Feel Good Friday

Having spent most of yesterday in bed asleep, I am feeling much better this morning.  However, because I did nothing yesterday, I have a very busy day ahead starting with the dreaded laundry chore first thing this morning followed by the weekly shopping and errands.  Then I get to put it all together and get to work by 5 o'clock for my second truck night this week.  So I definitely got my work cut out for me, but I have the weekend off to recover from whatever comes down the pike today.  

I haven't spent much time with the news cycle, but Will pointed me to this historic legislation introduced into the Senate by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.  This legislation would end federal prohibition of marijuana, marking the latest move the Democratic presidential candidate has made toward ending the war on drugs.

The Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act, introduced Wednesday, is modeled after a bill first proposed by Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) in 2013, which was reintroduced this year as the Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act. The Senate bill would remove marijuana from the Drug Enforcement Administration's list of the "most dangerous" drugs and strike marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act, allowing states to decide whether they want to legalize pot for recreational or medical use without federal intervention.

The bill comes a week after Sanders first proposed reclassifying marijuana as a less-dangerous substance, arguing that doing so is an essential component of reforming America's criminal justice system.

"In the United States we have 2.2 million people in jail today, more than any other country. And we’re spending about $80 billion a year to lock people up. We need major changes in our criminal justice system – including changes in drug laws,” Sanders said at George Mason University on Oct. 28. “Too many Americans have seen their lives destroyed because they have criminal records as a result of marijuana use. That’s wrong. That has got to change."

Well said and done, Bernie!  let's hope you can gather the votes necessary from your conservative fuckheads esteemed colleagues across the aisle as well as finding those of your own party who are in support.  (many thanks to Huff Post and Mollie Reilly for their contribution to this post)

Now as for the Music and the Men, I have a boat load of both lined up for you all today!  Beginning with the play list posted down below.  I have the excellent recording of the Complete Guitar  Concerti of Baroque Italian Virtuoso/Composer, Mauro Guiliani.  This performance is by the modern Guitar Virtuoso, Pepe Romero who is accompanied by The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields under the baton of Sir Neville Mariner.  The play list includes  Concerto No.1 in A, Op.30; Concerto No.2 in A, Op.36;Variations on - "I bin a Kohlbauern Bub," Op.49; Gran Sonata Eroica in A; Concerto No.3 in F, Op.70; Introduction, Theme with Variations and Polonaise in A, Op.65 - Introduction; Grande Ouverture, Op.61; La Melanconia; Variations on a Theme of Handel, Op.107 and concludes with Variazioni Concertanti, Op.130.  Over on my tumblr is the companion piece, Guiliani's Grande Duo Concertante for Flute (or Violin) and Guitar, Opus 85.  That recording is by James Hontz on Guitar and Kelly McDermott on Flute.

Since this is Friday, it is time to stuff your senses with visual inspiration for anything you would want to imagine.  I do not know what you might have up your sleeve to do, but anyone of these studly fellows would certainly be a worthy companion, whatever the endeavor.  Check them all out in this week's edition of Fantasy Fuel posted down below.  Over on my tumblr, Your Hottie of the Day! has some definite plans for his 'Weekend in the Woods'.  Perhaps you would like to join him in his adventure (he he he).  Thanks for the visit, see you again on Sunday for the Morning Concert.  Until next time as always, Enjoy!

Hump Day Hot Links

Marriage Equality continues to dominate the news today, but I found a couple of other articles you might want to take a look at also.  First up, Rachel Maddow takes a look at the SCOTUS 'October Surprise', she also interviews Edie Windsor.    In other appelate court actions yesterday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the gay marriage bans in Idaho and Nevada.  Couples have already begun marrying in Nevada, however in Idaho, the AG has filed an emergency request to recall the mandate from the 9th Circuit that would have lifted the ban on same-sex marriage in the state.  Justice Kennedy who handles emergency requests for the Ninth Circuit issued a temporary stay until 5 pm Thursday.  The court will then decide whether to issue a more permanent stay. In the meantime, gay marriages in Idaho will not be able to proceed.  Idaho officials argued that their case is narrower in scope than the other same-sex marriage cases that the Justices on Monday had refused to review.  We will see what happens there on Thursday. 

Meanwhile in Wyoming the NCLR and Wyoming Equality filed a federal lawsuit demanding immediate compliance with the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling.  The Casper Star-Tribune: Laramie County Clerk Debra Lathrop and a legal team representing same-sex couples have jointly asked the Laramie County District Court to immediately rule on when and if Lathrop can begin issuing same-sex marriage licenses.  Wyoming Unites writes: By denying review of Utah and Oklahoma’s marriage cases, SCOTUS allowed the 10th Circuit ruling striking down marriage bans in both states to stand. And because the 10th Circuit also has jurisdiction over Wyoming, we are hopeful that it is only a matter of time until the freedom to marry is law here at home too.

In other news, there was a great article over on Alternet subtitled Five new cannabis-centric studies that warrant major attention.  Medical research is finding many new combinations of cannabinoids that positively affect a number of serious maladies.  One study also showed that inhalation of the whole cannabis leaf (by joint, pipe or bong!) facilitates remission in Crohn's Disease patients.  Other issues affected by the study include Parkinson's Disease, Traumatic Brain Injury, Colo-Rectal Cancer and Opiate Withdrawal, all of which benefit from cannabinoid therapy either in pill form or ingestion by inhalation.  Isn't it about time we legalized Cannabis for medical and recreational use?  I think so, but we have a few more neanderthals to remove as stumbling blocks to progressive legislation in local, state and national offices for this to take place.

One other article I found interesting, in a televised interview with TV station La 7, a third division football player in the UK says he moonlighted as a rent boy to a dozen well known footballers: "A player named only as 'Victory' claims he has been the lover of 12 well-known top flight stars. The third-division player said that he had been paid for sex by players and that the trysts took place at the end of games in hotels and sometimes even in changing rooms....Said Victory: "I am talking about important players. Serie A players even internationals and married players. We are talking about more than just kissing. I charge 1500 euros (£1300) and the players pay up no problem."  I would suggest that there are more Gay Footballers than we are led to believe by the powers that be.  Unfortunately they would rather stay closeted and pay for their pleasure before slipping back into their 'straight persona' for the world to see.  It is a shame that institutional homophobia forces them to feel they have to be that way in order to pursue their career.

Your Midweek Musical Moment features the music of Felix Mendelssohn.  His Concerto for Two Pianos in A-Flat Major is a marvelous work beautifully performed by Love Derwinger & Roland Pöntinen at the Pianos accompanied by The Nieuw Sinfonietta Amsterdam under the baton of Lev Markiz.  You may hear the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Claudio Abbado as they perform Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture (Fingal's Cave), Op. 26 over on my tumblr.

Finally for today, it is time for another collection of sexy, soaked super-studs in this week's edition of Wet Wednesday which you will find on display below the video.  Additional wonderful wetness can be found in Maikel Castro, Your Hottie of the Day! over on my tumblr.  Thanks for the visit, come again soon.  Until next time as always, Enjoy!

Extroardinary

Writing in the New Yorker, David Remnick's interview, On and Off the Road With Barack Obama, is both fascinating and revealing.  The interview is wide ranging covering a lot of different subject matter.  I would like to focus on just a small portion of that interview on a subject near and dear to my heart, the legalization of marijuana.  I have posted the pertinent section of the article below and will let you judge the President's words, recorded by Remick, as to whether or not the revelation here is extroardinary for yourselves. 

"When I asked Obama about another area of shifting public opinion—the legalization of marijuana—he seemed even less eager to evolve with any dispatch and get in front of the issue. “As has been well documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life. I don’t think it is more dangerous than alcohol.”

Is it less dangerous? I asked.

Obama leaned back and let a moment go by. That’s one of his moves. When he is interviewed, particularly for print, he has the habit of slowing himself down, and the result is a spool of cautious lucidity. He speaks in paragraphs and with moments of revision. Sometimes he will stop in the middle of a sentence and say, “Scratch that,” or, “I think the grammar was all screwed up in that sentence, so let me start again.”

Less dangerous, he said, “in terms of its impact on the individual consumer. It’s not something I encourage, and I’ve told my daughters I think it’s a bad idea, a waste of time, not very healthy.” What clearly does trouble him is the radically disproportionate arrests and incarcerations for marijuana among minorities. “Middle-class kids don’t get locked up for smoking pot, and poor kids do,” he said. “And African-American kids and Latino kids are more likely to be poor and less likely to have the resources and the support to avoid unduly harsh penalties.” But, he said, “we should not be locking up kids or individual users for long stretches of jail time when some of the folks who are writing those laws have probably done the same thing.” Accordingly, he said of the legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington that “it’s important for it to go forward because it’s important for society not to have a situation in which a large portion of people have at one time or another broken the law and only a select few get punished.”

As is his habit, he nimbly argued the other side. “Having said all that, those who argue that legalizing marijuana is a panacea and it solves all these social problems I think are probably overstating the case. There is a lot of hair on that policy. And the experiment that’s going to be taking place in Colorado and Washington is going to be, I think, a challenge.” He noted the slippery-slope arguments that might arise. “I also think that, when it comes to harder drugs, the harm done to the user is profound and the social costs are profound. And you do start getting into some difficult line-drawing issues. If marijuana is fully legalized and at some point folks say, Well, we can come up with a negotiated dose of cocaine that we can show is not any more harmful than vodka, are we open to that? If somebody says, We’ve got a finely calibrated dose of meth, it isn’t going to kill you or rot your teeth, are we O.K. with that?”"

 

I find it remarkable as well as extraordinary that for the first time ever, a sitting US President has admitted publicly the belief that marijuana in and of itself is not 'dangerous'.  That is as far a cry from the 'War On Drugs' as anyone in his position has been willing to go.  Maybe there is hope for this country after all...just saying.

Your Musical Moment for today is one selected for a dear friend who mentioned to me yesterday that her favorite orchestral instrument is the Harp.  The piece I have selected is from the Winner's concert of the 2013 Harp Concerto Competition at the Jacob's School of Music, Indiana University

Natalie Salzman (harpist) plays Joaquin Rodrigo's Concierto di Aranjuez (1941) with the Indiana University Concert Orchestra, conducted by Arthur Fagen. The concerto was originally written for classical guitar and arranged for harp by Rodrigo at the request of harpist Nicanor Zabaleta in 1974. This performance blends both versions, hoping to capture as much authenticity as possible of the original composition.  In addition, you can catch the 1955 recording of Suite Bergamasque by Claude Debussy performed by Albert Ferber over on my tumblr.

 

Finally for today, it has been a while since I have featured delectable derrieres for your visual appreciation, so forthwith I present you with a bevy of beautiful butts in this edition of Bootylicious.  You can also cruise and peruse the Hottie of the Day! over on my tumblr.  Thanks for sharing a part of your day with me, see you again soon.  Until next time as always, Enjoy!