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Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission
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| Planting time in a Buenos Aires backyard |
The supreme court in Argentina has ruled that it is unconstitutional to punish people for using marijuana for personal consumption. The decision follows a case of five young men who were arrested with a few marijuana cigarettes in their pockets.
The Argentine court ruled that: “Each adult is free to make lifestyle decisions without the intervention of the state.”
Supreme Court President Ricardo Lorenzetti said private behaviour was legal, “as long as it doesn’t constitute clear danger. The state cannot establish morality“…
Argentina’s move follows rulings by several other countries across the region, including Venezuela, Ecuador and Colombia.
The aim of such moves is to enable police to focus their efforts on the big criminals in the drugs trade rather than dealing with petty cases, says our correspondent, Candace Piette.
But it also marks a shift a dramatic regional shift to the decades-old US-backed policy of running repressive military-style wars on the drug trade, she adds.
Another chunk of South America makes a political and legal decision – independent of 19th Century “morality”.
Dipshits! It’s not about marijuana – it’s about the ARBITRARY decision about what I can and cannot do. It’s about individual liberty to decide for oneself.
If you’re so obtuse that you can’t see that, you don’t deserve the gift the founding fathers and all those who have given their lives in the name of liberty have tried to give you. And I can live with that, but it pisses me off that you are bringing me down into your murky slime with you.
#31, BertDawg
Sorry, I stopped reading after the word Dipshits. That alone told me, and most readers whose opinion you may have had a chance to influence, that nothing coming from you was worth bothering with.
#31, BertDawgShit,
It pisses me off to no end that people like you want to drag us down to your filth.
You start spouting “The Founding Fathers” with no comprehension of what the Constitution is, meant, was created, or means today. You want us to believe that all those who served this country did so just so you could spew your garbage. That is truly sick.
The simplest way to sum up your ideas is to say you are willfully ignorant.
#33–Fusion==have you had prior run-ins with BertDog? Seems to me his post #31 is correct in all meaningful aspects? Well “mostly.”
Of course, the issue is MJ. Using drugs is just one aspect of the freedom we should have as perceived by the Founding Fathers–even while they agreed to keep slavery legal.
But still, Dog is more correct than wrong. Why climb his cage?
#34 – bobbo – Thank you for actually reading my comment with an open mind. It was late. I was tired. Perhaps discretion would have been better.
#33 – Mr Fusion – You could not be more wrong.
#32 – Number6 – Sorry about the Dipshits. Had I known that peoples’ focus was so easily thrown off-track, I probably would have tried to be more politic, except that that doesn’t seem to work with folks who need a little jolt to pay attention.
#35, BertDawg – No problem. So I went back and read past the word.
Couldn’t agree more. In general people want freedom without having to grant freedom to others. We get to live with the results of course, as those in power pander to each group that wants to take away a little more of our liberty.
The change will come when we can look at what people we disagree with are doing and simply disagree without wanting to make it illegal.
#34, bobbo, doesn’t pick up everything,
Seems to me his post #31 is correct in all meaningful aspects?
You make it sound more like candy than poison.
Dipshits! It’s not about marijuana – it’s about the ARBITRARY decision about what I can and cannot do.
The responsibilities of living inside a society are enormous. The Liebertarians don’t want those responsibilities, they only want the benefits. We, as a society, make arbitrary mandates that apply to everyone all the time. Many are wrong, for example, controlling what a woman may or may not do with her body. They very often end up being changed.
Here, the BertDawgShit, isn’t about whether marijuana is good, bad, harmful, beneficial, curative, improperly designated, or whatever. It is about HIS choice to do whatever HE wishes. The arbitrary decisions that society finds harmful; yelling “FIRE” in a crowded theater, burning tires because you like the pretty smoke, marrying 14 y/o girls as you fourth + wife, ignoring STOP signs because they interfere with your driving enjoyment, getting so piss ass drunk you fall in the middle of the road, etc. are designated as harmful to society as a whole.
If marijuana should be legalized then so be it. At this point in time though, it is still illegal right alongside heroin, ectasy, LSD, marrying 14 y/o girls, and burning tires.
The second point is the “founding fathers”. This is a constantly used ruse to deflect that they don’t agree with the majority view of how the Constitution is viewed. The concept put forth that “It’s about individual liberty to decide for oneself.” is poppycock. A person’s individual liberty has always been subservient to the society’s needs as a whole, even when the Constitution was framed. The Constitution does not recognize the “right” of a person to burn tires because some dipshit wants to. The “rights” of the whole trump any perceived “right” that dipshit might have.
So just because YOU want to do something, it does not follow society’s best interest is served. And Society has decreed this is wrong.
The tendency towards obedience, and anger shown by the obedient to those who do not obey, is a fascinating subject in itself.
Check out: http://www.wimp.com/humansociety/
Mr ConFusion (if you insist on playing that sophomoric game),
Yet again, you could not be more wrong.
‘You make it sound more like candy than poison.’ What is wrong with you? Tobacco has for years killed more than the equivalent of two fully-loaded 747’s crashing from altitude every day, day in and day out in this country alone, and that is currently legal, so therefore presumably OK with you. The statistics on alcohol and drunk-driving are equally grim and that is currently legal, and presumably Ok with you. By comparison with just those two substances marijuana is almost completely benign. Still, these observations are beside the point, although indicative of your impaired ability to reason effectively.
You go on to pontificate about the responsibilities of living inside a society, and rail about Liebertarians (sic) whoever Liebert was or is. Libertarians, on the other hand, at least those I have actually spoken with, are very thoughtful and patriotic individuals who are actually performing a great service for our country by trying to point out some of the ways the Republic has veered off course.
One of the most important responsibilities of societal membership is being able recognize that protecting individual liberties is everyone’s responsibility, and that it requires determined and protracted viigilance. I’d be willing to wager (ooh, wait – that might not be legal where you are, so let me rephrase that) – willing to believe that there are things you do that many people would not approve of, but as long as they don’t hurt others we let you do those things.
Live and let live, I always say.
Right up there with, ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.’
In my view, an even greater responsibility is to constantly question things. Our government lies to us all the time, and I’m not talking about the myriad conspiracy theories. I’m talking about day-to-day things like changing the criteria for reporting highway fatalities in order to support the contention that ’55 SAVES LIVES,’ for example. To be sure, it is dated but that is a clear example of the government’s methodology. What’s more, that is not just an opinion, that is historical fact, at least it was in NH, when I first found out about it. What the agenda was remains open to speculation. Of one thing you can be sure – there was an agenda, and it’s a safe bet there was money involved. The people, however, weren’t going for it. The people will probably eventually put their collective feet down regarding pot, too. That remains to be seen.
re: the founding fathers. When was the last time, if ever, that you read the Declaration of Independence (and I mean the whole damn thing including the entire litany of offenses the colonists suffered at the hands of King George III), or for that matter, the Constitution? The fact that you would write references to the founding fathers off as a ruse, illustrates in brilliant clarity that you know not whereof you speak. A ruse? Hardly.
You haven’t even read them, have you? Or if you have, they went right over your head. Disappointing, but not surprising.
One of the many things you seem to have failed to consider is role of money in all this. Our shining republic (the 5000 year leap) has degenerated into a bribeocracy. Special interest groups and their lobbyists are the only ones getting anything done and based only on their biases (whatever the source) and opportunistic purposes, we the people are not considered other than as the source of tax revenue to keep the machine going.
The special interest groups in play here are the whole dang enforcement and corrections industry. As it is now, we have the highest per capita incarceration rate in the world, which is quite a thing for the Home of the Free. The founding fathers would probably not be pleased if they could come back back to witness what we have let happen to this country.
The Golden Rule that some of us had drummed into our heads as kids has been perverted to ‘He Who Has The Gold Makes The Rules.’ Now, I realize It was ever thus, before Paine, Jefferson, Franklin and their contemporaries came along. That is basically what the Constitution was written to correct and prevent. I suggest you read it, slowly if you must, and actually think about it.
Constitutionally, there should be no victimless crimes. If something you or I like to do doesn’t actually hurt or cause hardship to anybody else, we should be free to do it.
As to your final contention:
‘So just because YOU want to do something, it does not follow society’s best interest is served. And Society has decreed this is wrong.’
I hereby raise the BULLSHIT flag. Society has decreed nothing of the sort. I didn’t get a vote on whether to criminalize marijuana, and neither did you, Bub. I wouldn’t be complaining if we had actually gotten a say in the matter, in fact I think we should. There’s obviously a tremendous market for it, and therefore a good opportunity for the government to PROFIT from the demand instead of SPENDING so much to suppress it.
Other suggested reading that I believe might help you – A Nation of Sheep, by Judge Andrew Napolitano.
And lastly, where do you get off making assumptions about what motivates me and the things I am passionate about?
Sheeesh! Get over yourself!
Number6 – Wow! Good link; thanks. Sad, but true. Fortunately, we humans can raise our voices in protest. And that’s reason to hope.
Mr DifFusion,
Despite having heard and appreciated the comical and yet sensible nature of the warning, I am clearly mud-wrestling with a pig.
Since there’s nothing further to be gained from sustaining the effort (not even roast pork, cuban-style) I leave the sty to you.
Mr. Fusion,
Are you capable of anything more than straw man arguments followed by sophomoric puns meant to insult?
Oh yes, showing your own ignorance. It’s good to have so many skills.