Stay Thirsty

"I don't always drink beer but when I do, I prefer Dos Equis."

Wake up America!

Hands down, the best speech of the DNC.

I'll be playing it at least once a day until Tuesday, November 4th, 2008.

Airlines to charge for the loo

At Least the Airsickness Bags Are Free
Micheline Maynard, NY Times, 8/16/08

If the airlines are going to charge for checking bags then they need to assign the overhead bins to the seats below them.

There often isn't room for my reasonably sized carry on bag due to all the wheeled suitcases people cram into the overhead bins in an attempt to circumnavigate baggage claim or avoid baggage fees.

I resent having to help people hoist their overstuffed roller bags into the overhead bins. I'd probably let them struggle if the bag wasn't usually in danger of being dropped on the head of the passenger below.

If you're humping that much gear troop, check the bag.

Mexico City & Oaxaca 8/08

Here are some photos from the leg's trip to Mexico.

Culver City in the News

Culver City made the news again this week, not for another restaurant opening but for a DEA raid.



Federal law supersedes state law.

"California voters approved an initiative in 1996 that made it lawful for individuals with prescriptions to use marijuana for medical purposes. Marijuana possession and sales are still unlawful under federal law, Pullen (DEA Spokesperson) said." - LA Times, 7/30/08

"Marijuana remains a controlled substance, and it is illegal under federal law to possess, dispense or cultivate marijuana in any form," - Sarah Pullen, DEA Spokesperson

Pot dispensary raids put tactics in question
Sandy Banks, Los Angeles Times, 8/2/08

DEA agents raid Culver City medical marijuana dispensary
Tami Abdollah, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 8/1/08

The action comes on the same day an appellate court in San Diego rules that federal law does not preempt California's medical pot law.

At the dispensary agents left behind trash, counters strewn with open and empty glass jars, piles of receipts thrown on the ground, upturned couch cushions, bits of marijuana on the edges of counters and an ATM with its doors torn open and emptied.

In the residents' rooms a safe was cut open, dresser drawers pulled open, and rumpled clothes and knickknacks thrown on the ground. An outdoor vegetable garden had plants uprooted, along with marijuana plants removed by the agents.

Los Angeles Councilman Bill Rosendahl was called to the scene by the owner and arrived several hours after the raid began. Rosendahl, standing outside the gate to the store's parking lot, said he was frustrated that there was nothing he could do to intervene. The dispensary straddles the boundary between Los Angeles and Culver City, Rosendahl said. Culver City police assisted federal agents at the scene.

"This is an action with the federal government, which is sad," Rosendahl said, "because these laws need to be revisited in Washington, especially the medical marijuana law. We're incarcerating people by the tens of thousands, we're destroying peoples' lives, and people who have a medical marijuana legitimacy are caught in the middle. It's a problem we need to resolve. This conflict is totally unacceptable."

He (Clyde Carey) said DEA agents searched and cuffed the roughly 25 people inside the building, which also includes four upstairs rooms. Then agents started searching the premises, removing computers, medicine and money, and using a steel cylinder battering ram to get into the upstairs bedrooms, Carey said.

Other Medical Marijuana News:

4 arrested in raid of medical pot dispensary in Orange
DEA says its agents seized about eight pounds of marijuana and $10,000 in cash from the Nature's Wellness Collective.
Stuart Pfeifer, Los Angeles Times, 7/30/08

Dr. Kush
How medical marijuana is transforming the pot industry.
David Samuels, The New Yorker, 7/28/08

Conflicting marijuana laws take stage in trial
San Luis Obispo County businessman is fighting prosecutors' contention that he is a drug trafficker
Scott Glover, Los Angeles Times, 7/26/08