Tidbits

“It is dangerous to be right when government is wrong.” – Voltaire

A new study in Calgary Alberta as reported in the Globe and Mail shows that regular administration of Cannabinoids promotes neuron growth in the brain and  according to researchers may lead to many new treatments for things like Glaucoma and Crone’s disease.

"Ultimately, new therapies could be developed as a result of these findings," said Keith Sharkey, a gastrointestinal neuroscientist at the University of Calgary, lead author of the study.

Cannabinoids, such as marijuana and hashish, have been used to address pain, nausea, vomiting, seizures caused by epilepsy, ischemic stroke, cerebral trauma, tumors, multiple sclerosis and a host of other maladies.

Don’t hold your breath Cheech– it could cure everything, but it won’t ever be legal in the US.


Pentagon officials are denying that a live video conference between President Bush and U.S. troops in Iraq was staged, according to Fox News, even though some of the coaching of the troops was caught on tape. Paul Rieckhoff, director of the New York-based Operation Truth, an advocacy group for U.S. veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, denounced the event as a "carefully scripted publicity stunt." Five of the 10 U.S. troops involved were officers, he said.  Could it be that the troops in Iraq are not thrilled at the progress we’re making? Can you believe you’re hearing doubts about the war on Fox News?


A fake of a fake

Is a fake of a fake genuine?  Afraid not.  A story in today’s Guardian  tells us that Majed A. Ihmoud, 52, a member of the Saudi Royal Family, has plead guilty to attempting to sell a reproduction of  Rembrant van Rijn’s “Man with the Golden Helmet'' for $2,800,000 in St Louis last year in a transaction witnessed by undercover FBI agents. The “Original, of course, hangs in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, but it is now believed by experts that it was not painted by Rembrandt himself.  Maybe the Saudi Royals should stick to something easier like scamming the American public.

The affair brings back memories of one Michael van Rijn (no relation) who attempted several questionable art transactions in St Louis back in the 1980’s. Maybe they should change the motto from “Show me” to “Show me the fakes?”


Love is hate


WENM TV in Michigan tells us that soon the KKK will have its own TV show on Michigan Public TV. The first airing of the program will be on Saturday, October 22nd.  According to their website, the Ku Klux Klan brings “a message of hope and deliverance to white Christian America. A message of love, not hate.”

Sounds like a big pile of sheets to me.