Ayn Rand
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There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.
I'd have thought that folks would have learned from Prohibition ...
Apparently not.
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You seem to be terribly confused. Let me help.
There’s a difference between killing someone (abortion) and looking at pictures of people having sex (pornography). There’s also a difference between killing someone (abortion) and consuming a drug never proven to cause harm (pot).
Does that help ?
Is there such a thing as medicinal alcohol? Medicinal cocaine? Medicinal morphine?
I think Obama focuses on Economics! Economics! Economics! and pushes things through rapidly. Then, the Republican party establishment bestirs itself, lines up it's economics exports, and prepares to speak intelligently about economic matters.
And at this point, Obama is talking about Porn! Pot! Abortion! and the Republicans are caught wrong-footed.
So now the Republicans will line up their socially conservative experts who will prepare themselves for deep discussions on moral issues.
Just as Obama starts to talks about Health Care! Tax Reform! Social Security!
Sigh. He's using superior tactics.
I think drug laws should be determined by States. States determine their own liquor laws and alcohol does as much if not more damage to people than pot, although I agree that is an issue which is open to debate.
Pornography is an issue which definitely falls under the constitution as a free speech issue. Whether we like it or not, until someone can define exactly what constitutes pornography, which will never happen, it is impossible to regulate. I know people who think any nudity in a film is pornographic. I don’t want the government determining for me what is pornography and what isn’t. We may not like pornography but each of us should determine for ourselves what we want to view or not view.
Abortion is a totally different issue. While I think it should be left up to the States to ban or regulate it, I can see a perfectly legitimate argument for the Constitution making it illegal. We are all entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness unless we are in the womb, and then the freedom can be taken away at the whim of a mother.
The author assumes that because he opposes porn/pot/drugs on the same grounds (religious) that others must either support all or oppose all with a unified rationale. This is a logical fallacy because the issues can be divided and supported or opposed on different grounds.
Marijuana is a weed.
Wal-Mart, Loews, Sears, and every lawn and garden shop in the country has been selling us chemicals to kill dandelions and crab grass, for decades now.
How is the “war on dandelions” going?
The Crips and the Bloods would not exist, if not for the drug trade. (This argument is a bit weaker, since, I do not ever want “medical meth” or “medical crack” and today's street gangs sell far more than pot.)
Do you know what “Thalamid” is? It is also know as “Thalidomide” -— It was allowed in England, and caused the “flipper baby” birth defects. The stuff was given to help with morning sickness, in pregant women in England.
It DOES help with appetite and the ability to keep food down.
Now the stuff is legal in the USA for cancer patients. It costs about $7,000.00 a month, from what I understand. Most of the expense is due to the product liability. If a pregnant woman even so much as touches the pills, she will probably have a deformed baby.
http://health.yahoo.com/other-other/thalidomide/healthwise—d04331a1.html
Medical Marijuana can do the SAME thing as thalidomide, for a much cheaper price, and will also help with pain management and anxiety.
Think this through folks. It is not an easy issue.
However, I do like the fact that it is one more issue for people to be mad about.
Obama won because Obama had made few decisions in his life.
The more decisions Obama makes, the weaker he will become.
>> John Adams, the 2nd President of the United States said “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
Has there ever been a truly moral people? We are fallen — individually and collectively.
Equating abortion with pornography seems a stretch. Abortion is the willful taking of a truly innocent human life. Pornography is pictures of naked people. Both are a sin ... but certainly not of the same social consequence.
SnakeDoc
“pot being sold for profit”
Sounds like a good idea.
Pot and abortion have NOTHING in common.
It is also the viewpoint of millions of conservatives that the federal government has no Constitutional say in regulating or restricting California's actions here if the pot in question does not cross state lines. That's the great thing about our government works (or least how it used to work) - if you don't like the pot laws in California, there are other states with more restrictive laws.
religious nanny-statism? how is that different from any other for of communism?
End the War on (Some) Drugs!
Exclusive to Free Republic = vanity post.
How many are killed smoking pot and watching/making porn.
Excellent post!
To begin with, the expression is "hue and cry" (from the Latin: hutesium et clamor, "a horn and shouting"). To "hew" means to cut.
Secondly, a drug which makes our citizenry lazy and unproductive is already freely available throughout most of the Unites States. It is called alcohol. But alcohol does more than just make (some) people lazy and unproductive: When consumed by pregnant women, it can also cause birth defects. Marijuana, in contrast, does not cause birth defects.
Regards,
......so my cancer-riddled grandmother shouldn’t smoke the whacky to curb her nausea caused by her chemo?
Not even if it increases her quality of life??