To me, that means I don't think all drugs should be legal.

The policies of an enlightened culture would aim to effectively control the negative social effects of substance abuse, rather than in indulge in the conceit that it can prevent them through 'law enforcement' - thereby creating a list of social conditions far more destructive than substance abuse merely.

The US willfully indulges in that conceit, which is proof positive that it is in no way an enlightened culture. It's symptomatic of a number of self-destructive tendencies.

Another genius with a street degree in Public Health

Translation: "I can't argue against your facts or your reasoning. Why, I can't even smear you properly."

I'll know I'm on the wrong track if I ever find you agreeing with me.

Progress in communication:

'I feel_______,becasue_______-I would like to see_________.

So what you're saying is:____________.

You sound_______. Is it_______ or is it_______?

People can argue facts you present-people can't argue feelings.

Those are yours/you own them/you should stand up for them-just find a better way to get that across.

Your advice here mistakenly assumes that no interlocutor is pursuing an agenda which requires disinformation and misunderstanding. Several here do.

It's cute, though.

Walter, it is good to see you slaying the dragons with common sense...

Well met, my old friend. Well met indeed. Many moons it has been since we posted on the Editorials forums.

A lot of people could be gravely disappointed if our next president turns out to be another Republican. But in view of how the Democrats have been engineering their cave-ins to the Republicans, some of us would not be surprised: given an electorate loaded with reactionaries, a woman and a minority are at a distinct disadvantage.

If the methane clathrate at the bottom of the Arctic ocean ever lets go we'll see global warming like nothing anyone can imagine.

And yet, global warming itself is only the beginning of the catastrophe, as that will cause massive population displacement, loss of cropland and food production, and push the planet to larger-scale ecological collapse. The ability of the planet to support civilization is being compromised, and global warming is only one contributing factor.

As usual, it gets worse the more you look at it. The Pentagon itself has been reporting grave national security forecasts on these these issues for years. In some circles it's believed the ecological catastrophe can no longer be prevented. It's simply too late. All that is left is to try to mitigate the consequences. A large die-off of the global population from starvation and disease is nearly inevitable. Millions die already every year from these causes, but in the near future it will be tens of millions at least, and probably hundreds of millions. Naturally, no preparations are being made.

And that's only one of the major threats facing civilization. The others are at least as serious, and are probably no more preventable.

Quite correct on every point I've seen you post, and always for the right reasons. Well done.

It seems clear we're wasting words on somebody who is determined to be unreasonable. To our frustration, for some problems there simply is no solution, despite our best intentions and our resources, and Thrasher is one of them.

That, in the end, is the best way to protect America: to live up to our rhetoric and our values.

What, you mean, with malice toward none, with charity for all? Justice and liberty? By golly, you might just have something there. Why didn't anybody think of that before?

Best of all, it has the additional advantage of never having been tried.

It really annoys me that in many threads, especially this one, post count is often inversely related to post quality.

Your opinion. I happen to disagree.

It does serve certain purposes to have it this way, this many of these types of posts. Your problem is that these posts, for these purposes, by these means, do not suit your tastes.

Guess what? They don't have to. Ultimately we must have the right to be wrong to enable the opportunity to improve. We do hope to learn from our mistakes.

Just don't count on it, because you're bound to be disappointed.

Look at the ad hominems that are thrown my way for speaking up..

You can't be justly assailed if you are in the right for the right reasons. And keep in mind that having the facts on your side puts you at a distinct advantage. You can have some confidence in that.

So don't worry about it. Just deal with it.

Did the Unites States have to stoop to torture?

No. The Bush administration could clearly be convicted on war crimes charges except they possess the power to prevent it.

So far.

The bad news is that they on still on course to get away with it.

The electorate these days are at least as afraid of the neoconservative Republican policies as they are of the bogeymen and scapegoats of the Radical Right.

So they've pretty much worn out this particular dishonest tactic.

The vanishingly small number of Americans who genuinely desire liberty and peace, and who also understand what those great values require in terms of both political theory and political reality, have desperately grasped at any sign, no matter how miniscule, that a sufficient number of their fellow citizens might awake in time to prevent the ultimate catastrophe. There is no reason of any significance to find such signs any longer.

Worse, it's probably too late to "prevent the ultimate catastrophe". Actually a number of catastrophes: political, economic, ecological. You can't have just one.

Further, the political one is likely to continue to prevent any mitigation of the other catastrophes.

I've already discussed this is some detail in earlier posts, if you're interested.