Headstrong, stupid, or both?

[Digit]

Or that you were mad enough to want to live on the other side perhaps Min?

Roy.

[Minimalist]

But I hate Mexican food.

[Digit]

If the news we get is anything to go by Min you wouldn't live long enough to starve.

Roy.

[Minimalist]

Sensationalism. Our idiot governor thinks they are cutting off heads in Arizona.

It does seem as if someone cut off her's.

[Rokcet Scientist]

Sensationalism. Our idiot governor thinks they are cutting off heads in Arizona.

It does seem as if someone cut off her's.

Legalize drugs, and regulate them like alcohol (which is just another recreational drug, after all), and there will be 90% less unattached heads or attached crime.
And there will be a whole new, legal and regulated industry. Creating hundreds of thousands of new, honest, productive and taxable jobs. Look at the booze industry.
Not to mention you can close 80% of the prisons, fire 80% of prison staff, 50 to 70% of police and justice system personnel, and sell 70 to 80% of the involved real estate.
With the size of the US' prison system being what it is (by far the largest in the world; in absolute terms and numbers, as well as the cost per capita), the money saved would easily solve the economic crisis, stop the USA's decline, and pay off the national debt in 10 years (instead of 300, as is the current prognosis).

BIG problems demand BIG solutions.
And I'm not sure the US have much choice.
You know a better moneymaker?
I'd say that the American people is qualified, par excellence, to handle a challenge like this.
They won the hot wars ('cept 'Nam of course...), they won the cold war, and they went to the moon. So they can do this if they pull together.
Also, Americans have always been very vocal about their national values and qualities. They pride themselves about their freedoms (which are suspended for 3 million Americans in jail though!), and about their can-do mentality. Well, here's a great opportunity to show the world what substance America is made of.
Noblesse oblige.
Besides, it's simply a matter of survival and of the quality of life of their progeny.

The trade-off is that it would make the US a tad more human.
Scary, eh?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarcerat ... ted_States

[Minimalist]

You're preaching to the choir, my friend.

[kbs2244]

Amen!

Not that it has anything to do with archaeology, but…..

Like so many “crimes,” it is a moral thing not a legal one.
You can teach morals but you cannot legislate them.
(And yes, RS, I realize my morals mat be different that yours, or others.)

But, as our many of our current situations shows, stupid people will do stupid things, regardless of the law.
Booze, drugs and AIDS are rarely forced on some one.

IMHO, if they die because of them, it is Darwin at work.
If they are smart enough to indulge and live, again it is Darwin at work.

[Rokcet Scientist]

You're preaching to the choir, my friend.

Frappez, frappez toujours!

[Minimalist]

What R/S hinted at and tap-danced around is the fact that there are vested interests who have a deep desire to see that nothing changes. Police, courts, bail bondsmen, lawyers, prison guards, private prisons, arms manufacturers, etc need a steady supply of "criminals" in order to maintain their livelihood. No one can get more righteously indignant than some cop pontificating on the evils of drug use. Meanwhile, the reason we need so many cops is that they have to enforce all these stupid laws. Its a vicious cycle.

[Rokcet Scientist]

What R/S hinted at and tap-danced around is the fact that there are vested interests who have a deep desire to see that nothing changes. Police, courts, bail bondsmen, lawyers, prison guards, private prisons, arms manufacturers, etc need a steady supply of "criminals" in order to maintain their livelihood. No one can get more righteously indignant than some cop pontificating on the evils of drug use. Meanwhile, the reason we need so many cops is that they have to enforce all these stupid laws. Its a vicious cycle.

A.k.a. hypocritical, amoral conservatism.

[Minimalist]

I have no problem with that characterization.

[Rokcet Scientist]

Dependent on the I.Q. level of the supporters of that vicious system, oops!, errr I mean 'that vicious circle system'... well, anyway, dependent on that level of awareness of what system they benefit from you could also characterize it as hypocritical, immoral conservatism. Which makes it an outright willful crime against society in my book. And those who profit directly from it consequently outright criminals. And criminals need to be dealt with appropriately.

[uniface]

Legalize drugs, and . . . you can close 80% of the prisons, fire 80% of prison staff, 50 to 70% of police and justice system personnel, and sell 70 to 80% of the involved real estate. With the size of the US' prison system being what it is (by far the largest in the world; in absolute terms and numbers, as well as the cost per capita), the money saved would easily solve the economic crisis, stop the USA's decline, and pay off the national debt in 10 years (instead of 300, as is the current prognosis).

What R/S hinted at and tap-danced around is the fact that there are vested interests who have a deep desire to see that nothing changes. Police, courts, bail bondsmen, lawyers, prison guards, private prisons, arms manufacturers, etc need a steady supply of "criminals" in order to maintain their livelihood.

No, Yes, and Hell Yes.

This country has way too many people driven over the edge of crazed desperation by drugs -- junkies, tweakers and pipers. Not to mention the pot-headed walking dead. The importation of illegal (for a good reason, basically) drugs could be stopped in 24 hours if someone had the balls to pull a coup and take out a LOT of important people.

As for the rest, spot on. But it runs a lot deeper and extends far wider. You're focusing on the visible part of the iceberg.

If this is at all of interest, for heavens' sake (with you guys, OK, ignore that last clause) read

Dillon, Read & Co. and the Aristocracy of Stock Profits by Catherine Austin Fitts

http://www.dunwalke.com/

It's as clarifying of the Big picture as it is transformative.

[Rokcet Scientist]

This country has way too many people driven over the edge of crazed desperation by drugs -- junkies, tweakers and pipers. Not to mention the pot-headed walking dead.

But the fifteen million alcohol addicts are OK...?

The importation of illegal (for a good reason, basically) drugs could be stopped in 24 hours if someone had the balls to pull a coup and take out a LOT of important people.

Dream on. It looks like you learned nothing from the 'prohibition' era, or from the past 50 years of "the war on drugs". IT DOESN'T WORK!
And to coin a phrase from one of your Democrat presidents: "It's the economy, stupid!". As long as there is demand (from the American people), there will be supply. There's no stopping it. So it's not "the importation" that is the problem, it is the demand (from the American people) that is the problem!
Got some brilliant ideas on how to stop Americans craving drugs?

And besides, you seem to think that imported 'illegal' drugs are the problem. Not so. If you look at the population of the US prison system you see that over 90% are convicted in relation to 'cannabis offences'. I'll have you know that almost 100% of cannabis used in the USA is homegrown! So even if your 'importation stop' would work (which it doesn't, and never will), you still wouldn't make even a dent in your problem...
So you're simply barking up the wrong tree.

And while you ponder that fact you may want to enjoy some drugs that are freely available to you:


I'll do the same with some drugs that are freely available to me:

In the US I would get a couple years imprisonment for 'posession' of this blunt, at a cost of, let me guess, US$ 50,000 a year. To be paid by the taxpayer! YOU!
So I'm guessing you will want me to destroy the evidence fast!
No problemo!

[uniface]

I said that the importation of cocaine and heroin could be stopped. And it could be.

Pot and alcohol are ineradicable because stupidity is ineradicable.