Worcester Blogger Round About Rotary

Papamoka Straight Talk is not for the most part a local Worcester, Mass-A-Two-Sticks (A nickname given what you have left over after all the taxes) blog but I’m finding that there are some great local blog’s discussing real issues that actually are relevant to this site. When it comes right down to it I tried making a difference in my local area but the knock your head against the wall mentality in Worcester is probably the same as in any fairly large city in America. I gave up when the PIP Shelter was shutdown and moved two houses down from my family. We moved for reasons other than the obvious but that is another story for another day.

When you look at the terrorist level on this site indicated by the Bert and Ernie chicklet you could reference the Worm Town Taxi on the local terrorist story about the kid from Winchendon bringing in an empty Memorial Day gun cartridge from the military parade to school. The child was sentenced to the Gitmo of Winchendon and expelled. That’s the war on terror at the local level. How did AlQuida get to this kid? There was no mention of water boarding of the kid from Winchendon but Worm Town Taxi is still working on this story. I’m laying bets the kid was secretly deported to Sutton in some covert undercover CIA day care center where they don’t serve milk and cookies at snack time. I'm joking of course but this kid was just being a kid and showing off something he should have been proud of. I find myself reading Worm Town Taxi just because he offers a glimpse of Worcester you simply can not find anywhere else.

Thanks to Worm Town Taxi I found Pie and Coffee that does a great pod cast week after week. This week was a very interesting 508 broadcast with several Worcester bloggers and I loved it! The folks participating would be the congress and the problematic President would be the lack of the local media and city hall understanding what is really going on. Pick a subject locally and they nailed it with personal thoughts from real people without a political spin going.

Then I had to check out Daily Worcesteria after listening to Pie & Coffee that has a unique point of view that just sees the local paper as the fox in the hen house without a clue as to what the real folks see. If you read the local paper and the editorial page then you see the somewhat right leaning policy of the Worcester Telegram. What I find unique about DW is the community building influence and the honest approach to the issues that ARE Worcester. This site comes down to the people making a difference rather than the politically motivated people moving the city back decades. Loving it! Must read!

My neighbors on the old blog-o-sphere in my hometown have impressed me so much that I added a sidebar of links just for appreciation sake to their local sites. Granted, Jeff from Worm Town Taxi was already there along with I’m From Worcester but I’ll be adding more as the days pass. What I truly enjoy about local bloggers is the passion and conviction of what they are doing. It isn’t about them as an individual as much as it is about informing the community. I’m pretty sure not one of them is making a living at blogging so it comes down to local pride and in that sense they are true leaders. Patriots of days gone by taking the lead and pointing the direction to where we the people should be and how we can get there. Refreshing thoughts in my opinion.

Action and change only happens when people speak up and these folks along with multitudes of other local blogger’s are speaking up loud and clear. Which begs the question of what you the local resident or reader is willing to do to make things change for the better? If you leave it up to someone else to make it happen then don’t complain when the same mess happens over and over again. What will you do to make your voice heard if those in service to you do not listen?

Public service and running for office is not a cave in if you do it to make life better for the people you care about. If you serve to not better your own lot in life but for the people that need you most, it then is in fact true public service much like the Kennedy family has done for decades. I'm convinced that the politicians serving my community are only there because nobody thinks there is anyone better to do the job. Their voices are the only ones you here because they are the only ones talking! Name recognition on the ballot has surpassed the quality of the candidates on the ballot at the local level. Tell me I'm wrong!

Hell, maybe I should run for Teddy Kennedy’s Senate seat just for giggles and see what happens. No offense to Senator Kennedy or his family, I love all that he has done for this state and the American people. I'm just one voice with a political blog focused on national issues with a true sense of Worcester. It would be a true shame to see a political hack fill his seat and waste the chair because they owed favors unspoken in political circles. I would also hate to see another politically incapacitated politician run for it with a personal grudge to pay. How is it that you start that process? I’ll have to look into that. Just a thought. Worcester and this states deserves a true servant of the people and Teddy Kennedy raised the bar pretty high.

The time to dream for the possibilities of America is upon us, now more than ever is your chance to reach for hope and make change possible. It all starts with one voice and nobody can say that it isn't your voice that could make it all possible. Hope is alive in America and it starts with you! What are you willing to do for America and your community?

Anywho, check out all the local blog’s and thanks for doing so. That is the true meat of this post...
Papamoka

Marijuana, Cannabis, Bootleg Drugs

Legitimizing any mind altering drug is nearly impossible unless you are a pharmaceutical company or distributor for any alcohol product readily available down at your local liquor store.

Personally, I can’t stand the smell of Pot burning in any form. It gives me a headache and thus I’m not a user. No pills, no crack pipes or whatever else it takes to get a break from reality in this house other than a six pack of Budweiser for yours truly. I like them cold and I like them fresh with a recent born on date. Some folks can not stand the smell of beer or any form of alcohol that causes that little reflex in the back of their throat that lets them taste lunch all over again. I’m not one of them.

I have recently found the pleasure of reading a local blog in Worcester Mass a two sticks called the Worm Town Taxi and the site and writer has a unique perspective. This is what he has to say on the endless money pit or battle on drug trafficking from a local perspective…

Saturday, December 1, 2007

California's Biggest Cash Crop

If they made grapes illegal, then grapes would be California's biggest cash crop.

And if there were a set of regulations to legitimize the production and sale of this naturally occuring weed, then we wouldn't have this problem. But we do have small problems like that, in addition to much larger problems involving overcrowded jails, increased crime, and large scale embedded infrastructure that costs upwards of $50 billion a year in tax dollars.

The War On Drugs has never impeded any flow or usage in this country, something that rarely finds its way into the news.

If drugs were legalized and regulated, I still wouldn't use them. I don't even take aspirin. But the fact that California's annual $14 billion cash crop of illegal marijuana surpasses every other crop legitimately grown in that state really ought to tell you something very important and very basic... there are enough people making so much money on illegal drugs in this country that it would be a real blow to all of them if these commodities were suddenly legalized and regulated. - Worm Town Taxi

Jeff has the right thought when it comes to taking the drug trade in Marijuana out of the closet and making it a market driven product with all the same tax dollars that cigarettes have tacked on to them. Maybe it is time that we stop looking over our shoulders when a friend or yourself is smoking a joint or taking a hit on a bong. With our jails being overcrowded in every state for possession or intent to distribute is a joke. I think those cells could be used for far more dangerous criminals like pedophiles, rapist, killers, and cop killers.

Reality and legality is a funny thing in America. Many amongst us are taking a hit but none of us will ever admit it because the law of the land says that you should not do so. “But I did not inhale” is a classic quote of someone that tried it but didn’t like it. This non crisis issue is concerning pot is so large that our government spends billions of dollars a year to stem the flow of illegal drugs like marijuana coming to our shores. Umm, somebody let them know that it is a naturally growing product in all fifty states. Even George Washington grew hemp and for all the crap he had to go through I’m betting that he was stoned half of the time as a General and our first President. I don’t think I need to mention that he had his own distillery running at Mount Vernon but he did. That fact is not common known but it is a fact. You just have to love a party animal like George Washington.

This is not the days of prohibition but then again it is. Drug testing for a job is now common place but it is okay to have every prescription mind altering drug in your blood but if cannabis or hemp as they called it in the 1700’s shows up in the results you do not get the job. Jack Daniel’s is good, pot is bad?

One thing you will not find is any seriously taken political candidate talking about this issues simply because the people that use pot do not vote for the most part. Or do they?

Ergo, the issue is for the most part politically dead.

Papamoka

Cross posted at Bring IT ON!

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