tvashtarkatena

Right now, 'house cleaner' is the profession I would respect and appreciate most.

Judging the relative value of someone's profession is a wholly subjective auto jerk most people don't engage in because they've progressed beyond a kindergartner's social intelligence. To someone who doesn't give a damn about Egyptology, which would be most people, someone like Raindawg might appear to be a complete waste of protoplasm. Someone a bit more mindful might recognize that we all need each other both job-wise and otherwise. The very same archeologist who hikes up his apparently flagging sense of self worth like a blown out jock strap doesn't appear to possess the wisdom (and it doesn't take much) to realize how much he depends on everyone around him; taxi driver, garbage man, plumber, stockboy, to make his beloved profession possible. Similarly, he hasn't the wisdom to realize that people are much, much more than their jobs. Finally, he can't seem to figure out that the simpleton's measuring he engages in is completely arbitrary. For example, let's compare job worth based on how vital it is to the health and well being of society. Based on that criterion, farmers and plumbers (gazinta, gazouta) would top the list, I'd wager, and 'Archeologist'...well, not so much. If we knew nothing at all of ancient Egypt, few peoples lives would be much the poorer for it. And then there is a concept of the whole person. Raindawg is proof positive that a person can be accomplished in his chosen profession on one hand, and still be an utter buffoon.

If PP has indeed changed his mind about the neo-conservative, unilateral agenda of might makes right so expensively executed by the previous administration, I suppose one more convert, however too little too late, is cause for a one handed golf clap. Even the village idiot eventually figures out that eating shit causes bad breath. I haven't seen a single post from him to indicate such. In fact, I haven't seen a single post from him which espouses much of a tangible position on anything, save baseball. He doesn't seem to really have a clear opinion, not one that he's been willing to share here, about what to actually do about anything. Nearly every other conservative on this site seems to at least get to the point every now and then, even if that point is no more than a wish to have their sack licked. The word 'gelatinous' comes to mind.

Would you...like to inspect my butt hairs, Bug?

Why would you be concerned about my butt hairs, Bug? Are you lacking other things to focus on?

Depends on who is doing the poking.

I'm at home with a cold, too, BTW.

You seem to be having a bad day, so I'm gonna respect that and disengage. Merry Christmas.

To be fair, Nixon started the War on Drugs, not Reagan, although the latter really took the ball and ran with it. The former's motivations seemed to center on taking revenge on a generation that bucked his policies and presidency.

I remember that very selectiveness when I was involved in the antiwar thing way back in 2003. Funny how much more 'tolerant' a corporation is in times of scarcity.

OK, DD, I get it. Enjoy your pouting session. Sorry you couldn't hold your own or maintain your sense of humor in the debate.

Do you feel bullied? If so, why?

Dood, you're the Wal-mart container ship of posting.

I don't really want to get sucked into a long winded megalomania trip, with someone who has never been wrong, nor ever will be. I just like flinging a little poo at the bully once in a while. That's way more fun. Bully? What, you've become some kinda humorless pussy all of a sudden? Tedious.

Proof positive that if you cut ClearChannel the check, they'll run the ad.

and good looking.

It's not my fault that I'm so fucking smart.

The induced one-hitter fall alone would present a significant hazard.

Overstate my case? Moi?

There are a few ways to think about marijuana pricing. Marijuana is not legal in Amsterdam, contrary to popular belief. It is tolerated in certain districts however, but there is no corporate distribution/production/volume business behind it, as there is with beer. Prices run average about $9/gm, $250/oz, 4000/lb. Comparable to the low end black market pricing here. That makes sense: it's still a black market product with limited supply and high demand fueled by a healthy international tourist trade. Now let's compare that to tobacco. In the form of cigarettes, tobacco retails for $1000/lb. Surprised? Do the math. A pack of smokes retails for $5 to $8 and weighs .12 oz. Cigarette related violent crime? Um...no. But drug comparisons by weight aren't necessarily meaningful. Let's look at $/high. I'd say cigarettes are WAY more expensive than pot when measured that way. Now, let's look at beer. A yuppy beer runs you $5. It takes 3 or 4 to get you buzzed. $20 per buzz, let's say. That buys you about 2 gm of pot. Anybody gonna smoke all that in one sitting? You and your taun tuan maybe, but you alone? Good luck, Toots. Pot, even at black market prices, is already much cheaper per high than alcohol at the retail level. Supply and demand will determine the price of pot after legalization. Production wise, pot is easier to produce than tobacco, the latter of which needs huge amounts of space, infrastructure, inputs in the form of pesticides, etc. (tobacco is famously subject to a huge variety of pathogens), and a specialized climate. It's not hard to imagine that the black market price of pot will be cut in half after legalization, which would make it only twice as expensive as tobacco per lb at retail prices. Add to that its almost certain ubiquity after legalization (1 in 2 adults have smoked out, and many would gladly reduce their alcohol intake in favor a gentler, less physically painful high)and it would be hard to imagine that much, if any, pot related crime would continue to occur. So, if pot is cheaper than beer now, why the crime? Unlike alcohol, pot is concentrated, and so its easy to transport/steal a large monetary amount of it. Furthermore, grow ops are private operations that may or may not have security, and that security usually means shooting first. Add to that the healthy number of sketchy characters attracted to the illegal trades and it can be a volatile combination. Legal businesses like tobacco and alcohol, in contrast, are run by upstanding Americans who would never dream of doing anything untoward or criminal. Jokes aside, tobacco executives don't typically resort to shooting each other, although I'm sure they've thought about shooting a few lawyers from time to time.

That's actually a fine profession, as is mine, but I consider my personal life (and yours) to be an unacceptable target of ridicule on a climbing web-site. Not only am I going to refrain from gratuitously ridiculing your job, I'm not going to make fun of your wife and children either because my pals do it for me. Fixed that for ya.

That, and the fact that the 250 legal pot dispensaries in the state of California have experienced little to no violent crime to date, despite charging the very high, black market prices I mentioned in my first post on the subject.

Right, because no one ever gets shot over something that's legal? Legalization won't bring the price down to the cost of a head of lettuce, and some folks want to steal anything of value. I do think there would be much less violence and the organizational aspect of the drug trade would change, with gangs like Phillip Morris and Monsanto running the show instead. My experience with concerned parents suggests that most of them are afraid their children are going to do what they did. Evidence from the field (my offspring are 18 and 28) suggests that not to be the case. Nice rhetorical bullshit with the head of lettuce comment, OW, but it's just bullshit and you know it. Let's use a more intelligent and relevant example: high end booze. Good scotch, tequila, etc, can run $100 a fifth; probably comparable to what good weed (which is actually quite a bit easier to produce with less capital equipment) would go for per unit 'evening of fun'. Statistically, nobody steals that shit. Now, people do knock over liquor stores for the till. but then, they any store with that magical high cash/low security/good location combination is a potential target. It really has nothing to do with what's being sold. Furthermore, anyone can grow their own high grade weed in an apartment space with very little investment. No intoxicant is easier to make, save beer and cider, both of which are dirt cheap. It's very likely that the price of weed would fall to that of a really good beer...and we all know how often a home brewing operation gets burglarized.

Why, then, is it full of ass-babies? That, unfortunately, is no joke. It is.

Add to this the checkered history of marijuana criminalization; which has nothing to do with public health and safety, and everything to do with Harry Anslinger's desire to keep his Bureau of ATF alive after Prohibition, WR Hearst's timber interests and famous hatred of Mexicans and blacks, and Dupont's need to promote nylon and other less sustainable hemp substitutes, and you've got a typical American corporate-cock-in-government-mouth story of why we've been saddled with a devastating war on pot all these years.