The Outsidr

Wow, it’s been a while huh? Just testing the iPhone’s WordPress app… Nothing to see here…

Categories don’t seem to be working but it’s pretty smooth aside from that.

Marijuana has dangerous and harmful side effects. Smoke it, children, and you will be throwing your life away. Just look at this picture of Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps. He had all the potential in the world going into the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. But he smokes weed. With the world watching and the pressure on, only a drug-free, straight and narrow golden boy could rise to the task and crush the competition. Phelps was destined for failure…

Oh wait — he became the greatest Olympic champion of all time.

I’m not a smoker but I most certainly support the legalization of marijuana, especially in this day and age. Economic crisis, a staggering unemployment rate, bailouts, recession – now would be the perfect time. Just think of all the jobs that would be created, businesses spawned and tax revenue collected. The health implications? Please. Lung cancer is the best health-related argument against marijuana and our government clearly does not care if its citizens are dying of it, in droves, as long as there is plenty of tax money flowing back to papa.

With Obama under the microscope it will never happen of course, but it’s a shame. Make marijuana legal, control and monitor it as with cigarettes and alcohol, regulate pricing, charge a 50%, 75% or even 100% tax and then swim in gold a la Scrooge McDuck — or Michael Phelps, as it were.

[Image source: News of the World]

Barack Hussein Obama is your 44th President. The inauguration was fantastic, Obama’s speech was outstanding and now we begin to see if Obama can deliver. I am uncharacteristically optimistic.

“Your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy.”

A poignent quote and part of a message to leaders of hostile nations. Now, however, it is time to see what Barack Obama can build.

Back in early September, Ben Cooper announced on his site that he was beginning work on an experimental project I felt compelled to cover now that it has officially launched. Cooper, one of the few current artists I enjoy enough to write about, records under the name Radical Face, is half of the band Electric President and has played a hand in plenty of other projects. The project in question has been dubbed Patients and perhaps what I find most compelling is that it basically sits on the opposite end of the spectrum in terms of the direction music distribution has moved in recent history. Oh, and it’s a really cool idea too.

Cooper is constantly writing and recording material and only so much of it can find its way to a standard Morr Music release. Often times, Cooper offers up these homeless tracks for free in the news section of his site but in this instance he decided to have a little fun. Patients, 11 tracks in total, will not be sold in stores or online – in fact, it won’t be sold at all. Instead, the only way to obtain a copy of Patients is by way of the good old barter system.

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