Hillary's Tears

[donovan]

I went to Hillsdale on a fraternity trip once. Your right, their SOS would suck. It is a nice school, though, very small. They do have a football team. The frat we visited was made up of mostly football players. I don't know if they are D-11 or D-111.

I bet the huddles are 35 minutes long ...

[Spence]

They were a good group of guys.

[Eric]

I agree 100%, Spence. The problem is the people in Washington aren't the ones who decide. These things are decided by the state governments anyway. Which is why Rudy Giuiliani's stances don't bother me at all. I do think there should be a federal law banning abortion, but the whole gay marriage thing should be decided by the states.

Even though Henry David Thoreau was a bit......out there, he did bring up some good points. I like his quote about government: "That government is best which governs not at all." He isn't an anarchist though, rest assured.

This is why Ron Paul would be such a good candidate if he didn't agree in lockstep with Dennis Kucinich on foreign policy

[Eric]

Is anybody surprised at the Clintons at all in this campaign? I think it's pretty obvious that they're making an attempt to smear Barack Obama by playing racial politics.

I suppose what's even more amazing is all of the Clinton apologists. They can do no wrong in their eyes

[WoVeU]

I have found the place to air my current thoughts with this post.

Before I disseminate my thoughts on policy I will openly give my demography...the catalysts for my "political" concerns

1) I am a Christian, a real one, not that I am a good one, Jesus Christ is my Savior, the only book I've read outside of text books is the Bible in the last decade. I'm simply saying, I don't say I'm a Christian because "I grew up in a Christian family"...whatever that means?!?!?

2) I am a Natural Economist, I always view things through the lens of economy.

3) the other smaller pieces, married, 2 children, 36 years old, Engineer/Teacher, Veteran, my wife is Active Duty Air Force.

The problem with government now is the politics of issues...there is a vein of similarity in running anything: a household, a team, a company, etc.. You don't manage anything by throwing up some 10 to 15 issues and attempt to resolve them...you will always get no where. When you can even have an issue like "gay marriage" being considered as a presidential issue is ridiculous, the issue is of such non-effect compared to other things it is a joke and tells you how much we have let the system get stretched. Put 3 or 4 big issues on the table and attempt to tackle those.

For me...

1) Health Care
2) National Security/National Defense
3) Crime...most notably drugs in America
4) Social Security
5) Welfare (in all of it's forms)

When I look at these I note several things. All have had many measures taken up for a good while and the results have been minimal or no-gain for all but Security and Defense. All of these are going to take a huge level of funding to fix. So where do we start...my Engineer comes out....

One of these correlates to 3 of the others rather directly. Crime! It effects 1,2, and 5. And in engineer

Of all the things we have tried with Drugs in America....none have worked, and the problem continues to grow. When you get to where we are you have to make a tough decision...Legalize It. Yeah, I have seen the destruction, it sucks, but you have to start somewhere, and it is feeding into so many other crimes it is too far gone.

Then my Economist comes out.

At the current prices you could legalize and tax it exorbitantly and still push the drug cartels out of business. We could probably go from spending $143.4 Billion in 1998 (to about $200 Billion or more now and many more billions in fighting other crimes heavily related to drugs) to probably a $70 billion tax revenue.
Note: {$7.235 billion on cigarettes in '06 (Federal) and $13.964 Billion (State)...more than $21 Billion} {Alcohol tax in '05: $5.145 Billion}
We are talking a $300 billion turn around in costs. And it is more than money.

1) Real control is brought in
2) Decriminalize those who might otherwise not be criminals.
When you label a person a criminal (for drugs) they much more readily commit other crimes, after all, "they are already a criminal anyway."
3) Remove the much of rebellion aspect of it for youths.

Then we can redirect some funds to rehab programs and have it more accessible. You just reduced the DEA to a few 100 people now serving as a small branch of the FBI. 60 to 70% percent of the city police man power just got freed up. You probably just saved $20 billion or so in Health Care Costs from immediate effects.

It isn't some pretty solution...but it is legitimate. I do not do any drugs and wish it didn't exist but it does...and everything else is nothingness. Under this system you might be able to get some control being practiced in a manner similar to the reduction in drunk driving. Other countries that have more allowance don't have anywhere near our level of problems. We could then, at least, be able to walk the streets again. And move 95% of the suffering to those who choose to engage in using drugs...that is a real gain to me!

Start here then take the money and manpower and move onto Health Care and Welfare Reform.

[Eric]

I think legalizing drugs would produce more money in the short term, but it would have a very negative effect on society. You have to think about the drop-out rates amongst high-schoolers. That would be detrimental to "competing in the global market". Even if you take the rebellious tag off of it, making it more accessible means more people would do it. Drugs are directly correllated with crime and it's no coincidence that the two are linked.

[WoVeU]

I think legalizing drugs would produce more money in the short term, but it would have a very negative effect on society. You have to think about the drop-out rates amongst high-schoolers. That would be detrimental to "competing in the global market". Even if you take the rebellious tag off of it, making it more accessible means more people would do it. Drugs are directly correllated with crime and it's no coincidence that the two are linked.

1) We are not competing in the global market, period! We are sales, marketing, advertising, and legal hounds....all hot wind jobs. We have off-shored so much we are nothing more than a service economies. Our economy is now totally dependent on at least 4 others.

People who think drugs being legal would make it more available haven't been around it. It being legal would make it much harder for teenagers to get it, as we would then only be policing the resale niche to minors. Get a group of kids together and ask them, Can you get drugs? How long it would it take you...How hard would it be?

But it just boils down to everybody seems to be more afraid of what might happen instead of what is happening already. If you can't fix the current problem...100% proven...then a new problem wouldn't be anymore difficult to resolve. And we have what we have a country that can't fix a single real problem.

I am not surprised, most people can't fix anything. Their car, their washer, their computer, their HVAC system, very little can they fix. Then they call "someone" who can and they fail too and generally keep guessing and taking stabs at it until they don't see the problem anymore. People primarily engage in wind...so they can't fix anything, it is the "I'm not good at that stuff"...hint you are not good at anything concrete. This country is left to 90% wind-blowers where they can be employed at things that have no fundamental point or concrete basis to show they were wrong or lacked sufficient ability. It goes well with the "everybody is a victim" mentality fro the masses.

And thus we have a country that can't be fixed!