Heresies of the 21st Century

Date: Feb 9,2003

Source: xxdr_zombiexx

In 1633 Galileo was interrogated by the Inquistion, "a permanent institution in the Catholic Church charged with the eradication of heresies." A Heresy is a belief that conflicts with the accepted order of things, as established by the Catholic Church.

Galileo advanced an astronomical theory called the Copernican Heresy by the Church. He had argued that the Sun was the center of the universe and that planets orbited it. The Churchs official belief was that the Earth was the center of all the universe.

Using the telescope he built, Galileo studied the cosmos, discovering not only proofs for the Copernican "Heresy", but more planets, trashing the Church's tidy Order of Things. So narrow-minded they were they refused to look through the thing themselves.

[In 1624] Galileo travels to Rome, where he has audiences with Pope Urban VIII and several cardinals. The Pope grants Galileo permission to address Copernican theory in his writing on the condition that he only lend it the weight of a hypothesis.

[1633] In April, the Inquisition formally interrogates Galileo, who has been detained in the building of the Inquisition for several weeks. Galileo agrees to plead guilty in order to receive a lenient sentence, and on April 30 he confesses that he advocated Copernican theory too vigorously in the Dialogue. He agrees to modify his opinions in his next work.

In June, the Pope orders Galileo imprisoned indefinitely under house arrest. Galileo makes his way back to his villa in Arcetri, near Florence, where he spends the remainder of his life under house arrest.

PBS

Galileo would love the 21st century, with space stations, computers, the internet, and global communication.

And that The Church has largely been relieved of command and replaced by a variety of ideologies of "governement" including one that purports to be "of, by, and for the People." Democracy has broken out.



The Rosenthal Heresy

Well, not quite. The people were told they had a constitutional democracy until ideas the state disapproved of came into focus. The constitutition of the Unites States is subject to change without notice when heresies need to be crushed.

A long time ago, some hateful backwards men with way too much "freedom" (power, wealth, and political influence) took it upon themselves to suppress a common agricultural staple for their collective enrichment, by means fair or foul.

Their racist and ignorant ideals and laws continue to be embraced even though they are seen for the injustice they represent and the crime against humanity which they are. The US Federal Government fights their dissolution viciously at every turn.

[See: The Elkhorn Manifesto|Cannabis is Forever |Marijuana monopolies.]

Mr. Ed Rosenthal of California is a modern Heretic. A possesor of great cabalistic knowledge about plants and healing that goes against the grain of reefer-mad Federal policies.

The Rosenthal Heresy is Medical Marijuana.

The Federal Governent says - in a manner similar to Gregorian chant by now - medical marijuana does not exist. Mr Rosenthal was growing a bunch of it. The feds arrest, harrass, and ruin 750000 people each year just for touching cannabis and have already sent a wave of cannabis culture activists - I mean heretics - scurrying off to Canada where the constitution is guarded with a bit more zeal.

Mr. Rosenthal, world famous for cannabis cultivation knowledge, a founder of NORML, and a longtime writer for High Times magazine, has been propelled into the forefront of national attention recently as he has been the target of an Inquisition of the Federal Government of the United States of America. Based out of the Attorney general's Office, the DEA is the Inquisition.

The Rosenthal Heresy has 2 components - one is ideology, as evidenced by the persecution of medical marijuana.

So great a heresy is medical marijuana, that the Inquisition against it has been broadened and escalated since the Terror Attacks of 9.1.2001.

the US Federal government doesn't just refuse to recognize medical marijuana. It is so hostile towards medical cannabis it wages a war against states that have made legal recognition of it. They are so serious about this no exception whatsoever is made between serious criminals who grow for profit and those who run bona fide clinics and hospices, even in model compliance with state laws.

The DEA has dramatically stepped up its raids on medical cannabis facilities in California and Oregon since September 11th. They have dynamited clinic doors, pointed shotguns at people in wheelchairs, and destroyed thousands of highly evolved medical cannabis plants. They have recieved an outpouring of angry responses from powerful state officials and commissioners of numerous cities but keep on kickin'.

[Cannabis is Forever]

So great and powerful an icon is Mr. Rosenthal that he was arrested on February 12, 2002. That was a day the FBI had one of its biggest "Terrorist Alerts".

There is no single definition of terrorism. The FBI defines terrorism as, "the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a Government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.'

[Denver FBI]

The only terrorism that day was the D.E.A. - Richard Nixon's permanent institution for the eradication of cannabis culture - blowing open medical-cannabis clinic doors with dynamite. There were 3 clinics raided, 4 high-profile arrests all clearly coordinated with a speech that was given at the Commonwealth Club by then-director of the DEA, Asa Hutchinson.

In California, at this reputable meeting of West Coast intellectuals, in San Francisco, Hutchinson announced the arrests of Ed Rosenthal and Steve Hayes, and raids as if he had accomplished something and told the serfs that there was no such thing as medical marijuana.

This was an audacious, high-profile show of force to the serfdom of California that this "belief" in healing by a plant that grows crudely out of the earth could be a better medicine than toxic pharmaceutical chemicals was heresy and all that believe will suffer the wrath of the Feds.

The serfs had voted Prop 215 into Law in 1996 and medical cannabis dispensaries and supplies were being established.

The Inquistion was there to intimidate and coerce them into compliance with Federal Ideologies - not just compliance with "the law".

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." --

10th Amendment

Our law flows from the Constitution of the United States and the 10th amendment to that constitution specifically grants all power not specifially designated to the federal Government to the states or to the people. The Constitution protects the people's right to choose and the Federal Government increasingly sees all citizens choice as a heretical concept. The People, if the Feds have their way, will not vote thier version of reality into existence.

Since at least 9 states have enacted some version of medical marijuana laws, the Feds are threatening roughly 10% of the country directly with thier savage conduct towards Mr. Rosenthal and the jury. It is a giant middle finger and robust "Screw you!" from the feds. Think about that every time you see one of those stupid ONDCP ads.

The Controlled Substances Act is a document - another Nixon creation - the Feds say gives them carte blanche to run over the 10th amendment at will. They will cite the CSA as if it is immutable, when the Bush Adminstration has seen fit to flippantly disregard vastly more important and serious treaties, "partickerly the nookuler ones"

The CSA is a disingenuous hat trick. All smoke, no mirrors. It is a meaningless government policy - a glorified memo, enshrined as a fax from the Almighy - that really can be blown off by any and all countries. With the absolutley hostile actions of the US Federal Government at this time - both at home and abroad - many countries should abandon the CSA en masse. It could be rescinded with a memo pretty much at any time here in the States.

Mr. Rosenthal has been convicted just less than a year later in a case that has outraged Americans everywhere and traumatized much of the jury. His sentence - potentially 80 years - is vastly worse than if he had raped somebody. Or stole their 401k. No good deed goes unpunished.

Which brings us to the second aspect.



An Affront to a Constitutional Democracy

"It is not only his right, but his duty...to find the verdict according to his own best understanding, judgement, and conscience, though in direct opposition to the direction of the court."

John Adams, 2nd President of the USA.

The Federal Government wants to void, among many, many things, the 10th amendent right of Californians - and all Americans - to make laws as they see fit.

This constant banter about the "supremacy of Federal Law over States rights" is what I mean. The trial of Mr. Rosenthal was designed to produce a specific verdict and to get around addressing the California Law. Whether he goes to jail or whether he wins an appeal, Prop 215 has not even been discussed, let alone addressed. Completely unchallenged. It remains the law.

The conviction was gained in a manner that makes an obscene mockery of the Constitution. Lies, willful withholding of vast exculpatory evidence, and intimidation of the jury about its rights by Federal Judge Charles Breyer are just the highlights of this charade. The prosecution got 5 days to make their fictious case.

The defense? 2 measely hours - and part of that was usurped by the judge so as to prevent any successful defense by his own competent attorneys!

After the jurors exited and the full information was made available to them they were swept with anger and horror that they had been forced to convict a man deputized by the city to grow marijuana in accordance with local law. Not just innocent, working as a public servant to aid the ill. They would doubtlessly have aquitted him had reality been allowed in the court room. Which is what the Feds know, and why this "trial" is a sham.

Since then they have been in the papers, on tv, and on the internet. Their call for re-trial or aquittal and the issuance of an apology has the ring of history.

On CNN with Connie Chung, Mr. Sackett, the Jury Foreman credibly reported he had never been so angry in his life. There were demonstrations as far away as Africa protesting the verdict and the growing realization of how badly things were handled. had this been an American citizen in a foreign country the Feds cared about, they would be issuing their trademark threatening statements.

The willful intimidation of the jury by Judge Breyer, the specific instruction to "disregard their sense of justice - whatever that is" is in direct conflict with the constitutional demand and right that juries rule their conscience.

The constitution was trashed and Rosenthal jurors were totally manipulated - tricked - into giving a verdict that does not represent their conscience and will torment them until the injustice is corrected.

[See: FIJA Analysis]


The New World Order
It took the Church over 350 years to accept that Galileo was right and pardon him. There is no reason for this travesty and this stupidity to continue in our lifetime.

Here in the 21st century the order of things is like this:

• the Earth is Round,
  
• it revolves around the Sun.
  
• Government revolves around the people, not the other way around.
  
• And marijuana has numerous medical values for a wide variety of people, most of whom vote.

Remember Galileo! Free Ed Rosenthal Now!

End of discussion.

"Doc Zombie" is an Atlanta-based writer, guitarist, and Editor-@-Large for www.marijuana.com