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Locked on 01/15/2014 11:23:33 AM PST by Jim Robinson, reason:
Enough already! |
Posted on 01/13/2014 11:39:29 AM PST by Kaslin
Right now, China and Russia are having a great laugh at America’s expense. For a once proud country with strong moral character and intellectual ambition, we have become a nation intent on destroying itself from within. The publicly sanctioned and widespread celebration of indolent potheads toking themselves into oblivion in Colorado is only the latest example.
We have come a long way from Nancy Reagan’s largely successful “Just Say No” campaign to educate students on the dangers of drugs and their consequences. Call it “You Can Say Yes. “
In the minds of many conservatives, the lines are becoming quickly blurred on the legalization of mind-altering substances as well as the punishment of drug offenders. Libertarians are taking up the cause to push for universal legalization of marijuana around the country. Some are doing this because of Americans’ growing fear of our government’s intrusion into our private lives while others are doing it because of easier access to their favorite recreational pastime. Indeed, the latter motivation seems to be so popular, that it quickly turned into one of the most popular battle cries amongst the young adults for the election of Rep. Ron Paul in the 2012 Republican Primary.
Unfortunately, many traditional Conservatives are also getting on the drug bus because they have bought the Democrat lie that the money collected by drug users could be fiscally beneficial. In the most recent year, Colorado generated $9.1 million in retail sales tax from the sale of medical marijuana. This figure is bound to grow with the introduction of recreational sales and the additional 25% in excise and sales taxes since becoming legal on January 1st.
Looking beyond just the tax revenue, the industry generates millions of dollars every year for the state from licensing and application fees. To apply for and obtain a license to run a medical marijuana facility serving more than 500 patients, for instance, the necessary application and license fees alone approach $40,000. Colorado has agreed to take this new revenue and use it for the education of its children and construction of new schools. Does this mean at 18 every high school graduate will be handed their diploma and a doobie with the instructions to get addicted in order to help fund future generations’ educations?
We are now seeing a very odd mix of bedfellows. One of my favorite Tea Party Senators, Mike Lee of Utah, and one of the most odious liberals in the Senate today, Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, both are now in agreement to reduce the mandatory jail sentence time on non-violent drug offenses in hopes of reducing prison expenses. A federal inmate’s yearly cost for one inmate ranges from $21,000 to $33,000 depending on the prison's level of security. Because of the current system, about half of the nation's more than 218,000 federal inmates are serving time for drug crimes with virtually all of them subjected by some form of mandatory minimum sentencing.
Am I living in the twilight zone right now? Has our country become so ignorant that we have abandoned one of the few positive goals of eliminating substances from our cultural landscape? Drugs that have reduced the productivity, health and advancement of our society? Don’t think drugs have a negative effect on the community? Just look to Washington State, where within the first 6 months of pot being legalized, 745 drivers stopped by the police tested positive for marijuana’s psychoactive ingredient THC and over half of those tested were over the state’s legal limit of 5 nanograms. This means there are more impaired drivers on the roads of Washington and now Colorado driving alongside families on their way to school and people on their way to work. Please tell me how a price can be put on their safety or tell me that drugs cannot hurt innocent bystanders? Please go ask a family who has lost a loved one to drug use or more importantly whose family was affected by someone under the influence.
We are witnessing the steady decline and intentional corrosion of America’s social structure. This is the ultimate goal of leftists: total control of the state that would make middle and lower class its feudal subjects. What better way to destroy a culture then to encourage mind altering substance use by the general public?
Ronald Reagan often quoted John Winthrop’s shining “City upon a Hill” but ultimately under these types of legislative policy, we might suffer more the fate as predicted by Alexis de Toqueville who said “America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”
Authoritarians play a game as they fight for tyranny and pretend it's fighting for the right, but their goals are the same, at the city level, county, state, federal, their social/moral authoritarianism is in force at all levels.
Again, Ansel: Do you think the Federal government should have laws in place punishing a baker who knowingly bakes a wedding cake for two men who have a private pretend "wedding," and do you think the Federal government should also have laws in place punishing two men who have a private pretend "wedding?"
With abortion (which I abhor, Roe v Wade is an evil amorality which the Federal government -- not liberals, Ansel, but the Federal government -- has forced on us), how far are YOU as a "conservative" willing to go to enforce it?
< 1. Would you have the State follow up on every over-the-counter pregnancy test sold?
2. Would you have the State investigate every miscarriage as a possible homicide/abortion? Because ANY miscarriage could certainly be just that.
That is the difference between an authoritarian and a Christian, limited government conservative. Your desire for such ham-fisted use of government is EXACTLY why the Founders wrote the Constitution the way they did.
Do you think the Founders would have re-written the Constitution if they had foreseen Nevada, a state that made gambling and prosecution LEGAL? Or do you think the Founders would have said, "Now we have to change the Constitution to impose Federal laws outlawing those moral failings."?????
Wow, that is quite a radical screed against our pro-life efforts.
You have legal abortion, legal gay marriage at the federal level, the feds have to deal with those issues, you seem determined to force arguments to keep the current laws in place as you fill this thread with arguments against conservatives who are trying to roll them back.
From drugs to abortion to gay marriage, you have arguments against all of our efforts to fight the left and you.
Evidently one who aggressively opposes conservatives and wants to fight us at every turn.
Your answer:
Evidently one who aggressively opposes conservatives and wants to fight us at every turn.
In other words, no, you cannot back up your accusations with evidence.
I see by your posting history that I am not alone -- I am joined by MANY conservatives here on Free Republic -- who understand that YOU are very confused about what "conservatism" is. Any lurkers to this thread can also see quite clearly that you have ZERO honor, ZERO integrity, ZERO ethics, that you are every bit as corrupt and deceitful as any liberal.
You are "conservative" the same way Obama is "American."
You don't know it, Ansel, but you have probably just lost the respect of a lot more FReepers than myself.
Actually fighting “authoritarian” conservatives for drugs is where you started, and then you continued with gays in the military, abortion, gay marriage etc.
The constitution was not written to allow abortion and gay marriage and gays in the military and all the things that we conservatives are fighting you about.
Actually fighting “authoritarian” conservatives for drugs is where you started, and then you continued with gays in the military, abortion, gay marriage etc.
CUT AND PASTE WORDS FROM MY POSTS TO PROVE IT. While you're at it, cut and paste words from my posts to prove where I have promoted drugs, gays in the military, abortion, and where I have sided with leftists. I am especially interested in knowing how my OPPOSING laws that punish people, including the military, for refusing to play along wiht the gay agenda, is "siding with liberalism."
I really truly genuinely want to know if you think "conservatives" should back Federal law that would punish two guys from having a private pretend "wedding", and if you think "conservatives" should back Federal law punishing a baker for baking their cake, and if "conservatives" should back Federal law punishing a private business if it decided to provide spousal benefits to the "wife" of some fruitcake employee. RIGHT NOW Federal Law dictates the opposite. Right now, Federal Law punishes the baker for NOT baking the cake, it punishes the business for NOT extending benefits to so called "spouses" of gays. So how is it siding with liberalism when I advocate GETTING RID OF THOSE LAWS that punish private individuals for refusing to play along with the gay agenda????
I really want to know that, if you think Federal Law ought to outlaw marijuana, a weed that can grow wild in a vacant lot, should it also outlaw alcohol, which is certainly as destructive as pot? And then I would as, why not outlaw sodas and overeating, as gluttony is ALSO forbidden in the bible, as is drunkeness and "witchcraft," as mrsmel's wonderful post makes a good argument is the bible's way of saying "drug abuse." How about "conservatives" using goverment to outlaw and punish envy? Sloth? Covetousness?
WHY DIDN'T THE FOUNDING FATHERS DO THAT? DO YOU THINK THE FOUNDING FATHERS WOULD RE-WRITE THE CONSTITUITON TO INCLUDE LAW PROHIBITING MORAL WEAKNESSES IF THEY HAD FORESEEN NEVADA, WITH GAMBLING AND PROSTITUTION LEGAL? I really want to know if that's what you think "conservatism" is?
If you had any honor, Ansel, you would actually read my posts putting your anger and emotion aside, and then you would ask the Admin Mod to delete the nearly two dozen posts you have written here that LIBEL ME.
LOL, just like I said, here you are calling for removing the laws against drugs, and at the same time saying that abortion and gay marriage were left out of the constitution on purpose, because the founding fathers did not want them outlawed.
Good point. It was also and very pointedly NOT WRITTEN to "forbid" them, either, as the Founders knew that moral Americans would need no law forbidding them, that left to their own, Americans would shun abortion (it was illegal in most states before Roe v Wade), Americans would shun open homosexuality, Americans would shun blatant drug/alcohol abuse. AND THAT'S JUST WHAT AMERICANS DID.
Liberals, who are a minority in this nation, didn't like it, so what did they do, Ansel? THEY USED GOVERNMENT via judical activism to override the Constitution and then to do what the Founders expressly wrote the Constitution such to prevent them from doing -- they used government to punish what they saw as "immoral" - the left thinks it's "immoral" to shun gays, abortion, and alcoholics/drug addicts who you and I as Christians see as weak and self-indulgent, liberals see as poor victims of some "disease." As I am an alcholic (reformed!) I know something about that. God, Jesus, love -- those are the paths to righteousness.
The government (mainly through judicial fiat) in America for the past 50 years has been the MAIN OBSTRUCTION IN THAT PATH TO RIGHTEOUSNESS. I advocate for limiting that government to where it was before, the way the Constituiton was written; you advocate for replacing that government with more of the same only in a different flavor.
You are a creep, Ansel. You are not a conservative, you are a creep.
Like I said, you oppose conservative efforts in fighting abortion, gay marriage, etc.
To: Finny
Wow, that is quite a radical screed against our pro-life efforts.
You have legal abortion, legal gay marriage at the federal level, the feds have to deal with those issues, you seem determined to force arguments to keep the current laws in place as you fill this thread with arguments against conservatives who are trying to roll them back.
From drugs to abortion to gay marriage, you have arguments against all of our efforts to fight the left and you.
183 posted on 1/14/2014 10:51:49 AM by ansel12
While you're at it, PLEASE answer these very simple yes-or-no questions.
1. Do you think there should be Federal law punishing a cake baker for baking a cake for two guys who have a pretend wedding, punishing a private business that decides to extend "spousal" benefits to a fruitcake employee's "partner," and should there be Federal law to punishing two guys for renting a hall and having a pretend wedding? YES OR NO?
2. Do you think the Founding Fathers would have rewritten the Constitution if it had foreseen Nevada, where prostitution and gambling are legal?
3. Abortion should be outlawed at the very least at the state level; Roe v Wade is evil and should be overturned. DO YOU BELIEVE that therefore, the State or the Federal government then should require an investigation and hearing on every miscarriage to prove that it wasn't induced? Do you believe therefore that the State or the Federal government should require follow-up on the results of every over the counter pregnancy test sold? YES OR NO, Ansel????????????
Just read your own posts.
There you are yet again fighting us on abortion, trying to describe it as something that is impossible to stop with law, as something that the Americans who created this nation supported to the degree that they deliberately left it out of the constitution, along with “gay marriage”.
You are just whacky, a raving, ranting, anti-conservative nutcase.
Your actions speak for themselves.
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