Free Advice and Opinions

Tennessee has emulated the enlightened Tarheels and as you will see, Muslims too, by imposing a Tax on “Unauthorized Substances”. This morning I called Steve Gill, a Prohibitionist Nashville Radio Talk Show Host, to ask him how the value to be taxed is calculated: “Does the State consult the Kelly Black Book of Black Market Prices… or is that the Kelly Thin-Blue-Line Book?”
Steve avoided the question, preferring to concentrate instead on the money that remained to be collected.
So, O Prohibitionists, let us consider the various components of the cost of purveying drugs, in order properly to calculate this Unauthorized Substances Tax.

*Production Cost: A few bucks for fertilizer, water, and TLC. God will take Care of the rest.
*Transportation Cost: A few tens of bucks per pound for Overnight Door-to-door Delivery.
*Advertising Cost: Naught.
*Tax: Any money, given to Drug Overlords to ensure a crop against Thieves, Vandals, and DEA Thugs, is in function identical to a tax; it’s just paid to Tio Hernando instead of Uncle Sam. The Unauthorized Substance Tax (sorry, I don’t know the rate) makes economic sense for dealers who’ve amassed enough money to buy a Miami Vice Boat, or a fleet.

Add just those costs together. In a Free Market, Marijuana wouldn’t cost more than tea, probably not as much.

There’s a good reason they call Cannabis Sativa “Weed”, it grows robustly just about anywhere. If you don’t like that, take it up with God. Why, then, is it expensive in the US? Because of Prohibition Laws. Because of the myriad Pharisees who say, “It’s bad because it’s against the law,”, and are too dense to see that that statement is half of a circular argument: Why’s it against the Law? Because it’s Bad. Well, why’s it Bad? Because it’s against the Law.

Cornered in their irrational circular argument, next the Pharisee Prohibitionists will predictably putate “Harm to Society” that would surely accompany abolition of Drug Prohibition Laws, just as they did while they were trying to keep Alcohol Prohibition from being abolished in the Twentieth Century. The Puritan Prohibitionists may not like to be reminded, but Alcohol Prohibition Laws were ruled Unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court, and the entire population of the US did not instantly become a bunch of Teddy Kennedys or Gerald Fords. The Pharisee fools have forgotten History, and I wouldn’t care, except they’re dooming us all to repeat it. I can’t help believing that some of them haven’t forgotten the History of Alcohol Prohibition at all, they just like being “more equal” than the other Animals in this 21st Century “Animal Farm” that some still call the Land of the Free.

Now let’s talk about Harm to Society. An Illegal Alien can walk across our Border with a year’s rent stuffed in his Sandy Pants, Terrorists can generate money that’s hard to trace, Government Officials from President down to Policeman and everyone in between, are unfairly but unavoidably tempted as well as inordinately endangered, and all because drugs are cheap to produce and they sell for a fortune because they’re ineffectively Prohibited by Law.

That’s Harm to Society.

The ONLY WAY to win the “War On Drugs” is to make the DEA live up to its name, give them plenipotentiary authority to Enforce the Law, to search or interrogate or maintain surveillance over US Citizens at their discretion. Throw out the 4th Amendment or accept the failure of the”War On Drugs”.

The Unauthorized Substances Tax Law implicitly recognizes that a Market exists to be taxed. It allows a dealer to buy a Stamp from the State of Tennessee that will, in the negligibly small chance that he should be “busted”, be recognized as compensation in place of the cars, boats, and finery that the Authorities would normally confiscate, or steal, depending on who tells the tale. It’s recognized that there is Demand, even when Prohibition Laws drastically increase the Price. But the Bossy little Theocrats can’t imagine life without telling the rest of us what we may and may not do. They seem to believe God put Marijuana here, He put Coca here, and Poppies, and Mushrooms, and Angel’s Trumpet, and Yellow Alamanda, and Camellia Sinensis (Tea) as well as other more psychoactive cousins of the Camellia, and various other Flora, as well as some Fauna such as the intoxicating Japanese Fugu (Blowfish, and it’s delicious light meat), He put all that and more here so the Puritan Prohibitionist Pharisee Theocrat Thugs would have something to tell us not to do because it’s a sin, because it’s against the law, but Oh No! This is not a Theocracy!

But Alcohol’s different, it’s the Drug that Jesus Used, Served it to Minors too, so we all know it’s not a Seeee-yun! Except when it is, that is. A sin, that is. Except when it ain’t. Enter the words “Coptic Christian, Marijuana” into your favorite Internet Search Engine. It is their Sacramental Drug, used just as other Christian Sects use Alcohol, and the Buddhists drink Tea, and the fat Bahama Mamas hyper-smoke tobacco cigars until they pass out, after which they invariably claim to have had congress with some supernatural being!

Nope, Sorry, that doesn’t meet the Piety Test, that couldn’t really be God those Bahama Mamas see, what they do might be Recreational, therefore absolutely will in all cases cause Harm to Society, therefore is a Sin. Wait, wait, tobacco’s not a sin because it’s not against the Law. The FDA calls tobacco cigarettes “drug delivery devices”, though, so hold your breath -or cough- and before you know it America will no longer be Burdened by the Harm Tobacco causes to Society.

The Puritan Theocrats are addicted to being Bossy. Until they quit trying to manipulate harmless fellow citizens through Government Force, or until they achieve complete repression of Free Will, or until they “Re-Educate” or “Convert” all of us; or, until they grab both of their own ears, put one foot on each “Other Cheek”, and give a mighty heave and behold the Light of Day, there will be a Black Market.

The Pharisees will blame it on those who do not docilely obey, or “Submit”, to their Laws. It is no accident that the Arabic translation of that English Word is “Islam”. At least they’re honest about their abuse of government power to force their fellow citizens to at least pretend to adopt their ‘religion’, or alternatively to pay an “Infidel Tax” that’s no different from the “Unauthorized Substances Tax” levied now by the State of Tennessee.

On the Day we Die
Space and Time will Matter Less
And so will Matter

Dear Dr. Frist. I just received your e-letter in which you describe your program to expend taxpayers’ money munificently, lavishly, extraavagantly, on students who maintai9n a 3.0gpa. Teachers will dish out B’s with largesse they learn from you, Sir, I have no doubt. I do doubt the students will earn those marks.
Doubts aside, there is no provision in what must be your favorite Document, the US Constitution, that empowers you to spend money on “Education”.
Just thought I’d remind you, for what that’s worth. You “small-government” republicans ignore the Constitution just as shamelessly as the democrats. You deserve to be fired.
John Ray

I Pledge Allegiance to God.

Have you ever climbed to the top?
I left the “Fifth Station”, which was as far as one could go by bus, after 10:00 PM, and climbed steadily until I reached the top. I was not hungry for the ramen and other goodies that were available at the several rest stops along the way, and I wanted to be sure to reach the top before dawn.

Sunrise was remarkable. The Sun appeared to be a couple of miles at most from the shore; it’s easy to understand why Japan was named “Land of the Rising Sun”.

I was on the Pacific Coast Highway on my bike, the road had signs at the curves indicating various speed limits. I had learned that Speed Limit 25 meant I could maintain speed, 15 meant I should slow down a bit, no posted speed limit meant I should accelerate… except when it meant that the speed limit sign had probably been knocked out by a logging truck! Not long after I got into that curve I realized I was in trouble and began applying brakes and attempting to turn in, but I was slipping outward, and as the road had a steep grade, braking was not slowing me down at all. My tires slipped off the edge of the road onto the dry sandy clay, I knew I was doomed. The Pacific was few hundred feet below, and the hillside was percipitous. I still wasn’t quite to the sharpest part of the curve; the sharpest part had a guard rail. Even if my tires had still been on the asphalt, there was no chance I could have curved sharply enough, I was going outside the guard rail in 25, 15, 5 feet, O GOD O GOD

Next thing I knew I was past the curve, the road was nearly straight, my tires were right between the double yellow lines, there was no other vehicle on the road.

When I climbed the other side of the valley, directly across from where whatever happened happened, by chance (???) there was a multi-county EMS Fire-Rescue training drill in progress, several trucks and probably a dozen Officers. Maybe someone among them saw just how I ended up in the middle of the road instead of splattered down the face of the mountain.

When I was at St. George’s Academy, the kindly, aged Nurse administered a hearing test to the students. It was obvious that she had calibrated the machine herself, because from the moment I put the earphones on, I plainly heard the tone, which was not supposed to be audible until she turned the dial.

How long do you imagine it will be before a charismatic leader, or perhaps a slightly more subtle J. Edgar Hoover reincarnated, permanently usurps political power in this country?

Most people already want the government to take care of this, protect them from that, dispense “charity”, deter zealots of other religions, and so very few people are willing to accept that in the end one cannot have freedom if one does not at once grant it, in its often-ugly entirety, to others, and at the same time, positively tell others who wish to deny it, “My freedom is mine, and that is not negotiable, whether or not you find it ugly.”

Again a Patrick Henry quote comes to mind: “From time to time, the Tree of Liberty must be watered with the blood of patriots.”

The Patriot Act only admits in writing what has been for some time.

Madison Church of Christ
http://www.madisoncofc.org/
These people may mean well, but they are perfect examples of the theocrats to whom I’ve referred before. Posted on their website is a “Letter from the Elders”, addressed to “Honorable _______”, in which they enumerate the usual “Sins” (”Seeee-yuns”, please, and pound the lectern when you say it!) It is clear that they wish these to be forbidden by legislation, but rest assured they will proudly proclaim our country to be “The Land Of The Free”.

Here is an excerpt: “We know that freedom is not free and liberty cannot be defined as license. We are aware that good morals cannot be legislated, but legislation must not support bad morals either. We need your help and influence in bringing the American people back to a sense of what is right. If indeed, America is great because she is good, then to keep America great, we must keep her good. ”

These people would make great Mullahs.

Bet thirty pieces of silver on this:
These Theocrats get their 501c3 tax free-bee!!
Another safe bet:
They’ll be overcome by apoplexy if they read my blog!!

They get “COLA” Cost Of Living Allowance raises regularly, and they don’t even have to vote for them, as that would leave them politically susceptible to mud-slinging, which almost all of them richly deserve.
Here’s an idea:
The people of each District decide how much they are willing to pay prospective Representatives. $1/year? OK! $1Million/year? OK!
Then those who are willing to work for the prescribed salary run for election.

As to Senators, really we should abolish the Constitutional Amendment that divested the States of the power to choose them. Representatives are already elected by the popular vote; if you doubt they are truly “representative”, look how fat and drunk so many of them are! They’re embarrassingly representative. If Senators were the representatives of the States, we would not have to worry about “unfunded mandates”, as the Senators would be accountable to the States which are forced to finance these.

Now you know a couple of the many reasons why I lost when I ran against the Estimable Lincoln Davis in 2002. Don’t ask me to run again, I’ve “sobered up”, I’d be as popular as an alarm clock with no snooze button! DING-A-LING-A-LING!!!