| By OHliz - Feb 18th, 2009 at 8:44 am EST |
| Also listed in: Female political bloggers |
It's been sanitized from high school history books, but the truth is, the world loves to smoke and America is its dealer.
Author Iain Gately calls the tobacco trade "the driving force behind the growth of the American colonies, the foundation of the Dutch trading empire, the underpinning cause of the African slave trade, and the financial basis for our victory in the American Revolution.
Wow, that is a smokin' history of economic growth and political influence.
From the Virginia plantations of the Colonists to the Northern Voyageur fur traders (who measured their canoe runs in distances between smokes) to the mega coporation Altria, America runs on smokers.
What did Native Americans smoke before tobacco was cultivated here? I'm guessing it was something closer to hemp than cured tobacco.
Whatever they put in their pipes to smoke, it was a vital part of their existence. Communal smoking was socially important to our ancient ancestors. So much so, that their smoking implements were considered sacred art.
Effigy pipes are perhaps the most significant and beautiful ancient artifacts ever recovered in Ohio. Here's an excerpt from a discussion of Hopewell culture pipes:
"Of the pipes recovered from Tremper Mound (near Portsmouth), about 60 were of the effigy type. These are particularly notable for their veristic or true-to-life renderings of the various birds and other animals from the Hopewell environment including raptors, water fowl, song birds, amphibians, carnivores and a host of other creatures common to forest and stream.
"It is often the case that the carvings are so delicate and so well executed that it’s possible to tell exactly which species of bird or toad is being portrayed or in the case of the river otter, one can actually count his nose whiskers and see the scales on the fish in his mouth."
(Unfortunately, the best Ohio pipes are tucked away in the British Museum. If I ever go to London, I'm going to check them out.)
The exquisite Ohio effigy pipes of the Hopewell people remind me of the handiwork of today's Athenian tribes of the eastern Ohio Valley. Their hand-blown glass bongs and antler pipes are modern-day expressions of this traditional craft. (Yes, I'm kidding, but not really.)
I would imagine this recession has been a heady time for entrepreneurial horticulturists. Too bad the state has to miss out on all that taxable income because of federal laws.
I don't advocate smoking of any kind. It makes you cough. But we do have to be tolerant of each other and remember the social power of the peace pipe, the calumet.
When you think about how slavishly some people go to bars for a social life and then risk the lives of others when they drive home drunk, smoking a bowl with friends at home makes a lot of sense.
Communal smoking definitely is our heritage. Why not our future? Don't bogart that peace pipe, my friend.
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I doubt many (if any) native Americans died of lung cancer, at least until the Europeans starting passing out Dutch cigars along with the liquor and infected blankets.
So, while I might agree smoking had a cultural place in Indian society, I wouldn't ever give this as a reason to go easy on the habit. I've got too many friends and relatives who died (or are well on the way out) because of lung cancer. Smoking today is a nasty and deadly business, period.
A onetime spokes person for National Macrobiotics organization said that lung cancer forms in fat that collects around the lungs. That is where the tumors are found. The fat collects minerals and other toxins. The lungs can't clean that out.
So a high fat diet in not recommended, especially animal fat. And I have never heard of a blind study on vegan smokers, lol. I really believe tobacco is a scape goat for meat eaters. If tobacco is respected, it will teach to be vegan.
The other observation I have is that now, for alzheimers prevention, they are passing out drugs called: Cholinestearase Inhibitors. What is nicotine? Same thing.
Apparently the blood pressure pills are now supposedly the cause of mental alzheimers.
And can we expend the DEA's exclusion from environmental impact studies of hemp removal? PLEASE? I AM DEAD SERIOUS HERE. There is no study on how it affects deer population and other wildlife including birds who used to have 50% of their bird seed as hemp.
A onetime spokes person for National Macrobiotics organization said that lung cancer forms in fat that collects around the lungs. That is where the tumors are found. The fat collects minerals and other toxins. The lungs can't clean that out.
So a high fat diet in not recommended, especially animal fat. And I have never heard of a blind study on vegan smokers, lol. I really believe tobacco is a scape goat for meat eaters. If tobacco is respected, it will teach one to be vegan.
The other observation I have is that now, for alzheimers prevention, they are passing out drugs called: Cholinestearase Inhibitors. What is nicotine? Same thing.
Apparently the blood pressure pills are now supposedly the cause of mental alzheimers.
And can we expend with the DEA's exclusion from environmental impact studies of hemp removal? PLEASE? I AM DEAD SERIOUS HERE. There is no study on how it affects deer population and other wildlife including birds who used to have 50% of their bird seed as hemp.
The only lesson to be learned from the Phelps debacle to me was don't let a guy with lungs like a dolphin anywhere near your stash . . .
On the other hand, he was stupid for being careless about photo-takers. Losing those millions in endorsements might be a good thing in the long run.
According to author Gately, "Jackson smoked 'a great Powhatan bowl with a long stem' puffing out until the room was 'so obfuscated that one could hardly breathe.' He also had a very Indian approach to relaxation. As he commented during his tenure of the newly built White House: 'Mrs. Jackson & I go to no parties [but remain] at home smoking our pipes.'"