FLUORESCENT LIGHT BULBS WILL KILL YOU!!!

If you break one open and drink the delicious mercury within, it might. On the other hand, mercury use was once “thought to prolong life, heal fractures, and maintain generally good health,” and we all know ancient peoples were far more in touch with the planet than we are today. Or you could go as mad as a hat-wearing Chinese emperor – it’s all in the cards. On April 16th, 2007, the reputable WorldNetDaily ran this EXCLUSIVE on the dangers of energy-saving fluorescent light bulbs. It was quickly picked up by Fox News! and other conservative media outlets.

“Those environmentalist pigfuckers,” I thought, blatantly plagiarizing, “endangering my health to push their hippy agenda.” It was a broken lamp that put me on this thread, and during a brief search for a replacement I came across startling information: General Electric is, allegedly, a major player in the push for adoption of CFLs (compact fluorescent lamps/lights). They must make them, or something. Sure they last longer, which will eventually reduce bulbmaker sales, but they cost so much more and I bet the profit margin is higher as well. Work in a few municipalities banning the sale of incandescents and that’s a profit explosion worth controlling the media for. GE is the principal owner of NBC Universal, responsible for the hit entertainment show the “NBC Nightly News”. No wonder I had to turn to Fox for my fair and balanced news.

A Diamond is Forever

That’s the line the De Beers cartel decided to sell to impressionable Americans starting in the late 1930s (the literal line itself, in 1947). Those shiny bits of carbon of artificial scarcity and fixed prices didn’t sell themselves – considering there was no long-term or widespread historical tradition of diamonds containing value or imparting status. Diamonds are no gold.

Recorded history of diamonds used in engagement/wedding rings takes us back over 500 years, a (true) fact pushed by the “history of the engagement ring” websites run by jewelers. No reference to the “standard” diamond engagement ring being a result of a De Beers advertising campaign, or that many other countries (including those that can afford diamonds) stick to simple gold bands or rings mounted with other gems. I’d wager most Americans believe the diamond engagement ring is dominant throughout most of Europe. For all the glorious background, read THIS PIECE from The Atlantic written by Edward Jay Epstein. I know… it’s long. The first few pages deal with the relevant engagement ring/ad campaign issues. Here is the brief.

Stupid Rappers Trying to Be All Political

“The fourth branch of the government AKA the media
Seems to now have a retirement plan for ex-military officials
As if their opinion was at all unbiased
A machine shouldn’t speak for men
So shut the fuck up you mindless drone!
And you know it’s serious
When these same media outfits are spending millions of dollars on a PR campaign
To try to convince you they’re fair and balanced
When they’re some of the most ignorant, and racist people
Giving that type of mentality a safe haven
We act like we share in the spoils of war that they do
We die in wars, we don’t get the contracts to make money off ‘em afterwards!
We don’t get weapons contracts, nigga!
We don’t get cheap labor for our companies, nigga!
We are cheap labor, nigga!”
-Immortal Technique, The 4th Branch

Felipe Coronel, aka Immortal Technique, raises the age-old question: is it ok for a white man (me) to quote a Latino/hispanic/Peruvian-American’s use of the n-bomb? This song was playing on a mix CD in my car while I was running errands with a friend. He heard an anti-Bush line that jerked his conservative chain and made an indignant comment along the lines of “Hah! This stupid rapper thinks he’s political or something.”

Never Trust the Media on Pot

A Huffington Post debunking of the suggested marijuana-schizophrenia link that made rounds through the media recently. It does a much better, and more succinct, job than my own personal debunking. I suggested studying links between increasing marijuana use and what would have to be increasing rates of schizophrenia if such a link were true. Blogger Maia Szalavitz took care of that:

Second — and this is where virtually all of the coverage falls flat — if marijuana produces what seems like such a large jump in risk for schizophrenia, have schizophrenia rates increased in line with marijuana use rates? A quick search of Medline shows that this is not the case — in fact, as I noted here earlier, some experts think they may actually have fallen. Around the world, roughly 1% of the population has schizophrenia (and another 2% or so have other psychotic disorders), and this proportion doesn’t seem to change much. It is not correlated with population use rates of marijuana.

Since marijuana use rates have skyrocketed since the 1940’s and 50’s, going from single digit percentages of the population trying it to a peak of some 60% of high school seniors trying it in 1979 (stabilizing thereafter at roughly 50% of each high school class), we would expect to see this trend have some visible effect on the prevalence of schizophrenia and other psychoses.

When cigarette smoking barreled through the population, lung cancer rose in parallel; when smoking rates fell, lung cancer rates fell. This is not the case with marijuana and psychotic disorders; if it were, we’d be seeing an epidemic of psychosis.

And that, friends, is why you never trust the media on pot.

POT: ‘RISK IN ONE JOINT’ …

Drudge headlines always get me riled up. Developing . . .

A UK government-funded study has found that “a single joint of cannabis raises the risk of schizophrenia by more than 40 per cent.” I tend to distrust any study that plays up the negative effects of illegal drugs, especially when that study is funded by the government. Researchers are not beyond finding what they’re supposed to, and they’re supposed to find reasons to keep the War on Drugs intact – even in the UK. A claim like this deserves some more research on my end.

Here’s some disclosure: I’m not a big fan of marijuana. I have smoked in the past and at times enjoyed it, and other times not. I no longer smoke frequently, but when I do I tend to get self-critical and embarrassed about things I have done recently (and have no reason to be embarrassed about). Not incredibly enjoyable, and I’ve never enjoyed being in social situations while high. I have no love for those who “have to” smoke before doing anything, after doing anything, and generally use it as a default. Which is strange, because the two people I know who smoke the most don’t fall into this category for me, because they don’t smoke before and after activities… they smoke all the time. It’s the difference between a “stoner” and being Bob Marley, but I don’t know how to explain so I’ll leave it at that.