Donald Trump and hemp in 2018

It's been almost a year since I posted. Sorry for the long hiatus.
Presently I'm in the US, where hemp was first banned for so long, but is now legal
according to federal law, giving states the right to grow it. And many states have opted
to make it legal along with medical and recreational cannabis.
Which two are grown in abundance; while industrial hemp is not much talked about.
The left, which appropriates environmental issues, has been missing in action. The right, which
is accused of being a bunch of nasty, polluting haters, has backed hemp.
The left has also been proven to be full of child molesters, spies, sexual harassers, you name it.
Not that the GOP does not have its share. But the mile long list of lefty Hollywood celebs and their allies, including members of the Clinton and Obama family, makes one wonder why they can make any claim to environmental issues. And none are wearing hemp; save Woody Harrelson, whose name has not appeared on any of the sexual harassment claims. OK, a few others as well; but what did they know and when did they know it? Should we belive Katie Couric and her claims that she knew nothing of Matt Lauer's lewd acts? That his office-cum-dungeon was a complete secret?

I'd believe her more if she was wearing hemp; not cotton. Which is a crop the left loves, reference if you will a previous post about the cottonistas and their show in London. Cotton kills. The left wears it. The left started the Vietnam War, supported slavery, sent back the St. Louis to Hitler, etc etc.

But I did not want to start the year just bashing the left. I spent years trying to work with them, and indeed marched against the Vietnam War in my youth, etc etc. But the left in the US and elsehwhere has proven to be not much more than the party of a certain vegetarian, which promised peace and love while calling itself the socialist workers... of Germany.

So who pick up the plow and sow hemp? Could Mr Trump and his adorable deplorables get the job done? We'll see. For now they are at least producing a pro hemp shirt, on hemp cloth of course, so the GOP is the only party I see working with the issue. And where are the Greens? Again, reference previous posts on this site. Mrs Stein is counting her millions somewhere, which were supposed to be spent getting Trump out of office but which I suspect she spent on petroleum stocks.

More on the hemp shirt shortly, so stay tuned, and feel free to post any comments.

Minawear outlets

Below is a list of shops that carry Minawear around the world. Minawear is now in its 15th year, and going strong. Now based in Victoria, Texas, it started in Santa Monica, California. Below is an image of Woody Harrelson wearing Minawear:




TEXAS:Organic Emporium
2918 N. Laurent St.
Victoria, TX 77901
(361) 576-2100
www.organicemporiumllc.com
The Yoga Haven
2507 Market Street
Galveston, TX 77550
(409)-770-9995
www.theyogahaven.net
Coastal Closet
1726 State Highway 361, Ste D
Port Aransas, TX 78373
(361) 749-1881
www.coastalclosetpa.com
Yoga Heart Studio
30103 Fountainview Dr. Ste 151
Houston, TX 77057
(281) 687-0647
www.yogahearthouston.com
Clista's Studio
6514 Del Monte
Houston, TX 77057
(713) 826-8416
www.clistas-studio.com
One Green Street
3423 White Oak Drive
Houston, TX 77007
(281) 888-9518
http://www.onegreenstreet.com/
NEW MEXICO:Yoga Source
901 W. San Mateo
Santa Fe, NM 87505
Body Inc.
333 W Cordova Rd.
Santa Fe, NM 87505
(505) 986-0362
www.bodyofsantafe.com
Santa Fe Hemp Company
105 E. Water Street
Santa Fe, NM 87501
(505) 984-2599
www.santafehemp.com
NEW YORK:Integral Yoga Institute
227 West 13th St.
New York, NY 10011
(212) 929-0586
Jet's Dream
212 Main St.
Greenport, NY 11944
(631) 477-0039
www.jetsdream.com
NORTH CAROLINA:Asheville Yoga Center
211 S. Liberty St.
Asheville, NC, 28801
(828)-254-0380
www.youryoga.com
MARYLAND:Joshua Tree
1340 Smith Ave.
Baltimore, MD 21231
OHIO:Hemptations
2034 Madison Road
Cincinnati, OH 45208
(513)871-4367
www.hemptations.com
Hemptations Too
11353 Lebanon Road
Sharonville, OH 45241
(513)524-4367
www.hemptations.com
OREGON:Rogue Natural Living
146 S. Redwood Hwy.
Cave Junction, OR 97523
(541) 415-2337
www.roguenaturalliving.com
CALIFORNIA:Real Goods
13771 S. Highway 101
Hopland, CA 95449
Culture Shock
7 Bolinas Rd.
Fairfax, CA 94930
(415) 456-8138
Global Village
172 North Main Street
Sebastopol, CA 95472
(707) 829-4765
Bamboo Home Store
108 Mill St.
Grass Valley, CA 95945
(530)-272-0303
www.bamboohomestore.com
Global Village Gallery
973 H Street
Arcata, CA 95521
(707) 826-2323
Being Green
408 Broad St.
Nevada City, CA 95959
(530)559-2116
www.beinggreenstore.com
Ocean Echo
23 Washington Blvd.
Venice, CA 90291
(310) 823-5850
www.oceanechosurfshop.com
The Hemp Connection
412 Maple Ln
Garberville, CA 95542
(707) 923-4851
HAWAII:Hemp House
16 Baldwin Avenue
Paia, HI 96779
(808) 579-8880
WASHINGTON:Natural Clothing Company
1020 First St. #102
Snohomish, WA, 98291
(360) 243-3143
www.naturalclothingcompany.com
WISCONSIN:Hempen Goods
911 Williamson Street
Madison, WI 53703-3549
(608) 287-0410
Houdek Hemp House
201 College Ave.
Appleton, WI 54911
(920) 645-7267
COLORADO:Yogadurango
1485 Florida Rd. C-201
Durango, CO 81301
The Hemp Store
2 Ruxton Ave.
Manitou Springs, CO 80829
AUSTRALIA:Greenroom Gallery
321 Harbour Dr
Coffs Harbour, NSW 2450
(02) 6652 4207
www.greenroomgallery.com.au
JAPAN:Humminbird
3-42 Hieda
Kumamoto, Japan
860-0075
www.Purbebe.com

New York Times article on hemp

The New York Times yesterday (p. A16) published an article on hemp in Kentucky, after Senator Mitch McConnell joined Senator Rand Paul in his support of hemp, and after a meeting on 11 February in which the issue was debated. Kentuckians are most supportive of this, see the plethora of previous posts for the current and past history. Below, Trip Gabriel reports on the issue as follows:

Hemp Growing Finds Allies of a New Stripe in Kentucky

The Courier-Journal, via Associated Press

In the summer of 1952, hemp plants growing wild in a lot in downtown Louisville, Ky., were killed with chemical spray.

 

FRANKFORT, Ky. — In 1996 the actor Woody Harrelson, who has a sideline as an activist for legalizing marijuana, was arrested in Kentucky for planting four hemp seeds.       

 

 

James Crisp/Associated Press

Senator Rand Paul supports legalizing the growing of hemp in the United States.

 

John Sommers II/Reuters

Woody Harrelson in 1996.

Last month Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican minority leader, announced his support for growing hemp in Kentucky, his home state.

Between those jarringly disparate events lies the evolution of hemp from a countercultural cause to an issue championed by farmers in the heartland and conservative lawmakers.

On Monday, a panel of the Republican-controlled Kentucky State Senate unanimously approved a bill to license hemp growers. It was promoted by the state agriculture commissioner and three members of the state’s Congressional delegation, including Senator Rand Paul, who removed his jacket to testify in a white shirt that he announced was made of hemp fibers.

If the bill is approved by the full Legislature, Kentucky will join eight other states that have adopted laws to allow commercial hemp growing, although the practice is effectively blocked by federal law that makes no distinction between hemp and marijuana.

Mr. Paul, a Republican, said he would seek a waiver from the Obama administration for Kentucky hemp growers, while pressing Congress to delist hemp as a controlled substance, which hemp supporters say is a legacy of antidrug hysteria.

Both plants are the same species, Cannabis sativa, but hemp has only a trace of the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. Hemp’s champions see it as a source of agricultural jobs, an alternative for struggling tobacco farmers and a wonder plant with uses from bluejeans to building materials.

Attitudes are changing in surprising places. At a hearing on Monday in Frankfort, the Kentucky capital, the state police commissioner’s opposition to hemp growing was challenged by a former C.I.A. director, R. James Woolsey.

“The specter of people getting high on industrial hemp,” Mr. Woolsey said, “is pretty much exactly like saying you can get drunk on O’Doul’s.”

Hemp supporters say it is only a matter of time before legalization comes as people more fully understand the plant. They also point to states where voters legalized recreational marijuana in November — Colorado and Washington — as inevitably forcing a change in priorities in the Obama administration.

“The demonology of hemp is exposed as being not valid,” said Representative John Yarmuth, Democrat of Kentucky, a sponsor of a bill in the House to allow hemp cultivation. He said the movement to accept hemp has the same inevitability that he attributed to acceptance of same-sex marriage.

Still, the federal government has been unyielding. Farmers in states that allow hemp must seek a waiver from the Drug Enforcement Administration or risk being raided by federal agents and losing their farms.

Dave Monson, a North Dakota wheat farmer and Republican state representative, has held a state hemp license since 2007, when North Dakota legalized cultivation. But he has no plans to plant. “I applied for a D.E.A. license, never got one,” he said.

A spokesman for the drug agency said it did not keep statistics on permits to grow hemp, which it does not distinguish from marijuana under the Controlled Substance Act of 1970.

Mr. Monson knows farmers just north of the Canadian border who profitably grow hemp, and he argues that it can be an economic boon. “The more states that do what we have done in North Dakota, if we can keep the pressure on, I think we’re going to see some movement at the federal level,” he said.

Hemp supporters claim a total retail value of products containing hemp at more than $400 million in the United States. But a Congressional Research Service report last year found that imported hemp raw materials was small, only $11.5 million. All hemp used in United States today — such as in Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps sold at Whole Foods — is imported, mostly from China.

Rodney Brewer, the commissioner of the Kentucky State Police, said that if hemp farming were legal, marijuana growers would hide their plants in hemp fields and the police could not tell them apart.

“They are identical in appearance when it comes to the naked eye,” Mr. Brewer said, predicting that legalizing hemp would create a boom for pot growers.

But Mr. Woolsey, who said he favored hemp because of “my interest in prosperity for rural America,” argued that no pot farmer would hide plants in a hemp field for fear that low-potency hemp would cross-pollinate with marijuana and lower the concentration of THC, its psychoactive ingredient.

Marijuana growers “hate the idea of having industrial hemp anywhere near,” he said.

The Kentucky bill faces resistance from some lawmakers, including the speaker of the State House.

Mr. Paul, after calling attention to his hemp shirt at the hearing in Frankfort, seemed to roll his eyes when he said, “You’d think you’re at a D.E.A. hearing.”

“This is a hearing about a crop,” he said. “It’s a crop that’s legal everywhere else in the world except the United States.”

Mr. Paul, elected in 2010 with Tea Party support, promised to introduce a Senate bill as a companion to the pro-hemp bill in the House, which has 28 co-sponsors. He is following in the family footsteps, since the first House bill allowing hemp was introduced several years ago by his father, Ron Paul, a former Texas congressman and Republican presidential candidate. Ron Paul’s embrace of the issue fit his deep libertarian streak, which also at times embraced legalizing marijuana and other drugs.

Those positions placed hemp far outside the mainstream in many lawmakers’ minds, just as the image of its products — soaps, sandals and natural foods sold at co-ops — placed it in a counterculture.

But no better sign exists that hemp’s image is changing than its embrace by Mr. McConnell, the minority leader, who said in a statement last month that his mind had been changed “after long discussions” with Rand Paul and the Kentucky agriculture commissioner, James Comer, a Republican.

“The utilization of hemp to produce everything from clothing to paper is real,” Mr. McConnell said.

Houses of Hemp in America

This article, titled "House of hemp? Pushing cannabis as a

construction material" by Jeffrey Head appeared last year in

 latimesblogs.latimes.com

 

Woody Harrelson championed the environmental benefits of hemp. Giorgio Armani and Calvin Klein incorporated it into their collections. Now a company promoting hemp as the eco-building material of the moment said it wants to build California's first hemp house.

Hemp Technologies said it wants to use hemp-based materials to construct a 500-square-foot structure at the ruins of Knapp's Castle near Santa Barbara. The castle, completed in 1920, was built for Union Carbide founder George Owen Knapp but destroyed by wildfire in 1940. Since then, all that has remained on the property are the sandstone blocks outlining the once-grand estate.

The principal material for the project is Hempcrete, made of the woody internal stem of the Cannabis sativa plant, which is processed into chips and mixed with a lime-based binder. That concoction is then sprayed on, poured into slabs or formed into blocks like concrete to create the shell of a building. Interior surfaces are plastered, and exterior surfaces are stuccoed.

“The walls are to be framed and earthquake-braced internally with lumber,” said Greg Flavall, Hemp Technologies' co-founder, who added that “hemp is very close in cellulosic value to wood.” The material helps to keep structures warm in winter and cool in summer, he said.

Other advantages, advocates have said, beyond the fact that the plant can be grown with little water and few pesticides: Hemp is resistant to fire damage and termites. Although air does not pass through the walls, moisture naturally dries out, and mold or dry rot are not problems. David Madera, who co-founded Asheville, N.C.-based Hemp Technologies with Flavall, credited the walls' lime content, which needs carbon dioxide to harden.

The lime will pull carbon dioxide from the environment after the home is built “because the lime wants to go back to being a rock,” Madera said. “That means the wall is going to get harder and harder over time.”

Flavall said the Knapp's Castle structure “will lock in about 12 tons of carbon dioxide that would otherwise have escaped into the atmosphere when the hemp cellulose decays in the field.”

That is, if the structure is completed. A Santa Barbara County official said a project has been submitted for planning approval but still needs to pass most stages of the permitting process. A house, outbuilding or any other structure would have to be deemed appropriate for the site, and any unconventional materials would have to be declared safe.

Madera, who declined to disclose the identity of his firm's California client, said Hemp Technologies has consulted on three Hempcrete houses in North Carolina, where the material was treated as an alternative form of insulation.

Although hemp contains only trace elements of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, hemp is still derived from a cannabis plant. State and federal laws do not make a distinction between varieties of cannabis used for clothing or building materials and varieties used for more psychoactive purposes, so producing hemp is prohibited. Importing hemp, however, is legal, and various companies are pushing forward with hemp building products too.

Hemp Traders in L.A. distributes Hemp Board, a medium-density fiberboard (MDF) made from the same woody material that goes into Hempcrete. Hemp Board President Lawrence Serbin said his MDF is a sustainable alternative for doors, cabinets and shelves.

Spanish architect Monika Brümmer has developedCannabric and Cannapanel, which, as the names suggest, are cannabis-based building blocks and wall panels. She has completed several residential projects in her country, where the products met construction standards.

-- Jeffrey Head

One of three Hempcrete houses in North Carolina designed by Push Design with Hemp Technologies providing hemp materials and serving as consultants.

Photos, from top: Another Hempcrete house in North Carolina. Credit: Push Design. The site of Knapp's Castle in Santa Barbara County. Credit: Pfly / Wikipedia Commons

Interview with Greta Gaines

This is an interview with Greta Gaines, a musician and hemp activist, and supporter of the petition to President Obama.

Q: Why do you think that hemp is legal in so many other countries?

Hemp is legal in all industrial countries of the world because it is the finest plant known to man. no other plant has has many uses, as many essential fatty acids..no other plant has made itself more useful to mankind from the dawn of mankind then hemp. the big question is: why isn't it legal here?

Q: How do you feel as an American seeing these other countries make moneyfrom the plant that was used for the first American flag, for the US Navy, for medicine,for textiles and many other products in the US?

I think it's least patriotic thing in the world to turn one's back on hemp...the dog of the plant world..the plant that was used as currency here for hemp's sake! i call it the greatest coup of a natural resource in US history when the marijuana tax stamp was passed in 1937. the issue was never about making marijuana as a drug illegal it was about the greatest industrialists in the country wanting hemp out of the picture competing with standard oil, the Hearst paper mills, Dupont's new synthetic fibers and the alcohol and cotten cartels. it was heist and the american public got screwed and is to this day. an out and out travesty in my opinion.

Q: Should states cultivate hemp once it is legal and disregard the federal laws thatprohibit cultivation?

yes!!

Q: You are a woman. An American woman. Most of the American politicians who are keepinghemp illegal, and keeping America from profiting from hemp - which is much a part of its heritage -are men. How do you feel about that - do you respect them as men, as the protectors and defenders of yourcountry or might you agree that they do not deserve respect?

On a fundamental level I do feel that hating on hemp does hand in hand with hating on mother nature. we humans and males i particular have a history of hating on plant based medicines. why use a beautiful plant given to us by the great mother nature when you can pull out a chemical compound from that plant, patent it and make lots of $$ on it while keeping the plant illegal. so yes as a woman i am resentful of any affront to mother nature's bounty.

Q: What other women in the US are doing anything about hemp - what do you think of Cynthia McKinney, MinaHegaard or any others in the fray?

Women and men are uniting on this issue. i get really inspired by Willie Nelson's wife Annie who is helping to put together a clothing line with Willie, Ziggy Marley and Woody Harrelson. Mina's line of products are also soo inspiring!

Q: Are there any US politicians who you think are really making a difference?

I think Jared Polis and Barney Frank both are in the fray and really get this issue.

Q: Would you care to comment on the irony of the fact that guns, military grade semi-automatic guns - are completely legal, yet hemp is not?

what can you say? guns and money vs hemp and health? our society is still very much skewed toward violence and dis-ease instead of peace and harmony.

Q: What do you think about the press - or rather lack of press - on hemp?

Those of us who are into this issues are obsessed and outraged that there hasn't been a national sit in demanding that hemp become re-legalized. i feel the tide is turing and that in the next 5 years it will be re-legalized, what a wonderful legacy Obama would leave if he made it legal on his way out of office. i guess talking about hemp is not as sexy as talking about medical marijuana but it is really just as important to the health of the nation, we are just getting left in the dust by Canada and the rest of the world. Everyone i turn onto hemp becomes so sure of it's benefits that they add it to their daily diets and feel immeasurably better and different for it.

Q: Would you support an initiative to have hemp activists contact their local journalists and press for features on hemp, or should we just sit back and wait for them to discover the issue?

Absolutely!!

Q: Would you also support an intiative for hemp activists to contact their Congressman (or woman) and Senator and lobby for hemp, making a note of those who refuse to do so and putting that record up on the internet for other Americans to see?

 Of course!

Q: Are politicians in America guilty at to any extent of betraying their country by not supporting this issue - especially when they seemto have so much time to support frivolous issues?

One of our tee shirt designs at my online store Cannibuzz.com is called the patriotic pothead tee. they sport quotes on the back from our founding father's as to the wonders of hemp. politicians today are guilty of pure laziness in not educating themselves as to the wonders of hemp. our Tennessee Congressman Jim Cooper wrote me back a letter when i wrote to him about re-legalizing hemp with the most ridiculous and uninformed response. his form letter said essentially that he can't support growing industrial hemp because that would make it too difficult for law enforcement to bust outdoor illegal marijauna grows. his letter showed a stupefying level of ignorance about the plant and the huge differences between industrial hemp and medical cannabis.Q: Let's say the press ignores, or as it did in the past, maligns the issue - what would you think of picketing outsidemajor press offices in cities like New York to shine a spotlight on this issue?I would be willing to picket. i think the time has come!

Celebrities wearing hemp

Below are some pictures from Minawear of celebs who are wearing hemp and helping to spread the message to the hoi polloi. They are, in order of appearance: Woody Harrelson, Christian Slater and Donovan Leitch (with Mina).
Images courtesy of Minawear Hemp Clothing.

News on hemp in Kentucky

There has been discussion in Kentucky lately about growing industrial hemp, and whilst this is historically a hemp growing state, and one that badly needs the industry, there are those who oppose the notion. The Kentucky State Police recently decided to go against the economic and historic interests of the state with the usual unscientific argument that hemp and marijuana are indistinguishable. Charles Walker, of Henderson, writing on 12 December - rebuts that in Evansville Courier and Press, stating:

"The recent front page article on industrial hemp quoted the KSP commissioner regarding the inability to distinguish cannabis sativa grown as hemp and that cultivated for flower harvest.

There are plenty of pictures from the "Hemp for Victory" campaign of World War II that depict hemp fields. Hemp cannabis is sown densely. Hemp cannabis grows tall with little branching. Hemp cannabis sown for seed production is sown less densely than that grown for fiber, but still much more densely than that cultivated for flowers.
Any flower cannabis cultivated near other varieties will be pollinated, which is counterproductive for that crop. Hemp cannabis is easily distinguished (whether grown for fiber or seed) from cannabis grown for a medicinal or recreational use crop.
Hemp cannabis contains a very low level of the psychoactive compound THC but a high level of the non-psychoactive cannabidiol. Hemp helped build this country. Cannabis helped cloth the working class. Hemp seed oil is more nutritious than any other seed oil.
Cannabidiol (CBD) has been shown to have medicinal properties. The Department of Health and Human Services holds a patent on the cannabinoids found in cannabis (including THC) for medicinal properties, including anti-tumor effects. Cannabinoids kill cancer cells.
Claiming industrial hemp cultivation will provide an opportunity for people to cultivate "marijuana" is either ignorance or deliberate obfuscation. The commissioner says cannabis is a gateway drug. The No. 1 gateway drug in this country is alcohol. That is fact.
The overwhelming majority of cannabis users do not go on to use other drugs. The opposite is true. Cannabis helps people break alcohol and opiate addiction.
Cannabis prohibition is a failure because cannabis is not a dangerous drug. Rather, it is as Judge Francis Young stated, " ... the most beneficial plant known to mankind. ..." Prohibition protects corporate profit, not people. "

Walker is right, and is supported by fellow Kentuckian Woody Harrelson, who planted hemp seeds there only to be arrested. The blue grass state is presently in the midst of a terrible recession and is ruled by the tobacco industry, which forces farmers to grow tobacco at a loss - if hemp was available to them they could get out from under this monopoly. Please support the citizens of this state in their struggle to be free and prosperous by writing to the police and legislature and demanding that hemp be made legal. Presently we are fomatting a petition for this to be the case in all 50 states, for which we hope to get 25,000 signatures and then send to the White House. We encourage the same actoin on the state level in the US and anywhere else in the world where industrial hemp is still illegal to cultivate.

Vegetarians, hemp and dummies

Last week I picked up two books I thought would be good: Being Vegetarian for Dummies and Vegetarian Cooking for Dummies. The most one could say is that they lived up to their titles. Sadly, there was no mention of hemp, although these were both copyright 2001 when there was much hemp awareness: Woody Harrelson, a vegetarian, was on the trail planting hemp seeds and preaching the virtues of hemp seed as a food, hemp based eateries were in major cities, hemp clothing shops as well, and a good amount of books and articles existed in the public domain. So where was Suanna Havala, M.S., R.D., at the time?

Hemp does pose a challenge as to the legality in some countries, like the US, where this book was published, and also awareness, or rather the lack of awareness -  among farmers and environmentalists - although growing hemp for seed is one of the easiest applications - it is growing hemp for fine fibres that poses the greatest challenge - but it was legal to consume and only a dummy could have missed it in writing a book on vegetarian cuisine.

Then of thousands of acres of hemp are grown by dealers like Roger Snow of Rocky Mountain Hemp Products in Canada, where the legal restrictions do not exist, as they do not have the lobbyists and Mitt Romney to deal with - speaking of whom, I might just send some hemp to that sorry loser as a consolation prize. Not that he would appreciate it; especially coming from me, it was I who shook his hand at a NYC fundraiser and told him to quit, he was going to lose and he was a jerk. His security tried to arrest me for embarrassing him! As if he doesn't do enough of that for himself what with his blackface ad. He and Suzanna Havala would get along just fine, they could write Politics for Dummies and it would sell to dummies.

RUMBLE IN THE JUNGLE

These last two days have been full of action, ever since I poured out my pitcher of water and went thirsty at the brewery to make the point that cotton cultivation is a danger to Homo sapiens.

I did get a call from a female of the species who was not happy with one of my statements, and after hearing her out, I decided she did have a fair point and ammended the previous post. Lucy Siegle of the Observer was the caller, and we ended up having quite an amicable conversation after she made her initial request. It turns out she is quite on board with a number of my points, and has herself taken Katherine Hamnett and the greenwash brigade to task. She wanted to make it clear that she was not some happy clappy hippy going along with all the eco fig leaves, and I was glad to hear that. I await the publication of her next book, and of course, I expect there will be lots about hemp in it - after all Siegle hangs out with natural born hempster Woody Harrelson.

There was an irony in my being willing to listen to anyone from the Observer, as this is the paper that printed allegations about a friend of mine, Dr. Nick Kollerstrom. Their very own Nick Cohen reported that Kollerstrom was preaching Nazi doctrine and harrassing people. Whilst some of Dr. Kollerstrom's views might not be welcome in Orthodox circles, he is no Nazi, in fact, he is the quintessential peacenik, eats Challah bread in his home, and has Jewish friends - one of whom started a blog (click here to see) to defend Kollerstrom, even if the author does not agree with all of his conclusions. Whilst the Jewish Chronicle did go to the trouble to call Kollerstrom and talk to him and find out that a lot of the noise on the net was false, the Observer made no such effort. Instead, it took the word of some bloggers who do not even use their real names! What a load of nonsense. Further, it refused him right of reply. One might think that the Observer has the budget to check their stories and make a local phone call once in a while.

They do when they feel themselves misrepresented, and fair enough if there is some question about any statements I make, I am not using an assumed name like the Rachel 'Norths' and Johnny 'Voids'. I am easy to contact, just ask MI5...for which I am not working, but would like to work if they pay lots of money and let me spend all my time with beautiful women sipping martinis and saving the world every episode from over the top nutters most of whom are trust fund babies on crack.

Speaking of beautiful women, which I am in very much in search of, one poster on Sunday took such issue with my speech at the Black Eagle that she insinuated I was a misogynist; big mistake, I like women! There is a certain crowd that will label you a Nazi, a misogynist, or anything else that comes to mind when they do not have a real argument against you, or need to submit some rubbish to an editor to make deadline...it's called 'churnalism', as Nick Davies points out in Flat Earth News.

The poster, Janet from another planet, decided to tell us she worked for a hemp company that got lots of good liberal press, but then left a link to a cotton company. She also did not give a surname and could not be contacted. Funny, I've never heard of a Janet in the hemp industry. I would like to know more about this person, but I doubt we end up saving the world together at the end of a two hour adventure in which I get to wear black tie even while jumping out of aeroplanes.

So I am off to do other things now, like writing to MI5 to suggest that Bond wear hemp, and tell them the bad guys this time are some eco warriors who are in reality trustiferians gone bad. Their plan is to destroy the world by growing palm oil, soya, jatropha and cotton because they are not getting enough attention from Mummy and Daddy who are telling them to take a bath and get a real job. Bond will get no quantum of solace from this lot I assure you.

A FEW WORDS FROM WOODY

Last year Woody Harrelson came to London to star in the Tennessee Williams play, The Night of the Iguana. On his off time he researched the hemp scene, making a trip to Brighton to check out The Hemp Shop. He also took the time to pen a foreword to Hemp for Victory, in which he talks about his involvement in the environmental circles, starting with his opposition to a senate bill which was set to allow the destruction of 6m acres of woodland from the Pacific Northwest. "I made it my mission to find a sustainable alternative to the wood-based paper industry," he tells us. His mission is others gain, and it is good to see real activists like him on the road.

Too often the happy-clappy wing gets off on the wrong foot, as they did this week buying scores of cotton bags, and not even organic cotton, which is a bit like Kosher pork anyway. (see previous post). Cotton uses 50% of the world's pesticides and is depleting major waterways, including the Aral Sea. As we are nearing a water shortage, there are those who go out and support cotton; as farmers trapped in the cycle of cotton growing commit suicide in record numbers, these happy folk are having a party on their graves.

It's hard to get them to listen, but hopefully, with the likes of Woody, and his wife Laura who runs her own site, Voice Yourself, more people will take up the mission of Woody and we will ba able to prevent the disasters that are not only threatening, but happening worldwide.

hemp
cotton