Month: February 2010

Czechs may possess 15 g of marijuana, 1 g of cocaine, 1.5 gram of heroin, 4 ecstasy pills, 5 units of LSD, 2 g of amphetamines

Prague – The Czech government today approved the list of hallucinogenic plants and mushrooms, including hemp, coca, mescaline cactus and magic mushrooms, and decided that people would be allowed to grow up to five pieces of such plants and keep 40 magic mushrooms at home, a CTK source said.
http://www.ceskenoviny.cz/zpravy/czech-govt-defines-rules-of-hallucinogenic-plants-growing/411010
http://www.radio.cz/en/article/74121
http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/0,1518,673127,00.html [german]

The liberal law went into effect in January 2010.

The government’s approval of a table specifying what amounts of drugs are permissible is a vital part of the country’s new penal code that was last year approved by both houses of parliament and in January of this year was signed into law by President Vaclav Klaus. Without the just-approved table of amounts that will be used by Czech police, the January decriminalization of the drug would be difficult to judge by courts and investigators.

The plant still remains illegal, however, though from the new year possession of five or less plants is merely a misdemeanour, and fines for possession will be on par with penalties for parking violations.

The Czech decision is in sync with the country’s liberal, Dutch-like social attitudes and laissez-faire approach to civil liberties.

There is also an interesting lifestyle footnote: Czechs are Europe’s biggest drinkers of hops-infused beer and are also the continent’s leaders in smoking pot.

Czech decriminalization of small amounts of cannabis possession does not, however provide greater clarity to the country’s policy on medical marijuana, an issue which is gaining momentum both in Europe, in North America and elsewhere around the globe.
http://blogs.wsj.com/new-europe/2009/12/08/czech-govt-allows-5-cannabis-plants-for-personal-use-from-2010/

Human-stupidity comments

  • Great that people don’t go to jail for the victimless crime of possessing drugs for their own use. This is a great start. Using certain drugs may be stupid (e.g. too much alcohol), but that should not be a criminal case.
  • “Unfortunately [the law]’s not bringing anything new on the prevention side, and this is most worrying.” http://www.radio.cz/en/article/123873 Intense government campaigns should make using drugs less “hip” and reduce usage and abuse. Unfortunately alcohol usage is a huge problem world wide, and of course other drugs may become a bigger health problem too.
  • Where should these drugs come from? the delivery guy still is criminalized and thus drug crime still a problem. Except if every user now starts growing his own supply. Everyone engaging in agriculture might be very good but creates other problems (what to do with surplus harvest, or when stocks run out, or before the pot is harvested). What if I don’t like growing plants at home, or mom does not allow it? And where should I get my ecstasy and heroin supply from, legally?

Compare Dutch Drug Laws
By allowing possession and retail sales of cannabis, but not cultivation or wholesale, the government creates numerous problems of crime and public safety, he alleges, and therefore he would like to switch to either legalising and regulating production, or to the full repression

BLM & Wild Horses Roundup: Exaggerated Animal Rights Protection

In the Wild West of the USA, the Bureau of Land Management rounds up wild horses with expensive helicopters and keeps them on “retirement farms”, gives expensive birth control to mares, does everything to reduce the uncontrolled growth of horse herds. There are arguments that the animals are not natural and endemic to the regions, that cattle ranchers are greedy and don’t want grazing horses as a disturbance.

Sources:
http://www.rgj.com/article/20100206/NEWS/2060341/Activists–death-rate-at-mustang-roundup-excessive

Good intentions cause ill side effects

I mix these animal rights in with “human rights”, because they come from the same attitude. Our inborn tenderness and goodness, badly and selectively applied, makes us take inconsistent decisions. We see one side of the coin and don’t think through the consequences of our laws.

Horses, cougars, bears, all animal populations under total protection will grow and expand. At some time there will be too many horses, with no predators. Cougars and bears are not hunted, they don’t respect people, endanger hikers and even US villagers when rummaging for food.  I am talking about Americans, because seems to care about African peasants whose harvests are trampled down by elefants and kids endangered by lions rummaging in the village.

Find the middle ground: don’t exterminate nor allow uncontrolled breeding

I never thought I would become a redneck, but I agree: hunt the bastards!

What are the alternatives to control by hunting?

  1. Let nature solve it! Let the animals spread to bearing capacity, until they overgraze and then starvation limits population.
  2. Or introduce predators, wolves etc whose large numbers also endanger our livestock and kids.
  3. or go to great expenses with constant efforts at birth control like it is being done now.

Definitely shoot some bears and cougars, who venture too close to humans. The shy ones will survive and be selected for. Hunt some horses to keep them at the desired numbers. Yes, sell hunting licenses, sell and eat the horse meat. Eating healthy happy range mustang meat is better in every respect (health,  morality, environment, carbon neutrality ….) then eating “concentration camp chicken” breast or corn fed cattle locked up in stalls.

“Good” intentions

Overlooked side effects

Overlooked other victims

Solutions
Horses are cute and our friends. They need total protection. They must not be killed, horse meat must not be eaten. Horse populations will grow too big at some time. If not now, then in 50 years. Advance population planning should have been made. Chicken, cows, are grown under “inhumane” conditions, unhealthy for consumers. High cost to energy usage, environmental damage, … Controlled hunting
Bears & Cougars must be protected from extinction and must not be hunted Dangerous animals lose fear of humans. It is easier to attack pets, livestock and smaller humans then to hunt scarce wild animals   Controlled Hunting

Tiger Woods: Breach of (Unfair) Contract? Hypocrisy & (Self)-Deception

 

Tiger Woods: a free man?

The Tiger Woods scandal has many facets. I wrote that Tiger Woods is a free man entitled to have fun and Tiger Woods sex addiction treatment is an absurdity.

Tiger sold his freedom to have fun & right to privacy for US$ 100 Million

People countered: Tiger sold his freedom for 100 Million dollars, He made advertising contracts as being a “good boy” athlete: Hey, Tiger, Lack of Privacy Is Part of the Deal.  Tiger Woods has destroyed $12 Billion in Stock value So maybe, after having charged huge amounts of money for his “clean boy” image, it is his moral and legal obligation to keep up to moral standard he himself agreed to. Like a catholic priest who signed a celibacy vow and now has to keep it. 

Why Is Tiger Woods in Trouble? It’s Not His Steamy Sex Life; It’s His Family Values Hypocrisy: Woods made most of his fortune through his “squeaky-clean model athlete” reputation. Last year, of the $117 million Woods made, $7.7 million was on the golf course; the rest came from endorsement deals. And that endorsement empire is built on the image of a hardworking, clean-living family man with wife, kids, dogs, and “values”.

Tiger Woods And Global Media Hypocrisy
Tiger Woods, Linford Christie and the stars who are sworn to the Hypocrisy Oath
Bob Schieffer To Tiger Woods: Stop Whining (VIDEO)

Breach of contract. But is the contract fair?

Of course, he also signed a marriage “contract” with fidelity vows. He broke the contract. I think it is unfair that the terms of a marriage are non-negotiable. Consumer and tenant law has invalidated many such one-sided contracts, but “feminist” law-makers make sure that men cannot easily negotiate freedom in marriage contracts.

So men who want to retain their freedom have only the choice not to marry, or do what men (and apes before them) did for millions of years: cheat and lie to cover up. Promise what women want to hear, and then secretly do what the man himself wants to do.

Deception

Deception is huge part of human social life.  Our education and social norms demand honesty, and in contradiction to that they also demand politeness, courtesy, ….  From “I am fine” when I feel bad, to “your dress looks great” when I think it is awful, to “I have eyes only for you and love you forever”.  In spite of us lying constantly, we feel we are honest. We deceive ourselves that we are honest.

Self-Deception & Self-Deception

You deceive better if you yourself believe in it.

So Tiger probably believed in his wedding vows. He also believes he is an honest person. Which usually he is. Except for white lies. And lying to spouses. Well and to sponsors and the rest of the world.

And before you throw the first stone: think of your own secrets. What if the press published your photo nose-picking? or about some secret sexual urge you once followed?

And now all these hypocrites condemn poor Tiger Woods. Of course, if you are a public relations manager for Nike, your job is to worry about Nike’s sales and corporate image. Not about hypocrisy, or if the same people who condemn Tiger (and Nike for promoting him) are hypocrites. Try YouTube to see some Tiger Woods commercials: they all manipulate your unconscious: they don’t really sell you superior merchandise, they associate Tiger’s image with the product, thus making you buy the product.

  • Maybe the problem is that we demand unrealistic role models, who are supposed confirm unrealistic moral norms?
  • Maybe the problem is that society demands that we lie about romantic “transgressions”.
  • Most healthy adolescent boys or adult men would probably admire Woods for his sexual conquests. When talking to their peers. But, of course, would not admit this to their wives.

Should male promiscuity be repressed or sexual freedom be tolerated?

  • There are of course philosophical questions: is monogamy better? there will be less fights, less diseases? or better family life?
  • Is male promiscuity something that should be eliminated by therapy, drugs etc because it causes problems?
  • Or do repressive laws, false morality cause the problems?  People should just be honest, open and be allowed to have fun without any need to hide. Why can’t everyone have their sexual freedom, and we devote out resources to avoiding unwanted pregnancies and diseases, instead of spying after celebrities’ private life.

Hypocritical double standards about domestic violence

Tiger Woods’ wife Elin should be under investigation for domestic violence:  The first news stories sounded suspicious: How can an intelligent man total his car and get face injuries when backing out his car from the garage? And require a women with a golf club to break the windshield to free him? 

If the suspected victim were a women, police would investigate, even if the victim denied violence having happened. But Elin is a woman, and police and law are biased in favor of women. If she were innocent, they should have demanded an investigation to dispel any doubt.

I think Tiger lied when he swore in public that no domestic violence has happened. If this could be proven to be a lie, then Woods would be proven to make false public statements . An explicit public lie, almost an oath, that could haunt him (like Bill Clinton).

But as now Tiger’s and Elin’s interest in cover-up coincide, nobody will ever admit the truth. Of course, this can cost him dearly. A domestic violence conviction would greatly favor Tiger in any potential divorce settlement. If he was intelligent, he made her sign something in exchange for his covering up the domestic violence.

Tiger Woods: why can’t he have open marriage and have fun?

A domesticated Tiger Woods asks for forgiveness for being a man. Woods who could have thousands of women had a mere 14 women over a period of many years. Tiger’s mistake was to agree on a non-open marriage and to project the good boy image.  Like most men, Woods got into the typical vicious cycle of false promises and deceit, instead of being honest and standing up for his rights as a powerful and highly desirable alpha male.  And to add insult to injury, he now does “sexual addiction therapy” to rid him of normal male feelings and impulses. Maybe he ought to get castrated

What good is it for a man to earn US$ 100 Million if he cannot have fun? Here is Tiger’s truth:

I felt that I had worked hard my entire life and deserved to enjoy all the temptations around me. I felt I was entitled. Thanks to money and fame, I didn’t […] have to go far to find them.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/02/19/tiger.woods.transcript/index.html

But then he went on asking for forgiveness. He disappointed his wife, his fans, his business partners.

I am also aware of the pain my behavior has caused to those of you in this room. I have let you down. I have let down my fans. For many of you, especially my friends, my behavior has been a personal disappointment. To those of you who work for me, I have let you down, personally and professionally. My behavior has caused considerable worry to my business partners.

He has not caused any pain to me. Actually, I found his behavior endearing. Of course, his business partners who profit from Tiger Woods’ squeaky clean image, they have reason to worry.  Maybe Woods should settle for earning a mere 50 million a year and having fun, instead of making 100 Million.

Woods’mother put things into perspective:

Afterward, Woods’ mother, Kultida Woods, spoke to reporters, saying how proud she is of him.

“Golf is just like life, when you make a mistake, you learn from your mistake and move on stronger. That’s the way he is,” she said.

“I am upset the way media treated him like he’s a criminal. … He didn’t kill anybody, he didn’t do anything illegal,” she said.

“They’ve being carrying on from Thanksgiving until now. That’s not right.”
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/02/19/tiger.woods/index.html

Sure, Tiger Woods did not keep his agreement, his vow of faithfulness.  Maybe he should not have agreed to these condicions in the first place.  Why does a rich powerful man abdicate his freedom and vow to be “faithful”, to never look at another woman again?

I’ve had a lot of time to think about what I have done. My failures have made me look at myself in a way I never wanted to before. It is now up to me to make amends. And that starts by never repeating the mistakes I have made. It is up to me to start living a life of integrity.

Don’t make vows of faithfulness, and you can live a life with fun and enjoy integrity. Did he not take good care of his family? Fed them well. Earned a lot of money for them? Just he was foolish enough to get trapped in a vow of “fidelity”.

Now here is a rare positive example of another famous “pervert” husband’s wife supporting a husband’s freedom:

The wife of Portsmouth manager Avram Grant has hit back at allegations her husband was caught in a ‘Thai’ brothel by claiming: ‘He can do whatever he likes with his body.’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1248528/Avram-Grants-wife-defends-Pompey-boss-husband-brothel-visit-saying-He-likes-body.html

Tiger should have gotten himself such a wife. I envy Avram Grant, he got himself a great open minded liberal wife.

Wait, there is more! This article continues! Continue reading “Tiger Woods: why can’t he have open marriage and have fun?” »
Tiger Woods: why can’t he have open marriage and have fun?
» continues here »