The Hempfest Journal is a trophy of the cannabis community in Columbus. Through the work of volunteers who organize local business owners to buy advertisements in these pages, the Journal’s printing costs are paid for with money leftover to make Hempfest bigger and better. The result is this handy book about the greenest subject in the world, Cannabis, and the biggest cannabis festival in Ohio, Hempfest. During my volunteer hours visiting shop owners innumerable times, I found that most of the local business owners, students, and community members that I talked to about the festival have only good stories to tell of past fests. The Ohio State University is also happy to deal with Hempfest. Even when Students for Sensible Drug Policy was under code of conduct review by the OSU administration, there was never any question that the Hempfest festival date was secure because there have never been any problems dealing with the Hempfest. Truly the Ohio Hempfest is a respected tradition in Columbus.

During his recent public relations tour of the Middle East, Secretary of State Colin Powell claims he told Arab leaders they should be 'doubly outraged at what happened to Mr. Berg' in comparison to the Arab reaction to the prisoner abuse scandal. During this same interview, Powell complained that Arab leaders have failed to adequately condemn the beheading.

Interestingly enough, Powell made those statements while being interviewed in Jordan, one of the many Arab states that publicly condemned the murder of Nicholas Berg. The official statement published on the Jordanian Embassy's web site called the act 'barbaric' and informed readers that 'Jordan has issued a death sentence against Al Zarqawi for his terrorist activities.'

Saudi Arabia also issued a strong condemnation calling the act 'criminal and inhumane.' The statement by Ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan, published on their embassy's web site, went further to explain that the recent prisoner abuse scandal is no justification for the murder, which is 'condemned by all religions and contrary to the morals of all nations and peoples.'

AUSTIN, Texas -- It's pretty easy to get to the point where you don't want to hear any more about Abu Ghraib prison and what went on there. But there are some really good reasons why Americans should take a look at why this happened.

            I suspect the division here is not between liberals and conservatives (except for a few inane comments made by some trying to be flippant), but between those who are following the story closely and those who are not. I particularly recommend both Sy Hersh's follow-up piece in the current issue of The New Yorker and the investigative piece in the current issue of Newsweek. What seems to me more important than the "Oh ugh" factor is just how easy it is for standards of law and behavior of slip into bestiality.

Colorado bishop says that Catholics cannot receive Communion if they vote for politicians who are pro-choice, among other positions.

Whether one views the 9/11 "terrorist" attacks as blow back, a wake-up call, or an unjustified outrage, they have deeply affected the American psyche and our attitudes toward war, the future, and the world. As a historian trying to understand this phenomenon, I tend to view the government's behavior, before and after 9/11, in the context of its leaders' past actions.

Before 9/11, Bush's inner circle of neoconservative advisors proclaimed the need for a dramatic expansion of U.S. military might entailing "full spectrum dominance" over all other nations and regions (including outer space), long term petro-resource control with permanent Middle East bases, and a preemptive First Strike policy against recalcitrant states. In September 2000, however, the neocon's flagship think tank, the Project for a New America Century, warned that this "process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event - like a new Pearl Harbor."

After 9/11, this administration systematically nurtured the fear of further homeland attacks to justify its own