Dig List

I've noticed that this blog seems to have taken a pretty serious tone since its inception. So I thought I'd lighten things up a little and talk about some things that I'm digging lately. I'm hoping that this will become a trend, so let's just call this my first official Dig List:

1. Role Models - Just watched this movie a few days ago, and it had me laughing pretty hard through most of it. Any movie that can do this is a winner in my book
2. California - The state is currently in the midst of a big push to legalize marijuana as part of the solution to its financial crisis. Legislation has been introduced, and the bill that would legalize weed is currently in the petition phase. If enough signatures are acquired, California residents could be voting on the bill in the not too distant future. Reports vary, but everybody seems to agree that a lot of money (billions) could be made by selling and taxing weed. Consider how many more billions state and federal agencies could save if they didn't have to worry about enforcing marijuana laws, and prosecuting and jailing those who break them. Now consider how many more billions could be generated through a new kind of marijuana-tourism (head shops, marijuana cafes, etc.) in California. Listen, I don't care if you smoke or not, but I feel like this is a pretty tough argument to beat. Money is a huge issue right now, and I read recently that 6 out of 10 people on the West coast favor some sort of legalization. I think that if something like this is passed in California, it will create a great deal of momentum for other states to slowly begin falling in line, and hopefully encourage the federal government to do so eventually. I'm not trying to start a debate here, but I honestly believe that proper, more realistic and honest education about marijuana coupled with fair taxation could be extremely beneficial - both to our country in a financial sense, as well as to current and future smokers. If you're interested in learning more, I suggest you start here: http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7814
   
3. President Obama - He just signed a bill lifting the ban of federal funding on stem cell research. With federal money finally going into this extremely important field of study, I think we can expect to start seeing some great and exciting things happening in the medical field in the next few years.
   
4. Muziic - I just found this program tonight, and I'm already loving it. The program opens on your desktop, and connects directly to youtube's server. This allows you to search for and play any song or video on youtube without ever even opening the actual website. Basically, this is like having every song or video you ever wanted on your itunes, and it's pretty awesome. I recommend you check it out, becuase I think it's definitely going to catch on. http://www.muziic.com/