In a time when states across America are reversing decades of legislation against marijuana, and during a week when the president himself has declared the herb to be no more harmful than alcohol (even less IMOHO), it’s important to look to the past for guidance in the present.

Busted four times including once for growing his own weed on his farm, McCartney even had to deal with travel restrictions in America because of his marijuana-related arrest record. His last bust broke 30 years ago. Wiki has the skinny…

In 1984, while on holiday in Barbados, authorities arrested McCartney for possession of marijuana and fined him $200. Upon his return to England, he stated: “cannabis is … less harmful than rum punch, whiskey, nicotine and glue, all of which are perfectly legal … I don’t think … I was doing anyone any harm whatsoever…People are smoking pot anyway and to make them criminals is wrong.”

See for yourself…

In the wake of the NSA/Snowden revelations, and the general sense of paranoia that has taken grip of the news cycle and the internet, a few pundits have assumed the roles of cultural watchdogs, taking the pulse of public taste to measure the effect of the spooky news on the hearts and minds of the people.

A number of journalists and commentators have noted that one possible side-effect of the recently-revealed government snooping on personal communications has been a spike in the sales of the George Orwell classic 1984 on the mega-book-selling-site Amazon.

But how big is the sales spike and how much of it can be attributed to Snowden’s bravery in the face of the NSA’s dubious doings? This article at Slate offers a measured interpretation:

Sales of one particular edition of George Orwell’s dystopian classic are up some 5,000 percent on Amazon.com in the past 24 hours, according to the site’s list of “movers and shakers.” The figure was as high as 7,000 earlier today.

But before you conclude that this sales spike represents some sort of national intellectual awakening, keep in mind that we’re talking percentages here.

Check out the full article at the link above and consider (re)reading the 64-year-old novel to catch up on today’s headlines.

While I’m a big fan of reading and re-reading, I’m offering the following for those of you who’d prefer to watch the movie version that was released in 1984: John Hurt plays Winston Smith – an everyman living in the totalitarian state of Oceana. Working for the Ministry of Truth, Winston literally rewrites history in accordance with the dictates of the Party lead by Big Brother. Winston falls in love with a beautiful revolutionary who offers him a glimpse of true freedom until the Thought Police intervene. 1984 is a spy story and a bitter satire, but it’s also a romance which suggests that the most subversive act of all may be loving another person.

Please subscribe to my YouTube channel where I archive all of the videos I curate at Insomnia.

Stay Awake!