Red Squares Used by Dog Thieves

http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/perths-vicious-dog-fighting-hoax-20130220-2erhs.html

WA Today [Australia]

20 February 2013

Perth's vicious dog fighting hoax

Rania Spooner

Court and crime reporter

The internet has been flooded with chilling tales of an organised underground dog fighting ring operating out of Perth's suburbs.

Family pets have been systematically stolen from their yards to be trained as fighting dogs, according to reports appearing on social media and online classified websites this week.

While many in Perth claim to know somebody who knows somebody whose pet has fallen prey to a kidnapping, authorities and social media experts have dismissed the warnings as a viral hoax.

"No suburb is safe," reads one popular flyer doing the rounds on Facebook and Google+ this week.

Larger breeds would be starved and tormented into brutal fighters, while their smaller counterparts would be used as "bait", according to another popular Facebook post.

An image warning people of a system, in which red squares were put outside homes to alert canine thieves to a potential candidate, was uploaded to Facebook and shared more than 9000 times on Tuesday.

"These red symbols are tags that people stealing Perth dogs are putting on your gates/fences," the post read.

"These tags identify which house has a dog that needs to be collected later that day/night by these disgusting creatures. [...]

Ronald Reagan Mistakes Hemp Leaf for Maple Leaf

http://www.ep.tc/realist/131/03.html

The Realist, #131, Autumn 1996, p. 3

Great Moments in Counter-Cultural History

Paul Krassner

In the course of attempting to get a marijuana-legalization initiative on the ballot, six times since 1972, Jack Herer and other activists have lived on the front lawn of the Federal Building in Westwood for a hundred days at a time. They would feed, clothe, and provide portable bathrooms for petitioners. On the flagpole, the pot-people's flag flew proudly underneath the American flag.

One morning in 1981, President-elect Ronald Reagan came to Westwood. It was five days before his inauguration, and he needed a haircut from his favorite barber. With his entourage of Secret Service agents, Reagan visited the Federal Building.

"You're doing a fine job," he told the manager, "and I want you to know that you can bring any of your problems to us. Incidentally, why are those Canadians down on the lawn?"

"They're not Canadians. Those are marijuana protestors, and they live down there 24 hours a day."

Reagan had mistaken the five-pointed hemp leaf for the maple leaf that is featured on the Canadian flag. [...]

[Anecdote repeated at:]

http://hightimes.com/lounge/pkrassner/6638

High Times, 16 August 2010

Brain Damage Control: Memories of Jack

The legacy of Jack Herer is tinged with moments of humor and triumph.

by Paul Krassner

Acid Bible

http://www.ep.tc/realist/75/14.html

The Realist, #75, June 1967, p. 14

Case History of the Manchester Caper

By Paul Krassner

[...] During the Free Speech Movement's mass imprisonment, a Bible which had been soaked in an acid solution easily made its way into the cells, and the students just ate those goddam pages right up, here getting high on Deuteronomy, there taking a trip on Exodus. [...]

Richard Dorson, America in Legend (New York: Pantheon Books, 1973), 283.

The greatest Owsley story  tells of his visiting a group of Free Speech Movement activists in jail. Owsley astonished the Berkeley radicals by appearing dressed in a purple velvet suit and carrying a Bible. He opened it solemnly and with a grave countenance proceeded to read passages aloud. When the suspicions of any possible passersby had been allayed, he revealed that the Good Book had been dipped in acid so that the jailmates could "groove" on its pages. Owsley passed it around, each tore out a page from his favorite section -- one from Jeremiah, most from Job -- and sucked on the sheets until all were wiped out.

"I Love Paul" buttons

http://www.ep.tc/realist/64/24.html

The Realist, #64, February 1965, p. 24

No, Virginia

By Alan Whitney

[...] The Pope may or may not be infallible in matters religious and/or political, but he is definitely odds-on when it comes to matters commercial. When he visited New York, lapel buttons, plastic holy medals and pennants bearing the holy image left vendors' boards like birth control pills going to Fort Lauderdale. And, an occasionally reliable source swears to me on the soul of  his contact that this really happened:

A vendor sold out his entire supply of Pope buttons and went to the wholesaler to get more, only to find that there just weren't any more. He pleaded eloquently about this historical opportunity to make a bundle, and the distributor finally did the best he could. He yielded 150 "I Love Paul" buttons intended for Beatles cultists. The vendor took them to Yankee Stadium and sold out in half an hour.

The House of Blue Leaves, (New York: Samuel French, Inc., 1994, p. 33), Act 1.

BUNNY bursts in, flushed, bubbling. She has an enormous "I Love Paul" button on her coat.

BUNNY. He's landed! He's landed! It's on everybody's transistors and you're still here! And the school kids! -- The Pope drives by, he sees all those school kids, he's gonna come out for Birth Control today!! Churches will be selling Holy Diaphragms with pictures of St. Christopher and saints on them. You mark my words. (To us, indicating her button.) They ran out of Welcome Pope buttons so I ran downstairs and got my leftover from when the Beatles were here!

[John Guare's farcical play, first performed in 1966, is set in New York during the 1965 papal visit. Text via Google Books.]

Human Meat Sold to Restaurants (Malawi)

http://www.nyasatimes.com/2013/02/17/malawi-human-meat-talk-cripples-restaurant-business-in-lilongwe-city/

Nyasa Times [Malawi]

17 February 2013

Malawi ‘human-meat’ talk cripples restaurant business in Lilongwe city

By Malawi News Agency

Restaurant owners at Tsoka Flea Market (especially around ‘Chakulamba’ area) in Lilongwe are crying foul as customers continue to shun the place following a rumour that some men “were caught selling human meat” at the place.

A strong rumour made rounds over the week in the capital city that some men from Chinsapo Area were “spied on” preparing a body of a woman which the rumour says they cut into pieces and carried it to Tsoka Market’s Chakulamba restaurants for kanyenya.

But both the police and restaurant owners around Chakulamba place have dismissed the rumour as ‘totally’ false. [...]

People Killed by Baseball Bats

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2013/02/paul_broun_says_hammers_and_baseball_bats_kill_more_people_than_guns_is.html

Slate

14 February 2013

Baseball Bats and Hammers Do Not Kill More People Than Guns

Why do people keep saying they do?

By Brian Palmer

Georgia congressman Paul Broun claimed after Tuesday's State of the Union address that "There are more people killed with baseball bats and hammers than are killed with guns." Explainer readers may remember Broun as the congressman who believes the Earth is 9,000 years old. What about his hammer and baseball bat claim? [...]