the conservative attitude towards marijuana.
Catch me if you can!
No way to tell how your neurons are faring from continued exposure to caninbis compounds, no control group, no double blind.
No drug is without side effects.
Huxley, given your handle, shouldn’t you be dropping acid instead?
Or maybe you do!
mongo:
I have dropped acid and taken mushrooms, but overall I found them unpleasant and too powerful. Plus there is mental illness in the family and I decided to quit while I was ahead.
Grass hits a pleasant medium between being sensitized and being crazy. I was a math-chess kid. Grass was useful for broadening my outlook when encountering art.
It was also important for learning to write poetry. Here’s a poem I wouldn’t have gotten to without grass:
_____________________________________
The Messiah Will Come As Soon As He Is No Longer Needed
The Messiah will come only when he is no longer necessary;
he will come only on the day after his arrival;
he will come, not on the last day, but on the very last.
–Franz Kafka, Parables and Paradoxes
The Messiah will come as soon as he is no longer needed. When people
have learned the trick of their own resurrections, on that morning the
cemeteries will burst open with flowering saints from the neatly tended
lawns, tombstones and mausoleums. The world will be bathed in
streaming light and angels will be rare as cab drivers at rush hour
because they will be drawn from all over the globe to announce the
resurrections of that vast roll call of those newly vanished from their
graves and tombs. The ordinary living will not know where to go. It
will be like when you have invitations to several desirable parties
but they collide on the same evening and you say to yourself, it never
rains but it pours. The time of peace will come pouring down since
death is no longer a threat. What will there be to strive for, what
will we want to do in this brave new world where the dead walk again in
their luminous resurrected bodies?
I am sure there will be good meals. As Christ grilled fish for the
disciples, I myself look forward to a good salmon dinner on that day
with my father. I’ll ask him what it would have been like if I had
gotten to grow up with him. He will be thoughtful and smile. He will
tell me of the great love he has for me, how he missed me all the years
we were apart, and how he is overwhelmed to be with me at last. He
will want to say more, he will want to apologize for the time we missed
together but it is then that a bright golden light begins filling the
restaurant. All heads turn and we are aware of the divine presence
enveloping everyone in the room. It is the Messiah, now that we no
longer need him, arrived at last to interrupt all our most longed for
reunions.
Never tried it. No desire or curiosity. Pretty sure I never will. Have brother who is 66 and has smoked since early teens. Anything is an excuse. (Ditto with booze) He may have had a few screws loose to begin with, but whether weed/pot/Mary Jane (I date myself) or booze, definitely has had effect on his brain. And his physical health. Good luck to all who claim it doesn’t. They’ll happily indulge until they’re diagnosed with something and then it’s “uh oh.” Some of the generations that have long smoked are just now being studied. Like I said, “Best of luck.” Different strokes for different folks, I guess….
I’m not impressed with the conservative attitude towards marijuana.
It made me stupid, and I didn’t enjoy that. Psychedelics were at least interesting.
Um, if I were you I’d think about taking it easy on the Cheez-It.
That stuff is really dangerous (and can also be addictive).
When conservatives bring the same ax to alcohol as they bring to marijuana,
wake me up.
I’m not expecting it.
When conservatives bring the same ax to alcohol as they bring to marijuana,
wake me up.
In my Berserkeley year, a driver gave a group of us hitchhikers some weed. I got very talkative, and the response of the rest of the group was SHUT UP. Which didn’t exactly endear me to weed. In the last 4 decades, the only times I have smoked marijuana has been with a childhood friend, who is also an attorney. Don’t know if she still smokes. At least the last time I saw her, didn’t see any weed.
I do partake of alcohol, but maybe a beer a month. A bottle of Kaluha or the like at Xmas. I like fruity versions of beer , which started w Celis Rasberry beer from decades ago. But as I was in an auto accident when I was six years old, caused by a drunk driver who plowed head-on into us killing our driver—-I was sitting right behind the driver and can still see him lurching forward—I have a healthy respect for alcohol. Further reason: In my year as Aide in a Psych hospital, for several months it was my duty to help a retired submarine guy get dressed. He had drunk a fifth of whiskey a day for 20 years. Korsakoff syndrome partially paralyzed him, left him senile. Insurance company gave him a payout to get out of the hospital. He died soon after he was discharged. Ditto. Dangerous stuff, that ethanol.
From what I have read, the current versions of marijuana are a lot more powerful than what I grew up with. More reason to stay away from them.
Humble Karmi asks — are Religious Fanatics about the same?
Google AI Mode:
huxley:
I stopped drinking at the request of my soon to be wife 35 years ago, and never did much marijuana, because I had been a serious distance runner since my late teens. Breathing smoke didn’t seem to wise.
So I carry no truck for either vice, moderation in all things, as they say.
But if it helps you more than harms, …..
You be you,
Still, no free lunch.
And is Karmi going to launch into the Abrahamic religion hobby horse again?
New Iran deal is truly amazing: Scott Bessent:
https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/2091938677039481273
Every branch of Bank Mellat will be shuttered and dark. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_Mellat
Total assets US$ 280 billion (2023)
Owner Government of Islamic Republic of Iran
any entity that facilitates money laundering on behalf of Iran will be removed from the U.S. Dollar system.
A lot of Mullah credit cards are going to stop working, among many other things, especially in Britian and Canada.
It could work.
Of the many misteps that I may have avoided in this life, I am happy I managed to avoid becoming a smoker (tabacco or otherwise) as a necessary step into adulthood.
Secondly that I met and married a woman who was also a nonsmokeer.
And that we convinced our then 15 year old daughter that she should give up the habit, too.
Also glad most of the world got smart and pushed the smokers outside and supplied smoke free zones in the workplace, on airplanes, and in restaurants.
I get a small feeling of (perhaps unjustified) smugness when I can answer on the medical forms that I “never smoked”. On the other hand, the medical realm is full of correlations that do not provide enough evidence to also be scientitically causitive.
#1 and # 2 in a nutshell:
‘FOLLOW THE “SCIENCE.”’—
https://instapundit.com/818719/
We are living in an uber-mythological age…
+ Related (but how?):
down the rabbit hole with salvationist, messianic gusto!
“Repurposed Jihadists: Palestinian Terrorist Organizations Reborn as Political Parties”—
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/22812/palestinian-terrorist-political-parties
H/T Powerline blog.
Huxley, I like your unapologetic stance on something that has become so stigmatized. Compared to alcohol, cannabis is almost benign. I’m 63 and used both moderately and daily up until a few years ago. Just decided I’d had enough for a whole life and retired from the habit. No regrets. Enjoyed every bit of it.
Mike Plaiss @ 4:52pm,
I have said the same to my children. Whenever I recall that passage I nearly tear up. Such wisdom and beauty.
Never smoked weed, did Pipe in college, and Cigars later. Been a long time since. Now as to alcohol is a different story. Have not been drunk for a very long time. Last time Wife was Very Pissed at me. Right now I have two shots of a very good Single Malt, will take me several hours to consume. Too expensive to chug it.
@ Barry Meislin — “taking it easy on the Cheez-It.”
🙂 I agree! Whilst testing the syringe distillates (like 91-93 THC) I had read where a “rice size” dab/squeeze should be more than enough. I first tried drops basically. Then a “rice size” that was way too much…maybe fine when I was 20-40 but was a horrid high at 80. A dot to 1/8th inch was/is nice – lasting 8-10 hours, and then boost with small puffs of the flower or pre-rolls. I know heroin was addictive…Google: is marijuana addictive like heroin?
Google AI Mode:
NOTE: Whilst testing I bought an OOZE Beacon Extract Vaporizer – C-Core 800 mAh Dab Pen. Placed a big round STICKY blob into it and took a few hits. Waaaayy too much also, and the “Vaporizer” seems to waste it and would be too expensive for me.
No, om — humble me is gonna ask AI another question. Perplexity, are there any religions with a God who exhibits Human emotions, passions, or feelings?
Perplexity:
Merriam-Webster – Anthropopathism: ‘the ascription of human feelings to something not human‘
Dictionary.com – anthropopathy: ‘ascription of human passions or feelings to a being or beings not human, especially to a deity. the attribution of human passions, etc, to a deity, object, etc‘
Maybe that would explain the Religious Fanatics issue/s with the GOP?
Are ‘Holier than Thou‘ WHITE attitudes driving away potential voters from the GOP?
I don’t want Communists, Muslims, DSA’s, Christians, etc. forcing their dogma down my throat whilst they use the power of Local, State, or Federal Governments to do so. Do we NPA FL voters need a Third Party to step forward this year???
Probably too late here, but I imagine our huxley is smart enough to buy weed at a rational strength. I understand some of the newer products are high octane and have some serious risks. Perhaps one smoke a day wouldn’t expose the user to the dangers of two packs of tobacco cigarettes daily with reference to respiratory and cancer issues. We’ll find out.
Of course it’s true that alcohol has destroyed many lives. We use it, but fortunately a drink or a glass of wine with dinner doesn’t cause us trouble. For people who can’t stop with just that much it can become a major problem. Maybe it’s the same with cannabis.
Prohibition didn’t work for either booze or drugs. Punishing behavioral problems rather than consumption itself might be the only way to make progress.
Karmi loves his weed and hates his Christian neighbors?
Oh well, take another hit, and ask AI another leading question to get an answer to post. Because we didn’t know that weed is just as addictive as heroin, or cocaine, or meth, or fentanyl? (sarc)
Funny that Satan’s little helpers will work very hard to find the drug tailored to destroy “humble” little old you.
Religious Fanatics are sure filled with *HATE*, huh…geez!?
Saying that prohabition didn’t work with alcohol or drugs also obscures the know harms that unregulated or unrestricted access to alcohol and drugs produces.
A false choice, the devil is always in the details.
Take a other hit, it can’t hurt yeh.
I’ve said this before: my encounters with THC as a freshman in college (1970) was interesting. Yes, compared to alcohol, no physical hangover, and music was intense. However, I soon discovered that doing my physics and math homework was a major chore for about 3 days following a Saturday night. No physical hangover, but very definite mental hangover that directly affected my analytical abilities. It’s only much later, after seeing many published papers I learned that THC, unlike alcohol, is not metabolized directly by the liver. Further it adheres to fatty tissue, and there’s a lot of that in the brain. The biological half life is about 3 days, but rises to close to 13 days for more frequent use as it saturates fatty tissue. ie, a daily user is never not high. Look up those medical papers if you don’t believe me…do the research. Alcohol half life is 4-5 hours. Yes, alcohol has well-documented negative affects also; especially in large quantities.
As om said, to each his own. I learned very early my thinking was directly affected, (with alcohol also), but the long term affects seemed much worse with THC than with booze.
I’m not impressed with the conservative attitude towards marijuana.
==
High school never ends for some people.
Sure, it’s harmless….
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/mental-health/marijuana-use-mental-health-young-adults-weed-rcna84984
Prohibition didn’t work for either booze or drugs.
==
Didn’t work toward what end?
Didn’t work to stop use.
” I guess it’s okay to be a “journalist” and not only celebrate Kirk’s death but make up fake quotes from him.”
I thought Dan Rather got fired for promoting fake journalism.
@Kate:Didn’t work to stop use.
That’s because it wasn’t intended to. It never banned use.
One thing very clear from what people wrote about it at the time was that Prohibition was not intended to stop everyone from drinking, only working people. People with a little money were only inconvenienced by it because they could afford to use the loopholes.
See the missing words, “consumption”, “possession”?
Anti-drug laws have targeted possession as well as distribution, and that hasn’t really stopped people who want to use the stuff.
Didn’t work to stop use.
==
Excuse me. Provisions of the penal code are invariably enforced in a hit-and-miss way and do not fully suppress the behavior in question. That’s true of just about any kind of offense you could name. There are two sets of trade-offs here and some rough utilitarian calculation. Is it worth it to attempt legal suppression? How much of society’s resources should you expend to attempt legal suppression? One might also ask what methods are permissible to attempt legal suppression. (I’m recalling a talk by the starboard political theorist Gottfried Dietze expressing dismay at how free law enforcement in the United States was to make use of agents provacateurs, which he said would get police officers prosecuted in continental legal systems).
Anti-drug laws have targeted possession as well as distribution, and that hasn’t really stopped people who want to use the stuff.
==
It hasn’t stopped them completely. Why do you think in binaries?
@Kate:Anti-drug laws have targeted possession as well as distribution, and that hasn’t really stopped people who want to use the stuff.
Speed limits haven’t stopped speeding, and laws against murder didn’t stop murder…
@Karmi:Vice laws target consensual adult activities
So do laws requiring a minimum wage. There are any number of laws that restrict consensual adults from this or that.
Karmi’s AI citation conveniently ignores non-adult activities and activities that involve non-adults and adults. Funny that omission?
Vice is in the eye of the perp?
Limit THC content just like we regulate alcohol content.
— Kate
Yes, it did, at least to an extent. There is a long-standing myth that Prohibition either had no effect on alcohol use or that it actually increased during that time. This myth has been pushed hard by those who wanted to repeal it and by the alcohol industry.
In reality, studies have indicated that cirhossis of the liver fell sharply during that time. Other indications also suggest it was somewhat effective.
The downsides were bigger than the benefits, but there were benefits.
— karmi
The fact that something is consensual doesn’t automatically make it morally or pragmatically OK. That’s one of the classic errors hardcore libertarians often make.
The problem (one among several) with the assessment above is that it treats ‘underlying demand’ as a given and a constant, which is not so. Also, it lumps several different things together that are best looked at separately.
One problem with the ‘consenting adults’ issue is negative externalities, and in some cases those externalities are serious and nasty. This is esp. true of addictive drugs. I’ve seen the effects on families of addicts who were themselves ‘consenting adults’, those loved ones never consented to seeing their families ripped apart. People living in neighborhoods consumed by the drug trade haven’t necessary consented to the associated violence and criminality.
Yes, there’s a minimum underlying demand for drugs that isn’t going to go away. But that demand can increase, too. We’ve seen exactly this phenomenon in Oregon of late with their experimentation with drug legalizations. People who otherwise would not have experimented with the stuff did, and some became addicted, and the net demand rose.
I’ve seen quite a few formerly enthusiastic libertarian-leaning right-wingers admit that this caught them by surprise. This leaves me torn, half of me is happy to see that they can process reality, the other half wants to face-palm at the admission that they didn’t expect that outcome.
Note too that an adult can consent to try an addictive substance of free will, but lose the ability to stop using it once they do. Yes, not everyone gets hooked, but many do. The difference between a happy and productive life and a miserable addicted one can come down to that first ‘just to try it’ for some people.
There is a tremendous reluctance among (in my perception) esp. Boomer aged voters to accept that marijuana can be dangerous. Partly the ridiculous overstatement of those dangers years ago (‘reefer madness’) undercuts the real thing now. Marijuana today is far more potent than it was in 1970.
The legal marijuana industry has much in common with the booze industry. Both use deceptive claims to sell the product (not that this is unique to them, of course). For ex, what we kept hearing during the political run up to legalization of pot was ‘medical marijuana’. ‘It’s to relieve suffering’. Etc.
It was transparent nonsense even at that time, of course. I knew then and so did everyone with their eyes open that they wanted to legalize for recreational use, because that’s where the profit was thought to be. Likewise, the States pushing this thought they saw a new source of tax revenue.
Once legalized, the providers have an inherent interest in the users becoming addicted, too. It’s just the nature of the beast, an addicted user is more likely to keep coming back for more and will pay more.
The booze industry loves its narratives too. Remember all the talk about how small amounts of alcohol were healthy for the heart and body? Well, there was some evidence for that, going back decades, but responsible doctors hesitated to talk about it because they knew it would be used as an excuse for heavier drinking.
Then the booze industry got ahold of that and pushed it hard through indirect funding of commercials, ‘studies’, etc. Most of the studies were inadequately controlled and over time the beneficial effects faded out as the studies were improved.
I have no doubt that very small amounts* of alcohol have a few tiny benefits for some people, but I also have no doubt that for most people the health downsides are greater. No responsible MD is going to recommend that a teetotaler patient start drinking for his better health, then or now.
* Very small amounts means half a glass of wine with a meal once or twice a week, less for women. It does not mean ‘knock back a six pack’. If you drank enough to get even tipsy or buzzed, you absolutely drank too much for your health, period.
I don’t favor alcohol prohibition, we tried that and the downsides outweighed the benefits (though there were real and significant benefits). Alcohol is old and deeply established in society, too many people like it and use it, trying to suppress it requires a cost we won’t and probably can’t pay.
But note that drug legalization opens the risk that the other, newer addictives can become so socially ingrained that it’s impossible to reverse it. Portland is already dealing with the aftermath of legalization in the form of a much larger pool of addicts than they would otherwise have had. Even when the legalization is reversed, the new addicts are still addicted.
So no, this is not just a personal matter for consenting adults.
I quit all stuff(which I had a lot.of fun) to stay around and pester people!!!
Huxley,
You’ve been ” out there”!