the blog of john

The biggest word you ever heard
And this is how it goes:

(Source: kimlennox, via anchoredintheocean)

nevver:

“I despise modern music. Words cannot express how much it gets on my nerves – the false, pretentious, smug assertiveness of it. I hate business, having to deal with money. Money is one of the most hateful inventions of the human race. I hate the commodity culture, in which everything is bought and sold. No stone is left unturned. I hate the mass media, and how passively people suck up to it.” — R. Crumb

This.

(via socialuprooting)

What happens to books when the Kindle is free? | Tech News and Analysis (via mediafuturist)

(via emergentfutures)

anarchistreview:

This is actually really true… haha.

Love this.

(Source: keepcalmandcarryom, via kaylahenderson)

This is what I would end up doing if I could time travel.

(via socialuprooting)

How Does Drug Prohibition Effect You The Citizen In A Negative Way?

By CWL (Ken)

Exactly and with no exaggeration it has been a decade, one hundred years of Cannabis prohibition. Despite all credible Health and Medical agencies recognizing Cannabis as a completely safe, non-lethal plant that does in fact carry a slew of medical benefits far exceeding that of many pharmaceutical drugs that are sold over the counter, it is still kept away and made illegal in the Federal level. This denies states citizens the freedom of Cannabis usage as Federal regulators tout and recite old, outdated propaganda long ago disproved by science, experiments and pure data. But you’re just a mere citizen, and may not even care for using Cannabis, so..

How Does Cannabis Prohibition Effect You Negatively?

Consider this, our country is in great debt, it owes far too much than it can pay, which of course our government saves the businesses. The citizens get the bitter end of the deal by literally being born into debt. As this progresses, we, or should I say our “loyal” representatives at congress who continously vote NO,NO, NO on just about anything that makes sense to be voted on FUCKING YES. From Educational, Scientific, People’s Rights, Transportation, Environmental budget slashes to lack of funding in them, to the one I am getting to, prohibition of a multi billion dollar industry that could save us from debt as we look for Economic alternatives, as well as a real stop to crime.. The Cannabis industry.

A Quick Look Back: Alcohol Prohibition of the 1920-30s

Remember when the United States also placed a prohibition stamp on Alcohol? Not too long ago our government thought it would be a good idea to play Big Brother and place a no-no stamp over Alcohol usage by banning it. This would surely teach those crazy alcoholics to quit while they’re at it no? Exactly, No. This action gave rise to one of the most vicious, greedy, and dangerous crime bosses the states have ever seen, the citizens again took the bitter end as crime grew rampant across the streets now that money from the alcohol was going unregulated, in mass, and straight to these crime bosses and businessmen who sold to whomever showed the cash. So in 1933, the ban on Alcohol was lifted at the federal level. This restored the alcohol industry and gave better regulation to it with official vendors requesting identification later on.

Did You Know?

The founding fathers were in fact huge fans of the crop Hemp which is part of the Cannabis plant. Hemp is and was always said by experts to be a revolutionary plant for farmers and industries alike. Not only because you can replace the usage of trees for hemp, but it can be used for virtually many replacements that now thrive on the market. On top of this, it left nothing after harvest and can be planted soon after that last harvesting. In fact, President Abraham Lincoln would enjoy some Cannabis of his own on his front porch as he played his harmonica, he wrote of this. Many of the founding fathers expressed great interest for this crop, so much that it was made illegal NOT to grow it.

Deja Vu! I’m Seeing Two

How do you make the same nonsensical and unfounded mistake twice? Simple, grab the same crop that our founding father praised right? Now, if you’re a big business tycoon and you’re scared of competition just say that Cannabis is actually this nutty Marijuana plant that due to racist times “makes white women have sex with black men” (Not my word, as it was literally put at the time). Then, since you own the print press you make prints bashing this awesome crop and turning it into a bad one in the image of many. And so it was, Cannabis was banned, made illegal. Thus giving a new rise to thugs, gangsters, and greedy businessmen in our own and south of the borders. This effects you directly because it is these same people that are selling drugs to kids, no matter the age as long as there is money. Which overall extends corruption to the youth, which then grows up being that corruption in an ongoing deadly cycle we allow.

Because of this prohibition we are not making the best out of this lovely billion dollar industry that can be the citizens. Legalizing Cannabis and Hemp all together just seems like the right thing to do if you understand how this all works and plays out for you. You would literally be benefiting from this whether you are for it or not because everyone would benefit from the gigantic revenues. We could be saving thousands of trees and the fact that growing cannabis can all be done with renewable energy and eco-friendly solutions it seems like the safe way to go environmentally. So what are we waiting for exactly? Are we the government’s child to be told what we can have or not? Then why do we continue to allow this ban on something almost everyone seems to have enjoyed and bonded with.

We are aware, We now it’s safe, We’ve seen its Effects, We’ve witnessed the cure.

Legalize Now.

(Source: ikenbot, via ikenbot)

theworldisnotenough1:

twobitnietzsche:

How about this for education reform?

This video really speaks to me right now. I’ve talked to a couple friends about how tired we are of our educations. I, personally, am someone who’s pretty easy to order around like this. I’ve generally bought into the education system. However, I’ve been having a lot of trouble with my grades this year because I can’t motivate myself to work in classes I don’t really care about. To illustrate that point, I don’t think I’ve gotten above a B+ in any class that didn’t count towards one of my majors. 

The other problem is that class and assignment structure don’t really give you incentive for free thought. I submitted a research term paper on monday on economic development in subsaharan African states as a function of good governance. It was probably a crap paper, but I ended up liking what I wrote, and it was a sort of interesting topic. Nonetheless, I felt like what I’d said wasn’t terribly original, but then again, the structure of a research paper doesn’t really offer the means to be particularly original, considering I have to come up with a formal hypothesis, “test” it (that doesn’t mean a whole lot in the social sciences, ESPECIALLY IR), and then accept or reject it. Maybe it’s just the constraints of being an undergraduate, where I can’t really do my own research, but a paper which requires significant research or citation doesn’t leave room for independent thought if you can’t find a lot of prior research to back up your point (and if you can, how original is your point?)

Grrrrr, first world problems!

This raises a lot of great points. My mind is always blown that we aren’t building schools instead of bombs and winning the world over that way, but how can we spread education if we aren’t even doing right in the U.S.?

I love people that educate themselves, because they’re the only loopholes in the system, but society is largely flawed because there is no way of recognizing the education of an autodidact. We have a lot of work to do here. And unfortunately, we need a massive educational campaign and shift of cultural values before we can get anything done.

For a minute there, after I heard the news that Osama had been killed, I really thought that the sick detour America had taken into insanity for the past 10 years could be reversed. It wasn’t until I saw all the people dancing in the streets that I realized it was going to be harder than killing the boogeyman to heal this nation.