From: mike@gordian.com (Michael A. Thomas)
Subject: Re: Good Neighbor Political Hypocrisy Test
Organization: Gordian; Costa Mesa, CA
Lines: 60

In article <C5IJ7H.L95@news.iastate.edu>, jrbeach@iastate.edu (Jeffry R Beach) writes:
> In article <1993Apr15.021021.7538@gordian.com> mike@gordian.com (Michael A. Thomas) writes:
> >In article <C5HuH1.241@news.iastate.edu>, jrbeach@iastate.edu (Jeffry R Beach) writes:
> >> Think about it -- shouldn't all drugs then be legalized, it would lower
> >> the cost and definitely make them safer to use.
> >
> >  Yes.
> > 
> >> I don't think we want to start using these criterion to determine
> >> legality.
> >
> >  Why not?
> 
> 
> Where do they get these people?!  

  What, pray tell, does this mean? Just who exactly is *they*?
You mean "they" as in people who do not blindly swallow every
piece of propoganda they are given? Or "they" as in NOKD (not
our kind, dear). Or "they" as in an appeal to some audience
that is supposed to implicitly know and understand?

> I really don't want to waste time in
> here to do battle about the legalization of drugs.  If you really want to, we
> can get into it and prove just how idiotic that idea is!  

  Read: I do not know what the fuck I'm talking about, and am
not eager to make a fool of myself.
 
> My point was that it is pretty stupid to justify legalizing something just
> because it will be safer and cheaper.

  From a pragmatic standpoint, there certainly is some justification
if it is a vice people will commit anyway. Shall we criminalize
alcohol again? If the re-legalization for alcohol were done from
anything other than the pragmatic standpoint, I'd be happy to hear 
about it. The fact is that it wasn't.

> A few more ideas to hold to these criterion - prostitution; the killing of all
> funny farm patients, AIDS "victims", elderly, unemployed, prisioners, etc. -
> this would surely make my taxes decrease.

  Only the first one make any sense. There is nothing to "legalize"
about all the rest. Just in case you haven't made the connection 
(which I expect you haven't) the connecting theme in this thread is
a persons autonomy over their life and body. Vice statutes serve
only to make it more expensive for the rich and more dangerous
for the poor, as Tim so eloquently put it. People will, however,
take autonomy over their lives, regardless of what the government
says.
  And why, pray tell, is AIDS "victim" in snear quotes? Are you of
the revisionist sort that thinks there is no such thing as the AIDS
plauge? Or do they just deserve it?
-- 

		Michael Thomas	(mike@gordian.com)
	"I don't think Bambi Eyes will get you that flame thrower..."  
		-- Hobbes to Calvin
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