The end times are here? Hell freezes over?

Via:  www.rawstory.com

Conservative televangelist Pat Robertson says he has become a “hero of the hippie culture” by calling for marijuana to be legalized.

“I really believe we should treat marijuana the way we treat beverage alcohol,” Robertson toldThe New York Times on Wednesday. “I’ve never used marijuana and I don’t intend to, but it’s just one of those things that I think: this war on drugs just hasn’t succeeded.”

Late last year, the televangelist seemed to endorse deregulation, but a spokesman for the Christian Broadcast Network (CBN) told Raw Story that he “did not call for the decriminalization of marijuana.”

“He was advocating that our government revisit the severity of the existing laws because mandatory drug sentences do harm to many young people who go to prison and come out as hardened criminals,” CBN spokesman Chris Roslan wrote.

This time, Robertson was clear that he “absolutely” supports ballot measures in Colorado and Washington that would legalize the drug for recreational use.

Endorphin dose

h/t/ orlingrabbe.com

Washing machine self-destructs

cows & cows & cows

Going Galt with Stephen Colbert

Brilliant.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Word - Rand Illusion
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor U.S. Speedskating

Bohemian BK

hat tip Financial Armageddon

Give us a decent dole, Mr President, so we can write classic rock songs while we’re unemployed.  And supersize that with some health insurance so we don’t become a burden on society.

I’m on the pavement, thinkin’ ‘bout the governeent

Via:  AP

You're Bob Dylan? NJ police want to see some ID

By WAYNE PARRY, Associated Press Writer Wayne Parry, Associated Press Writer 24 mins ago

Rock legend Bob Dylan was treated like a complete unknown by police in a New Jersey shore community when a resident called to report someone wandering around the neighborhood.

Dylan was in Long Branch, about a two-hour drive south of New York City, on July 23 as part of a tour with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp that was to play at a baseball stadium in nearby Lakewood.

A 24-year-old police officer apparently was unaware of who Dylan is and asked him for identification, Long Branch business administrator Howard Woolley said Friday.

"I don't think she was familiar with his entire body of work," Woolley said.

The incident began at 5 p.m. when a resident said a man was wandering around a low-income, predominantly minority neighborhood several blocks from the oceanfront looking at houses.

The police officer drove up to Dylan, who was wearing a blue jacket, and asked him his name. According to Woolley, the following exchange ensued:

"What is your name, sir?" the officer asked.

"Bob Dylan," Dylan said.

"OK, what are you doing here?" the officer asked.

"I'm on tour," the singer replied.

A second officer, also in his 20s, responded to assist the first officer. He, too, apparently was unfamiliar with Dylan, Woolley said.

The officers asked Dylan for identification. The singer of such classics as "Like a Rolling Stone" and "Blowin' in the Wind" said that he didn't have any ID with him, that he was just walking around looking at houses to pass some time before that night's show.

The officers asked Dylan, 68, to accompany them back to the Ocean Place Resort and Spa, where the performers were staying. Once there, tour staff vouched for Dylan.

The officers thanked him for his cooperation.

"He couldn't have been any nicer to them," Woolley added.

How did it feel? A Dylan publicist did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment Friday.

Welcome to the depression

The Panic is over.  The government (including the Fed, whose days may be numbered as an “independent” entity) has blown some bucks, probably badly, and promises to blow some more.  What comes next?

If we follow in about the same track as the Great Depression, we’re in for almost a decade of more of the same:  the stimulus will help some people, but unemployment will remain high; maybe the unemployed will get better health care and workfare, maybe not; the public debt will mount; the rich will remain rich with no narrowing of the gap between them and everyone else; bickering with our allies and trading partners will become more bitter; there will be trouble in the Balkans; people will come to your door and offer to work for cash or food; there will be wars and rumors of wars.  (See this for big picture.)  Or things might happen faster this time….

Here are a few one-liners from the Cowboy Philosopher of the ‘Thirties that ring true today as they must have in the Depression:

 

Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for.

 

A fool and his money are soon elected.

 

Advertising is the art of convincing people to spend money they don't have for something they don't need.

 

Alexander Hamilton started the U.S. Treasury with nothing, and that was the closest our country has ever been to being even.

 

All I know is just what I read in the papers, and that's an alibi for my ignorance.

 

An economist's guess is liable to be as good as anybody else's.

 

Anything important is never left to the vote of the people. We only get to vote on some man; we never get to vote on what he is to do.

 

Chaotic action is preferable to orderly inaction.

 

Don't let yesterday use up too much of today.

 

Everything is changing. People are taking their comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke.

 

Everything is funny, as long as it's happening to somebody else.

 

I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.

 

I bet after seeing us, George Washington would sue us for calling him "father."

 

I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.

 

I have a scheme for stopping war. It's this - no nation is allowed to enter a war till they have paid for the last one.

 

I never expected to see the day when girls would get sunburned in the places they now do.

 

Instead of giving money to found colleges to promote learning, why don't they pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting anybody from learning anything? If it works as good as the Prohibition one did, why, in five years we would have the smartest race of people on earth.

 

Last year we said, 'Things can't go on like this', and they didn't, they got worse.

 

Now if there is one thing that we do worse than any other nation, it is try and manage somebody else's affairs.

 

Politics has become so expensive that it takes a lot of money even to be defeated.

 

The 1928 Republican Convention opened with a prayer. If the Lord can see His way clear to bless the Republican Party the way it's been carrying on, then the rest of us ought to get it without even asking.

 

The fellow that can only see a week ahead is always the popular fellow, for he is looking with the crowd. But the one that can see years ahead, he has a telescope but he can't make anybody believe that he has it.

 

The man with the best job in the country is the vice-president. All he has to do is get up every morning and say, "How is the president?"

 

Worrying is like paying on a debt that may never come due.

 

--Will Rogers