Where do 53% of your Tax dollars go?

I don’t usually get into politics; however this presentation really sums up an important issue that is causing great harm to many human beings around the world, crippling the US economy, robbing families quality of life and our reputation as a global citizen. Whoever you vote for, I would like to ask you greatly consider their position on the wars and spending most of our collective treasure on so called “defense”. The world is no safer from these psychopathic economic priorities & policies. Please make this an important issue in your decision, try not to get caught up only in the topics the candidates wish to discuss. At the bottom is a clip from my new favorite series, I typically do not watch TV but really enjoy The Newsroom: The Complete First Season. Thanks for your attention! ~EROCx1

From: Tragedy & Hope

U.S. Arms Sales Tripled In 2011 To $66.3 Billion
From: The Huffington Post
Date: 08/27/2012

Worldwide weapons sales by the United States tripled in 2011, according to a new report by the Congressional Research Service.

U.S. arms sales to both developed and developing nations reached $66.3 billion last year, up from $21.4 billion in 2010, the report found. Russia, the nation with the second highest weapon sales, sold $4.8 billion worth of arms. Meanwhile, total worldwide weapon sales nearly doubled to $85.3 billion, making the U.S. responsible for more than three-quarters of the global total.

Some of the biggest purchasers of U.S. weapons were Middle Eastern nations, including Saudi Arabia, whose purchase of 84 advanced F-15 fighters in part accounted for a $30 billion bill. The U.S. also sold around $2 billion worth of antimissile batteries to Taiwan, a deal that stoked the ire of China and caused tension during a diplomatic Chinese military visit last July.

For its part, Russia has also faced criticism for its weapons dealings with Syria, which remains embroiled in a civil war since March 2011.

The United Nations failed to reach a consensus last month on a treaty to increase regulation of the arms industry, but further talks are expected leading up to a possible vote by the end of the year. 

If your curious, I’m considering Gary Johnson for President

History Channel: The Stoned Ages

THE STONED AGES explores the history of drugs. From the early cave dwellers who first stumbled upon psychedelic mushrooms to the over 6000-year-old tradition of opium cultivation in the East to a modern pharmaceutical industry with over 24,000 drugs on the market, drugs have played a role in our lives since well before recorded human history.

THE STONED AGES explores the reasons we've used drugs through the ages to heal our bodies and minds, to connect with a higher power, to feel better, for recreation, to escape, for performance enhancement, and even to prolong our lives while considering the devastating consequences that accompany the choice to use certain drugs. This fascinating, fresh, and insightful documentary will ask the question: overall, have drugs done more to help us or hurt us?

Hosted by Dean Norris, THE STONED AGES will journey through the millennia and look in on the greatest civilizations in human history to discover if drugs helped these societies flourish or fail and whether drug use was holy or hedonistic, a savior or a curse. How can drugs that are worshipped in one society be morally reprehensible and often illegal in another? And what causes some good drugs to go bad?

THE STONED AGES will interview the writers, historians, doctors, pharmaceutical reps, religious leaders, policy makers, FDA scientists, DEA representatives, and drug addicts who shape the often conflicting roles that drugs play in our lives today.

Drugs can kill and enslave, heal and provide hope, and alter our consciousness in deeply profound ways. THE STONED AGES will tell the story of how drugs have helped us become who we are.

up early & turned on MTV…

I woke up early and figured I would turn on the TV (which I rarely do). while I got some work done The only channel not propagandizing Obama’s don’t ask don’t tell distraction, I mean reform was MTV. So I thought some music cant hurt. Lets see what the children of America are listening to this morning. Up comes a video of Kanye West on a sampler from his 2010 VMA performance (or lack there of) that I must have missed, unless its on at 4:00AM now =0) OK, I've seen Chimpanzees make better music with a Speak and Spell on National Geographic. Not only is the sampling horrific, he tries to fool everyone into thinking he is a musician by pretending to play a keyboard my adjusting the mid-tone on a sampler. Then he sings a song about toasting himself. Although I'm pretty sure in his mind the song is about someone else. WTF!

Next up was a video of Cee Lo Green which made me LOL in a state of shock on what can be played on MTV these days. I actually dig this one as a grown up. However as a parent, its pretty upsetting the producer used kids in this video. Children often imitate whats on TV, so expect to hear your kids singing F' You soon.

Now I've been outta the music biz since the 90’s but the Elektra logo at the end has me thinking both these guys work for Mike Caren. Come on man.

Happy almost Christmas everyone. Its time to bump my origins of Christmas posts from years past. Wishing you all the best! -E

YouTube Disco: New Music Discovery Project

YouTube’s New Pandora like Music Discovery Project and Playlist Creation Tool. Allows you to use YouTubes massive video archives as your own personal music video playlist. Just plug in an artists name and begin. [Artist video] stays artist specific and [Mix Tape] mixes in other similar artists like Pandora does.
http://www.YouTube.com/disco

I got great results when I searched for: Shpongle, Underworld, Moby, DJ Dan, Tiësto, ATB, Beastie Boys and plenty of others. Follow your own tastes. Its a great media player that you can just let go while working or do other things and the videos are fun to watch. Sorta like having your own custom MTV channel only with good music and no commercial interruptions. If you like saving media locally, RealPlayer saves these perfectly and you can convert to iPod video or Mp3. Had minor issues with Internet Explorer. Ran flawless in Firefox. Looking forward to future developments. Check it out.
Link: http://www.youtube.com/disco

William S. Burroughs: The Junky's Christmas

Francis Ford Coppola Presents
William S. Burroughs' The Junky's Christmas

Part claymation and part live action. The Junky’s Christmas, depicts a story by William S. Burroughs written in 1952. Burroughs takes down a book and reads us the story of Danny the car wiper, a desperate character who has just been released from jail on the upper west side of Manhattan, searches for a fix on a cold Christmas day. His story ends in a revelation that even Danny could never have thought possible.

Merry Christmas!
E

National Geographic: Inside The Tripper's Brain

National Geographic Explorer presents how researchers are using scans and sensors to create 3D maps showing the activity of the brain on hallucinogenic drugs, such as LSD.

FROM: Nationalgeographic.com

Inside LSD airs Tuesday, November 3rd @ both 7PM & 10PM ET/PT.

 

LSDs inventor Albert Hofmann called it "medicine for the soul." The Beatles wrote songs about it. Secret military mind control experiments exploited its hallucinogenic powers. Outlawed in 1966, LSD became a street drug and developed a reputation as the dangerous toy of the counterculture, capable of inspiring either moments of genius, or a descent into madness. Now science is taking a fresh look at LSD, including the first human trials in over 35 years. Using enhanced brain imaging, non-hallucinogenic versions of the drug and information from an underground network of test subjects who suffer from an agonizing condition for which there is no cure, researchers are finding that this "trippy" drug could become the pharmaceutical of the future. Can it enhance our brain power, expand our creativity and cure disease? To find out, Explorer puts LSD under the microscope.

www.Nationalgeographic.com

Fried my PC + Carl Sagan explains the 4th Dimension

Hello Friends. Have some sorta bad news. My computers power supply was failing and it fried my hard drive and possibly other components killing my home PC. I lost lots of data, all my settings & software I use to blog blog, participate in forums, etc. So please excuse my lack of online presence and delays in correspondence. I've had several other unexpected major expenses recently and business has been pretty slow. So I probably will not be able to fix this until the end of this month unless things improve sooner. Any orders placed at Gaian Botanicals will be extra appreciated during this period and I would be happy to over fulfill any orders placed that mention my blog in the check out notes. I am able to process these orders from another computer. I really appreciate your friendship and support during these tuff times.

Enough of my personal problems. While I have the ability to post to my blog, I would like to share this great Carl Sagan video of him explaining dimensionality. Enjoy!

10 Drugs Not to Take Before Driving

Just for laughs, Happy Friday everyone!


10 Drugs Not to Take Before Driving

Juan Enriquez: The big reboot is yet to come

Even as mega-banks topple, Juan Enriquez says the big reboot is yet to come. But don't look for it on your ballot -- or in the stock exchange. It'll come from science labs, and it promises keener bodies and minds. Our kids are going to be ... different.

Juan Enriquez is a broad thinker who studies the intersection of science, business and society. He has a talent for bridging disciplines to build a coherent look ahead. Enriquez was the founding director of the Harvard Business School Life Sciences Project, and has published widely on topics from the technical (global nucleotide data flow) to the sociological (gene research and national competitiveness), and was a member of Celera Genomics founder Craig Venter's marine-based team to collect genetic data from the world's oceans.

Formerly CEO of Mexico City's Urban Development Corporation and chief of staff for Mexico's secretary of state, Enriquez played a role in reforming Mexico's domestic policy and helped negotiate a cease-fire with Zapatista rebels. He is a Managing Director at Excel Medical Ventures, a life sciences venture capital firm, and the chair and CEO of Biotechonomy, a research and investment firm helping to fund new genomics firms. The Untied States of America, his latest book, looks at the forces threatening America's future as a unified country.

"Juan Enriquez will change your view of change itself." - Nicholas Negroponte

Link: TED Talks

Dr. Timothy Leary on VH1 Aug 13th!

There is a VH1 series called “Lords of the Revolution” with episode #104 featuring Dr. Timothy Leary. Its scheduled to air on Vh1 August 13th @ 8PM.

Below is the summary:
[From the moment Harvard professor Timothy Leary ate magic mushrooms in 1960, his life would never be the same. Advocating the use of LSD and other mind altering drugs to expand consciousness, Leary transformed himself from an eccentric Harvard professor into the leader of the 1960s psychedelic counter-culture movement. Leary's influence helped shape the music, fashion and politics of a new generation. He defied authority and fought the government at every turn, earning the title, in President Nixon's words, as "the most dangerous man in America."]

Link: Lords of the Revolution » Ep. 104

This series also features Cheech & Chong

Jay Weidner @ the 2012 Conference

These videos are of author, filmmaker and hermetic scholar Jay Weidner's outstanding presentation at "2012 and the End of Time: a Meeting of Minds" held in San Francisco, California on November 11, 2008. Hundreds of people gathered near the Golden Gate Bridge over the weekend to ponder the enigmatic date of December 21, 2012. The final day of the ancient Maya calendar and the focus of many end-of-the-world or major transformation predictions and theories. Even during these times of economic distress, participants paid $300 each to attend. You can now see this excellent presentation for the unbeatable price of FREE.

Jay Weidner produced the documentary films: 2012: The Odyssey, Timewave 2013, directed Secrets of Alchemy: The Great Cross and the End of Time, and the Sacred Mysteries DVD Collection. He is the co-author of The Mysteries of the Great Cross of Hendaye; Alchemy and the End of Time (Destiny Books) and A Monument to the End of Time (with Vincent Bridges) as well as a contributing writer for the book The Mystery of 2012 (Sounds True). Jay was featured on the History Channel’s Documentary, The Lost Book of Nostradamus. In 1999, together with his wife, Sharron Rose, he founded Sacred Mysteries for which he has directed and produced ARTmind with Alex Grey, Healing the Luminous Body with Dr. Alberto Villoldo, Healing Sounds with Jonathan Goldman, Sound Yoga/Nada Yoga with Shanti Shivani, Alchemical Healing with Nicki Scully, Quantum Astrology with Rick Levine, Yoga of Light with Sharron Rose and Secrets of Alchemy, a documentary based upon his research into alchemy, the Cross of Hendaye and the End of Time.

Jay Weidner articles:

• Weidner in Wired!
• Alchemical Kubrick: 2001, The Great Work on Film
• Tolkien at the End of Time; Alchemical Secrets of The Lord of the Rings
• 2012 - The Topology of Time Part I: Hyperdimensional Space and the Unfolding of the four Ages
• The Topology of Time Part II: The Alchemy of Time, Understanding the Great Year and the Cycles of Existence
• Fulcanelli, Alchemy, the Great Cross at Hendaye and the Mystery of the Cathedrals:
  Network X interviews Jay Weidner
• Network X Interview: Mind Over Matters, NASA and DMT
• Rebellion of the Intelligent: Jeff Rense and the Internet
• There's Something Strange on the Moon
• Nostradamus and Fulcanelli:
  Are the Olympic Games the Beginning of the End?
• 2001 A Floyd Odyssey
• Prophecy, Spirit and the Dreamtime: The Last Frontier
• The Time River: Alchemy, Fulcanelli and
  The Great Cross at Hendaye.
• The Golden Age & The End Of The World - Extinction or Enlightenment?
• The Ka, the Ba and the Kabbala - The Science of the Afterlife
• The God Star

Jay Weidner interviews:

• The lost interview with William Henry
• Conscious Media Network TV Interview with Jay Weidner
• Coast to Coast on You Tube
• The Red Ice Interview
• Good Vibrations Interview with Jay and Sharron Weidner
• L.A Weekly Write-up on "UFO's Magic and Mysticism in Hollywood"

www.jayweidner.com

Harvard economist: Prohibition creates violence, legalize all drugs!

Harvard economist: Prohibition creates violence, legalize all drugs!
Filed by David Edwards and Stephen C. Webster
From: The Raw Story

Because of his title as a Harvard economist, people tend to listen to Jeffrey Miron. And, if the old principle holds true and controversy always creates interest, expect a lot of people to be talking about Miron's latest volley into the mainstream media.

"Prohibition creates violence because it drives the drug market underground," he wrote in an essay published by CNN on Tuesday. "This means buyers and sellers cannot resolve their disputes with lawsuits, arbitration or advertising, so they resort to violence instead.

"Violence was common in the alcohol industry when it was banned during Prohibition, but not before or after."

Miron's proposed solution to ending the cartel war along the US-Mexico border is both simple and enormously complex.

"Violence is the norm in illicit gambling markets but not in legal ones. Violence is routine when prostitution is banned but not when it's permitted," he wrote. "Violence results from policies that create black markets, not from the characteristics of the good or activity in question.

"The only way to reduce violence, therefore, is to legalize drugs."

In 2005, Miron published a study titled, "The Budgetary Implications of Marijuana Prohibition" (PDF link), funded by the Marijuana Policy Project. Over 500 professional economists, including Milton Friedman, signed on to the report, which was sent to then-President George W. Bush.

Miron's report found that "marijuana legalization would save $7.7 billion per year in state and federal expenditures on prohibition enforcement and produce tax revenues of at least $2.4 billion annually if marijuana were taxed like most consumer goods."

He also discovered a potential for $6.2 billion or more, were marijuana taxed similarly to alcohol and tobacco.

However, during a CNN appearance on Tuesday, he took the anti-prohibition sentiment of his prior study on marijuana and applied it universally, telling anchor Kiran Chetry, "A lot of the violence we're seeing and a lot of the underground market is not related to marijuana but related to the other drugs.

"If we only did marijuana we would only have a small impact on the violence and corruption and disruption of other countries that is caused by U.S. prohibition of drugs and the U.S. forcing prohibition of drugs on other countries."

This video is from CNN's American Morning, broadcast Mar. 24, 2009.

Download video via RawReplay.com

Hunter S. Thompson on Conan O'Brien

Hunter S. Thompson
on Conan O'Brien

Feb 6, 2003

A short 10 minute segment with Dr. Thompson as a guest on Late Night with Conan O' Brien. Featuring a clip of the two of them drinking whiskey & shooting assault weapons together. Hunter talks about accidentally shooting his assistant, Johnny Depp living in his basement next to a home made bomb and a few other interesting tid bits that any fan of Gonzo will find entertaining.

Hunter S. Thompson on Conan O'Brien 2003-02-06

Timothy Leary - How to Operate Your Brain

How to Operate Your Brain is a 29 minute guided meditation complete with music and visuals. Ok, make that cheesy Techno and cycling colors. But his message is phenomenal. In it, Dr. Leary tries to impart to the listener essential aspects of his visionary LSD experiences. This video "turned on" many of the 90's rave generation. If you have never seen it, now is the time.

Remember, who controls your screen controls the programs in your mind.

www.GaianBotanicals.com