Socialist Candidate Leads Bolivia Voting

Associated Press ^ | 19 December, 2005 | FIONA SMITH

[AmericanArchConservative]

There you go - assuming facts not in evidence, and crediting others with statements neither made nor implied.

I am not inclined to be drawn into a discussion with one unable to make a point.

A.A.C.

[A. Pole]

The wide margin means Morales, a coca farmer who has said he will end a U.S.-backed anti-drug campaign aimed at eradicating the crop used to make cocai

Hey, he seems to me more like a free trader than socialist! After all it was XIX Britain which made money on free drug trade to China (Opium War was for freedom of trade).

If drug trade was good for UK it should be good for Bolivia.

[A. Pole]

Why ? Boliva and most of south America have communist sympathies.

Drug trade is a capitalist activity and coca is more profitable than other crops. The invisible hand of free market at work!

[AmericanArchConservative]

I think a few predator drones bearing napalm loads, and coming in low and fast over coca fields would make an excellent point to the bolivian "producers" and their ardent-but-brain-dead supporters.

A.A.C.

[mach1]

I apologize for making such a stupid mistake. What I would like to say is I grew up with my father being an alcoholic and I became an alcoholic which I am trying to recover from. Alcohol in my opinion is the worst drug which is sanctioned and promoted by the U.S government. I say tax and regulate other drugs just like alcohol which is a drug.

[A. Pole]

I think a few predator drones bearing napalm loads

Bolivia is as large as France, Italy and Great Britain put together. You would need a myriad of drones.

[Paul C. Jesup]

I think a few predator drones bearing napalm loads, and coming in low and fast over coca fields would make an excellent point to the bolivian "producers" and their ardent-but-brain-dead supporters.

Do you plan to also napalm those U.S. voters who voted to legalize drugs on various state ballots...

Attacking someone who has common sense on an issue is not just an act of stupidity, but insanity as well.

[gedeon3]

We need to take this guy out quick.

To those bleeding hearts who may disagree with me; good for you. I make no apologies.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Sounds as if he wants everyone in Bolivia to grow coca. Assume they will.
The price for coca & cocaine will drop to where the average Bolivian can take up the habit. We'll see how the presidente likes that.

[ndt]

"There you go - assuming facts not in evidence, and crediting others with statements neither made nor implied. "

Hmm.. I assumed you could scroll back and read what you wrote. Allow me to expand.

"If their "national product" is a drug like cocaine, we sure the hell CAN tell them to either keep it out of our country, or else we will do what we have to do ourselves. "

If they are exporting, that means we are importing. hence the producer/consumer analogy. If a consumer stops consuming, the producer stops producing. You are blaming the producer for providing a commodity that the consumer wants.

Hate to break it to you but shifting personal responsibility from the one choosing to use (us as a nation) it to the producer (them as a nation) is the liberal point of view. It's the same argument used against gun manufacturers, cigarette producers and even McDonald's.

I'll take libertarian claptrap over liberal claptrap any day.

[ndt]

"Assume they will. The price for coca & cocaine will drop to where the average Bolivian can take up the habit. We'll see how the presidente likes that."

Ever been to Bolivia? Everyone chews coca, they have for millennia.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I know they chew but they don't snort. I suspect they'll learn.

[ndt]

"I know they chew but they don't snort. I suspect they'll learn."

I guess my point was that coca (leaf) is dirt cheap. If they wanted to use cocaine, they could make it at home (as some do I'm sure) for pennys.

[kstewskis]

LOL!!

[Eric in the Ozarks]

If everybody's in on growing, the price will crater. Lower prices mean more consumers.

[Arizona Carolyn]

Isn't this area the most fertile coffee bean area in South America? I take it they are going to pull out the coffee crops for coke crops... and I think as much as the President has on his plate, something needs to be done soon because Chavez is meddling in the upcoming election in Mexico, too... and that is getting too close to home... especially with our own homegrown socialists.

[ndt]

"If everybody's in on growing, the price will crater. Lower prices mean more consumers."

When I say pennys, I really mean it. You can walk into any market in Bolivia TODAY and by pounds (well kilos, it's metric) for nothing. This won't make it any cheaper, it's just not possible.

This is where coca comes from, you don't have to grow it, it's like telling Canadians to stop growing trees.

[Arizona Carolyn]

My Grandfather was an alcholic so I can appreciate what you have and are going through. It left me with no desire to drink rather than the opposite, but we are all different and it is genetic, which is why children of Alcoholics needs to know ahead of time they are not good candidates for taking that first drink.

I've given the legalize and tax angle some thought, but you look at the places in Europe that have done that and their societies are not exactly thriving. Tobacco is the same thing, legal and highly taxed, yet people will spend their childrens lunch money for a carton of cigarettes.

[AmericanArchConservative]

>>Do you plan to also napalm those U.S. voters who voted to legalize drugs on various state ballots...


Attacking someone who has common sense on an issue is not just an act of stupidity, but insanity as well.<<

I do not recall attacking anyone with common sense {as you are doing in your posting to me}, and I have the decorum and restraint to not weakly imply stupidity nor insanity on someone else's part - particularly when I might not even understand their POV.

I only suggested napalming FIELDS, not PEOPLE. Please pay better attention in the future, and take care not to distort, twist, or exaggerate the words of others.

A.A.C.

[Arizona Carolyn]

You've just given the best reason to keep it out of society. They have wasted a magnificent country and natural resource through lack of will... drugs take away the will to be creative, proactive, etc... why do you think Soros is so anxious to turn us into a nation of mindless drugies?