To legalize or not to legalize...

I’ve been puzzling over the initiative to legalize marijuana. Well, more accurately, I’ve been puzzling over the implementation of the legalization of marijuana.

I keep asking how they are going to the get the drug dealers to sign up for a license to sell marijuana, and to take a huge pay cut. I suppose the lack of eventual jail time might be a motivator.

But I would think that the drug dealers might not be too happy about the possibility of legalization because now they will have to sell a lot of marijuana to make the same amount of money…and probably buy a license, and charge/pay taxes on their sales, and be liable for income tax on the now-documented sales of their product.

Not to mention, they will likely have to become farmers if they are going to profit from it at all. Hard work.

Somehow, I just don’t picture most drug dealers making the transition. And so far I haven’t seen any interviews on how they feel about the initiative.

{snicker, snicker}

I have to say that I don’t follow the reasoning of the backers of this initiative…They always begin their promos by saying that years of enforcement of marijuana laws have not reduced the number of users…Like this plan is going to do that! The premise of the plan is to increase the number of users.

If you legalize, you widen the market, you bring the price down – and more users (or more usage) is needed to make a profit.

That just might mean more DUI’s, and the costs associated with that…some much worse than monetary.

Of course, the proponents’ biggest justification is that the dealers are making all the money now, and why shouldn’t the state get some of that money? After all, the state needs money badly…and this business is already successfully running out there, just waiting to be exploited accessed.

So, again, the end justifies the means, especially when the end is money.

But I still don’t get how this is good for the drug dealers, and how they are going to get them to buy into it…Some of them are willing to risk death to do what they do now. I don’t think they are just waiting to be freed into a life of legitimacy…I suppose the marijuana dealers will move up the chain into the profitable drugs, and leave the mary-jane to the dispensary types.

And then, in a few years, there will be an initative to legalize crack.

More than sick at heart...

CIA operators were denied request for help during Benghazi attack, sources say

Thank God for the insubordination of Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty. Because they did NOT obey the orders to "stand down", lives were saved...though it cost them their own.

At best, our leaders' reaction to this tragic incident is shamefully incompetent...shamefully!

But there is more evidence that it could be something worse than shameful incompetence. I'll not put a title on it, but I am angry that after the attack and the deaths, and the obvious knowledge of it that our leaders had as it happened, and now, the knowledge that help was denied -- I am angry that for weeks, our leaders kept telling the story of a spontaneous attack that resulted from a video made by an American.

What? WHAT?! WHY?!

There is no way that the actions of our President, his administration and our Secretary of State can be seen as anything but self-protective...

Simply put, they care more about themselves than others. Let the others pay the price. Obfuscate the facts that reveal deficiencies.

More than any other event in the course of President Obama's term, this shows us what is most important, most valued in his life...

And it's not our country, or his obligation to the people of this great country.

And 4 people may have died because of this.

I continue to be sick at heart -- and now I am angry too.

Sick at heart...

I am sick at heart over the violence, and the lives that have been lost, in the countries supposedly liberated in the Arab Spring.

I was disbelieving that our Ambassador to Libya was killed, along with three of his colleagues. Is it not a long-standing tradition that an Ambassador is untouchable? He is the representative of peaceful cooperation between countries. He speaks for his country, and communicates to his country the requests, requirements of the country for which he is a liaison.

It is the ultimate in disrespect for Libyans to take the Ambassador’s life. It is the ultimate disrespect to the country that he served.

I agree with Donald Rumsfeld that these things are happening as “a result of perceived American weakness”.

I believe that the response of the Obama Administration was weak, and slow, and completely inadequate.

But it is nothing new.

I am weary of an administration that seems to gauge or change its response by putting a finger in the air to check which way the wind is blowing. I think we saw their true convictions in their immediate response – which in this event, seemed to be apologetic – but when this response didn’t get the ratings desired, they changed things up, so as not to lose their audience.

Bill Clinton did this all the time too, except there wasn’t Twitter, et al, for the immediate consequences. He had to wait for the polls.

Establishment Republicans are pro-active in their directional determinations, and refuse to risk alienating, not so much their base, but the fence-sitters they think they can’t live without.

I’m tired of it all.

Whatever happened to convictions and men who would act and “damn the torpedoes”! If President Obama’s true convictions are that the US has something to apologize for, I wish he would live by it, wrong as it may be.  If Mitt Romney believes that the President responded completely inadequately, I hope that he will stand by his statement, and not soften it to make himself look more kind and acceptable to the independents/undecideds.

We need leadership. Our country will soon fail without it, and it has become very scarce. We need to reject those men who pose as leaders, but in reality their greatest conviction is that they must succeed at their personal endeavors. These posers have no regard for the common good. All their efforts are self-serving, despite their talking points that we can’t get through life without a “village”.

They are everywhere, not just in our highest offices. We need to be more discerning, and keep short accounts with our leaders. They need to know that we want truth, conviction and action…not just having our ears tickled with pleasant promises and fake hope.

Of course, that means we must be people of conviction, willing to risk confrontation…and there is the rub. But if we truly love our country, and the amazing opportunities it affords us, we must.

As Plato said: “The penalty good men pay for not being interested in politics is to be governed by men worse than themselves.”

I am weary, but I’m not going to give up. God help me find ways to live as a patriot.

I think I have a better idea...

In her interview with Diane Sawyer on the day after her convention speech, The First Lady listed some of her husband's accomplishments.

One she mentioned was that they were able to give young people, up to the age of 26, the ability to stay on their parents' health insurance.

I think I would have preferred that they accomplished an increase in productivity and a boost to the economy that allowed 22-26 year olds the ability to pay for their own health insurance. THAT would be an accomplishment!

I just don't agree that enabling young people to be dependent on their parents longer is something that should be considered progress.

And I certainly wouldn't be proud to list it as an "accomplishment".

Bittersweet...

I think, after what he said on the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, we can assume the our Vice President would also find hell to be "bittersweet".

Today, President Obama said that his opponent, Mitt Romney, "has a tendency to shoot first, and aim later".

Mr. President, that is a much more apt description of your Vice President...quite perfectly descriptive...except that there is some question whether he ever does aim at all.

"Stand up, Chuck!" comes to mind...

 The errors he utters indicate he is a man who can't focus enough to adequately address the audience of the day, or keep to the party line. I am still quite astounded that someone who "misspeaks" so profoundly and often, is second in line to the Presidency.

It's another good reason to wish the President good health.

Likability...

I have joked before about our country being "The Land of Perpetual Junior High".

I'm starting to think it isn't a joke...

There's a lot of fussing going on about the "likability" ratings of the two presidential candidates.

Likability?

Who gives a hang dang about likability? I'm just a little more interested in CAPABILITY.

Remember that, American Citizens? CAPABILITY!

You know, competency, success, leadership, character, conviction...

I don't want a president who is like all us common men...I want someone with uncommon capabilities and strength to lead. I would dare to wager that there is a high percentage of our country's presidents who didn't rate high on the likability scale...I think Abraham Lincoln was one of them.

PUH-LEEZE...we have descended into Junior High when our biggest concern is whether we are liked...and we choose our leadership based on whether they are liked, or cool, or easy to talk to and dress nicely.

Let's remind people that likability is a minor virtue...We are looking for capability.

I REALLY don't want to go back to Junior High.

Whatever happened to progress?

In my blog wanderings, I came across this post: Cloth Toilet Paper: How and Why...and I am thinking, mostly, WHY????

This earnest, frugal person, whom I will say must be a "better man than I", uses cloth for, uh, you know what...And then she has to keep a container next to the toilet in which to collect the, uh, used cloths for later washing.  Apparently, the container is sealed, because, well, you know why...

I'm not gonna add this to my to-do list, people...And I'll bet there aren't many old-timers-- who once thought that the Sears catalog was an upgrade -- that will want to bring it back either.

Progress means you can send the, uh, foul stuff away with a flush, and without extra, uh, handling...or smell...or collecting it...ewwwww...Using toilet paper used to be considered an UPGRADE...another improvement for the homemaker, and for hygeine...time-saver, and so much better than a corn cob or a catalog...

So many of the improvements in "technology" that our grandparents and parents hailed as new luxurious conveniences, upgrades in hygeine, in food storage & safety, and in reducing their workloads, have fallen out of favor today.

Oh -- I know chlorine is used to make toilet paper white, and that the toilet paper has to be dealt with at the water treatment plant...But so does the water from your washing machine, and you have just shifted the e.coli to another source for the water treatment plant. I'm not saying cloth does not lessen the effect on water treatment, but I am suggesting that it may not be a very large percentage of improvement for the environment. Not to mention the increased risk of having an e.coli source sitting on the floor of your bathroom while it waits for the wash...

In my opinion, some of these radical shifts back to "the way things were" do more for the psyche of the doer, than they do for the environment, or the purposes used to justify the practice.

More power to you, I say! But I'm staying with paper, and the luxury of flushing some of my troubles away.