Boom!

Whoa, I got a coffee grinder and and some Columbian coffee beans for Christmas and man am I wired!! I'm beginning to understand the widespread popularity of places like Starbucks, I've been missing out. Well better go get some more coffee and clean the house and then maybe paint the house!

Tex went down to Texas

I thought of a cool post. I even told Shelly about it, she thought it would be okay.
It was funny, interesting and all that. But now neither one of us can remember what it was going to be about! Maybe I should write one about the mental decline that people experience in their mid 40's. We went to Dallas today, while Shelly was shopping, I roamed the streets of the Dallas-Fort worth metroplex shouting
"Babs!Babs, where are you?" No luck, one guy said he had Babs for me right here and pointed down his pants but I figured it must be the wrong Babs, she would have mentioned being a tiny person by now if she was. I ate a good hamburger down there today, it seemed a little bigger than the burgers I usually get in Oklahoma. Shelly said it's because everything is bigger in Texas. I wanted to get a motel room and see if it was true but we needed to get back home, plus my wallet's a little thin since Christmas. (I did ask a friend from Texas and he said it was true, Texas motel room are 20% larger than Oklahoma motel rooms!)

Yardhouse Texlahoma, Co

yardhouse

Understanding Time Zones

I can't believe no one has ever thought of this before. Here's the plan, I call it
"The Time zone Exploit", I go watch a Dallas Cowboys home game. I call you in Los Vegas, tell you who won. Now you have two hours to place a huge bet on the winning team (because it's two hours earlier in Los Vegas) and just like that, we're rolling in dough. I will, of course, have to send a trusted Representative to accompany you. (I ain't no dummy!)

Bareback Mountain (Homophobic version)

I saw Brokeback Mountain the other day. I saw where the movie went horribly wrong. When the guy in the tent sees the other guy out by the campfire beating his meat, spanking his monkey or whatever the kids call it now days, he should have said "Hold off on that for just a minute, have I got a surprise for you." Then, a little later, he returns to the camp with a ewe (A female sheep). They take the sheep into the tent and have their way with her (it). Then at the end of the movie the boss man could ask
"How was it up there on the mountain with nothing but sheep for such a long time?"

The cowboy could reply "Not baaaaa, baaa, baaaad!"

[last scene soundtrack- (Linda Ronstadt's "When will I be loved?")]

The very last scene could be a trailer full of sheep being taken to market, the camera zooms in to a closeup of a sheep (wearing lipstick & mascara) looking back at the cowboys with tears in her eyes.

4000%

MPP Report: Does Prohibition of Marijuana for Adults Curb Use by Adolescents?

MPP's December 2006 report examines whether current marijuana laws effectively deter marijuana use by young people. Among the major findings:
Marijuana prohibition has not prevented a dramatic increase in marijuana use by teenagers. In fact, the overall rate of marijuana use in the U.S. has risen by roughly 4,000% since marijuana was first outlawed.
Independent studies by RAND Europe and the U.S. National Research Council have reported that marijuana prohibition appears to have little or no impact on rates of use.
Since Britain ended most marijuana possession arrests in 2004, the rate of marijuana use by 16-to-19-year-olds has dropped.
In the U.S., rates of teen marijuana use in states that have decriminalized adult marijuana possession are statistically equal to rates in those that have retained criminal penalties.
In the Netherlands, where adults have been allowed to possess and purchase small amounts of marijuana since 1976, the rate of marijuana use by adults and teens is lower than the U.S., and teen use of cocaine and amphetamines is far lower than in the U.S.

A 'JIHAD' ON USERS

The Dec. 19 Chronicle article "Houston's rise in violent crime outpaces U.S." said that "violent crime in Houston increased at nearly twice the national level." Certain deductions about this near doubling of violent crime in Houston are obvious.

Houston and Harris County lead the world in the incarceration of our citizenry; mostly for drug charges, minor amounts, empty bags, empty pipes or for failing a urine test for drugs. Our jails are so overcrowded that prisoners sleep underneath bunks and next to toilets, and we are contemplating building additional jails to house more drug users. Our jails and prisons are so swamped with drug prisoners that we find it necessary to provide early release to violent criminals to make room for these minor drug offenders.

Many cities and states around this nation ( even within Texas ) have found it necessary to ease back on sentencing drug users. They have found it necessary and prudent to cease the arrest and sentencing of those found with empty bags, pipes and minor amounts of drugs.

Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal says "when the only tool you have to work with is a hammer, everything begins to look like a nail." Police Chief Harold Hurtt, a black man, seems indifferent to the fact that Houston arrests blacks at a rate significantly higher than that of South Africa under apartheid. Houston and Harris County lead the world in the incarceration of our own people, and yet we seek to build more jails, to send more people to prison for longer periods of time for minor amounts of drugs. At some point, for moral reasons, for fiscal reasons, we will have to back down from our "jihad" against drug users.

Perhaps then, our police force can focus its attentions on violent criminals, and we'll have plenty of prison beds available so the predator types can serve their full sentence.

DEAN BECKER

spokesman, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, Houston