COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Saturday, March 31, 2007

Life on the Mexican Border

Here's an interesting story in the El Paso Times about a successful interdiction of 5,000 plus pounds of marijuana at the border crossing in El Paso. hattip: World Net Daily.

The driver hauling the two tons is being held at "El Paso immigration detention center pending immigration removal proceedings." I assume that these proceedings are the customary process prior to an arraignment and trial for the drug charges. I hate to think that he would be returned to Mexico without prosecution.

A total of 12,000 lbs of marijuana and 9.7 lbs of cocaine were seized last week alone. These drugs are killing America. Now methamphetamines have swept through even the rural areas, so there's no getting away from the crime and depredation.

Call me a fundie, but I see a correlation between the rise of secularism and hedonism and the disintegration of American culture. You can thank Madelyn Murray O'Hair and the American Civil Liberties Union for that.

15 comments:

  1. I disagree...

    Atheists are not the problem

    To much believing in too much is the problem...

    This causes the kids to grow up and throw the baby out with the bath water...

    Coming my humble POV...

    Pot should be decrim'd, taxed and controlled just like booze and any other legal drug.

    The problem with meth and such is different, let's not put pot and meth in the same conversation.

    As for the aclu, not that i agree with them on all issues but i do remember them helping me NOT have pretend to be a Christian in a small town in Texas in the late 60's

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  2. Whit: Call me a fundie, but I see a correlation between the rise of secularism and hedonism and the disintegration of American culture. You can thank Madelyn Murray O'Hair and the American Civil Liberties Union for that.

    This view assumes that American culture is static, and is benchmarked at a specific point in time, say 1950. If that is the case, then it is indeed disintegrating, already beyond the recognition of even I, who grew up in the 70's, and then we can look around for blame factors, such as the rise of unbelief as you mentioned, the phasing out of corporal punishment, the proliferation of jackpot lawsuits, the erosion of workmanship, the elevation of instant gratification over delayed satisfaction.

    If American culture is dynamic, however, it can never disintegrate. It is what it is, at any given time. By 2050 America will join all the other countries in the Western Hemisphere and become majority Catholic for the first time in history. In the static view, this spells the disintegration of WASP American culture. In the dynamic view, absolutely nothing will have happened.

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  3. I agree about the fence, but there are acres and acres of US National Forests that have been converted to pot cultivation.
    Link to an informative search. As I had thought the cases in AZ to be unique, silly me.

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  4. Bobalharb: Mexico and drugs seem almost synonomous to me, these days. Build a fence.

    What does it profit a country to build hundreds of miles of fence if the President thinks he can gain a few GOP voters by granting amnesty to ethnics who vote 2:1 Democrat? The result will only be an eternal lock on all three branches of government by the Donks and the fence will be torn down. Not one of Karl Rove's more inspired plans.

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  5. Rat:
    Thanks, I fixed the link.

    WIO:
    Sorry to hear about your childhood persecution. Would you care to share? As far as decriming pot like alcohol. What problems will that solve. Another young man just died on a college campus this week from alcohol poisoning. Reports indicate that college binge drinking is out of control in US and in general young adult population in golly 'ol England also.

    Teresita, 1:43:
    Your Point 2 (Dynamic culture) Sounds like a bit o' higher ed claptrap to me. Of course, cultures are dynamic especially when atheists, agnostics, and multi-culti humanists get the upper hand. Accelerates the dynamic; capeche?

    Bobal:
    I share your misgivings about pot. No good comes of it and for too many, it is definitely a gateway drug.

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  6. Years ago I worked with a reformed pothead at a construction site. One day at lunch he told me how drugs had ruined his life, destroyed his marriage, and how he lost everything he owned.
    He said that he wished he had the opportunity to talk to high school kids about how pot had ruined his life and how long it took him to rebuild it
    What would you tell them says I, and I will never forget his answer....
    I would tell them " It steals your dreams man, it steals your dreams."

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  7. rufus, were not the distilleries you reference earlier coming in at $3 million USD?

    They are going for a grant of $30 million from the Federals.

    The cost of 10 private capital distilleries.
    Unless the refining capacity is 10 times as high, which I don't recall the others' capacity, do you?

    But, if it is 10 times more for Federal vs Private, for the same capaciity, the future in more ways then one, I'm afraid.

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  8. Rat:

    As I recall from what little research I did on ethanol distilleries was that the startup cost was in the neighborhood of $25 to $30 million.

    Can't remember the capacity.

    I believe the largest expense in the operation is the cost of energy to cook the batch.

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  9. Could be a faulty memory on my part, whit.

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  10. TUCSON, Ariz. (Associated Press) -- The two people killed by gunmen who apparently believed a pickup truck filled with illegal immigrants contained drugs have been identified as relatives from the state of Chiapas in southern Mexico.

    Consuelo Perez-Roman, 28, and her brother-in-law, Antonio Perez-Perez, 30, were found dead by Pima County sheriff's deputies early Friday. They had been in a truck with 21 other immigrants that was heading north toward Tucson on a desert road when it was peppered with high-powered weapons fire, deputies said.

    Perez-Perez's two children, a 7-year-old girl and 2-year-old boy, were in the truck with him but were not hurt. The only other person known to have been shot is a Guatemalan man whose wounds were not considered life-threatening.

    Most the migrants in the group, which also included an infant, were believed to be from Chiapas, said Alejandro Ramos Cardoso, spokesman for the Mexican Consulate in Tucson.

    Deputies and U.S. Border Patrol agents found 23 suspected illegal immigrants, including the dead and wounded, after the shooting Friday morning. All the survivors were being held by immigration officials as witnesses.

    Border Patrol agents found two men and three weapons close to a nearby campsite, and they later admitted shooting at the packed Ford pickup, said Richard Kastigar, Pima County sheriff's criminal investigations chief.

    Rosario Humberto Araujo-Monares, 21, and Martin Flores-Gaxiola, 18, both of Sinaloa, Mexico, were booked into jail on counts of homicide and attempted homicide, Kastigar said.

    They told detectives they had been in the desert for a couple of days, waiting to hijack any drug smuggling vehicles that came through the area, Kastigar said. People in the truck said the driver yelled out the window that he was carrying people, not drugs, when the shots began hitting the pickup.

    Officials continue to seek other gunmen, as well as two to three smugglers who were transporting the migrants.

    Friday's incident is the latest in a series of attacks that have targeted either migrants or drug runners in southern Arizona.

    An attack in February on a vehicle carrying illegal immigrants northwest of Tucson killed two men and a girl. In January, a van loaded with migrants was fired on near Eloy, killing the driver, and two Mexican men smuggling marijuana were killed north of the border by gunmen wearing camouflage.

    "This is a situation that should worry both governments," Cardoso said. "We are seeing a repeat of the same kind of incidents that put the lives of so many in danger."

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  11. Bobal,
    Did you see that liberal UK Paper that had advocated legalization 30 some years ago and recently published a public APOLOGY after seeing, and agreeing with a study that shows pot does indeed drive some insane?

    It is tremendously more potent these days.
    The old weed could never deliver a modern dose.
    An ex best friend of our son had to be hospitalized when he went nuts.
    His liberal dad always told him that pot was less dangerous than alcohol.
    Both Parents Berkley Phds from the 60's!
    ...put on airs as the perfect family until about 2 years ago with a divorce.
    Think the kid went nuts after that, but not sure.
    He went to an expensive private high school just like Obama, think he may be a teacher now!
    Figures.

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  12. ok gang...

    i am a hard working, smart, right wing democratic hawk...

    but i'll take a doobie in a second verses a beer....

    mother's milk is a gateway drug for g-d's sake...

    the issue? personal choice.

    I find HUNDREDS of people whose lives are destroyed by booze or pills, but aside from the one in a million, moderate pot smoking is far less deadly than cig, beer or scotch.

    Is the pot better today? Only if i were stupid enough to grow it. Since i 1st smoked my 1st bong hit in 1977 to today quality is something that changes all the time.

    The best stuff i seem to hazely remember was in 1980 at penn state & 1990's in amsterdam

    What i seem to find is that SOME people are such unmoderate people, they cant just have a cool brew or a "hit" of pot, they smoke til they are zombies..

    I am NOT an advocate for a cheech and chong movie, however past behavior (when i was 20) does not seem to be the pattern that i now find myself in...

    AND i'd rather have my spring breaker kdis blow a doobie then guzzle beer til they vomit...

    just a thought, oh it's sat night, kids are asleep, wife is asleep, i think i will organize my tools and work in the garage, oh yeah... I got the bong out there!

    Maybe i use hemp to calm my mind down so i can act normal, or focus on tasks like organizing my tools, being creative and working on my business websites or actually calming down so that people dont think i am on crack.. (i am not nor will i ever be)

    Pot has NOT sapped my will

    Pot has not made me lazy

    Pot has not been a gateway drug for me

    just one "stoner's" pov...

    maybe if we shipped pot to the jihadists they too could be laid back and grab a snack, instead of wanting to murder all day long

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  13. WiO:

    What i seem to find is that SOME people are such unmoderate people, they cant just have a cool brew or a "hit" of pot, they smoke til they are zombies..

    I did it a few times, peer pressure and all, I didn't like it. Makes me paranoid that it's not even my own house I'm walking into. Makes my mouth dry. Makes me laugh so hard at Monty Python my sides ache. Besides, the gov'mint does piss tests now. So enjoy, I'll pass.

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  14. I did it a few times, peer pressure and all, I didn't like it. Makes me paranoid that it's not even my own house I'm walking into. Makes my mouth dry. Makes me laugh so hard at Monty Python my sides ache. Besides, the gov'mint does piss tests now. So enjoy, I'll pass.

    I dont mission ize...

    as for dry mouth? that's what g-d invented tang for....

    as for piss tests, at my company I am the one who judges them ;)

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