buckinghamgreen's Comments

Maybe so, bud. :) But not a bad one to go out on.

Slipping and sliding, what a good time...

This is actually a very important issue if we value our (mostly) free and open access to websites. Telecoms are trying to add a myriad of controls that would serve to turn the net into their own personal version of network television - or into something like China.

Sweet... There are tons of good ones here, and I almost always check 'em out.

Ah, Americans... God bless us, every one.

Once the mainstream media begins paying attention to Grayson, even corporate "liberals" like Matthews will start looking for opportunities to isolate him and his intelligent positions.

And I say fine.

I for one will move over to Grayson's side leaving the sinking sh!p behind.

Ooh...awkward. I f*cking love Robert's Rules of Order!

Easily the greatest clip of a crazed weasel's ramblings since Miss Teen South Carolina.

Dear Paul Broun,

Zero point two... Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son. Reading and reciting a bunch of words in random order isn't the same as understanding them.

But thanks for crying like a b!tch in public.

Alan Grayson is Boner City, USA.

A very good question. And one that probably requires a few paragraphs.

Socially controlling drugs are pretty much what you'd think. :) But to expand, they're pharmacological agents that impact our physical and mental states. Probably a given.

This is the first part.

The second part is that there are two main types of socially controlling drugs. (well, there may be more, but I'm sort of riffing here...) We've got uppers and downers.

Our "uppers" are socially controlling drugs like coffee and cocaine and refined sugar and Coca Cola. All of which serve to push humans to "produce." Just like slaves chewing the coca leaf in Columbia, Americans drink Starbucks and eat Little Debbie Snack Cakes and chug Coke to synthetically increase our energy level and thus maintain an expected level of production - usually for wealthy owners at our corporate jobs.

And this energy burst? To ensure we produce? It ain't natural. But this type of "high" is good for Colonel Kurtz. So he keeps it legal for the natives.

The major drawback is these synthetic bursts negatively impact our health and increase our level of tension. (Only adding to the corporate-manufactured tension generated by 24 hour media...)

Ah...but sweet release is here! Only a bar or a doctor's prescription away. Because we also have "downers," socially controlling drugs like alcohol and heroin and OxyContin which provide respite from our current state of manufactured tension. Socially-accepted relief which turns off our innate ability for critical thinking and individuality. (i.e. we get to "turn off our brains...")

These are two types of socially controlling drugs.

So when we're imbibing the first substance, we're more likely to be producing. Which for most of us is churning out widgets or waving to customers at our so-called "capitalist" feudal system. Then we switch to the second control agent and find ourselves safely tucked away in a warm n' cozy bed of alcohol/heroin/OxyContin. Until we wake up and go right back to the beginning...

Twenty four hour control.

Thus ends the second part.

[And really, on the topic of "socially controlling drugs," I'd probably also include high-tech gadgets, American Idol, and internet porn... What? This isn't porn? Uh...it's "research."]

Which brings us to the third part.

Right now, anyone who hung on this long (really? thank you...) is saying, "hold on, BHG" and pointing out stoner comedy movies and the stupefyingly appeal of Jamiroquai... Pot must be controlling! How could it not? It makes us laugh at Dude, Where's My Car. Pot makes us think Jack in the Box actually tastes good. Pot is the only f*cking thing that explains the appeal of the Spin Doctors.

And...I agree. When we "smoke a doobie" (say it in Ted Knight's voice), we can absolutely turn off our brains.

But, once upon a time...back before the media presentation of pot smokers was that they're just a bunch o' lazy losers? Back before our entertainment sources told us smoking pot = eating munchies and playing video games? (Aside: isn't it interesting how this is the only media-acceptable viewpoint of pot smokers? No one presents them as intellectual artists any more....)

Well, sir. This very same media once told the public that pot smokers were crazy, violent menaces to the social order! They smoke a joint and go nuts!

Uh...hm. So which one is it, Mr. Hearst?

Really, the truth is likely neither one. Not either of these stories fed to us by those with ulterior motives.

Which is why ethnobotanists and shamans and metaphysicists and jazz players considered marijuana to be something that actually expanded our mental experience and separated us from the socially-controlled order. In a good way... They saw pot more in line with ayahuasca and magic mushrooms. Not so much a recreational excuse as an opportunity to expand our experience and creativity and consciousness.

Conversely, people aren't conscious or creative on heroin. And they aren't creative when they're drunk. They're asleep. (they also aren't creative or conscious on meth - which falls under the first category with coffee and coke)

So next time ya smoke? Try taking a killer walk in the woods and soaking in all the fall colors. Look for machine elves. Or have a deep discussion about deeper outer space. Or perform ritual sex magic. Heck, I don't know. Really do anything except for playing Halo 3 and eating Taco Bell.

Think deep. Listen to what you hear. Reach beyond reality.

And see what you see.



p.s. Total aside. Did you see Hump? The Stranger brought it down to Portland this year. So consider me "socially controlled" for a couple hours on Saturday night. :)

p.p.s. I totally earned my ten cents with this post...

I hate socially-controlling drugs. Such as opium and heroin. And coffee and Coca Cola and refined sugar and alcohol.

Marijuana? I couldn't give a sh!t.

Awe-f*ckin-some. On multiple levels.

Their other big hit?!! What about Ballroom Blitz? ACDC? Sweet FA? (pant, huff, huff)

BHG knows way too much about 70s glam...

Lotsa new stuff. Very cool, W_W...

Insane! Nice find, W_W. I hadn't seen this one.

And this...is why I'm a Booge fan.

Combover powers...activate! Or whatever.

This should probably be a headline. Or not. I don't care. It doesn't matter. I don't, like, care about other people. Or whatever.

I'm an alligator, I'm a mama-papa coming for you.

I'm the space invader, I'll be a rock 'n' rollin' bitch for you...

*Was music ever really this good?*

I'm still busting up my brains for the words...