- Wasted
money, state of Colorado, wasted money. You can try to spin your new anti-ganja
campaign for teenagers any way you want, but it’s going to fail. For the
record, the spin the state has chosen is that pot isn't the devil, but that
teenagers and young adults aren't quite ready to get baked. Marijuana is legal
for recreational use in the Centennial State, but the
“What’s Next” campaign aims to keep people under 21 away from pot. Its core
theme is that doing bong rips and taking a nice, long drag off a fattie can
keep youths from achieving their full potential. To which the reply is going to
be, “Dude….so?” See, there is no way a bunch of squares in suits and ties is
going to effectively communicate to teenagers already surrounded by a sea of
dank to just say no when their friend passes the blunt at a party or when
they’re hanging out in their parents’ basement watching Adult Swim on Cartoon
Network. The campaign depicts active young people and contains messages that a
person’s brain isn't fully developed until they’re 25. The target audience for
these ads is going to tune them out quickly, but if they kept watching they
would hear claims that getting high can make it harder for them to pass a test,
land a job, or pass the exam for a driver’s license. The track record for the
government trying to keep young people away from weed isn't good, as evidenced
by last year’s anti-hippie lettuce campaign called “Don’t Be A Lab Rat,” which
included erecting human-sized rat cages outside schools and libraries. That one
crashed and burned as marijuana activists argued that it recycled Drug War-era
scare tactics. Teenagers responded the same way they respond to most
everything, namely by grabbing their iPhone and Instagram-ing out pics of themselves
smoking pot inside cages. This campaign is slightly less ridiculous, but it
will crash and burn all the same…………
- It’s
long overdue, but finally, “Schrei Nach Liebe” ('Cry
For Love') is getting the run it has deserved ever since German anti-Nazi punk
band Die Ärzte dropped this lyrical, societal gem on the world back in 1993.
Like so many great works of art, this one wasn’t truly appreciated when it was
first released to the world. For 22 years, it languished in musical obscurity
and only now is it being rescued by the unlikeliest of heroes. That would be
the folks leading a campaign protesting recent right-wing arson attacks on
refugees in Germany. As Germany and other European nations grapple with how to
deal with hundreds of thousands of Middle East refugees pouring into their
continent, anti-immigrant sentiment is high. That has led to a wave of violence
against these border crashers and in return, a punk band from the ’90s surging
to relevance thanks to a social media push calling on fans to purchase “Schrei
Nach Liebe” as a way of opposing the violence. The campaign has lifted the
song, which mocks the ever-mockable neo-Nazis, to the top of Germany’s singles
charts. To really top it off, the refugee shelters targeted by these hate
groups should blast the track on an hourly basis so those expressing such hate
and intolerance with lyrics that include, "Because you’re scared of a cuddle, you’re a fascist,” and,
"Your violence is just a silent
cry for love… oh, oh, oh asshole.” All brilliant, cogent points and ones
of which we all need to be reminded on a daily basis. Who says David Hasselhoff
is the only good thing about German music……….
- Riot
Watch! Riot Watch! The tremors from the earthquake that rocked Nepal earlier
this year may have subsided, but as the country works to recover from that
massive damage inflicted by the disaster, it’s clear that not everyone’s focus
is on unity or rebuilding. No, there are ethnic groups with other priorities
and those priorities were on display earlier this week when a small, violent
protest in southern Nepal led to police opening
fire on demonstrators who were boldly demanding statehood, killing at least
four people in two separate towns. Police official Saurav Rana painted a very
one-sided picture, claiming three protesters were killed Wednesday because they
were attacking police officers in Jaleswor town, about 100 miles southeast of
the capital, Kathmandu. A fourth protestor was killed when police opened fire
in Bhardaha town, just east of Jaleswor. It was the latest chapter of violence
in a story unfolding in recent weeks as protests by different ethnic groups
demanding statehood in the country's new constitution rage on. The group
leading this week’s fatal protests are from the Madhesi ethnic group in
southern Nepal The group is demanding a bigger area than proposed in the draft
being finalized in the Constituent Assembly and history has shown that few
things piss off any people more than The Man trying to jam them by taking away
their land or cramming them onto a much smaller plot of territory than they
think they should have. That ethnic groups are rioting as much of their nation
remains in ruins is a juicy bit of irony, but one that doesn’t seem to matter at
all to these dissidents……….
- The
rest of the college football world needs to listen to West Virginia coach Dana
Holgorsen. Whether he follows through on his bold proclamation about no longer
scheduling FCS (Division I-AA) opponents is to be seen, but for now he’s saying
the right thing. It’s ironic because his Mountaineers play FCS foe Liberty on
Saturday and have Youngstown State on the schedule in 2016, but both of
those FCS games were scheduled prior to his arrival in 2011. Once they’re gone,
Holgorsen said, his team will play only fellow FBS (Division I) opponents. FBS
teams put FCS teams on their schedule because it’s a virtually guaranteed win
that costs them only the $500,000 or so they chip off to their lamb led to the
football slaughter along with the self-respect they flush by refusing to play
an FBS team that could actually challenge them. "We are one of the only
teams in the country that are scheduling two Power 5 schools in the
future," Holgorsen said. "If you look at our future schedules, we are
scheduling them. I wish that everybody else would do the same thing.” Under
Holgorsen’s plan, WVU intends to schedule two games against teams from the
so-called Power 5, college football’s biggest conferences, and one against an
FBS team from a non-Power 5 conference. And yes, two FCS opponents pulled off
upsets against Power 5 schools last week, but Portland State stunning
Washington State and South Dakota State upending Kansas doesn’t legitimize FBS
teams scheduling FCS opponents - it merely means those particular FBS teams are
really terrible. So far, the Big Ten is the only league to implement a rule
banning its teams from scheduling FCS competition, but maybe others will follow
their example and grow a pair when it comes to scheduling……….
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