Letters to the Editor

• ondelette

  [Read the article: Jonah Goldberg and Glenn Reynolds warn of "social unraveling" if Obama loses]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  I notice you left off just before this:

  The good news for those who are extremely alcohol dependent, and who wish to quit drinking, all of these symptoms can be alleviated and even eliminated with proper medical treatment.

  And of course, barbiturate withdrawal is not possible to alleviate or eliminate with proper medical care, eh?

  But, aside from a truly strange argument that appears to be arguing in favor of promoting alcoholism, your points:

  You are smarter than that, I've been reading your posts long enough to know you are quite intelligent.

  No, I don't. I never said it was the cause of overflowing prisons. I said it is a drug that should never be legal to get without being vetted and a prescription being written. You asked for a drug name, I gave you a drug name. There are quite literally thousands to choose from.

  Thalidomide is on the DEA proscribed list and you can go to prison for possessing it?

  I did not know that.

  Global Warming. If it is not stopped, it will conceivably kill between 1-2 billion people very quickly. It's going to start with Africa, probably, since the Kilimanjaro glacier looks to be the first to go. That's more than all the wars anywhere in the world since the U.S. was founded, combined with all the epidemics in recorded history. You could throw in all the people who'd ever gone to prison in the U.S., and probably in the world, even though they didn't all die. How do you measure importance?

  You have a source for that estimate, I'm positive. I'd like to see it if you don't mind.

  Do you think global warming can be stopped?

  I don't.. Just look at what is happening in China and India..

  My point was about whether or not all drugs should be legal. It is proven. Tell me your child-bearing age daughter should have free and ready access to thalidomide whenever she wants, no matter whether she might be pregnant or not, and I will tell you you're off your rails. Tell me that strychnine should be available to anyone who wants to get high on it, I'll tell you that people don't look good with every skeletal muscle in their body flexed so hard that their bones break. You think alcohol is a dangerous drug, I agree with you. So what?

  Strychnine is on the DEA proscribed list and you can go to prison for possessing it?

  I did not know that.

  My larger point is that you only have one issue, you draft the issue du jour to support it, and then assert that all who don't agree with you are whatever epithet the issue du jour employs as derogation. And then you suddenly turn around and assert that everyone who hasn't agreed with you is abusing you and is a white liberal racist. Sorry, not buying.

  http://www.answers.com/topic/epithet

  Epithet: 2. An abusive or contemptuous word or phrase.

  I don't care whether you buy it or not. As I have said more than once before, I know I'm not going to change the mind of anyone who argues with me.. But I know there are a lot of lurkers out there reading my arguments and reading the weak replies and ad hominems sent my way. If I convince even one of those then I feel that I have been successful.

  And in fact I do convince lurkers from time to time. On boards where PM's are possible I get PM's telling me that I have changed someone's mind.. Indeed, I've even had a couple of posts here on Salon indicating the same thing.

  The reason I'm stuck on drugs and prison is because it is a subject which no one wants to touch and I'm determined to rub everyone's noses in it..

  As Glenn has pointed out, the more that a given policy needs to have open debate the less the policy gets debated by our political class.

  The drug war is a policy which even rank and file liberals mostly don't want to touch, it's radioactive because it's been ignored for so long and the results are so catastrophic to freedom.

  Permalink Sunday, January 6, 2008 01:52 PM

• Jameka

  [Read the article: Jonah Goldberg and Glenn Reynolds warn of "social unraveling" if Obama loses]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  Al Gore and John Kerry kept the Clintons at bay during their presidential runs because they didn't like Clintonian tactics.

  I disagree, Gore and Kerry kept at arms length from Clinton because they were afraid his perceived immorality would attach itself to them and "taint" them.

  Permalink Sunday, January 6, 2008 02:01 PM

• All racists are bigots..

  [Read the article: Jonah Goldberg and Glenn Reynolds warn of "social unraveling" if Obama loses]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  But not all bigots are racist..

  I don't even like the term "race"..

  We are only one race, homo sapiens sapiens.

  Some of have more melanin in our skins than others, that's really the only difference.

  Given that black males are immensely overrepresented in our prisons, I have to wonder whether the amount of melanin in one's skin has some effect on the propensity for criminal behavior?

  What say you, Salonistas?

  Permalink Sunday, January 6, 2008 02:07 PM