Random News Observations

[CaneBrain 95]

People don't go to jail for pot, unless it's a third strike or large grower/distributor.

They do in Nevada and many other states.

[vbnautilus 48]

They do in Nevada and many other states.

(NOW you tell me this?)

[CaneBrain 95]

(NOW you tell me this?)

Heh.

[Balloon guy 158]

It's just that we have the ability to manipulate these naturally occurring chemicals to make them more addictive and destructive. Compare the naturally occurring compound to its chemically produced cousin:coca leaves growing in a forest (mild coffee-like stimulant effect) -----> crack cocaine (community-destroying addictive euphoria)flower-based opium (mild relaxant) -----> heroin (sticking needles in your arm and sucking **** for your fix)cactus grown mescaline (mild visual effects, successful treatment of alcoholism) ------> methamphetamine (teeth falling out, facial sores and breaking bad)The criterion for legality should have something to do with the public danger the substance poses. I can't think of a naturally occurring substance that poses a strong enough social danger to justify taking away personal freedom, while there are a few artificial substances that *might* qualify.

While interesting, I'm not sure what this supports?Other than given the chance, people will change 'almost-not-dangerous things' into 'very-dangerous-things'.And your solution is to make the natural things easier to get?BTWDone with the pot legalizing discussion. Boring, and we've all declared our positions many times. I'll be the guy in a decade laughing and saying I told you so when pot is legal and the problems starts. Win/win

[vbnautilus 48]

While interesting, I'm not sure what this supports?

I know, how bad do you think I feel that he had to go down the "It's natural therefore its good" slope.He left me no options but to take the trip into stupidville

It was an explanation of the relevance of my use of "natural" in this context.

[Balloon guy 158]

It was an explanation of the relevance of my use of "natural" in this context.

It was also interesting.From a sterile point of viewJust seemed a distraction to the reality of the gateway drug: Marijuanda

[timwakefield 68]

From Sam Harris's "The End of Faith":

The influence of faith on our criminal laws comes at a remarkable price. Consider the case of drugs. As it happens, there are many substances— many of them naturally occurring—the consumption of which leads to transient states of inordinate pleasure. Occasionally, it is true, they lead to transient states of misery as well, but there is no doubt that pleasure is the norm, otherwise human beings would not have felt the continual desire to take such substances for millennia. Of course, pleasure is precisely the problem with these substances, since pleasure and piety have always had an uneasy relationship.When one looks at our drug laws—indeed, at our vice laws altogether—the only organizing principle that appears to make sense of them is that anything which might radically eclipse prayer or procreative sexuality as a source of pleasure has been outlawed. In particular, any drug (LSD, mescaline, psilocybin, DMT, MDMA, WEST OF EDEN l6l marijuana, etc.) to which spiritual or religious significance has been ascribed by its users has been prohibited. Concerns about the healthof our citizens, or about their productivity, are red herrings in this debate, as the legality of alcohol and cigarettes attests.The fact that people are being prosecuted and imprisoned for using marijuana, while alcohol remains a staple commodity, is surely the reductio ad absurdum of any notion that our drug laws are designed to keep people from harming themselves or others. Alcohol is by any measure the more dangerous substance. It has no approved medical use, and its lethal dose is rather easily achieved. Its role in causing automobile accidents is beyond dispute. The manner in which alcohol relieves people of their inhibitions contributes to human violence, personal injury, unplanned pregnancy, and the spread of sexual disease. Alcohol is also well known to be addictive. When consumed in large quantities over many years, it can lead to devastating neurological impairments, to cirrhosis of the liver, and to death. In the United States alone, more than 100,000 people annually die from its use. It is also more toxic to a developing fetus than any other drug of abuse. (Indeed, "crack babies" appear to have been really suffering from fetal-alcohol syndrome.None of these charges can be leveled at marijuana. As a drug, marijuana is nearly unique in having several medical applications and no known lethal dosage. While adverse reactions to drugs like aspirin and ibuprofen account for an estimated 7,600 deaths (and 76,000 hospitalizations) each year in the United States alone, marijuana kills no one. Its role as a "gateway drug" now seems less plausible than ever (and it was never plausible). In fact, nearly everything human beings do—driving cars, flying planes, hitting golf balls—is more dangerous than smoking marijuana in the privacy of one's own home. Anyone who would seriously attempt to argue that marijuana is worthy of prohibition because of the risk it poses to human beings will find that the powers of the human brain are simply insufficient for the job.

Certainly this should get the support of 100% of Republicans, right?

Well it is co-sponsored by 4 Democrats, and Republicans are notoriously retarded when it comes to social issues, so I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that almost no Republicans will vote for it.

[Dagata 0]

Last time I smoked marijuana I took 1 hit and I was so high I was unable to prove to myself that I had a body or that I even existed for about 12 hours. Even the next day I had lost confidence that I had always existed in the reality I was experiencing.That's why boys and girls, we don't drink a fifth of jim beam before we smoke.

[mrdannyg 274]

Last time I smoked marijuana I took 1 hit and I was so high I was unable to prove to myself that I had a body or that I even existed for about 12 hours. Even the next day I had lost confidence that I had always existed in the reality I was experiencing.That's why boys and girls, we don't drink a fifth of jim beam before we smoke.

Good thing most of us aren't pussies.

[brvheart 1,752]

http://biggovernment.com/jbradley/2011/06/...-and-dangerous/

[Balloon guy 158]

http://biggovernment.com/jbradley/2011/06/...-and-dangerous/

Good article, basically says that Keynes was an idiot.A liberal idiot.Which is a repetitive statement.

[vbnautilus 48]

Good article, basically says that Keynes was an idiot.A liberal idiot.Which is a repetitive statement.

I doubt there are any articles on the internet that say the opposite, so that settles that!

[Balloon guy 158]

I doubt there are any articles on the internet that say the opposite, so that settles that!

Not good ones....

[LongLiveYorke 38]

http://biggovernment.com/jbradley/2011/06/...-and-dangerous/

Sorry, I tried to read it, but it's so full of gramatical mistakes, I couldn't get through it. It was like listening to nails on a chalkboard.

[brvheart 1,752]

Sorry, I tried to read it, but it's so full of gramatical mistakes, I couldn't get through it. It was like listening to nails on a chalkboard.

It's ok. I didn't write it.

[mrdannyg 274]

Sorry, I tried to read it, but it's so full of gramatical mistakes, I couldn't get through it. It was like listening to nails on a chalkboard.

Don't forget the article, as most things anti-Keynes, is an incredible strawman. Would be nice if people who wanted to debate Keynes would actually pick something up and read it. On a large scale, Keynes has been shown to be pretty much completely wrong by anyone who tried. That doesn't mean that Keynesian thinking, focusing on certain aspects, is wrong. Articles like this pretend not to realize that, and dismuss all of Keynes just because he didn't realize or didn't think important that certain economic factors might be 'sticky', given the ways the state would be able to affect supply and demand 70 years later.

[brvheart 1,752]

Blagojevich is going away for a long time. Guilty on at least 14 counts. Hung on 2. Not-guilty on one.Edit: Guilty on 17 of 20.

[brvheart 1,752]

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0611/58098.htmlI don't know anything about any of these people, expect that Joe Scarborough used to be in Congress. However, I hope this guy gets his job back. Everything that happened in that video was fairly harmless, and he even PRE-WARNED them to bleep him. I don't know, it seems like MSNBC is being a little dickish.

[LongLiveYorke 38]

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0611/58098.htmlI don't know anything about any of these people, expect that Joe Scarborough used to be in Congress. However, I hope this guy gets his job back. Everything that happened in that video was fairly harmless, and he even PRE-WARNED them to bleep him. I don't know, it seems like MSNBC is being a little dickish.

imo, Morning Joe is one of the best news shows on TV, if not THE best.

[Balloon guy 158]

Oh NOYou poor poor liberals.One more nail in the coffin that your beliefs are good for the country:Beware: If you go to a Fourth of July celebration on Monday, your kids are statistically more likely to end up Republican.

Harvard University says so. From the press release: Attending one Fourth of July before age 18 increases the likelihood of identifying as a Republican by at least 2 percent and voting for the Republican candidate by 4 percent. It also increases voter turnout by 0.9 percent and boosts political campaign contributions by 3 percent.

Yes, Harvard has concluded that being exposed to patriotism early in your childhood will make you love your country and therefore become a republican.However, if you are exposed to hate and bigotry towards Christians, you will stay firmly in the democrat camp where their loyalty oaths are enforced by law in Ohio.If you are a liberal, it might be best for you to poo poo this study, even though Harvard is your Mecca.

[Balloon guy 158]

I guess it really boils down to this reality:Republicans wish it could be July 4th everyday.Democrats wish it could be April 15th everyday.

[LongLiveYorke 38]

Yes, Harvard has concluded that being exposed to patriotism early in your childhood will make you love your country and therefore become a republican.

Correlation != CausationFor example, Republicans may take their kids to 4th of July more often, and people tend to politically follow their parents.etc

[Balloon guy 158]

Correlation != CausationFor example, Republicans may take their kids to 4th of July more often, and people tend to politically follow their parents.etc

So celebrating the birth of your country is more likely to happen if you are a republican.I don't see how that refutes my point that democrats hate their country.

[vbnautilus 48]

This research totally fits with the understanding that republicans are fascist dogmatists. What's important to them is rallying behind a patriotic symbol. They all secretly yearn for a hitler-type figure to devote themselves to, but in the absence of swastikas, the stars and stripes will do.

[El Guapo 8]

This research totally fits with the understanding that republicans are fascist dogmatists. What's important to them is rallying behind a patriotic symbol. They all secretly yearn for a hitler-type figure to devote themselves to, but in the absence of swastikas, the stars and stripes will do.

And you claim to not be a jew...