Sorry, but my blog was hacked

Please do not click on links posted in the two previous messages (since deleted). I think some hacks figured out my secret email address used to mail posts. But they also reminded me I have a blog and need to write more, stay tuned.

BigMikeM

The Elephant in the Room - Medication and Recreation

Let's be frank:The human animal has an undeniable urge to medicate and recreate itself. I have not heard a single presidential candidate talk about this important subject that is reportedly controversial.

While it's easy to see that this urge can be placated to our own destruction, our American society's efforts to guide us down the right path have gone awry.

Here are my 10 reasons:

1. Denying the need and desire to medicate is denying facts of our species.
2. Use is a victimless crime which im my philosophy have no reason to be prosecuted.
   
3. Drug policy imprisons more poeple than any other reason. The US has the highest number of incarcerated people of any first world country, and most of those in prison can trace their conviction back to drugs.
   
4. Drug use is the first time many young people break the law, and leads them to mock it. Subsequent events was used to outlaw marijuana as a gateway drug. But maybe they missed the point - it's not the drug, it is the mindset. If the law is so silly, why should it be respected? For every year an idiotic law remains on the books, a generation of young people is created whom do not respect the law.
5. The selection of which drugs are legal is hypocritical as to be laughable and maddening simultaneously. Take the long standing sentences of crack cocaine over regular. But what about this recent discovery: Tylenol is actually a cannabinoid!
   
6. The availability of information has moved the discovery of new recreational drugs which will create another un-winnable chase with victims of experimentation as its roadkill. Take Nyquil and it's second active ingredient levorphenol that is five times more powerful than morphine. How long before this is the next rave / date rape drug.
7. Our 'war' is creating, not destroying, dangerously powerful groups. Recently they found 2 submarines that drug lords had built to transport cocaine. Many countries do not have submarines but these people do because we make the trade so lucrative.
8. It is widely acknowledged that here in Oregon, where you can drive for hours through farmland, that the #1 cash crop is invisible! That's right, more money is made growing illegal cannabis than all the food, shrubbery, and Christmas trees you can imagine.
9. We had prohibition here once, and should have learned our lesson.

My hastily conceived solution:

1. Have laws that target the effects of use/abuse. Our current policy is allot like outlawing bullets. Go after the wrongs that people do to others. Drunk driving is wrong, getting drunk is your right. Parents have a responsibility to their children to be coherent. If you drink your liver to pieces, you should not be at the top of the donor recipient list.
2. Regulate commerce. Tax and control the use of drugs to make money, but don't tell people what they can grow in their yard or cook in their kitchen.
3. Let the information do the work - let people choose for themselves what risk / rewards they are willing to take. The governments role in this should be to codify the truth as it is currently known, not to protect us from the the unknowable which is impossible. By oversimplifying it for people saying if it's on a shelf or at the pharmacy it is safe , if it's not there it's not safe, we've treated them like idiots and denied them reasonable choices for their own circumstances.

I'd really like to see some leadership on this subject. But like illegal immigration they all see it is political suicide. Why do we keep expecting leaders to lead without disrupting our comfort zones. Even if you wouldn't do a thing different of all prohibitions were repealed, recognize this is a societal problem, and that we need to direct our leaders to fix it.

Thankful for our humanity

On this Thanksgiving, we're all prompted by tradition to be especially thoughtful of what we are thankful for. Of course the immediate things that are so personal to us, our family, health and prosperity top the list. And for my own situation I feel profoundly thankful.

As a student of the universe, I have to ask why and how I am where I am. Was I lucky or smart? Obviously both, but how do they interact to contribute to thankful? Consider someone who gambles intelligently- that is, they play games with better odds. Here, smart clearly contributes to lucky firsthand. One could say they were extraordinarily lucky to be born in the US, the most free and opportunity filled society on earth. Yet their 'luck' was granted by their ancestors who were smart to immigrate and to maintain this imperfect union. There are second and third degrees to this interaction between smart to luck beyond what one could fathom. The existence of our species is clearly more smart than luck.

Take the unlucky, hit by a car or rare disease. It would be irrational to argue that there were no choices in these matters. We often choose what risks we expose our bodies to, even indirectly. But if the tire blew out or or animal in the road that caused the crash came a second later, the results may have been different. So my position is that luck is simply the manifestation of infinitely random interactions on our universe from the spin of an atom to the cosmos. Our existence subjects ourselves to it every nano-second.

So back to what am I most thankful for? The intellect of our species - the superior function of our brains that lets us, albeit sometimes poorly, rule this planet. I'm not talking about Mensa grade chess master intellect, but the natural ability we have to unconsciously sense the good and bad in a situation that lacks any mathematical certainty. I'm speaking of the ethics of humanity.

I find that generally the source ethics and morality are poorly understood. Isn't it amazing how instinctively we know when a human is being smart as opposed to stupid? The religious may argue that the morals passed down through tradition and sacred texts are responsible. Or even that god interacts with our thoughts to show us the way. Every parent would argue that they teach their children. And indeed, parents and religions have helped to codify and standardize our ethics. But after thousands of years, they still disagree.

Add this inconsistency to the fact that lots of parents taught poorly, many religions preach absurdities, and it is amazing that even those among us that may have the least to be thankful for, have a common understanding of right and wrong, good and evil, justice and injustice. Call it the least common denominator, but it is the most influential force in our society.

So I am thankful for our humanity, and for our genetic ability to find the best way to enrich our own lives, and those of others simultaneously. We see a thousand examples of our humanity not being used well everyday, yet we all feel that it should be. And that innate feeling is what keeps our world going round, improving ever so slightly every day....

You want to move where!!?

This is the usual response we got to our plans.

Judging from our experience, Oregon's reputation is manufactured repellent. Honestly, I can't find a single reason this place is NOT exploding with immigrants. But then, I have not lived through the rainy season yet.

Just off the top of my head, here are some of our reasons we came:

Personal:
Beautiful green forests, right in the city.
A culturally rich city, just close enough for comfort.
Farms and wineries a few miles away where you can pick your own.
Mountains and beaches, all within day trip range.
Temperatures where humans can thrive.
Life is all around you here.
Family friendly town, safe with good life and educational opportunities

Business:
Beaverton has to be one of the most diversely technical places outside Silicon Valley.
The international seed of Open Source Software are planted here.
An extremely well educated and underemployed population.
A high quality of life with an independent spirit.
Lots of entrepreneurial support.

Some of the things I heard before coming here:
Rain, rain, rain: Given, but water is life. How bad can it get? We'll see....
Ultra-Liberal: Some are, but many are not. Survey says this will be a red state in a few years.
Expensive: Not really - certainly not for the quality of life

If you could live anywhere, realistically, where would it be? For us, it was here. In Arizona, I felt foreign, and fought with the environment. Here, I am in sync.