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INTRODUCTION:

Welcome to BobKat's Lair ®™

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A lair is a home; A castle; A burrow; A haven; a place where one should feel safe. To ensure our safety especially in one's lair, we have laws. And some laws cause more harm than good!

This is a good place. There's lots to see and do. It's apolitical while providing non-partisan news about politics, which we can't escape.

Regarding compliance with EU standards, I use no cookies, tracking devices or programs or other personal devices that may be banned in other countries. I will note however that my blog is hosted by Google and I am not responsible for any of that.

My goal is here... to present topics which highlight the plight of people. Why, 2000 years after Caesar Augustus, are we still a people being hurt? With all our advancements in technology, medicine, communications, why are we a people still being hurt? Human nature hasn't changed much, but that doesn't mean it isn't time now for that to happen, and it is undoubtedly happening - hard to see however. This blog is part of that change and a witness to it.

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My blog is dedicated to my family, friends, mentors, and all others whom I am grateful to, and love(d).

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Please view my Blog using the latest version of your browser. Some features may not be active if Java or Flash is disabled or not installed, or your browser is not compatible with Google Blog.

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NOTE: Nothing included in my Blog is intended to advocate behavior illicit in nature, or in violation of man-made laws where harm to a living person, animal or the environment is involved. Person's under 17 probably shouldn't be here, though there is far worse out there. Just saying.


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Bobkat's Lair ©®™ 2009-2023

Please Note: This Blog, with the Trademark "BobKat's Lair"
is legally registered and under US law cannot be used without my express permission. In addition, all material produced by within this blog-site is copyrighted and cannot be reproduced without my express permission. It may be used for your own purposes as long as there are no monetary gains of which I am not notified and not entitled to benefits. You are welcome to post links of my content, with the disclosure that this material is trademarked and copyrighted by "BobKat's Lair".

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December 26, 2009

INSIDE BOBKAT'S LAIR...

An introduction to the person who is BobKat...


A Genuine Bobcat...

Looks a little like Kramer, my own avatar here and elsewhere... Kramer is a Maine Coon cat, apparently they are related to bobcats, but I don't know for sure.

Okay... you already know I'm 55, and other basics from reading my blog.... that I like cats. But  there's much more, and in time, I'll share...

To begin, the inside story at the moment on who I am...

I was born in 1954. Middle class family... my father was in the Navy, my mother a registered nurse.

I was an odd child... hyperactive, probably with some form of autism... loved to take things apart, play with things I shouldn't like aspirins and fuse boxes; was the class clown in school, loved nature and liked girls - hung out with my younger sister and her friends, until my mother, concerned it would make me gay, pushed me into friendships with neighborhood male friends. I never was good at sports... rather I liked drawing, liked childhood games, liked to write and dream...

In the early 1960's I got the first Beatles album as a Christmas present. I was home sick when President Kennedy was assassinated... alone, and it was traumatic. My friends and I used to play "space-ship" together, or my sister and friends and I played hop-scotch, mother may I, and sang songs like "Row, Row, Row Your Boat..."

I had a good childhood... but then things went crazy... like when I was around 6yo, in the cub-scouts, I had built a balsa-wood rocket - destroyed by our baby-sitters friend one evening during a drunken party...

Still, I was very naive... was most of my younger years, until around 16... I accepted the "establishment", without question. Everything from sex, drugs and me as my own person, were taboo. But fortunately, my father's side of the family was a lot more normal, and in a way, radical. So the turning point came at age 16 when my cousins were going to the Woodstock movie, and my mother absolutely forbid my going. So I didn't...

My public school years were not good... I was really into reading and science, but I was an oddball... so I got picked on a lot. My parents were there for me, and I am indebted to them for the help, but the downside was I became dependent on them to fight my battles... so when the "rite of passage" came to me, they were not going to let go... which setup a seriously flawed relationship with my family when I came of age in the early 70's.

Key to my success as an adult was my indoctrination into the virtues of cannabis... it opened my mind... I went gradually from a C student in education to and A+ student - my last degree in 1994 was a GPA of 3.9 in a Medical Assistant program from which I graduated - my 3rd degree.

During the age of 21 to 25 and beyond I was able to make friends and had very good relationships with women. I also had problems, medical problems starting in 1979. I moved briefly to Arizona. Then back again to my hometown in Western NY. I changed gears quickly and moved to Boston MA - lived there for almost 7 years until moving to NH where I've been ever since.

My own war against marijuana began in 1986.... I was living in Boston at the time and had gone for a week vacation for my sister's wedding. While there I did what I did often then, I metal detected a lot of the time. At a college park I found a brass pipe, intricately designed and beautiful, used no doubt to smoke cannabis, and after cleaning it up, it was used during my sister's wedding.

On my way home after the wedding, I took the back-roads through the Catskills, and around midnight in a drizzly rain came to a green light at a dark intersection of highways. A car was coming towards me, so although i could have made a left turn up a dark hill, I didn't... I was in no rush. The car passed by, and I made my left turn. At the same time the light changed to orange then red, and just as I made my legal turn, a State Trooper came over the top of the hill I was turning onto. To the trooper, it appeared I'd sped through a red light, which I hadn't. But he pulled me over.

What followed would affect and change my life forever!!!

At the time I drove a 1972 Saab 99... a great car, but prone to break-downs. My trunk was complete with tools to fix anything. On my dashboard were a box of old coins I brought to show my family of the things I found metal detecting. On my passenger seat was an ornate brass pipe so I wouldn't lose it. The state trooper saw it all... he called in back-up... two other state troopers showed up. I'm tired from the drive... i want to get home, but instead the trooper that pulled me over has now cited me for going through a red light and possession of marijuana, although all I had was that pipe on my front passenger seat. But he is also convinced the coins on my dashboard are stolen, the tools in my trunk are "burglary tools", and the mace in my glove-box I was licensed to have in MA was a dangerous weapon. And to top it off he was convinced I was DWI!!! So without any reading of my Miranda Rights, any notice I was under arrest, nothing formal that I was being charged of, I was put in handcuffs and taken to the station to meet with the captain.

I should add another officer on the scene told me - " "sorry, if it were up to me I'd throw the pipe in the woods and let you go on your way". But he said "I'm not the officer in charge".

So I meet with the captain who is being breathlessly told by the "officer in charge" I'm drunk, a pothead, a weapons carrier, and a thief...

The chief tells him to remove the handcuffs, that "yes", they could apply a sobriety test, but after talking to me the chief says - "we could calibrate our machine to sober, with this guy", which is the truth... I wasn't at all intoxicated nor high on drugs...

They drove me back to my car and I was on my way home with two tickets... one for the red light and another for pot possession, none of which was true. But I paid the fines, and until 2001, it wasn't an issue. The fine at the time was $125. The true penalty - a life sentence without parole - forever a Druggie... since 2001, background databases and histories are who we are. Ironically, since males are prone to violence, acts of violence are mostly ignored. Not so with any history with drugs. Most job applications ask if you've ever been convicted of a misdemeanor. There are thousands of different infractions and misdemeanor crimes... most are ignored. But that beautiful pipe that I found, that I shared with friends, that won't be ignored - I paid my fine and honestly know little of the actual infraction/crime I paid for, but it'll haunt me the rest of my life, I know that. 


Just say "NO"? Why bother. Drug arrests are a huge benefit to law enforcement and the legal system. They make millions of dollars a year on drugs... spawns development of super secret spy technology and creates lots of jobs, is an excellent way to train law enforcement in covert ops, with a goal, that will (or should) serve and protect the public...  it's a lucrative crime for all involved, it seems. It's the bogeyman in the closet that we will spend trillions of dollars to protect society from.


So what you'll find in my blogs is a lot of reference to cannabis/marijuana reform. It is, I truly believe, the most ludicrous prohibition our society has ever had to endure - and the consequences to so many people caught up in the "crime" is way beyond acceptable...


There are TOO MANY VICTIMS of the laws against cannabis/marijuana... this doesn't serve the public good.

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Happy New Year... and may you find your own destiny and enjoy true love in 2010...

Check out Tom Petty Wildflowers - "You Don't Know How It Feels", c1994, Warner Brothers. See my last post for why... it's all in the lyrics, the words... Tom Petty sings: "...just roll another joint."




December 23, 2009

IMPORTANT RESEARCH STUDY - Eat More Broccoli or Go to Pot?

I've had enough of the way they do things in other countries, so back to the USA.

I have to say, I consider myself to be very fortunate to be an American. I've had opportunities, freedoms, and a great education. I've experienced things that only a country like ours could provide.

But there are problems...  but of course there are. There are natural problems and those we create ourselves..

Like research projects. The following one got me wondering:

The project was supported by some big names, although I think the first one is familiar, the others are not...   the National Institutes of Health, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Maurice Falk Foundation. The online, MSNBC news story that inspired this post is here:.




My opinion?

They found a way to get your kid to bush their teeth, eat their broccoli, not have sex until marriage, be home by nine, and obey me? It's so simple really... all in the music... the lyrics in a song.

The study focused on the role music had in enabling cannabinoid vampires, like blood to a mythical vampire, naturally focusing on the population under 18 years of age. Forget us old folks... keep studying the kids.

What they found, and this is so exciting, is that when teens listened to music with reference to the word marijuana in it, they had a craving. Just using the word marijuana in music was I took from the article, "a stepping stone to drug addiction".

Whew...

Just think what this means??? All you starving advertisers out there, musicians who could link up and add single words to their songs... it would be a music revolution... ! And if you remember me on the way up the golden ladder, throw a little of your bonus $$ my way. I'd appreciate it.

But seriously... what is a study like this accomplishing? If you're under 18 or 21 you're not old enough to legally use these drugs. Adults use drugs, currently one's prescribed, alcohol, and tobacco, though not all adults I have to add.

So what about us adults, and what about all the other words we hear in music? I'm thinking I should burn all my CDs, DVDs, books, video games, and anything else that issues words.

Think about all those TV ads for ED...

But okay... so kids listen to music containing the word "marijuana". What kind of study is that? Other than Bob Dylan's "everyone must get stoned" lyrics, I don't much recall much use of the word, nor do I see the significance of their finding other than to cause undo concern and panic. Of all the other things the money for that study could have gone towards.

To all a good night...

Merry Christmas and try to remember: "Everybody must get stoned..." Bob Dylan. Also, please check out my post back on Dec. 07, 2009, and "Play Safe".


On The Other Hand - Pakistani Justice...

In my last post I described a situation in Saudi Arabia... a modern day witch-hunt that is truly mind boggling!

But on the other hand... in Pakistan, two brothers were recently sentenced and found guilty of a crime that is equally upsetting. According to the news - I can't remember which one since the whole thing was so disgusting - the cousin of a young woman in Pakistan wanted to marry this girl, but the family said "no". This upset the cousin. A lot! So much so he got together with his brother and kidnapped the girl. They cut off her nose and ears as revenge towards the family. Obviously no love involved in this story, just principle.

And I hate to admit it but the brothers were found guilty, and sentenced to 50 years in prison, and to have their own noses and ears cut off. I find myself in agreement... how the young woman suffered and will suffer the rest of her life.

Unfortunately, whereas in Saudi Arabia where sorcery is pretty much a crime with no appeals, the brothers in Pakistan will most likely appeal, and get off with a much lighter sentence. In other words... they'll be able to keep their body parts, and may only pay a fine.

After all... women in many countries of the world are considered subservient to men. They merely have to say, "it was a misunderstanding". The "girl's family was dishonorable in refusing the daughter's hand in marriage" to the cousin.

Hey, I'm open-minded, but I have a great deal of difficulty understanding all this... the story is a bad one, but that's the way it is.

How long before human beings become civilized?

December 21, 2009

SORCERY IN SAUDI ARABIA - The Punishment? DEATH!

The news today on my long commute back home... on NPR (National Public Radio), this tidbit of news:

The Religious Police in Saudi Arabia are rounding up sorcerers. You know, those who talk to spirits, read books about spirits, witchcraft, anything supernatural. It's a serious modern day witch-hunt, and if you get caught, and sentenced, which is pretty much a sure thing, just as it was in this country and Europe in the 1600's, the sentence is death. An Egyptian doctor was recently executed, and that was just the beginning.

The law applies to anyone. I wouldn't plan my vacation there if you have the latest vampire novel, books on the occult, or even a Bible, the way it seems, Christianity could be construed as a belief in a false god. Because what it comes down to... is forcibly enforcing the believe in a god. I think it's time the UN sent Crusaders.

WIKIPEDIA: The Christian Crusaders: 1095AD - 1291AD

Why do we work with these governments? Like Saudi Arabia? Witch-hunts and executions? We don't work with Cuba... in my entire life we haven't... the answer...

OIL.