The Expansionist

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Triveeyaliezing Drug Yues

(This blog is published, first, in phonetic (Fanetik) spelling and only then in standard English spelling. If you wish to skip to the traditionally spelled text (albeit with a few simplifications here and there), click here.)
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Tha reesant detths tthru aaksidental drug oeverdoesaz uv tue yung mueve storz, Heetth Lejer aand Braad Renfro, shood haav braut nu erjanse tu fieting tha noyeevtae uv the Amairikan publik about tha hormlasnas uv tha "viktimlas kriem" uv drug yues. But it haazan't, ene maur thaan a spaet uv shueting spreez, inklueding wun tooday at Naurthern Ilinoi Yueniversite, haaz promptad a deemaand faur gun kantroel. Tha kaandidase uv aan aadmitad yuezer uv koekaen, Barok Oeboma, haaz intensified mi kansern.

In aan intervyu duering hiz Senat raes tue yeerz ago, Oeboma sed he aadmitad yuezing drugz [in boetth hi skuel aand kolaj] beekauz he tthaut it wuz impaurtant faur "yung peepool hu or aulrede in serkamstaansaz thaat or for maur difikult thaan mien tu noe thaat yu kaan maek mistaeks aand stil reekuver."

Thaat iz preesiesle tha problam. Oeboma'z book aand meedeeya prezantaeshanz, like MTV'z dokyoomentare seereez Beehiend tha Myuezik, tel yung peepool oever aand oever agen thaat it's aabsaluetle fien tu yuez eevan tha hordast uv drugz, beekauz yu kaan aulwaez just stop, bouns baak, aand be aakseptad baak intu sasieyate witthout penalte. Hel — yu kaan eevan run faur Prezidant uv the Yoonietad Staets!
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Thair iz aan aaktiv muevmant bi stuepid aand noyeev peepool, not just drugpoosherz, tu leegaliez aul kemikal substansaz, no maater hou daenjeras, on tha groundz thaat peepool haav aan aabsaluet riet uv persanal sovrante tu deesied hwut duz aand duz not go intu thair bode.
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Tue niets ago, David Leterman'z Top 10 list maed liet uv ileegal drugz. Under the heding "Top Ten Tthingz Aebrahaam Lingkan Wood Sae If He Wer Aliev Toodae", Leterman sed, in such noewing aand safistikaetad toenz, "No. 6: Tha fraemerz uv tha Konstitueshan wood kair les about hu injektad hwut in thair aas". Not fune, fuel.
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Leterman aand aul theez uther drugz-or-no-big-deel sliembaulz or saeying, "Never miend thaat steroidz kaan kil. Farget about the inasant ttherd-porte viktimz uv steroidz aand HGH, liek the wief aand kidz uv pro resler Kris Benwoq, hu kild them aand himself, probable under the influewans uv steroid-induest raej aand deepreshan (tho thair haav bin eferts tu aabzolv steroidz uv ene roel in thaat kriem). Steroidz haav bin implikaetad in uther merderz tue, aand in doemstik vieyalans, bor fiets, ets. Never miend tha daenjerz uv kaanser hwenever yu skru up tha bodee'z haurmoen baalans. NFL stor Lieyal Aalzaedo fermle beeleevd thaat steroidz kauzd tha braen kaanser thaat kild him aat aej 43, aand haad praduest mene vieyalant, "kraeze" aakts in hiz paast, tho agen, eferts haav bin maed tu ekskulpaet steroidz aand HGH.
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Hwutever peepool wont tu du tu thair bodeez iz thair riet, riet? Eevan if thae doen't beeleev thae faes ene daenjer? Eevan if thae doen't understaand tha daenjerz? Raung, espeshale raung hwen thaat substans yues impaakts uther peepool, aaz bi cheeting uther aatthleets out uv tha winz thae shood haav haad, aur kauzaz kaanserz aur self-dastruktiv beehaevyerz thaat shaurtan tha lief uv tha yuezerz aand, tthru aaksidants aur vieyalans, hertz peepool around them.
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Kaan eneewun reele beeleev thaat tha Founding Fotherz wood haav smieyald apon a Naeshan on drugz? Reele? I doen't beeleev it. Kwiet tha kontrere, I tthingk thae wood be horified aand look witth uter disbeeleef apon hwut milyanz uv peepool in this kuntre haav dun tu themselvz witth kemikalz.
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The apolajists faur kemikal deependense aakt aaz tho lejislaeterz woek up wun maurning aand sed tu themselvz, frum uter baurdam aand haaving nutthing beter tu du, "Wel, hwut shaal we du toodae? O, I noe! Let's outlau a perfaktle hormlas kemikal faur aabsaluetle no reezan!" Thaat's not aat aul hwut haapand. Kwiet tha kontrere, daenjeras kemikalz stortad tu be yuezd aand stortad tu kauz graev horm tu tha yuezerz aand tu peepool around them, so lejislaeterz wer faurst tu aakt. Sumtiemz thae didan't aakt in tiem, aand thouzandz uv peepool died. Thaat iz tha kaes witth "poperz", rekreeyaeshanal kemikalz yuezd, espeshale bi gae men hu didan't tthingk uv them aaz "drugz", tu enhaans sensaeshanz duering seks. Thae didan't noe thaat poperz kood kauz kaanser, daamaj the imyuen sistam, aur produes uther daenjerz. Tthouzandz died beefaur lejislaeterz fienale aaktad.
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Alaas, tha reeyaalite uv drugz duz not kampaurt witth tha propagaanda thaat drugz or hormlas. Eevan preeskripshan drugz, aaz in tha kaes uv Heeth Lejer, kaan aand du KIL hwen yuezd kairlasle, espeshale hwen thae kambien witth uther drugz, aalkahaul, aand uther kemikalz (aaz in toobaako smoek). Wers, tha jujmant that miet preevent peepool frum oeverdoesing aur beekuming adiktad iz impaird aur dastroid bi tha vere drugz thae taek! That iz wun reezan hwi tha sapoezadle "inokyuewas" aand "hormlas" drug maarihwona iz for maur daenjeras thaan the apolajists faur leegalizaeshan aadmit, aand hwi maarihwona iz indeed a "gaetwae drug" tu horder aand maur daenjeras substansaz. Thaat iz espeshale tha kaes nou, sins nuewer plaant straenz haav praduest a drug 25 tiemz aaz straung aaz tha "pot" kidz yuezd in the 1960s.
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Anuther reezan maariwhona haz faur dekaedz servd aaz a "gaetwae drug" iz tha hyueman tendanse tu jenraliez: "Hae, thae sed pot wuz daenjeras, but it never did me ene horm. So hwi shood I beeleev thaat koekaen, heroewin, aur metth or daenjeras?" Thair's thaat impaird-jujmant tthing agen. (A frend uv mien hu wuz a heve pot yuezer in hi skuel aand dropt out uv skuel under thaat influewans, laeter got a JED. He laeter daird tu sae thaat maarihwona never did him ene horm. I sed, "Jo, yu got out uv hi skuel aat 30!" He kantinyuez tu yuez maarihwona, aand kantinyuez tu drift perpaslasle tthru lief, aat neerle 41. We no laungger speek. He flu intu a raej aat me oever sumtthing aand "kut me auf". No, maariwhona duzan't du ene horm. Liek hel it duzan't.)
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Hou mene prominant peepool haav tu di frum drugz beefaur tha meedeeya stop pooshing tha lie thaat drugz or harmlas? Maejer TV tauk shoez aand komade speshalz maek drug joeks aul tha tiem. Drugz or fune, not seereeyas!
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O? Heer's a shaurt list uv faemas peepool from mene kuntreez hu haav died frum drugz: Marilin Manro, River Feeniks, Jaanis Joplin, Jime Hendriks, Jim Morisan, Jon Balueshe, Kris Forle, Len Bieyas, Glen Kwin ("Mork Heele", boifrend/huzband tu "Beke" in the klaasik sitkom Roezaan), Lene Brues, Montgumere Klift, Kert Koebaen, Doratthe Daandrij, Brieyan Epsteen, Riener Verner Fosbinder, Sigmand Froid, Aande Gib, Mich Hedberg (a komic huez detth I haadan't eevan herd uv until I risercht this ishu; I wocht a speshal uv hiz on Komade Sentral just laast week!), Morgo Hemingwae, Bile Holidae, Houwerd Hyuez, Doratthe Kilgaalan, Kaaral Laandis, Bela Luegoese, Fraangke Lieman, Aeme Sempool MikFersan, Kristeena Oenaasis, Robert Paastarele, Daena Plaeto, De De Ramoen, Jaurj Saanderz, Jeen Seeberg, Aana Nikoel Smitth AAND her sun Danyal, Ingger Steevanz, Morgarat Sulavan, Iek Terner, Sid Vishas, Dienah Woshingtan, Haangk Wilyamz, aand laast, but ashuradle not leest, Elvis Presle.
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Thair's a much laungger list in Wikipeedeeya. Sum uv thoez peepool kild themselvz dalibratle witth drugz — beekauz thae nue thaat drugz kaan kil. Aand sum uv thoez peepool wer led tu thair suewisiedal deepresahn bi drugz, aand bi thair inabilite tu kantroel thair yues uv drugz. But moest died unintenshanale, frum noyeevtae about drugz.
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Aaz tha list abuv (hwich kantaenz sum oeldtiem mueve aand myuezik storz) sagjests, this haaz bin goewing on faur a laung tiem, aand peepool frum vaareeyas etthnisiteez aand kulcharal envieranmants haav died frum drugz.
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The Wikipeedeeya list kantaenz a feecher peepool miet wont tu noet: a naashanal flaag tu tha left uv eech naem. On tha tipikal skreen, maur thaan haaf tha naemz, aand sumtiemz aulmoest evre wun, uv aul tha salebriteez frum evreehwair noetad in thaat list, or frum the Yoonietad Staets. The Yoonietad Staets haaz tha werld's werst drug problam, aand leegaliez-drugz propagaandists hu yuez the ekspeereeyans uv uther kuntreez tu orgyu faur leegalizaeshan heer noe fool wel thaat the ekspeereeyans uv uther kuntreez in no wae indikaets tha liekle outkum heer.
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In tha 1980s, lorj numberz uv gae men, inklueding entieyer kleeks uv frendz in tha "faast laen" liefstieyal uv "seks, drugz, aand rok aand roel", stortad dieying frum hwut wuz laeter tu be reedeefiend aaz a vieral dizeez, 'AIDS' [kaan't be fanetisiezd difrantle, but this speling wood be sed difrantle], but hwich wuz aakchuewale imyuen dastrukshan bi the unbileevabool kombinaeshanz uv hord drugz, preeskripshan drugz (inklueding sum preeskriebd tu treet tha hormlas vieras HIV — yup: leetthal drugz tu treet a hormlas infekshan; aan aanteehoemoesekshuewal sasieyate wuz aebool tu perswaed skaurz uv tthouzandz uv gae men tu kil themselvz bi taeking poizan preeskriebd bi thair enameez) aand aalkahaul in meereeyad permyuetaeshanz. Theez "faast-laen" tieps mikst aul kiendz uv drugz in difrant kombinaeshanz aand doesajaz — pot, Speshal K, Ekstase, koekaen, poperz, pilz tha naemz aand faumyoolaeshanz uv hwich thae didan't eevan noe but just took beekauz thair frendz auferd them — aul mikst up witth aalkahaul aand toobaako, aufan atop liver daamaj frum a prieyer kaes uv hepatietis, hwich storkle reeduest the abilite uv thair liver tu detoksify thair bloodstreem, aand dropt liek fliez. Thae apaarantle figyerd drugz wer hormles, indivijuewale aand kalektivle. If wun drug wuzan't dedle, 100 drugz woodan't be dedle. Thae wer raung. Ded raung. If I haad let mieself be draun intu thaat liefstieyal — aand be shuer uv this: I wuz auferd drugz on inuemerabool akaezhanz aand maed tu feel "out uv it" beekauz I reefyuezd — I wood probable be ded toodae. Thoez "witth-it", "kuel" giez or reel kuel nou: ruem tempracher — wel, kaufin tempracher.
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Beekauz Barok Oeboma haz ifektivele maed ekskyuesaz faur yuezing hord drugz faur yeerz uv hiz erle lief, aand beekauz he duz not nou maek aabsaluet aabstenshan frum aul faurmz uv drug yues a maejer port uv hiz kaampaen, thair iz aabsaluetle no wae I kood bring mieself tu voet faur him faur eneetthing, eevan Vies Prezidant on a Jon Edwerdz tikat, in tha jeneral eelekshan. (I voetad faur him in the Nu Jerze priemere tu stop Bilare aur kut thair persentaj leed, but a primare aand a jeneral eelekshan or tue vere difrant tthingz.)
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This duz not meen I wil voet faur tha Reepublikan (probable MikKaen, a luen). It duzan't eevan meen I wil simple stae hoem. It meenz thaat if tha Demakraats nominaet sumwun I deetest, I wil aabstaen frum voeting faur Prezidant aat aul aand simple voet faur Demakraats faur boetth houzaz uv Konggras. A laandslied faur Demakraats in Konggras kood giv Demz a veetoe-pruef maandaet tu enaakt yuenivesal heltthkair, end tha waur agenst Eerok, reestaur baangkruptse pratekshan tu tha lital gie/gaal, paas a naashanal yuezhare lau, aand du aul tha mene uther tthingz tha Naeshan aand woorld need thaat the Reepublkianz woen't let haapan aaz laung aaz thae kantroel tha Hwiet Hous aand du not faes a veetoe-pruef Demakraatik Konggras.
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We need tu undu tha Reepublikan Revalueshan thaat haaz traansfaurmd this kuntre much faur tha wers sins tha Pluetakraatik Revalueshan uv 1986 (tha Raegan taaks "reefaurm" aakt thaat stopt taaksing tha rich aand set us on tha laung dounhil slied we haav suferd ever sins). So if yu kaanot in good konshans voet faur a Demakraat faur Prezidant but wont tu undu tha maehem praduest bi Reepublikan misruel, go tu tha poelz in Noevember aand voet Demakraatik faur Konggras.
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Alaas, in my aireeya, Demakraats or aulrede in pouwer, so simple kanferming thair aufis woen't akomplish eneetthing faur chaenj. On mi sied uv the voeting ruem in Nu Jerzee'z priemere on Sueper Dueper Tuezdae, I wuz tha 267tth voeter. Aul but wun uv thoez voets wuz Demakraatik. I just luv Nuewerk.
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(Tha kerant Y.S. militere detth toel in Eerok, akaurding tu tha websiet "Eerok Koewalishan Kaazhuewalteez", iz 3,960 — faur Izreeyal.)
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Trivializing Drug Use.

The recent deaths thru accidental drug overdoses of two young movie stars, Heath Ledger and Brad Renfro, should have brought new urgency to fiting the naivete of the American public about the harmlessness of the "victimless crime" of drug use. But it hasn't, any more than a spate of shooting sprees, including one today at Northern Illinois University, has prompted a demand for gun control. The candidacy of an admitted user of cocaine, Barack Obama, has intensified my concern:

In an interview during his Senate race two years ago, Obama said he admitted using drugs [in both high school and college] because he thought it was important for "young people who are already in circumstances that are far more difficult than mine to know that you can make mistakes and still recover."

That is precisely the problem. Obama's book and media presentations, like MTV's documentary series Behind the Music, tell young people over and over again that it's absolutely fine to use even the hardest of drugs, because you can always just stop, bounce back, and be accepted back into society without penalty. Hell — you can even run for President of the United States!
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There is an active movement by stupid and naive people, not just drugpushers, to legalize all chemical substances, no matter how dangerous, on the grounds that people have an absolute right of personal sovereignty to decide what does and does not go into their body.
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Two nights ago, David Letterman's Top 10 lists made light of illegal drugs. Headed,"Top Ten Things Abraham Lincoln Would Say If He Were Alive Today": No. 6: "The framers of the Constitution would care less about who injected what in their ass". Not funny, fool.
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Letterman and all these other drugs-are-no-big-deal slimeballs are saying, "Never mind that steroids can kill. Forget about the innocent third-party victims of steroids and HGH, like the wife and kids of pro wrestler Chris Benoit, who killed them and himself, probably under the influence of steroid-induced rage and depression (tho there have been efforts to absolve steroids of any role in that crime). Steroids have been implicated in other murders too, and in domestic violence, bar fites, etc. Never mind the dangers of cancer whenever you screw up the body's hormone balance. NFL star Lyle Alzado firmly believed that steroids caused the brain cancer that killed him at age 43, and had produced many violent, "crazy" acts in his past, tho again, efforts have been made to exculpate steroids and HGH. Whatever people want to do to their bodies is their right, right? Even if they don't believe they face any danger? Even if they don't understand the dangers? Wrong, especially wrong when that substance use impacts other people, as by cheating other athletes out of the wins they should have had, or causes cancers or self-destructive behaviors that shorten the life of the users and, thru accidents or violence, hurts people around them.
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Can anyone really believe that the Founding Fathers would have smiled upon a Nation on drugs? Really? I don't believe it. Quite the contrary, I think they would be horrified and look with utter disbelief upon what millions of people in this country have done to themselves with chemicals.
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The apologists for chemical dependency act as tho legislators woke up one morning and said to themselves, from utter boredom and having nothing better to do, "Well, what shall we do today? Oh, I know! Let's outlaw a perfectly harmless chemical for absolutely no reason!" That's not at all what happened. Quite the contrary, dangerous chemicals started to be used and started to cause grave harm to the users and to people around them, so legislators were forced to act. Sometimes they didn't act in time, and thousands of people died. That is the case with "poppers", recreational chemicals used, especially by gay men who didn't think of them as "drugs", to enhance sensations during sex. They didn't know that poppers could cause cancer, damage the immune system, or produce other dangers. Thousands died before legislators finally acted.
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The reality of drugs does not comport with this propaganda that drugs are harmless. Even prescription drugs, as in the case of Heath Ledger, can and do KILL when used carelessly, epseically when they combine with other drugs, alcohol, and other chemicals (as in tobacco smoke). Worse, the judgment that might prevent people from overdosing or becoming addicted is impaired or destroyed by the very drugs they take! That is one reason why the supposedly "innocuous" and "harmless" drug marijuana is far more dangerous than the apologists for legalization admit, and why marijuana is indeed a "gateway drug" to harder and more dangerous substances. That is especially the case now, since newer plant strains have produced a drug 25 times as strong as the "pot" kids used in the 1960s. It is hard to believe the newly powerful marijuana in circulation today is as "harmless" as the "pot" of the 1960s.
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Another reason marijuana has for decades served as a "gateway drug" is the human tendency to generalize: "Hey, they said pot was dangerous, but it never did me any harm. So why should I believe that cocaine, heroin, or meth are dangerous?" There's that impaired-judgment thing again. (A friend of mine who was a heavy pot user in high school and dropped out of school under that influence, later got a GED. He later dared to say that marijuana never did him any harm. I said, "Joe, you got out of high school at 30!" He continues to use marijuana, and continues to drift purposelessly thru life, at nearly 41. We no longer speak. He flew into a rage at me over something and "cut me off". No, marijuana doesn't do any harm. Like hell it doesn't.)
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How many prominent people have to die from drugs before the media stop pushing the lie that drugs are harmless? Major TV talk shows and comedy specials make drug jokes all the time. Drugz or funny, not serious!
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Oh? Here's a short list of famous people from many countries who have died from drugs: Marilyn Monroe, River Phoenix, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, John Belushi, Chris Farley, Len Bias, Glenn Quinn ("Mark Healy", boyfriend/husband to "Becky" in the classic sitcom Roseanne), Lenny Bruce, Montgomery Clift, Kurt Cobain, Dorothy Dandridge, Brian Epstein, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Sigmund Freud, Andy Gibb, Mitch Hedberg (a comic whose death I hadn't even heard of until I researched this issue; I watched a special of his on Comedy Central just last week!), Margaux Hemingway, Billie Holiday, Howard Hughes, Dorothy Kilgallen, Carole Landis, Bela Lugosi, Frankie Lymon, Aimee Semple McPherson, Christina Onassis, Robert Pastorelli, Dana Plato, Dee Dee Ramone, George Sanders, Jean Seberg, Anna Nicole Smith AND her son Daniel, Inger Stevens, Margaret Sullavan, Ike Turner, Sid Vicious, Dinah Washington, Hank Williams, and last, but assuredly not least, Elvis Presley.
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There's a much longer list in Wikipedia. Some of those people killed themselves deliberately with drugs — because they knew that drugs can kill. And some of those people were led to their suicidal depression by drugs, and by their inability to control their use of drugs. But most died unintentionally, from naivete about drugs.
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As the list above (which contains some oldtime movie and music stars) suggests, this has been going on for a long time, and people from various ethnicities and cultural environments have died from drugs.
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The Wikipedia list contains a feature people might want to note: a national flag to the left of each name. On the typical screen, more than half the names, and sometimes almost every one, of all the celebrities from everywhere noted in that list, are from the United States. The United States has the world's worst drug problem, and legalize-drugs propagandists who use the experience of other countries to argue for legalization here know full well that the experience of other countries in no way indicates the likely outcome here.
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In the 1980s, large numbers of gay men, including entire cliques of friends in the "fast lane" lifestyle of "sex, drugs, and rock and roll", started dying from what was later to be redefined as a viral disease, AIDS, but which was actually immune destruction by the unbelievable combinations of hard drugs, prescription drugs (including some prescribed to treat the harmless virus HIV — yup: lethal drugs to treat a harmless infection; an antihomosexual society was able to persuade scores of thousands of gay men to kill themselves by taking poison prescribed by their enemies) and alcohol in myriad permutations. These "fast-lane" types mixed all kinds of drugs in different combinations and dosages — pot, Special K, Ecstasy, cocaine, poppers, pills the names and formulations of which they didn't even know but just took because their friends offered them — all mixed up with alcohol and tobacco, often atop liver damage from a prior case of hepatitis, which starkly reduced the ability of their liver to detoxify their bloodstream, and dropped like flies.They apparently figured drugs were harmless, individually and collectively. If one drug wasn't deadle, 100 drugs wouldn't be deadly. They were wrong. Dead wrong. If I had let myself be drawn into that lifestyle — and be sure of this: I was offered drugs on innumerable occasions and made to feel "out of it" because I refused — I would probably be dead today. Those "with-it", "cool" guys are real cool now: room temperature — well, coffin temperature.
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Because of his making excuses for using hard drugs for years of his early life, and because he does not make absolute abstention from all forms of drug use a major part of his campaign, there is absolutely no way I could bring myself to vote for Barack Obama for anything, even Vice President on a John Edwards ticket, in the general election . (I voted for him in the New Jersey primary to stop Billary or cut their percentage lead, but a primary and a general election are two very different things.)
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This does not mean I will vote for the Republican (probably McCain, a loon). It doesn't even mean I will simply stay home. It means that if the Democrats nominate someone I detest, I will abstain from voting for President at all and simply vote for Democrats for both houses of Congress. A landslide for Democrats in Congress could give Dems a veto-proof mandate to enact universal healthcare, end the war against Iraq, restore bankruptcy protection to the little guy/gal, pass a national usury law, and do all the many other things the Nation and world needs that the Republicans won't let happen as long as they control the White House and do not face a veto-proof Democratic Congress.
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We need to undo the Republican Revolution that has transformed this country much for the worse since the Plutocratic Revolution of 1986 (the Reagan tax "reform" act that stopped taxing the rich and set us on the long downhill slide we have suffered ever since). So if you cannot in good conscience vote for a Democrat for President but want to undo the mayhem produced by Republican misrule, go to the polls in November and vote Democratic for Congress.
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Alas, in my area, Democrats are already in power, so simply confirming their office won't accomplish anything for change. On my side of the voting room in New Jersey's primary on Super Duper Tuesday, I was the 267th voter. All but one of those votes was Democratic. I just love Newark.
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(The current U.S. military death toll in Iraq, according to the website "Iraq Coalition Casualties", is 3,960 — for Israel.)

- posted by L. Craig Schoonmaker @ 9:25 PM

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