Originally posted by ziggy

---

Start small California; legalize it for medicinal purposes first and see how that goes.

---

Fortunately, marijuana is already legal for medicinal purposes. I have a friend with a hurt back who has a "weed card." Where he goes to the local dispensary to buy it.

I've never seen anyone whose life was ruined because of pot. It's usually the addictive drugs such as heroine and methamphetamine that does that.

I read an article about how marijuana use rarely leads to lung cancer (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/25/AR2006052501729_pf.html).

As the article states, the federal government would have to lift its prohibition on the drug, or at least let individual states choose if they want it legal.

And I mean, come on, Amsterdam functions just fine with the legalization of marijuana... so what are the politicians so scared of? The misconceptions of Reefer Madness?

California bill seeks to legalize marijuana
By Jim Sanders
The Sacramento Bee

Smoke weed — help the state?

Marijuana would be sold and taxed openly in California to adults 21 and older if legislation proposed Monday is signed into law.

Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, said his bill could generate big bucks for a cash-starved state while freeing law enforcement agencies to focus on worse crimes.

"I think there's a mentality throughout the state and the country that this isn't the highest priority – and that maybe we should start to reassess," he said.

Critics counter that it makes no sense for a Legislature so concerned about health that it has restricted use of trans fats in restaurants to legalize the smoking of a potentially harmful drug.

"I think substance abuse is just ruining our society," said Assemblyman Paul Cook, R-Yucca Valley. "I can't support that."

"I think it's a slippery slope," Assemblyman Tom Berryhill, R-Modesto, said of easing pot laws. "We'll do everything we can to defeat it."

Medical use of marijuana already is legal in California, but the new legislation would go a step further by allowing recreational use.

Assembly Bill 390 would charge cannabis wholesalers $5,000 initially and $2,500 annually for the right to distribute weed.

Retail outlets would pay fees of $50 per ounce of cannabis to generate revenue for drug education programs statewide.

The bill would prohibit cannabis near schools. It also would ban smoking it in public places or growing it in public view.

Before California could sell marijuana openly, however, it would have to persuade the federal government to alter its prohibition on pot.



So, what do you think? Is this good idea, or a bad one? I agree it could easily be legal and would bring in lots of money to the government, open up new jobs, stop crowding jails and prisons and also help the police to focus on the more dangerous issues.


http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/AP/story/918711.html

I'm never on at the same time every day... so I probably won't participate.

30+ hours of work + 10+hours of school= very busy week.

Originally posted by geeogree

---

well, 30,000 of debt over 10 years comes to only $250/month (not including interest).

I just see college as a good chance to make 50,000+ per year for the rest of your life or making 20-40k per year and never knowing if you'll get above that.

---

And what student loan doesn't have interest?

Who finds a $50k salary directly out of college? (Unless you're like an attorney or something similar). The average person with a bachelors degree earns $52,000 a year, meaning there are some who earn quite a bit less, and quite a bit more.

$50,000/year is a lot to live off of. Especially if you're married and your spouse brings in just as much.

With a mere associates degree in nursing, directly out of college, working 3, twelve hour shifts a week, I can earn up to $60,000 a year. A bachelor's degree will only get you maybe 1 or 2 extra dollars an hour. For two extra years of study at a university, at $100+ per unit... it's not really worth it.

I would have to say no. College is not worth what we pay for it. I go to a community college because it's cheap. I pay $20.25/unit. So I pretty much pay anywhere between $40-$100 a class. This, I think is reasonable, considering the professors at my college are lame. I have had very few 'good' teachers. They are all highly intelligent: they just can't teach worth a s***.

Now, you go to a state university/college, and you will pay triple or even quadruple for the same thing. It's possible you get some better professors, but chances of that are slim. If you go to a trade school, You can pay up to $600/ a unit. Making a college education cost $30,000+.

Now, for the job you land afterwards... Can you pay off your debt within ten years? I doubt it.

Now, as for wasting our time with BS classes like public speaking... It drives me up the wall. I'm in the belief that college should be purely technical. Okay, so you want to be an English major? Not only do you have to take all the English classes, you have to take public speaking, science, foreign language, philosophy, social science, math, economics, etc.

If I want to be a nurse, I should be able to take a proficiency test, and upon passing, take the basics (anatomy and physiology and basic medical classes like medical terminology) and then the technical classes. I don't see how on earth I'm going to need public speaking or English composition. We've been supposedly preparing for college since we were in junior high school (since we were about 11 or 12!). Why do we need to take yet another repeat of every single class we took in high school.

Where the hell is the logic in this school of thinking?

< /rant>

(Edit: I disabled my layout)

Visions are another topic. I've had them be correct numerous times... and like JigSaw said, are very rare. In the second semester of my sophomore year in high school I had this... notion that I was going to get very bad news about my dad. Lo and behold-- as soon as summer started, my dad called (he lived in another state at the time) to tell us he had liver cancer. Five months later he was gone.

Another time was when me, my sister, my brother and my mom were all (driving) following each other to some restaurant. There was a stop sign. My sister turned one direction, my brother drove straight. Something told me that I should probably follow my brother and go straight, but I turned and followed my sister. I got into a huge accident, totaling the car I was in. Luckily, I was unscathed. Yay.

So, yeah. Those are just the creepier things. I've had other, nonchalant things happen in dreams, and they occur the next day and feels like deja vu.

Have you ever had like... reaaallly weird dreams that you probably shouldn't have remembered?

I woke up during one this morning, and I remembered it, and I probably shouldn't have, considering I don't usually remember. It was all sci-fi and stuff.

There was this crazy vortex with like, large cubby holes that people slept in. Only, they weren't people. They were souls. I saw them all, then I was one of the souls. I woke up (in the dream) and remembered someone from a past human life. This wasn't supposed to happen, no one ever has done that before (in my dream). The person I don't remembered I knew during the dream, but for the life of me I can't remember it now. I remember how it made the dream-me feel. Light, airy, giddy and extraordinarily happy. Like I was in love. The dream progresses and all the souls begin their business for the day, doing chores, activities, etc. Except... I feel like I'm "outside the box" and tired of being mundane so I change my attitude. This gets attention from all the souls that are higher up than me, and I get into trouble for what I remember and how it's making me change. We have this computer and we can search things that we don't understand. We eat, but we don't need to. All of the souls in the dream were convinced corn chips grew on trees/bushes. I knew from memories on Earth that this does not happen. But I couldn't convince anyone else. The computer we searched brought up all this stuff from Earth that I couldn't possibly know. The higher-up soul that has been watching me (strangely enough this character was in the form of the hot manager from my work), forced me to share my memories with him via some crazy telepathic communication.

And then I wished I hadn't woken up. ARGH.

Sorry for the long post and the weird dream, but I needed to write it somewhere.

What are some of your guys' weird dreams?

^ my zombies are way more awesome than ^'s zombies will ever be.

Yeah, it's gonna be pretty sweet. Can't wait.

Keep in mind also that climate doesn't include one or two years. Climate is based on the average weather of, let's say, 100 years.

I feel like a dork. I don't have a PC. I have a Mac.

The only game on the computer I play is Spore -- which I love but others have found boring/lame. (I use my computer for things such as editing photographs, etc.)

I'm a 3/4 time student trying to get a nursing degree. I work at Barnes & Noble (a bookstore for you Aussies ) part time. School + part time work = 50+ hours of work and studying per week. I might get promoted at work and have to work full time. w00t. I'd be glad to have a raise in this economy where it's harder than ever to get a job.

Sorry to beat a dead horse, but:

The global warming theory indicates that storms of greater magnitude and more drastic, severe seasons will occur. Where US States such as Louisiana, Texas, Florida, etc have their hurricane season, things have drastically changed. Look at hurricane Katrina or Ike (The storm was nearly the size of Texas itself! The damage was pretty catastrophic: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071204121949.htm. The intensity of such things has been greater. In areas prone to colder winters, Canada, parts of the northern United States, etc, where it snows moderately have seen greater storms in the past two years. In Spokane, Washington there was more snow this winter than ever since weather had began being recorded.

Global warming does not simply affect places getting warmer, it also means that where it's cold it gets colder, where it's rainy it gets more rainy, where there are hurricanes, they become worse. I live in a desert in southern California. Our winters are becoming milder, in fact, I've only used the heater in my car a handful of times this winter. And our summers are getting dreadfully hotter and more humid. Temperatures have reached over 118 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer more than once in the past ten years. Bleh.

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071204121949.htm

Sorry guys, I forgot how to make links click-able.

I hate to say it, but that's how things work. Employers only care about you while you work, and even then they hardly do. First sign of an employee leaving, it means they need to find your replacement. The company as a whole is more important than one employee.

I've gotten 5 stars many, many times, as well as 100% complete. heh heh.. also, we finally bought Guitar Hero 2.. and oh my goodness, I beat that game on medium the same night we bought it.

Guitar Hero is freakin awesome. my family and everyone was playing it nonstop on Christmas eve and day. <3