Happy New Year! I’ve spent the day so far lazing around, eating leftover pizza and listening to music. And that’s about all I’m going to do, I think.
I’ll be back at work blogging tomorrow.
In the meantime, does anyone have any especially fond memories of Tom Martin and/or Steele from the past year?
Oh, and here’s a video from an Old School New Wave band called Polyphonic Size. It was 1983. They were from Belgium.
“And yeah, personally I’d like to take MDMA but you can’t trust the people who make it…”
This is probably pushing the edges of allowed advice, but I always bought from people who’d tried the batch themselves.
And I’m sorry about your father.
The current system in the U.S. isn’t working, that’s for sure. A few states have decriminalized or straight up legalized marijuana, and since this country worships money, it’ll be a matter of time before the feds wake up and smell the cash in the form of tax revenue.
I’m sorry about your father, hrovitnir.
Thanks Argenti. I was very little so it sucks but I’m pretty OK with it. Re: advice, I may just give it a go at some point, but I am the procrastinator or procrastinators and it’s $50-60 EACH in NZ so… y’know. *shrug*
Yeah I’m more of a fan of decriminalisation personally, but I’m always surprised the allure of $$ hasn’t pushed through legalisation
This is one of those conversations where I feel like a space alien watching ‘cos I’ve never felt the desire to try any drugs and have seldom drunk alcohol, and didn’t like the feeling of it changing my mood or behaviour when I did. Which is totally NOT an “I’m better” remark or anything like it, just me thinking I’m in another minority! 😛
“it’s $50-60 EACH in NZ” — …wow, that’s like 3x non-rave US prices. Probably close to rave marked up prices though.
Kitteh — I’m pretty sure most people have ever done hallunicogens at all, forget as many as I have. Not sure you’re actually the minority here!
And I think it’s my bedtime, before I fall asleep on either my iPad or book. G’night guys!
Niters!
PS alcohol wise I think I am, or at least that’s the message in Oz; we have a nasty drinking culture, way too much pressure and the idea that you can’t have fun without alcohol, plus too much of drink to get drunk.
Yeah, it’s like 10x UK prices. 😛 Funnily enough, I’ve found a majority of people where the drug conversation has come up have had a stage of smoking weed/taking pills. I never really got into anything except awesome drinking culture (because I’m manly and awesome!! :/) and now that’s both impossible and no longer desirable.
Oh, great, another person who’s yet to reach the adult stages of the Piaget moral development matrix.
And now I’m going to be kind for a moment. Starla, you are very young, and you yourself seem to be aware that you have a lot to learn. Want to avoid being yelled at while you learn? The best way to avoid that would to be to stop stating your opinions as if they are facts and in the form of sweeping generalizations. When you put things that way it makes you seem both arrogant and ill-informed. People are going to correct you because of the ill-informed part anyway, but they’d probably do it in a kinder, gentler way if you didn’t come across as being so arrogant. The combination of complete conviction that one is right about everything and very little life experience is almost guaranteed to make other people smack you down in an unfriendly way. If you want that to stop happening, learn how to phrase your opinions as opinions rather than as facts.
On the more general issue of crime and how it should be handled, I’m pretty firmly in the camp that believes that the purpose of prisons should be to keep people who are too dangerous to be allowed to roam around among the general population away from those who they would otherwise prey upon. It should be a last resort way to remove predators from the population, basically, imo. This is why I think that imprisoning people for, say, drug possession is stupid and pointless. If we are going to imprison people I think that the goal should be to try to ensure that by the time they’re released they are less dangerous to others than they were going into the system. A system that’s focused on the idea of punishment is unlikely to achieve that goal.
I know a lot of people see this as being “soft on criminals” but it’s actually mostly a pragmatic approach – I don’t like the idea of a system that takes in people who were already inclined to do bad things to others and spits them out either just as inclined to do so or even more inclined to do so. I also don’t see the point in imprisoning people who’re not dangerous to others.
Argenti: Solitary, and bad food, sort of have to go away in the course of those reforms.
If an employer asks if you’ve been arrested they are violating the law.
And I have a cold… this is not fair, since I just had the flu.
As to drugs. I got the side-eye, and a bit of an implied lecture on self-medication because I told the doc I have 6-10 drinks a week.
When I was self-medicating it was more like 14-20. I just don’t like water, and a glass of wine/beer with dinner is my drink of choice. Sheesh.
feckity feck, more drugs conversations and i’m at fecking work. Could you guys wait for me?
Argenti,
What if someone just wants to keep taking drugs?
I just don’t see the argument for drug rehabilitation as an alternative punishment for jail. Why can’t a person just stay a drug addict if thats what they want?
Also, if a mugger pops up and sticks a gun to your head and says “your money or your life” you’re not really making a decision when you’re giving him your wallet/purse.
So, parole as an alternative to jail? Same as the mugger scenario. Telling someone they can either go to jail for YEARS or stay outside under the thumb of the state, and I still don’t really see that as a decision.
I can see the argument for early release based on good behavior. But the whole parole thing where the state can rearrest someone for moving. I don’t see how that helps. What about the fact that they can go back if they’re caught hanging out with other convicted felons? With all the add-on revolving door punishments, someone offered parole could just wind up in jail for longer than their original sentence.
Diogones: I just don’t see the argument for drug rehabilitation as an alternative punishment for jail. Why can’t a person just stay a drug addict if thats what they want?
If their drug of choice is legal, they can. What they can’t do is hurt others in the course of enjoying themselves. It’s why drunks are denying their driving privileges.
But, if a drug is going to be illegal, then the option to cope with the addiction, in a more benign way, ought to be available. It’s the more libertarian position.
Diogenes: I see you have also chosen to run away from the other conversation you were in.
“If an employer asks if you’ve been arrested they are violating the law.” — good to know, I haven’t been, so it was more a theoretical thing, but thanks all the same.
“And I have a cold… this is not fair, since I just had the flu.” — yuck, it is not your winter is it?
“As to drugs. I got the side-eye, and a bit of an implied lecture on self-medication because I told the doc I have 6-10 drinks a week.
When I was self-medicating it was more like 14-20. I just don’t like water, and a glass of wine/beer with dinner is my drink of choice. Sheesh.”
14-20? I could blow through at least a liter (good thing I like cheap vodka!)
MDMA is much safer (and seriously, I could never imagine doing it more than 2~4 times a year). And fuck the side-eye, shit was used as psych medicine at one point. In other words, I second that sheeh.
And yes, I liked my hallunicogens! I don’t drive, and had the sense to stay in my apt, so I don’t see the problem.
Diogenes the Dull —
“What if someone just wants to keep taking drugs?” — yet again I say — I support legalization. If you scroll up, you’ll see where hellkell solved my issues with legalizing addictive drugs.
“Also, if a mugger pops up and sticks a gun to your head and says “your money or your life” you’re not really making a decision when you’re giving him your wallet/purse.
So, parole as an alternative to jail? Same as the mugger scenario.”
Umm, except the person who was mugged did nothing wrong, whereas the mugger is clearly a danger to society. Stop comparing the victim to the perpetrator.
Whataboutthemoonz — not Enchant, sorry!
That book wasn’t interesting the first time I read it. Endless repetition hasn’t improved the situation.
Half stuff already covered: carrots, sticks, legalization; half nonsense: a drug user is just like someone held up at gunpoint. That’s our arrogant know-it-all.
Maybe if we just mock him in tandem but don’t actually talk to him directly he’ll get the hint and piss off? Either that or say something original.
Not holding my breath on the latter possibility.
Let’s not talk to him. Let’s talk instead about what fun things cloudiah can do in the Oakland/SF area next Saturday (1/12) during the day. I’ll be visiting friends, one of whom is of somewhat limited mobility — i.e. she can walk, but not do a strenuous hike. Things we like to do: be in nature, particularly around birds; go to museums (I hear the Jewish Museum in SF has an interesting photography exhibit); eat yummy food. We’ll be based in Oakland, but can either BART or drive anywhere in the area.
Ideas?
Argenti: I am slight of build, and don’t like being drunk. I do like slightly tipsy, on occasion, but not all that often.
I like beer, I like wine. I like spirits. So I tend to have one, or two, of an evening.
When I was fresh back from Iraq… I drank more. Two a night on average, and sometimes three. Happily I don’t seem to be prone to addiction, so I will go days, even weeks, without.
But you know, “I wonder why you feel the need to drink every night,” but she left it lie.
@ cloudiah
What kind of food does your friend like?
(As far as nature stuff goes I’m useless, sorry.)