[Rhodes22-list] Which list is this.

[DCLewis1 at aol.com]

Stan,
 
Re drugs:  I presume we’re talking about what are loosely called  
recreational drugs, right?  Some of those drugs may be over regulated - I  don’t know.  
Whether marijuana is worse for you than tobacco, I just don’t  know. Clearly 
tobacco is not good for you.   But other drugs will ruin  whoever touches them - 
crack, heroin, etc.  By ruin your life I mean there  is absolutely no other 
focus in your life than the drug - all your earnings go  for that drug, etc, 
whether it’s legal or illegal, the focus of your existence  is that drug. If the 
drugs were made legal, their prices might go down -  and you'd just use more 
until you died from a drug overdose.  If crack  were made legal, I’m sure it 
would be wildly popular with the population -  especially young people, 
especially your grandchildren - very many would become  addicted and their lives 
would be substantially ruined.  It takes some  focus to accomplish anything in 
your life - you know that, you’ve designed,  built, marketed, and supported the 
R22 and built and run General Boats - you  could never do that if your 
principal focus was your next crack hit.  And  heroin is no better.  And I’m sure 
there are other drugs that our friendly  chemists can cook up that will be even 
better.  I think you’re creating a  huge problem if you legalize hard drugs.  
 
I suspect the libertarian in you would say that people should be free to  
make their choice, but the problem with drugs is that many people really do not  
have “free will” to accept or decline the drug once they are addicted, they  
can’t make a choice.  Their metabolism has changed and they are truly  
physically addicted.  Those people have to be withdrawn under medically  supervised 
conditions, it’s very unpleasant and a few die.  So I don’t see  this as a “
free to chose” issue, the addict doesn't really have a choice.
 
Re oil: I’m with you.  Seems to me that most of the non-transportation  
energy issues could be dealt with via nuclear, wind, hydro, etc (the hydro  
resource is very finite).  It can be done, we just have to do it - the  biggest 
impediment is probably the "back to nature" movement supported by the  coal 
industry.  But then there is the transportation fuels issue.
 
After decades of listening to the oil lobby  “prove” that ethanol  couldn’t 
be made in sufficient quantity to offset any of our national  transportation 
fuel needs we are confronted with Brazil - who have actually done  it and made 
it work.  Now we’re being told that the only reason Brazil was  successful was 
that the “special beets” that can grow in their climate - and  that’s BS.  
We can start by growing corn, maybe switch grass will work, but  I suspect the 
not very long term solution is to hybridize plants that are  uniquely capable 
of yielding ethanol, or whatever.  The key thing is to  finally break free of 
the “big oil” lobby and turn our science and technology  resources to the 
issue - not very likely with the current Administration.
 
As for terrorists being all about money, I’m not sure it is all about  money. 
 It takes money to fund them, and for Islamic terrorists that money  comes 
from drugs and oil; but I think they are committed crackpots.  We  have our own 
American crackpots - remember Oklahoma City.  I don’t think  the fruitcake 
problem is going to go away.  The bad news is that it doesn’t  really take a lot 
of money to be a successful terrorist, or to run a successful  terrorist 
operation, so I don’t see terrorists money as a critical factor in  stopping 
terrorism.  I'd bet the entire 9/11 caper cost the terrorists  less than $2M, maybe 
$1M.   I think we have to be careful to design  our technical and social 
systems so that one or a few committed individuals  can’t wreak undo havoc - that’
s a big change for us because we’ve never given  the matter any thought at all.
 
JMO
 
Dave 




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