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10/12/2003 Politics… what a wonderful thing. Government just seems like one scandal after another. The only thing that really changes is who is currently in hot water for what this time around. It’s just one big soap opera filled with power-hungry toddlers. Actually, maybe it’s more like shit-flinging monkeys. It’s amazing we don’t hear about some congressman/woman soiling themselves on a regular basis. It would make for some pretty interesting headlines, wouldn’t it? “Upon hearing that we’re now allowed to store high-level nuclear waste in Utah, Senator Orrin Hatch was seen defecating in his pants.” Now, that’d be good politics. The political scene is really a bunch of children who refuse to do anything outside their own sandbox. The republicans don’t like the way the last vote has gone, so they have to redistrict things in their own favor. The democrats hate competition for liberal votes, so they try to scare people into not voting for Nader, and then blame their presidential election failure on him instead of placing the blame on Gore. He could have wiped the floor with Bush at the presidential debates. Millions of taxpayer dollars are wasted to get Clinton to admit that he got a blowjob, yet the Bush administration tries to block an inquiry into why we weren’t able to stop 9/11 from happening. If you question a Democrat’s justification for going to war, you’re covering all of your bases. If you question Bush’s justification, you’re a “terrorist sympathizer”. Yeah, it sounds like I’m mostly taking the liberal viewpoint here, but I am well aware that there are major problems with the Democrats and Republicans, and I don’t count myself as a member of either party. Scandal… the last major one that irked me was when Bill Maher lost his show because he said the 9/11 hijackers had a lot of courage. I think he actually said that it doesn’t take courage to lob a bunch of cruise missiles at someone from a thousand miles away, but it requires a lot to pilot a plane to your own demise (and the deaths of many others). His sponsors pulled out, and his show was cancelled. It was called “Politically Incorrect” for goodness sake. Yeah, murder is murder, but it does take bigger cajones to kill yourself in the process, no matter how un-politically correct it may be. We’ve entered another era of McCarthyism… you’ll be branded a terrorist sympathizer or un-American for questioning the government’s actions nowadays. More political babble… Rush Limbaugh has been in the news an awful lot lately. First off, he made a racist remark and got fired from a commentator job with ESPN. I must admit, I laughed when I heard about this and wondered how my dad reacted to this. Dad listens to Rush on a regular basis. Rush is in the news, once again. Apparently, the man was quite the painkiller aficionado. No, I’m not referring to extra-strength Tylenol… he was hooked on oxycontin and hydrocodone, not your typical over-the-counter medication in the States. Reports were saying that he was popping 30 pills a day. You’d have to be one rich bastard to support that habit. While I don’t think drug use should be considered a criminal offense, I think Rush should have to eat his words and not be granted any leniency because he’s rich and famous. “Too many whites are getting away with drug use. The answer is to ... find the ones who are getting away with it, convict them, and send them up the river.” (Rush Limbaugh, 1995) I believe the laws in his state basically say that he can get five years in prison for his drug crime. I think maybe he should get six months in the slammer… plus some extra time in getting his housekeeper to obtain the drugs for him. The war on drugs has failed. I do not believe the federal government is making any progress in reducing drug use within our society. We spend a shitload trying to fight drug trafficking, putting people in jail for dealing and using, and I don’t see that we’re making any tangible gains in this “war”. People who want drugs will always find a way to obtain them. I don’t necessarily want to become a drug user, but I don’t think they’re as evil as the government makes them out to be. I self-medicate… a nice mix of caffeine and alcohol. How can I hold a superior sense of morality over people who pop pills, smoke weed, or shot up? I really can’t. What’s the solution to the US’s drug problem? Perhaps it should be legalization and regulation. Treat abuse as a medical problem rather than a legal / criminal one. Stop wasting ridiculous amounts of money fighting cartels, dealers, and users. Start regulating it like tobacco and alcohol, and tax it. Instead of wasting taxpayer dollars fighting this war that we can never win, turn it into a source of revenue. With that money, set up more treatment programs and education. What will result from this? Cartels will dry up. Industries would be able to produce the drugs for less, so the cartels could no longer profit as much. There’d be fewer incidences of overdoses since there would be quality control on dosages. Crime would drop dramatically, fewer people would have their lives ruined by being thrown in jail. Perhaps drug usage would also drop. Marijuana is legal in Amsterdam, and they have a smaller drug usage per capita than we do. Perhaps when drugs become commonplace, they become boring. The war on drugs is something that cannot be won, so we should make the best of it. I’ve run out of steam, so there you go.
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