This and That...

[Warph]

Controversy: School District's System for Student Microchip Tracking Devices Was Hacked, One Student Fights Back on Mandated ID on Religious Grounds (video):

           

If this controversial microchip-card mandate had been launched at schools in liberty-robbing, left-wing-delerious California or Massachusetts, I'd not be surprised.

But TEXAS???

Welcome to the Nanny State.

The ID monitoring system for a San Antonio school district was hacked over the weekend in protest, and another student is fighting back, saying the mandate violates her religion. Andrea Hernandez is being taken seriously by the courts.


Reported by CBS Houston, Schools' Tracking Devices Causes Controversy:

A San Antonio school district's website was hacked over the weekend to protest its policy requiring students to wear microchip-embedded cards tracking their every move on campus.

A teenager purportedly working with the hacker group Anonymous said in an online statement that he took the site down because the Northside school district "is stripping away the privacy of students in your school."

The teen, who identified himself in an email as being 16 years old, said he hacked into the website Saturday, and it was not working Sunday. District spokesman Pascual Gonzalez said he has not yet been able to confirm that it was hacked.

Starting this fall, all students at John Jay High School and Anson Jones Middle School are required to carry identification cards embedded with a microchip. They are tracked by the dozens of electronic readers installed in the schools' ceiling panels.

Northside has been testing a "radio frequency identification" tracking system for the two schools to increase attendance in order to secure more state funding, officials have said. The program, which kicked off at the beginning of this school year, eventually could be used at all of Northside's 112 campuses, officials have said. The district is the fourth largest in Texas with more than 97,000 students.

The hacked website isn't the first controversy over the program.

One John Jay student refused to wear the device, citing religious reasons, and then filed a lawsuit after Principal Robert Harris threatened to remove her from the school and stopped her from petitioning against the ID badge. Last week a judge said the principal's actions violated the student's speech and religious rights, and granted a restraining order barring Harris from removing her from the school, San Antonio television station KENS reported.

[Warph]

No, Weed Isn't "Harmless"

By Katie Pavlich

Our friend Steven Crowder recently took a trip to Ann Arbor, Michigan to expose a common lie about Marijuana use: it's not harmful. It turns out, Marijuana isn't "just a plant" that does less damage than alcohol. According to a doctor Crowder interviewed in the video below, Marijuana actually lingers in your brain and when smoked at a young age, prevents maturity from taking place (imagine that!).



What's the truth?

As Crowder pointed out in the video, there are many cases to be made on both sides of the Marijuana legalization argument, however, making the argument that the drug is "harmless" is inaccurate. Although alcohol and tobacco are legal, we don't make the argument that they are both harmless because, they aren't.[/font][/size]

[Diane Amberg]

Do you know how many different kinds of marijuana there are? Many more than most people think and all are "stronger'' than what was around in the 60's. Bad news.

[Bullwinkle]

      Unless you use it, how do you know ?

[Diane Amberg]

From the EMT classes I taught for many years and the Docs who taught us instructors. I can't be around it ,it gives me a terrible head ache. We hauled many a high person to the hospital after they "forgot" to drive and wrecked.  Sorry to ruin your fun.

[Warph]

3 Reasons to Kill the Dept. of Homeland Security

                   

1. It's unnecessary. In the months immediately following September 11 attacks in 2001, President George W. Bush initially resisted calls to create a new high-level bureaucracy that would be laid on top of current activities. He was right to recognize that coordinating existing agencies would have been smarter and better. Unfortunately, he caved in to pressure to create a massive new department.

2. It's ineffective. To read the titles of Government Accountability Office (GAO) analyses of Homeland Security is to be reminded constantly that DHS is never quite on top of its game. Recent reports include "DHS Requires More Disciplined Investment Management to Help Meet Mission Needs," "DHS Needs Better Project Information and Coordination Among Four Overlapping Grant Programs," and "Agriculture Inspection Program Has Made Some Improvements, But Management Challenges Persist."

3. It's expensive. Last year, Homeland Security spent a whopping $60 billion, a figure that will doubtlessly increase in coming years. The construction of its new headquarters – the single-largest projectever undertaken by The General Services Administration – will cost at least $4 billion and is already years behind on schedule since breaking ground in 2009.

Since it's the holiday season, here's a bonus reason to get rid of the Department of Homeland Security: It also runs the Transportation Security Administration, whose nasty reputation for manhandling innocent travelers is only slightly more annoying than its massive and undeserved growth in personnel and cost over the past decade.
                         

[Warph]

Do you know how many different kinds of marijuana there are? Many more than most people think and all are "stronger'' than what was around in the 60's. Bad news.

American voters favor the legalization of marijuana, 51 - 44 percent, with a substantial gender and age gap, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.

"With the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes legal in about 20 states, and Washington and Colorado voting this November to legalize the drug for recreational use, American voters seem to have a more favorable opinion about this once-dreaded drug," said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. "There are large differences on this question among the American people.

"Men support legalization 59 - 36 percent, but women are opposed 52 - 44 percent. The racial split evident throughout American politics on many matters is barely noticeable on this question with 50 percent of white voters and 57 percent of black voters backing legalization."

"Not surprisingly, voters 18 to 29 years old support legalization 67 - 29 percent while voters over age 65 are opposed 56 - 35 percent," Brown added. "Voters 30 to 44 years old like the idea 58 - 39 percent, while voters 45 to 64 years old are divided 48 - 47 percent."

"This is the first time Quinnipiac University asked this question in its national poll so there is no comparison from earlier years. It seems likely, however, that given the better than 2-1 majority among younger voters, legalization is just a matter of time."


Diane... Boomers are in power and have been for some time.  The States and the Fed are desperate for the tax revenue marijuana sales will produce.

Hate to say it but the "War On Drugs" is a colossal failure.  The most successful aspect of the "War On Drugs" was the high rate of incarceration, which has become too expensive and unproductive, although it was also good for disenfranchising voters.  America in general has not changed its mind, after all anyone who has indulged knows Chong was not wrong, but the elite has decided it is time to let go of the myths about grass.  I'm far from a prude on this issue but I am somewhat concerned that the "legalization" of marijuana will create challenges that need to be considered before we get too far along.  Maybe it will all work out ok but I have little faith that the States and Feds can properly address them ahead of time and I think this has all the makings of a great field for trial lawyers.

The "War On Drugs "has produced the same result as Prohibition did in the 30s.  Mexico is now ruled by the Mob.  Illegal pot is so profitable, mexican drug lords grow it in California's National Forests and Parks.  Legalize it and you undercut and eradicate that avenue of money making and environmental abuse.

....Warph

[Diane Amberg]

 I've known one since 1972. In all that time he has been sober and off drugs ( meth and marijuana) for about six months, and that has been in bits and pieces.
He's classic example of what not to do..totally irresponsible. He has kept his family, after his wife and daughter left him years ago, in an uproar constantly. I'm amazed we haven't yet found him dead in a ditch. He's done prison time,didn't change a thing,, tried to get family to take out a second mortgage on their house to pay off his drug dealer... and couldn't understand why they wouldn't. A real piece of work, yet when he wants to he can be very charming.
Stay home and off the roads please, no matter what. Or have a designated driver. High drivers are just as dangerous as drunk...and texting! drivers. I know, I've seen it all.

[Warph]

From an ex-stoner:
"Women don't like pot for the most part. It's a 'man' drug. What they really don't like is a useless, stoned man...pot makes you stupid, poor company and a poor provider."  ...Robert Downey, jr.

[redcliffsw]

Warph, I think the Fed's are more interested in keeping the drug war agoing
to maintain the power over people.  Tyranny, that is.   

Drugs are State issues, not Federal. 

The States would do well by nullifying the Fed's on a lot of things.  Nullification, it works, if used.