Saturday, March 27, 2010

Press Release: Activist files as Libertarian Candidate for 51st District

Press Release: Activist files as Libertarian Candidate for 51st District
-for immediate release

The 51st Missouri House of Representatives race has expanded with the recent filing of Kevin L. Kobe for the Libertarian party ballot. This district covers the Independence Square and surrounding areas as well as Sugar Creek and a small portion of Kansas City east of I-435.

Kevin had most recently gained press as the former organizer for area tea party-style group “Liberty Restoration Project,” known locally for its opposition to Red Light Cameras, The Real ID Act, and the political influence of banks.

In addition to Real ID, Kevin has personally testified about last year's controversial MIAC Reports released by the State Highway Patrol agency which profiled several types of government opposition activism as potentially dangerous.

Kevin's political beliefs are based upon “Original Intent” constitutional philosophy, small localized government and small localized competitive capitalism. He became an activist after the failed 2008 Ron Paul presidential campaign.

Kevin Lives in northeast Kansas City with his wife. He is a father of two and comes from a family with several generations from the Independence area. His current occupation is in the Security field with other career backgrounds in Cooking and Shipping. In his spare time he studies politics, philosophy, and history.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Documentary Movie Review: How Weed Won The West

Documentary Movie Review: How Weed Won The West

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Kevin Booth's American Drug War was a good film about a bad policy. This sequel focuses on recent events in California's “Emerald Triangle” and the booming medical marijuana industry and the mentality of the government's “War On Drugs” viewpoints in an area where the people have spoken, and how the battle for de-criminalization is never really over.

We meet growers, distributors, and users to get the first hand accounts of how modern day “reefer madness”has affected them. The often touted opinion of “Stoners” as unintelligent couldn't possibly be 100% true, when there are more headshops in southern California “than there are Starbucks”

We find out that marijuana is very scientific. Breeding different strains together to get desired medicinal effects to help the customer, or by realizing northern California's “Emerald Triangle” being the prime area for growers, as it is the inverse meridian of Afghanistan's poppy regions. The Californian Marijuana industry is researched and optimized for maximum results.

The message of this film is straight forward, check out some of these people, and why they do what they do, and then show how government interferes. This film was pretty hard to watch for me, because while all of the information was good, it reminded me of MTV's documentaries. You still get the feeling that this is a cultural battle being disguised as a battle of fundamentals, when you can tell that Kevin makes poor attempts to show it the other way around.

Radio host Alex Jones features prominently in this film, being the naysayer against authoritarianism and control, however the only example in the film is one Medical Marijuana shop where the local government kept pushing the State anti-drug agencies and the DEA to raid the place. A business owner and his employees pushed around and security cameras broken, guns in their faces. Of all the tragic aspects of this raid, Kevin Booth focuses on the owners' Pit Bull injured by two bullets fired by agents during the raid.

What could have been a very sympathetic moment for the movement, became too personal to be taken seriously. The owner starts spouting off Common Law, and it's never explained, so the owner winds up looking like a kook and the only collateral damage that you wind up being sympathetic for is the dog.

The usual arguments about comparisons to Alcohol Prohibition and the mainstream pharmaceutical industry. We meet Sherry, a pro wrestler and actress who, after back injury, increased the dosage of painkillers to the point where I felt sorry for her liver. This beauty queen tells her story and her frustration with pills while sitting sensual in her bikini, and I swear there was a shot of her walking with crutches with her breasts hanging out the bottom of her tank top. Once again, a seeming compassionate victim comes across in the film as a wierdo.

This is the unfortunate truth about this film. We meet several persons affected by the drug war, however, when it comes to credibility, there isn't a whole lot of first hand interviews that the average person would want to relate to. But what Kevin lacks in the company he keeps, he makes up for in philosophy and science. When you feature scenes of former gang leaders making a purchase from a convicted Rastafarian, you had better find a way to make it look better than it sounds and Kevin Booth barely passes the smell test.


Information: The facts and philosophy are great research. The first hand interviews are based on life experience, which isn't as important. The information level is high, but you get the impression that Kevin intends the viewer to be as well. - 4 Stars

Source Documentation: Cameras are inside the industry. - 4 Stars

Presentation Method: If you've ever seen any of the MTV specials like "16 and Pregnant" or "True Life" it's that style where you follow the stories of a few people affected a scene at a time. This film would have been better served not inter-cut, but should have told each story individually, with the facts and figures told separately to show a difference between the valid information and the stoners. - 3 Stars

Visuals/Sound: While Kevin Booth doesn't add a bunch of flashy stuff, the camera work is amazing with the exception of one or two scenes. You can almost smell the Pineapple Kush through the screen. - 4 Stars

Political & Social Spectrum: American Drug War had drug opponents, this doesn't. This plays out more like a propaganda film for NORML than a semi-objective documentary, but that's the point. - 3 Stars

Solution, Constitution, or Pollution: Solution! Even though this film is all about the issues with California's law, it's clear by the end of the film that it is a freedom issue, and one that will be settled one state at a time through state legislatures and petitioning for ballot initiatives, and the power to decriminalize is within reach if you take action. - 5 Stars

Overall Wake-up-ability: Marijuana skeptics unfortunately will not be swayed very much by this film, so it will be preaching to the choir of the majority of the public who already agrees with decriminalization. The hope is that everyone can come away with a little more compassion and education when it comes to the medicinal use of this plant. - 3 Stars

Friday, March 12, 2010

Documentary Movie Review: Kymatica

Documentary Movie Review: Kymatica

Click Here To Watch This Movie

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The liberty movement is a wide term that includes several archetypes of people who are taking different approaches to become sovereign in their own way. I like to talk often about the real left-right paradigm being a natural response to the false left-right paradigm and my watching of this film is the perfect example on how different types of people can agree with fundamentals, facets, and metaphors, but completely disagree on all the details that support an argument, so you wind up agreeing for different reasons.

I had to shake my head no quite frequently, however, this film makes you examine and debate your motives for action or feelings toward things that make you uncomfortable with your own paradigm, so I really had to re-examine and re-affirm my disagreement. After thinking it over, I'll still disagree with the message of the film, stating that 99% of good information based on 1% of something that I would call an unproven personal political belief is not a good thing.

It's not a flat out disagreement, but perhaps my interpretation, or how I can see others will interpret the information in this film. Watching this film reminded me of hearing a debate between Infowars' Alex Jones and Zeitgeist's Peter Joseph. I respected Peter Joseph quite well until I heard him say that Evil is not natural and that “Sin” is learned behavior.

The end of Kymatica suggests that we can overcome this through natural evolution, as long as we're conscious of our behavior. I believe that sin is part of life, part of humanity, and therefore is not something that can be overcome merely by some passive consciousness evolution as this film suggests. That does not mean that I think this is not the solution to our problems. With consciousness comes education and wisdom, and I truly believe that this makes the passive solution here an active one.

I also hope that those who watch this film do not attempt to use this as an excuse to avoid speaking out when evil does happen. Just because you're focusing on your own individualism and mental evolution does not excuse our duty to family friends and community to provide example and mentorship to those who would need influence, as long as you're not just forcing your way onto an unwilling subject.

The film would have you reject admiralty law and societal law in favor of individual rights and living within your own mind, body, and spirit. I caution those who are new to these concepts not to confuse being against the tyranny of society with being against community. Also keep in mind before you take any action to exercise your natural law rights above admiralty law, that while filmmakers and people within both the Globalist and Freedom movements are aware of the concept of admiralty law as a form of control, much of the Law Enforcement and Judicial community still hold these powers as valid over human beings. The idea is to be free from fear, and be educated, but don't do something stupid and force yourself into unnecessary harm.

In the end the whole dang movie is almost awesome, telling you to examine your motives, telling you to learn your language, telling you to be aware of the microcosms of reality that can be changed by tiny individual actions and thoughts. However, it's presented as black and white, as if there would never be a valid reason to have something to fear, or a valid reason to allow outside influence into your psyche.

While I agree with the concepts, the cut and dry, black and white nature of the argument invokes feelings of strict untrusting Anarchists crossed with the “post-new-world-order-100-years-of-peace” crowd that tout global tyranny in order to usher in what comes after the tyranny.

Information: From Admiralty Law, to subliminals, to Influencing Paradigms, to Planetary Organic Biology, this movie is packed. - 5 stars

Source Documentation: Not a whole lot of experts or track-able information - 3 stars

Presentation Method: New Age Lecture 2 stars

Visuals/Sound: New age symbolism intertwining graphically to eerie music and monotone narrator - 2 stars

Political & Social Spectrum: Non-Partisan “Shamanistic” - 4 stars

Solution, Constitution, or Pollution: Constitution. Have some values, focus on them, but don't act upon them, because you can't trust yourself, or anybody else. - 3 stars

Overall Wake-up-ability: The Mainstream is not quite ready to examine a film this deep, half will turn it off because it sounds too hokey to them, the other half won't take much from it other than “be a better person on the inside if you want a brighter universe” – 2 stars