Election results

[rcain]

So yeah. We have our first black President. And that is wonderful.

Although the 'race factor' is significant, I don't believe its nearly as important as is often made out. A large percentage of the worlds population, let alone the American electorate (to their great credit), viewed the American presidential elections as a 'post-racialist' phenomenon.

Obama was primarily judged on his eloquence and polemic, his physiogomy, his 'language', his age, his 'concepts' (for it is true, there were few 'ideas' or 'practicalities' discussed), the matter of 'identification', his 'image' - il faut mieux.

McCain, although a very decent individual, was in my opinion becomming too old (read infirm) and 'pushed about' by the rest of the republican party/mind-set - whatever you call that. if he'd run for the democrats, he might have won. The selection of Palin was just seen as a joke by all thinking people the world over, I'm afraid - no offense.

And yes for the sake of the world I hope the American economy gets back on track. Because we are the engine of world prosperity.

We all hope, we all have a 'better life', for all our sakes - and that is entirely within our self interest, mutual and several.

however, the American economy is but one of the many engines that make the world go around; capital has no ultimate flag of sovereignty.

Which reminds me. I forgot to mention Chinese instability due to American economic trouble.

[/quote]

... case in point. not to mention the world instability due to Chinese economic trouble: They just want cheap washing machines and good food like all the rest of us. And by god, hard work and the will of the people's party they are going to get them.

America needs to be worried more about what happens at home.

big flux the world over - and you thought plasma physics was difficult

[Skipjack]

Oh please... legalizing certain plants as you guys say has not worked anywhere. Even in the netherlands where it is not legal per se actually, they are thinking about abandoning this. Even they would never consider legalizing certain plants. The whole idea is total bull anyway. If you ask me how to deal with it: Use satellites to find the fields, then send some bombers with aerosol bombs -> problem solved.
The US is in the position that they can force the governments of those countries that produce certain plants to cooperate.

[JohnSmith]

Let me see if I understand you, Skipjack.

Your idea is for the US to violate another country's airspace, bomb the crap out of some farmer's fields, and then lean on the country's government if it has the gall to complain.

You have got to be kidding me.

[Helius]

Oh please... legalizing certain plants as you guys say has not worked anywhere. Even in the netherlands where it is not legal per se actually, they are thinking about abandoning this. Even they would never consider legalizing certain plants. The whole idea is total bull anyway. If you ask me how to deal with it: Use satellites to find the fields, then send some bombers with aerosol bombs -> problem solved.
The US is in the position that they can force the governments of those countries that produce certain plants to cooperate.

The Demand bomb: If everyone had to provide a urine or blood sample for either a drivers license or to register a vehicle, and the sample were tested for marijuana, Cocaine, and Opiates then demand for such drugs would fall to a small fraction of their current levels. It seems legitimate to require a drug free continence to operate heavy machinery. What 16 year old would sample drugs risking his drivers license?

The social sanction of No driver's license and no mobility would work for keeping young people off drugs, and by the time they're 25 or so, they're no longer quite so vulnerable.

Although this would work, leaving the opiate farmers without a market, it won't ever happen. It is not politically feasible since the population would not want to sacrifice this little bit to solve the problem but instead will suffer great expense to have the problem solved for them, despite unworkable options of police work and prisons. Police work and expansive prisons, at this point, is a falsified experiment. Milder, well thought social sanctions would, however, work.

[Skipjack]

Dude, it is already illegal to drive on drugs and we do still have a problem. I am from Europe, btw where things are a lot more liberal than in the US in general. Marijuana is not that big a problem and could potentially be handled like alcohol (with some stricter regulations- and I am even against that for I have personally see how it makes people dumb through frequent use) but all other drugs no way! Hard drugs, like the cocain based crack and especially the opiate Heroin (which has had a horrifying revival on our streets here in recent years) turn people into willingless zombies. All they can think about is, where to get the next fix from. They are incapable of doing even the most simple of jobs, other than drug-prostitution or stealing. It is horrible. It is a way to turn people into slaves. Slaves for drug dealers. I dont know about you, but I would rather be dead than ever be a slave to anyone and I would want the same for my children.
And yes I am for bombing someones farm, if that farm belongs to some Pablo Escobaresque nolife. Any country that tollerates drugs to be planted on its soil, willingly supports slavery of the most brutal and ruthless kind. A country that does that, has no right to exist and its leaders should pray that there would be no further repercussions.
The US is the only country in the world that has the power to do that and they should. We can not allow our children to be slaves.
I am a very liberal person, I actually supported Obama, but when it comes to drugs, I have zero tollerance.

[Roger]

as well as a strong supporter of the Navy and armed services. Clearly the same cannot be said of the President elect or his supporters.

I think you owe a lot of people an apology, for spewing that kind of hatred.

Consider this a formal request for deletion of self editing.

[Helius]

The Drugs that I mentioned can be detected in one's system after weeks or months of abstinence. I didn't mention alcohol because that is not detectable after abstinence.

We all agree that zero intoxication is a requirement for operating a motor vehicle. That's a no brainer.

What I'm proposing is that we use the long term detectability of some drugs to demand and measure for a *drug free continence* as a prerequisite for getting a Driver's license or a vehicle registration.

Not only would kids universally stop using drugs, it'd become uncool.

The Taliban would have to eat their opium.... themselves.

[Roger]

A trillion a year Heroin market is used as a money laundering scheme, a great way to set up an underground bank.

Not including this fact in the big picture means solutions are not based on reality.

[Skipjack]

Helius, one problem with these tests is that there can be false positives. Eat a bun with poppy seeds on it and you will be "heroin positive" for a couple of days, or even longer. This is why they have to actually find those drugs on you to do something. Since I assume that there are (luckily) still a lot more people eating buns or bagles with poppy seeds in them, than there are heroin addicts, you will end up getting more innocents into trouble than actual bad guys.
Besides most heroin addicts probably wont care anyway. They have given up their car a long time ago for drug money.
They dont give a darn about a drivers license. If you ask them whether they have one, all you will get is something like this "dude maaan I think I have had one a a a a while a a go, dun need that maan, just gotta get some stuff.... y- you knnnowww". All that while he is dancing arround like an idiot.
Many of them probably did not even have a drivers license to begin with, yet allone a car.
There are 13 year old girls on heroin here that is sold in front of their schools. They still need 5 years (here) until they can drive, to long for most teens to be of actual relevance.
Anyway, legalization does not work, it has not worked anywhere and I have not seen any good argument why it would. The only thing that works is zero tolerance towards dealers and the mafia behind them. Secret service methods and surgical military strikes. If you get them while on foreign soil, even better less problems in courts and less people in prison.

[MSimon]

Oh please... legalizing certain plants as you guys say has not worked anywhere. Even in the netherlands where it is not legal per se actually, they are thinking about abandoning this. Even they would never consider legalizing certain plants. The whole idea is total bull anyway. If you ask me how to deal with it: Use satellites to find the fields, then send some bombers with aerosol bombs -> problem solved.
The US is in the position that they can force the governments of those countries that produce certain plants to cooperate.

But criminalizing plants is a tool of oppression. Read some history.

http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/History/whiteb1.htm

And you need only look at the racial composition of American prisons to see that it is still working that way.

And what is the Democrat Party in America?

http://powerandcontrol.blogspot.com/200 ... party.html

The Democrat Party is a coalition of the oppressed and formerly oppressed Americans.

We either grant cultural liberty with all its attendant problems or we create grievance classes who want to bring down the system.

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it. --Thomas Jefferson

Maybe the old boy knew something.

BTW the plant problem can't be solved by bombing - because you would have to bomb the whole world. Seeds are mobile. Farmers will move. Or the seeds will.

I'm going to assume you have to be pretty smart to be interested in Polywell. Bombing plants is one of the dumbest things I have ever heard. Because people are like plasma. You can't just do one thing. Everything affects everything. And resents once developed can be long lasting. Look at the role of the amygdala in brain function.

Besides we currently do not have enough bombs or bombers. And when you wreck a man's livelihood with bombs you create enemies. As strong as America is we could be defeated if the whole world rose against us.

We are spraying plant fields in South America. We don't even have enough spray and helicopters to do the job. And what has been the response of the South American Farmers? They doubled the acreage. How many doublings before we run out of money?

[MSimon]

Oh please... legalizing certain plants as you guys say has not worked anywhere. Even in the netherlands where it is not legal per se actually, they are thinking about abandoning this. Even they would never consider legalizing certain plants. The whole idea is total bull anyway. If you ask me how to deal with it: Use satellites to find the fields, then send some bombers with aerosol bombs -> problem solved.
The US is in the position that they can force the governments of those countries that produce certain plants to cooperate.

The Demand bomb: If everyone had to provide a urine or blood sample for either a drivers license or to register a vehicle, and the sample were tested for marijuana, Cocaine, and Opiates then demand for such drugs would fall to a small fraction of their current levels. It seems legitimate to require a drug free continence to operate heavy machinery. What 16 year old would sample drugs risking his drivers license?

The social sanction of No driver's license and no mobility would work for keeping young people off drugs, and by the time they're 25 or so, they're no longer quite so vulnerable.

Although this would work, leaving the opiate farmers without a market, it won't ever happen. It is not politically feasible since the population would not want to sacrifice this little bit to solve the problem but instead will suffer great expense to have the problem solved for them, despite unworkable options of police work and prisons. Police work and expansive prisons, at this point, is a falsified experiment. Milder, well thought social sanctions would, however, work.

What we really need is daily drug testing. Some drugs are gone from the system in 24 hours. In fact some drugs are gone in just a few hours.

I propose hourly testing and any one who tests positive it is an instant death sentence.

With only 10 or 15 million drug users in America I think we could wipe them out in just a few years.

(\sarc)

Doesn't any one believe in Liberty any more?

And you know the NIDA says addiction is a genetic disease. So you want to punish people for "bad" genes? Are you insane? Or just evil.

http://powerandcontrol.blogspot.com/200 ... sease.html

[MSimon]

Helius, one problem with these tests is that there can be false positives. Eat a bun with poppy seeds on it and you will be "heroin positive" for a couple of days, or even longer. This is why they have to actually find those drugs on you to do something. Since I assume that there are (luckily) still a lot more people eating buns or bagles with poppy seeds in them, than there are heroin addicts, you will end up getting more innocents into trouble than actual bad guys.
Besides most heroin addicts probably wont care anyway. They have given up their car a long time ago for drug money.
They dont give a darn about a drivers license. If you ask them whether they have one, all you will get is something like this "dude maaan I think I have had one a a a a while a a go, dun need that maan, just gotta get some stuff.... y- you knnnowww". All that while he is dancing arround like an idiot.
Many of them probably did not even have a drivers license to begin with, yet allone a car.
There are 13 year old girls on heroin here that is sold in front of their schools. They still need 5 years (here) until they can drive, to long for most teens to be of actual relevance.
Anyway, legalization does not work, it has not worked anywhere and I have not seen any good argument why it would. The only thing that works is zero tolerance towards dealers and the mafia behind them. Secret service methods and surgical military strikes. If you get them while on foreign soil, even better less problems in courts and less people in prison.

Addiction is a genetic disease. It is a two factor problem. Genetics and trauma.

So you want to punish the traumatized? How Christian of you. And the #1 trauma that leads to heroin addiction in women? Sexual abuse.

http://powerandcontrol.blogspot.com/2004/09/heroin.html

I was under the impression that civilized people were compassionate.

And by working what exactly do you mean? That legalization will stop the problem of drug abuse? How can it? All it will do is take crime out of the equation. The problems of drug use will still exist.

What we want is to eliminate drugs as a source of profits for states and criminal enterprises. The only way without mass murder or the elimination of civil liberties is legalization.

[Roger]

as well as a strong supporter of the Navy and armed services. Clearly the same cannot be said of the President elect or his supporters.

I think you owe a lot of people an apology, for spewing that kind of hatred.

Consider this a formal request for deletion of self editing.

Hey Chuck was that a comedy bit ?

[Roger]

as well as a strong supporter of the Navy and armed services. Clearly the same cannot be said of the President elect or his supporters.

I think you owe a lot of people an apology, for spewing that kind of hatred.

Consider this a formal request for deletion of self editing.

Hey Chuck was that a comedy bit ?

IT aint funny.

Who was it that got 3.6 billion for the largest increase in VA healthcare in 8 years?

Who got increased GI Bill college money passed?

What is the means test for Group 8 Vets coming home after 3+ tours in Iraq?

Where was John McCain when it comes to tricare elegibility for Guard & Reserve?

Where is Bush and McCain on purchasing M-113 or Strykers ? No where to be found when it comes to voting for appropriations.

[MSimon]

All they can think about is, where to get the next fix from.

How true. And Dr. Marks in England showed that if they know where there next fix is coming from about 1/2 can hold down regular jobs. And if they know where their next fix is coming from about 2/3s will stop stealing for a living.

What I see here is that people who have studied and gained competence in one area think they are competent in all areas without study.

Fortunately I am one of the foremost amateur experts in the area of drugs because I have been studying the question intensively for about 8 years.

Most people know nothing about the physiology of drugs. It is all about the amygdala.

You can start here:

http://powerandcontrol.blogspot.com/200 ... ystem.html

http://powerandcontrol.blogspot.com/200 ... s-war.html

When it comes to drugs the upper classes skate (look up Peter Lewis) and the lower classes (esp. blacks and hispanics) go to jail. Is that right?

What it is: there are receptors in the brain. Those receptors need to be filled. If the body does not make sufficient fillers people take drugs to make up the difference. If you get those drugs from a doctor - fine - no problem. If you buy them from an unapproved source woe be unto you.

http://powerandcontrol.blogspot.com/200 ... holes.html

The problem with this question is that what so many people know ain't so. And why is that? Lack of study. Now you wouldn't try to solve a physics problem without knowledge. But the drug problem? Ignorance is no problem. And the really big problem is that quite a few are unaware of their ignorance. Other wise they would be asking questions (as they do with obscure physics problems) instead of pontificating their ignorance.

Where is the spirit of honest inquiry?