Free Republic

Dude, check it out. Jason Harris and a group of other renowned glassblowing artists will be meeting in Seattle over the “4/20” weekend to create the world’s largest bong. The final piece, which will be created in parts and then assembled at the Cannabition museum in the downtown Las Vegas Arts District, will tower 24-feet high and weigh 800 pounds when completed. The bong will feature hookah-like attachments and actually be smoke-able, according to Chris Davison, co-owner of Jerome Baker Designs. “I think everybody on the top floor (of the cannabis museum) could end up high,” Davis said, jokingly. “It’s...

Local travel guru Rick Steves will host a fundraiser for the American Civil Liberties Union on Inauguration Day through his website, saying that the group will probably be busy during the coming Donald Trump administration. All day Friday, for every dollar you spend at his online travel store, Steves will donate $1 to the ACLU ---SNIP--- Steves also said in the blog post that he canceled his planned trip to the inauguration after it became clear Trump would become president. He endorsed Hillary Clinton for president in 2016.

At 5:30 a.m. on May 10, armed men broke into the bedroom of Kirk Kyle Farrar’s 12 year-old daughter and shook her awake. The men led her downstairs at gunpoint and forced her to lie on the floor next to her mother and father, with her hands behind her head. Another armed man took Farrar’s two-year-old son from his crib, and would not let his parents hold him. “My son screamed for his mother for what seemed like an eternity,” Farrar wrote in an email to friends, obtained by Reason. “I will never forget the hopeless feeling of not being...

316,000 Holiday Bongs Seized at Port Jonathan Lloyd NBCLosAngeles.com [Pics in URL] Custom officials unwrapped a surprise Tuesday at the Port of LA/Long Beach -- 316,000 glass bongs disguised as Christmas ornaments. The shipment's value was estimated at more than $2.6 million. The fake ornaments were hidden inside 860 boxes that arrived from China in a shipping container. Agents said the items were decorated like Christmas ornaments. Before you get any ideas, consider these holiday gift options.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAwvlDJgJbM

SNIP If you own stocks or mutual funds today make no mistake, you aren’t investing, you are speculating. That goes for ALL stocks from Tootsie Roll to Krispy Kreme, from Vioxx to Viagra, from high flyers to dividend paying stalwarts. In today’s market at these valuations, you are speculating and subject to significant risks. Time won’t help you either, that is, unless you have 50 years to break even. Now is not the time to wax poetic about how wonderful your company’s management teams are. By and large at these prices and valuations no managements can be trusted. They put...

Local retailers raided RALEIGH -- Law enforcement officers this morning announced a crackdown on stores that sell pipes and other products the government considers drug paraphernalia. Officers raided four stores in the Triangle and two in Wilmington on Thursday and seized possible drug-related inventory, court records authorities released Monday show. Two of the stores - Buddha's Belly and Snap Dragons - are located across from N.C. State University. The other local stores were Rock 'N' Roll Outlet on Capital Boulevard and Rock 'N' Roll Village in Clayton. U.S. Attorney Frank Whitney said the multi-agency investigation, called "Operation Pipecleaner," is aimed...

This is another pot story, starring Tommy Chong. So it should be funny. Only this time, it's not. Not to U.S. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft, who announced dozens of indictments under "Operation Pipe Dreams" in February. Not to U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania Mary Beth Buchanan, who heads Ashcroft's advisory committee and turned up in court in Pittsburgh to personally accept Chong's guilty plea. Not to Asst. U.S. Dist. Atty. Mary Houghton, who prosecuted the case. And definitely not to Tommy Chong, who will be spending the next nine months in federal prison. On Wednesday, Chong turned...

Feb. 24 — By Deborah Charles WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Attorney General John Ashcroft on Monday announced 55 people have been charged with trafficking in illegal drug paraphernalia as part of a nationwide crackdown. Ashcroft said selling drug paraphernalia is a billion-dollar industry and sales have skyrocketed through purchases over the Internet. Of 17 indictments returned in the investigation, ten are against national distributors of drug paraphernalia and seven involve businesses located in Western Pennsylvania, he told a Justice Department news conference. Ashcroft said drug paraphernalia sales had soared with the advent of the Internet, which allows easy access to anyone...