The Botany of Desire: Michael Pollan

Michael Pollan, The Botany of Desire:

What... was the knowledge that God wanted to keep from Adam and Eve in the Garden? Theologians will debate this question without end, but it seems to me the most important answer is hidden in plain sight. The content of the knowledge Adam and Eve could gain by tasting of the fruit does not matter nearly as much as its form... from nature. The new faith sought to break the human bond with magic nature, to disenchant the world of plants and animals by directing our attention to a single God in the sky. Yet Jehovah couldn't very well pretend the tree of knowledge didn't exist, not when generations of plant-worshipping pagans knew better. So the pagan tree is allowed to grow even in Eden, though ringed around now with a strong taboo. Yes, there is spiritual knowledge in nature, the new God is acknowledging, and its temptations are fierce, but I am fiercer still. Yield to it, and you will be punished.

So unfolds the drug war's first battle.
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Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Democratic Politicians Reveal Further Spine Degeneration

California Democrats demonstrate, yet again, their spinelessness in the face of ridiculous right wing laws.

L.A. Times

"If we endorse Proposition 19 and take a courageous position to support reform, just as we took courageous positions on same-sex marriage and other contentious issues, we will win the moral argument, we will win Proposition 19 and we will win races in November," Cruickshank said. (Cruickshank is the public policy director for the Courage Campaign, an organization that lobbies for progressive causes.)


I think it can be safely said that few Democrats currently in office or currently seeking office choose courageous or morally just positions on issue after issue that concern the well-being and personal freedom of American citizens.

The party's executive board, which includes elected officials and party representatives from across the state, voted 101 to 85 against an endorsement. But the Democrats, despite taking a cautious stance, appeared solidly behind the initiative, cheering and whooping much more raucously for the pro-endorsement speakers.

Dan Rush, an official with Local 5 of the United Food and Commercial Workers, who is running the legalization campaign's labor outreach, said an endorsement would have been a "great boost" but that a neutral position was still a victory. "We could have gotten a resounding no," he said.


In other words, Democratic politicians must be forced to do the right thing by the people at the ballot box. People of California, are you ready to show them the way to peace after the drug war?

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