What I don’t get is why none of the media reports I have seen on Fast and Furious connect it to Drug Prohibition. Such a big forest to only focus on a few trees. How about the 50,000 Mexican dead in the last 5 years? How about the 50,000 Americans?
Or is it because BOTH major parties are implicated?
To paraphrase Stalin: One dead is a tragedy. Fifty thousand dead is a statistic.
Comments
15 responses to “Just A Statistic”
Well, context matters. “Drug Legalization” has been tainted for some time by the Libertarians, and the Potheads. If you want an issue taken seriously, you don’t connect it to people who have turned themselves into smurfs or stoners.
Second, goals matter. People believe that drugs were made illegal to save lives. Everyone with an ounce of sense understands that the goal of “Fast and Furious” was to kill people.
Third, “Both parties are implicated”? Please. Ted Kennedy can be the “Lion of the Senate” after leaving a woman to die in less then six feet of water. Al Gore Jr. hasn’t let his multiple drug arrests slow him down. On the Republicans side, we saw the Justice Department Praetorian Guard Ted Stevens, and toe tapping turned into a international scandal. No, there is no duality here, it’s that the Press sees themselves as a branch of Government, and so the murder of an agent makes them quite nervous.
Hmm – but what if only the smurfs and stoners are making sense? Are we to reject their insight because we don’t approve of them? If my neighbor’s “Down Syndrome” child tells me my lawn is full of weeds, should I ignore that information?
Sad thing about that question is that I’m afraid the answer is ‘yes’ – from both sides. For very ‘different’ reasons. Of course 🙁
Well of course legalization of pot is so tainted by potheads and libertarians that it is now favored by 56% according to Rassmusen.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/lifestyle/general_lifestyle/may_2012/56_favor_legalizing_regulating_marijuana
Pat Robertson says it isn’t working
http://reason.com/blog/2012/03/06/pat-robertson-its-time-we-stop-locking-u
Pat Robertson!
A retired police detective had this to say:
http://www.republicreport.org/2012/police-marijuana-cpac/
You wouldn’t be one of the people making money off this are you?
http://classicalvalues.com/2011/11/why-we-must-not-end-prohibition/
And what if Obama comes out against Prohibition in order to get those 56% to the polls?
And look at who is getting the kids.
http://classicalvalues.com/2012/06/a-rally-report/
All the Ds have to do is to point at the 50,000 Mexicans and ask if you want to be complicit in more murder. Well do you?
Yes, welcome to High School. It’s not that we don’t “approve” of the Smurfs and Stoners, it’s that they have so beclowned themselves that no one wants to even be seen listening to them. Alas, even if they are making sense, Democracy is not kind to people who are right too soon. See Joe Lieberman…..
Never mind Pat Robertson, National Review has been pushing for it for years. But, again, what happened to Al Gore Jr.? There are intelligent people pushing for legalization. But they aren’t going to jail, and neither are their kids. They aren’t that invested in it. On the other side, Legalization ends jobs and pensions for a lot of loyal Democrats, and they are very invested in keeping their money and graft going. Read the Founders on Factions…..
OK Robert I agree:
On the other side, Legalization ends jobs and pensions for a lot of loyal Democrats
So why are the Republicans silent on the matter?
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And then we are back to the 56% ready to legalize. Too soon?
What happens if Obama can get their votes in November? BTW I expect he will try. Late October is my guess.
I was under the impression Republicans wanted to win this election. But I could be mistaken.
Ah, Republicans are not silent on the matter. As I mentioned, National Review has been pushing “Legalization” for years. It’s not an A list topic for them, but they have not been silent. Also, alas, that voice did become much smaller when the Republicans had one of their “too pure to touch the base clay” moments, and the Libertarian faction left to form their own political party.
As to Obama getting the votes of the 56%, I have my doubts. He’s had many years, and there has been only silence on that issue from him. Anyone stupid enough to believe a last minute “hail Mary” from him at this point is already voting for him, I think…..
Look at the Ron Paul contingent. The Rs hate him but he represents 10% to 15% of the R vote. They can’t win without them.
It is why Palin was chosen as VP. McCain was hemorrhaging libertarian votes until she got picked.
http://classicalvalues.com/2009/11/why_mccain_pick/
A “Hail Mary” would be in order for ∅ if he wants to keep it close. I expect Rand Paul to be the VP to counter that.
Robert,
Re: the Right and the Drug War. You mistake my point. No one on the right is discussing how F&F would not have been possible without Drug Prohibition.
I wrote it up here:
http://www.gunvaluesboard.com/interview-with-m.simon-from-classical-values-the-second-amendment-community-tends-to-ignore-the-connection-between-the-war-on-guns-and-the-war-on-drugs-772.html
You are wondering why the media that has ignored F&F haven’t connected it with the Libertarian hobby horse?
Why does anyone but a damn fool expect anything from the media? The conservatives are hourly outraged by gross media malpractice and just as hourly confused the media hasn’t advanced their conservative point of view. This is what 99% of conservative talk radio is filled with every day. “You know those people and networks we told you were manipulating the news to advance their own agenda? Well, you won’t believe this, but we have evidence they are ignoring our views on this other topic that would suggest the media is a one-sided propaganda machine. Oh well, tomorrow they will be better, or we will be outraged.”
Scott,
Not the media Scott. The gunner blogs.
What the Right/Gunners do not realize is that their hate will be used against them.
SWAT teams ring a bell? Militarization of the police ring a bell?
It is not a libertarian hobby horse. It is a knife at your throat.
“What I don’t get is why none of the *media reports* I have seen on Fast and Furious connect it to Drug Prohibition.”
The media would ignore the disappearance of the sun if that would help their statist agenda. They don’t understand market economics, and as I understand Libertarians they blame the violence and corruption of the drug wars as a consequence of stifling market forces.
I still don’t understand how the cartels and the drug users escape blame for what they do but the blame hoscotches over them and lands on drug avoiders.
Well, threads are tricky. Perhaps Fast and Furious would not have been possible if the Libertarians had not betrayed freedom by forming their own party, ignoring the winner take all rules of our system, the rules that make two parties the only viable endpoint, weakening the Republicans, who are sometimes right on Freedom, and throwing elections to Democrats, who are never right on Freedom.
Or maybe what you are trying to say is that Fast and Furious would have never been tried, there wouldn’t have been a need for such a clumsy “Hail Mary” pass, if it weren’t for the incredible success the Second Amendment supporters have had in the War on Guns, for the last twenty years or so. If only they had seen how little they had in common with the filthy hippy stoners, they could have formed a new political party doomed to fail.
No, I think the Gunblogs and the Hippies have it right. Don’t follow the Libertarians down the Road to Serfdom, pick your issue, work with the party most likely to advance your issue. The founders knew how dangerously powerful Factions were. Be the Faction.
>I still don’t understand how the cartels
>and the drug users escape blame for what
>they do but the blame hoscotches over them
>and lands on drug avoiders.
Do you blame the FBI for the rise of organized crime and smuggling, and do you blame the mob for Prohibition? Or did Prohibition of alcohol and drugs lead to smuggling which justified the creation of FBI/militarized police/SWAT?
If you do not properly understand cause and effect, you will always be surprised by the effects of your causes.
Clayton,
Loved:
If you do not properly understand cause and effect, you will always be surprised by the effects of your causes.
Robert,
Palin was nominated to keep the libertarians in the R Party.
Why McCain Picked Palin
I expect Rand Paul to get the nod for the same reason. Not to mention that the TEAs love him. A twofer.