I’m trying to force myself not to do any work this morning. I do have something to do late tonight, which I’ll do, but the temptations are there, certainly.
Slept hard last night, but that’s not a bad thing. When my alarm went off this morning I turned if off, with only a moment’s consideration, and went back to sleep for another hour-plus.
It’s Sunday. I can do that if I want.
Writing, on the other hand, really isn’t one of those, strangely.
Digging through the archives….
Hmmph. – 8/2/2002
RC on the last one, which spawned quite a few notes. Thing about it is…..
It doesn’t matter to me what other people do. If people want to use drugs, fine. Yeah, I smoke. I know it’s probably not the best thing in the world for me to do. I enjoy it. I also enjoy eating fatty foods and many other activities that aren’t necessarily good for me. I drink. That said, I’ve only been “drunk” umm…..once this calendar year. Rarely do I have more than one drink in a sitting.
But my point, which some people obviously missed, is that trying to control what people do for pleasure is basically impossible. (oral sex is still illegal many places……) “Just Say No” was so ingrained….and it hasn’t worked. We’ve forcefully taken billions of dollars from people to fund this “War on Drugs.” People still use drugs. And, really, the costs to society have greatly outweighed any benefits. I heard on the radio the other day that there are half a million people in prison right now just for simple drug possession. And we’ve got FBI agents snooping into bank accounts, drive-by shootings, asset forfeiture, missionary planes being shot down in Peru….
AND PEOPLE STILL USE DRUGS.
You’re never going to stop it. And so I say, put up or shut up. Either make every single mood-altering chemical illegal, or legalize it all. And if the popular choice is the former, I’ll go somewhere I’m free.
So my views really weren’t that different, even eighteen years ago.
What is more difficult today is cancellations of people for insufficient wokeness. I disagree with your goals, so I’m unable to live my life as I choose.
Got it.
For reference, “RC” here stands for “Readers’ Choice.” It was a tool used on the old OD to give attention to various people’s entries.
I’m not sure what the hell I wrote that people liked, and I’m too lazy to go back and try to figure it out.
More tomorrow. I’ve got some things to do.