Speaking of Buckley...
June 29, 2004, 12:07 p.m.
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. If all our laws were paradigmatic, imagine what we would do to anyone caught lighting a cigarette, or drinking a beer. Or — exulting in life in the paradigm — committing adultery. Send them all to Guantanamo?
http://old.nationalreview.com/buckley/buckley200406291207.asp
Does proper parenting prevent any and all dalliances into dark and dangerous areas by ones children? Not even. But, without due diligence on the parents part, a foray into such areas usually means a life long problem for the children, and by default, society. Ergo, politicians arise to cure the problems with an ever blossoming tree of laws.
The letter killeth, the spirit giveth life.
If my child had no experience in dealing with darkness, he would eventually succumb to it. Do you want minimal laws? It begins at home with the fear of God....not Buckley.