There’s a difference between being a follower and a leader and the Democrats haven’t figured that out. Many Dems are trying to decide of health care reform based on polling or the number of people calling their office. What Democrats should be doing is what is right for America. If they fail to pass the Senate health care bill next week we will never see reform in our life time and insurance premiums will skyrocket. I can’t imagine the Democrats wanting to get reelected after failing to pass health care reform. It seems to me that if they don’t know what to do they should just do the opposite of want the Republicans want them to do.

Democrats are wondering what to do about health care reform. Do they vote for it or let it die? The Republicans and the big insurance companies want very much for health care reform to fail. So if the Democrats don’t know what to do, maybe they should do the opposite of what the Republicans want them to do. Democrats can win if they find the courage to make the Republicans fail to stop reform.

People are wondering, “What will it take to get the Democrats to pass health care reform?” Well – Rush Limbaugh said that he would leave the country if health care reform passed. So Democrats – there’s your reason! Or are you holding out for Glenn Beck to make the same promise?

There’s and old political joke that goes like this. “What is the opposite of progress? Congress!” But that joke has never been more true than it has lately. This is especially true of the Senate. I’m not sure which is worse, that a single senator held up government to settle a political score or the fact that the rest of the senate let him do it. Senators from both parties hold up important legislation and appointments to get their little piece of pork for themselves and their district. America is in big trouble and our elected officials aren’t taking their jobs seriously. “The People” are supposed to be the owners of America. But to these politicians “The People” is little more than a slogan they use in their political ads.

“This decision isn’t a decision for us or against us.” contends Marc Perkel, founder of the Church of Reality. “This decision is no decision at all.”

In 2006 the Supreme Court made a landmark decision in the case of Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao do Vegetal (the UDV case) where the court decided the religious rights trumps Schedule 1 drugs and asserts the “Strict Scrutiny” standard in dealing with claims under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). Shortly after this decision was made Marc Perkel representing the Church of Reality applied to the DEA on March 24th 2006 for an exemption for marijuana use for church members claiming that the facts of the Church of Reality were virtually identical to what the Supreme Court already decided.

11 months later the DEA agreed that the Church of Reality might have the right to use marijuana if it met the requirements set out by the court and sent a few letters asking questions about the Church of Reality’s religious practices. In October 1st 2008 the DEA denied the church’s request for exemption in a 33 page decision. The Church of Reality appealed the DEA’s decision to the Ninth Circuit.

This case is the first case to make it to the appellate court level since the UDV case of 2006 when the Supreme Court determined religions has a Fisrt Amendment right to use Schedule 1 drugs making this a case of first impression.

Because this is a “strict scrutiny” case and because it is a case of first impression the Ninth Circuit has a higher standard of review than with most cases. Perkel, founder of the Church of Reality contends that a court can not determine a case like this with an unpublished memorandum decision that’s 2 paragraphs long. Perkel contends that in a strict scrutiny case that the court has to at least mention scrict scrutiny and recite the strict scrutiny standard. That without doing that that the decision doesn’t rise to the level of being a decision.

“What happen here I believe”, says perkel, “is that this case was never actually read by a judge. I think that a law clerk with instructions to cull the pile and reduce the case backlog wrote this decision and represented it as the decision of the 3 judge panel. I think that because I am representing myself and because I’m not a lawyer that the court thought they could pull a fast one on me and that I wasn’t smart enough to catch it. What the Ninth Circuit doesn’t understand is that there are non lawyers who also understand the law.”

This is not a case about drugs. This is a case about religion. The UDV case that the Supreme Court decided in 2006 was about drugs, and drugs won. This is the first case since the UDV case was decided to get this far through the system. This case is about religion. What defines a religion? Can a religion that is based on believing in everything that is real be a religion?

Many people might be asking, “What is the connection of a reality based religion to marijuana?”

First – the idea for the Church of Reality itself was a marijuana inspired idea. On November 7th 1998 Marc Perkel, founder of the Church of Reality was ast home smoking a joint and thinking about religion. He was wondering about the idea of the “one true religion” if there were such a thing. How would one determine what that religion would look like? “Well,” he thought, “the one true religion would believe in everything that was real.” Then the name “Church of Reality” came to mind. Was there such a thing?

The next day he did a web search (Yahoo) and there was no church of reality so he registered the domain name and the Church of Reality was born.

Not only was the idea marijuana inspired, but most of the church doctrine was written while stoned. “We don’t see ourselves as a drug based religion.” says Perkel. “However without marijuana there would be no Church of Reality and 3/4 of the church doctrine would not have been written. The inconvenient truth is, marijuana works. Marijuana actually does give the mind superior creative powers. But the Church of Reality itself isn’t about marijuana, it’s about reality. Marijuana is just a tool that helps me figure out how to get to reality, as strange as that might sound.”

Perkel uses marijuana for a variety of drug inspired ideas other than just his Church of Reality. Perkel has written hundreds of letters to the editor and has been published thousands of times. “When I’m stoned my writing is far more creative and the letter I write when I’m stoned are far more often published than the letter I write when I’m not stoned.”

Besides asking for the religious use of marijuana for inspirational thinking the Church of Reality has also asked for the religious use of medical marijuana. The Supreme Court has struck down the use of medical Schedule 1 drugs but has upheld the right to use them religiously. You have the right to pray, but not the right to stay alive. In papers filed by the Church of Reality we connect to two. We have the “Sacred Principle of Compassion” which compels us to give drugs to people who medically need drugs even if that means breaking the law.

We also have a religious concept of “self ownership” that gives a person a religious right over their own lives. In the Church of Reality everything a person does from the time they are born to the time they die is their, “Life Story” and that one’s story is one’s most sacred personal possession. So if the Supreme Court doesn’t give us a constitutional right to say alive, the Church of Reality gives you a religious right to stay alive that is constitutional. “Our doctrine,” says Perkel, “bridges the gap allowing us to both give and receive medical marijuana which is otherwise legally prohibited. These are issues that we addresses in our appellate brief that were ignored by the Ninth Circuit that we are asking the court to decide.”

“The RFRA case is more than just about drugs,” says Perkel. “It’s about other religious freedoms too.” If we get this case won we’re going to address issue of religious privacy under our Sacred Principles of Privacy. We are also going to assert a religious right to have doctor assisted life termination for the terminally ill. And we are going to assert a religious right to abortion.”

One thing to keep in mind however is that whatever the court decides, it only applies to members of the Church of Reality. “Only Realists get to smoke pot if we win. You have to accept reality as your primary basis for belief. Our request of the court is narrowly tailored to comply with the requirements of the law.”

Perkel has filed a Petition for Rehearing and a motion to dismiss the current panel and appoint a new 3 judge panel. Perkel has also written a letter to the Chiif Judge of the Ninth Circuit, Alex Kozinski, expressing his concerns that his case was mishandled and asking the judge in his administrative capacity to ensure due process of law.

“Even if the Court rules against the Church of Reality,” says Perkel, “I want it to be a real decision that I can appeal to the Supreme Court. This decision is junk. It is garbage. If a first year law student turned in this decision the teacher would send it back and tell the student to finish it. It wouldn’t be complete enough even to merit a failing grade.”

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Here’s some references:

The Church of Reality web site:
http://www.churchofreality.org

Here are links to the case filings and decisions:

DEA Rejects the our Request for Exemption
Opening Brief
Respondents Brief
Reply Brief
Memorandum Decision of the Ninth Circuit
Petition for Rehearing
Motion for new Panel

I am asking that you take this as a serious story and that it is interesting to your readers for several reasons.

1) This is about religious rights, not drug rights. This is how the Ninth Circuit treats religions.
2) It raises the question if people without lawyers are entitled to the same level of justice as people with lawyers.
3) It raises questions about if the Ninth Circuit is too big to process the case load and should be split.
4) It raises the question about the impact that the Republican filibusters are having on the courts holding up the appointment of judges that are badly needed.
5) It raises the issue of reality based religions and how they compare and contrast to faith based religions.
6) It raises the issue of the role of marijuana in society and if it should be legalized.
7) I want the court to know that the press is watching so that they don’t try to sweep us under the rug.

Feel free to contact me. I give one hell of an interview.

Conservatives are mocking Al Gore and global warming pointing to the snow storm burying the east cost in feet of snow. Republican leader Mitch McConnell quipped “Where’s Al Gore Now?” and calling global warming “snake oil science”.

What Conservatives don’t seem to understand is that snow isn’t a product of cold, it’s a product of moisture. The warmer the planet gets the more water is in the air. That causes more rain and more snow. It’s usually warmer when it snows in the winter than on days the sky is clear. Maybe if they put down their Bibles and picked up their science books they might understand that snow happen when it rains through cold air. So more snow actually is an effect of global warming, not because it’s colder, but because it’s wetter.

So I say to my conservative friends, turn to reality. Reality changed my life, it can change yours too!

Sarah Palin is asking us, “How is that hopey, changey thing workin’ out for ya?” Probably about as well as abstinence is working out for your family.

There’s a difference between getting elected and assuming leadership and I’m still waiting for President Obama to assume leadership. Obama’s management style seems to be that he’s just another member of a team rather than the team captain. America is in a crisis and both the Democrats and the Republicans in Congress are acting like a class full of unruly 10 year olds with a weak substitute teacher.

I am asking you Mr. President today to take charge. I am asking you to be a leader. I am asking you to assume your role as the decider. You are the chief executive and you are in charge. You are the leader but you have yet to assume leadership. A year ago we made you the most powerful man on the planet. We gave you the power and we expect you to use it. Instead you’re like a Jedi Knight who won’t use The Force. You’re like Superman in his role as Clark Kent. You’re like Charlie Brown who just tries to keep kicking the football just to have it jerked away by Congress at the last minute.

It is time, Mr. President, for you to take charge. It’s time to open up a can of whoopass and set Congress straight. It’s OK to be reasonable and rational in the way you make decisions but please, if you are passionate about something you can at least raise your voice and show it. Here in real America things are so bad that we are waking up in the middle of the night screaming. We want to hear you scream too. The role of President was given to you. We are still waiting for you to claim it. Be the leader!

In the 60s the space race defined our national identity as explorers. TV shows like Start Trek inspired a new vision of the future. Yet now we have money to bail out banks, insurance companies, and auto makers. We have money to give tax breaks to the rich. We have money to fund war. But when it comes to our national identity as explorers, there is no money.

I want the Star Trek Future. I want America to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no one has gone before. The idea that the Iranians are more interested in space than we are tells me that we have lost our national vision.

The Star Trek Future

On January 28th 2010 the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals basically screwed the Church of Reality issuing a memorandum decision. As the founder of the Church of Reality I’m fairly pissed off about it. What the courts often do is to clear out the case load by letting law clerks decide cases using memoradum decisions and signing the judges name to it. That way the judges only deal with the cases the law clerks find interesting.

This is especially true of cases where the party is doing it themselves and is not a lawyer. They think that we aren’t smart enough to figure out when we’re getting screwed so they can blow us off easilly. And usually they are correct, but not with me.

The case is not over. I am going to file a motion for rehearing en banc, and I’m in the process of sending a letter to the chief judge of the court Alex Kozinski. The letter is to get their attention so that I might get some due process when they consider it. I need some public attention and public scrutiny to get a real decision out of the court.

This is a First Amendment case which under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act requires the Strict Scrutiny standard of review. It is also a case of first Impression. This is the first case to be reviewed since the UDV case of 2006 where the Supreme Court decided that religions could have schedule 1 drugs. Both sides have admitted that this is the first case. It is not the kind of case that should be disposed of with memorandum. It requires a real opinion. This was a go fuck yourself kind of decision.

The decision is an incomplete decision that relies on a statement taken out of context that I, Marc Perkel, founder of the Church of Reality somehow admitted that we can get along just fine without the use of marijuana. I made no such admission, and it is not the case. If not for marijuana there would be no Church of Reality.

I hereby challenge the legal community to read the decision and read the briefs and you tell me if you think this is a real opinion or you think I got screwed by some back room law clerk that wanted to clear cases out of the file so that the judges don’t have to be bothered. Below are links to the documents filed and the opinion.

Links:

DEA Rejects the our Request for Exemption

Opening Brief

Respondents Brief

Reply Brief

Memorandum Decision of the Ninth Circuit

DEA Denies Church of Reality Request of Exemption

Petition for Rehearing

Motion for new Panel

I am in the process of asking for rehearing. I would appreciate all the help I can get to at least get a regular opinion in this case. I realize that they might still rule against me. But I want a decision that at least makes sense.