Wednesday, January 08, 2014

Cheech & Chong MD

As you know NY is only the latest state in the union that wants to jump on the medical pot bandwagon. Well actually it's Gov. Andrew Cuomo who wants to by reactivating some kind of dormant pro-medpot law that's been on the NY books for some time now so it's more of a fiat thing but there's something unintentionally funny about a bunch of 60-70 year-old patients on the cancer ward toking together in the midafternoon in the sunroom overlooking the river. It is in my view a very paradoxical and contradictory public health message to be drumming into our skulls on practically a daily basis the unmitigated evils of tobacco use and yet somehow pot under certain circumstances may even benefit you healthwise. Even if it does help some folks manage certain types of chronic pain better risk/benefits ratios should be better explained by the health establishment which they don't seem to be doing imo e.g. maybe you'll live with your glaucoma better but you might do some damage to your brain. Over on the free speech front I was reading over on Drudge today how Fox News' Megyn Kelly got in some hot water for saying Santa was white. I'm always of the view that you should be able to say what you wanna say and anyway since we wanna do the right thing we can make Ole St. Nick black if you want, have him divorce Mrs. Claus because he's been a closet gay all his life and also put a roach in his hands.

41 comments:

  1. They were talking recently on the radio about Lady Gaga saying following her hip surgery she smoked like 15 joints a day. Every other artist seems to be rising these days but Gaga seems stuck in a creative tailspin and is occasionally spotted dressed like a Fig Newton.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Here's another health contradiction to ponder. As is well known by now we have a weight problem in this country and THC is fat-soluble. I'm also guessing Doritos and Bugles sales go up in CO since pot gives you the munchies.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Chris Christie: his folk stopped traffic on the GW Bridge to settle political scores the NJ way. What's next, making the Great Falls of the Passaic run backwards? Odd:
    Lady Gaga spelled backwards is dyal agag. They come up with a hash microbrew yet?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Why are therr no PSAs sbout alcihol causing cirrhosis and alcoholism and alcoholic encephalopathy? Becsuse the ghost of prohibition lingers and alcohol is sacrosanc. Pot is just hip right now. In a month or so the novelty will wear off, legal stuff isnt fun. I am sure the libertarians will all give it up now that its being taxed. God knows they are cooler than everyone else and will soon be looking down the nose at the statists getting high.

    ReplyDelete
  5. And is anyone really surprised sbout Christie? Really? He will never EVER make it to the WH. New Yorkers are mean and he hit them in the commute. To think 'i sat in traffic for hours because personal payback' is not going to go down well. Mr refreshing big mouth honesty is now just a loud bully.

    ReplyDelete
  6. The Richard Nixon of NJ? It's hard to see he didn't know what his staff was up to but then again it's hard to believe Obama didn't know what the IRS was doing right? Politics is always like Tammany Hall.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'll give both Christie & Obama the benefit of the doubt. Large staffs and organizations sort of run on their own...with the exception of micromanager
      Nixon.

      Delete
    2. I disagree somewhat and here's how I break it down. Maybe Obama didn't know what the IRS was up to, I'm more willing to believe that than that Christie had no knowledge of the Port Authority/GWB Scandal. Look at it logically, what are the odds that a top aide or aides would do this for him all on their own? Would you do something like this for your boss all on your own? Logic would indicate for a top aide to do this there had to be at least some implicit understanding between the Head Honcho (Christie) and the guilty staff. I mean why go through all this trouble?

      Delete
  7. So we be clear my position on marijuana is twofold. First I don't wanna see pot users go to jail regardless, somewhat libertarian here but Two if you're watching your health should you be smoking pot? no imo.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. One in four in US prisons is serving time for a drug offense, which seems a
      great waste of time and money for people whose only crime is against themselves. Regarding Saty on alcohol abuse: how often do we see some
      drunk with 10 DUIs and no license, T-bone some family? Along those lines,
      it is unwise to smoke the stuff and drive.

      Delete
    2. & again I don't disagree. My bone of contention is more along the lines of pot advocates acting like pot is consistent with overall good health. The other thing is and I just read a column saying the same thing yesterday but how often do we hear from the advocates that pot is less dangerous than smoking and alcohol. The same way pro-choicers always bring up incest & rape the potsters always bring up alcohol. So why can't all three be bad for you?

      Delete
    3. I'm guessing all recreational drugs have their attendant proglems:
      "A similar Viagra effect has been observed as far afield as Japan, the only industrialized country that bans birth-control pills. Japanese medical authorities have long kept the pills off limits, citing concerns about their safety. But earlier this month the country's top medical advisory council suddenly changed its mind and recommended lifting the ban, propelled in part, it seemed, by the uproar from women's groups that pointed to the speedy approval of Viagra as proof of discrimination against women."
      ..pop some pills, inhale some vegetable smoke and carry on?

      Delete
    4. I have to laugh, all of Saty's previous comments directed against Republicans and birth control should have been directed against the Japanese gov't. Gives me a chuckle.

      Delete
  8. So Christie has just fired his top aide. Christie oughta fire himself. I don't think his press conference is gonna end the scandal. On the contrary it's just gonna grow, Nixon-on-the-Hudson.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hope he doesn't get so upset he goes back to biggie-fries.

      Delete
    2. So do you think this helps or hinders his obvious ambitions for the WH? I say it hinders and people are already comparing him to a character on The Sopranos. I don't think the press is gonna give up on this one that easily and if he thinks his little press conference today is gonna snap it shut he's deceiving himself. Don't think they'll find a Christie e-mail or text, I don't think he's that stupid but they'll uncover something. A handshake, a wink, an ok. The buck as they call it usually stops at the top and he also has the death of an elderly woman caught on the GWB possibly on his conscience.

      Delete
    3. Hard to say. He IS the head of the GOP Governor's Association, he HAS been elected twice in a blue state; not sure how he has been as governor.
      Bridgeghazi Gate?

      Delete
    4. Even as head of the GOP Gov. Ass'n he reportedly won't endorse Rep. West. Cty. Exec. Rob Astorino over Dem. Andrew Cuomo in next year's NY Governor's race.

      Delete
  9. Wildstein of the Ports Authority pleaded the fifth. Can you do that to Port Authority
    Commission? They placed him in contempt. Gotham politics are unique.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nothing personal against Christie but logically w/o his approval why would his underlings and others have gone through all this trouble in the first place? fanatical loyalists?

      Delete
    2. Maybe too many movies, but my understanding of 'Joisy' is that instead of firing, folk end up in concrete boots in the bay?

      Delete
    3. There also seems to be a pro-Christie camp that poohpoohs the scandal like they like having a Soprano as their governor. The more you talk about the Bridge the more they talk about Benghazi.

      Delete
  10. A team takes on the character of its leader (which is why al our day shift can cuss like sailors) . These are his people. They get their cues from him , he is their essence. A fewcweeks back he. Was joking that hewas. Working the cones personally. He is totally never going to recover from this.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gwen Ifill said roughly the same thing the other night on the Newshour that there had to be at least some kind of implicit understanding among the players here, a tacit assumption that Christie would approve of the actions.

      Delete
    2. Around here when there is going to be a traffic problem, construction, etc, there is always a lot of pre-notice. For example one of the three
      interstate bridges had surface repair and was restricted to one lane.
      Both cars were held up for over a minute. :)

      Delete
  11. ...and they warn that texting while driving is dangerous .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I had to think about this for a minute. Why should texting in a movie theater bother other people? I remember when I first started using wifi at the library I'd be tapping my keys on my smartphone and it made a bloop bloop noise everytime I tapped a letter or number. Found this annoying and maybe annoying to the other library patrons so played around with my settings one day and found a way to tap in silence. So if the guy put the silent mode on I don't know what the problem was. Whatever but the guy didn't have to lose his life over it. I've always said this though, if the professionals don't know how and when to use a firearm what are the odds an amateur will?

      Delete
    2. Betcha they ban smartphones in movie theaters before they ban
      automatic weaons!

      Delete
    3. So what do you make of his so-called popcorn defense? The guy threw a box of popcorn at him and that's when this retired police captain felt his life threatened. Maybe they should just ban concessions as well.

      Delete
    4. The lawyers are bringing up 'Stand Your Ground'.
      I would think insanity might be a more appropriate defense...

      Delete
    5. Which means that if the victim also had a gun they could've duked it out and shot up the theater and both could have invoked Stand Your Ground. Also known as the John Wayne Defense.

      Delete
  12. I find it mildly annoying when those around are texting or smartphoning; just seems like they are 'linked in' and 'spaced out'. But I don't pack heat.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Someone could mug them and they wouldn't even know it. Look they are annoying, one of the numerous species of annoying things on the planet but do they deserve to die? You wouldn't believe the number of men in crapstalls on their phones, do they clean their devices later? and it's like "honey I love you" (FART!). Now that police cap'n can watch all the flicks he wants in the hoosegow.

      Delete
    2. Beyond me, going to see a movie, then sit there texting or phoning, what's the deal? "Oh, I gotta tell ya about this part, the music gets quiet and there's this thug stalking Ronald...Ohhhh sh*t". Is it the culture?
      Am I an old traditional duffus? Worse, lugging your heater to the movie:
      looking for a texter, starting a fight, defending yourself from popcorn coming at you by drawing your manly tool and eliminating a life. Crap!
      Might as well live in the Congo or Somalia....

      Delete
    3. In a karmic universe George Zimmerman would have been the one texting.

      Delete
    4. On the eclectic news front- A grizzly bear, Lucy from Montana, suffered from epilepsy and was taken to Washington State U vet hospital for an
      MRI. An Obamacare thing? The huge statue of Jesus above Rio de Janeiro was struck by lightning twice in the last week; chipped a thumb,
      then the long finger. Mystical interpretation of bird flipping holy finger getting zapped?

      Delete
  13. Pope Francis continues his unsettling ways.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. In the last part of that link for me the issue isn't a financial cap on canonization causes but they're making saints out of folks who imo don't deserve to be made saints. I keep repeating myself but Pope John XXIII? Halls of Fame of whatever purpose always get diluted.

      Delete
  14. Medical pot: Why doesn't big pharma produce the active ingredients, put them in a pill and advertise the stuff like 'the purple pill'? You see the doc, you get a prescription..and avoid hanging out on the corner in the seedy side of town and you
    don't have to roll your own.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's the joy of toking BB, those wonderful aromas which to me have always smelled like stale urine but to each his own. I think your way which I've always said why don't they do would be the least controversial approach but maybe the controversy's the whole point.

      Delete