#man i wish we had better options for legal weed here

[evildeerboy]

i’m really trying random shit at this point to stop my erratic sleeping at both ends. tonight im trying stronger melatonin (i don’t use it regularly, just emergencies like this hshshsjs. since it fucks up my sleep cycle when i use it too often) plus a nose strip to hopefully make waking up easier. ian told me i snore so im thinking possibly chronic snoring might be making my sleep quality absolute ass. we’ll see. i hope i wake up on time for work 🥴

also this is the first time i am using a nasal strip and i feel like ive never breathed out of my nose before in my life

[reesewestonarchive]

chapter nine / rem belongs to @forlornraven / masterpost / mature content

Nakoa wakes to darkness. He finds out easily that he’s in a vehicle; the rumble of tires beneath him, the loud, high-pitched squeal of rubber on asphalt.

The hard, unforgiving feel of metal against his shoulder. He opens his eyes, but it makes no difference. He sees slivers of light, but nothing really. Nakoa blinks, once, twice, and, when he turns over, finds himself grateful for the lack of light, because just the slivers of daylight peeking through are enough to send spikes through his brain.

“You awake?” He jolts at the sound of a voice, relaxes when Rem adds, “Hey, it’s just me.” His words are near slurring, though. Nakoa spins his head to look for him, nervous, worried, but it’s impossible to see in the darkness. “I—” Rem huffs a frustrated breath. “Can’t see a fucking thing—where are you?”

One of Rem’s boots finds Nakoa’s ribs. He mutters an apology, then says, “Hang on—” before he reaches down, his hand skirting along Nakoa’s back until he reaches Nakoa’s hands, clasped behind him. “Hold still.”

The ties release after just a second, and when Nakoa pulls them up, he asks, “How the fuck did you get out of them?” The plastic rubbed his wrists raw, even as short as they were on.

He can hear Rem’s grin in his voice when he speaks, though, and his presence makes the dark, unforgiving trcuk a little less foreboding. “You think I leave the motel without a knife?”

Nakoa would laugh, if he could. Instead, he reaches a hand out, trying to find Rem in the dark. “Where—” he says, before he makes contact with Rem’s knee. Relief settles in his stomach, and he reaches out for Rem’s hand, squeezes it. Feels better already when Rem squeezes back.

“You okay?” Nakoa asks. “That looked.” Bad. Terrible. Nakoa sees it no matter where he looks, Rem lying on the asphalt like that.

“Mm.” But his voice sounds far away. “Nakoa.”

“Yeah.”

“What the fuck?”

Nakoa should have known, knows he should have. That he should have said something to Rem, but… “My father’s—” The word tastes bitter on his tongue. “…in imports.”

“Drugs,” Rem says, immediately. “Fucking hell, Nakoa.”

It’s how Nakoa got started. It’s why he kept going with them. Michael’s into more than just weed, though, and therein lies the problem. That Nakoa knows. Michael had beat him, when Nakoa found out, and has since used his strength to his advantage. Try as he might, Nakoa can only throw a punch if he’s catching someone off guard, if they can fight worse than he can.

Michael doesn’t fit the bill, and he’s always carrying.

“I didn’t have a choice!” Nakoa says. “And I thought. Maybe, if I wasn’t there… why would he waste a bunch of bullshit on me? Men, resources.” Why would he follow Nakoa across the country? Nakoa, of all people?

“You stole from him,” Rem says. His voice comes out flat. “Nakoa.”

“You don’t get to play like you wouldn’t have done the same fucking thing,” he says, tone sharp. He pulls back from Rem, smells blood on his hands as he wipes them down his face. “How often have you stolen whiskey?”

“It’s legal! You wanna compare that to coke?”

Exhausted, suddenly, Nakoa says, “I really need you to not fucking judge me. I stopped, okay? He didn’t notice, and even if he had, what was he gonna do?” Michael hates Nakoa; always has. A disappointment, and that isn’t even considering Rem. That’s not considering the fact that Michael knows, and always has, that Nakoa beds men as often as he does women. It’s been like this since Nakoa was born, his father distant for work, and Nakoa eager for his approval and stumbling on his work at thirteen.

“He couldn’t do anything about it then,” Nakoa says. “But now what’s stopping him? His kid went missing. No one’s gonna care if I end up in a ditch.”

“Don’t fucking joke about that.”

Nakoa shuts his mouth, though. Taps his fingers on the metal on the floor. He says, “I should have told you.” He wants to apologize; can’t.

Wishes that he could just… touch Rem. No expectation. Find comfort in his touch.

He holds his hands to himself, and neither of them speak.

Eventually, the van slows to a stop, and doesn’t start again. Rem gets to his feet, says, “I got this.” Nakoa hears the knife unlatching in his hand. “Stay back.”

“Don’t being a knife to a gun fight, you—” Nakoa sighs. “Just—get behind me.”

“I’m not going to let you—”

“He’s my father,” Nakoa says, his voice cracking. “Let me deal with him.” He thinks about clocking Rem on the head again, but if he got knocked out that bad, he might already have a concussion.

Nakoa doesn’t say, “I want you safe.” He doesn’t say that it means more to him that Rem is okay, that Rem can go home. Maybe Rem thinks he’s worthless, but he’s Nakoa’s entire world.

The door slides up, and Nakoa blinks against the blinding light. Rem stands behind him, body heat warming Nakoa’s back. Michael’s behind his men, chatting on the phone, but Nakoa doesn’t move, not until Michael says, his voice almost bored, like he’s not still devising a plan. “Come join me for dinner.”

Nakoa blinks. “Pretty fucking dramatic entrance for dinner.”

Michael rolls his eyes. “You could show a little respect.”

Already disappointing his father, and they’ve been reunited for a matter of minutes. Nakoa holds his gaze and says, “You wanna kill me, go ahead.”

Behind him, he hears Rem make a small, distressed noise. “Nakoa—”

But Nakoa’s tired of living in this hole, in his father’s shadow, too afraid to move beyond Michael and his wants. Too afraid Michael might follow through on his threats.

“Just come. We’ll discuss what I plan to do with you at dinner.” Michael sighs, rubbing his forehead. “I keep forgetting about the carry on.” Nakoa catches his attention shifting to Rem, wishes it wouldn’t. “Hm. Looks like he’s the reason they’re free. Someone remind me we need handcuffs.”

When Nakoa doesn’t go forward, Michael sighs, says, “Someone grab him, please. Leave the other.” He sighs. “And tie him up this time?”

One of the men hauls Nakoa from the truck, by the hair, the shoulder. Nakoa swears, grips at the guy’s wrist and tries to walk with him, can’t. Holds tight and tries to lessen the pressure on his hair, anyway.

He watches as Rem crawls from the truck, eyes wide with fear, brandishing his knife. In comparison to giant men with handguns, he looks like a small, terrified child. Nakoa knows better than to call out his name, so he doesn’t.

His chest aches, and a half-strangled, “Rem—” escapes from his throat, just as the man dragging him pulls him into a building. Before the door shuts, Nakoa catches sight of Rem lashing out, the sound of a gunshot, then… Nothing.

Nakoa finds himself dropped at Michael’s feet, scalp burning, Michael staring down at him with something akin to disinterest. “I wish things could have gone differently for you, Nakoa.”

This is nothing like the Michael Nakoa remembers. This man is… different. Distressingly calm, quiet.

Nakoa prefers him screaming. Calm breeds terror in Nakoa’s chest, and he doesn’t care for the way it burrows in and refuses to leave.

“Up.” It’s not a request. “Dinner.”

Tossing a scowl back at the man who’d dragged him, Nakoa rubs his wrists, follows Michael through the warehouse.. He needs to stay around until he can get back to Rem, anyway. After that… who cares? Michael can do whatever he wants with Nakoa, as long as Rem gets out of this safely.

Michael leads him into another room to a table sitting alone, like one in the movies, covered with a tablecloth, a single lightbulb illuminating the table and nothing more.

With a swallow, Nakoa takes his seat, still rubbing his wrists. Michael sits in the other chair, and, neat as can fucking be, he undoes his napkin and lays it across his lap.

“Nakoa,” Michael says, and now he sounds more like himself, like the Michael Nakoa remembers. “You are a pain in my ass, you know that?”

“So the pleasant, calm druglord, that’s just for your employees. But your son, all bets are off.”

Michael’s gaze is sharp, piercing, and Nakoa wishes he’d kept his mouth shut. “Ungrateful. You know,” he says, already lifting the lid from his dinner, “you really don’t understand the sacrifices I’ve made for you. The resources I’ve wasted finding you.”

As if Nakoa asked for it. As if he gives a shit about whether Michael goes broke. As if he cares, for half a second, what Michael loses. He sits back, crosses his arms. Waits.

“I can see you’re going to be difficult, so let me lay this out for you.” He pops a bite of dinner—steak, because of course it is—into his mouth, and chews. Slow. Nakoa knows the tactic well, terrify them with their own imagination. “You’ll come home with me.”

“Over my—”

“—and we can leave your friend here to fend for himself.”

“Next.”

Eyebrow raised, Michael cuts back into his steak. “I could just as easily kill your friend, you know. He hardly seems like a man someone will miss.” At Nakoa’s expression, Michael laughs. “Don’t tell me you think—” He shakes his head. “You’re a fool, Nakoa.”

Better a fool than a prick, Nakoa thinks, but he doesn’t say so. Michael married a gentle woman, one he can scare into submission, and he thinks Nakoa’s life choices are worth judging. “Next option,” he says, through gritted teeth, staring hard at the table, at the knife marks in the wood. Imagines what it might be like to see those on his skin, instead. If he’d even life through it.

“I could kill the both of you. You’ve already been missing for how long? None of the authorities would think twice about a couple of stupid, runaway queer boys ending up dead. Two of them…” He clicks his tongue. “Well. Is that even a tragedy worth the news cycle?”

And Michael wonders why he ran away. Nakoa lifts his gaze, reluctant, up towards Michael’s face, hates the giddy expression on his father’s face. He’s a bastard, and Nakoa knows he’s always enjoyed his work a little too much, but he’d hoped maybe, underneath it all, there was something that made him human. Now he’s not so sure.

“Easiest way to tie up loose ends, don’t you agree?”

Nakoa wants to tell him to fuck off, but Michael won't hesitate to cut him with the knife on his plate. Never has before. Never hesitates, once he makes his mind up. “Why the holdup?” Nakoa asks, but his voice shakes. “Sounds like you got it all figured out. Why not just kill me now?”

He’s losing his patience, Michael. The joy drains from his expression and he returns to his dinner, almost bored. “Unfortunately, I still think there might be some use in you. I could use you to make an example. I think using you as a living example carries more weight, don’t you?”

“What the fuck’s that supposed to mean?”

Pointing a fork to Nakoa’s plate, Michael says, “Eat. It’s the last time you’ll get the opportunity in a while.”

“What about Rem?” Nakoa does his best to hold his voice steady, to keep Michael from making any more shitty comments, but it still comes out wrong.

“I think I’ll be doing the world a favor, taking him out.” He reaches for his drink, then sighs. “Nakoa, please. If you don’t eat, I’ll be forced to take other measures.” Like what, Nakoa wonders, but doesn’t ask. Sighing, Michael sets his fork down and says, “Nakoa. It’s in your best interest to work with me.”

“Too fucking bad.”

“I can make your life a living hell, you know.”

“You already did. What can you do to make it worse?”

Michael raises an eyebrow, says, “You think you’re in love with the man outside. Not sure where you got that, but fine, I’ll play along. You’re right in considering yourself worthless, so I understand I can’t use you against yourself.” With a cock of his head, Michael leans back in his seat. “I might be able to use him yet. Suppose I better put in the call to keep him in one piece after all.” He pulls a walkie talkie out of his shirt pocket and switches it on. “Hold my previous order,” Michael says, glaring at Michael. “Plans have changed. We’re going to have a little fun.”

[bites-kms]

Southwest Roadtrip - Episode 1: Viva las Vegas

When it comes to discovering the US, Johnny Cash kept it simple and straight to the point: 

“I've been everywhere, man. Crossed the desert's bare, man. I've breathed the mountain air, man. Of travel I've had my share, man. I've been everywhere.“

And what a journey it was! Who knew a failed attempt to fly to Hawaii would result in such a fun adventure? We packed our stuff and jumped on a plane, destination Southwest of America. Starting by Vegas, passing through Arizona, stopping by Utah, resting in Colorado. Only my friend Belu would be as kamikaze to propose such thing and found in me such a blind partner-in-crime. It was September 4th, and we were rushing in a taxi from Hoboken to Newark to board our first flight during a global sanitary emergency, looking like Darth Vader’s close cousins with our masks and face shields. 

After an approximately 6-hour flight, we landed in the middle of literally nowhere. We were able to see the pyramid and some other iconic architecture which I currently do not remember because it was about only for 5 seconds before landing. On arrival, on a mostly empty airport, we were surprised by the amount of slot machines that were there, welcoming everyone to place their bets. For sure, ours was to have fun and contrary to common belief, the house didn't win this one: we had a blast!

Followed by a surprise “SIN CITY, WOOO HOOO!” shout from someone who obviously has been living inside a thermos for the last past months, we cracked up and went to fetch a car. This very nice gentleman took us to the Bellagio (yeap, we went full on cliche mode, with what was originally a non-existent promo) while DJ Dani blasted her best records to kick off this adventure with the right feet: Viva Las Vegas by Elvis Presley and Just a Gigolo by Louis Prima Success. 

DAY 1: 

First things first: check in and adventure. Hotel, amenities and surroundings. Vegas spins around two main areas: the famous Strip, 6.8kms of the brightest place on earth seen from outer space full of hotels, restaurants, shops and of course, casinos. Pretty much Disneyworld for adults. The Bellagio is the iconic hotel which hosts some of the greatest restaurants and also the famous dancing fountains. Also, is one that is pretty centrally located, in between Caesars Palace (Roman Empire themed), The Cosmopolitan (which imitates boheme life from France) Aria and Park MGM Las Vegas (New York City represent!), Excalibur (Middle Ages) Luxor (Cleopatra’s Egypt) and The Venetian (of course, Venice). Everything is within walking distance but beware of the heat: a normal day in the desert is around 42C (107F), if not more, with a melting down thermal sensation of 1000 in any scale. This is why is also a city that is enjoyable during night time. So, do not feel bad about sleeping in a bit: you can always chill by the pool in the morning, have a little something for lunch and sleep (or remove the hangover) during the afternoon when the sun is unbearable. OR, the casino is always open so that could be an option. We chose to walk around a bit (big mistake) but luckily once you enter to the casinos, they are all connected with escalators, shade and AC, so we were mesmerized by this grown up themed park, where is so easy to lose track of time. 

After an Italian lunch on a french bistro in a corner of Paris (? yes.. I know..) we went back and rest by the pool. Once the sun was already getting ready to bet some chips at night, we did too: we changed into our most shinny and glamorous outfit and won exactly 27 dollars! We checked out Venice, and some of the night shows that were happening on the streets (like naked promoters, the massive PM lines, and the crazy long-ass “juice” towers flowing around the more energetic covid-prone crowds) right before we headed up to Yellowtail, the Japanese and Michelin Starred restaurant at the Bellagio. We had their famous tuna pizza (it sounds terrible but it is more of a tostada or sashimi-style like) and got disappointed that they run out of the short ribs, but instead had some amazing sushi rolls and some tempura bites. When we found out about the beautiful, sigh-seeing windows that displayed all the fountain show we left our high-end attires aside and run to the windows, interrupting some other people’s dinner while leaving the waiters behind. We decided to go for dessert somewhere else and went to the piano bar located at the reception for a delicious espresso and a chocolate diamond cake. We did some neon-gazing and loved the fountain show to the beat of Believe by Cher, while being overwhelmed by a surreal feeling of actually being there, having so much fun and appreciating our friendship (and of course, avoided a high/drunk fellow who tried to take our pics and phone with them - she didnt know we were from New York and from Rio de la Plata, so the scam was on her!) 

DAY 2

Repeat. (and pretty much that’s all we did). We kicked it off with a fake breakfast by the pool, and some piñas coladas in between facemasks. We also had a light lunch by the pool (a greek salad with some much needed water) and then, around 6:15 we took a cab to the Neon Museum - yeap, for those who think there is only light fun in Vegas, nope, think again, there are worthy museums, too! ( I even made a joke here! damn I’m inspired!). The Neon Museum is a scrap dealer cemetery, where all the old and somehow “broken” -even thou most of them have been repaired and are currently working!- neon signs from Old time Vegas rest. It is very fun to see old hotels, random letters, icons and logos being laid there, creating a wonderful mess in the middle of, again, you guess right, the desert. It was very fun and beautiful to be honest. 

Another short taxi drive later (I was too naif thinking we could walk in short heels under the killer heat more than a block!) we drove thru what is known as “Old Vegas” or “Downtown Vegas”. This used to be the place where the magic happened before the creation of the Strip, but nowadays it only hosts what lingers of once a glamorous and kitschy past. The center of this action can be found throughout Freemont Street, a pedestrian long avenue that gathers classic neon signs, all-time Vegas characters (we still missed out on Elvis, so watch out impersonator, we will be back just for you!), stripers, street sellers, all you can eat venues, dodgy bars, and more and more neons.  According to Las Vegas Tourism Board>> “Fun people, crazy people, partying, gambling, drinking, street performers, free music and light shows, zip lining and just having a good time... that's what you expect at Freemont.”

We had some pizza, talked to this Montana guy who for a second thought he was able to have a threesome with us on his dirty van, were voluntary abused by these hot, ripped stripers who made us laugh with their pick up line: “You can leave your face mask here, right by your underwear too, please.” The guys were a “sample” - since the show is canceled due to the pandemic- of Chippendales, something a fine woman needs to experience once in their lifetime. Belu felt in love with her boy, but given the current times and protocols, this love couldn't prosper as we all wished it had. No worries amiga, next time!

But the most striking part of this decadent place was witnessing this surreal restaurant called Heart Attack Grill, where people who weight more than 350lbs (almost 160kgs) eat for free. The biggest burger consist on 8 patties, and as an FYI, only the 4 patty burger is marked on the Guinness World Records Book as the “Quadruple Bypass Burger” with almost 10.000 calories, all the beverages consists on massive soft drinks, milkshakes, beers and wine, (full bottles, of course, served from an IV drip bag) and it is not allowed to share food. The place is cash only, you gotta weight yourself before entering, each patty is made of half pound each, everybody must wear hospital gowns and if you dare not to finish your meal, you get three spanks by the horny yet not so sexy waitress dressed as nurses. As a nice little detail, on the biggest burger you can pump it up with 40 slices of bacon by only $7.99 more!  And, to wrap up this majestic hospital parlor, I recently researched that the legal owner of Heart Attack Grill is hilarious – Diet Center LLC. The founder is Jon Basso, who strives to provide “nutritional pornography” in his food. For a better comprehension (for a lack of a better word) of this place, you can check out this recap of Showtime’s series: Deadly Sins. 

So, we were mesmerized, we were educated, we bet, we ate, we drunk and we touched some sweaty strippers, so there was only one thing left to do: crush a weeding. So there we went. There were multiple chapels around the area, but I dont know whether it was the time (it was around, 9, 9 and coins) so it may have been a little bit too late or due to COVID, but no weddings were in place. We finally arrived to the Little White Chapel, the original, unique one that has the Elvis sign, the drive-thru and the proud sign that states how Michael Jordan and Joan Collins got married there. We were so bummed to found only a very young, very dull couple getting married (she was wearing black, hence, that is all you need to know) and there was not a very jolly, merry spirit. Still, we managed to hang out with the best men and got a picture of two to remember this fail attempt to crush this very much lame wedding. Up we went to the Bellagio, checking out what was missing from Sin City: the Wynn Hotel, Route 515, 51 and the Famous Welcome to Las Vegas Sign. 

We wrapped this unique experience witnessing an amazing, full moon in the middle of the desert, with a massive and delicious full on breakfast at Sadelle’s, a little piece of home in our far-away-from home hotel.  Till next time, Vegas! You were great fun! 

[tanadrin]

Has anyone ever tried framing the benefit no-fault divorce in the language of market efficiency? I am 1000% sure this is not an original argument, but I wonder if it’s ever been used as a component of actual campaigns to legalize it.

In societies without divorce, abusive or malicious partners have less incentive to work on their abusive behavior, because once a marriage is solemnized, the spouse cannot leave (and in societies where women are expected to be dependent on their husband, the effect is strongly enhanced); therefore, an abusive spouse or a bad partner has little incentive to improve their behavior, except innate human empathy, which is clearly insufficient if they’re abusive or malicious in the first place, because it is difficult for their partner to leave them. In theory their partner could leave, but as a matter of law and interacting with the bureaucracy they’d be married, and significant social and legal difficulties would follow them because this personal status could not change.

Societies with stigmatized divorce (traditional Jewish divorce, many countries with divorce laws on the books in the period before they adopted no-fault divorce) have the same set of incentives, only partially weakened. The conservative argument that making it difficult or impossible to abandon a marriage (favoring the repeal of no-fault divorce or, e.g., the creation of marriages with special status, the “covenant marriage”) improves incentives for both parties to work on their marriage ignores situations where marital problems are asymmetric in nature, and the person whose behavior is making their spouse’s life difficult is content (or more content) with the status quo. Social pressure to behave well to one’s spouse is also insufficient, because abusers are, particularly, known to be able to present a charming front to other members of the community, to the point where targets of abuse are often disbelieved.

No-fault divorce (and later marriage, and economic freedom for women) makes it harder for bad partners to find mates. They still do, of course, because human relationships are complicated, but the primary effect of the factors contributing to “instability” in modern relationships is that, in fact, people are better able to sort their pool of potential partners, which is also bigger, since one doesn’t have to marry the first person they sleep with, and children don’t have to be had while the couple is very young. If you can be choosier, you can weed out the jerks sooner (in theory), and jerks will find less success in the dating pool.

Therefore, I would predict, if this theory were correct, that rates of spousal and child abuse would go down in the wake of the abolition or decay of traditional, patriarchal expectations around marriage and childrearing. Thus, modern marriage, though it still has faults like being an ad hoc welfare state of two, should be much better at creating an environment in which to raise children, and should produce children overall with less traumatized childhoods, than historically. Measuring this effect would be complicated by the fact that traditional societies, or conservative and insular religious ones (here I’m thinking of orthodox Jewish communities, or conservative Christian ones, or all of Europe and North America before, oh, say, 1950, or whenever this issue became incorporated into the feminist movement) are likely to not discuss and not report child abuse and spousal abuse to the authorities, if these actions are even illegal. The reported rate should actually spike as norms shift away from conservative attitudes to marriage, and people report abusive spouses to the police to protect themselves and their children. Once they can rely on such reports being taken seriously by the police, and their family supporting their decision to leave an abusive partner (or just a toxic one, but it’s not illegal to be a gigantic jerk), only then should we see a decrease in the statistics, which would have lagged behind the decrease in the real rate for some years. There are likely to be other additional variables which I have not accounted for that you’d need to account for to get an accurate view of how flexible family structures affect child/spouse abuse rates.

One potential objection: single-parent homes have worse outcomes for children; this seriously challenges the above theory. But has anyone compared the outcomes of children in single-parent homes with the outcomes of children in abusive two-parent homes? Because if the option is “suboptimal family arrangement” versus “abusive family arrangement,” the former seems preferable to me when it comes to raising children who are well-socialized and happy. A great deal of non-systematic literature has covered the idea, from the children of such homes, that parents who divorce because their relationship is extremely dysfunctional are preferable to parents who stay together and are miserable. The prevalence of single-parent homes is also closely tied to poverty, and no one has sufficiently disentangled the two statistically, to my knowledge, to produce an actually useful result, much less a policy prescription that amounts to more than “keep adults who no longer wish to be together in a relationship with each other.”

Being able to select one’s partner freely also has advantages where formerly functional relationships become dysfunctional; and as optimistic as the view is that improving an existing relationship is better than social instability, no one who has advanced that view seems to support, say, additional state funding for marriage counseling, much less having it covered by health insurance, or seems to be in support of state funding for additional social services to address the issue of child abuse or spousal abuse, which become far more serious when the abused cannot escape without serious social and legal disability--and, for women, who would normally be housewives in the idealized marital arrangement envisioned, economic disability. Nor do they advocate delaying marriage and childrearing, which seem especially important to me in societies where you get to choose a life partner only once; people in their teens and early twenties are not at all known for being able to make resilient life choices that stand them in good stead until the day they die.

Note: arranged marriages, I predict, should be even worse as childrearing environments from this perspective, since the person who makes the choice of spouse is not the person who has to live with it. The alignment of incentives is basically terrible--which reflects, in many cases, the history of marriage as a property transaction among men, not a childrearing arrangement between a man and a woman.)

Note 2: also, to be clear, I think even in suboptimal arrangements, most marital relationships are or can be mostly non-dysfunctional. That certainly doesn’t mean they’re optimal for human flourishing, to say nothing of the flourishing of children specifically. A functional marriage is not the same as a happy one, and a society even with many happy marriages is not the same as a society with many happy women, who, as the ones with the least economic freedom, are the ones who always seem to get the shortest end of the stick in these social structures.)

Final note: I’m sure there are interesting statistics on self-reported happiness in more constrained, traditional marriages. I also think it’s interesting, though, that violent crime in the U.S. has been declining since the 90s, 20-30 years after child abuse became a feminist issue, and the general availability of no-fault divorce. Lead is a persuasive explanation, but is unlikely to be the only contributing factor. Can’t find any good statistics on domestic violence over time in the U.S., but as I said above, I would expect the reported rate of that kind of crime to rise over time, even as the actual rate was falling. And I hope it is not controversial to observe that men abusing their wives tends to be more acceptable in societies with traditional and restrictive views on marriage. Poverty may be a confounding factor there--but I also expect that happier and healthier generations of children, less likely to pass on their parents’ dysfunction, are going to be better at leading lives with good economic outcomes, and thus that, over the long term, one of the ongoing contributors to economic growth is that we’re getting better at raising our children, and not routinely abusing and traumatizing them. Like, we forget this, but there have been ages of the world in which raping your wife, beating your children black and blue, forcing your daughter to marry someone against her will so he could rape her, and giving the baby a sparrow with broken wings to play with until it was crushed to death were all perfectly normal things to do, and that some of these things were perfectly normal in living memory in the Western world. And I could easily imagine that one of the reasons past societies have been more violent, poorer, more xenophobic, and more stagnant, was that everyone was by our standards constantly traumatized by their shitty upbringing. Is it a coincidence that in the 19th century, the temperance movement saw a society in which alcohol abuse was so rampant that it would be better to ban it altogether than try to convince people to use it responsibly. Now we think of them as hand-wringing moralists, but I think that their observations might have been pretty reasonable--but they only saw the symptom, not the underlying disease.

[blockheadbrands]

How Former Mexican President Vicente Fox Went From Drug Tsar To Legalization Trailblazer

Stephen Woodman of Herb Reports:

During his six years in office, Vicente Fox oversaw aggressive efforts to destroy marijuana crops in the Mexican countryside. Now, he’s become one of the most important voices for legalization in North America.

The tiny Mexican village of San Cristóbal is not somewhere you would immediately associate with North America’s cannabis revolution. Smoking weed is still illegal there and there are no headshops in town, just a sleepy plaza ringed by narrow, cobblestone streets.

But the most recognizable of the town’s 3,000 residents—Vicente Fox, the former president of Mexico—has recently become one of the continent’s highest-profile cannabis legalization advocates.

Last month, Fox hosted the CannaMexico World Summit at his family’s San Cristóbal ranch, a two-day conference designed to promote legalization and fuel the growth of a Mexican marijuana industry. Fox also uses the complex to meet with journalists, arguing that Mexico’s spiraling violence warrants a new strategy that takes cannabis out of the hands of criminals. He believes that continental cannabis legalization could create a dynamic new industry, delivering jobs and profits on both sides of the border.

“It’s absolutely contradictory that the United States legalizes and Mexico still has prohibition,” Fox told Herb at a recent visit to his ranch. “We have to join in with new trends in the world. Mexico has to be on the vanguard.”

A former Coca-Cola boss, Fox is best known for ending 71 years of one-party rule with his election in 2000. Nevertheless, as president, he failed to deliver on his ambitious economic promises.

Freed from the constraints of elected office, Fox now provokes change from outside the corridors of power. Even his clothing reflects this: the trademark navy suit is gone, replaced today with a bright yellow button-up, blue chinos and running shoes.

Yet despite this more relaxed role, Fox is clearly keen to retain influence. In 2007, the year after he left office, he opened a presidential library on his San Cristóbal ranch. Portraits of the former leader are mounted on walls throughout the lavish complex and the basement library displays gifts offered by various world leaders, including a riding saddle he received from former U.S. president George W. Bush.

Much has changed about his stance on cannabis—and drugs in general—since he was president. Throughout his six-year term, Fox oversaw aggressive efforts to destroy marijuana crops in the Mexican countryside as part of his commitment to fight the drug trade.

JUAREZ, MEXICO – MARCH 20: A man lays dead in the street after being shot on March 20, 2010 in Juarez, Mexico. The border city of Juarez has been racked by violent drug-related crime recently and has quickly become one of the most dangerous cities in the world. As drug cartels have been fighting over ever lucrative drug corridors along the United States border, the murder rate in Juarez has risen to 173 slayings for every 100,000 residents. President Felipe Calderón in 2009 disbanded the corrupt local police force and sent 10,000 soldiers to Juarez, but the violence has raged on. With a population of 1.3 million in Juarez, 2,600 died in drug-related violence last year and 500 so far this year, including two Americans who worked for the U.S. Consulate last weekend as they returned from a children’s party. (Photo by Spencer Platt via Getty Images)

Today, Fox says his opinion on legalization has changed because crime levels tied to the drug trade have gone up. There were 11,806 murders across the country during Fox’s last year in office, compared to 21,459 homicides during his successor Felipe Calderón’s final year.

There is no way to isolate the impact of marijuana prohibition on this death toll, but we do know that the criminalization of any drug typically fuels violence. And although official figures do not signal which are cartel-related deaths, one study estimates that organized crime was to blame for more than half of the murders during Calderón’s term.

In response to the growing homicides, Calderón deployed thousands of soldiers against the cartels and targeted major kingpins, something which Fox describes as a “terrible historical mistake” because it stoked the violence by splintering large trafficking gangs into dozens of smaller, competing factions.

Current Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has continued this militarized strategy. And based on the numbers documented for the first four months of 2018, Mexico looks set to record more than 31,000 murder victims for Peña Nieto’s final year in office.

The illegal narcotics trade and the government’s war to stop it has caused unprecedented violence in Mexico since 2006. (Photo by Scott Brennan)

Consequently, since leaving power, Fox has joined other former Latin American presidents in denouncing prohibition. His Mexican predecessor Ernesto Zedillo, former Colombian president César Gaviria and former Brazilian head Fernando Cardoso have also called for the decriminalization and regulation of drugs, including cannabis.

In the case of Fox, however, it’s difficult to say how much he genuinely had a change of heart. His former position on drugs—including cannabis—was undoubtedly in part motivated by politics. Despite the slow but steady relaxation of cannabis prohibition laws, a majority of Mexicans are still opposed to legalization, with only 29 percent in favor, according to a survey by the polling firm Parametría.

“I wish they [the former presidents calling for legalization] hadn’t waited,” says Raul Elizalde, an activist who won a Supreme Court ruling for his epileptic daughter to use medical cannabis in 2015. “Why don’t they support it when they’re in power? Maybe they lacked the courage, but at least they are doing it now.”

It is still against the law to sell recreational cannabis in Mexico, as it is everywhere in Latin America except Uruguay, which became the first country in the world to fully legalize in 2013. Nevertheless, Mexico began gradually liberalizing its cannabis laws in 2009, when the government decriminalized the possession of small amounts of drugs. In 2015, the Supreme Court granted four legalization advocates the right to grow and consume their own marijuana.

“The ruling was historic,” says Juan Francisco Torres-Landa, a lawyer and one of the four plaintiffs. “Our main purpose was to make sure this topic was on the agenda, and that has been the case ever since.”

Mexico’s Supreme Court granted another individual the right to grow cannabis for personal consumption in April. And last year, the government legalized the sale of some marijuana-based medicines.

The topic has proved so divisive, however, that the leading presidential candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has barely mentioned it in the run-up to the elections in July. His closest rival in the polls, the right-left coalition candidate Ricardo Anaya, has remained ambivalent, saying he is open to debate but that drug legalization would not resolve Mexico’s security problems.

“While they are campaigning they don’t want to speak about this issue,” Fox says. “They think that it’s negative for voters.”

Former president of Mexico Vicente Fox explains why he thinks marijuana should be legal in Mexico. Here, he is seen at his educational center called Centro Fox in Guanajuato, Mexico. (Photo by Scott Brennan for Herb)

Nevertheless, support for reform has risen from just seven percent recorded by Parametría in 2008, suggesting attitudes have shifted as Mexicans have watched Uruguay—as well as nine U.S. states and Washington D.C.—opt for legalization.

Consumption has also risen steadily in recent years. As of 2016, 8.6 percent of the population had tried cannabis compared to 4.2 percent in 2008, according to Mexico’s National Addiction Survey.

Fox says he has never used cannabis himself, although he is open to trying it in the future.

“When I go to a speaking conference I have a tequila or a glass of wine before,” he says. “It puts you in a much better mood…This is what you can get out of marijuana.”

Fox would like to see a robust continental cannabis market as the plant is incorporated into the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), allowing Mexican farmers to grow weed for their northern neighbors. Last year, he projected Mexico could eventually produce up to 60 percent of legal cannabis consumed in the United States.

His family has farmed in Guanajuato for five generations and he would happily grow the plant in the future.

“We are always open to diversification,” Fox says, but the “first step is it has to be legal.”

Nevertheless, he concedes that Donald Trump’s rise to power represents a challenge to this aspiration. It’s difficult, he says, to advance legalization with “an ignorant president” heading the U.S. government.

Fox believes a thriving cannabis industry in Mexico would provide economic opportunities for those currently operating outside of the law, including small-scale farmers who have little option but to grow weed for cartels.

He concedes that criminal groups in Mexico could turn to kidnapping, extortion and other crimes that more directly impact law-abiding citizens if continental cannabis legalization triggered a curb in profits. Yet in the long term, he argues that cutting the supply of money from the U.S. market is the only way to disempower criminals.

Cartels “are very active on many fronts,” Fox says, but “the easiest way” for them to make money is through drugs.

The authorization of marijuana sales in the United States has already had an impact on cartels and cartel-related violence. Last year, U.S. Border Patrol seized less than 900,000 pounds of marijuana, compared to more than 2.4 million pounds in 2013, the year before retail pot shops began opening in the United States. To make up for the shortfall, cartels have turned to importing more potent drugs such as heroin and methamphetamine.

Fox would like to see these drugs legalized eventually as well, although he argues that full legalization of weed alone could offer drug traffickers the opportunity to move out of the shadows.

“With a new culture, a new way of thinking, all those criminals for the first time have options,” Fox says. “We can move out of criminalization—with death, blood on the streets, underground activities—into a new industry. That’s a real change.”

TO READ MORE OF THIS ARTICLE ON HERB, CLICK HERE.

https://herb.co/marijuana/news/vicente-fox-cannabis-legalization-drug-war-mexico

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Ramblings From An Alpaca Farm In South Wiltshire: July 2017

We then splashed out on a small marquee type thing, solely 3m x 3m but emblazoned with the Patou internet deal with and in ‘Patou green’, in actual fact every thing was green, it was our chosen colour. As soon as we have been outfitted with all that we entered as many exhibits as we could go to. I work full time and Sue works part time so we had been a bit restricted but we entered every eligible animal we had into the Bath and West Present and the SWAG Spring Show, later got here the Futurity. Our show team was mainly anyone who was eligible; it was a brief selection course of! Our first year’s cria, Lily and Henry each took rosettes as juniors, one in every show. We had been up and working. Since then now we have taken a minimum of one rosette at every present now we have been to, bar one, grrrrrrrr. Testomony to the dedication we've got of sticking to our breeding programme. We additionally took our alpacas to agricultural reveals, village fetes, anyplace folks wished us to go principally. It was and still is great enjoyable, everyone loves alpacas. It was effectively price buying plans that had been clear and full with good illustrations. We found some chicken ark plans that not only have good directions on how to make an ark, but also for 2 greater hen coops as well. Another plus was a complete information to protecting chickens, which were good for us as novices. We feed them on vegetables scraps, a small quantity of chicken feed and grit, and naturally they forage on weeds, insects and grubs. The three ladies are thriving and have been laying an egg an day every. We do wish to treat them although. As soon as every week we make up a mixture of porridge oats with some milk plus a tin of cat food and a few of our meat scraps - they like it and come to us to be fed. Chickens additionally love to take mud baths, and the dust helps stop parasites on their feathers and pores and skin.

However critics complain the plan focuses on long-term, ambitious architectural designs that prioritize the growth of inexperienced areas, but which lack detailed plans for the prevailing animals. Even so, a few of the stress for animals has been diminished by a cutback in allowed guests, who previously may number 10,000 a day. Solely about 2,000 a day are now permitted and some animal habitats are off-limits. On a latest morning, Garoto and Porota, a couple of gray hippos swam to edge of their pond and opened their mouths broad showing their caramel teeth whereas Guille, their baby hippo lurked the darkish water. In a nearby enclosure, the giraffes Shaki, Buddy and their calf, Ciro, caught out their lengthy tongues to drink water from yellow plastic containers tethered to a roof. Sandra, the orangutan, was enthralled by patches of grass that had been lately put in in her enclosure. She turned recognized worldwide when an Argentine court docket issued a landmark ruling in 2014 that she was entitled to among the legal rights loved by people. She's no longer on display for visitors. Juan Carlos Sassaroli, a veterinarian who previously labored on the zoo.

Publisher: Damian Ross It is a fact of life that could by no means be avoided whether you prefer it or not; that is, all of us get older with every day passing. We get slower, recuperate slower and become less resilient to issues occurring in daily life. Publisher: Imran ali Self-Protection has clearly become the necessity of each particular person in right this moment's world that is filled with violence and crimes. Either you are young or old, man or girl and even you're a young baby it has grow to be crucial for all of you to get correct self-defense coaching for your personal safety and security. Writer: William Gabriel People have completely different reasons for training in the martial arts. Some take it for sport and competitors, some prepare to improve confidence or self discipline, and others see it as a approach in the direction of better health and health. While all these causes are well-liked, the most typical purpose of all must for self protection. So, in case you are contemplating raising chickens in your yard, you must read up on the many various species of chickens. Then, while you determine which breed you need, it will likely be time to think about housing for them. Simply make sure you not overcrowd your chickens. Start small so you may keep all of it manageable. Construct a coop that is easy to keep clean and keep in mind that if you reside in a snowy space, place it close by for easy egg gathering in the winter. Check out the egg-cellent Hen COOP PLANS at http://www.chickencoops.addgs.com These are nice. I would like to construct every little thing! Also, there's some great BONUSES, too! Observe alongside as Sparrow Darling provides to her flock of chickens. Remember, you don't should be a farmer and put on overalls to boost chickens in your yard. You possibly can wear the overalls if you'd like. They are kinda fun!

We bred Lady final weekend. We always have such a troublesome time deciding who to breed all our alpacas to and the more alpacas we get, the harder it gets to find the perfect herdsire for each of them. After a lot discussion, we determined to breed Lady to IVF Purple Scorching Fiesta this 12 months. Lady is full Peruvian and we usually breed her to different full Peruvian boys, but this yr, we determined to try one thing totally different since now we have plenty of other full Peruvian alpacas on our farm right now. Fiesta is an adorable little rose gray male.He has taken blue ribbons at every present he has attended and has taken colour champion at every present but one. He is the son of the elite grey sire A of O Silver-Celebration (deceased). Fiesta's dam is a AOBA Nationals blue ribbon winner. Fiesta has herdsires like Leon, Bueno, Don Julio, Quicksilver, Silvino, Shaquille, and Jericho in his background. He's really an elite gray alpaca. Lady has thrown grey in the past so we can't wait to see what we get! Lady is our best basis female and Fiesta is an superior grey alpaca, so I am hoping they are going to be an awesome match and produce one thing great for us subsequent yr. That is Fiesta's first year breeding. Some males catch on to the methods of breeding a lot sooner than others. Fiesta is still making an attempt to get the cling of it. He did get the job done last weekend though on a drive-by breeding, so we will see if it takes. We're preserving our fingers crossed. Lady has always gotten pregnant in one or two breedings. Listed below are some pictures of Lady (full fleece and still pregnant a number of weeks in the past) and Fiesta.

So, you understand that you want to lift chickens but aren't quite sure easy methods to go about it. Feeding: A round steel hanging feeder or a metal/picket trough would work nicely for feeding your hens. Chickens like to scratch around for feed, so whatever one you resolve on, be certain they cannot scratch round and waste the feed. Watering: A shallow rubber or metallic open pan makes the simplest waterer. An open water pail also works just pretty much as good. The main factor is to make certain they always have entry to water. No water means you may lose a part of your flock that you've got tried so hard to raise. Lighting: Retailer-bought or homemade nesting packing containers ought to have one opening for 5-6 birds. Roosts are optional, but when you use them be certain they are 2"x2"and are connected to the walls about 2 feet above the bottom. Pecking: Hatcheries typically trim the beaks of the chicks before they are shipped. Chicken's beaks occasionally grow again. Should you notice unrest in your flock, try tossing in some salad greens or freshly reduce grass clippings all through the day. This could distract them and keep them pecking one another or eating their eggs. Chances are you'll need to salt their water for a number of days, adding a tablespoonful of salt to each gallon of water. Provide a proper technique to dispose of the rooster manure. Take steps to forestall any odor drawback that will develop in your yard and surrounding areas. Simply since you need to raise chickens doesn't suggest your neighbors are having fun with the expertise with you. Proper housing and placement in your flock needs to be thought of as properly.

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