[Rhodes22-list] pls take me off your list.

[KUHN, LELAND]

Stan,

Legalize drugs and quit importing oil?  Well that's downright
un-American!

Prohibition didn't work.  Alcohol, nicotine, caffeine,
over-and-under-the-counter drugs, soda pop, Big Macs and lots of other
bad things that we put in our bodies ARE legal.  Illegal drugs could
certainly help lead to the demise of our society but our youth is
probably spending more time watching reality shows, which must have a
more damaging effect than drugs.  When you look at the fall of other
empires, drug-use wasn't the culprit.  If we take the millions of
dollars used to finance the war on drugs (including related prison
costs), we could launch massive educational anti-drug campaigns to
convince kids that drugs aren't worth it, or pay children a monthly
increasing stipend if their urine is clean.  Just making drugs
unprofitable for criminals would probably take care of the problem.  How
many liquor bootleggers do you know north of the Mason-Dixon line?

Everyone agrees we should reduce/eliminate our dependence on foreign oil
and lots of experts have plans on how to do it.  I'm not quite sure why
we aren't aggresively pursuing other alternatives.  I think it may be
that too many rich Americans are making too much money importing oil, or
it may just be that the alternatives are too much work and require too
much sacrifice.  I must admit that I'm awfully lazy and have done little
to reduce my imprint, aside from owning a sailboat.

Lee

-----Original Message-----
From: jhn ldrs [mailto:jhnldrs at yahoo.ca] 
Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 2:55 PM
To: The Rhodes 22 mail list
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] pls take me off your list.



--- On Tue, 8/7/07, stan <stan at rhodes22.com> wrote:
From: stan <stan at rhodes22.com>
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Which list is this.
To: "The Rhodes 22 mail list" <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
Received: Tuesday, August 7, 2007, 11:53 AM

OK, I can't allow losing Rummy, so here goes.

I told you guys I had a response to Brad's view that if no one knows how
to

solve our current mess, at least stop whining.  But no one showed
interest 
so I kept my secret "Nixon" plan to myself.  Ah, now that Rummy is
curious, 
here it is.

What fuels the terrorists:

My guess is drugs and oil money   (or course our being there probably
does 
too but I won't start a war with that view just now)

The drug money cure is easy;  join me and Bill Buckley and make drugs
legal. 
(Alcohol and tobacco and all the drug company drugs are already legal in

this country so what's the big deal - just do it)  So what if this step
does 
not completely shut off their funds if it helps cut down their ability
to 
buy some arms and politicians.  It saves some lives and that is better
than 
saving none.

Oil is another major source of funding for the religious nuts.  We
import 
oil, no matter what the price.  The overseas producers make huge profits
so 
they can afford to be generous with our enemy.   We simply have to stop 
importing oil.  If we become good at this, others will follow, except 
Brazil, who are already there.

Now Brad and others are going to make the correct argument that
alternate 
ways of getting energy are not efficient (wind, solar, ethanol, hydro,
etc.) 
and expanding our own oil reserves and atomic energy have down sides.
But 
that is missing the point.   (When I was a few years shy of the draft,
our 
country was taking down the Third Avenue El and sending its steel to
Japan 
who obligingly converted it to bombs for my less fortunate young
friends.)

Efficiency, even environmental issues, should be back burner
considerations 
if we are weighing life and the huge costs of wars we simply cannot win
with 
the intelligence we currently have.  Meantime the intelligence we do
have 
will come up with a US master minded energy fix if we seed such programs

with part of the money we are pissing away hitting our heads against a 
composite stone wall.  Besides, when I hear the argument that says
making 
ethanol is not efficient, I wonder, is going to war to protect our oil 
interests more efficient?

Nixon was correct when he said we should be 100% oil import free by 1986
- 
he just did not have the smarts or maybe it was the strength to overcome
the 
lobby influences, to make it happen.

Today we can make it happen - although we still have the lobbyists to 
contend with and congressional Democrats have shown themselves, at least
so 
far,  not to be up to that problem.  Did any one catch the 60 Minute
segment 
a few weeks ago about the all night session to keep the pharmaceutical
drug 
bill from reaching a vote since it did not have the votes to pass -
until 3 
in the morning when enough bribery had been doled out to squeeze it
through. 
The lead politician came away with a two million dollars a year job with
one 
of the drug companies (don't ask his drug expertise or what he is
actually 
doing to be worth that money - he earned it ahead of time)  And they
listed 
all our other representatives who got amazingly hefty rewards for their 
switched votes in the middle of the night when apparently no one was
looking 
other than Roger.


But I digress.  Simply help cut off the funding of my enemy, from dugs
and 
oil  (and stop giving them our guns by the thousands)  and even I may
vote 
for the next war.

ss

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <R22RumRunner at aol.com>
To: <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
Sent: Tuesday, August 07, 2007 10:28 AM
Subject: [Rhodes22-list] Which list is this.


> Personally, I preferred the list the way it was two weeks ago before
the
> winers opened their mouths and blew everyone off. Without the
political 
> chit
> chat a few people complained about, this is what the list
> becomes............................very quiet.
> If this continues, I'm going to sign off. It just isn't worth
staying 
> around
> for.
>
> Rummy
>
>
>
> ************************************** Get a sneak peek of the all-new
AOL

> at
> http://discover.aol.com/memed/aolcom30tour
> __________________________________________________
> Use Rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org, Help? www.rhodes22.org/list 

__________________________________________________
Use Rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org, Help? www.rhodes22.org/list



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