Pot’s danger downgrade in new anti-drug ads sends a mixed message. It's in conflict with years of propaganda.
Please imagine a teenager sitting on his friends couch, holding that first joint. This is a big leap for him, ignoring years of indoctrination, contemplating the small white cylinder in his hand. It looks harmless. It smells good. The allure of rebellion inherent in the act calls out to him.
I think we all know how this little scenario usually unfolds. And it’s not with the “just say no” ending our legislators and court systems want to hear.
Billions have been poured into anti-drug ad campaigns aimed at keeping our nation’s youth off that devil’s weed. […]
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Tags: Current Events · Drugs · Marijuana
Are We Turning Our Troops Into Psychiatric Time-Bombs?
A grim milestone was observed in June when the 2500th American serviceperson was killed in the most recent Iraq war. Even more startlingly, when assessing the damage to U.S. military personnel and their families, that figure may be misleadingly low. No precise means exists to tally broken lives, damaged relationships, and the general psychological trauma of soldiers asked to do what is otherwise unthinkable in our society — kill. But a survey of the headlines suggests that there is more afoot in Iraq than loss of life. […]
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Tags: Essays · Killology · War
The Future of War: Part 3 of 3
Unrelenting efforts by the Pentagon and U.S. Air Force are hell-bent on creating outlandish space-based weapons. Critics assert the result will be a free-for-all orbiting arms-race. Part three of a three part series on the future of war.
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Tags: Essays · Militarism · Science · Space · War
What do you get when you cross the Christian Coalition and pro-gun advocates with MoveOn.org and the Feminist Majority? If you guessed a brawl of epic proportions, you’d be wrong. These groups, and others from across the political spectrum, are actually working together towards a common goal: saving the Internet as we know it.
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Tags: Current Events · Internet · Media · Net Neutrality · Technology
How Long will the U.S. Empire Stand?
The limited perspective offered by the relatively short human lifespan has been cause for much observational error. Even in a postmodern existence where constant change has become the norm and the term progress rendered redundant, the common individual still acts as though – substantively, at least – things have always been and will always be just as they are now. […]
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Tags: Essays · Nonfiction · Collapse · Empire
