I've Got Some Things To Say...
Crystal Meth
I read the best piece today in the Style section of the Sunday NY Times about crystal meth and its effects on the gay community.
Some quotes from the article:
Crystal meth "turns people into antisocial zombies," said Trip Zanetis, 23, a nightclub publicist who said he hates what it is doing to his social world. "It makes people hostile and delusional. The vibe is much more negative and colder than in the past, thanks to this drug."
Dr. Steven Lee, a New York psychiatrist who specializes in treating crystal meth addicts, said there is now "a much harder edge in New York gay clubs than in the past." This change, he said, is largely because of the drug: in addition to its sexual and stimulant effects, crystal meth promotes aggression.
"Some of my patients talk about how they feel on crystal meth as akin to being robots programmed with the sole purpose of doing more crystal and having more sex," Dr. Lee said. The drug also causes paranoia in regular users, and can eventually lead to psychotic episodes.
...Aficionados of the scene say dance clubs have become sterile environments filled with monotonous music and detached dancers.
..."crystal is by far the worst drug I've ever seen happen to night life. It not only takes over people's lives, but it really negates what the whole scene is supposed to be about."
Finally more people are coming to the same conclusion. Crystal kills. It's a terribly negative drug which is wreaking havoc on the gay community. Crystal destroys friendships and relationships, it kills personality and it's killing the fun and free spirit that used to be so much part of gay nightlife.
Jews Spying for Israel
I'll withhold judgement as to whether the allegations against Larry Franklin, AIPAC and Israel are proven true or not but if they are then that's a big problem for Israel.
As a Jew my loyalties are to the United States and not to Israel. Yet Jews like Jonathan Pollard place their loyalty to Israel above that to this country and that helps cement in some people's minds the idea that Jews are untruthworthy, a fifth column that will do anything to undermine the United States in support of Israel. It's an absurd thought but stories like this one only make it seem more true to many people.
And that bring to the forefront the campaign by many American and Israeli Jews to free convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard. President Clinton was reportedly close to pardoning him in 2000 and only did not because the heads of the CIA and the FBI threatened to resign if he did.
Let's be clear on one issue: Jonathan Pollard did more damage to US intelligence capabilities than any spy in history. He gave to Israel details on code-breaking algorythms, weaponry, Soviet troop movements and more. This information wasn't used by Israel to defend itself, contrary to the claims of many of Pollard's defenders. Rather Israel sold this information to the Soviet Union in exchange for the freedom of Soviet Jews. I don't necessarily hold that against Israel, after all, every nation always acts in its own interests regardless of the costs to others. But don't try and act like Pollard was some benevolent bike messenger delivering low-grade intelligence on the PLO. He committed treason against the United States and if anyone deserved execution for spying it was Pollard.
I have little patience for the claims of Pollard's defenders that "Israel should have had this information anyway." It's not for them, nor for Israel to make that decision. Israel has no right to claim it deserves full and unfettered access to American intelligence whenever it wants and to claim it does is astonishing and ridiculous.
If Israel is again running a counter-intelligence operation against the United States using American Jews and AIPAC as cover then the questions won't stop about what else Israel has been up to in the US. Its economic espionage against the US in Silicon Valley, Los Alamos and the research corridor near Boston are legendary, so Israel saying it has no "intelligence assets" in the United States is laughable. The question that remains is to what extend Jews will go in supporting Israel, and to what extent Israel will go in using American Jews for its own interests.
Paul Hamm's Medal
As a former gymnast I'll say one thing that many people don't understand about gymnastics, the scoring system is enormously complicated. I never was able to do a routine that had a cumulative point value of anything higher than a 9.0 but even after being scored at that level I would be reminded by my coach about how many tenths and fifths came off because of this mistake and that mistake. Try looking at a judges scoring card sometime if you get the chance. A routine lasting not longer than a minute often times will result in a single scoring page covered with dashes and pluses, sometimes more than 50 or 60. That means the judge is marking second by second and there are many, many errors and bonuses that often times aren't counted or seen by judges.
What does this have to do with Hamm? The Korean who supposedly "deserved" the gold medal did a routine with a value of 10.0 if done perfectly. The judges gave him credit for a routine worth 9.9, that much is true. The videotapes have been reviewed and it's been proven he did complete a routine worth 10.0, that much is true.
But those videotapes also showed another mistake, and this time it was on the part of the Korean. He made a mistake that would have resulted in a .10 deduction which wasn't factored in by the judges. If they're now going to start reviewing tapes of gymnast's performances AFTER the fact then they're going to have to add in the deductions as well as the gains.
The medal is Hamms and the Koreans and others should accept this and move on.
4:20:38 PM 
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