December 4, 2008 by PT Rothschild.

BARREL OF OIL DOWN $100 UNDER PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA

As the congress gets ready to spank the Big Three, the polls show 60% approve of the beating up of an industry that is the lifeblood, in part, of this country. While the auto industry could do much to improve itself and its image (see ‘Who Killed The Electric Car?’), for Congress to make the auto industry beg for scraps after providing billions to both a bogus war effort and their banker buddies, shows them to be arrogant bastards and ignorant bastards. Ignorant because the supply chain and the ripples the auto makers will cause if they go out of business shows the Congress has no clue to anything outside their lobbyists or the Beltway.


In reality, Congress should have kept the Big Three more on track with technological innovation instead of getting a few extra few MPG and emission reduction by 2050. The state of Hawaii has now gone to electric cars but none of their cars are being built by MoPar, Ford, or GM. Since the Big C didn’t steer or pressure the Big Three into doing the right thing, it isn’t fair to make the working man have to crawl. Right or wrong, the Big Three make products to sell, adding to the economy. The fat Congress sucks up dollars from the ‘working man’ and makes nothing except laws to bind him and strip his freedom away. However, again if Congress was thinking, especially outside the box, they would make the oil companies ‘grant’ the Big Three the billion$ they need. After all, for years the Big Three built gas guzzlers that made the oil companies many billion$ in profit. Time to, like Obama says, spread the wealth around. To me, it’s time to drive some of that excess oil profit to Detroit, not Washington, with a big note that says, ‘Thanks Cuz’.                                                                                                                             That’s just my opinion, I ride a bicycle.

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December 4, 2008 by PT Rothschild.

GOD & SOLOMAN RIGHT, CHURCH & GOVERNMENT WRONG

As many of my readers know, I support using hemp. I believe the prohibition against it isn’t just wrong-headed, it’s evil. And although the Holy Roman Catholic Church began preaching against it in the ‘dark ages’ (1300’s because the natives who smoked it rebelled more when told they had to accept Catholic rule from the foreigners who brought it), it wasn’t until 1937 that the U.S.Government said that something used for thousands of years was wrong. According to legend, marijuana was found growing on King Solomon’s grave, and according to the New Riders of the Purple Sage, Panama Red was a legendary pot dealer. And now Dear Readers, here’s another tale from the crypt, and one that won’t scare you. It was reported yesterday that nearly two pounds of still-green plant material found in a 2,700-year-old grave in the Gobi Desert has just been identified as the world’s oldest marijuana stash, according to a paper in the latest issue of the Journal of Experimental Botany. (Somebody call Ripley’s)

A barrage of tests (un huh!) proves the marijuana possessed potent psychoactive properties and casts doubt on the theory that the ancients only grew the plant for hemp in order to make clothing, rope and other objects. They apparently were getting high too. Lead author Ethan Russo told Discovery News that the marijuana “is quite similar” to what’s grown today. (cough, cough) “We know from both the chemical analysis and genetics that it could produce THC (tetrahydrocannabinolic acid synthase, the main psychoactive chemical in the plant),” he explained, adding that no one could feel its effects today, due to decomposition over the millennia.(riiigggghhhhtt).

Russo served as a visiting professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Botany while conducting the study. He and his international team analyzed the cannabis, which was excavated at the Yanghai Tombs near Turpan, China. It was found lightly pounded in a wooden bowl in a leather basket near the head of a blue-eyed Caucasian man who died when he was about 45.


“This individual was buried with an unusual number of high value, rare items,” Russo said, mentioning that the objects included a make-up bag, bridles, pots, archery equipment and a kongou harp. The researchers believe the individual was a shaman from the Gushi people, who spoke a now-extinct language called Tocharian that was similar to Celtic. Scientists originally thought the plant material in the grave was coriander, but microscopic botanical analysis of the bowl contents, along with genetic testing, revealed that it was cannabis. The size of seeds mixed in with the leaves, along with their color and other characteristics, indicate the marijuana came from a cultivated strain. Before the burial, someone had carefully picked out all of the male plant parts, which are less psychoactive, so Russo and his team believe there is little doubt as to why the cannabis was grown. What is in question, however, is how the marijuana was administered, since no pipes or other objects associated with smoking were found in the grave. “Perhaps it was ingested orally,” Russo said. “It might also have been fumigated, as the Scythian tribes to the north did subsequently.”

Although other cultures in the area used hemp to make various goods as early as 7,000 years ago, additional tomb finds indicate the Gushi fabricated their clothing from wool and made their rope out of reed fibers. The scientists are unsure if the marijuana was grown for more spiritual or medical purposes, but it’s evident that the blue-eyed man was buried with a lot of it. “As with other grave goods, it was traditional to place items needed for the afterlife in the tomb with the departed,” Russo said.

The ancient marijuana stash is now housed at Turpan Museum in China. In the future, Russo hopes to conduct further research at the Yanghai site, which has 2,000 other tombs.

(Source: Jennifer Viegas/Discovery Channel, MSNBC. Added humor - PT)

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