Reason Writers Around Town

At The Politico, Radley Balko explains to Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson why you can't be both a federalist and drug warrior.

Comments

[Cesar]

I, for one, would like to know how Dondero feels about his two favorite candidates supporting the War on Sick People.

[ed]

What's a dondero?

[Steve]

If mandatory, comprehensive, socialized medicine is, indeed, coming at the national level, I will be gladly support any and all "medical marijuana" bannings at the national level.

Generally speaking, I have little problem with legalizing recreational drug use. However, I have a larger-than-normal problem with recreational drugs when others are demanding I pay for their highs.

Other drugs I will want banned that I don't care about at present: Requip, all prescription painkillers, all prescription sleeping pills, all anti-depressants/anti-anxiety meds, all prescription stimulants--in short--anything and everything that can get a patient high and doesn't directly save his or her life.

The "medical marijuana" debate is silly anyway. "Medical" marijuana shouldn't be legalized. Marijuana should be.

[J sub D]

Other drugs I will want banned that I don't care about at present: Requip, all prescription painkillers, all prescription sleeping pills, all anti-depressants/anti-anxiety meds, all prescription stimulants--in short--anything and everything that can get a patient high and doesn't directly save his or her life.

And viagra, it associated knockoffs, breast reconstruction surgery, hell all plastic surgery, no matter the disfiguration. It's all elective.

[Warren]

If god wants people to die, who are we to say otherwise. Treating sick people is playing god.

[tarran]

Technically you don't always need to set a broken arm; People don't need straight arms to survive

[Robert]

Though polls show most Americans support medical marijuana, few decide their votes on the issue, save for a cadre of drug reform activists and the people who actually need the stuff to treat their symptoms.

But the drug reform activists won't decide their vote in the general election based on that issue, thought they might in a primary. Meanwhile there are a few voters who will vote the other way in a general or primary election on that basis.

[Billy Beck]

"What's a dondero?"

It's that fucking waterhead posting to Tim Starr's Yahoo group.

Jesus, it should fall down and bump its head, already.

[ed]

Oh. I thought maybe it was one of those strange Australian marsupials.

[Isaac Bartram]

I thought maybe it was one of those strange Australian marsupials.

Oh no, it's way stranger than any of those.

[Taktix?]

Oh. I thought maybe it was one of those strange Australian marsupials.

Yeah and it makes a distinct mating call:

DOOOOOOOOOOOOONDERRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

[Cesar]

I'm still waiting with baited breath as to what he thinks of his "libertarian leaning" candidates using the feds to terrorize sick people.

[Isaac Bartram]

Cesar

Don't hold you hand over your ass until he does.

After all. I guess Donderooooooooooooooooo thinks his boy Benito Rudy who did his best to run the hookers out of NYC is going to legalize prostitution too.

[Steve]

Treating sick people is playing god.

If, as in the instances I cited, their "sickness" is that I am not helping to pay for their recreational intoxication, then treating these "sick people" is playing fool, not God. Next I suppose I'll be forced to pay for rehab to get these "sick people" off the painkillers I was robbed into addicting them with.

All the more reason not to have forced healthcare.

Kudos to J sub D, I forgot about Viagra and Plastic surgery.

[ed]

I'm still waiting with baited breath

It's "bated".
Unless you're fishing for...well, never mind.

From the Intertubes:
Shakespeare is the first writer known to use it, in The Merchant of Venice: "Shall I bend low and, in a bondman's key, / With bated breath and whisp'ring humbleness, / Say this ...". Nearly three centuries later, Mark Twain employed it in Tom Sawyer: "Every eye fixed itself upon him; with parted lips and bated breath the audience hung upon his words, taking no note of time, rapt in the ghastly fascinations of the tale".

[Cesar]

ed -

I realized I spelled it wrong, but didn't correct it. Without an edit feature, having someone post a correction every time they make a small spelling mistake gets very annoying.

[Asharak]

I, for one, would like to know how Dondero feels about his two favorite candidates supporting the War on Sick People.

If I recall, he posted on Hit & Run that he didn't consider drugs to be a highly important issue.

[Cesar]

If I recall, he posted on Hit & Run that he didn't consider drugs to be a highly important issue.

Since he supports Rudy, I guess the second amendment isn't an important issue either. Or respect for the Constitution. Or...hell I don't need to go further do I? The only issue thats important to him is having a Republican win.

[BartJones]

Balko makes a great point about selective federalism. I would love to hear all of the candidates respond to Justice Thomas's brilliant dissent in Raich:

"If Congress can regulate this under the Commerce Clause, then it can regulate virtually anything - - and the Federal Government is no longer one of limited and enumerated powers."

[Tacos mmm...]

If I recall, he posted on Hit & Run that he didn't consider drugs to be a highly important issue.

Obviously, they're not as important to him as hookers.