http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0824747/
A movie about the horrors and corruption of the las angeles police department, it was very well made and i was very impressed by the acting, but mostly i was fascinated by the real corruption that actually occoured. i don't really wanna recap the plot, so i'll just post a wiki
http://2blackcats.wordpress.com/2008/10/25/the-real-christine-collins-subject-of-the-film-changeling/
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
everything you will need to know about cocaine (hopefully)
this was my final in world history, tomorrow i'm going to present it to the class.
World History Final Paper on the drug trade between Columbia and the United States
By Maxwell Brown
A drug is defined as "chemical compounds that modify the way the body and mind work." and sense the existence of humans drugs have not only been a huge part of the human experience, not only have drugs been a deciding factor in decisions that have affected all of history, but drugs have been one of the most successful, lasting markets in the world. The beginning of drug markets pre-dates the beginning of recorded history, alcohol abuse was common worldwide as each culture began to document it's history, and drugs where often used along with religious ceremonies in cultures. One of these cultures was the culture of the Pre-Columbian Mexicans, who are documented to have not only used alcohol in religious ceremonies, but also used mind-altering drugs such as what has come to be known today as "magic mushrooms" often this was used to create a spiritual experience, and called "teonacatl" by the Pre-Columbians, meaning god's flesh. This practice went on until the first colonization of the Spanish, where the practice was banned because Spanish priests beloved that the mushrooms where creations of Satan. The reason for this is cited to the reality that the mushrooms would not be profitable for the Spanish to sell because they were not addictive, and could be grown anywhere.
In Southern America, after the Spanish banning of mushrooms; Peruvians in the Andes Mountains began experimenting with the harvesting of different active ingredients from local plants, and found in the Erythroxylum Coca plants, and when the leaves are harvested it is the main alkaloid in the plants, an alkaloid being a nitrogen containing base chemical. Sense Coca is a common plant in Southern America, it is easy to grow in large quantity as long as it is grown in hills that are high above sea level in Sothern America, which promotes growing in countries such as: Ecuador, Chile, Bolivia, and Peru. As cocaine became a more common Sothern American drug amongst the chiefs of Native-Southern American tribes, chiefs from local tribes found a way to exploit laborers. Chiefs gave laborers with very difficult manual labor jobs the Coca leaves to give laborers extra energy, and as laborers became addicted the extra Coca leaves that they would need to maintain their addiction would replace their salaries, and essentially enslaved the lower class. When Europeans discovered Cocaine it became the first European euphoric hallucinogenic drug.
It is at this time that Cocaine establishes a solid market outside Southern America, Cocaine was popular not only for it's euphoric hallucinogenic effect and it's crippling addiction; but also for it's medical properties, in warding off hunger, exhaustion, and sleep. Due to it's European popularity the Spanish take away the Pre-Columbian Southern American’s right to produce coca crops and moved all ownership of coca crops to the Catholic Church. The Spanish businessmen who returned to Europe to sell and traffic the cocaine and popularize it advertised cocaine as an "elixir of life," which quickly popularized it. By 1814 cocaine had caught on in Europe, due mostly to the propaganda advertisements that advertised the drug as a reasonable substitute for food. As time went on cocaine trafficking became a large part of the world economy, representing the up and down turn of different economies, as a truly free-market should.
As cocaine became more prominent it was slowly banned in many countries, and started to be looked down upon in society because of it’s mortality rate, and how addictive it was, the United States government took a fundamental stance against it, partially because of the Christian beliefs of every president, and many early citizens. As the 1990’s progressed, the CIA concerned itself with cocaine, because of its importance in the economies of different countries, in 1980 the CIA worked with known cocaine traffickers from Nicaragua, a CIA task force to combat communism was run using the profits from tons of cocaine that had been sold in the southern Los Angeles Bay region. At the height of the drug trafficking, 100 kilograms of cocaine where being sold in the form of crack; to the Crips and the Bloods, per week! This happened under the Reagan administration. This was one of the early ways that cocaine began flooding the streets of America, it was during this time that cocaine trafficking became far more profitable in America than marijuana trafficking, and many drug dealers from Southern America began to rework their profession.
By 1986 there have been busts of large cocaine deals in almost every state, and the drug enforcement agency is catching more and more cocaine coming from Columbia, where cocaine has it’s origins. Cocaine has continued to be a huge part of world economics, and drug cartels that started primarily in Columbia have begun to move to Mexico, where Columbian cocaine is now commonly trafficked into the states. The drug cartel issue is so bad in Mexico, that violence related with drug smuggling threatens to bring down Mexican government and establishment. All of this is due to the lucrative relationship for drugs to be brought into America from Columbia, and it’s surrounding countries, and the problem that our government constantly combats and spends 2.415 billion dollars a year on (DEA annual budget) exists because of our countries corrupt officials that allowed drug lords to bring cocaine into the country so that we could fight a battle on communism.
In conclusion, I am confident that the terrible, violent cocaine trade that plagues the world could be eradicated, but our country would have to first eliminate it’s own inner-corruption, and eliminate the element of American politicians that continually aid cocaine’s presence in this country.
Bibliography
1. "Frontline: drug wars." PBS.org. 2008. PBS Broadcasting. 5 Jun 2009 <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/business/inside/colombian.html>.
2. "Drug Trafficking in Colombia." latinamericanstudies.com. 2009. Latin American studies organization. 5 Jun 2009 <http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/colombia-drugs.htm>.
3. Burger, Alfred. "A Brief History of Drugs." a1b2c3.com. 8 Jun 2009 <http://www.a1b2c3.com/drugs/gen001.htm>.
4. "The History of Cocaine." a1b2c3.com. 9 Jun 2009 <http://www.a1b2c3.com/drugs/coc01.htm>.
5. "CIA finds no evidence of relationship with drug dealers." NewYorkTimes.com. Thursday, November 7, . New York Times. 9 Jun 2009
If you are interested:
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3Vy3Ov4A9g
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Jesus Christ was born in march
this is absoloutly true, it is even printed in the original bible. the reason that christmas: the birth of jesus christ is celabrated on the 25th is because the pagan holiday "Sol Invictus" used to fall on December 25th. when christianity whiped out paganism in ancient rome the church adopted many many many pagan rituals, symbols, and holidays to make the transition smoother for those who where pagan.
another example is halos on angels, which are the same as those silly things on the heads of Pharoes.
or how traditional christian graves face east(the rising sun) the way that pagans used to to honor the sun god.
I am starting to question the validity of Jesus Christ actually dying the death of a martyr to absolve the sins of his people, because in all the borrowing of other ideals that christianity did to become christianity it has borrowed the exact ideal of jesus's death from the mesoamerican ritual of quetzalcoatl.
The reason that christian god looks the way that he does is because he is in the image of zeus. shit.
the proccess of one religion taking over another and using similar symbols is called transmutation. it scares me that this has happened enough in history.
Perhaps i am looking at this all the wrong way though, with all this religion mixed into one, perhaps it is just a way of showing how people have tried to understand the universe throughout history.
or how white people have tried to assimilate everything to one greedy cult.
why is it that
in the first non-religious "civilized" nation a presidential canidate does not have a chance unless he has been a devout christian all his life? the church still holds over the world as it always has.
Monday, May 11, 2009
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