Bigger, Faster, Stronger

I just finished watching Bigger, Faster, Stronger. It's a good documentary on steroid use. On the one hand, it suggests that steroids aren't nearly as dangerous as they're made out to be. (Something that could be said about most illegal drugs.) At the same time, it suggests that steroids are part of a much larger American problem of wanting to win at all costs. One part of the film that could be a documentary in itself is its short look at the supplement industry which, for the most part, sells the modern version of snake oil.

First amendment turned upside-down

Police recently forcefully seized someone's flag from their property because it was "a disruption." I wish they'd start seizing some of the billboards and other advertisements that disrupt my view of the forests everytime I drive. They could also seize all the army recruitment posters that disrupt me as I walk down the street. I had no idea that I could call the police over and have them seize people's property whenever I sensed that the property disrupted my emotional equilibrium. I'm personally more disrupted by all the upright flags--they should definitely seize some of them too.

WAUSAU, Wis. – An American flag flown upside down as a protest in a northern Wisconsin village was seized by police before a Fourth of July parade and the businessman who flew it — an Iraq war veteran — claims the officers trespassed and stole his property.

A day after the parade, police returned the flag and the man's protest — over a liquor license — continued.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin is considering legal action against the village of Crivitz for violating Vito Congine Jr.'s' First Amendment rights, Executive Director Chris Ahmuty said.

"It is not often that you see something this blatant," Ahmuty said.

In mid-June, Congine, 46, began flying the flag upside down — an accepted way to signal distress — outside the restaurant he wants to open in Crivitz, a village of about 1,000 people some 65 miles north of Green Bay.

He said his distress is likely bankruptcy because the village board refused to grant him a liquor license after he spent nearly $200,000 to buy and remodel a downtown building for an Italian supper club.

Congine's upside-down-flag represents distress to him; to others in town, it represents disrespect of the flag.

Hours before a Fourth of July parade, four police officers went to Congine's property and removed the flag under the advice of Marinette County District Attorney Allen Brey.
Neighbor Steven Klein watched in disbelief.

"I said, 'What are you doing?' Klein said. "They said, 'It is none of your business.'"
The next day, police returned the flag.

Brey declined comment Friday.

Marinette County Sheriff Jim Kanikula said it was not illegal to fly the flag upside down but people were upset and it was the Fourth of July.

"It is illegal to cause a disruption," he said.

The parade went on without any problems, Kanikula said.

Village President John Deschane, 60, an Army veteran who served in Vietnam, said many people in town believe it's disrespectful to fly the flag upside down.

"If he wants to protest, let him protest but find a different way to do it," Deschane said.

Congine, a Marine veteran who served in Iraq in 2004, said he intends to keep flying the flag upside down.

"It is pretty bad when I go and fight a tyrannical government somewhere else," Congine said, "and then I come home to find it right here at my front door."

Beam me down

Last night, I bought a six-pack of wheat beer and watched Virtual Girl and Outerworld. I've become a convert to low-budget sci-fi. The combination of femmes fatales, fly-overs of alien landscapes and gleaming red space ships taking on powerful intergalactic corporations can't be beat.

The community of the faithless

William Lobdell, the author of Losing My Religion, recently gave a talk in Portland. The following comment, from a summary of the talk, caught my eye and really resonated with something I've felt for a long time:

Although he was an atheist, Lobdell had a message for the 90% non-theist crowd of 40 that was critical of the atheist establishment. Instead of merely critiquing religion, freethinkers need to find something positive and constructive to put in its place. In other words, there needs to be an atheist alternative to the community and charity that are a foundation of organized religion.

Around the internets

Mick Arran connects the dots, from Greenspan of yesteryear to the financial debacle of today. Intrepid Liberal Journal muses about living on $2 a day. To help with low-budget menu planning, Tild shares the secret of Red Russian Kale and Red Onion Savory Breakfast Squares. Looking at how the other side lives, Nate Hagens reflects on the psychology of overconsumption. There were also several parting kisses to some lady in Alaska. Down south, Alabama's poised to take the number one spot for fattest state in the nation from Mississippi (increasing the likelihood that the entire Republican Party will die in a simultaneous cardiac arrest within the next decade). The Rambling Taoist considers shephards and sheeple. Dohiyi Mir claims we need more jesters in politics. And Doug Ireland is interviewed (in French) about the significance of the Stone Wall riots.

The Island

I just watched the 2005 sci-fi thriller The Island. It's an engaging thoughtful film that provides a great metaphor for religion as a control mechanism. Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson both do an excellent job in the lead roles.

Homo plasticus

I've been reading The World Without Us. It's an odd book, a thought experiment based on the unlikely premise that human beings suddenly disappear from the face of the planet. But the book does provide, indirectly, a useful examination of the outcome of our current technological experiment. The most startling chapter from the first half of the book is the one dealing with plastics. They evidently hit the oceans and then keep breaking down into smaller and smaller pieces (which virtually take forever to completely breakdown) and then end up increasingly in the guts of animals. It's disturbing that such plastics are consistently found below the surface of the ocean even in farflung places like the arctic.

Senator Webb's Parade Article

I came across this article on prison reform over at Comrade Kevin's site. In the following excerpt, the Sentator Jim Webb compares Japan and the U.S. The differences are startling:

We need to fix the system. Doing so will require a major nationwide recalculation of who goes to prison and for how long and of how we address the long-term consequences of incarceration. Twenty-five years ago, I went to Japan on assignment for PARADE to write a story on that country's prison system. In 1984, Japan had a population half the size of ours and was incarcerating 40,000 sentenced offenders, compared with 580,000 in the United States. As shocking as that disparity was, the difference between the countries now is even more astounding--and profoundly disturbing. Since then, Japan's prison population has not quite doubled to 71,000, while ours has quadrupled to 2.3 million. The United States has by far the world's highest incarceration rate. With 5% of the world's population, our country now houses nearly 25% of the world's reported prisoners. We currently incarcerate 756 inmates per 100,000 residents, a rate nearly five times the average worldwide of 158 for every 100,000. In addition, more than 5 million people who recently left jail remain under "correctional supervision," which includes parole, probation, and other community sanctions. All told, about one in every 31 adults in the United States is in prison, in jail, or on supervised release. This all comes at a very high price to taxpayers: Local, state, and federal spending on corrections adds up to about $68 billion a year.

The Senator points out that much of the prison population is there for petty offenses:

Justice statistics also show that 47.5% of all the drug arrests in our country in 2007 were for marijuana offenses. Additionally, nearly 60% of the people in state prisons serving time for a drug offense had no history of violence or of any significant selling activity. Indeed, four out of five drug arrests were for possession of illegal substances, while only one out of five was for sales. Three-quarters of the drug offenders in our state prisons were there for nonviolent or purely drug offenses. And although experts have found little statistical difference among racial groups regarding actual drug use, African-Americans--who make up about 12% of the total U.S. population--accounted for 37% of those arrested on drug charges, 59% of those convicted, and 74% of all drug offenders sentenced to prison.

I think a good argument can be made for the complete legalization of drugs, allowing law enforcement to focus on the few people who are truly violent and need to be removed from society.