what is D DUBS READS?

The Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

Sat, 5 Jun 2010 22:17:37 -0400

This book is the third installment of the Harry Potter series and a lot of fresh ideas and plot twists are incorporated into the story. A prisoner has escaped from Azkaban, the wizard prison, and is presumably seeking Harry Potter at Hogwarts. His name is Sirius Black, and he is known to be involved with the evil Lord Voldemort, and is infamous for killing 13 people with a single curse and turning Harry Potter’s parents over to the Dark Lord.

Harry runs away from his Aunt and Uncle’s home to attend his third year at Hogwarts, and the security has been heightened because of Black’s escape. The grounds are now guarded by Dementors, dark hooded beings that are normally stationed at Azkaban and have the ability to drain happiness out of people. Harry begins learning a special spell called the Patronus Charm from the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Remus Lupin, in order to protect himself from the Dementors.

Hagrid the gamekeeper has taken on the role of the Care of Magical Creatures professor at Hogwarts, and runs into trouble on his first day. One of his creatures attacks a student, and the creature is sentenced to be executed at the end of the school year. Hermione uses a Time-Turner to travel backward in time to attend classes held simultaneously. Fred and George Weasley give Harry a hidden passageway map so that he can sneak out of Hogwarts to join his friends at Hogsmeade, a local village that the students visit on the weekends. Harry is forbidden from leaving the grounds because Black is trying to find him. Harry and his friends decide to break the curfew rules to comfort Hagrid on the day his creature is to be executed, and end up uncovering many Hogwarts mysteries on their journey. As with the first two books, they all save the day and a lot more is revealed.

This is the best Harry Potter novel I have read so far. I realize that there are four more to go, and as long as they continue to improve and become more complex, I will definitely find myself enjoying them. The book had a great pace to it - I never felt bored, and the pages did not have as much fluff as the first two books. The use of Hermione’s Time-Turner device is one of the more psychedelic aspects of this book, because she is able to be in two places at one time, without necessarily altering the course of events. The book also contains one of the better descriptions of a Quidditch match, in which Harry’s team defeats the team of his nemesis, Draco Malfoy. I am really beginning to enjoy the concept of a school for wizards and witches, and all the dramatic events that unfold on its campus.

4/5 Stars. 435 pages. Published 1999.

The Harvard Psychedelic Club by Don Lattin

Sat, 29 May 2010 20:44:07 -0400

This book tells the tale of four men who crossed paths in the winter of 1960-1961, and how their shared experience in a Harvard psychedelic research project changed their lives and affected American culture in the 1960s and 1970s. There is Huston Smith, the teacher, who studied various world religions and educated Americans to adopt a more tolerant attitude toward other cultures’ religions. Richard Alpert is the seeker; his psychedelic path led him to India, and he returned to America as “Ram Dass,” a spiritual leader with a “Be Here Now” mantra. Andrew Weil is the healer, becoming a leader in alternative medicine and spending much of his life reforming the American health care system. And there is Timothy Leary, the trickster, who was the main proponent of LSD in “the sixties,” advising an entire generation to “Turn on, tune in, and drop out.”

The psychedelic community is harmed by a combination of misinformation and a bad reputation. It is unfortunate that hallucinogens have been included in the overall category of “drugs,” and are viewed as comparable to developing a dangerous crack or heroin habit or taking pharmaceutical drugs to get through a stressful day on the job. Don Lattin does a good job of showing the reader that many users of psychedelics aren’t trying to escape reality, but rather they are trying to find it.

Prior to reading this book, I knew a lot of information about the Harvard Psychedelic Project, but I knew nothing of Andrew Weil or Huston Smith. It was very interesting to read about the effect these two had on the psychedelic community in the sixties. The book is composed like a collective biography of these four men, and offers a lot of insight into their lives and work that were new to me. The Harvard Psychedelic Club was published this year, and it is a fresh look at the effect that these LSD pioneers had on the world. I would highly suggest it to anyone interested in the subject, and I think that everyone who reads this book has the potential to learn something new.

4/5 Stars. 256 pages. Published 2010.

Winnie the Pooh by Alan Milne

Tue, 25 May 2010 14:02:31 -0400

It is always refreshing to read a fun book from time to time, and because this book came with the iBooks application on my new iPad, I decided to include a brief review of it here.

Winnie the Pooh is the first volume of stories about a bear named Winnie the Pooh and his friends Christopher Robin, Piglet, Eeyore, Owl and Rabbit. Kanga and her baby Roo are introduced during the second half of the book. Each story (there are 10 in total) can be read independently of the others, as plots do not carry over from one to the next.

This is a fun-loving bunch of characters. Children can easily identify with at least one of the characters, and adults who read this can find value in the playful writing. Intentional misspellings and grammatical mistakes reminded me of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. If you haven’t read this already (or lately) you should give it a try - it’s a quick read and is almost guaranteed to make you feel good.

4/5 Stars. 176 pages. Published 1926.

Old School Coca Colla in Bolivia

Sun, 9 May 2010 14:54:51 -0400

Via Drug War Chronicle:

The first batch of Coca Colla, about 12,000 half-litre bottles going for $1.50 each, went on sale in La Paz, Santa Cruz, and Cochabamba. Like Coca-Cola, it is black, sweet, and comes in a bottle with a red label. Unlike Coca-Cola, which originally used full-fledged coca leaf extract but began de-cocainizing it early in the company's history, Coca Colla is the real thing.

While Morales' government has vowed zero tolerance for cocaine, it has encouraged Bolivian companies to use coca in products including tea, syrups, toothpaste, liqueurs, candies, and cakes. The Bolivian government backed Coca Colla from the beginning. If Coca Colla and other coca products take off, the government could expand the amount of land authorized for legal coca production from the current 30,000 acres to as much as 50,000 acres.

Hunter S. Thompson Signs A Contract

Sun, 9 May 2010 14:49:13 -0400

Pictured above is a contract “signed” by Hunter S. Thompson.

Via Renegade Futurist.

The Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

Wed, 5 May 2010 22:50:02 -0400

This time it is Harry’s second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and ominous messages are appearing on the walls. The “heir of Slytherin” has returned, and is threatening to kill all students who are not pure-blood witches or wizards. These students are known as mud-bloods; both of their parents were not magical and so they have mixed or impure blood. Throughout the book, the school’s tenants are found literally petrified in the corridors, frozen and unable to speak or move. Harry, Ron and Hermione find Moaning Myrtle, the ghost of a girl who was killed the last time the Chamber of Secrets was opened. For the past 50 years, Myrtle has been haunting the bathroom in which she died.

Harry finds a diary in the bathroom, which once belonged to Tom Riddle, a former Hogwarts student. It is blank, but Harry eventually figures out that when he writes in it, Tom Riddle writes back to him. Harry travels through time to follow Riddle and discovers that Hagrid was the student who previously opened the chamber. Ron and Harry escape from the school by using an invisibility cloak to go counsel with Hagrid. However, Hagrid is taken away to a prison and shouts out clues for the two boys. They follow the advice and end up locating the Chamber of Secrets, rescue Ron’s sister Ginny and save Hogwarts from Lord Voldemort once again.

I thought this was a pretty good book, although I preferred the first one. At times, it seemed to me like Rowling was writing the story as I was reading. Almost as if she hadn’t finalized her ideas before she began her composition. But everything tied together pretty well at the end.

There were some interesting concepts and themes in this book. The discrimination toward mud-bloods alluded to racism and classism. Harry’s consideration for others includes even the lowly and annoying Dobby, Draco Malfoy’s family elf. In the end, Harry’s good deeds are rewarded and the Malfoy family is punished for its dishonest behavior. The book also makes us consider what makes a person who he or she is. Harry’s identity is shaped through his actions and not his miraculous birth. All of the characters seem to learn more about themselves in this book. The students are starting to gain more responsibilities, and have begun to plan paths for their futures by selecting a course of study. In a way, this book is about awakening. It is a little rough around the edges, but a good read.

3/5 Stars. 341 pages. Published 1998.

Island by Aldous Huxley

Mon, 3 May 2010 00:07:09 -0400

If Brave New World is Huxley’s dystopian novel, then Island is his utopian effort. And it is amazing.

I would definitely suggest this book for anyone interested in Huxley. Island is to Brave New World as The Dharma Bums is to On The Road. It is lesser-known, but its message is more positive. Island is the final book by Aldous Huxley, and is a rehashing of his ideas in Brave New World. There were thirty years between the publishing of Brave New World and Island, and it seems as if Huxley has created the “possibility of sanity” that he theorized in his foreword to the 1946 edition of Brave New World.

The themes in Island deal with overpopulation, democracy, mysticism and entheogens. Where drug use in Island focuses on enlightenment and self-knowledge, drug use in Brave New World was primarily for control and pacification. Trance states in Island were for self-development and learning; in Brave New World they were for indoctrination and brain washing. Suffice it to say that I would rather live on the island than in the new world.

Neither community could exist within our lifetimes, but if one was to prevail, we should hope it would be the society in Island.

4/5 Stars. 354 pages. Published 1962

Three Reasons to Legalize Cannabis Now

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 11:22:27 -0400

As the United States enters its 72nd year of marijuana prohibition, it's time to consider legalizing pot for at least three reasons:

1. The tax revenue and law enforcement savings. A 2005 cost-benefit analysis done by Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron found that legalizing marijuana and taxing it similar to alcohol would generate over $6 billion in new revenue and save nearly $8 billion in direct law enforcement costs. Pot is already the biggest cash crop in many states; bringing it into the open market would pump all sorts of energy into the economy.

2. It's going to happen anyway, so why delay the inevitable? Increasing numbers of Americans realize that pot prohibition is an ineffective and costly policy. A 2009 poll by Zogby found that 52 percent of Americans agreed that marijuana should be taxed and regulated like booze. A Field Poll last year of California residents, who will vote on a legalization ballot initiative in the fall, found that 56 percent wanted legalization. Other polls show historically high percentages favoring legalization. In a world of busted budgets, it's crystal clear that spending time and energy policing marijuana is not worth it.

3. Keep Your Laws Off Our Bodies. Never mind that by virtually every measure, pot is safer and less than disruptive than booze. Pot prohibition in the 1930s was the result of hysteria, not serious threats to society. We own our bodies and should be free to eat, drink, and smoke what we want. And to take responsibility for our actions, whether we're straight or we're stoned.

Originally posted on Reason.tv.

South Park Medical Fried Chicken

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 17:04:59 -0400

It seems as if South Park is going to tackle the medical marijuana situation in some way or another. Randy sure seems excited that the local KFC is going to be replaced by a medical marijuana dispensary! This airs tonight - feel free to come back and discuss in the comments section afterwards. I’m hoping it’s as funny as the show usually is. But I’m also hoping that Matt and Trey spread more information than disinformation. Maybe I’m hoping too much...

Mr. Al’s A Tooty-Ta

Thu, 25 Mar 2010 23:01:59 -0400

Strangest children’s song I’ve ever heard. Check out this guy’s facial expressions. And the butt dance? Come on!

Got this from the Facebook page of Uhh Yeah Dude, one of my favorite podcasts.

Direct Link