Congress Feels Heat from Consumers Over "Sneak Attack" on Organic Standards, By Organic Consumers Association. Food Consumer, IL - 13 Oct 2005 http://tinyurl.com/e3arb

See...I know all the tractor fixing and maintainence lingo.

Our old tractor doesn't want to go. Time to put out more hay and we're stuck looking at a fifty dollar an hour tractor mechanic, before parts, or asking a neighbor to put out the round bales for us again, like we did last time.

...........................................

These came from the annual "Dark and Stormy Night" competition. Actual analogies and metaphors found in high school essays:

1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.

2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.

3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.

4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.

5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.

6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.

7. He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree.

8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM.

9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.

10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.

11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.

12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.

13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.

14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.

15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan's teeth.

16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.

17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant and she was the East River.

18. Even in his last years, Grandpappy had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.

19. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.

20.. The plan was simple, like a Cape Breton coal miner. But unlike the Caper, this plan just might work.

21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.

22. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.

23. The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.

24. It was a Canadian tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.

25. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.

26. Her eyes were like limpid pools, only they had forgotten to put in any pH cleanser.

Dress fine...you never know when you'll die.

FoM. I'm shopping and I thought about you when I saw these. Orvis is my very favorite place for clothes. I love their skirts.

But you have to see these. Talk about a fine pair of winter dress boots!

http://www.orvis.com/store/product_choice.asp?pf_id=89YA&dir_id=1192&group_id=1224&cat_id=5327&subcat_id=6947&feature_id=740

They would look so good with skirts and jeans and probably wear and walk beautifully.

They don't look THAT Nazi-ish.

And this jacket.

http://www.orvis.com/store/product_choice.asp?pf_id=84HH&feature_id=&dir_id=1192&group_id=1213&cat_id=5319&subcat_id=6936&shop_id=

Pretty serious investment though. Probably be still thinking about those when they are long gone.

Life is hard, but I can do it. Sometimes that's about all there is left to keep me going. That's true of anyone.

I'm so amazed and surprised at this long lasting spell of optimism I'm enjoying.

They call me "Gammi".

I had chosen the name "Honey" to teach my grandchildren to call me. Pregrandchild vanity thought it sounded better than Grandma or Granny.

Last night after I'd gone to bed...I got to thinking about optimism. Which, as you know, being in this struggle, we have not been able to allow ourselves very much...and certainly not for very long.

Recently, though, I've felt optimistic about it all for a longer period of time than I ever have.

Yes, I smoke little cigars. I've even had the pleasure of smoking a Cuban cigar. Yes, I used to wear combat boots, too. Yes...I'm a cigar tooting, pistol packin, bronc bustin, brush cuttin, cattle wrangling, bull taming daughter of a gun.

I really am a fantastic and great grandma and mom in spite of all that.

THANK YOU! How often do we see the first part of that sentence, while the second part (the most important IMO) gets omitted.

Robert J Melamede

Harm Reduction Journal 2005, 2:21 (18 October 2005)

October 19, 2005

Cannabis smoke is not as carcinogenic as tobacco smoke. In a review article published today in Harm Reduction Journal, Dr. Melamede from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, USA, writes that although cannabis smoke and tobacco smoke are chemically very similar, evidence suggests that their effects are very different and that cannabis smoke is less carcinogenic than tobacco smoke.

The pharmacological effects of tobacco and cannabis smoke differ in many ways, mainly because tobacco smoke contains nicotine while cannabis smoke contains tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). The cancer-promoting effects of smoke are increased by nicotine, while they are reduced by THC.

Tobacco and cannabis smoke contain the same carcinogenic compounds - and depending on which part of the plant is smoked, cannabis smoke can contain more of them - but, whereas nicotine activates these carcinogenic compounds, THC has been shown to inhibit them in mice cells. THC is very likely to have protective effects against the carcinogens present in smoke in humans too, but cannabis smoke remains nonetheless carcinogenic.

While nicotine and THC can act on related cellular pathways, they bind to different receptors to activate these pathways. The cells of lungs and the respiratory passages are lined with nicotine receptors, but do not appear to carry THC receptors. This explains why cannabis smoking has not been associated with lung cancer, a main cause of death from cigarette smoking.

Cannabis has also been shown to kill cancer cells and to reduce tumour growth, in part by reducing the formation of blood vessels that feed tumours. But "the effects of cannabinoids are complex and sometimes contradicting", warns the author. In addition, as cannabis is frequently smoked with tobacco, the effects of the two drugs may interact in complex ways.

Cannabis is a class C drug in the UK and the USA. It has been linked to an increased risk of psychosis and schizophrenia, in a small group of vulnerable individuals.

But there is increasing evidence that the drug has significant medicinal uses and can greatly improve the lives of patients suffering from a wide range of conditions, including multiple sclerosis, AIDS, Alzheimer's disease and insomnia. In spite of this, governments have been reluctant to legalize cannabis for medical use, on the grounds that the risks associated with the drug still outweigh its benefits.

Article: Cannabis and Tobacco Smoke are not Equally Carcinogenic Robert J Melamede Harm Reduction Journal, in press

Juliette Savin juliette.savin@biomedcentral.com 44-207-631-99-31 BioMed Central http://www.biomedcentral.com

And, of course, our lovely Federal government considers vaporizers to be drug paraphernalia, just another thing with which to jack up your jail sentence.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/nicotine

Because their last straw has been plucked.

He said there is evidence from studies done on laboratory rats that the THC in cannabis smoke "exerts a protective effect" against potential carcinogens and evidence that nicotine found in cigarettes activates the growth of tumours.

Let's see. Nicotine does what? ACTIVATES THE GROWTH OF TUMOURS. Cannabis does what? SHRINKS TUMOURS. Now I don't see how anyone can come to the conclusion that this is splitting hairs. With the exception of the Anti's who are simply, but desperately, trying to hold on to their jobs. But without justification...

Look at the zero-tolerance mentality these public "health" people have - some people mix cannabis with tobacco, therefore we should send our armed thugs out to arrest 750,000 people per year. Isn't that the issue here? Public health is only one small part of this discussion - cannabis is currently a criminal justice issue, not a health issue.

Let me tell you pal, you and your peers are doing a great job with your hateful zero-tolerance attitude. We've got an epidemic of children who will live miserable, short lives because they've got diabetes. We've got a country where 60 or 70 percent of the population is obese. Your and your peers are FAILING terribly to improve public health.

There is "no way" to say that cannabis smoking is safe? That is EXACTLY what Melamede's meta-analysis is saying!

These public health idiots have lost all credibility with me. What are they doing? Bush and the Repubican Congress recently voted to continue pumping out mercury, with virtually no reductions, until 2018, and we've got an epidemic of autism going on right now. And these guys are focusing on cannabis, which time and time again has indeed proven to be SAFE. 20% of child-bearing age women in the United States have mercury levels in their body that exceed the EPA's safety guideline. What other dangers and poisons are we not be alerted to right now?