The Electric Kool-Aid Medicine Test
Written on May 24th, 2006May 24, 2006 | In 1954, when the national mood was one of suspicion and conformity, Aldous Huxley wrote, “All … the hallucinogens that ripen in berries or can be squeezed from roots — all, without exception, have been known and systematically used by human beings from time immemorial.”
Ten years later Timothy Leary was fired from Harvard for “systematically using” LSD (admittedly not from a berry or a root) with students. Leary’s sensational promotion of turning on and dropping out closed the door on serious dialogue or research into the potential benefits of psychedelic substances. Yet today, in the midst of the current revival of patriotic and moral paranoia, some are beginning once again to scientifically consider their value as visionary or psychological medicine.
Charles Grob, M.D., is director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at the UCLA School of Medicine. He conducted the first government-approved psycholobiological research study of MDMA, was the principal investigator of an international project in the Brazilian Amazon of ayahuasca, and is now studying the use of psilocybin with advanced-stage cancer patients. He is editor of “Hallucinogens: A Reader” and recently co-edited, with Roger Walsh, “Higher Wisdom: Eminent Elders Explore the Continuing Impact of Psychedelics.”
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Lapham’s Case for Impeachment
Written on March 21st, 2006March 21, 2006
| In November 1972 Richard Nixon won 61 percent of the popular vote, carried 49 of 50 states and won the Electoral College 520-17. Yet only three months later the Senate voted 77-0 to hold hearings investigating the Watergate break-in and its coverup — a bit of petty theft, a campaign dirty trick that could hardly have made the difference in one of the most lopsided elections in U.S. history. A year later the House voted 414-4 that the Judiciary Committee investigate whether there were grounds for impeachment. Three articles of impeachment were eventually approved by the committee, and in August 1974 Nixon resigned before he could actually be impeached.
In 1999 Bill Clinton was acquitted by a vote of the full Senate after being impeached over lying about an extramarital affair.
Today George W. Bush sits apparently shielded from accountability by loyal and unified Republican control of the House and Senate. Bush, who deceived this nation into a catastrophic war and has admitted domestic wiretaps without warrants in clear violation of federal law, has seemed invulnerable to even the possibility of impeachment.
Is the tide finally beginning to turn?
Lewis Lapham, editor of Harper’s Magazine for nearly 30 years, wrote a cover essay for the March issue of the magazine that makes a strong and well-reasoned case for the impeachment of George W. Bush. Lapham has recently shifted roles, becoming editor emeritus so that he can devote himself to editing Lapham’s Quarterly, a new journal about history, while continuing to write his monthly column for Harper’s.
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He Who Cleans the Street, Gets the Vote
Written on February 10th, 2006February 10, 2006
| Editor’s Note: This interview took place before the outbreak of protests against the publishing in Europe of cartoons depicting Mohammed.
Following the electoral victory of Hamas in Palestine, I was struck again by how many lives are devoted to beliefs, agendas and passions about which so many of us remain recklessly ill-informed. Reza Aslan, in his book “No god But God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam” (now out in paperback), and in his commentaries, offers insight informed by an understanding of history. Aslan, who was born in Iran, has dedicated himself to developing an alternative to the widely accepted “clash of civilization” theory that pits East against West in an apocalyptic struggle.
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What Is Plan B?
Written on February 2nd, 2006China now consumes more grain, meat, coal and steel than the United States. If China’s income grows as projected, in 2031 its income per person will match incomes in the United States today. At that point, it will be consuming the equivalent of two-thirds of the current world grain harvest, driving 1.1 billion cars (versus 800 million in the world today) and using 99 million barrels of oil per day, well above current world production of 84 million barrels. That’s Plan A.
New threats — climate change, environmental degradation, the persistence of poverty and the loss of hope — call for new strategies. Brown — who left World Watch in 2001 to found Earth Policy Institute — says it’s time for Plan B — a renewable-energy-based, reuse-recycle economy with a diversified transport system: time to build a new economy and a new world. The world is now spending $975 billion annually for military purposes. Plan B — social goals and earth restoration — requires an additional annual expenditure of $161 billion.
Brown, founder of the World Watch Institute, was in Europe recently to address the Royal Geographic Society in London, the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and the OECD in Paris. He will speak to the World Affairs Councils of San Francisco and Los Angeles the first week of February.
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Election Theft Emergency
Written on January 27th, 2006January 27, 2006 | For GOP voters, the 2004 presidential election was little short of miraculous: Behind in the Electoral College even on the afternoon of the vote, the Bush-Cheney ticket staged a stunning comeback. Usually reliable exit polls turned out to be wrong by an unprecedented 5 percent in swing states. Conservatives argued, and the media agreed, that “moral values” had made the difference.
In his latest book, Fooled Again: How The Right Stole The 2004 Election, And Why They’ll Steal The Next One Too (Unless We Stop Them), Mark Crispin Miller argues that it wasn’t moral values which swung the election — it was theft.
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