Since the passage of California's Proposition 215 in 1996, medical marijuana has become an increasingly important political issue in the United States. Today, 10 states have recognized medicinal Cannabis and enacted laws protecting patients.

Unforunately, the recent Supreme Court decision in Gonzalez v. Raich is a major setback for the medical marijuana movement. What follows is a discussion of related issues, as well as a plea for your assistance at this critical time.

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Prior to the Great Depression, the United States was transitioning from an Agrarian Society to an Industrial Society. Improvements in medicine were allowing people to live longer. People were migrating from rural to urban areas. Extended families were being replaced by smaller families.

Several nations around the world had already adopted some form of national welfare to replace the family. There were many movements to establish a national program in the United States and a few states were already running their own experiments. The massive poverty caused by the Great Depression increased the popularity of those movements and led to the Social Security Act.

The Social Security Act was signed into law by President Roosevelt on August 14, 1935. In addition to several provisions for general welfare, the new Act created a social insurance program designed to pay retired workers age 65 or older a continuing income after retirement. A Brief History of Social Security

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Anyone can predict the future, but we can't all be right. Some people see a rosy economic future; I fear a bleak one. But all we can do is hope for the best and prepare for the worst. I'm interested in what you think the economic future of the US will be, and here are some of the major issues to take into account; comment on what you see the outlook for the future being, and on any and all of these issues. Also, please add in any issues that impact our economic future, that I may have omitted. Try to be realistic, civil, and correct in ten years.
 

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by Gerard Holmgren debunker@hotmail.com

Copyright Gerard Holmgren. Jan 2003.

This work may be freely copied and distributed without permission as long as it not for commercial use. Please include the author's name, the web address where you found it and the copyright notice.

Astute observers of history are aware that for every notable event there will usually be at least one ,often several wild conspiracy theories which spring up around it. "The CIA killed Hendrix" " The Pope had John Lennon murdered ", "Hitler was half Werewolf", "Space aliens replaced Nixon with a clone" etc,etc. The bigger the event, the more ridiculous and more numerous are the fanciful rantings which circulate in relation to it.

So its hardly surprising that the events of Sept 11 2001 have spawned their fair share of these ludicrous fairy tales. And as always, there is - sadly - a small but gullible percentage of the population eager to lap up these tall tales, regardless of facts or rational analysis.

One of the wilder stories circulating about Sept 11, and one that has attracted something of a cult following amongst conspiracy buffs is that it was carried out by 19 fanatical Arab hijackers, masterminded by an evil genius named Osama bin Laden, with no apparent motivation other than that they "hate our freedoms."

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The Dover, Pennsylvania school board recently adopted a policy requiring that high school science teachers teaching evolution tell their students that evolutionary theory, a theory that has been shown to explain the origins of life time and time again, is flawed, and that intelligent design is a valid alternative. The ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), along with the AUSCS (Americans United for the Separation of Church and State), and 11 parents, are suing the school board, accusing the board of violating the separation of church and state (Banerjee A16). They are quite right. The sole purpose of "Intelligent Design" is to make creationism look like a scientifically credible theory, so that it can be perpetuated in public schools, among other places. Intelligent Design, however, is not supported by scientific evidence, and is invalid as a scientific theory.

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Whether we like it or not: Habemus Papam ("we have a pope").

As an atheist, it is an amazing spectacle around the pope that I enjoy more than most sports events, and also unbelievable that no one on K5 has managed to get through the voting barrier yet...

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In which this penguin ruminates upon the birthday of Adolph Hitler, the soul of a nation, the difference between Hitler the man and Hitler the symbol, and the similarity between Hitler, Ann Coulter, George W. Bush, Bill Frist, and Tom DeLay, none of whom resemble Hitler the symbol but greatly resemble Hitler the man...

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I finally saw Dawn of the Dead (2004), and I just have to wonder, did these people even think about how they would survive a zombie attack? Since we've had a rash of zombie movies lately - 28 Day, Shaun of the Dead - I think someone needs to publish a zombie survival guide to help these people out. And that someone is me, because I for one don't welcome our new zombie overlords.

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Wherein the author didactically submits his answer to the age-old question: "How much should the government pay you for threatening you with the draft?"

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America has need of idealism and courage, because we have essential work at home - the unfinished work of American freedom. In a world moving toward liberty, we are determined to show the meaning and promise of liberty" -George W Bush

Just what liberties do we Americans have that other countries do not have?

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