Day: April 12, 2007

Use Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap – And Go to Jail

Jon Ponder

I have been using Dr. Bronner’s soap since I was in college back in the Flintstones era, and the fact that you are reading this makes it highly likely you use it too. Liberals like Dr. Bronner’s because it’s made from wholesome ingredients, because animals weren’t tortured to test its safety and because it is produced by a socially responsible company in Escondido, Calif.

Bolles insisted the soap was only soap. “I’ve been using Dr. Bronner’s for 35 years,” he said Tuesday, adding that the organic ingredients help give him the complexion of a 15-year-old girl.

But if you are a long-time Dr. Bronner’s user, you may be as surprised as I was to learn that having a bottle of Dr. Bronner’s in your possession could land you in jail on very serious charges.

Sounds like typical leftwing hyperbole, you say? Well, it happened last week to Don Bolles, a member of the Flinstones-era punk band, the Germs.

On April 5, Bolles, 50, and his girlfriend were pulled in Orange County, Calif., because his 1968 Dodge van had a broken tail light. Police searched the car, found a bottle of Dr. Bronner’s in Bolles’ toiletry kit and arrested him. The soap bottle, they said, field-tested positive for GHB, a date rape drug:

Bolles insisted the soap was only soap. “I’ve been using Dr. Bronner’s for 35 years,” he said Tuesday, adding that the organic ingredients help give him the complexion of a 15-year-old girl.

Executives at Dr. Bronner’s rushed to Bolles’ defense, hiring attorney Bruce Margolin, who specializes in marijuana cases, to represent the musician.

The alliance between Germs and the soap manufacturer followed an Internet plea to help bail Bolles out of jail. A musician from one of his other bands, Fancy Space People, set up a PayPal account to raise the $2,500 bond.

It’s nice to know that Dr. Bronner’s steps up when its products’ users are arrested, and it sounds like the company is dedicated to Bolles’ case:

As word of the punk rocker’s arrest spread online, Dr. Bronner’s switchboard lighted up with calls. After speaking with Bolles on Monday, company President David Bronner decided to intervene.

The Escondido-based soap maker is used to run-ins with the law. Because the ingredient list for Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap includes hemp oil, police field tests of the soap occasionally indicate THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, Bronner said.

But the idea of finding GHB in a Dr. Bronner’s product is “beyond belief,” Bronner said. “The field test must have been flawed or tampered with.”

Is it possible Bolles was using the soap bottle to carry the drug?

No way, Bronner said. With a definitive test of the bottle’s contents coming soon from the Orange County Crime Lab, “it would be ridiculous for Bolles to be lying,” Bronner said.

Leaving aside the GBH, it’s ridiculous that in 2007 hemp products that do not contain THC (the stuff in pot that induces a mild euphoria) are still illegal. Products like paper, rope and clothing can be made from industrial hemp which is a source of fiber that is more sustainable than wood.

Quotes du Jour

Trish

“I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can’t see from the center.”

“Those who believe in telekinetics, raise my hand.”

“Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops.”

“There is a tragic flaw in our precious Constitution, and I don’t know what can be done to fix it. This is it: Only nut cases want to be president.”

“During my three years in Vietnam, I certainly heard plenty of last words by dying American footsoldiers. Not one of them, however, had illusions that he had somehow accomplished something worthwhile in the process of making the Supreme Sacrifice.”

“All time is all time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is. Take it moment by moment, and you will find that we are all, as I’ve said before, bugs in amber.”

— Kurt Vonnegut (1922 – April 11, 2007), author

Mysteries of Uncle Ben Still Unsolved

Trish

Perhaps you’re bored. Perhaps you need some meat and rice recipes. Or, more likely, you forgot the meaning of the word, “horseshit,” and need a refresher.

Was he married to Aunt Jemima? Is he Rastus from the Cream of Wheat box’s father?

If so, visit the all-new headquarters of Uncle Ben. Yes, the smiling black chef we all grew up with is now — thanks to marketing people spending too much time in a room alone with just each other — chairman of the board of Uncle Ben’s Rice.

The execution on this is just too awful.

What you’ll gather from the virtual tour of Uncle Ben’s desk, which is beneath his smiling (teeth hidden) portrait in a bow tie and suit, is that Uncle Ben is quite a guy. He travels the world collecting rice lore, photos, and recipes. He addresses national nutrition boards and makes speeches in Washington. The only thing the man doesn’t do is have a last name. So much for erasing the icon’s previous image.

Was he married to Aunt Jemima? Is he Rastus from the Cream of Wheat box’s father? You won’t find out here. This is just straight-up crap from the minds of Mars Food. Makes me cringe to be a marketing person.

Winter Haven News Chief Announces Ryan Skipper Vigil at Polkonline.com

Jon Ponder

We’re updating our list of local papers that have reported online on the upcoming vigil for hate crime victim Ryan Skipper:

The Lakeland Ledger continues to ignore or be unaware of the upcoming vigils.

As you can see, we added the Tampa Tribune to the list. A concerned citizen contacted a reporter at the Tribune to ask why the paper had not covered the vigil. According to the caller, the reporter said he hadn’t heard about the vigil. Perhaps the news release from Equality Florida was misdirected to the wrong department.

Update: A source close to the organization of the vigil locally says the Tribune plans to cover it.

We also updated the list to show that News Chief, one of the two news services based in Polk County, has covered the details of Saturday’s events via its website, polkonline.com:

Statewide vigils are scheduled for Saturday to honor 25-year-old Ryan Skipper, whose body was found near Wahneta early on March 14…

Equality Florida, an organization dedicated to securing equality and justice for the state’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, will assist with vigil plans, in Polk County, around the state and possibly in other parts of the nation Saturday to mourn Skipper’s death…

The Polk County vigil will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday in Winter Haven at Central Park, located on Central Avenue at Fourth and Fifth streets. For details, call 813-849-3919 or russ@eqfl.org.

The Lakeland Ledger continues to ignore or be unaware of the upcoming vigils. (I’m planning a separate article on this later.)

Local Coverage of the Lack of Local Coverage

Our coverage of the local media’s lack of coverage of the murder of Ryan Skipper has been noticed by a writer at Lakelandlocal.com:

[Posts] at the Pensito Review are proving a point about local newspapers. The public hasn’t written them off yet. The newspaper is where we expect to find local news. Not 60 Seconds of Local News at Six. We’re looking for The Ledger to cover the CSX story and Pensito Review is asking why the Ledger hasn’t mention the vigils for Ryan Skipper to be held Saturday in 13 Florida cities and Washington, D.C.

H/t thesue2u

Senate Passes Stem Cell Bill

Jon Ponder

Wedge issue: It probably doesn’t have the saliency for Democrats as a wedge issue that gay marriage has for Republicans, but Democrats in the Senate yesterday put their GOP colleagues on the record on the issue of stem cell research.

The bill restricts research to embryos that would “otherwise be discarded” and whose donors gave their approval.

The president and his chorus on the irrational right claim that the research kills human life because embryos are destroyed to obtain the stem cells. However, the bill passed yesterday is very specific about which embryos would be used:

The bill would permit funding for research on embryonic stem cells regardless of the date of their creation, so long as they were donated from in-vitro fertilization clinics, they would “otherwise be discarded” and donors gave their approval.

Perhaps Bush and his followers will pledge that after dramatic new cures result from stem cell research that they will refuse these treatments if they are diagnosed with diabetes, Parkinson’s disease or similar illnesses