far to the left:pragmatically, psychedelically, and hermeneutically conscious cognitive libertarian

I have publicly stated on several occasions that i insist that my president would be one who has admitted to taking a relatively large dose (250 to 500 mcgs) of LSD. There are many, many reasons for this, but first and foremost is that the first time i voted for a presidential candidate, my candidate said the following about LSD:

Senator Robert Kennedy, in 1966 said: "Perhaps to some extent we have lost sight of the fact that LSD can be very, very helpful in our society if used properly"

Now of course he was assassinated a few hours after convincingly taking the CA primary election of 2008, and LSD had been relegated to the CSA category of Schedule 1 a few months after RFK's remark.  Thus we have lived in a nation unrepentant for its abject disregard for the well-being and wellness of its citizenry, and for the cavalier attitude towards murder, torture, and imperial invasions.  In these last forty years, one sure thing you could count upon was the repression and massive interdiction into the manufacture, distribution, and use of LSD.  At the core of this successful government operation was/is the vigilant awareness that of all the things that could substantively change our society for the better (and away from the disgusting greed, planet destroying, human enslaving, species slaughtering consumer capitalism) was LSD.  As a molecule in very small quantities, it is capable of radical shifts in how one thinks about consciousness and the relation of that consciousness with the universe outside of it.  Nobel prizes have been awarded for discoveries made; incredible feats of sport have been achieved; and milestones of creative energies revealed--all under the use and influence of LSD (see David Jay Brown's CONVERSATIONS AT THE EDGE OF THE APOCALYPSE).   

In describing his vision of how important LSD can be for the future of the planet, Jonathan Ott wrote:

I firmly believe that contemporary spiritual use of entheogenic drugs is one of humankind's brightest hopes for overcoming the ecological crisis from which we threaten the biosphere and jeopardize our own survival, for Homo sapiens is close to the head of the list of endangered species.
We are indeed at the apex of a series of events that require the best and brightest minds, the most creative thinkers and artists to provide divergent and vastly numerous solutions to the catastrophic problems we face living on the planet today. It is beyond hope and reason to tacitly concur with this thought, yet do absolutely nothing to contribute to being part of the solutions. We need to agree that reason and rationality be paramount to the din of verbose, useless, religiospeak during this period. Idiotic acceptance of prophesies spoken by priests, pastors, imans, avatars, etc. concerning the whims of invisible, masculine, anthropomorphic, omniscient energy entities (illusions of deities), only further the planetary degradation and the loss of sustainable habitats for all living (actual real living) entities and species. Pragmatic reason must ascend to levels hierarchically paramount to rhetoric of faith, party, and money. Greed is no different a religion than its servant Mormonism or Scientology. 

I wholeheartedly endorse LSD as a therapeutic treatment for living in the US.  So rich and powerful a transformer of change it be, that our own government chose to use it as a remedy for curing the Soviet empire in the late 1980s.  In the mid-1980s, agents of our CIA and DEA were encouraged to make contact with a large number of LSD distributors, coaxing them to procure large scale weekly purchases for European shipment. Many of these distribution sources were very closely connected (necessary when one is asked to provide up to 15 grams of pure LSD crystal per week) with the manufacturers.  This government operation had a two prong agenda.

The first was to flood eastern Europe with Gorby acid (as some of it was labelled) encouraging citizens of Hungary, East Germany, then Czechoslovakia, Lithuania, Yugoslavia, Poland, etc., to declare their personal freedom and independence from the constraints of oppressive and coercive rule.  Rising up in these new nations were young adults who could see beyond the constraints of greed and power, and become leaders of creative and substantive change.  The second was to gain immediate access to the suppliers and manufacturers in this US, so that when the anti-Soviet operation was concluded the CIA/FBI/DEA could shut down LSD in the US. Both prongs were incredibly successful.  Coupled with the draconian drug laws of Reagan/Bush, dozens of the best LSD manufacturers and distributers were incarcerated for 20 to 40 years terms in Federal prisons, thereby securing for decades the potential for the flow of LSD to reach the citizenry of the US.  I could make a substantive argument that were it not for the near complete lack of LSD, FoxNews would not currently be able to reach and exist the large numbers of brain-dead it does.

Rising up in this wake of extreme interdiction against entheogens and other psychedelics, while permitting a huge and constant flow of heroin, cocaine, pharmaceutical painkillers and other vicious narcotics to reach the citizens, three groups have made the effort to promote new venues and directions of research.  Spawned during this same period of DARE and Just Say No, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, the Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics, and the Center for Consciousness Studies--all have been moving forward with their efforts to fund research and spread the news.  Around the world, agencies of governments as diverse as Israel, Brazil, and Canada have been interested in funding and engaging in research using MDMA to reduce PTSD and other similar pathologies.  Switzerland has recently embarked on work with LSD for people who are terminally ill and near death, as well as treatment for various chronic pain from migraines.  The US has three similar projects ongoing, and others for medical marijuana.  

At the heart of these developments is the consensual understanding that citizens of the US are endowed with the inalienable right of cognitive liberty.  We are absolutely free to keep our own minds and counsels, without accepting interference from anyone in that regard.  Indeed the Bill of Rights is formulated (and the 13th &14th Amendments) on the principle of cognitive liberty.  This crosses thresholds and emboldens misguided folks to think that a celebrant of cognitive liberty would accept libertarianism as a path towards political pragmatism. This is decidedly not true.  Libertarianism is not about cognitive liberty, it is about property liberty, and at its base is the fomenting of the same dangerous greed and selfishness that is destroying the planet through capitalism.  A citizen, knowledgeably informed of the principles of cognitive liberty, would not interfere in any regard with the freedom of thoughts and minds of others, whereas libertarians and other capitalists rejoice in the desire to attribute economic value to thoughts and minds.  Do not confuse the two, please.  

Insuring the freedom of consciousness and mind, supported by ever more available information and tools to liberate minds through education and consciousness research, and availing these minds the choices of using entheogens is a path to moving forward in hope for a better, more sustainable future.  Without free unfettered investigations in how thought processes, under the influence of LSD, can engage interactively with other species, and other holistic systems of planetary interconnectedness.  We need our earth to be populated with human beings working at their best in thought mind and deed to solve the critical problems of the upcoming year, decade, and quarter century.  Quashing tools, such as LSD, because one is afraid of the consequences of a population suddenly freed from the confines of mind-numbing media messages, only further serves the destruction of all of the planet's species.  We are on the  brink of creating the greatest period of extinction in the Earth's history.  And we are one of the species that are at great risk.  

 As Terrence McKenna, the profound researcher of entheogens and mystical states, said:

Consciousness is what we're in need of to avoid running off the cliff into armageddon!

airline pilots are raging idiots....

Over the course of the last year, i have had the opportunity to spend a great deal of time with the flight crews of the commercial airlines of the US. Most of these experiences have been pleasant and highly informative; but there has been one consistent depressing and irritating tone: pilots. Contrary to what most people might believe, the men (and 90% of them are men) are for the most part: white, conservative, former military, FoxNews-watching, misogynist bastards. And worse, they are arrogant, self-centered, solipsistic, fascist, rather racist, pinhead peckerwoods who care only and solely about themselves as elitists, while hypocritically demanding they are all about the safety of others. It is painful to experience, and helps one realize why there is a bullet-proofed locked door between them and the world.

These shit for brains, deeply believe they are some god's gift to the planet, while simultaneously dyssing their flight attendants, their peers from other airlines, and the general public. There are, of course, some rare exceptions (as there are a few female pilots and one or two black ones) but for the most part, the members of the airline pilots associations are every bit the reason we have had to endure the Bush/Cheney administration for so damn long. They never apologize for the delays they personally cause (oversleeping, previous night partying (using their carefully negotiated benefit of claiming FAA exempted exhaustion), taking the airplane itself past its safe zones thus requiring FAA ground inspections after legs {and making the next flights cancel} etc. They never apologize for bad landings, because, well, it is really something they had no control over although they spend inordinate amounts of time in the simulators practicing for all conditions. They will not apologize or acknowledge that passengers might perceive the flying of the plane (take off, sudden altitude shifts, and landing) as glaringly unsafe, because the passengers don't know anything about flying.

But pilots will be the first to complain about anything someone outside the airplane does in their daily jobs, because they are magically (and miraculously) experts in all manner of things: religion, education, politics, social relations, driving, dining, packing, music, logistics, etc. How they gain this expertise, one can never know, but experts they are and people better praise them for that. The hypocrisy of this is staggeringly appalling. I can't begin to recount the number of times i have been told this or that by them, regardless that they: possess light-years-less education, are terrifyingly unqualified, and lack even the remotest period of daily experience that this presumed expertise might suggest. If you carefully read the FAA qualifications for becoming a commercial airline pilot, you discover that they need only be 18 years of age, experienced in a variety of aircraft and simulators, have demonstrated skills and attributes to inspectors and instructors at various flight academies, flown diverse planes of increasing size and power. You notice they don't have to pass any basic literacy tests, nor graduate from universities, nor demonstrate skills in any sort of venues outside of flying a plane.

Pilots are: bigots, idiots, fascists, womanizing misogynists, far-right conservatives. They disdain all that are not pilots, as being lesser people than them (though this often includes other pilots of other airlines). Next time you fly off into the blue, remember these are not the friendly skies, but rather the nightmare asshole ones.

***UPDATE: Much is being made about the pilot of the US Airways plane that was ditched into the Hudson River. He is being hailed as a hero for doing his job; thus demonstrating all the more clearly how the general public has enabled these creeps to become giant-headed fucktards. The pilots--yes there were actually two of them who needed to coordinate actions--followed all of the procedures and steps they had been trained to follow in simulator simulations (pilots retrain, on average, two weeks of each year on simulators programmed to create these sorts of emergency situations). If this pilot is a hero for demonstrating his competency for following the script, there can be no wonder how deep into the quagmire of bullshit the Dick-n-Bush administration has taken the connotations of competency. We are fucked.