Posted on 10/20/2009 8:34:18 PM PDT by Rabin
Buckley on marijuana National Review ^ | William F. Buckley
Conservatives pride themselves on resisting change, which is as it should be. But intelligent deference to tradition and stability can evolve into intellectual sloth and moral fanaticism, as when conservatives simply decline to look up from dogma because the effort to raise their heads and reconsider is too great. The laws aren't exactly indefensible, because practically nothing is, and the thunderers who tell us to stay the course can always find one man or woman who, having taken marijuana, moved on to severe mental disorder. But that argument, to quote myself, is on the order of saying that every rapist began by masturbating. General rules based on individual victims are unwise. And although there is a perfectly respectable case against using marijuana, the penalties imposed on those who reject that case, or who give way to weakness of resolution, are very difficult to defend.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
One small step in the right direction, proves even your nemesis may have some value, and even thr broken clock may be correct, twice a day.
Legalize marijuana and within three generations, America will not have enough people fit to be soldiers or workers. Despite drug laws, drugs are available and rampant in inner city America for several generations. Their state of affairs about sums up legalized drug use.
Now all I have to do is come up with a disease that fits into the marijuana acceptable category. ;-)
The way to do it is to repeal the law, not order the law enforcers to ignore it.
Soon you get a patchwork of law, some enforced, some not, capricious and arbitrary, where your fate under the law comes down to fate and influence.
If Obama feels the fedgov should back off from enforcing cannabis laws in the states, he should write a bill striking down the elements of law he thinks are unjust, and champion that bill in congress.
Otherwise he can simply change his mind someday and order strict enforcement of all federal cannabis law, and direct whatever resources he wants to do it, or some future president can.
How many of your pothead friends would you want to operate machinery and military equipment? 4 out of 5, 9 out of 10? Who do you think must take care of the 1 out of 5 or 1 out of 10 who cannot work from all the dope usage???? Another self inflicted social problem introduced under misguided libertarian philosophy.
Was marijuana legal when this country was founded? What about during the first and second industrial revolutions?
Well put. One needs look no further than Andrew Sullivan's recent run-in with Federal park rangers to see an example of this.
Reasonable people can engage in reasoned debate about the benefits or pitfalls of these drug laws. But, telling LE to ignore certain laws, whatever they may be, will never end well.
BS. Obama is about to put the states under the feds more and more each day.
It was. Here's the difference. During the first 125 years of this country, if you didn't work, you starved to death. But, in our "great new society", the laziest of the lazy can get by just fine, off the backs of people who aren't high on booze, cannabis or something even more addictive.
Repeal ALL SOCIAL PROGRAMS, then smoke whatever you want, wherever you want as frequently as you want.
Tobacco is still legal and smoking rates are lower than ever.
What a load of crap.
This is the same argument people used with alcohol. All hail the 18th Amendment!!! What a wonderous device that was to ram social views down everyone's throats.
Stopped reading right there, yes, after the first sentence. Political conservatives are not resistant to change. We are actually the biggest proponents of meaningful change. We believe in the Constitution, personal freedom, and limited government (same thing said three different ways), and forcing the fedgov to do likewise requires radical change.
This idiot's use of “conservative” is as daft as the self-contradictory meaning of modern term “liberal.” (The contradiction being that “liberals” are really statists).
Anyone so stupid as to make such a statement is not worth reading except possibly in an exercise of “know your enemy.”
Please, something I can fake!
The Constitution, that roll of toilet paper that is so often ignored, is libertarian.
Please tell me where it allows the Feds the right to outlaw/control marijuana?
I'd prefer freedom to be protected for the productive and intelligent individuals, no matter how large a group the shamefully unproductive become. The alternative is that everyone becomes totally reliant on the government to make all decisions for everyone.
I would want none of my alcoholic friends drive a school bus. Since we surrendered to Al Capone and bootleggers, our nation has been suffering the medical expenses, and social costs of booze. Look at the binge drinking amongst our youth. Legalizing mind altering drugs are very beneficial to the US isn’t it????? The other thing I get pissed off at is the advocates of legalizing are also the ones who promote this habit. I haven’t met a person who sees marijuana as harmful support legalization. Most of the drug legalization supporters I have met admit being recreational pot users. Wonderful, big government desperate to survive deficits and potential armed rebellion by Main Street is handed a great revenue and population control tool by the libertarians, legalized drugs. The only thing that wil come out of pot legalization is another destructive mind altering substance will be introduced to out kids and future generations and the feds/states will make tons of money off of it thru taxes. Ever start a revolution with half of your army stoned???? Big government troops will simply walk up take the rifle out of the stoned rebel and club him to death with it.
"This idiot" is William F. Buckley, arguably the father of modern-day conservatism and who was one of the smartest conservatives, ever.
And the sad truth is it's all just for show. Those pro-marijauna dingbats are happy to see a bone thrown their way, but they are not really getting anything of permanence or value.
Obama could remove marijauna from schedule 1 via executive order tomorrow. And that would end the whole controversy over medical marijauna in a flash.
” The O is pulling back in at least one arena. “
Inertia to seem fair and balanced can appear to be simple politically correct pablum. The operative (F&B) is “at least one arena”. Feeble ill admit, but there you have it.
Rab
Insomnia is all you need to say.
In the land of the free you should be able to waste your life away smoking pot if you so choose, just as you should be free to pursue success through hard work and persistence.
How many of your alcoholic friends would you want to operate machinery and military equipment?
Who do you think must take care of the 6 out of 10 alcoholics who cannot work, or beat their families, or kill innocent people on the road...
I don’t think the US Constitution gives the right for private citizens to sell brain damaging substances to children and other citizens. The laws against drugs was not a unilateral decision, Congress thru the people passed those laws.
Are all the people you know, who drink alcohol, alcoholics?
What I understand completely is that the U.S. federal government has NO RIGHT and NO PLACE in this matter. None. It doesn't take being a libertarian here. It takes NOT being a Statist.
With our country going broke and society suffering from self inflicted social licentious behavior (like booze, tobacco, STD, etc, etc), would it be wise to add pot to the list?? Libertarians must have tons of money in their bank accounts ready to take care of the future health problems caused by pot smokers within their families. In the end society is usually stuck with the bill. I sure don’t.
All is free.
So if I want to sell mind altering drugs and health damaging products to kids and future generation, the feds if asked by the people to stop it has no authority to???? Gee I heard of that philosophy before, it was used on Wall Street recently. Now our banks and dollar is smashed, unemployment soaring because someone in the government practiced a libertarian philosophy towards enforcing SEC regs. Who needs a jihadist to kill America all we need to do is elect libertarians!!!!!!!
Sentence 1 is correct. Sentence 2 is incorrect.
The constitution does not "give" rights to citizens. What it does is outline the LIMITS placed on the federal government.
And the reason marijuana is federally outlawed is not because of a "law" passed through the congress via the people. It is because there is a possibly unconstitutional (or extra-constitutional) FDA that created a list.
"In the end society is usually stuck with the bill."
You see, this is where your basic premise is wrong. The same argument can be used to outlaw donuts (which cause obesity, and "cost society"). You've given up on the core principle of individual freedom. You've given into the Statist. You are willing to play the game on their terms. Instead of pushing for a "society" that does not pick up the bill for irresponsible behavior, that does not force YOU to support things you do not approve of, that values personal liberty and personal responsibility, -- Instead, you will cede the individual's responsibility and liberty to the state and leave our inalienable natural rights to the whim of bureaucrats in the Federal [Name your agency] Regulatory Board.
Pot is already on the list. It’s all around you all the time.
We all have health problems. If it’s not one thing, it’s another. People get sick, people die, sometimes they make themselves sick by their actions, sometimes they die by their actions. That’s never going to change.
People who smoke pot in their own homes do not deserve to be in prison.
I’d prefer not to pay for aids patients, or illegal aliens, or people with cirrhotic livers, but guess what...
Who said anything about selling? So you agree that adults have the right to cultivate and grow their own pot?
Read the 9th and 10th Amendments: soul clearing stuff.
Somehow, I can't see the downside of a few million pot smoking socialists, stoned and drooling.
The people who believe in personal responsibility aren't going to screw up their brains with weed. The useless ones will. Explain how it is any great loss.
The 18th Amendment MADE Chicago corruption. How have things changed? Do you actually think that anyone could smuggle in TONS of drugs if the Feds didn't know that our "anti-drug" laws are nothing more than price supports?
One other point. If the WTCU was such a success, where is it now?
Geez, how many mea cuplas am I going to have to send on this one? See http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2367198/posts?page=34#34
“we surrendered to Al Capone”
Fee, dont know who the we, who surrendered to Al is but it isnt me or an one I know. Hell even old Jo Kennedy didn’t surrender.
A lot of your points are well taken. The issue here is, how comes it to be for federal thugs and slugs rather than one for you and I, and our local representatives.
Dopers are worthless.
Yup, what is scheduled and at what level is a function of the DEA- they issue “emergency schedule changes”, I don’t think Congress gets involved.
A phone call from Rahm to DEA saying that The 0ne wished it to be so would suffice.
Dude, pot has been out on the streets and available in our schools since before I was born. Kinda like alcohol, it is ever-present in all arenas of our society. Oh, and also like tobacco, which kills far more people every year.
I smoke pot almost every day and still manage to get to work on time, clean and sober, so as to be able to pay my bills and keep my house. It is a fun pasttime for me, akin to my ancestors' two martinis they imbibed upon coming home at the end of the day.
But let me be clear: the day the Civil War begins is the day I drop the doobie, and I will not pick it back up until the Unrest is over and the trash is taken out. If only others could do the same with their tobacco and alcohol.
Interstate commerce is federally regulated. Pot can, in theory, be transported over state lines.
To a fed, this must seem like a no-brainer. To me, not so much.
I think the ICC can go down as the biggest mistake the Founders made.
For instance any crime wherein the perp talked on the phone with another perp is a federal crime because the phone lines go across state lines, even if the perp was calling the house next door.
It boggles the mind, the level of inanity necessary to make that concept work for me. It's a lie and slap in the face to all Americans, IMO.
You sound like a college buddy of mine twenty years ago. He did the same and got to class on time. Fast foward, today his wife could not give him the check book because he is lethargic and forgetful at times. The pot accumulating effects finally caught up with him. Sad, he was a bright guy too. Now his wife has to take up the load and his grown up kids need to keep tabs on him. Wonder who will care for him when other aging diseases catch up with him when he is in his late 60’s and early 70’s?? Hope the civil war occurs when you are still young and fit and not after.
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