A LAIR CAN ALSO BE A PRISON...

Sorry... been awhile, though the end-of-year holidays can have that effect.

So yes, a lair , one's home can be a prison. I rent, a room in an old farmhouse... I live with a man and a woman - the woman owns the home.

A little background is called for, but hold on to those conservative, right-wing principles!

I met the "woman" in 1999. We met from a dating ad - the old fashioned kind where it was from a dating magazine. We hit it off, dated and moved in together. I lived her for 6 years. Best years of my life, obviously with bad days.

This woman was divorced. Her ex-husband is a fervent Baptist. They were married 20 some years and raised two children together. He could often be found reading his Bible while she worked and took care of the children. He was doing his part - "trusting in the Lord and Savior".

After 20 some years he found this woman to be absent from religion. And she is. The actions that followed are ludicrous to me, but as the story goes he discussed this with his pastor, discussed finding someone else more religious. The pastor disagreed. Didn't matter. The husband went hunting and found a mistress, once accomplished annouced he wanted a divorce.

By the time I met her she was a mess, having been in and out of odd relationships. We hit it off big-time. We had good years together, but one thing nagged at her, the fact that she had missed out on so much while married to the asshole.

The asshole who she still has a $150,000 life insurance policy for. But I'm jumping ahead.

Around 5 years into the relationship she was frustrated. She like me a lot, but thought about other guys. We discussed it. I told her, "I don't own you", but that works both ways. So we began an open relationship... she got to meet other guys, and I was lucky enough to meet another wonderful woman myself. Wonderful until she found out, when I asked her, if she was okay with pot, and that was a year later... it had never come up. She freaked! Asked me to leave and I did.

Meanwhile this woman ends up meeting the guy she's with now. We become friend and she buys this old farmhouse. The next several years are great, then the Great Recession hits home. It's almost 5 years my lair is my sacred place and my prison. Oh, I work, am gone a lot, but coming home it not great.

So I'm looking at my age, to buy a house. Time to move out.

A daunting task.

Oh, yeah... almost forgot. The notion of an "Open Relationships"? They don't work, they suck. 

CHRISTMAS 2014 REALITY AND THE YEAR IN BRIEF REVIEW

I want to wish everyone in the world a Happy Christmas! However I know many will not benefit from a wish like that. It's foolish to believe a wish, one wish will change the world. Wishes have to become wants, and wants need a resource to grow. That is life.

The previous year for me saw a lot of changes at my job. I do IT. I've been at the company 15 years. I live 75 miles away from where i work. Starting this past July I have been able to work from home Mondays and Tuesdays of every week. In addition, the previous winter I saved around 11 vacation days that I would have had to use for bad, wintery weather. All that was a big change for our company. Odd how fast change can be.~.

I'm alone this Christmas with my cat. I actually like it. Keeping myself busy. Worked until noon. Party downstairs - landlady and her boyfriend. I wasn't invited. Known them personally for 15 years.

Yeah 15 years... for me my current lucky number.

What else?

Oh, I got that 2004 Subaru Outback... had to replace the head-gaskets, timing belt, axles, a wheel bearing, routine brakes; beautiful car, very good in the snow, slush and gulp, not sure yet on ice, but a lot of that depends on the tires. I put Pirelli All Weather tires on it and so far, so good.

Working on moving... Going to buy a house for the first time. Rather being booted from where I've lived the past eight years. So, moving, yeah. Not a subject i wish to discuss.

Had not been talking to my mother for a few years. Good thing as we're so far talking again, no problems.

World Peace? N/A

Health: Debatable

Climate: Messed up

Marijuana Prohibition: Jingle, jingle... 4 US states have legalized marijuana for adults 21 and older. The states will grow their own. No drug cartel is involved. 3 additional cities, and more:

Portland ME, S. Portland ME, and a city in PA in addition to Washington D.C., legalized recreational use of marijuana for adults over 21. But the Congress is alleged to have passed an emergency bill forbidding Washington D.C. from growing and providing their own weed.

Work: Going well

Car: Running very well.

Cat: Doing very well

Still single.

Happy New Year!

THE FEDERAL HEDGEMON AGAINST MARIJUANA... THE COLOSSAL MISTAKE OF A CENTURY!

I begin with the definition of hegemony... something generally used to denote BIG time politics on a global scale, but which fits in nicely with country-wide politics. Hegemony is generally referred to when discussing global politics and supremacy. It is the act of creating a hedge wherein one is supreme. As the following quote from Wikipedia denotes, "a hegemony can be directed towards cultural supremacy", as in the federal governments fervent proclamations that marijuana is very bad stuff, deserving of Schedule One DEA status.

"The Marxist theory of cultural hegemony, is the idea that the ruling class can manipulate the system of values and mores of a society, so that their view becomes the world view."

Wikipedia - Hegemony

Marijuana use, by different names has been around some 10,000 years. Until 1937 it was never deemed a threat and was never illegal, in fact, it's cousin, hemp, was a lucrative agricultural commodity - one of the plants that led to the inclusion of Article 86 of the NH Constitution, although that history is forgotten in a little more than 100 years. Synthetics dominate the market, and although hemp could compete, big money prefers synthetics/chemical products.

Hemp production was so big that, although hemp cultivation was brought to a stop in 1937 with the Marihuana Tax Act, by federal law it was made legal and grown by agricultural clubs including children, to provide hemp during WWII. Then abruptly it was made illegal again at the end of the War, and synthetics took it's place.

The original reasoning for making marijuana a prohibited substance was, as I've said before, a result of the influence of Yellow Journalism - newspapers seeking to take advantage of a bad economy by casting a black light on immigrants from Mexico.

Southern states, like Arizona, New Mexico and others were the most out-spoken, demanding a stop to illegal immigration, forcing Congress to act.

In 1961 nearly all prohibition of marihuana/hemp became unconstitutional, and technically for a time marihuana was essentially legal.


This led to two interesting collisions in American history.

1) The Hippie Movement/anti Viet Nam war movement.
2)  Federal hegemony.

The hippie movement during the 1960's epitomized marijuana as it's trademark. States passed hasty laws against marijuana, some of it based upon a 1960's American led ban on marijuana world-wide. Criminal penalties generally began with a year in prison for any amount.

By 1971 this all changed, though each act canceled the other out. States began to pass laws decriminalizing marijuana, and the out-look was positive for a general lift on the prohibition of marijuana. Magazines like Playboy published many stories relating to legalization. NORML came to be, a national lobby for Reform of Marijuana laws, along with High Times magazine.

President Richard Nixon came to be also, and in hindsight it's clear to see one of his number one objectives was to bury marijuana use for the public. His blue-ribbon committee, called the Shaffer committee,  which he assembled (and being as he believed it to be ultra-conservative and would rule in his favor) ruled that although marijuana use appeared to promote unconventional type thinking, despite that, it was a consensus that marijuana should not be illegal. President Nixon ignored the committee findings and had marijuana permanently placed under DEA scheduling as Schedule One.

A "hegemony" occurred when obvious facts made it clear that Nixon's actions were political and not based on fact. Marijuana is in no way deserving of a Schedule One status, or any status, considering the legality of alcohol and tobacco. To make it so is to bring hypocrisy to federal law, and a respect for the law.

A history-setting federal case was held recently in which for the first time in decades, a federal judge will hear arguments before and against marijuana's Schedule One status.

Federal Evidentiary Hearing Regarding The Constitutionality Of Cannabis Prohibition Concludes...

A federal hegemony places citizens at the mercy of federal mores... not science and fact.It places the government and the law, above what is science and conclusive fact.

MY LIFE AND TIMES... THE WORLD OF SEX - PART SEVEN - CONCLUSION

Hind sight is 20/20...

Yeah, I can see that now.

At 60, I can see that controlling our own life is questionable. As in, we live in a society that resides in a world, that is held in space surrounding by a universe - maybe many universes.

It's hard to imagine or think about how Lincoln's, "Emancipation Proclamation", changed this country and the world. Hard to imagine it "freed the slaves" but it was another hundred years until Civil Rights became a reality. Something many still disagree with or harbor hate towards even now in 2014. Seems to me that bigotry,  discrimination and simply hating people who are different are pretty much accepted norms in our society, as like, it's free speech. Problem is, the targets aren't often protected by the 1st Amendment. An irony really, but inadvertently a part of our Constitution.

I grew up fearing only a few things... the KKK, though I'm a WASP, the control they yielded, the hatred they evoked, their entire "vigilante style" existence was scary; and why?

Consider we have a politic system based on Democrat or Republican, and independents. Independents are purposely in 3rd place. It's something few today question, except maybe me.

How did "Parties" come about? How does this relate to "My Life and Times"?

Parties came about in the US after the American Revolution. The only forms of communication was the telegraph, the newspaper, or USPS.

Parties were formed highlighting different areas of the country. Parties voiced their beliefs and goals, and either grew in popularity or shrank away. We did not begin this country with our current parties.

Research the Jeffersonians and Federalists, for example, or the Whigs. I have considered the Hat Party, as it seems actually when people wore hats they tended to make better decisions. 

Extinct Political Parties of the 1800s The History of Political Parties Includes the Successful and the Doomed By Robert McNamara 19th Century History Expert

That's politics, but then there's religion. Religion comes with blessings and curses. Right and wrong. Black and white.

I am as politically correct as possible, as foremost politics reigns supreme. But religion is there too...

Neither is going to go away...

So I vote and add my rice grain to democracy, although technically we're a Republic. Meaning in general or votes are meant to influence our electorate - the person casting the vote. At least that's the way I understand it. I'm likely missing key points.

The point is... and this is difficult to share, but I was thinking driving home on my hour and 45 minute commute that if at age 19 I had not used marijuana and experienced the benefits that opened my mind and motivated me, I might have lost that opportunity by age 21.

It may seem insignificant, or maybe you can identify. My point is there are certain inalienable rights we human beings have. To use the plants of outr choice, have the consensual sex we choose, have equal access to employment so we can survive, and hopefully prosper.

It doesn't matter what sins I committed having the sex I had in my life, or the pot I've bought and used. Both make me a evil person, religiously and politically. And that's what's so ironic about my life. It's why I became an advocate for change and an advocate for others unable to assist themselves.

It's why I like this picture of a chicken named Pearly who died several months ago. Pearly loved to be held. Reminded me of the Geico gecko...

Maybe I feel to much. But my one moral is to not hurt others. Forget politics and religion... just quit fucking with people, stalking them, trying to control them and arresting or murdering them because you think you know better!

"Give Peace A Chance"!