[George W. Bush]

Government, of course, is promoting many of the social ills that are inducing people to self-medicate on a massive scale.

And government is in bed with Big Pharm to peddle their own mood-altering nostrums. Much as with the prescriptions for barbiturates and amphetamine ('diet' pills) back in the Sixties and Seventies, I think we'll see these more modern mood drugs as a real problem, not a solution. And despite their availability, the WoD goes on.

Your entire post was wonderful, Arthur. Thank you for contributing that.

[Arthur McGowan]

I think far too many “conservatives” have shallow, knee-jerk reactions: People who use drugs are part of the “left,” so the WOD must be a good thing. Public schools are part of “the American Way,” so the “conservative” project must be “school prayer,” “keep-God-in-the-Pledge,” “higher standards” and “reform.”

Huge amounts of energy, time, and money have been wasted on school prayer, flag-burning, sex-education, and such sideshows, and on piddly “pro-family” tax provisions (like “education accounts, “medical savings accounts,” education vouchers, etc.) because “conservatives” have been unready to go deeper. Get rid of the government schools, and you do away with at least a dozen “issues” that are eating up time, energy, and money—as well as people.