November 25, 2008 – Stephen Saunders

Example Reading by Email: Unhappy Home Situation

Hi Stephen,

I was just wondering if

you could please shed some insight on a

troubling situation for me. I need to know when

and with whom will I move in with next? I live

in an unsafe area with 5 dirty roommates and

dont know when/how I’ll be able to afford a

decent place to live. I cannot afford a

reading, but if you could please help me I would

be most grateful and will share the light with

others.

Thank you kindly,

“A person unhappy with home”

June 10, 2007

East York, ON, Canada

Maji’s Response:

Hi,

The fact that you have noticed that you are unhappy in your situation is a big breakthrough I guess, on the average, people just live with this type of situation without working to change it.

The rest of what I have to say may not be comfortable for you, so hold it in the right light, because the way you respond to what I have to say is a big insight into why you are in the situation you have suddenly become aware of, or have finally begun to admit to yourself.

Your situation is a reflection of a lack of self-love.

The fact that you cannot afford a reading but expect something for nothing anyway, is sign that you have two things to deal with..

(BTW- I am willing to give for my own reasons.. it is good to be generous with your spirit at the same time, and not always be about money, plus it doesn’t hurt to ask, for something right!? This shows me that you are capable of asking for what you wish, so get out into your community and find a better place for yourself!!)

First of all the word PARENT, if you look closely says “Pay Rent”. You have to start stepping up and Parenting yourself.

These people you live with are your parents…. You like it?

What ever “Parenting” your parents did not give you, you must give to yourself…. Until then there will be reflections like the ones you see around you basically hassling you into Parenting yourself.

You must learn to quit “keeping score” on the outgo of your money and resources and time the way that you have quit keeping score on the income of of your money and resources. That is to say that the wounded child in you has taken control of your selfishness and is now using in an attempt to “extort” Parenting from the Universe.

Remember: “I, my God, and my Universe are the partners….” Ask yourself if you are doing your part to help make change come into your life or is it more comfortable for you to be a victim.

You cannot be an empowered person and a victim. you have to choose.

Get yourself outside of your comfort zone and start doing things to break up the stagnation that your victim-conciousness has created with your life, by going into places in life where you would like to take your life, and begin to network and make new relationships in arenas of life that you know you belong.

The other thing is that you do not get enough oxygen into your body and it is full of toxins and “negative mental mass” that is sabotaging thoughts…… get them out by bringing more PRANA into your life by breathing with the conscious intention of healing and cleansing…. there are a ton of resources available for you to tune in to this type of activity for free. You’ve got no excuse except your own unwillingness to get outside of your comfort zone and get networking to find your next place.

Until then your situation will stay the same, which will make you think and feel like it is getting worse and worse, when really it is not changing at all, or doing anything different, just like you. A perfect reflection of not caring enough to get out of your own lack of momentum for making change, and instead being content with discontent, and calling yourself a “victim” Give that up and get out into the world and let it know what you need, it is always attempting to manifest for you that which expands and evolves you.

Love doesn’t have to pretty or fun, it is hot and sweaty and itchy and dirty and exhausting, and sometimes hurts and stings and is cold and sometimes seems like it is not there at all. The truth is that is what makes everything grow and change and exist at all, do not be afraid of it or any of it in any of it’s forms.

I hope this helps, I know it is not a prediction that you may have been hoping for, but it is better…. BE the Cause, and Change.

bright blessings,

Maji~*

40,000 GLEAN VEGETABLES FROM COLORADO HARVEST

WJLA – A farm couple got a huge surprise when they opened their fields to anyone who wanted to pick up free vegetables left over after the harvest – 40,000 people showed up. Joe and Chris Miller’s fields were picked so clean that a second day of gleaning – the ancient practice of picking up leftover food in farm fields – was canceled “Overwhelmed is putting it mildly,” Chris Miller said. “People obviously need food.”

She said she expected 5,000 to 10,000 people would show up Saturday to collect free potatoes, carrots and leeks. Instead, an estimated 11,000 vehicles snaked around cornfields and backed up more than two miles. About 30 acres of the 600-acre farm 37 miles north of Denver became a parking lot.

“Everybody is so depressed about the economy,” said Sandra Justice of Greeley, who works at a technology company. “This was a pure party. Everybody having a a great time getting something for free.” Justice and her mother and son picked 10 bags of vegetables.

Miller said they opened the farm to the free public harvest for the first time this year after hearing reports of food being stolen from churches. It was meant as a thank you for customers.

Farm operations manager Dave Patterson said that in previous years the Millers allowed schoolchildren and some church groups to come to the farm during the fall to harvest their own food.

He estimated some 600,000 pounds of produce was harvested Saturday.

Weld County sheriff’s deputies helped direct traffic and the Colorado State Patrol issued citations for cars illegally parked on the side of the road.

WORD

Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about a reform. Those who are really in earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world’s estimation, and publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathy with despised and persecuted ideas and their advocates, and bear the consequences.

– Susan B. Anthony

California Supreme Court Ruling Limits Medical Marijuana Distribution

November 24th, 2008 By: Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director
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Smelly Money Leads To Major Legal Review Of California’s Medical Marijuana Distribution

In an important legal case decided today that cannabis reform advocates have been waiting on for nearly two years, the California Supreme Court ruled that criminal defendants are not entitled to a defense as Proposition 215 (Prop 215) caregivers if their primary role is only to supply marijuana to patients.

“We hold that a defendant whose care-giving consisted principally of supplying marijuana and instructing on its use, and who otherwise only sporadically took some patients to medical appointments, cannot qualify as a primary caregiver under the Act and was not entitled to an instruction on the primary caregiver affirmative defense. We further conclude that nothing in the Legislature’s subsequent 2003 Medical Marijuana Program (Health & Saf. Code, § 11362.7 et seq.) alters this conclusion or offers any additional defense on this record. ”

Prop 215 defines primary caregiver to be the “individual designated by the [patient]… who has consistently assumed responsibility for the housing, health, or safety of that person.” According to the Court, these words ” imply a caretaking relationship directed at the core survival needs of a seriously ill patient, not just one single pharmaceutical need. ”

The Court concluded, ” a defendant asserting primary caregiver status must prove at a minimum that he or she (1) consistently provided care-giving, (2) independent of any assistance in taking medical marijuana, (3) at or before the time he or she assumed responsibility for assisting with medical marijuana. ”

The Court’s ruling effectively limits the caregiver defense to relatives, personal friends and attendants, nurses, etc. In particular, it excludes its use by medical marijuana “buyers’ clubs,” retail dispensaries and delivery services.

The remaining legal defense for medical marijuana providers is to organize as patient cooperatives and collectives, which are legal under SB 420.

“The Mentch decision highlights the inadequacy of California’s current medical marijuana supply system,” California NORML coordinator Dale Gieringer told the Indy Bay News . “The law needs to allow for professional licensed growers, as with other medicinal herbs.”

Amazingly, this case found its way to California’s high court because bank tellers reported Mentch to law enforcement because his cash deposit smelled strongly like cannabis (Mentch was caught with approximately 200 cannabis plants that he believed he was lawfully tending, in compliance with Prop 215, for five medical patients who possessed a physician’s recommendation).

Full text of the People vs. Mentch is found here. Listen to NORML Legal Counsel and founder Keith Stroup on today’s AudioStash talk about the significance of the court ruling and likely implications on how patients can continue to lawfully access medical cannabis.

IN 1978, JACK NICHOLSON INTRODUCED A CAR THAT RUNS ON HYDROGEN

Apparently in 1978 there was a program on CBC Network that featured Jack Nicholson demonstrating a 1978 Chevy that was modified to run on hydrogen. They show the car being driven around and the media descending with their cameras…

Then they cut to a discussion about how the technology works and how it can clean up the atmosphere…

The remarkable thing about this video is that it is from 1978!

More power from Michigan

Slashdot – Slow-moving ocean and river currents could be a new, reliable and affordable alternative energy source. A University of Michigan engineer, Michael Bernitsas, has made a machine that works like a fish to turn . . . vibrations in fluid flows into clean, renewable power. This is the first known device that could harness energy from most of the water currents around the globe because it works in flows moving slower than 2 knots (about 2.3 miles per hour). Most of the Earth’s currents are slower than 3 knots. Turbines and water mills need an average of 5 or 6 knots to operate efficiently.

STUDYING THE WISDOM OF THE SHORE

Sam Smith

For many years, your editor has been involved with Wolfe’s Neck Farm, a Maine alternative agriculture center that began as an organic beef farm started by my parents in the 1950s. Today, besides cattle, the farm engages in a variety of programs including a campground with over 100 sites, a day camp for hundreds of children, educational programs and welcoming thousands of visitors. It also started what would become the largest natural beef marketing alliance in the greater northeast.

The newest addition to the farm is Coastal Studies for Girls, a program which is leasing some of the buildings for the first residential science and leadership semester school just for girls. Even while construction is underway, CSG hasn’t missed the chance for some education, as reported in the Falmouth Forecaster:

||| Coastal Studies for Girls is joining with Women Unlimited and Wright-Ryan Construction to offer seminars throughout the fall and early winter to help the public prepare for cold weather and to help residents learn how to reduce home energy and heating costs. . . Lib Jamison, executive director of the nonprofit Women Unlimited, taught a group of participants to build a toolbox after the tour. Jamison said the organization helps to train and support women, minorities and disadvantaged workers by providing the training necessary to obtain a job with livable wages in the construction, technical and transportation industries. . . The school will be open for its first 10th-grade class of students in the fall of 2009 and applications are available on its Web site |||

There are no present plans for rehabilitation programs for people like Larry Summers, but the program does cite a recent Science article which reports that a new study, led by psychologist Janet Hyde of the University of Wisconsin, shows that there is no difference between girls’ and boys’ test scores on common standardized math tests. Among students with the highest test scores, white boys outnumbered white girls by about two to one. But among Asians, that number was reversed. Obviously, cultural values have a lot to do with the scores, which is why things like the coastal studies program are important.

Wending our way through the state and local legal hurdles to help create the program, one of the issues was whether education was compatible with agriculture. This question astounded me because it was something I just took for granted.

For example, the 19th century Morrill Acts funded land grant institutions – with actual grants of land – to teach agriculture, military tactics, mechanic arts and home economics – as well as classical studies. Politicians of the era understood that, given America’s huge size, you couldn’t have good agriculture without widely dispersed good education. Michigan State – originally the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan – was the first land grant institution, although its funding came from the state. The first federal land grant university was Kansas State.

Schools have been central to the life and landscape of rural families in America. There were once several one room schoolhouses within a few miles of the new coastal studies program. One small town in Maine had 14 schools in the 19th century. Typically such schools were placed about three miles apart, so they were hardly an oddity in the rural landscape.

You could not have had American agriculture without rural schools. They were inseparable. One study reports, “During the 1930s about one-half of all children went to school in rural areas, where the proportion of children to adults was higher than in the cities.”

Today, only about two percent of Americans have had any direct contact with farms. And I needed only to watch the hesitancy with which my Bronx granddaughter made her first acquaintance with a Maine beach to be reminded of how many in this country have little contact not just with the study of nature, but contact with its scope and variety.

In the 19th century, the problem was to bring education to the natural areas of America. Today, we need to find new ways to bring nature into our education – such as the Coastal Studies for Girls program – if we are to deal with the ecological crisis wisely and in time.

ECUADOR COMES UP WITH UNIQUE PLAN TO PRESERVE RAIN FORESTS

Christian Schwägerl, Spiegel, Germany – Ecuador is the first country in the world to announce plans to leave the oil reserves beneath its rainforests in the ground. The country wants foreign businesses, including German companies, to compensate it for making this sacrifice.

There are as many different types of wood growing on each hectare in the Yasuni rainforest in the northwestern Amazon as there are species in all of North America. Even rare species of animals, like the mountain tapir and the brown-headed spider monkey, exist in the region. This paradise is also home to a number of native tribes now living in complete isolation from the outside world.

There is more biological diversity in the Yasuni rainforest than almost anywhere else in the world. The virgin forest is protected by its status as a national park and UNESCO biosphere reserve, but for how much longer? Several oil companies are pressuring the government in the Ecuadoran capital of Quito to finally issue drilling licenses for the biosphere.

The Yasuni region sits atop Ecuador’s largest known oil reserve, consisting of several hundred million barrels. Oil is the country’s most important export. And although oil has not made Ecuador rich, without petrodollars and petro-jobs the country would likely be even poorer than it already is.

This makes a proposal that Ecuadoran Environment Minister Marcela Aguinaga has now advanced in Berlin and other European capitals all the more sensational. Ecuador is the first oil-producing nation to propose leaving crude oil reserves permanently in the ground.. . .

“The crude oil under Yasuni National Park is worth many billions of dollars,” says Aguinaga. In the summer of 2008, Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa made a first attempt to protect the rainforest and resources. He proposed that Western and Ecuadoran taxpayers each foot half the bill for the decision not to tap crude oil reserves in the environmentally sensitive area. But the initiative never bore fruit.

Now Correa is under pressure to give in to the oil companies after all. Hoping to prevent this from happening, Aguinaga submitted a new, and final, offer during a trip to Europe: that Ecuador be compensated mainly by Western companies, which could then sell the Yasuni oil in the virtual form of CO2 certificates.

But wherever Aguinaga goes she faces the same tough questions: What happens if the Saudis start demanding compensation for oil they don’t produce? And what if a new government in Quito permits drilling for oil after all?

The model, Aguiaga argues, is only meant for regions where petroleum reserves are located beneath extremely biodiverse ecosystems. And the donors would be given the right to confiscate the oil if it does end up being produced.

WORD

This tongueless, toothless instrument, without larynx or pharynx, mimics your tones, speaks with your voice, utters your words and centuries after you have crumbled into dust, may repeat every idle thought, every fond fancy, every vain word that you choose to whisper against the thin, iron diaphragm

– Thomas Edison on the phonograph

PRINTING MONEY

“And we could do it with government printed money – and not more debt – because it will be public works that creates wealth and employment rather than inflation.”

The reason government printed money does not create inflation is because it does not have to have a compounding interest payment attached to it.

Say my local council borrows say $10 million from a bank over 30 years to build a new swimming pool. We will end up paying back $30 million depending upon the interest rate. We end up paying for it three times and we only have one pool. If government created money was used the local council could just pay the federal government back the $10 million interest free and then could take the money out of existence. We only pay $10 million once and don’t encumber future taxpayers with a debt for a worn out pool in 20 years time.

The interest bearing, debt based money creation system we have now is best equated as a debt spiral. The money supply has to ever keep increasing to enable all the indebted people to pay off their old debts. The problem is the bankers create the credit but do not create the interest payments. The only way to prop up the system is to keep creating more debts to keep money flowing in the system. It is bit like having to keep filling the bucket that has a hole in it. This is best demonstrated in an example:

We are all trying to pull more money out of the economy than is already there. How do we keep the system afloat? Create more debt. What is “growth” but the pretext to create more debt? The money supply has to keep growing so we can all continue pay off our doubling and tripling debts. That it, until our debts get too big for our ability to pay. Our incomes and growth rates are not compounding. Eventually, the interest bearing debt based money system must collapse and reset itself.

Three things become apparent. One, interest makes everything expensive. Two, the doubling or tripling of all the debts in an economy over time is what inflation is. Your dollar today buys so much less today because there is so much more money in the economy than 30 years ago. The debt spiral is inflation.

Three, the banks create the debt from nothing and then charge you a private tax called compounding interest on top. This money creation is a fraud and the interest charged makes it a spectacular rip off. A bank is like no other business like it in our society. Create money out of nothing and charge a private tax on it. The returns are phenomenal. No wonder the bankers want to keep hold of the money creating power. It is absolute power.

So, until we have real money creation reform and put it back in the hands of the population we will be at the mercy of a handful of men who create and issue our money. The bankers have created the world financial crises we are in. We are the one who will pay the price. We should not allow them to do it all again. – Flavian, Adelaide, Australia