StaggerLee

most cops who are against decriminalization still recognize the absurdities of simple possession.

You lost me here. Can you clarify what you mean by this?

After reading the full court judgement, I guess I have to agree with the judge. I for one will be watching long haired west-coasters with a great deal more suspicion from now on.

don't you think that he's also looking for excuses to get off, since they found illegal drugs on him?

I'm not at all concerned about what the defendant is doing or saying. My concern is that the judge clearly ruled that it was okay to search him based on his race and hairstyle.

Then again if this guy wasnt breaking the law in the 1st place there would have been no trouble.

So one must surrender one's charter freedoms if caught driving too fast?

Baba O'Reilly!!

I caught some of the glad-handing on the news this evening -- I've never seen Harper smile so much.

Speaking of David Frum, I picked up one his books awhile ago, though I forget the title. I could only get through the first chapter before my stomach turned. It read like something on the FreeDominion website, but it's much scarier knowing the kind of influence he has. The smug vitriolic tone was just too much.

Ha! I didn't catch the date either. It sure reads like this years news. Here's a bit about how that case turned out:

Edmonton Sun Sea Shepherd loses challenge By CP December 10, 2005

GEORGETOWN, P.E.I. -- Animal rights activists have lost a legal challenge of Ottawa's right to restrict their movement during seal hunts.

Judge Nancy Orr ruled in provincial court yesterday against a Charter of Rights and Freedoms challenge launched by Paul Watson and 11 protesters from the Sea Shepherd Society.

The protesters filed their charter challenge after they were arrested in the Gulf of St. Lawrence last spring and charged with violating the buffer zone around sealing ships.

The protesters and Watson argue that federal regulations requiring them to stay half a nautical mile from sealing activities is an infringement on their right to freedom of expression.

Orr said their rights were infringed, but she said the infringement is justified because the sealers have a right to earn a livelihood without disruption.

Charlottetown lawyer John Mitchell, who represents the protesters, said his clients now face a trial Thursday on charges of violating federal regulations.

Mitchell said he expects prosecutors will call witnesses in the case, but he is not certain whether there will be witnesses for the defence.

I feel like organizing a posse to observe the observers. It seems clear that they've been ignoring the restrictions placed upon them; restrictions that seem pretty reasonable to me to ensure the safety of everyone concerned. I wonder if the protesters would be all smiles if every meeting and action they were involved in were monitored?

I was a fan of Enid Blyton's Noddy books when I was a kid. Hope for the Flowers by Trina Paulus is a great story about the dangers of conformity.

My favorite is probably The Phantom Tollbooth by Norman Juster. I read it for the first time just a few years ago -- great book.

I want a lightsaber too.

There's another great little video on that site here: http://videosift.com/story.php?id=937

Super nice in NS today too. I spent the afternoon jamming in the park with djembes and guitars. If the weather stays warm until the weekend, I'm going to haul my canoe out and hit the St. Mary's river.

There's another quiz on that site to find out if you're a hippy or a treehugger. Turns out I'm both. The results are compared to everyone else your age and gender that's taken the test. I'm more of a hippy than 90% of guys my age -- headier than thou!

Apparently I'm a socialist. I was on Gandhi's shoulder.

EDIT: I just did the personality test too; I'm a Champion.

I don't have clips on my bike, but I've used them a few times and thought they we great. You definately get more efficiency with clips, and I don't think it would take long to get used to getting in and out of the clips.

I generally give what I can if asked. Usually just pocket change but occasionally I'll dish out something more if I'm feeling flush or if the spirit moves me.

I don't really have a problem giving money to people who may spend it on drugs or booze; I've even handed out drugs and booze directly on a couple of occasions. I've also bought folks food and coffee before, and a few times after eating at restaurants I had the leftovers packed in a box for someone in the street. Whatever small relief I can offer is fine by me, and in every case whatever I gave seemed appreciated. On the other hand, if some sketchy kid asks me for money and rubs me the wrong way I have no problems giving them nothing.

I also tend to also tend to be more generous with folks who do something like busk or squeegee, but I don't spend much time in cities so I've never had to deal with the overly aggressive bunch in that crowd.

I usually check out about 20% of the Cavern, plus 75% of the politics and bittorrent posts. I'd be all for shutting down the political forum too as it seems to limit the number of people participating in those threads, even if it does make them easier to find. And as Birdy pointed out, it's difficult to define what is political and what isn't. I question the use of the east and west forums too. It seems like they're used so infrequently that the threads there might see a little more action if folded into the main Cavern.

FYI terminator seeds are not part of the "Green Revolution", they are more a product of biotech, and have been miss construed by most people. Currently farmers plant 95% hybrid seeds that require them to by new seeds every year any way. Terrminator seeds if ever developed (no sucessful attempts to date, monsanto has even abandoned the technology) would be a efective way to prevent gene flow into non target species. If we had terminator seeds for canola the chance of random herbicid tollerent weeds and volonterrs (plants that come up the next year in a new rotated crop) would be solved. We all eat GM foods on a regular basis 70% of soy, 60% of yellow corn and 50% of the cotton underwear youve got on.

Terminator seeds are not a product of the Green Revolution historically speaking, however, I think it's fair to consider their development to be a product of Green Revolution thinking. Monsanto gave up on developing Terminator seeds because of enormous public opposition -- they realized no one would want to buy the seeds. Monsanto still holds patents on the technology and licences other companies to pursue it's development for non-food crops such as cotton. Research continues on Terminator technology and on "Traitor" technology which would link gene expression to an outside chemical catalyst. With Traitor seeds the seed would still be viable, but would not display the characteristics it is marketed for unless the appropriate catalyst were applied.

Hybrid seeds are certainly very popular in some crops, and should be bought every year for produce a uniform crop exhibiting hybrid vigor; but 95% of all seeds is a huge overstatement. Hybrid breeding is only done with certain cross-pollinated crops. There are many crops where hybrid breeding is not practical or not possible. Terminator seeds would clearly be in the interest of Monsanto for all the non-hybrid crops, or even for hybrid crops -- after all, saving seed from a hybrid crop is not advisable in most situations as the resulting crop will have wide genetic variability and will lack the vigor of the hybrid parents, but the seed is still viable and may produce a crop worth growing, it's just a bit of a gamble.

Terminator seeds might be able to help somewhat with volunteer problems and the dissemination of GMO genes in the field, but the major problem with gene contamination so far has been a result of handling errors. It would not be long before Terminator seeds were inadvertently mixed with non-GMO seeds and sold to some unsuspecting farmer. This problem is so bad that some people in agriculture believe the EU ban on GMO food will eventually fall in court on the arguement that so much genetic contamination is taking place and the ban is so ineffective that it constitutes an unfair trade barrier.

it's ironic that the terminator concept, which in a natural context is pretty abhorrent, seems to have been meant to address gene drift while at the same time creating lifelong monsanto customers

The development of Terminator seeds was meant to protect patents from "unscrupulous" farmers and farmers in countries where legal means of protecting patents is limited. Monsanto was pretty upfront about this.

I read something just a few days ago about the UN recently reaffirming the moratorium on Terminator seeds, but apparently the wording is such that it is unclear if non-food crops would be covered by the moratorium. According to the article, there was also considerable pressure to consider Terminator technology on a case by case basis, but this notion will likely be rejected.

I can't imagine this is anywhere near being economically feasable for general consumption. I wonder if cultured meat could be considered vegetarian as it wouldn't really classify as being from a living organism (except for a few initial sample cells).

I thought this was hilarious: http://www.storewars.org/flash/index.html

What do you folks think of organic food? Do you buy it? Why do you buy it? Where do you buy it? Are there certain foods you always buy organic and others you don't really care? What about genetically modified crops?

Harry Manx is a good choice. I've just recently been turned on to his music.

I saw Fairport Convention at the Stan Rogers Festival and was pretty unimpressed. They weren't bad but weren't anything special either. I'm not familiar with them other than the one show though, so maybe I'll check out some old stuff.

An album I love that not a lot of people have checked out is Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds -- Murder Ballads. Great album.

I think the whole pot cafe idea was ridiculous to begin with. In my opinion, the cafe in and of itself is an insult to the local police, who do not go knocking down our doors when we're smoking pot at home. Smoking pot in our own private property is more than okay, I don't see anyone throwing fines and jail time at me when I smoke at home, so what's the need for a pot cafe then? It's just for idiots who feel the need to publicize their habit for 'protest' purposes that really are more insulting to people than influencing.

I disagree. I really admire the folks who have the courage to try this sort of thing. I'm unfamiliar with the cafe in Hamilton, but most pot cafes I've been to are well run business considering the awkward position they are placed in. They can play an important role in showing regular folks what things might be like if pot were legal. Most try to educate the public and organize pot smokers to try to affect change in the way pot is percieved socially and legally.

Of course it's no surprise that cafes get busted, but any cop who sees a pot cafe as a personal insult really doesn't understand his or her role in administering justice. Sure the cops are placed in the position of having to enforce a bad law, but pot activism is about protesting the law and not the way is administered (generally speaking at least -- years ago I watched a cop perform an illegal search and seizure, then plant evidence in order to charge an 18 year-old with possesion of two grams -- so criticism of the cops' administration of the law is valid as well).

While you might feel safe smoking pot at home, the fact is you are breaking the law and are still at risk. You'll have to either buy your pot or grow it, and both those activities will increase your risk of getting caught. Things are fairly lenient here in Canada, but people still go to jail for smoking pot, an I think that's cause for protest.

and the Beatles covers are awesome. Particularily Norwiegan wood.

The New Brunswick blues duo Issac & Blewitt do the best Norwegian Wood I've ever heard.

Recipe from a Small Planet opened with a killer Tom Sawyer a couple of New Years ago, I'd like to here someone bust out a YYZ.

Rush fans unite.....

I'd like to hear Jon Spencer Blues Explosion cover Tom Sawyer. And I'd like to hear Tool cover any Rush song.

Don't forget Sunday in Antigonish. Got my ticket yesterday.

Check it out: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5666429598115503824&q=drum+solo

I dig it: http://www.shigabooks.com/interactive/meanwhile.html

It's a strange little choose-your-own-adventure story filled with existentialism and alternate universe theory.