Willie Nelson

Willie Nelson owed the IRS $16.7 million in 1990. In order to get on the road again, he released the album The IRS Tapes: Who’ll Buy My Memories. All proceeds went to paying off his debt to the government.

Mike Tyson

Tyson had earned over $300 million during his career as a boxer but jewelry, mansions, cars, limousines, cellphones, parties, clothing, motorcycles and Siberian tigers eventually caught up to him. In 2003 he had to file for bankruptcy, thanks to a colourful variety of debts including $13.4 million to the IRS and a $9 million divorce settlement to his ex-wife, Monica Turner. From 1995 to 1997, he spent $9 million in legal fees, $230,000 on pagers and cellphones, and $410,000 on a birthday party. In June 2002, he owed $8,100 to care for his tigers and $65,000 for limos.

Kim Basinger

Basinger was one of Hollywood’s highest earners in the late ’80s, so she decided to buy the entire town of Braselton, Georgia for $20 million. Braselton didn’t turn out to be the fruitful tourist attraction she had been hoping for and in 1993 she made yet another foolish move and was sued for backing out of a film she had agreed to star in- a controversial movie called Boxing Helena about a surgeon who kidnaps and amputates the limbs of the woman he is obsessed with- just four weeks before shooting. She was forced to sell Braselton for just $1 million. Kim was forced to declare herself bankrupt in order to settle the $8 million claim. A costly divorce from first husband, make-up artist Ron Britton, didn’t help matters much either.

Marvin Gaye

Besieged by tax problems and drug addictions, the Let’s Get It On singer filed for bankruptcy in 1979 and moved to Hawaii, where he lived in a bread van and began working on his album In Our Lifetime.

Jerry Lee Lewis

Goodness Gracious Great Balls Of Fire! In 1975 the IRS took most the Rock n’ Roll legend’s personal property for back taxes. In 1988 he filed for bankruptcy with three million dollars of debts and no assets.

Burt Reynolds

Reynolds declared bankruptcy in 1996 with $6.6 million in assets and $11.2 million in debts. He owned mansions, a helicopter, and a lavish Florida ranch. Bad investments in two restaurant chains in the late 80s and 90’s as well as a falling-off in his box-office clout were major factors attributing to the Bandit’s financial bust. In the end, he had to sell his trademark mustache at auction to help pay his bills. Reynolds got to keep his $2.5 million Florida estate however, a shining example of how bankruptcy proceedings go too easy on the wealthy.

MC Hammer

It seems the Hammer did have to prey just to make it today after amassing debts of $13 million and filing for bankruptcy in 1996. Some of his expenses included his modest California home – complete with two pools, cinema, tennis courts and 17-car garage. He also bought a helicopter, several racehorses, and a sound system that required 22 miles of wiring. Not to mention the solid gold chains for his four pet Rottweilers.

Hammer now juggles several careers as a rapper, TV presenter and preacher to support his family of six.

Gary Coleman

The once-beloved, highest paid TV child actor from Diff’rent Strokes filed bankruptcy in 1999 citing $72,000 in personal debts. Times were tough for Coleman and perhaps it was the financial stress that led him to punch a woman while working as a security guard. In order to dig himself out of his financial hole, he became the beneficiary of an Internet charity that auctioned off items such as his spatula, sofa, purple bowling ball, size 4 1/2 bowling shoes and his self-described yellow pinstriped “pimp suit”. He even held a contest in which the grand prize was a Christmas shopping spree — with Coleman serving as the winner’s “shopping elf.”

Judy Garland

A combination of tax debts – she owed several hundred thousand dollars to the IRS– and the demise of The Judy Garland Show, left the singer struggling financially. She died of an accidental drug overdose in 1969 at the age of 47.

Michael Jackson

On his death in June, it was reported that Michael Jackson was in $400 million worth of debt. A Neverland Ranch to maintain, the singer spent $35 million improving the property, which featured two railway lines, two helicopter pads, its own fire department, a zoo and a plethora of amusement park-style rides. Seventy-five cars, lavish gifts such as the $637,000 necklace he bought Elizabeth Taylor made for some of his outrageous expenses. He was also reported as having spent $25,600 a month on ‘medical needs’.

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Peter Löwenbräu Griffin

31 Spooner Street
Quahog, Rhode Island

 Recent Work Experience

Towel Boy

Duties included: Heh heh heh heh…..duties…..heh heh heh heh….diarrhea.

Happy Go-Lucky Toy Factory

Duties included: Toy safety inspector. After successful employee appraisal, was promoted to head of toy development until my boss died from dinner roll asphyxiation. I employed skills of concealment by cramming his lifeless body into the toilet with a plunger when I thought that Random Dead Body Inspectors were at the door. Turned out to be Death messing with me.

Bathroom Attendant

Duties included: Providing lavatory services to patrons. Broke every bone in my face when I collapsed from “blow drying” a man’s shirt.

Transvestite Prostitute

Duties included: Looking drop dead sexy while turning tricks with friends and/or family members for cash.

Renaissance Fair Jouster

Duties included: While riding on horseback and wearing a complete suit of armor, I would gallop towards my opponents while pointing my giant lance at them. With the help of my Jewish friend Mort Goldman I defeated my hero-turned nemesis The Black Night. This allowed me to demonstrate my competitiveness, my horseback riding skills, my lance-pointing skills, and my abilities as a team player. I get along with Jews.

Fisherman

Duties included: Fishing, drinking beer, and the navigation of a fishing boat. I don’t get along with the Portuguese.

Sneeze Guard

Duties included: Protecting buffet food from projectile face liquids by any means necessary.

 ”Take that sneeze outside lady!”

Mayor of Post Nuclear Apocalypse Town

Duties included:  Exploiting the abundant resources of an abandoned Twinkie factory to build a post-apocalyptic town. The naming of aforementioned post-apocalyptic town. I called it New Quahog. You know, ‘cause our old town was called Quahog. The development and implementation of new employment programs called “picking a job out of the hat”.  Unfortunately I was kicked out of my own town when I used all the metal from the irrigation system to make guns…lots of guns.

Pawtucket Brewery

Duties included: Drinking myself into oblivion. Getting demoted to the shipping department. Working for a boss with special needs.

Death

Duties included:Filling in for injured Grim Reaper. Was supposed to bring the sweet kiss of death to the cast of Dawson’s Creek, but ended up killing two commercial airline pilots instead.

Green Guy in Tron

Duties included: Outracing the Yellow Guy

Ballpark Butt Scratcher Vendor

Duties included: Selling butt scratchers to sports fans with itchy bums.

I also have experience as a bartender; a ghostbuster; restaurant owner; Cocoa Puffs mascot; doctor;  construction worker; and as a fast food technician.

Communication Skills

I am creatively versatile as I have worked as: a television producer, as well as a theater producer where I directed my own adaptation of  The King and I; a Channel 5 News special reporter; erotic book author; Calvin Klein model; I painted the Sistine Chapel and I was the conductor of the Sand People Choir.

I have also worked in a professional capacity with celebrities when I was George Harrison’s security guard, Christina Aguilera’s manager, Sandy Duncan’s glass eye and Kevin Federline’s magic mirror.

Special Interests

You will also discover that despite the fact that my obesity causes my genitalia to disappear when I’m naked, I’m extremely athletic.  I’ve was the center for the New England Patriots, I was also a sumo wrestler and a synchronized swimmer. I am a highly trained martial arts expert, who has been in an ongoing battle with my arch nemesis, the Giant Chicken.

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The Case For Legalization

By making marijuana legal, marijuana advocates claim that law enforcement could refocus their resources on more serious crimes; criminals would no longer profit from the illegal trafficking and selling of marijuana; a legitimate agricultural industry as well as spinoff industries (coffee shops, industrial hemp, paraphernalia) would emerge creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs, and, considerable tax revenues could be collected.

While opponents suggest that legalization or even decriminalization would actually increase crime and marijuana use, according to a 2008 World Health Organization survey, rates of marijuana use in the United States where marijuana is illegal are among the highest in the world (42.4%) and more than double the Netherlands (19.8%) (which is relatively lax in regulating marijuana). The Dutch government is also able to support approximately 90% of help-seeking addicts with detoxification programs.

Portugal, the first European country to abolish all criminal penalties for personal drug possession is yet another compelling case. Five years after the start of decriminalization, illegal drug use by teenagers declined, the rate of HIV infections among drug users dropped, deaths related to heroin and similar drugs was cut by more than half, and the number of people seeking treatment for drug addiction doubled, while usage in the EU continued to increase, including in states with “hard-line drug policies”. Moreover, following decriminalization, Portugal had the lowest rate of lifetime marijuana use in people over 15 in the E.U. (10%). The most comparable figure in America is in people over 12 (39.8%) Proportionally, more Americans have used cocaine than Portuguese have used marijuana [Source].

U.S. Support for Legalizing Marijuana

The sections in red represent the states in the U.S. in which marijuana is illegal:

According to Gallup’s October Crime poll 44% of Americans are in favor of making marijuana legal while 54% are opposed. Basic support for legalization is highest among self-proclaimed liberals with 78% in favor. In contrast, 72% of people who consider themselves conservatives are opposed.

According to the Gallup report, if public support were to continue growing at a rate of 1% to 2% as it has since 2000, the majority of Americans could favour marijuana legalization in as little as four years.

The Medical Marijuana Debate

In 2003, 75% of Americans favoured allowing doctors to legally prescribe marijuana to patients in order to reduce pain and suffering.

So far 13 U.S. states have enacted laws that legalized medicinal marijuana:

Source: http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/viewresource.asp?resourceID=000881

The FDA claims that “smoking marijuana has no currently accepted or proven medical use in the United States and is not an approved medical treatment”. Regarding states that have passed legislation allowing the medical use of marijuana, the FDA claims “these measures are inconsistent with efforts to ensure that medications undergo the rigorous scientific scrutiny of the FDA approval process and are proven safe and effective.”

In 2005, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy released a study showing that youth who use marijuana are more likely to develop serious mental health problems, including depression and schizophrenia. Yet there is a great deal of controversy surrounding the fact that the Health and Human Services Division of the federal government holds a patent for medical marijuana. The patent, issued October 2003 states that “cannabinoids have been found to have antioxidant properties” and can be useful in the treatment of diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, HIV and dementia among many more.

And contrary to what researchers had thought, there is still no link between marijuana and lung cancer. Dr. Donald Tashkin, a UCLA pulmonologist who has studied marijuana for 30 years, hypothesized that marijuana would raise the risk of cancer. Tashkin’s study, involved 1,200 people in Los Angeles who had lung, neck or head cancer and an additional 1,040 people without cancer matched by age, sex and neighborhood. Tashkin found that even the very heavy marijuana smokers who had lit up more than 22,000 times, showed no increased incidence of the three cancers studied.

The push to legalize marijuana is making most headway in California, a stark contrast to back in 2005, when the Supreme Court ruled in Raich v. Gonzales, that the federal government could prosecute medical marijuana patients. Several medical marijuana dispensaries in California were subject to Drug Enforcement Administration raids. Critics such as David Berger, an assistant city attorney for the city of Los Angeles, backed the decision saying that not even 10% of the dispensaries sell marijuana for legitimate reasons and that lack of regulation has led to dispensaries operating for profit, rather than for the public good.

That policy has since been revised and federal attorneys can no longer prosecute patients who use marijuana for medical reasons or dispensaries in states where it has been legalized.

Is California Dreaming?

The skiing town of Breckenridge, Colorado voted by a margin of nearly 3 to 1 to legalize the private possession of up to 1 ounce of marijuana by adults 21 and older just two days ago. The ordinance also removes criminal penalties for the possession of bongs, pipes and other drug paraphernalia [Source] . Now, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has welcomed public debate on proposals to legalize and tax marijuana, and tax officials estimate the legislation could bring the struggling state over $1.2 billion a year. Some are saying the Obama administration’s more hands-off approach of the federal government toward medical marijuana could be a step towards legalization of the drug. This would be the first such law to ever be passed in the history of the United States.

According to a National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) report, marijuana legalization could yield California taxpayers over $1.2 billion per year and additional spinoff benefits of up to $12-$18 billion. Dr. Dale Gieringer, state coordinator of California NORML and co-founder of the California Drug Policy Reform Coalition has estimated that legalization could save California over $200 million per year in in law enforcement costs, including arrests, prosecutions, trials and imprisonment of marijuana offenders. Retail sales on the legal market could range from $3 - $4.5 billion, generating another $240-$360 million in sales taxes. NORML also proposes an excise taxes which could be used to regulate the price of marijuana and generate revenues for the state. At current levels of consumption, an excise tax of $1 per gram of marijuana would yield $430 - $510 million per year. According to the US Dept of Health & Human Services SAMHSA 2007 survey of drug use, 1.95 million Californians admit to having used marijuana in the past month. Total marijuana consumption by Californians is estimated at 1.2 to 1.4 million grams per day, or about 0.95 to 1.1 million pounds per year.

Despite this very persuasive case, the California governor, who has admitted to smoking marijuana in the past (as seen in the 1977 documentary Pumping Iron), said a decision to legalize marijuana, should not be made on the basis of raising revenues alone.

Marijuana and Crime

Many argue that the U.S. drug war, which costs an estimated $35 billion a year, has had a minimal impact on consumption of illicit substances. Moreover, the violence along the U.S-Mexico border is said to be fueled 65%-70% by the marijuana trade. Harvard economist, Jeffrey A. Miron, says the answer to the drug problem is to tackle demand. Miron is controversial in his claims, saying that he not only believes marijuana should be legal but that all drugs must be in order to truly put a stop to drug-related crimes and violence. Like the prohibition of alcohol in the 20’s and 30’, any attempt to drive a market down will find a way to emerge underground.

Miron estimates that legalizing drugs would inject $76.8 billion a year into the U.S. economy — $44.1 billion from law enforcement savings, and at least $32.7 billion in tax revenue ($6.7 billion from marijuana, $22.5 billion from cocaine and heroin, the remainder from other drugs).

Thus far, the only ones really profiting from this war, are those trafficking the drugs. Miron told CNN: “A lot of the violence we’re seeing and a lot of the underground market is not related to marijuana but related to the other drugs. If we only did marijuana we would only have a small impact on the violence and corruption and disruption of other countries that is caused by U.S. prohibition of drugs and the U.S. forcing prohibition of drugs on other countries.”

Stopping a violent drug trade, saving millions of dollars by no longer pursuing marijuana cases, generating billions of dollars in sales taxes, the potential from a government regulated marijuana industry is becoming too evident to sweep under the rug and it will be very interesting to see how things will unfold in California. After all if the United States were to legalize marijuana, wouldn’t the rest of the world almost immediately legalize as well?

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An industry clocking in at $75 billion, gambling has become the number one pastime in the US, moving ahead of concerts, sports, amusement parks and movies combined. This of course includes more than just casinos. A simple stroll though your neighborhood will reveal a whole world of bars equipped with video lottery machines, corner stores stuffed with scratch ‘n’ wins, horse tracks or horse betting via satellite TV, sporting events to bet on seven nights a week and online gambling websites at your fingertips.

Some Statistics

When I would picture a compulsive gambler, I always imagined a worn down, heavily stubbled, homeless-type person, wasting away at the slots.  But apparently for years, polls and surveys have indicated that your typical casino-goer is a little bit older, more educated, and with more overall wealth and success than the average American adult. In the USA about three million (1%) of the adult population fit the profile of a pathological gambler. Another two to three percent are classified as problem gamblers.

If one has an addictive personality, you can usually find them hooked on a wide array of substances and activities.  Poker players evoke images of smoke-filled rooms and whiskey-filled glasses.  If you gamble, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you are an alcoholic, however, a study conducted at the University of Buffalo found that over-drinkers are 23 times more likely to have a gambling problem, and the National Council on Problem Gambling has found that pathological gamblers are more susceptible to problems with drugs, alcohol, depression, and ultimately suicide (gamblers contribute to 20% of the U.S. suicide rate).

Richer or Poorer: Who Spends the Most?

According to Statistics Canada, people who make $20,000 or less spend an average of $211, or 2.6% of their income, on gambling activities.  People who make more than $80,000 average $497, 0.6% of their total income. The study showed that “wealthier people, on average, spend more money on wagering. But gamblers who have less money spend a larger percentage of their income on gaming activities.”
Researchers at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York found that the broke are three times more likely to become addicted gambling than the rich.  They also discovered that while there were far more young Caucasian gamblers in the U.S., minorities such as blacks, Hispanics, Asians and the elderly are far more likely to become pathological gamblers once they start.  The fact that these groups get hooked more often has nothing to do with the color or wrinkles of their skin, and more to do with their lack of understanding when it comes to financial matters and the concept of being at the losing end of the odds stick over time.

A Cultural Affair

Also within this circle of minorities, gambling seems to be more problematic amongst certain ethnic groups.This often has more to do with social conditions than with their cultural characteristics.  While you might consider the image of the Asian gambler as stereotypical, studies prove that gambling trends among Asians is in fact typical. In fact,  Timothy Fong, co-director of the UCLA Gambling Studies Program considers gambling to be a “hidden epidemic” within the Chinese, Vietnamese, Filipino, Korean and Cambodian communities.  A poll conducted in 1999 stated that 70% of San Francisco’s Chinatown had identified gambling as their “worst problem.” Subsequent polls published that 21% claimed to be pathological gamblers, and 16% identified themselves as problem gamblers.

In the Los Angeles and San Francisco area, Asians make up 80% of the traffic in card rooms and casinos.

One reason for these statistics is the overall acceptance of gambling within the Asian cultures.  Adults and children alike place bets on anything from whether or not the schoolteacher will assign homework or whether grandpa will fall asleep at the dinner table again.  Many Asian cultures are also fascinated with the mystical qualities attributed to fate, chance and luck.  The fact that so many for so long have been immigrating to the U.S. in the first place, leaving the familiarity of their homeland to ‘take a chance’ in a new world has demonstrated their inherent tendency towards gambling.  They also appreciate an environment where attractive waitresses serve them free drinks and treat them as honored guests, despite the fact that they might work in crappy jobs for little pay.

According to Professor Keith Kendrick, “all species need to take risks in order to survive.”  The greater the risks we take in life, the wilder our hearts beat, the higher our blood pressure raises, the more pumped our muscles become, the more adrenaline is dumped into our system, the more butterflies we feel in our stomachs, and ultimately, the louder we shout when we survive the risk unscathed.  The rewards from successful gambling whether they be physical, psychological, financial or all of the above can be extremely addictive. And while they affect some more than others we should never stop taking risks, we should just be smart about which ones.

It is obvious that gambling can be addictive to people. This could be due to an addictive personality; social conditions; culture; or the rush from taking a risk. Perhaps gambling should be removed from the entertainment list.

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Hemp Paper

Society may be moving away from paper dependency, but we’re not there yet. Forty-two per cent of the world’s industrial wood harvest goes to the production of paper, and 87 per cent of that paper is used by industrialized western nations like the United States and Canada. And despite its pristine appearance, paper is anything but clean.

The process industrial paper makers use to turn wood pulp into paper has been shown to result in a number of harmful chemical by-products such as carbon monoxide, ammonia, nitrogen oxide, mercury, nitrates, methanol, benzene, chloroform, and dioxins.
Despite its negative side effects wood paper is the only game in town these days, but it wasn’t always that way.

Back in the day hemp paper was a popular and widely used alternative to wood paper. Many of the founding documents of the United States are printed on hemp: two drafts of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. Hemp paper doesn’t require bleaching, lasts longer and is more durable than its wood-based brother. So why didn’t it catch on?

Declaration of Independence

At first the reason was a practical one. When the Industrial Revolution took the Western world by storm, people built machines to make larger amounts of paper faster, to meet with the growing demand brought on by the spread of literacy. Hemp, however, proved too much for the first machines. Its fibers were too tough. And so wood pulp based paper became the golden standard.
People didn’t give up on hemp, though. In the early 1920s and ‘30s mechanization was getting more sophisticated and industrial hemp paper production looked like a viable option. Hemp, being a highly renewable resource and relatively easy to grow, had the potential to revolutionize the paper industry (among others). Deforestation could be slowed and many of the harmful chemicals used in the making of paper could be done away with.

But by this time there was a whole industry based around the use and production of wood pulp paper. People had become rich off wood and they wanted to keep the money coming, people like William Randolph Hearst.

Hearst owned a large number of newspapers in the United States. He also owned large tracts of forest and paper mills. Using his newspapers Hearst launched a massive smear campaign against hemp. He published any number of articles with headlines like, “Marihuana Makes Fiends of Boys in 30 Days,” and “Hasheesh Goads Users to Blood Lust.” His articles actually popularized the term Marihuana. Many of the articles published in Hearst’s papers would later be used as evidence against hemp in the mid-1930s when the U.S. government held hearings to consider whether the plant and its relatives should become controlled substances.
In 1937 after various hearings on numerous levels of government, the U.S. adopted the Marihuana Act. This act didn’t criminalize the possession or cultivation of hemp, but it might as well have. A tax was levied on anyone who dealt commercially with hemp (by this time Hearst’s campaign had proved so successful that cannabis and hemp were considered practically the same thing) and strict rules surrounded its production.
Farmers were required to pay $1 a year to register as growers but could be subject to a fine of $2000 or five years in prison if they inadvertently violated the conditions of the Act—for instance should any plant in their crop test above the allowed level of THC (the average income at the time was about $500 a year). Those who chose to pay the tax were required to register their names and place of business with the tax collector who was then obliged to give out that information to anyone who wanted it provided they paid the fee ($1 for every 100 names). Those who wanted to import hemp were charged $1 per ounce of hemp they wished to buy, and were charged a fine of $100 per ounce if found in possession without paying the tax.

As a result most farmers were either too poor or too afraid of the consequences to attempt commercial hemp production and the cost of trying to import hemp into the eager U.S. market became prohibitively high. The technology that would have allowed the large-scale production of hemp paper withered for lack of opportunity, wood pulp kept its monopoly on the paper industry and Hearst continued to make money. The laws that Hearst encouraged with his media blitz are still in place today in the U.S., though in a slightly different form.

The Electric Car

EV1

NiMH battery

You may have heard of the EV1 and its unfortunate demise. EV1 was the fully electrical car that General Motors released in 1996 and ultimately killed in 2002 and was the subject of the very popular 2006 documentary Who Killed the Electric Car?

You may not have heard of NiMH, the Nickle-metal Hybrid battery pack that was the power source for the EV1 and is quite possibly the best battery produced to date. A man named Stanford R. Ovshinsky invented it and turned over the rights to GM, with whom he was working at the time.

In 2008 as gas prices soared and the world eagerly waited for an alternative to paying at the pump, many people questioned GM about why they weren’t re-releasing the EV1, an electric car that had already proven itself on the market. Instead the company announced its plans for the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid, a car that was only capable of driving 40 miles on electric power before its gas powered engine had to kick in (about one third of the distance the EV1 was capable of before it had to recharge)
When GM filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on June 1, 2009, some saying because the company was out of touch with consumer trends, producing large cars for a market that wanted to downsize, critics asked why GM didn’t dig into its blueprints and bring back the EV. The answer is simple; they couldn’t.

On October 10, 2000 GM sold its controlling shares in Energy Conversion Devices, Inc., Ovshinsky’s research and development company, and therefore the patent rights for the NiMH battery to Texaco, who later merged with Chevron, an oil company. They quickly quashed the wide-scale us of NiMH technology.

When Ovshinsky initially created the battery his company granted permission to use it to a number of car companies, Toyota included. Toyota decided to use the battery in their RAV4-EV, a limited distance electric car. In March 2002 after taking control of the patent, Chevron sued Toyota for 30 million dollars for patent infringement. Nine months later the two companies came to an agreement; Toyota would stop making NiMH batteries and discontinue its line of RAV4-EVs. After the settlement the car company refused to extend any leases and began collecting what cars they could to have them destroyed.

Some argue that Chevron just wanted to stay in control of the distribution of the technology and hasn’t received any viable offers from car manufacturers to use the NiMH recently. But as recently as August of this year, Chevron (and therefore Energy Conversion Devices, Inc.) announced it was pulling its funding out of the only company that was manufacturing large NiMH batteries, dooming a deal it had established with Mercedes to let the company use the power source to run its new line of hybrid SUVs

In the mean time there are a number of small start ups which are taking advantage of government technology investment programs. A new group of entrepreneurs the world over a looking into cheap renewable fuel sources (e.g. bio fuel companies that receive funding from government grants Canada programs).

Golden Rice

Despite how you might feel about genetically modified foods, the story of Golden Rice is a good example of a large corporation trying to strangle a noble idea.

For centuries people have been breeding plants in an effort to come up with the strongest, most nutritious varieties possible, and for just about that long they’ve been trying to protect the secrets of their successes.

In the 1930s the first Plant Patents were passed in the U.S. though law-makers were careful to exclude food plants, saying food was too important to allow monopolization. But these high moral sentiments wouldn’t last long. By 1980 patent laws were redefined to allow the patenting of genetic organisms, by extension allowing a monopoly of all biological products and processes associated with the patent. By 1985 whole plants could be patented. By 1987 animals were patentable.
This has left us in a situation where 10 companies control one third of the global seed industry and two companies—Dupont and Monsanto—own 73 per cent of the seed and corn market in the U.S. This doesn’t affect most North Americans substantially, but it has a huge effect on people trying to breed new plant strains.
In 1992 scientists Peter Beyer of the University of Freiburg and Ingo Potrykus of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology started a project to create a new strain of rice that would help children suffering from Vitamin A deficiencies in the developing world, a condition that results in approximately one to two million deaths and about half a million cases of blindness annually. Their idea: create a strain of rice that produced beta-carotene, the precursor to Vitamin A, as many of the countries whose populations suffer from Vitamin A deficiencies rely on rice as their staple food.
Researchers toiled on the science for eight years trying to get it right. Finally in 2000, they released their findings. Right off the bat Golden Rice faced about 30 intellectual property right violation claims. The researchers had had to use over 70 patented processes to create the new strain of rice. This situation could have killed off Golden Rice entirely; It could have stayed locked away in a Swiss greenhouse forever.
Luckily, the media was on the side of the inventors. Neither of the inventors wanted to profit off of the invention. In fact, Potrykus wanted to distribute the rice for free to communities at risk of Vitamin A deficiencies. He was featured on the cover of TIME magazine next to the headline “This Rice Could Save A Million Kids A Year” the same year the two men announced their discovery. The patent owners—Monsanto among them—eventually granted Golden Rice a Humanitarian Use License and the product is in its second generation, now containing even more provitamin A than ever.

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N.B. This list could easily have surpassed twenty-one.

Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (a.k.a Caligula)

Years in Power: 37 CE – 41 CE
Roman Empire

Emperor Caligula began his political career as an admired leader, but took a turn for the worse after falling very ill in the first two years of his rule. Though he recovered, he became cruel and insane.  Caligula had his wife banished and his father-in-law, Marcus Silanus and his cousin, Tiberius Gemellus commit suicide. He tried to make his horse, Incitatus, a consul and a priest. He introduced heavy taxation to pay for his personal expenditures, created a tax on prostitutes and opened a brothel in a wing of the imperial palace. “Comments that he could easily order the death of magistrates, or slit the throats of lovers were common.” [Source].

William Marcy Tweed (Boss Tweed)

Years in Power: 1853-1855
Country: United States

Tweed was the third-largest landowner in New York City. He built his power in Tammany Hall through the appointment and election of his friends- known as the “Tweed Ring”. Tweed was convicted for stealing between $40 million and $200 million from New York City taxpayers through political corruption (based on the inflation rate of the dollar since 1870 of 2.7%, approximately 1.5 and 8 billion 2009 dollars).  The “Tweed Ring” managed to steal the money by faking leases, padding bills with false changes and paying for unnecessary repairs and overpriced goods and services bought from suppliers controlled by the ring. Tweed died in the Ludlow Street Jail in 1855. [Source].

Joseph Stalin

Years In Power: 1922-1953
Country: Soviet Union

According to official records that were brought to light after the collapse of the Soviet Union, under Stalin’s regime, approximately 30 million lives were claimed. 800,000 political and criminal prisoners were executed; around 1.7 million deaths in the Gulags (state security that operated the penal system) and some 390,000 deaths during kulak (independent farmers) forced resettlement. Stalin’s forced-famine known as the Holodomor (death by hunger) which took place in the former Soviet republic of Ukraine between 1932-1933 was one of the most horrendous crimes against humanity- considered perhaps, the most extreme example of the use of food as a weapon to eradicate a people. Stalin remains one of history’s most powerful and murderous dictators.

Benito Mussolini

Years In Power: 1922-1943
Country: Italy

Mussolini was one of the key figures in the creation of fascism. His foremost priority was the establishment of a totalitarian state where he would rule as the supreme leader (Il Duce). He was head of the Fascist Party, armed with his fascist militia, the “Balckshirts” who terrorizing resistance in cities and provinces throughout Italy. He would appoint himself in various ministries at once, as he see fit- from foreign affairs, defense, to public works, all the while holding the premiership. Mussolini used propaganda to advance his goals and “Italianize” the parts of the Italian Empire he was aiming to build. At first, Mussolini rejected much of Hitler’s ideas of biological racism- however, Hitler’s influence eventually took over and Mussolini systematically stripped Jews of their Italian citizenship, modeling his Manifesto of Race on the Nazi Nuremberg laws.

Maximiliano Hernández Martínez

Years in Power: 1931 to 1944
Country: El Salvador

Hernández Martínez’s military government was responsible for the murder of 10,000 to 40,000 indigenous people in the Salvadoran peasant revolt of 1932, led by Farabundo Marti. This massacre came to be known as La Matanza. His government was supported by the United States, and military aid and government grants was offered if needed. He also created a racial law to keep blacks out of the country.

Fulgencio Batista

Years in Power: 1933-1944 and again in 1952-1959
Country: Cuba

Under Batista’s corrupt and tyrannical regime, Havana became known as “the Latin Las Vegas”. He jailed his opponents, used terrorist methods and made fortunes for himself and his associates. Cuba became profitable for American business and organized crime with a close tie to Mafia boss Meyer Lansky helping to turn Havana into an international drug port. [Source]

Adolph Hitler

Years In Power: 1934-1945
Country: Germany

At least 50 million died under Hitler’s reign, including the eradication of over six million European Jews throughout the Holocaust. According to some scholars, the definition of the Holocaust should also include “the Nazis’ systematic murder of millions of people in other groups, including ethnic Poles, the Romani, Soviet civilians, Soviet prisoners of war, people with disabilities, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and other political and religious opponents”. [Source]. Thousands were shipped daily to extermination camps and concentration camps, either to be killed, forced into human experimentation or manual labor. Medical experiments on large numbers of prisoners by the Nazis, such as mustard gas experiments- where test subjects were exposed to mustard gas which inflicted severe chemical burns, freezing experiments, sterilization experiments, racial morphological experiments and other non-consented and autrocious experiments were designed and implemented in order to help German military in combat situations, to aid in recovery of injured soldiers and advance Third Reich racial ideology.

Fransisco Franco

Years In Power: 1939-1975
Country: Spain

Hundreds of thousands of people died of hunger in the early years of Francoism. Spain under Franco’s nearly 40 year dictatorship was marked by oppression and strong Spanish nationalism. Any cultural diversity that diverged from traditional, Catholic, conservative values were forbidden and subject to strict censorship. The legal usage of languages other than Spanish, such as Catalan, Galician, and Basque were prohibited. Spaniards and particularly children at school were told that the Divine Providence had sent Franco to save Spain from chaos and poverty. Even before the Nazis’ concentration camps, General Franco’s forces (helped by Germans) organized extermination camps in Spain during the Spanish Civil War. [Source]

Mao Zedong

Years In Power: 1943-1976
Country: People’s Republic of China

Under Mao’s direction, horrible forms of torture and killing took place. Mao’s policies are widely attributed to the deaths of 40 to 70 million people. Authors Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, of the book Mao: The Unknown Story argue that Mao’s economic and social plan, known as the Great Leap Forward, exasperated a widespread famine that resulted in millions of deaths. All private food production was banned, peasants were ordered to work on massive infrastructure projects and livestock and farm implements were brought under collective ownership. During the Cultural Revolution, schools in China were closed and students were forced to be “re-educated” by the peasants and perform hard manual labor. Mao created a cult of personality and forced his image upon the Chinese people in his Little Red Book, a collection of his political maxims.

Ngo Dinh Diem

Years in Power: 1955-1963
Country: Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam)

He was the President of South Vietnam and member of the Roman Catholic Church, yet in a country with an estimated 70 and 90 percent Buddhist majority, Diem’s policies were grossly religiously biased. His brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu was his chief adviser and any high level government positions were staffed by members of his own family. He pursued pro-Catholic policies that alienated Buddhists, imprisoning and killing hundreds of Buddhists alleging they were Communist insurgents, which finally persuaded the United States to withdraw its support from him.

Francois Duvalier

Years in Power: 1957 to 1971
Country: Haiti

It is estimated that Duvalier was responsible for 30,000 deaths and the exile of thousands more. His regime was marked by corruption and state-sponsored terrorism through his private militia known as the Tonton Macoutes. Through the late 1950s to the middle 1960s this force continued to grow and was responsible for terrorizing and assassinating anyone thought to be an opponent of Duvalier. In the 1961 elections Duvalier altered the ballots to have his name placed at the top. Afterward he announced that his victory gave him another six years in office. [Source].

Richard Nixon

Years in Power: 1964-1979
Country: United States

Nixon has been the only American president to date to have resigned office after being implicated in the Watergate Scandal. Five men were arrested for breaking and entering into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Office complex in Washington, D.C. on June 17, 1972. It was later revealed that this burglary was one of many illegal activities authorized and carried out by Nixon’s staff. Improper tax audits, espionage, illegal wiretapping and a secret slush fund laundered in Mexico to pay those who conducted these operations were brought forward. Nixon had also approved a secret bombing campaign in Cambodia in March 1969, believed to be the headquarters of the National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam. Despite much resistance at home, Nixon implemented the Nixon Doctrine, where American troops were replaced with Vietnamese troops. This was yet another unfavorable move for his image.

Mobutu Sese Seko

Years in Power: 1965-1997
Country: Zaire

Mobutu led one of the most long-enduring dictatorial and corrupt regimes in Africa. Despite the country’s rich resources, Mobutu amassed a personal fortune of over $5 billion
while the country sank further and further into poverty. He exercised power with an iron fist, publicly executing political rivals, coup plotters, and other threats to his rule. They would be hung before large audiences, such as the former Prime Minister, Evariste Kimba. Mobutu’s rule earned him a reputation as one of the world’s foremost examples of kleptocracy (rule by thieves) and nepotism (favoritism). The nation suffered massive currency devaluations. Rebel forces led by Laurent Kabila expelled Mobutu from the country in 1997. He died on September 7, 1997, in exile in Rabat, Morocco.

Ferdinand Marcos

Years in Power: 1965-1986
Country: Philippines

To this day, the Philippine government still pays interest in public debts incurred during Marcos’ administration. Handing out billions from the country’s wealth to friends, family (not to mention his wife’s 2,500 pairs of shoes), under his rule the nation was marred by authoritarian corruption, political repression and human rights violations. It was reported that when Marcos fled the Philippines, U.S. Customs agents discovered 24 suitcases of gold bricks and diamond jewelry hidden in diaper bags and in addition, certificates for gold bullion valued in the billions of dollars.

Nicolae Ceauşescu

Years in Power: 1965-1989
Country: Romania

During Ceauşescu’s tenure, he was able to borrow more than $13 billion from the West to finance development programs, however, this eventually devastated Romania’s economy. Determined to be completely independent of the West he adopted a policy of “depressing consumption to pay off the foreign debt”. In the 1980s, Ceauşescu ordered the export of much of the country’s agricultural and industrial production. Shortages of food, as well as heating, gas and electricity black-outs became standard of living for almost a decade. Meanwhile, Ceauşescu would be “shown on state TV entering stores filled with food supplies, visiting large food and arts festivals where people would serve him mouthwatering food while praising the “high living standard” achieved under his rule”. [Source]. The debt was fully paid in the summer of 1989, yet years of suffering directly prompted the Romanian Revolution of 1989; a week-long series of violent riots and fighting. In late December 1989, Ceauşescu was overthrown and later executed by a firing squad of over one hundred volunteers.

Augusto José Ramón Pinochet

Years in Power: 1974-1990
Country: Chile

Deep admirer of Spanish dictator Fransisco Franco, before appointing himself president in 1974, Pinochet ordered the slaughter of more than 3,000 Salvador Allende (then President of Chile) supporters; tens of thousands more were tortured or exiled. Two-and-a-half years after the death of General Augusto Pinochet, a report by the Chilean police task force charged with investigating money-laundering claimed that British authorities and the financial sector were complicit in hiding his massive ill-gotten fortune believed to amount to as much as £1billion. [Source]

Fidel Castro

Years in Power: 1976-2008
Country: Cuba

Castro was the primary leader of the Cuban Revolution. Many of his critics have described him as a dictator who constructed “repressive machinery” depriving Cubans of their basic human rights [Human Rights Watch]. After declaring Cuba socialist state in 1961, he abolished multiparty elections, closed down any opposition newspaper, and all radio and television stations were under state control. According to Paul H. Lewis, author of Authoritarian regimes in Latin America, “moderates, teachers and professors were purged. He [Castro] was accused of keeping about 20,000 dissents held captive and tortured under inhuman prison conditions every year.” Homosexuals were locked in concentration camps, Castro claiming they were “agents of imperialism. Though Cuba boasts some of the highest literacy rates and most effective healthcare systems in the world, it is also a repressed, authoritarian state with a poor human rights record.

Saddam Hussein

Years In Power: 1979-2003
Country: Iraq

Saddam led Iraq through a nearly decade-long war with Iran (1980-1988). Throughout Hussein’s tenure he aimed to purge Iraq of any Iranian influence as well as the eventual elimination of Shi’ism. He believed the Kurds to be a threat to Iraq’s survival, and his administration called for the extermination of “every living thing–human or animal”–in certain regions of the Kurdish north. Up until the 1990 invasion of Kuwait, Hussein was an ally of the United States. In 1959, Hussein was backed by a CIA-authorized six-man squad tasked with assassinating then Iraqi Prime Minister Abdul Karim Qassim. During the 1980’s, the Reagan administration offered Hussein financial credits that eventually made Iraq the third-largest recipient of U.S. assistance. However, at the onset of the Gulf War, over twenty different nations joined forces to defeat Hussein. Again, in 2003, coalition forces, led by the United States, invaded Iraq and Saddam was identified as the most-wanted man in Iraq. Hussein was captured by U.S. forces on December 13, 2003. On November 5, 2006, he was convicted of charges related to the executions of 148 Iraqi Shi’ites suspected of planning an assassination attempt against him, and was sentenced to death by hanging. Hussein was executed on December 30, 2006.

Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo

Years in Power: 1979-Present
Country: Equatorial Guinea

Amnesty International and other human rights groups, including the UN, have cited gross human rights violations, torture of political prisoners, unfair trials as well as deplorable prison conditions. Medical analysis showed that detainees were given electric shocks from starter cables, beaten with rubberised cables and wooden bars, suspended with hands and feet tied together and had heavy weights attached to their bodies. Torture most often was used in an attempt to extract confessions or information, but also sometimes as punishment or to extort money.

Although Equatorial Guinea is a constitutional democracy Obiang’s Partido Democratido of Equatorial Guinea remains the only party in the country since 1987. His control over the media is rumored to be absolute. He is also criticized for nepotism, as he has appointed many family members to key government positions. [Source]

Robert Mugabe

Years in Power: 1980- Present
Country: Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe’s current President, Mugabe ranked No. 1 on Parade Magazine’s 2009 World’s Worst Dictators list. Once one of the richest countries in Africa, the policies of President Mugabe have been blamed for Zimbabwe’s state of economic chaos. Zimbabwe’s unemployment rate has reached nearly 80 percent, manufacturing is at a halt and basic foods are in short supply.

George W. Bush

Years in Power: 2001-2009
Country: United States

Bush Jr. has been a widely controversial figure, considered the most unpopular American president after Richard Nixon. After the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, Bush announced a global War on Terrorism which has been claimed by many security experts, politicians and policy organizations to have been counterproductive and in fact aided terrorist recruitment, increased the likelihood of attacks against the U.S. and her allies. Oxford Research Group reported that a minimum of 62,570 civilian deaths have been reported in the mass media since April 28, 2007. 4000 U.S. military dead (March 26, 2008) and 22,401 wounded in action. Former Vice President Dick Cheney and Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld have often been accused of being the principal actors behind Bush’s policies and actions.The Bush administration has been highly suspect for government corruption, war profiteering and trillions of missing dollars.

Post from: Cosmoloan

James-Younger Gang

While most people weather tough economic times and look forward to a more stable and pleasant future, there are always some people who will go to the extreme in order to stay afloat. Even in modern times where large-scale crime is considerably more difficult we’ve seen a marked increase in crime as a result of the current recession. Statistics released by Southern California show that after a 30 year low in bank heists in 2007 there has been a sharp increase during 2008; some experts attribute this to the faltering economy.

The period after the American Civil War was also one of extreme hardships. Some of Americas most notorious outlaws emerged from this era of the ‘Wild West’. Jesse James, a leader of the well publicized James-Younger Gang ‘sewed his wild oats’ during this time. The exploits of Jesse James and his gang have long been fantasized by the public; evidence of this can be seen in the many films and stories centered around them. One of the major bank heists by this group of renegades ended in a complete mess. The attempt to hold up a First National Bank in Northfield, Minnesota would result in the death of townsfolk and gang members, plus the arrest of gang members. Things started as usual in September of 1876 with the gang riding in wearing dusters to conceal their weapons. It all went wrong when a loyal bank clerk refused to open the volt and was shot dead. Residents responded to the shot by engaging in a shoot out with the outlaws resulting in the death of two gang members and one civilian. This show of vigilante justice led the gang to flee the scene and commence a four hundred mile chase. The gang was forced to split up so that some members, including James, could escape. The Youngers would not be as fortunate; the three brothers would all end up in prison with one associate sent six feet under. Those who have seen the brad Pitt film on the Life of Jesse James know that he would eventually be shot in the back by one of his own crew.

The Dalton Brothers

Not long after the famed James-Younger gang rode the plains there was another gang of brothers called the Dalton Brothers reeking terror on the banking institutions of America. The Daltons began their career on the wild side as officers of the law who enjoyed the dubious hobby of stealing horses. For obvious reasons their career in law enforcement came to a crashing halt forcing the brothers to form a gang in order to pursue a full time life of crime; which included the practice of robbing banks. In October of 1892 the Dalton Brothers aspired to rob the two banks of Coffeyville Kansas. The plan went to ruin once they were recognized emerging from one of the banks. This again resulted in the tough local citizens taking up arms against the band of outlaws. The townsfolk proved the better marksmen killing all of he Dalton Brothers except for Emmett, who would serve a fourteen year prison sentence.

A Dog Day Afternoon

The ‘Wild West’ is not the only era where bank robbers were in swing. In August of 1972 John Wojtowicz and Sal Naturile attempted to rob the Chase Manhattan bank in Brooklyn. Wojtowicz was driven to this rash act by his desire to get a transsexual operation for his partner over in Denmark. Wojtowicz had some knowledge of the banking system from his time as a bank clerk. However, it is rumoured that he based most of the plan on scenes from the popular film “The Godfather”. Perhaps that is why the attempted bank heist resulted in multiple employees being held hostage for hours on end. This was the beginning of the end; once the duo reached JFK Airport the authorities pounced and arrested Wojtowicz while shooting Naturile. Woltowicz entered a plea of guilty and served seven years of his twenty year sentence; he claims that a deal had been struck which was never honoured.

Life Magazine printed an article about the incident that made Woltowicz a celebrity. The story was later sold off to become a Hollywood film starring Al Pacino. Ironically, the revenue he earned from selling his story would finance the very operation that spurred the bank heist scheme to begin with. Further proof that Hollywood and the public really are taken in by outlaws.

High-Tech Stick Up

Not all bank robbers use guns and wear bandannas to disguise their identities. One recent attempt that took place at the Sumitomo Mitsui Bank in London during September of 2006 saw the perpetrators use only their wits and USB sticks. The plan included an inside man, the bank’s security supervisor, who would attempt to cover the activity of the two infiltrators by manipulating the security footage; the use of USB sticks to install keylogger software in computers in order to record employee information; and a series of bank accounts for business fronts to launder the money. Problems began to emerge early on with the not-so-discreet tampering of camera footage by the crooked security supervisor. The major blow came when the two men entered the bank and failed to transfer the money out of the big business accounts. The same problem occurred again the following week when the two failed to withdraw money from the stolen accounts. The reason for the failure was due to a simple error in filling out the wire transfer information boxes. On Monday morning staff members noticed the failed transactions, totaling approximately 229 million pounds and some cut camera cables. Police were alerted and soon uncovered the involvement of the bank’s security supervisor. Recovered footage from the security cameras and the paper trail left from the attempted wire transfers led to the capture of the two infiltrators of the bank and the four men who were at the other end of the wire transfers. Police were unable to determine who the criminal mastermind was. Authorities believe that this type of high-tech robbery will replace the cliched weapon brandishing methods of the past.

The Bank Job

All failed bank heists are not due to the efforts of police or gun totting honest citizens. For anyone who has seen the popular British crime film “Bank Job”, starring Jason Stathom, it will be apparent that sometimes the wrong people are affected. The film is partially based on fact; a gang did tunnel underneath a branch of the Lloyds Bank in London during 1971 and robbed some safety deposit boxes. Their plan was ruined when a local ham-radio operator overheard their radio conversations and contacted the local authorities. It seems as though the police issued an order to the media for them to cease all broadcasts concerning the crime as a matter of national security. The producer of the film claims that an inside source provided information that the contents of one safety deposit box included sex photographs Princess Margaret which could be used as blackmail. These pictures are the basis of the films plot concerning MI5 setting up the robbery in order to retrieve these photos from the clutches of local gangster Michael X. This lands the gang in to a world fraught with danger. It is not sure how accurate this information is; but the film creators have stated that some of the film was fabricated for dramatic affect.

Hopefully these failed bank robberies have helped to dispel the romanticized beliefs surrounding outlaws and bank heists. After all, if the big criminals could be met with chaotic failure perhaps it is better to leave the profession of robbing banks to actors in films. If you need to get rich try starting a business (with government grants if you can get one) and devoting oneself to earning an honest living.

Post from: Cosmoloan