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- The person in the brown shirt in the background reminds me of "Pat" from the old Saturday Night Live skit.- Did ya see the pics of the administration building on fire from Our Lady Of The Lake in San Antonio? What a beautiful building. When I was a kid, I remember getting junk make from that school.
- The War on Drugs claimed the careers of 76 students at San Diego State yesterday. I'm sure they would have been nothing more than junkies in the alley had not our government come to the rescue.
- They even gave it a cool name: "Operation Sudden Fall." Makes me feel better.
- "According to a 2007 study by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, nearly half of the nation's 5.4 million full-time college students abuse drugs or alcohol at least once a month."
- In other news, former drug addict Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers leads the majors in RBIs.
- "Sorry I Missed Your Party is a blog that scours Flickr and finds amusing photos from random people’s parties."
- Everyone tells me this morning that Obama will be the Democratic nominee after yesterday's elections. Where do I get my bumper sticker?
- Campaign sign in Weatherford: "Vote McLaughlin -- A Man Who Stands for Christ and the People."
- An Elisha Cuthbert, "Hey, now."
- I predict storms today for Bridgeport at 11:15, Decatur at 11:24, and Slidell at 11:33.
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48 comments:
I definately want at least one of those bumper stickers as well. Hell, when I find them I'll buy you one too Barry.
Barry, somehow I can't help but believe if you had children of your own, your view on drugs would be totally different...but of course, I guess we'll never know. Will we ever win the "war on drugs"? Probably not, as long as there are people on this earth, but should we just stop doing anything about it? Should the effort, if it saves one life, be considered worth it? Just some random thoughts of my own this morning...
I think the problem, Betty, is that if you arrested every college kid who smokes a joint, you won't have enough jail cells to put them in. Tracking the supply problem back up to the Mexican Mafia connection was great; but 76 arrests on "suspician of possession"?!?!? Well, maybe if they meant it as a scare tactic, to get the student body's attention, there will be something to be gained; but I expect most of the folks in that group were pretty harmless. Other than the one arrest of the big supplier, it looks mostly like a juicy headline for the DEA and little more.
Save a life? Very strange. It was pot for Gods sake! Are you retarded? I mean really,do you believe everything the government tells you to?
76 lives were ruined. If you want to save alot of lives and money change the laws concerning marijuana and/or make alcohol illegal.
Newsflash! this just in: We live next to a poor,lawless nation ANY and EVERY crime can be connected to the Mexican Mafia from fake insurance cards to bathtub X(and if it's not well,somebody will be ordered to make it look that way.) if it bolsters their case.
Went to tour OLLU in high school with that group for poor kids who show promise. What was that called,Upward Bound? Anyway,very cool building. We also had lunch in the Tower of the Americas. I threw a frisbee from the observation deck,even cooler.
Too many topics - but please not the "pledge" people. Some cover various parts of their chests while the substantial citizen on the right just holds his hands. Does this mean he's not a patriot? Wonder if he wears a flag pin? What a superficial bunch of malarkey!
Do any of you think the same type of drug sting couldn't nail dozens of students at North Texas, TCU or SMU? OK, target the dealers but possession is just too common and in most cases it's the individual’s choice. Hey, conservatives, let's get government off our backs, huh?
Vagaries and nuances of human appearance is what makes other people interesting. This is not so true with sexual identity. That is one thing that should always be fairly cut and dried. Feel hopelessy ambiguous? Especially if a female and you got an extra shot of male hormones in the birthing process you need to do something drastic, like wear a pink shirt that says,"Yeah,I'm a chick. Want to make something of it?" It still may be confusing but,you'll have a clever clue to help solve the puzzle.
People should also have necks. But,I'm biased toward that opinion after living in Mineral Wells for a year.
Hey! That feller on the right don't got his hand over his heart! Git 'em!! Git a rope!
Damn city slickers!
Holy crap, people! You missed MY point. I was referring to Barry's OVERALL attitude about the "war on drugs", not just this event...think before you attack.
Re: the San Diego State students and others.
"Evidence seized in the investigation included $100,000 worth of drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy, methamphetamine, a shotgun, three semi-automatic pistols and $60,000 in cash."
Just some innocent college kids having a party?
If using drugs is harmless (as is often claimed by the pro-recreational drug crowd here) then why all the weaponry?
The war on everything will be over December 21 2012
Wordkyle:
First, cops always grossly exaggerate the value of the dope. Every. Single. Time.
Secondly, divide all that up between the 60+ college kids arrested or the 90+ total arrestees, and that doesn't seem like all that much. (Especially the guns. Go search 60+ regular Aggie students rooms and see if you come up with more than one shotgun and three pistols.)
BB- "as long as there are people on this earth" Just kill us off and problem solved. But then the monkeys will evolve again and the same problem will continue. Or wait, do do believe in God created man?
Drugs are here and they are EVERYWHERE. I'm sure if you have kids at least one of them has abused drugs in some way. I'm pretty damn sure that at least 80% of these bloggers and readers have abused drugs! Eureka, that will be my next blog quiz!
It is 11:24, where are my storms biatch?
silicone alley, actually I have 2 kids, 21 and 26...and NO, they have not abused drugs...contrary to popular belief, not all kids do. And your comment about just killing us off is ridiculous, just argumentative, and for the record...I do believe in creation, not evolution...
There are 23 guns in my house(I think)including oddly enough 3 semi auto handguns. I have also have had up to 9000 dollars cash on various occassions. What does this have to do with anything?
There is a person in a brown shirt?
betty b - congrats on your drugless children. One of mine experimented with MJ and coke but gave it up and has been very successful. I even bought a $5 bag of MJ and liked it but had no more. Just too much trouble and with beer available there were other fun ways to socialize.
You admitting that you're a creationist explains a lot. You're into fairy tales - and that may also explain your perception of your perfect kids.
Betty,I appreciate when someone honestly posts their thoughts here. I love to see people express themselves and I'm thankful for this forum but,I have to say my initial reaction to your first sentence was,"Having children makes you lose your common sense?"
Our marijuana laws will someday be looked back on with horror and embarassment I know but, this situation is so absurd and sad it makes me almost wonder if it's not a weird effort to demonstrate the fact now and get the laws changed.
This is California we are talking about. If you've ever been there it seems like everyone smokes pot recreationally. Even those who don't, have a tolerance of those who do like nowhere I could imagine. It's just accepted. It's even recognized by the courts with certain amounts being decriminalized and a clear distinction between the social aspects of pot and other drugs. Go to South Central LA and probably any other ghetto and on certain streets you can hear the crack vials and needles crunching under your car tires. And,I mean stretching half a block from the street corners for block after block not one poorly lit area. You'll hear continuous gunfire over the propositons of the crack whores.
However,the feds and state agencies have the time and resources to destroy 76 people in college? The payroll for that operation alone would have easily been 250,000 dollars. This makes NO sense. No one will alter their consumption habits over this even a little and no one is alive now that would have been dead from this intervention. Although I could see us hearing about one of those kids killing themselves over the ordeal.
Assuming that the pigs overestimated the dope haul by say, 100%, that would leave 90 (round number) kids with $555 worth of dope each.
They probably didn't overestimate the amount of cash seized because, you know, it's pretty easy to count.
So, by Barry's [flawed] logic, it's perfectly normal and "doesn't seem like that much" for each of the 90 kids to have $555 worth of weed and $666 in cash on them (by Barry's average)?
Damn. I shoulda gone to Baylor. Must have been a major party ~ especially when the gun-toting guys showed up to hang with the stoned guys with pockets full of cash...
Anon 12:07 First of all, thank you for not attacking me. However, I don't believe having children makes you lose your common sense and never meant to insenuate such. I have been a fan of this blog since it began, I was simply making the point that Barry's view on the "war on drugs" is very non chalant and for those of us that have had children, they tend to change our views on a lot of things. I understand that our criminal justice system could use some revamping when it comes to drug issues and I don't claim to have all the answers, but to just to have the attituse, just let them be seems just as ludicrous to me.
And Anon 11:57, I do not believe that my children are perfect, they are loved, but not perfect.
500 bucks might only be a couple of ounces of pot. I have on my person and in my nightstand a few feet from me a little over 800 dollars cash and a check for 1080.00 dollars(none of which will be buying any reefer;). As I read it, Barry was only offering a little perspective which obviously appears to hold up well in my corner of the WC.
My knee jerk reaction to the guy who stands for Christ and the people? I would want someone who honestly felt that way but didn't feel the need to gratuitously push the thought on the people he wanted to represent.
Today is Gary Coopers birthday.
No, to answer your question. One life is not worth the BILLIONS of dollars wasted on the war on drugs.
Betty, REALLY??? So you asked your kids if they had ever used drugs and they told you "no, mommy, never". REALLY??? If you have kids that age then you were probably born in the sixties yourself, right? Well, I was right there with you and most people that I knew where tokin themselves. And no, I did not attend school in Wise County.
"A couple ounces of pot" can make approximately 150 joints. and would cost just over $600.
"...that doesn't seem like all that much..."
Totally harmless.
Go out and find 90 people who have in their posession that amount of cash and weed. If you can find them concentrated in an area the size of a college campus, that's called "a problem," not "a coincidence."
You couldn't even find that at an Ozzy concert in the 80s.
Betty...You go Girl!! Like your style.
Anon 2:08...Surprise my friend but I was with you back in the 60's, but probably older than you, and even went to that tropical paradise we called Vietnam, courtesy of Uncle Sam in the 60's. Never smoked any funny weed and never used any of that other illegal crap either. Guess you were too blasted on the stuff to know that some folks weren't using.
Why is it a waste to try and keep people off of drugs and out of the streets? We already support millions of dope heads with social services so why add anymore to the total. There is no doubt that MJ is a gateway drug and that it also makes people unproductive. Those 76 college kids will probably learn more from this situation than any drug addict they could pick up on the corner who has blown numerous chances at life.
Hey Barry ask my family member who you represented because you were court appointed. Mind you that he was a well educated man who has two separate bachelors degrees and yet will openly admit that MJ was where it all got started.
This damn society is going down the drain b/c everyone refuses to hold anyone accountable for their actions. If you smoke dope then you should go to jail, if you don't get your butt to work then you starve. So be it.
Well, for one, there's the matter of the death from an overdose of 19-year-old Shirley Jennifer Poliakoff that sparked the whole investigation. Then there's the death of 22-year-old Kurt Baker from an accidental drug overdose which led police to particular individuals.
So far, the drugs don't seem so "harmless."
One frat boy who was the main distributor of the cocaine was supplied by Omar Castaneda, a member of the South Side Pomona gang with ties to a Mexican drug cartel. (Another fraternity brother, no doubt.)
Is fifty pounds of pot a lot, Barry? How much would that much cost on the street? (Is $100 an ounce right? That would work out to $1600 a pound, times fifty....about $80k just in pot. How much is cocaine going for these days?)
Why the fervent defense of illegal drugs for recreational use?
Holy shit jarhead, where you getting your stuff??? An oz of weed costs anywhere between 35 to 60 bucks. Geez
When alcohol is illegal we can talk about the good ole herb of righteousness. Want to save some lives? 25,000 people die in alcohol related car wrecks every year. MJ as a gateway drug? That is bizarre. No one still believes in that nonsense.
As is the case with most "wars", both sides are so dogmatic in their respective ideologies that neither gets it right, thus the war.
I am 50 years old. As a teenager and well into my twenties I smoked pot 24/7. Made it through college under the influence with a 3.8 GPA. I never moved on to other drugs so the gateway principle is not a foregone conclusion, as some seem to suggest. As the years roll by I find I moderate my behavior according to what works best for my life. In the absence of a "big brother" legislating morals I believe most people are capable of doing the same. What is not logical is the massive expenditure associated with treating MJ as a drug on a par with heroin et al. Is it counterproductive? Yes. So is TV. (surely you saw that coming) But that's legal (and expensive). But those who are bent on excess to the point of self destruction won't be missed. Hell, the world ain't running out of people, (or Tibetans). What we are running out of is common sense, money and prison space.
NOT THE END,
Just the beginning
Kyle, the answer to your question is reflected in Barry's mantra:
"The right to be left alone – the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by a free people."
Apparently he thinks that right extends to dealers/gang members distributing drugs on college campuses and that those pesky authorities should just leave those poor people alone.
What do you expect from 1) an attorney, that 2) is a dyed in the wool liberal, who 3) apparently makes a good part of his living defending drunk drivers? The poor innocent souls.
You ever watch TV and wonder how the hell these attorneys can defend/represent murderers, rapists, child molesters, etc.?
Someone has to convince them that the government should just leave them alone to their perversions.
It's their right, after all...
Barry, Get the bumper sticker that says "Run B. Hussein, Run" and put it on your front bumper.
Jarhead..........................
I consider myself to be right-leaning in general and agree with many of the points you make both here and on your own little virtual playground. But honestly, man, sometimes you come across as freakin' retarded. This is one of those times.
739 - If alcohol were already illegal, I would feel the same way about it that I do about illegal drugs now. Alcohol serves no useful function other than to kill germs.
That, however, is not a good reason to legalize another recreational drug.
Good. As long as you're thinking, that's all I care about.
I've never read or heard anything that makes me think barry partakes of the herb. I actually kind of doubt it although, I've been around enough to know anyone can.
As usual if he was asking for some perspective and rational thought on this issue he must be disapointed.
Holy smokes 35-60 bucks? I've been getting gipped. Holy smokes-hee hee hee,get it? Holy smokes,Man I kill myself sometimes.
Although I know it's the wrong way to look at this issue in a way, I have trouble believing people when they say they've never tried pot.Oddly, I have trouble trusting people who claim to have never have tried it. I don't know if it's because I instinctively feel they must be lying about it or what. Maybe part of me thinks they would be the type of person who is unlikely to think for themselves.
MJ is a gateway drug. There are exceptions to every rule. I personally started there and it went downhill but luckily I screwed my head back on and straightened up. Oh yeah it was in college too.
Cocaine was banned in 1914, and marijuana in 1937," said David Borden, executive director of StoptheDrugWar.org, "and yet these drugs are so widely available almost a century later that college students can be hauled away 75 at a time for them. That is the very definition of policy failure.. Instead of throwing away money and law enforcement time on a policy that doesn't work, ruining lives in the process, Congress should repeal drug prohibition and allow states to create sensible regulations to govern drugs' lawful distribution and use. At a minimum, the focus should be taken off enforcement," said Borden.
From the bog Barry references in the thurday morning post. Too rational for public acceptance but, it offers some perspective for those willing to listen.
900 - Murder was banned in America a couple hundred years ago, yet last year there were roughly 20,000 homicides. Clearly the policy against murder has been a failure.
We should therefore eliminate all laws banning murder, and refuse to prosecute those who engage in it. The money and other resources saved can be turned to more useful pursuits.
Seriously, when can you determine that a policy was a "failure?" I think the American welfare system and the "war on poverty" have shown themselves to be dismal failures.
Is prosecuting someone who commits a crime a failure? These drugs have been illegal for generations, and people use them willingly, knowing they are illegal -- yet there are still those who argue that such criminals should not be prosecuted.
If we're picking and choosing laws the police should not enforce, I can think of several that are better candidates than drug laws.
wordkyle, you simple tool. Murder affects at least the subject of the event - the victim. Drugs, when practiced in the privacy of one's home, is victimless. It may fry someone’s brain but it is that person's right. I thought you were into personal responsibility and getting government off our individual backs. Hypocrite.
638 - since you see fit to criticize me personally, I'll respond. Otherwise I normally ignore ignorant jerks who only have guts when they post anonymously.
Ask the families of the two young people who OD'ed if there were no vicitims associated with that drug use. Ask the families of people who have wasted away from AIDS, hepatitis or simple physical deterioration if the drug user was the only victim.
Your argument is "Recreational drug use is harmless when it's done right." I'd say the person who chooses to use illegal drugs recreationally has demonstrated the lack of ability and forfeited the right to make that decision.
As for your charge of "hypocrite" -- that's always the first scream by anyone who feels there should be no limits to -- or responsibility for -- personal behavior. It's better to have moral standards and occasionally fail to live up to them than to have no standards at all. My stance toward government is that it should be limited, not abolished.
So your argument has no substance, your accusations have no basis in reality, and you have no courage, morally or physically, Mr. "Anon 6:38 PM."
Back to the topic: The ongoing existence of human weakness does not nullify the need for controls against that weakness.
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