"WHY PAY FOR THE MILK WHEN IT CAN BE GOT FOR FREE?"

Maybe more precisely, my father would have said, "why pay for it when you can get it for free?"

This quote is in reference to the so-called loose mores back in the 1970's; and I rather doubt that even today, 2022, that has changed overall. This quote in reference, directed at the woman a bit more than the man, although, since there are far more derogatory things to say to a woman,  this one was actually directed towards 20-something me. It was for the benefit of my mother, who within hearing range when said, was meant to spur me on towards getting married. So for my father to say it was rather, tongue and cheek, as it's said, meaning, he had to pretend he was waving me on. 

All for what? To define acceptable, moral behavior being consenting adults? I will also admit that within reason my father was cheering me on... his reality of what was expected was pretty much in line with my mother. Accepted behavior, proper behavior, our code of behavior, rules of behavior and rules of conduct between women and men? What is morality? How does our morality today differ from that from a hundred years ago?

The title of this post is derived from actual experiences circa the 1970's. Lessons in proper etiquette between women and men. Sexual stereotypes. Morality.

There is no easy or good way, from my perspective, to begin any such discussion... many persons already know what they firmly believe. And if the idea of "women's liberation" or "equal rights" is part of the discussion, where are we, truthfully, in regards to that kind of discussion?

The year is 2022 and our society likely believes that we as a civilization are living a modernistic lifestyle. But even if this is true it is, in my opinion, a tenuous grasp towards a wise, fair and enlightened kind of civilization.

The title of this post comes from an experience my sister experienced/suffered back in 1985. I suppose it's easy to imagine but harder to practice, a sense of liberation and freedom, to choose how we wish or want to live our lives. I also think in large part that we as a society believe, not just that we are now civilized,  but that we have also overcome much  prejudice and discrimination between the sexes. 

All one has to do is turn on our TV to experience what we think of today as our modernized society. But before we do that... let's look back to the "way things were", so that we can figure out, maybe, exactly how far we think we have come.

I think we've all heard about the term, "a shotgun marriage". When we do so we likely think of hillbillies... an illicit affair between a man and a woman that results in a pregnancy or even perhaps the simple discovery that a woman is found to be involved in having premarital sex or in being an adulteress. 

Is it a sin to have sex before marriage?

To engage in premarital or extramarital sex, before or outside of marriage, is to sin in God's sight. That is precisely the point of Hebrews 13:4, a verse often referred to in this kind of discussion.

Fornication - Wikipedia

 

edited 10/22

Brianna Maitland - Missing 17 Years - Important Updates

It's been 17 years today from when Brianna Maitland disappeared under very strange circumstances. Evidence in the case indicates that she was seen leaving work that evening at approx. 11:35 PM. She had been working at a restaurant/tavern named "the Black Lantern". Her car was discovered the morning of March 20th 2004 backed into the stone foundation of an old farmhouse - an abandoned farmhouse called "the Dutchburn Place". 

Photos of the car's odd accident recorded that morning are courtesy of a group that went by the name, "The World Travelers". They were an out of state group of three persons, in Vermont that winter to ski. Early that morning they were driving by the Dutchburn Place and thought "how odd it was, with that car backed into that house". 

Several months later, sometime in November of 2004, I was at work reading up on the news. I fell upon this story, of Brianna missing... and two things emerged in my mind, from reading the article.

1) That the police were considering her a runaway at the time, of "questionable character", a suspected drug abuser and drug dealer. The police at the time speculated that she had gotten herself into a bind with the local area drug distributors and had either run away or was the victim of foul play because of it. The former theory was the favorite at the time and the website the family had put together was full of speculations and accusations regarding the drug dealer angle; and 2) that her car keys were missing. 

Briefly, I'm one of those people interested in mysteries and missing persons. At the time I was around 50 years old and I felt like I was in my prime. I found the phone number for the family, called, spoke to her father and volunteered my time, using a metal detector to try and fine her car-keys, maybe at "the scene of the crime". The keys it was finally revealed several years later were not found. 

It was a cold day in November with a cold drizzly rain when I drove the more than 3 hours to get to that part of Vermont. Afterwards I sat with her father at a local tavern and discussed the disappearance. Her father asked for my help speaking with friends and the private investigator on the case at the time.

I have written previously about this case multiple times and one of the things I have tried to make clear is that my enthusiasm and excitement was short-lived... it is one thing to read mysteries and true crime stories of missing persons, but it's a whole different experience when actually being involved. The seriousness of the case combined with the despair and fear her family and friends felt was striking and when a case such as this is not solved, it is extremely heart-breaking and becomes very discouraging.  

Whether I liked it or had wanted it,  I became "an expert" on the case... beginning with posting on the website established by the family, steering the discussion away from Brianna the "drug lord" to something more realistic, that being that she is most likely a victim of foul play. For at least a year or more I drove up weekends to help the family search. Private Investigators changed and I changed with them. I became a guest writer on a blog called "Slamdunks" around 2008-09 writing some 13 posts and bringing out at least a few leads. I also began my own blog, this blog here around 2009.  

The focus of this post, 17 years after the fact, is is to inform my readers that whatever timeline we thought we had completed and mapped over the years is incorrect. Many of the rumors seem to have built up over these many years. Many rumors. In fact so many rumors that this case takes on a whole life of it's own on top of what may have happened. 

I would suggest that this post is not a minor post... again, whatever was believed to be the timeline at the time is now ruled to be incorrect... and I'm going to provide the "correct timeline"... as to who I am and how do I know this stuff, like I said, I got involved in this whether I liked it or not and I guess you'll just have to have faith that I have my sources.

Most notable 17 years later are the destructive sum totals of all the local rumors that have suffocated efforts to find out what happened. Even today we can't really discount or wave away any of the many rumors. Primarily that either one of two things occurred. That there existed a hateful lover's triangle at the time or that she owed drug money and was kidnapped and murdered. 

Although both rumors have potential merit, neither one is actually considered all that likely or viable... Then again, hatred between "friends" over a love triangle has gained some additional traction. 

Documentation recently surfaced suggesting that a fight 3 weeks before Brianna disappeared may have been more relevant than originally thought. However the documentations origin is unknown and it uses information which plagiarizes my own "Profile of Brianna" without giving me credit (it's not so much the fact that my documentation was used without my permission but the way in which the writer combined my info with his making it difficult to distinguish who the source of the information is). Basically it is my timeline expanded to include "information" from this other source. 

This other (unidentified) source states that the fight Brianna was in three weeks prior was not a simple assault.  The author claims to know that the girl Keallie (the name of this person is well documented and so is not slandering anyone)... was not solely responsible for the bruising Brianna suffered... that multiple persons were involved and rather than suffer a punch or two through a truck window, as she sat there, that instead she never made it to the truck, but rather, she was seized by the group, thrown to the ground and assaulted by many persons. 

 

Alleged charges she filed with the VSP a week or so after the event were originally considered to be Brianna's own decision but it has now been suggested that her parents were instrumental in this decision. These charges as filed were witnessed by a friend who is said to have accompanied her, are significant as they became unenforceable when Brianna disappeared, providing motive to whoever was named in the report. As to who were the parties were, motivated to file the charges, it would make a difference in my opinion, between if Brianna decided to file charges on her own or she was of encouraged to do so. As there's no proof either way, my only thought is why would conspirators hold it against a teen-aged girl if she filed charges with the police based on the demands of her parents?  Well, I guess they could if they didn't know the reason behind the charges, and for God's sake, look at the picture of Brianna's face again and tell me she didn't have every right to file charges? 

The above describes one potential motive for Brianna's disappearance and again the theory has been widely disseminated and hashed about. 

 What follows however may change everything.

 It is unlikely that many of those people Brianna were acquainted with even knew she was working at the Black Lantern that night. The possibility that Brianna's disappearance was the result of people she knew becomes more remote. Here again, from whatever source the rumors have evolved, whether it be the truth or simply small town hysteria, it complicates finding out what did happen to her.

Originally and for all these years I had been led to believe that Brianna had been working at the Black Lantern when the assault took place at what's called the "pallet factory". I had reported a rather simple setting... That Brianna had not been living in the Montgomery area until a short time prior to her disappearance. That from wherever she had been living that sometime in February of 2004 she "moved back into the area". That she had gotten her job at the Black Lantern and that there were actually two party's of significance that took place. 

March 05, 2004 was the date at which Brianna got her job at the Black Lantern. The fight at the pallet factory, where it's now said she was held down and beaten up, was the week before - Saturday, February 28th, 2004. As you see above, her picture with her bruises, this is likely pretty much how she looked on the first Friday night she worked at the Black Lantern. 

These dates create a major problem with the timeline as I have believed it all these years. For example, I had believed, that early on, the week before the pallet factory party, that she had been discovered by a childhood friend to be at a party held at the "Crossing" in Richford VT., a "wild, drug-fueled" party and that she had gone to her friend's house later and stayed the night. In the morning I had believed she had been picked up and brought to work at her job at the Black Lantern. 

This is important as it would have been the way that her friends learned of her new job. Problem is, it would be another two weeks before her first night. She also didn't work days, so this information becomes inaccurate pretty quickly. 

Brianna was beaten up at the pallet party a week before she started at the Black Lantern.

Two paychecks were found in Brianna's car - these were for work done March 05 and March 12. She had worked two Friday nights and on the third Friday she vanished. 

The problem raised with this new timeline becomes the limited time by which her friends (and those whom she had angered) would know she worked Friday nights. Whoever these people are they would have had to know what time she started work and even more problematic what time she finished working. 

Assuming she was targeted by a jealous person, that person, would have had to have had quite a commitment to causing Brianna harm, to have known she was working, to the waited untold time before Brianna left work. Then, if we are to believe that a jealous party followed her, caused her to backup off the road where she got hung-up that night, we have to consider the formidable effort and odds of such a coordinated effort to succeed.

What we know:

1) The widespread rumors, friends crying or claiming they saw her die, that she had been kidnapped, that she owned a major debt in drug money makes whatever happened to Brianna nearly impossible to figure out... that there are those friends who know things about the case and they are not telling, if for no other reason than they are afraid... small town hysteria could be the cause of many of the rumors. One rumor for example is one where after work that night she goes to a party house and overdoses... her friends see her die, panic and dispose of her. 

The biggest problem with this rumor is that any friends alleged to have been involved at the time or especially today, with an overdose, are not criminally liable for her death. Even considering that they panicked and then buried her, the statute of limitations for illegal body disposal are expired. There is absolutely no consequences now in 2021 for any friend or person to come forwards and disclose any truth. If there was an accident, which is what the primary theme here is, that whatever happened was an accident. If this is true, please come forwards because there is no liability now to disclosing the truth.

Under the circumstances, given the updated timeline,  a crime of opportunity, a stranger abduction becomes a more likely possibility. There are leads, for many possibilities. A jealous rival for example, not off the table but if so, why such a strange abduction... ? ... why run her off the road at the Dutchburn Place? Why not abduct her where she was living at the time? 

We are burdened by all the rumors... burdened by confessions... by lies... her friends these days sounding so sympathetic and committed to the task, yet these friends seem to still embrace a lot of the misinformation that has been spewed forth since the beginning.

Brianna's disappearance likely, in my opinion, should have been solved soon after it happened... we now have a new timeline so the next step is getting those "in the know" to talk. And unless you're talking about 1st or 2nd degree murder, most any crime committed at the time is well beyond any statute of limitations.

Please let's stop the hurt and let's bring Brianna home. We need all her friends to come forwards and explain away all the lies and rumors. Do people really want to live out their lives knowing what they know about Brianna, leaving the family in pain, when those in the know don't even have a need for fear to come forwards. It's been 17 years.

Amazon.com Hidden Agenda

 Whether it's E-Bay or Amazon, the two largest online retailers, they have problems with providing for their clients.

E-Bay... my last post was the story of how a perfectly good coin was rejected. It was determined by E-Bay that the coin was a copy or counterfeit and not listed as such. Considering it's a legitimate coin listing it as a copy or counterfeit is not an option. Their suggestion is to get it professionally grade. However, from the client/consumer POV doing so is not cost effective. It's not! 

It's expensive to get a coin graded - a membership fee is required. Depending on the value of the coin this may be prohibitive. So what if, E-Bay accuses a person of posting a "bogus something"? Well, no criminal charges - gee thanks... but that's it for the item... find someplace else to sell it. 

That someplace else is not a simple option within our society of monopolies. Whether it's Walmart, Amazon or E-bay, we are at their mercy.

My newest issue or concern... this time with Amazon.

Please understand... about me... I'm 66 with cancer that is in remission. Having cancer is a lifesaver but that's beside the point. The point is the change a person goes through finding out they have cancer and what they have to endure to be in remission. It changes a person.

I need to sell stuff I own like books. Old comics. Graphic novels. All collected over the past 45 years. Why? Having cancer is a good indicator one will die... even if in remission, one knows the end will come.

Apparently several years ago I had a seller account on Amazon. Apparently the account expired. Well, it did expire. Now I want to start it up again. I get an error about my account when I try to do that. "Account already exists - setup a new one."

Setting up a new one requires a change of address! There are three things, okay, maybe four, that define legally who one is. They are address, phone #, e-mail address and of course social security number. Recently I needed to update my phone # with my bank. They consider that a threat to a persons identity and as such the process to change it is pretty involved.

Amazon is now telling me that because my seller account has expired, I will need to setup a new seller account under a different e-mail address. I explained to them that my e-mail address is me, part of my identity. Too bad they said... you'll need to provide a new e-mail address. I refused. Which screws ME! But I will not submit to validation as a human being by changing any of the four primary criteria about myself. 

They are: 1) physical address 2) phone # 3) e-mail address 4) social security number

How to identify a replica or copy of a coin - in this case a San Diego Pacific Exibition commemorative coin; or how to avoid listing an authentic coin on E-Bay that E-Bay incorrectly determines is a copy or replica.

In this post I am going to share an experience I had when listing a commemorative coin for sale on E-Bay. The coin was de-listed/removed when E-Bay determined it was a replica or a copy of a coin.  They don't prohibit the sale of a replica or copy of a coin but when listed it must be described as such. And technically, selling a coin that is a copy or replica without disclosing it as such is fraud, something which is against the law.

In this case the coin was authentic. So what went wrong? Could I call them to clear up any misunderstanding and to allow me to re-list the coin?

I received an e-mail shortly after the listing went live informing me of their decision and with the following information:

"We had to remove your listing because it didn’t follow our Replica coins and currency policy. Replica currency that follows our rules can be listed on eBay, but replica coins and counterfeit currency are not allowed."

 What is their policy?

- Only one-sided replica paper currency that follows these rules can be listed:
-- Size is less than 75% or greater than 150% of the genuine currency
-- The listing includes a photo of the actual replica paper currency being sold
-- The listing includes the word “replica” in the title and description
- Replica coins are not allowed
- Counterfeit or altered coins and currency aren't not allowed, nor is equipment designed to make them

 What happens next?

 "You can't relist items we've ended. Please ensure your current and future listings follow this policy."

What did happen next?

I called customer service and I was told, "no you cannot re-list the coin. In order to re-list the coin you must have it professionally graded."

*****

Not good news. The coin in question wasn't that valuable. In MS65 it would be worth about $140.To get the coin professionally graded by PCGS or NGC would be costing more than I could earn selling it. Part of the cost is an annual membership before I could submit the coin. After that is a cost per coin. In my case that's not particularly a bad thing as I have plenty of other coins that I could submit. Getting a coin graded is a good way to validate the authenticity of the coins. However, my goal was not to go to all that trouble. My goal was to simply sell off what coins I have, as is.

It should be noted that I have been a member of E-Bay since November 2003 without any negative feedback.

What went wrong? Why did E-Bay determine that my listing was fraudulent? 

I consider myself to be very knowledgeable when it comes to identifying coins and knowing whether they are authentic. So of course I was upset when they determined I had posted a fraudulent listing. I argued with the customer service rep. I told them to arrest me then, if they were going to accuse me of  of committing fraud. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what was wrong and I assured them, to no avail, that the coin was authentic and that they were wrong.

After I hung up the phone, got over being angry and offended, I calmed down and proceeded to figure out what went wrong. I first considered my listing, the words I used to describe the coin. I found nothing wrong there. The coin is in exceptionally good condition and though not a professional grader I would consider it to be MS 65 or better. It is actually quite flawless and that is what really confused me. Did it look so great that it was too hard to believe it was authentic? I mulled that idea over a bit and then decided that was a ridiculous thought. So what then?

When taking photos of things to sell I have several options. I will use a scanner - a flat screen scanner which will give me a resolution of 1200 dpi or higher and I generally will use 600 dpi which, if the coin isn't slabbed (encased in plastic) and lays flat, will render the coin in exceptionally good detail. Or I will use a digital camera - my being 20 megapixels; or I use a USB digital microscope. 

Here are the images of the coin I listed taken with my USB digital microscope:

They look pretty good, don't they? Too good to be true?

Here are two images of similar coins, one stamped as a copy and one that is listed as a "restrike". Technically a coin that is a restrike is a coin that was restruck by a government mint for whatever reason it happened; it is a tricky way to describe a coin as having been created as a copy or replica after the fact, as a restrike of a legally minted coin.

STAMPED "COPY"
 

 

 

RESTRIKE

I was confused. To make things even more difficult to understand, I didn't simply post the two images of my coin; I posted the following close-up images, again using my USB digital microscope.

CLOSE-UP PHOTOS of AUTHENTIC COIN

The more I compared the images the more dumbfounded and annoyed I became with E-Bay. I was even more annoyed as E-Bay flat-out offered no other options with regards to validating my claim. It wasn't until I decided to use my flat-screen scanner at 600 dpi that I realized what the problem was. Compare the following images to the ones I took with my microscope and you will see, I believe, that to E-Bay my previous images looked fake. Again, the images are not fake, but simply put, unexpected as most images of coins posted are done using a flat-screen scanner or camera, though when considering that older digital cameras may have been rendered at less than 10 megapixels, or even less than 5 megapixels, how fake could the ones using the microscope really appear?

You can be the judge of that I suppose. The images are of the same coin I was trying to sell and personally although they do appear to be strikingly different, I do believe E-Bay is on drugs! I think the problem is that those taken with the digital microscope look, well, too shiny. Too good.

A LESSON IN HISTORY - PART 1

I was born in 1954 at the height of nuclear testing, the cold war, civil rights reforms, McCarthyism and especially during the age of abundance and entitlement for the (artificial) middle class, I consider myself not just fortunate, but gifted too, born into a reasonably prosperous family. How much I wouldn't know otherwise, today, the history from the 50's, 60's and 70's... the collision that in my opinion has changed the world of several million years into something else, something many consider the "modern age of civilization".

So, 1954 is actually the age at which a middle class came to be. Prior to that, including during WWII, there was no middle class, only the wealthy, the "well to do" and the poor. There were distinct differences between them.

The wealthy were extraordinarily wealthy in general and quite distinct from the well to do. The wealthy generally had ancestry, wealthy ancestry with roots in big business. The well to do got lucky, cashing in on opportunities but without any family legacies. And the poor... not only were they numerous but they deserved to be where they were - poor. That is how it always was...

There was a great deal of "pride"... that to be "well to do" meant proof of living a life of virtue, better yet if one was wealthy. God rewarded the well to do and the wealthy... provided for them, this based on the perceived notion that they were devoutly worshiping God. God frowned upon the poor as there was a reason for it... they were undeserving. They were poor for good reason. To be something of a success meant being good in the eyes of God. Religion was everything, even into the 1960's.

I consider myself hugely grateful I was born in 1954. I almost consider it proof that things are not as they seem and there is a bizarre reason why I came to be in 1954. But let's ignore that for now.
After WWII and because of it, America became the world's Superpower. We had the modern factories, the experts, the motivations.The world was about to go through it's first massive reformation.

Two World Wars provided the incentive for extreme product development and experimentation. The United States with it relatively new infrastructure was ideally poised to accommodate extremes the world may encounter. WWI was only the beginning... a war we didn't want to involve ourselves in, but ultimately had to. WWII on the other hand, we initially saw ourselves as peace-makers, believed even as warplanes from Japan were approaching Pearl harbor, that we we in the business of world-peace.

After the horrors of WWI this was to be expected. The world had been brought order. Germany was punished. Never again would the world experience such an atrocity, such a devastating loss or life at the hands of a madman.

But such did happen, WWII happened. The United States was involved from the start and it produced extraordinary obligation, involvement, work and patriotism as to slap and nearly knock the US unconscious, only to have the US rally and crush the opposition, the enemy, the evil with countries it considered allies.

The result was the origin of the age of entitlement, the origin of suburbia and term Middle Class.... war hero's home to celebrate victory, to enjoy being the victors (unlike when soldiers returned from Viet Nam) amidst factories and businesses that evolved to confront the needs of a world war that was a direct threat to this country!

My parents went through the Great depression, food lines, desperation and fear of the future. Then came WWII. My dad was approximately 7 years old then. More rationing ensued... women went to work at factories and businesses. Ironically, they had no choice as all the eligible men were overseas and fighting Nazi's or Japs, and the women had to man the factories.

Women of course at the time were considered unable to do what they were doing, however such prejudice and misunderstanding was put aside... and how odd... women succeeded and some never left the workforce, but overall, many got swept up in the New Age of Suburbia...

Suburbia is a huge understatement. Or poorly defines the times.

Woman had, prior to WWII, achieved the right to vote, had made some gains into being on "equal terms" with male counterparts, to work otherwise male jobs, yet in general Victorian mores still ruled.
The New Suburbia provided the perfect balance between returning war vets and their factory forced women... technological improvements made suburban sprawls possible; social mores required Victorian rights of passage, where woman marries man and sells her soul in the process.

But all of this was great!! Really, really great. There seemed to be a limitless amount of resources and the expertise to put them in the American Suburban home. Not only to put them there but also the people to enjoy it all. This was the Middle-Class. Husbands by the millions got great jobs, often without having any college experience. These men had wives that produced 2.5 children per suburban household, sent those children to public schools, brought them in for regular checkups, had good food on the table, a future and essentially paved the way to America being Great.

Of course you had to tow the line, avoid being too smart, like reading "weird, anti-American" news or books, seeming to be open to liberal, socialistic, communistic views or simply being accused by your neighbor who really wants to seduce or rape your wife, that you are a communist, and as such, being simply strange or subversive meant you were going to jail or your life was in ruins.

But let's get back to the new Suburbia... "Leave it to Beaver", Dennis the Menace", "Lassie"... good "wholesome television.

What's really weird is that didn't come about until many year after I was born. There was no TV when I was born. There were electric refrigerators, but to my knowledge no such washer/dryers, dish washers, etc.

We got milk delivered to our milk-box outdoors, milk in bottles with cream on top, mail delivered twice a day including Saturdays. Life was viewed differently to, and again some of this I only came to understand when I was older... but i remember what I do. Electrocutions were for some odd reason a common reason for death. But we had Polio, smallpox, Scarlet fever, leprosy... i recall walking by houses with notices on the doors that the house was under quarantine.

Still, much of the environment was wonderful... lots of woods, and I lived in a city of 30,000, creeks, areas to bike, to hunt to explore. All gone now - developed.

I remember, my elementary school had a field - to the east I think, where first there was a baseball field, then a football field. A cross street divided the end of the football field from woods. The woods were thick with a creek passing through it. There were roads on each side but they were quite a ways apart. As a child until 10 at least I or some friends would explore these woods that led into a deeper woods.

The town razed the whole woods and creek across the street from the football field where I grew up. Left a huge grassy divider with no creek. To the south where there were thousands of acres of wooded hill, all the was razed and developed too.

The woods that began a half mile from my grandmother's house were razed, thousands of acres again.
The hard part to share is not just the environment, but what it was like to be born in the age when the "Great Age" began. The age referred to when politicians say "Let's make American Great Again".
As long as your family was middle class you basically had everything. You even got an allowance. You lived in a nice house and life was not only pretty simple, but especially "normal".

I could leave at 7 AM and come home before dark, alone. I wasn't always asked where was I going, and this was quite normal. I spent a lot of time exploring the woods, but also exploring town. There were no supermarkets, superstores, fast food restaurants then. It was a town, with hard earned and often inherited businesses.

I often took a bus... and lets say IMPORTANT NOTE: this is all from before I was 10, which would have been late 1964.

I loved the coin stores, which usually had gizmos like tiny cameras... I bought a couple with film a quarter inch wide but never used it. But I saw some great old coins for sale, especially gold coins often for $10 or so.

You could get a lot of candy for a dime.

Great times to live - if you've gotten this far with my dissertation. But in hindsight, deplorable years... except if you happen to be the kid, until you reach 18.

I turned 18 in 1972. The draft for the Vietnam war ended 3 days before my 18th birthday. Simple trivia. Although with a draft lottery in place and my number being sweet 16 I was sure to have been drafted to fight in Indonesia., as Vietnam had somewhat ended.

These are great times to be alive. Remember, I was born and there was no TV. Medicine was on the verge, but not quite there for some astounding developments. Civil Rights was big news, considering the rights of minorities and what it means to be a minority, to be Black, a negro back then. Magazine, newspaper subscriptions to "keep up with the news", which now I wish I never had.

I was bullied as a child... fuck that...I get bullied now and I stand up for myself. The difference is that as a kid you don't necessarily know that or how to do it. In fact, it's a life-long lesson. To me, that's a blow to reincarnation, getting it right the next time, as I doubt I will remember I need to be assertive and as much in their face as they are mine.

Such technology today, making it possible to play awesome, realistic computer games, watch awesome TV and movies. Have knowledge of the world at my finger tips when for most of my youth and older a library was where I had to go.

But still, how fortunate I've been to see myself go from milk at the door to milk through the internet.
None of the latter is why I just shared my story...

I'm retired, I like to write... soon I may be dead and the only thing left behind are these words... courtesy of technology in the 21st century.

What I really would like to address here is "cruelty to animals". That is, if I knew where to start. Perhaps the religious believe that humans, man, possess dominance over wild-life, not to mention, women, Blacks, and again, the poor.

Extinctions of wildlife. Extreme climate change.

Climate change which affects us all. Which seem to be shunned by the so called, intelligent people.

Cruelty to animals... decimating their natural environment. The Monarch butterfly, so pretty, is near extinction... did you know that? It migrates to the Amazon forests in South America, or at least it tries now - much of it's habitat has or is being destroyed.

We can put information at our fingertips, a man on the Moon and soon, Mars, yet we let our world be destroyed and die. We are... some have compared humans to parasites, and I believe in many ways that is true.

Which is odd as humans can pretty much become super-hero's if they really want to, starting with sane solutions to humanities future.

WELCOME ALL TO 2020 :)

Greetings...

For those wondering why the long duration since my last post I can answer that.

In January 2019 I was diagnosed with cancer; non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Mine was pretty dire, however I responded to chemo and currently I am in total remission.

Major chemo lasted between Feb. 2019 to July 2019. I went on disability from work, and then and now am on SSDI.

My life has changed.

Adding to the "mess" we now have the COVD pandemic. Due to ongoing maintenance chemo I am particularly at risk. I'm restricted to self-isolation for who knows how long.

The purpose of this post is just to let you know I'm still here and plan to post more soon.

These are trying times. Hope you look out for your friends and neighbors...

BobKat

BRIANNA MAITLAND - MISSING 15 YEARS - THE "SYMPATHIZER'S" THEORY

15 years have passed since Brianna Maitland, 17 years old, vanished under mysterious circumstances on the night of March 19, 2004, in Montgomery Vermont. She had been working at a nearby restaurant until about 11:30 that night when she'd left to go home (she'd left her housemate a note, earlier that day, saying she'd be home after work). Her car was found the next morning crashed into the side of an old, abandoned farmhouse. The following pictures exist thanks to the curious eyes of three visitors to the area who had been skiing, were driving by the house around 7 AM and saw the car and thought it looked very unusual.

Published courtesy of "World Travellers"

Published courtesy of "World Travellers"

The police had seen the car also, with varied accounts of when that was. In the early morning hours a news-crew took photos and collected video of the scene. The video showed the driver's side of the car; of interest is the fact that early (and for a couple of years) on the family wasn't aware that video existed of that side of the car.

NBC Local News (VT)

The police returned and and did a cursory inspection of the scene, noting the license plate (registered to Brianna's mother), and had the car towed to a garage, where it sat for a few days. The police did not follow up with the registered owner of the car, although their theory at the time was said to have been, that the driver was drunk, spun off the road into the farmhouse. 

That was the theory, but the scenes above seemed not to look anything like that of a drunk driver having an accident, in my opinion and that of others.

My role in all of this was unexpected and I generally recount this as people like to know how I got involved in all of this and how I know what I know. 

I recall it was November of that year that I was at work over a hundred miles away, browsing the news on the internet, when I saw her story. The police at the time had chalked up Brianna's disappearance as drug related, strongly suggesting Brianna was fine and had run away. They described her to be of "questionable character" which upset me - bit premature to state that I felt. And why had police jumped so eagerly to a theory that it was drug related?  Nothing in the article suggested such a thing and a young woman was missing. Her car keys were missing.

I looked up her parent's phone number and called, something I'd never done before. I offered my services to try to find those keys. With over twenty years experience metal detecting (as a hobby), I offered to see if I could find the car keys, which I never did. However, after my search ended on that cold, rainy day, her father invited me to a local tavern where we could sit down and talk, have something to eat and drink. Brianna's father, encouraged by my communication skills asked me if I would talk to her people, like her friends, persons who felt they had information, and work with a PI/profiler from Texas. I was 50 years old at the time.

Of all the "True Crime" cases I'd ever read about this missing person case was the most bizarre and convoluted ever. One of the worst aspects were the rumors that spread almost immediately, of which I've written about in previous posts. They all mostly involved the people who knew Brianna, some of whom were friends. One such rumor was a confession made to one of Brianna's friends stating that "he had watched the life drain out of Brianna". The person was questioned and I was told denied ever saying it. One can watch the interview with Brianna's friend, Katie Manning, here on CrawlSpace:
https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=tightropetb&p=brianna+maitland+youtube+crawlspace#id=1&vid=b5502cf73ca9dcd19a7713b5ee4baf2f&action=view

Chloe, CrawlSpaces' psychological profiler, also has a Blog I would highly recommend:
https://chloefromcrawlspace.blogspot.com/2019/01/missing-in-vermont-18-parking-lot-story.html#comment-form

In my last post about Brianna which you can find here: https://bobkatlair.blogspot.com/2018/03/ I pose and review various theories, some of them are my own. It's no surprise that one of the earliest theories focused on a friend of Brianna's, a girl named Kealie, who grew upset with Brianna while at a party three weeks earlier. Apparently Brianna was flirting with her boyfriend. The consequence of which was that as Brianna left with her ex-boyfriend James, Kealie followed her out into the parking lot and beat her up pretty bad - Brianna didn't fight back and her explanation was that "Kealie was a friend".

Brianna after the fight

It was little wonder that Kealie became a person of interest undergoing intense interrogation and scrutiny; in addition Brianna had gone with a friend to the police to file charges against Keallie, something that in this post - "The Sympathizer's Theory", has significant importance. Eventually police allegedly clear Keallie from having any involvement.

My theory suggests we paid far too much attention on Kealie while ignoring others present at the party. For Kealie's part, yeah she beat Brianna up pretty badly. She admits that and showed remorse. It's others that were at the party that night that concern me. Did one or more of them feel Brianna deserved it?

Based on interviews with her friends it was clear Brianna was actually the "new girl in town". Yes she had grown up in the area, however she went to a school that didn't include many of the people she would befriend in 2004. Brianna changed high schools near her senior year and began to meet some of these people. She met more people after moving out of her parent's house, moving closer to Montgomery VT. However, though she had time to date the boyfriend she was with when the fight happened, she broke up with him and for a short time moved away from the area. 

Weeks before she disappeared, and shortly before the fight she moved again, got the job at the Black Lantern restaurant in Montgomery VT. She was back! And it would turn out this would make some people unhappy. Brianna thought she finally found a life, with friends after being isolated as she saw it for so long. That new life included sex, drugs, rock & roll, literally. Along with marijuana, which Brianna was not shy to admit she loved, there were harder drugs, like crack cocaine. Information varies as to just how involved she became with these harder drugs, however it may have provided a medium for what ultimately happened to her. That and the fact that in a small town, relationships and friendships could change often, resulting in feelings of resentment and jealousy. As a result there were those who likely didn't much like Brianna.

Persons who likely were at the party three weeks previously when Kealie beat up Brianna. Of those persons there were those who likely sided with Brianna, and those who didn't. Perhaps those who didn't were annoyed that Brianna didn't lift a finger to defend herself. To them it may have been just one more thing that annoyed them about Brianna. I call these person(s) "the sympathizers", who sided with Keallie.

It's a sad fact that where there are serious drugs being passed around, people are paranoid. Anyone involved is expected to avoid the police - for any reason. Brianna violated this unwritten rule by filing charges against Keallie, which it's likely certain persons found out about before she disappeared. As the saying goes, "a rat is a rat". It's my theory, person(s) at the party three weeks earlier felt motive enough to cause Brianna's disappearance.

WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING ON???

I remember back in the 1960's being with my grandmother who at the time must have been in her 50's; a Beatles song was playing and she was freaking out - " Crazy", she said. " What's wrong with the younger generation"?

What??

I'm 64 and to this day I have no idea why the Beatles freaked out my grandmother. If it was their long hair it wasn't even long in the early 1960's, and the music, was it that crazy?

Fast-forwards to 2018...

1) A 20 year old goes semi-naked to a pancake house and shoots several people dead. Why? As this person put it, he was " involuntarily celibate". Meaning he wasn't able to find a person who wanted to have sex with him. Sorry guy, but that's not a benefit without a price - it's more like magic.

2) Another shooting - the person claimed he wanted to go to jail. Yeah, so the guy shot people?? Well, I guess that's not too strange as we all know the story of the person that just wanted to feel the life drain out of another person. Well, the feelings count, but are misplaced; at least unlike poachers killing off elephants, rhinos and other endangered animals, who have zero feeling, Mr. or Ms. drain the life had an orgasm... much like rape, when you feel you're involuntarily celibate, only in this case you have a god-complex. Ever heard of respect for others?

3) Serial killer says - "I didn't kill people, I eradicated losers that only wanted drugs, marijuana, and to me that is sick, so I killed them. Ended their suffering".

More god complex. Like President Trump and his constant attacks on the media and "FAKE NEWS".

Just curious Mr Trump... what sort of news would you prefer? Separating immigrant children from their parents? How about executing all immigrants because to you they are all terrorists and that is the FAKE NEWS you are spreading that is riling up the rednecks and skin-heads. Yeah, you have quite the sense of reality and good luck to you, not. As you said, you have the money and the power... "I can do anything I want with any woman". Oh, and now an Executive Order eliminating the 14th Amendment. Hey, what a guy? What planet are you from??

Side-tracked, sorry.

4) Adolescents concoct a plan to arm themselves and go in Rambo style to shoot as many people as they can.

5) Man is upset that his girlfriend dumped him so he uses a motor vehicle to mow down as many people as he can along sidewalks.

6) Police shoot unarmed civilians and claim self-defence. The victims are Black.

The list goes on, like a sick song.

Meanwhile our planet is dying. We're currently experiencing the 6th Great Mass Extinction event... 60% of animal diversity has died out since only 1970. Makes me sad as the 1970's were good years and at the time we could have created the structures to contain and prevent global warming, but we didn't. Corporations bought off the politicians with fake stories - their own FAKE NEWS.

It's not limited to the extinction of mammals which is expected to be around an 80% loss - we're nearly there and the end will come quickly... though maybe 100 years is a FAKE estimate.

Storms, typhoons and hurricanes are getting worse. Fact or Fake news?

The planet is changing for the worse due to human behavior. Fact or Fake News.

It's about the planet itself, all of life and how disrespectful so many people are, myself included, I grew up to take advantage of my God given right to dominate the planet, and enslave myself to the system to survive. Wow... all that FAKE NEWS out of Washington sans Jimmy Carter, I admit, it was effective. Between Watergate, the Kent State Massacre, the insane War on Drugs that actually may have worked if Nixon hadn't ignored the recommendations of his Blue Ribbon Committee on Drugs, aka the Shaffer Committee. But he did. He had his own agenda.

Deforestation, the death of the oceans, coral, plastic pollution.

Years ago I visited Ackley PA. Fossil hunting. 100,000 years ago or so, +or - 10 million years, the ocean extended to South Dakota. Likely prior to the Ice Age. All that water eventually got sucked up into the Ice age or later in glaciers.  And now we are releasing it. Killing the planet. Our attention diverted to an immigrant caravan. Yeah...while President Trump dances around like a naked clown.

Death laughs on my shoulder while my angel taunts me from my other shoulder. Seriously people... the world is in danger. The recent violence shouldn't be a surprise. More than ever people grow up institutionalized in schools and a society that over protects and controls it's children. I know that is true as it was different growing up in the 1950's. I and many others like me survived. We formed our own baseball and football teems. We went off into the world and rode our bikes anywhere we chose.

We were controlled even then, but not like today. It is very likely everything about you and your children are known to the state you live in. All this while the planet dies.

BRIANNA MAITLAND - MISSING 14 YEARS. THE STORY AND VARIOUS THEORIES.

Beginning with some background for those who may have heard of this case for the first time.

 Brianna Maitland, from Montgomery Vermont,  was 17 years of age and disappeared under mysterious circumstances, a bizarre accident, on the night of March 19, 2004. The time is estimated to have been around 11:35 PM.  Something happened at an old abandoned farmhouse called the Dutchburn Place as Brianna was driving home from work that night.

Google Earth: Dutchburn farmhouse

Google Earth: Elevation

Close-up Accident; photo by World Travellers

Accident from afar; photo by World Travellers

Accident, Close-up; photo by World Travellers

Recently I was contacted by a co-host of a show called Crawlspace, asking for an open dialogue regarding Brianna's disappearance. I have published numerous posts about Brianna which the co-host referenced, making me something of a expert. 

I'm not an expert, I assure you. 

In late fall of 2004 I was at work and was browsing the news and saw the story. There were two things that caught my attention: 1) the fact that VSP (Vermont State Police) considered her a drug addict, who owed money to drug dealers, had an accident and ran away; 2) her car keys were missing. 

In a few days it will have been 14 years that Brianna disappeared under suspicious circumstances. I was 50 at the time, and my hobby was metal detecting - yeah, that thing you see some people waving across the sand at the beach. My experience was not at the beaches, but rather woods, fields and ghost-towns. I also had an interest in "true crime" and empathy for the victims. I've been told I have the ability to see into mysteries as I have the ability for being objective. 

I found her parent's phone number online and called, offered my services metal detecting to find her car keys which were considered important in the case. I never did find the keys, though I did find a couple quarters, a dime or two at the scene where her drivers door would have opened. 

A theory is that she backed into the farmhouse by accident, trying to avoid being abducted and worse. That she had fore-warnings about going to work that night from earlier in the day when she went to the mall with her mother. That she left a note for her housemate that she "would be home later". The note wasn't something that Brianna would normally write. So why did she write it?

What do I know that others don't? 

Plenty it seems and a word of warning to others out there wishing they were involved in a real life crime sleuthing into a victim's past. 

The phone call I made that day, whereby I met Brianna's family, turned into a meal at a local tavern with her father, Bruce. That was around the early part of November 2004, several months after she vanished. Her father was in his early 40's, and completely distraught over the events surrounding his daughter's disappearance. He was upset with the attitude held by the VSP. They wouldn't help him. They insisted she ran away for the drug reason I'd read about in the news which honestly, made me upset also. There was no proof  behind their assumptions. 

Bruce had no choice but to fight the battle to learn the truth by himself. As we talked he became interested in my ability to listen and the amiable way in which I discussed things with him. He asked me if I was interested in helping him, to talk with her friends, talk with the PI that had offered his services for free. I said, "sure, I'll help". 

Regarding the earlier warning I had for others interested in becoming a part of something like this is, careful what you wish for! 

At least two years I spent travelling 3 hours to go to her parent's house, staying there on weekends, going out searching for any trace of what happened to her, talking with friends and those less friendly. When I wasn't in Vermont I was in New Hampshire making phone calls. There was the family website and Monday night forum where people chimed in regarding ideas, opinions and information that might be helpful. When I first joined much of the discussion revolved around Brianna's drug use, an obsession with it really, that she overdosed, got in over her head buying crack, and essentially she made a victim of herself, was responsible for what happened. 

I didn't see it that way at all and considered the whole drug angle a red herring and still do. Gradually by offering alternative ideas to the group the topic changed and she was finally seen as the victim of others. There was even a change of authority at VSP and the new officer in charge was more inclined to help and have an open mind. Yet despite all our efforts nothing led to either a brick wall or more nothing. Everything stayed a theory. Rumors couldn't be proven one way or the other. The possibilities simply seemed to keep expanding with nothing solid to go by.

Four years into it, with another PI working the case, the family moved away and the case went cold. A possible sighting of Brianna took the headlines for awhile, that she was photographed at a casino in Atlantic City. The sighting was officially termed erroneous within a year. I became a guest-writer in a Blog operated by a person also interested in the case, whom I knew from the family website, who happened to be a retired police officer. In 2009 I started my own Blog. 

Which brings me back to a co-host of a show called Crawlspace contacting me, wishing to talk. Initially all I had to say was more of the same old thing. 

But it got me thinking. Got me thinking about the fight Brianna had had three weeks previously that heavily figured into initial suspicions. A fight where two girls beat Brianna up quite badly. About how her and a friend went to the police to file charges, which were dropped when Brianna failed to appear at a hear. About how bizzare an accident it was where she disappeared, so bizarre as to be nothing like a drunk driver going off the road, which is what the initial investigation suggested. The co-host also made a statement suggesting someone with "hot-blooded vengeance" in mind abducted her.

One cannot get away from the obvious fact that whatever happened to Brianna was done by someone who was very upset with her, or opens up one other possibility, however unlikely it might be.

I have spent a lot of time going over the possibilities in my mind. I have considered the possibility she was abducted by those wanting to traffick her, that during her abduction she was given crack and overdosed. Or she lived and was actually sold into slavery. I've been over the fact that two uncashed pay-checks were left in her car, that any money she had the drug dealers would want. 

The co-host asked me at one point if I had any epiphanies now nearly 14 years later, and at first I didn't. 

It's a known fact Brianna liked marijuana, so do I and although we are told there is a connection between marijuana and hard drugs like crack, I've never been interested in the hard stuff, and friends haven't been either. Then I received this e-mail from NORML (National Organization for Marijuana Reform)  that rather got me thinking with a whole different perspective:

"Vancouver, Canada: Cannabis use is associated with slower rates of injection initiation among at-risk youth, according to longitudinal data published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Review.

Canadian researchers assessed drug use progression in a cohort of 481 street-involved youth over a ten-year period.

Authors reported: "[W]e observed a high rate of injection initiation among at-risk street-involved youth. Our results indicate that periods of frequent cannabis use were associated with slower rates of initiation: daily cannabis use was associated with a 34 percent decrease in the hazard rate of injection initiation."

They concluded: "[F]requent cannabis use was negatively associated with injection initiation. ... Given the expansion of cannabis legalization throughout North America, it is encouraging that cannabis use was associated with slower time to initiation of injection drug use in this cohort. This finding challenges the view of cannabis as a gateway substance that precipitates the progression to using harder and more addictive drugs."

A 2017 study published by several of the same researchers previously reported that cannabis use was associated with reduced consumption of crack cocaine in a cohort of polydrug users.

For more information, contact Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director, at: paul@norml.org. Full text of the study, "Cannabis use is associated with lower rates of initiation of injection drug use among street-involved youth: A longitudinal analysis," appears in Drug and Alcohol Review."

What if...? 

At the time there was a lot of crack related activity in the area, largely due to persons in the area from New York City. One of those persons was a boyfriend of Brianna's according to her roomate whom I spoke with on numerous occasions. It's also a fact that Brianna didn't hide her interests in marijuana, even had a marijuana trinket leaf hanging from the rear-view mirror of her car. She had been to crack parties according to her friends. 

 Photo by World Travellers. Closeup by BobKat

Photo by BobKat

At the same time according to reliable sources of mine there at the time there was a large presence of the DEA, the Vermont Drug Task Force with assistance from the US Border Patrol. My source was recording the license plate numbers of every person visiting their establishment. Including mine.

It is acknowledged that Brianna had a heart of gold, she loved people and was willing to help others. 

In 2005 Bruce (Brianna's father) and I had what we thought was a scheduled meeting with someone who potentially had information to share about her. That person wasn't at home, but another person was outside the house when Bruce and I drove into the driveway. His nick-name was John-Boy. 

I got out of Bruce's truck while Bruce stayed inside at the ready for anything, which we'd come to expect. We got a lot more than we anticipated. I walked up to the stranger nick-named John-Boy and he asked me what I wanted. I told him we had a scheduled appointment with the person we were there to see. "About what?" He asked. 

"Brianna Maitland", I answered. 

To summarize, he went ballistic on me cursing Brianna and telling me for about 10 minutes, culminating his rage with the statement, "the fucking bitch got what was coming to her and you can tell her father that", at which point Bruce yelled out the window, "I am her father, consider it message received".

After 14 years it came to me. The thought of "hot blooded vengeance". What would make someone so angry and hostile to another human being? "She got what was coming to her..." But what did she do? Steal someone's boyfriend or girlfriend? Happened all the time. Owed drug money? No, I don't buy that either. But what if? What if Brianna was working undercover as an informant? Now that would bring out the kind of rage I witnessed coming from Lil' John. Maybe someone simply spread a rumor and group paranoia took hold. Afterall, she did go with a friend to VSP to file charges against her ex-friend.

Or, the Feds staged the accident and put her into a witness protection program - we can dream; but it's unlikely as we know, "she got what she deserved".

It also occured to me at that time, recently, no wonder nothing has ever been found out about why and what happened to her. Maybe Brianna did the one good thing (I too am concerned about the crack/opiate epidemic) that got her shunned, which would explain why no one will talk. Except for one person with an anger management problem.

It's just a theory, which to me now would explain a lot, if true.

MERCY AMONG MEN

Oddly, I'd never heard, or remember hearing the term, "Mercy Among Men" before.

We had an overnight snowstorm this past Sunday and I woke up to about 8 inches of snow. Although the day warmed up to about 40, I was none too happy about having to snow-blow. But around 1PM I got out there.

I had finished clearing in front of the mailbox across the street, had crossed the street to begin my driveway, a truck started to go by, then slowed and stopped. The driver backed up so I was at his door, an older man, likely my age, about 60.

He was interested in buying a house in my area, the general area of my town I live in. I have some idea of what the houses on my road are worth, as I bought mine a few years ago. He had $75,000 and needed a house yesterday. He asked if the half acre across the street with a condemned house and a long, mobile home looking like shed was for sale. I told him I doubted it - the owners were planning on building a house there in the future.

I gave him the phone number of the realtor who helped me buy my house.

At some point he pulled the truck off the road and got out to talk. I wasn't comfortable talking to this stranger but the chat so far had gone well, and was when I asked him why he needed a house now? Did he not have a home? I mean his truck was new, with a plow, and he didn't look too unwell-off, especially having $75k in cash to buy a house. I was intrigued, though nervous.

He shook his head slightly recalling things and said, "I can't stay where I live".

That took me by surprise. "Why", I asked.

"Long story", he replied. "Tourettes". 

"What?"

To summarize, he claimed to have Tourettes syndrome. I asked if he meant he has sudden out-bursts of speech, as I had worked with a man with the condition. He shook his head again. "No stereotypes", he said. "It is different for everyone who has it."

He said it was caused by a brain injury, though I didn't ask for specifics. I was surprised when he said symptoms (were not necessarily blurting things) could be as mild as anxiety or depression, or as serious as being bi-polar, manic, or with schizophrenia.

He had been in a grocery store, had heard of a new diet of certain nuts and vegetables. He said he was talking with the produce manager and that before he knew it he'd gotten too excited, his brain reated and his legs fell out from under him. Firemen were shopping and next thing he knew he was in an ambulance hooked up to IV's receiving Nacann. The fire chief was present and his condition had been determined to be a drug overdose.

He claims he tried to explain his condition, but the chief wasn't going to buy it. He became angry, fueled by whatever his Tourettes was doing. He pulled off the IV's and was bound.

Needless to say, he was bitter that things had gone so poorly and felt he could not live in the area any longer and had decided he wanted to move to Maine.

I asked, but can't you work things out with the fire chief, the town? He said no, he had hoped for "mercy among men", but there was none.

Now it was my turn to shake my head, and I said, well, "mercy among men" seems to be a thing of the past". He said not at all, I can show you how easy mercy among men can be. He walked to his truck and got a new teddy bear out of it. "This is for you", he said, "a gesture of mercy among men". He asked if he could plow my drive-way as a thank-you for my help, I said sure and he left. I gave the teddy bear to my neighbor's daughter.

The whole thing, the timing was rather good, as I was struggling with a fairly long time friend who got upset with me for a minor disagreement, who wanted nothing more to do with me. Mercy among men. And it got me thinking more. Mercy among humankind - stopping the hurt.

Recently there was the shooting in Parkland Florida, at the Marjory Douglas HS. I've been thinking a lot about the mass killings for the past few years, and why. What is different now than back in the 60's when I was in high school? Then realized, countries have been committed genocide and there was Hitler, the Holocaust, and the KKK and the world seems to seeth with hate, prejudice, domination and greed.

I thought of the missing person cases I'd helped with, written about on my blog, Brianna Maitland and Maura Murray. The thought that comes to my mind is we lack the ability to show mercy, as not doing the above mentioned heinous acts shows mercy. Easy for me to say as I feel I lack the gene, if it is a gene that causes such lack of respect for others, and a show of mercy.

I strongly believe we need to learn not to be naive, or overnight start trusting strangers or stop what we're doing to make the planet safer to live in. But I think perhaps sometimes all it takes is a gift teddy bear. Listening to others and having empathy. If only someone pent on destruction or mayhem would instead buy a teddy bear and give it to whoever is in charge, and admit, I want to hurt you, but I'm giving you this teddy bear as an example of mercy among men.

THE SAFE PLACE FOR MARIJUANA HAS BECOME OUR HOME; LEGALISED MARIJUANA. Part One

As of this reading 8 states have legalized the use of marijuana for adults, age 21 or older; 30 states have some variation of legalised medical marijuana. Since this may be confusing for some people my hope is to clarify what it all entails.

First, what is marijuana, briefly what's it's history, where does it come from, is it a manufactured drug or is it a plant that grows naturally??

Marijuana is a plant. It is not manufactured despite claims otherwise. Some consider it an herb, but technically it doesn't fall within that classification; it is not Rosemary, basil or thyme. It is more like a dandelion. A weed. It has a variation that's called hemp that was used for thousands of years to make rope. During those thousands of years other strains were used for medical purposes that could include simple stress reduction. The world depended on hemp until the end of WW2. At that time synthetic ropes hit the market making hemp obsolete. Problem is, we all know the difference between organic and synthetic.

Marijuana can be classified as 4 different plant species.

1) Cannabis sativa
2) Cannabis indica
3) Cannabis ruderalis
4) Hemp, any variation of the above, usually the male plant as the female generally contains THC 'Hyperlink to more about THC': LEAFLY.COM. The THC isn't desirable in hemp; tall, lanky and ropey plants are. So hemp is bred to grow like that.

More can be found about the above here: http://www.ilovegrowingmarijuana.com/types-of-marijuana/

It comes from nearly everywhere. It does favor certain environments, that I need not go into. It is grown in "housed structures", more on that in a bit.

Humans have used it for many purposes for thousands of years. Several of those purposes were medical use.

Technically I don't see how it can be considered a manufactured drug as it grows in the ground. There are those who say their God put it on the earth. However the US federal government has believed for at least 75 years that it is made from concrete. Meaning it comes from nothing, is nothing and is extremely dangerous. President Nixon hated the stuff and defied his own Blue Ribbon Committee he hand picked to study marijuana in the late 60's: Shafer Committee. Pres. Ronald Reagan described use of marijuana as being like "setting off a nuclear bomb in your head".  President Jimmy Carter legalised it in 1978... (look it up :) Last less than a day before the DEA filed some sort of law-suit over turning it.

Fast forward to 2017. Happy 420, because 8 states have now legalised adult use of marijuana and 30 for medical use, according to my latest updates from NORML.

Specifics of the details of the law are mixed, where some states have finalized the regulations while others are still undergoing development. I live in Maine and our governor just vetoed the regulations for 2018 approved by the House and Senate. Won't get my vote. However medical use of marijuana in Maine goes back to the early 2000's. And new conditions like PTSD get added each year it seems.

One of the more frustrating sorts of regulations is when a state legalizes medical marijuana but with strict conditions. Like you can't grow your own, can't buy the plant or buds, can't buy edibles (candy, cookies or brownies), only pen sized vaporizers. Or they legalize CBD oil, which contains no THC. For some plain CBD works well, especially for pain. But it's been found that a blend of CBD and THC actually increases the efficacy of the product.

But what if you're here, reading all this and the real question you have is "how could this happen??"

"How could marijuana be legalized or even beneficial for anything? The federal government lists it as a Schedule One drug, which dictates it has "no medical uses and it is extremely addictive. The way the federal government, the DOJ sees it is obviously the research being quoted by so many so-called professionals must be bogus and a lie!"

Ironically, the federal government secured a patent on THC for medical benefits it can provide.  patent # 6630507 - a link available HERE. If marijuana has zero medical benefit and THC is derived from it isn't that a contradiction? Doesn't that raise the spectre of hypocrisy? And what king of government governs based on hypocrisy? A dictatorship does, just like ol' England. A tyrannical government and do we really want to go there?

None of the propaganda fed to us for the past 75+ years has had any real scientific basis. It is only true that if you burn something like a cigarette or a joint that the heat from the burning ember is not good for you. It should also be noted that there is no comparison between the "tars" in tobacco, compared to the "tars" in marijuana. Their chemical make-up is completely different.

In the 15+ years that marijuana has been legal to buy and use in various states people are not jumping out of windows, eating people's faces or laughing like a total lunatic. Crime rates including major crimes like murder have gone down in states that have legalized.The black market has all but disappeared in states where it's legal.

Persons that use marijuana are not going to go berserk. Recently, in the news for the start of 2018 is Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Jeff has decided to rescind the Cole Memorandum which essentially provided for the the Justice Department to accept Article 10 of the Bill of Rights and let states regulate marijuana, as they are doing, without federal interference. AG Sessions declared he intends to begin a 2nd War on Pot.

Why? The answer in perhaps another post. Will this potentially severely impact legal marijuana in this country after all this time? We may see headlines where the feds raid and seize and arrest people at a marijuana grow facility in California. But that will be it. There are far more pressing problems in this country than going after state legal marijuana facilities.

To conclude, use of marijuana does not impact intelligence, make people stupid or cause maniacal behavior. We can accept the fact that 75+ years of propaganda leading us to believe otherwise is going to take some time to accept. Those using marijuana actually are benefiting and they are using a plant to do so, not a manufactured narcotic.