Saturday, July 31, 2010

Friday, July 30, 2010

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Monday, July 19, 2010

Friday, July 9, 2010

Suit Against Wal-Mart Highlights Medical Marijuana Patient Discrimination



Last week, the ACLU filed a lawsuit against Wal-Mart which could have significant implications for thousands of seriously ill Americans across the country who legally use medical marijuana under state law, but still face employer discrimination because of the continued stigma attached to the medicine that brings them relief. 

Joseph Casias, a 30-year-old married father of two, was wrongfully fired from his job at a Wal-Mart store in Battle Creek, Michigan after he tested positive for marijuana following a drug screening. Casias is a legal, registered medical marijuana patient in Michigan. He takes marijuana on the recommendation of his oncologist to help relieve the effects of sinus cancer and an inoperable brain tumor that was the size of a softball when diagnosed. 

This treatment became a legal option for Casias in 2008, after Michigan voters passed the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act (MMMA), which provides protection for the medical use of the drug under state law. In accordance with the law, Casias never used marijuana while on the job, nor did he ever work under the influence of marijuana. In fact, during his time at Wal-Mart, Casias was able to rise from an entry-level stocking position to a managerial role, and along the way, he was named the store's 2008 Associate of the Year. 

In late 2009, Joseph twisted his knee at work. He was given a drug test after being sent to the doctor's office and, predictably, failed that test due to his lawful use of medical marijuana. Wal-Mart then fired him because he failed the test, despite the company's knowledge that he was lawfully using marijuana for pain treatment and not under the influence of the drug while at work. 

The ACLU's lawsuit charges that Wal-Mart wrongfully terminated Joseph in violation of the protections of the MMMA. The Casias case will have great significance not only for Joseph's own life and livelihood but also for thousands of patients around the country in the 14 states and the District of Columbia where medical marijuana is legal. 

Medical marijuana patients already face enough of a challenge trying to treat what are often life-threatening illnesses, such as cancer, AIDS, and multiple sclerosis. They shouldn't have to worry about their jobs, as well. 


ACLU


Let Wal-Mart know what you think

Monday, July 5, 2010

Facing the Future as a Media Felon on the Gulf Coast | FUBAR AND GRILL

It is now a felony to take more photos of birds like this, wading through oil that broken booms have trapped in rookeries

Facing the Future as a Media Felon on the Gulf Coast | FUBAR AND GRILL

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Franz Kafka- 127 years today



































Franz Kafka (July 3, 1883 – June 3 1924) is one of the most influential fiction writers of the early 20th century; a novelist and writer of short stories whose works, only after his death, came to be regarded as one of the major achievements of 20th century literature. 
He was born to middle class German-speaking Jewish parents in Prague, Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic, in what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The house in which he was born, on the Old Town Square next to Prague's Church of St Nicholas, today contains a permanent exhibition devoted to the author. 
Kafka's work—the novels The Trial (1925), The Castle (1926) andAmerika (1927), as well as short stories including The Metamorphosis (1915) and In the Penal Colony (1914)—is now collectively considered to be among the most original bodies of work in modern Western literature. Much of his work, unfinished at the time of his death, was published posthumously. The writer's name has led to the term "Kafkaesque" being used in the English language. 

“We are as forlorn as children lost in the woods. When you stand in front of me and look at me, what do you know of the griefs that are in me and what do I know of yours. And if I were to cast myself down before you and weep and tell you, what more would you know about me than you know about Hell when someone tells you it is hot and dreadful? For that reason alone we human beings ought to stand before one another as reverently, as reflectively, as lovingly, as we would before the entrance to Hell.” 
— Franz Kafka 


Friday, July 2, 2010

Sorry. I like them.













The Brand Vultures – Keds & Co.. Category: Reader Commentaries from The Berkeley Daily Planet - Tuesday June 29, 2010

After reading this little conniption fit I must have a pair! Either that or go burn down some stores and kill a few dozen people. I'm truly torn between the two.

Thursday, July 1, 2010