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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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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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May 19, 2012

THE DOPING OF AMERICA - ABOUT ME - "BOBKAT"

It's time...

To admit that I'm involved in the Doping of America also. It is who I am.

How? Well, if not for me and people like me the War on Drugs would not be happening. No demand for drugs, no dope from our government. I suppose I should feel guilty... but...

Some people are just born bad. I'm as bad as say, a cat. I have teeth and claws, I'm cuddly, although not covered with a lot of hair... and my instincts tell me to survive, to get on top, to reduce risk of harm to myself, to hunt for what I need to survive (and NO, not Dexter style), and to want my catnip.

It's hard to believe, that in 1974 I was 20 years old. Just 3 years before, Nixon had passed his infamous Drug Control Act, which made the cannabis nightmare for those who came of age in the 1960's, so much worse. By coming of age, I'm figuring someone who was 20 in 1960. Then the Beat generation handled the torch to the Hippies. Flower children were born. Cannabis became ever more popular... which inspired angst from the government who saw it all as a threat to America. To society. Peace... who would want peace? Peace is something pacifists want, and during the cold war, the Viet Nam war, the government certainly didn't see peace loving hippies as part of the solution.

But did they (the federal government) really think that cannabis, LSD, magic mushrooms, peyote, and pills were bad? They really didn't know, except for the pills, amphetamines and downers, that is - Mama's Little Helpers, ironically prescribed by doctors in record numbers. And then, it just became obvious, tobacco caused cancer, heart disease and a slew of other problems. The Surgeon General of the US made a statement finally about how dangerous smoking was to health. But was smoking pot the same thing?

They didn't know and they didn't care. All they cared about was that "drugs" were a threat to America because users did not fit the picture of America established during the 1950's. Peace was fiction. And no one gave flowers to the enemy. Then, to make things worse, the Beatles came along with their long hair and music - psychedelic music. And Bob Dylan, recent recipient of the president's Medal of Freedom, came along singing "everyone must get stoned".

In 1970 President Nixon established the most distinguished Blue Ribbon committee ever to study the influence of "drugs". Nixon was a warrior... and he was convinced the scourge of drugs, of hippies were bad for America. The committee however disagreed, and recommended legalizing cannabis. It was called the Shafer committee, or the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse. President Nixon was pissed!  This wasn't the findings he was looking for to go forwards with a War on Drugs. He ignored the recommendations of the committee completely, and much like passage of the Marihuana Tax Act, he pushed through his infamous Controlled Substances Act of 1971. It established the drug scheduling table, which listed cannabis as a Schedule One narcotic with zero benefit to society and as highly addictive and dangerous. All dope, because it wasn't true then, and it isn't true today. The War on Drugs, on the American people began. Either we were to go straight or suffer the consequences.

To me your 20's are a vital part of who you are, who you become. I'm well aware of the influence of earlier age, like your first 3 years, or during public education years where we learn essential American ideals, along with reading, writing and arithmetic. But one's twenties are often overlooked in the frenzy that occurs when we leave home to start our adult life. Maybe family, helicopter style, watches your every move. Maybe you were wild during your teen years, and landed yourself in juvenile detention, a ward of the state. Fact is, people in their twenties are suppose to grow up and live according to established morals, mores, and know right from wrong. It was something so simple: you go to college, church, you date and you get married. You buy a house with a white-picket fence, you have 2 children. You become an executive or a blue-class worker or join the military to fight wars. You smoke cigarettes or drink booze if you must or if you are at a party. That is the way it's done. The way it's suppose to be done. It's an established rule of society, unquestionable... no variations permitted, and hippies were a variation.

But, I get ahead of myself...

I have made reference here before about my run-in with the law over a pot-pipe in the mid-1980's. It's actually amazing that when that happened I only paid a $50 fine in NY State, when the potential sentence to punish me could have been much more severe, like a year in jail, or a higher fine. My crime was essentially as serious as disturbing the peace would have been, or assault, criminal threatening, etc.

I found out recently that possession of drug paraphernalia generally carries a stiffer penalty than simple possession does, and by an odd twist of fate, I was charged with possession of marijuana, although the truth is it was a pipe/paraphernalia - I had no marijuana, so I should have been given a stiffer penalty, or fought the case on the basis that I wasn't in possession of marijuana, but rather the more serious offense of having a pipe.

The back-story is this:

At the time I was really into metal detecting; that's a hobby, what most people would associate to the eccentric person walking the beach with that machine that looks like a weed trimmer, who is looking "for lost jewelry and money". It was and is a lot more than that. It's a hobby where one can get out and go anywhere people have been to look for treasure. That could be the middle of a forest, a public park, a field... seeking old coins and jewelry, and relics of the past.

The pipe I was busted with was one such find. I found it during a week vacation visiting home, attending my sister's wedding. I cleaned it up and it was passed around at the wedding reception. A beautiful, brass pipe, made in India. Pocket-sized. On my ride home I stuck it in the passenger seat of my car so I would not lose it - it was after all, a very special pipe.

My car was searched, my dirty laundry gone through, all on a dark stretch of highway in the Catskills.  I got pulled over for what appeared to the officer who pulled me over, that I had gone through a red light, a light on a dark, lonely stretch of road in rural NY State where I had to make a left turn and was sitting at a green light as I waited to let an on-coming car go first... I was in no hurry.

To the cop who pulled me over, I made my turn and the traffic light was changing to red. To a state trouper just coming over the rise of the hill I was turning up onto, it looked to him like I went through a red light, because he had a green light. Coincidence. Wow.

The officer saw the pipe on my seat with his flashlight as he peered into my car window. "Out of the car, please", he ordered.

Another police cruiser pulled up also. And we're talking about a very remote part of eastern NY state. Then began the "good cop-bad cop" scenario. See, on the dashboard of my 1971, Saab 99, I had a "slide-box" with coins inside in cardboard "slabs" that I'd shown my family during the vacation. In the back of my car - in my trunk, I had mechanics tools, as I expected the possibility of having to fix my car alongside the road at any time. It had happened often in the past. My car was a Saab, about 15 years old. I also had mace in the glove box, which I had a FID card from MA to buy. But in NY they frown on such things.

So good cop interrogates me, asking about the coins, the tools in my car, the mace, while bad cop is whirling about outside convinced I'm a burglar, a thief, and DUI. I explain the coins are mine, the tools are to fix my car, not commit burglaries, and I have a Federal ID card to possess mace. I get put in hand-cuffs, get to ride in the back of a police cruiser for about 10 miles to state police head-quarters, to meet the captain.

I sit and talk to the captain with hand-cuffs behind my back, very tight hand-cuffs, for about 15 minutes. Meanwhile I'm being assessed for being drunk, and the bad cop is looking up statutes on mace in NY. After those 15 or so minutes the captain tells the officer to remove my hand-cuffs, and states they could calibrate their breathalyzers - that I'm definitely not intoxicated - and I wasn't, thank-you. Just tired driving the 11 hour trip home after my sister's wedding week. It felt good to have the cuffs off finally, and then the bad cop returned and said, "mace is considered a noxious substance, not approved in NY" - he asked, "could he dispose of it?"

"Sure, go ahead", I said. He informed me they were confiscating the pipe, and I was given two tickets. One for going through a red light, one for possession of marijuana. I had to go to court at a later date for the possession ticket, the red light I could mail in the fine.

I secured one extension to the court date, which doubled my fine, but the area I was busted, the court was 5 hours from my home... I had a job, I couldn't easily make that trip that was scheduled at night. My dad got me help from a a local district attorney, who gave me advice but couldn't represent me unless I paid him a lot of money. The reason I pleaded guilty was that truthfully, I couldn't afford not to... despite the chance of a year in jail, I had little choice. The key to my guilt was that the pipe had been smoked out of within the previous 3 days, and according to the DA, that gave them grounds, unless I wanted to challenge it. And again, no thanks... as I couldn't afford to fight it and the whole thing was ludicrous enough already for me. I just wanted it over with.

I lucked out, the judge fined me $50, doubled because of the extension the DA got for me, and that was that. No jail-time.

Or so I thought. Until 2001 I never gave the bust much thought. At no time was I formally "arrested" or read the Miranda act. I was driven back to my car that night I was busted, and I returned home - with two tickets. But in 2001, with the aftermath of 9/11, the country changed. Background knowledge of an individual became a need to know. And anything related to "drugs" in an individual's past was a death sentence when it came to getting a good job.

Present time:

Just the other day, at work, I work with a fellow tech who has a degree in Political Science, while my degree is in English, whom I was talking with, when the talk turned to politics. We generally think alike, but we were discussing how New England is the least religious of states, while southern states are most religious, and how NE is subject to, according to my co-worker, full of libertarian fantasies, at which point, I said I may tend towards Libertarians, but really I am quite conservative and I simply want "government out of my face"... to which he freaked out saying "the government isn't in my face, they have nothing to do with me, it's all corporate America..."  He called me an idiot and other fine things and stormed off to have a cigarette. He came back and apologize, but didn't want to discuss it.

Too bad. Because we're both correct.

Corporate America, Wall Street, state and federal governments all do things that impact the freedom of Americans.

A genuine conservative asks only that personal freedom not be treaded on. That one can live one's life with liberty and freedom for all.

Willie Nelson, the Willie that's of country star fame and status, and who has had more than one run-in with law-enforcement over pot, recently made it clear he wants government out of his face too when it comes to cannabis, LINK is HERE to Willie's NORML POST.

There are logical and justifiable reasons as to why I used cannabis starting in my early 20's and for many years after... and none of my reasons are due to being rebellious or dangerous. But, as a result of my mid-80's bust, the government enables the type of discrimination I am encountering in the job market, in finding a mate, as in bonding between other cannabis club members is an underground affair, and unlike tobacco and alcohol users, cannabis users can't simply admit they like cannabis. They more often than not deny it, attest instead that they don't do drugs. Most people chose to play it safe and say "NO". When the answer is "Yes".

My fellow co-worker believes government isn't in my face. But of course it is. The most obvious example is with gay individuals, and the Federal Marriage Act, an attempt by the gov't to dictate what form human bonding can become. Recent actions out of Washington are positive on the Gay Rights issue, not so much for the rights of those who wish to use a plant called cannabis. Culling Americans by way of drug testing is very popular in America, in which cannabis users are unfairly affected as the cannabis metabolite lasts in the blood and urine weeks longer than other drugs, and that's what is tested for.

My government also tells me I can't play online Texas Hold'em. My co-worker plays poker too. Does he seriously believe gov't isn't messing with his ability to play decent online poker?

I'm not against laws or the government in general... I'm only saying there are particular regulations that without a doubt infringe on personal liberty and freedom. Activities that are personal, and relatively safe by comparison to alternatives, if they can truly be called that, i.e. tobacco and alcohol.

Fact is, I know people with misdemeanor offenses involving violent behavior, and companies seriously don't care, in the case of males especially, if violent behavior is present in a background check, since males are expected to be violent and unlike the stigma of "drugs", violence is tolerated.

The perfect example is Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, who was busted over a boating incident, in which he ignored the orders of a police officer and was arrested. Mitt, well, he had money and in court vehemently fought the arrest, and all charges were dropped. I suppose I would have done the same, had I had his money, but I didn't and don't. I could even fight it now some 25 years later, if I had the money. I don't.

In my previous post about the airport security supervisor found out (a phoned in tip) that he was an illegal alien, using a dead-man's ID, the sad thing is this guy could rise in the ranks of a security oriented firm, passing fingerprint tests even while his fingerprints couldn't  match those of the dead man, while a person who uses cannabis or has a "drug offense of any level" is quickly identified and denied employment.

Whether government regulates something, passes laws against something, or conspires with Wall Street or corporate American, it's in my face if what I want to do is find a better job, or use cannabis safely in my castle.

My co-worker is wrong to simply get upset over the notion "liberals" always say it's the government.

As highlighted by this secret meeting between corporate bankers and the Federal government starting in 1906 and lasting at least until 1916, called the Jeckyl Island Duck Hunt that Led to the Federal Reserve, it's obvious there is a lot of back-room secret government activities that shape the lives of Americans, whether for good or bad, these actions undermine democracy, by being hidden, non-transparent. We The People don't have a clue about what's going on. And that's not right.

Next time... how Colorado hopes to become the first state to legalize recreational cannabis... and how it's about time...

Am I really a bad person???


May 16, 2012

THE DOPING OF AMERICA - AIRPORT SECURITY SUPERVISOR ARRESTED...

Fox News Headlines - "Longtime Airport Security Supervisor Arrested At NJ Airport  For Using Dead Man's ID".

Whaat??? Yeah, 2 a's!

OK, so this guy, Bimbo Olumuyiwa Oyewole, aka Jerry Thomas had been working at the NJ airport for about 20 years ... an illegal immigrant from Nigeria, he worked his way up in the ranks of airport security - the Port Authority of NY and NJ, towering above all other people who may have striven for that title... Bimbo oversaw TSA agents in fact, although apparently, not directly, according to the new's article, which you can find here: ARTICLE.

According to it he was mostly responsible for a crew of non-TSA agents who did after hours security. After hours???

I didn't even know there was such a thing as "after-hours", at an airport like Newark's International, in NJ.

Really???

As for the ID he was using - that of a homicide victim in NYC -1992. A cold, unsolved case of murder. Investigators in NY have apparently not made a statement as to how Bimbo came to use the victim's ID, but what is known is Bimbo managed to pass multiple background checks over the years which included running his fingerprints through state of the art computer - well you know - terrorist grade threat detection software systems. And PASSED!!!

For 20 freaking years!!!

Wow, do I feel safe or what???

But here's the frosting on the cake: NJ State Police spokesperson, Stephen Jones (fake name maybe?) said in the article:

"A candidate is disqualified if he or she has a conviction for a fourth-degree offense or higher or a drug offense of any level, Jones said. Oyewole, as Thomas, was certified under SORA".

What's SORA? - actually I don't even want to know. Suffice it to say, having been busted with a marijuana pipe over 25 years ago, I can't get SORA approved, nor can I work for a school, hospital, gov't job or well, anything meaningful, yet Bimbo could. He was only getting away with using a homicide victim's ID.

Security? What security???

When people ask me why I don't strive for higher ideals, promotions or a better job... now I can admit that people like Bimbo are far more desirable than a pot-pipe busted loser like me. Then again, maybe I should get a new identity... like a homicide victim. Yeah... NOT!!!

America, you've been doped!!!

Drug offense of any level, my ass! Get real!!!



May 13, 2012

ABOUT TIME - BREAST FEEDING MADNESS EXPOSE

Wow... Time Magazine pulled a winner out of their hat with the latest magazine cover - "Are You Mom Enough"?
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Jamie Lynne Grumet and her son, 3 yo Aram, are bonding, in what's called Attachment Parenting. Jamie is standing in the cover photo, Aram standing also suckling from his mom's breast.

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The photo is purposely posed and focused to cause defiance, and challenge. That it has. While many support the cover-photo, many don't and some outraged. 
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One Fox News editorialist, Dr. Keith Ablow, asks, "...forget the breast, what about the boy?" ...she thought nothing of becoming far more famous than she ever was or ever would have been by getting naked on the cover of Time using her son as a prop—letting him, in fact, look right into the camera and be completely recognizable while sucking her nipple.  He may never be better-known for anything than for being a breastfeeding 3-year-old on the cover of a national magazine.
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What about the boy?
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Jamie Lynne Grumet and her son, 3 yo Aram, appeared on the Today Show, with Jamie defending her position. The cover photo may not have been the best choice, she admits... alternatives were taken, and of other moms. Perhaps if the alternate had been used the public reaction may have been different. The cover photo used shows a 3 year old boy standing up sucking on his mother's left breast looking into the camera. The alternate shows him sitting on her lap.
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He's just a child, still a baby in many ways. When I think of myself at 3 I have scant memory of it. I do remember my mom giving me back-scratches on the couch at a very early age. I was never breast-fed, the government and social/politico climate frowned on it. We still do...
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As seen in this Today Show photo, Aram is just a little boy, and the parenting is nurturing, not abusive, controlling, or abnormal as some suggest.
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Well, although Dr. Ablow suggests the kid will be tormented and bullied the rest of his life, I don't know how he can come to those conclusions. What is it about breasts, breast-feeding, and lactating in general that has us so uncomfortable?
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I'm not uncomfortable... except with the politics behind breast-feeding. And I see nothing wrong with "Attachment Parenting", as long as it takes place as a child, not when the child turns 18. There are parents that never let go, and when the child becomes an adult, or in some countries, only has to reach puberty, they are subjected to extraordinary manipulations to become an established personification of an ideal, at that age. 
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In the United States of America I would hope for the best in parenting. I would hope we are provided with facts and not fiction. I would hope we have the right to chose, as long as the choice doesn't harm. And I would hope we understand what constitutes harm.
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I know if we were asked what constitutes acceptable breast-feeding imagery we'd prefer this photo:
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Source: "Milk's Favorite Cookie" - Huffington PostEven this photo as part of a S. Korea advertisement for Kraft Foods caused controversy at the time.
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As would this one if Time Magazine had chosen it instead:
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The only thing Time Magazine did was shock America... a shock that hopefully will bring it to it's senses! They used the wrong photo perhaps. I personally would have chosen the one with Aram nestled on his mother's lap. But does it really matter? The point is, this is human nature, and I don't know where it's expressly stated, what laws protect the nurturing of children, or who encourages proper nurturing or what that is composed of, but I would hope a sane foundation of parenting alternatives exist for parents in America to chose from, use, and adopt.
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The time to raise and nurture children is most important in their early years, not when they become teenagers. By the time a child is in their teens, the best one can hope to be is a good role-model, and flexible.





May 06, 2012

THE DOPING OF AMERICA - JOSE GUERENO ORTIZ

Jose Guereno Ortiz was ex-Marine Corp, having served military duty in Iraq. He was back in the states in the mid-west working in a copper mine. He has a wife and child. (click photo for source).

Photos; Source: Dailymail.co.uk
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Jose Guereno Ortiz is dead. He was killed during a SWAT raid on his house while his wife and child cowered horrified in a corner. There was scant warning of the assault. Jose only awoke from a nap with his wife warning him people were outside, and it looked like they were a gang about to break in. Jose stood and grabbed his AK-47 (what ex-marine would be without one?).
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He had but seconds as the door to his house blew apart and he was gunned down on video by several law enforcement agents believing they were under attack. Jose took 22 rounds to his body, over 70 shots fired. His weapon was on safe. No officers were shot at.
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The reason for the attack was "suspected narcotics". It was thought he was in possession of marijuana. How much, what he supposedly did with it, any proof, there's no record that any facts ever existed to prove the raid justifiable on the Ortiz residence.
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Police based the operation on a traffic stop several months prior when a relative was pulled over, and according to the subsequent subpoena, "the vehicle smelled of marijuana..." though no marijuana was found. Jose was a passenger in the vehicle. The subpoena that ultimately led to Jose's death is rife with innuendo about seemingly everyone but Jose. All of it seems to suggest an obsession by local law enforcement with marijuana, a suggested link to cross-border trafficking, but little hard fact. A "fishing expedition", in my opinion!
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Click on this snippet of the subpoena, for the "probable cause" that led to Jose' death.:

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The Ortiz the subpoena refers to the most, isn't Jose, it was his brother!
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Jose at best from what I can tell from the subpoena simply enjoyed using marijuana, and enjoyed hanging out with his extended family. And for that he's dead, his own family minus a father and husband. And we in this country think that's okay. 
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Even in cases of child abuse, rape or murder we don't go busting down doors like this and shoot a man protecting his home (we assume and one is innocent until proven guilty). 
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This is clearly a case of abuse of power, of madness. Reefer madness, and it really needs to stop. 
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The local district attorney says police were justified in the killing. Jose was armed. That law enforcement gave notice of the intended search... 
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You tell me... was this death justified? Was the marijuana involved something so dangerous someone had to die? Is this event one that shows rational thought behind a life-changing action? Does it justify prohibition of a natural plant? A plant used casually and medicinally for millions of years?