The Logic of Carly Fiorina and Chris Christie

[Berzerker]

During the recent debate Rand Paul said the states should be allowed to decide their own policy on marijuana, Carly agreed and then accused people of misleading teens by comparing pot to beer.

Fiorina:

My husband Frank and I buried a child to drug addiction. So, we must invest more in the treatment of drugs.

Y'all had plenty of money and the child in question - a 35 year old stepdaughter who went to rehab several times - died from an overdose following years of struggling with alcoholism, prescription pain killer abuse and bulimia. I lost a relative to alcohol, I never considered my loss as a justification to force people into rehab for using marijuana.

I agree with Senator Paul. I agree with states’ rights. But we are misleading young people when we tell them that marijuana is just like having a beer. It’s not. And the marijuana that kids are smoking today is not the same as the marijuana that Jeb Bush smoked 40 years ago.

She might be alive today had she used marijuana instead of alcohol.

Chris Christie:

I will enforce the federal laws against marijuana.

That was his warning to Coloradans if he gets elected.

That doesn’t mean we should be legalizing gate way drugs.

Marijuana is a gateway drug, but not alcohol and tobacco? I used alcohol and tobacco before marijuana.

And if Senator Paul thinks that the only victim is the person, look at the decrease in productivity, look at the way people get used and move on to other drugs when they use marijuana as a gateway drug, it is not them that are the only victims. Their families are the victims too, their children are the victims too, and their employers are the victims also.

That’s why I’ll enforce the federal law

What if the pot smoker doesn't have an employer or family? Poor corporations If I like beer am I a criminal? I do, therefore my family must be my victims. Or is he saying marijuana must first open a gate to other drugs before the family becomes the victims? Based on his "logic", Christianity should be banned because Jesus said his message will cause strife within families - and it does. Chris Christie's a big fan of collective guilt... when he's not in the collection.

While Christie said he's only talking about recreational pot use, Paul shredded him on medical pot. Christie has repeatedly said he will enforce federal pot laws, the feds dont allow medical pot. Doh! This matters, there are parents who have moved to Colorado because of a child in need of cannabis oil to ease seizures. Last spring here in Kansas we were treated to the spectacle of conservative Republicans in the legislature holding hearings about medical pot. Ironically, it was the Democrats trying to change the laws while Republicans sat on their death panel looking down their noses at these poor parents. They can just move to Colorado too...

http://time.com/4037239/second-republican-debate-transcript-cnn/

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Wow. That was a much longer OP than I expected. I thought that the logic of Christie and Fiorina put together amounted to <_________>. Christie may have some hidden away somewhere, but crazy Carly brings more than enough lack of logic to provide a net balance of zero or less.

 

[Formaldehyde]

It is completely futile to try to use logic and rational discourse to discuss marijuana with authoritarian conservatives. They believe every single word of the propaganda they were fed their entire lives.

To reevaluate it now means they must admit their hypocrisy and belief in utter nonsense has doomed tens of millions of black kids to lives of crime and poverty, as well as greatly damaging the lives of tens of millions of white Americans, including their own family members who they deliberately forsaked.

 

[Wolfbeckett]

Forsook, Formy, forsaked isn't a word!

Expecting sensible drug policy from the GOP is a fool's errand at this point. They're completely in bed with the for-profit prison system, and those guys LOOOOOOVE the war on drugs because it makes them rich. All of the stuff about it's safety and blah blah blah is a smoke screen, the real reason Republicans are against the legalization is because it would make their patrons less wealthy. Follow the money.

 

[Formaldehyde]

I knew that sounded a bit funny, but the spelling checker didn't complain.

But I don't buy that it is due to financial considerations. They are merely brainwashed by the incessant propaganda which they were directly exposed to their entire lives.

Part of the reason is because pot smokers were more than justified to keep a low profile. It is still a felony in Florida and many other states to have more than an ounce of pot. And knowledge that you smoke is typically sufficient reason to be fired in many cases. This has led to the nonsensical impression that only the Hollywood caricature of stoners exist, instead of frequently being "normal" and respectable people who are quite successful. That pot smokers eventually "graduated" to much stronger drugs that completely ruined their lives.

And now, you have people like Carly Fiorina claiming that the new pot is so much stronger than what Jeb Bush smoked when he was young, which actually has a semblance of truth. That it is now a demon drug that causes all sorts of bad things to happen which is utter nonsense.

So the fact that marijuana is really no different and has far less side effects than drinking alcohol is not public knowledge. This allows the anti-marijuana crowd to continue to engage in these incessant wars of propaganda to keep it illegal.

 

[CaptainF]

Whenever the usual drug war stupidity starts to piss me off, I read this article and laugh

Pfizer Kingpin Gunned Down In Ongoing Prescription Drug Cartel Turf War - The Onion

Spoiler lol :

NEW YORK—In the latest of an increasingly violent series of murders linked to international prescription drug trafficking, infamous Pfizer cartel leader Philip “El Loco” Cox was gunned down Thursday by rivals from the Bristol-Myers Squibb organization, the FBI has confirmed.

The 63-year-old Pfizer boss, who became the nation’s top pharma kingpin after the 2009 toppling of Wyeth ringleader Richard Russell, was reportedly shot five times in the chest by sales reps from Bristol-Myers Squibb, part of an ongoing turf war to control the lucrative pharmaceutical market.

“The murder of El Loco is a direct result of the escalating struggle over supply routes and territory between Pfizer and the Squibbs,” said FBI spokesman Jeff Lyons, using the nickname given to the rival cartel’s operatives, who allegedly woke Cox up in the middle of the night and killed him in front of his wife and children. “From lipid-lowering agents like Crestor to hard diabetes drugs like Avandia, everybody’s using this stuff, some of them as young as 35 or 40. The market’s worth billions, and it’s a bloody business.”

“Prescription drug traffickers are no longer just sending their reps into clinics to pressure doctors,” Lyons added. “Now they’re kidnapping the ones who don’t prescribe their product, decapitating them, and rolling their heads through hospital hallways.”

Thursday’s killing comes just days after the discovery of human remains belonging to Eli Lilly employees whose bodies had been viciously disfigured, disemboweled, and dumped in a mass grave outside Indianapolis. The corpses were reportedly only identifiable after authorities found a scrap of a polo shirt nearby bearing the cartel’s corporate insignia.

“El Loco” Cox’s murder is believed to have resulted from a long-running dispute over heart-medication distribution cells in the Northeast, where in the past year at least 500 people have been killed as the warring syndicates fight to push Lipitor and Pravachol, their rival products. However, the FBI told reporters that revenge might also have played a role.

“The bureau believes this assassination may have been ordered as an act of retaliation by the Fat Man himself,” said Lyons, referring to the notorious “pharmo” Doug Kirkendall, who is currently head of marketing at Bristol-Myers Squibb. “Last year, his wife was found hanging from a telephone pole and smeared with a prescription-only topical psoriasis cream—the signature threat of the Pfizer cartel.”

According to law enforcement officials, the blow to Pfizer could create an opening for the New Jersey–based Merck and Johnson & Johnson cartels to move in and expand their operations. Both groups have lately recruited more biochemical engineers, drug marketers, and family doctors into their ranks, with Merck burning down several Walgreens pharmacies in October following a pricing dispute.

Many experts have argued that responsibility for the violence ultimately lies with U.S. consumers, whose insatiable demand for designer drugs has made big pharma so incredibly profitable.

“Every time you go to your doctor demanding Concerta or Lunesta or once-daily Singulair, you’re fueling a dangerous $350 billion industry that kills thousands of innocent people each year,” said John Cotts, a Georgetown University sociologist who specializes in prescription-drug-related crime. “They’ve bought off the cops, they’ve bought off the politicians, and their power is growing every day.”

He added, “Just remember that the next time you visit a major pharmaceutical hub—maybe it’s San Diego, maybe it’s Raleigh-Durham—you may find yourself abducted, tortured, and thrown out of a moving car with the word ‘GlaxoSmithKline’ carved into your chest.”

Spoiler more lol :

 

[Berzerker]

http://science.howstuffworks.com/marijuana5.htm

People like Bill Bennett used bogus studies to claim pot is so much stronger now, it isn't. Well, top quality stuff is more potent but I remember the good stuff 40 years ago was pretty damn potent too.

I love the Onion

 

[Formaldehyde]

They are usually referring to various cannabis extraction methods that substantially increase the potency. This has apparently become quite popular in the states which have legalized it.

Back in the 60s, much of the pot was so weak you had to smoke a ton of it to even get high. Higher grade marijuana was available, but it wasn't very prevalent.

 

[Berzerker]

according to that link they were testing pot based on geography, low grade stuff from south of the border skewed the results

I remember getting Thai sticks and pot from Humboldt Cy 40 years ago. Now that was some quality herb.

 

[Evie]

Now eagerly awaiting the Carly ad with the demon sheep of pot luring teenagers into destroying themselves.

 

[Antilogic]

Gotta love it when the states' rights conservatives hate on states' rights when it's inconvenient.

Paul has the legit conservative position on this. And lefties are probably on his side too.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Gotta love it when the states' rights conservatives hate on states' rights when it's inconvenient.

C'mon man!

At this point even pretending to expect consistency or integrity from those crack pots rings so hollow that even in jest it can't be carried off.

 

[Formaldehyde]

according to that link they were testing pot based on geography, low grade stuff from south of the border skewed the results

I remember getting Thai sticks and pot from Humboldt Cy 40 years ago. Now that was some quality herb.

Sure, it existed. But most people smoked Mexican skunk weed because it was plentiful and cheap.

 

[Berzerker]

thats true, still do

 

[ParkCungHee]

C'mon man!

At this point even pretending to expect consistency or integrity from those crack pots rings so hollow that even in jest it can't be carried off.

To be fair, states rights is the biggest heap of **** in American politics. Nobody takes it seriously. Nobody.

Leftists will be happy to point to states rights on pot, and continue to ignore it on other issues. And the Republican will continue to invoke it only when it's convenient to them, and ignore it otherwise. This has been going on for about 200 years now.

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people, when not in conflict with ruling ideology."

 

[Antilogic]

There's a bit of context and hypocrisy there that makes it a little more delicious worse.

Like, two dudes having gay sex isn't that big of a deal. A politician elected on conservative family values who cheats on his wife with gay prostitutes is a bit more of a deal.

 

[Formaldehyde]

thats true, still do

I would disagree with that, at least on any massive scale anymore.

To be fair, states rights is the biggest heap of **** in American politics. Nobody takes it seriously. Nobody.

Republicans certainly do except when it disagrees with their views. But the only reason they do is because it allows them to pass their discriminatory laws on at least the state level when they can't do so on the national level.

And now that the so-called "leftists", which represent 20% of the population, have supposedly somehow made marijuana legal in a handful of states, they don't care for it one bit.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

thats true, still do

Given the differences in value density compared to other illicit goods I would question whether anyone could be bothered smuggling cheap weed across the border any more.

 

[abradley]

It is completely futile to try to use logic and rational discourse to discuss marijuana with authoritarian conservatives. They believe every single word of the propaganda they were fed their entire lives.

To reevaluate it now means they must admit their hypocrisy and belief in utter nonsense has doomed tens of millions of black kids to lives of crime and poverty, as well as greatly damaging the lives of tens of millions of white Americans, including their own family members who they deliberately forsaked.

Let's see, who have controlled the Black areas in the Major cities for at least the last 20+ years, how has the living standard improved, how has the education improved, and how about life expectancy?

If I am not mistaken it's the Dems, since mid 60's the Blacks have voted 90% Dem and what has it got them ... better schools, better living standards, or longer life expectancy? No!

As for marijuana want it decriminalized and controlled like Tobacco and Alcohol.

And yes, am a Repub.

 

[Formaldehyde]

Let's see, who have controlled the Black areas in the Major cities for at least the last 20+ years, how has the living standard improved, how has the education improved, and how about life expectancy?

If I am not mistaken it's the Dems, since mid 60's the Blacks have voted 90% Dem and what has it got them ... better schools, better living standards, or longer life expectancy? No!

Did you actually just state that the Democrats are in "control" of the black sections of segregated towns and cities because most blacks vote Democrat? That this even means any resulting problems from rampant institutional racism in the US must therefore be their fault?

As for marijuana want it decriminalized and controlled like Tobacco and Alcohol.

Well, good for you I guess. Pat yourself on the back for making such a statement after the above comments.

And yes, am a Repub.

Gee, what a surprise.

If you really cared about blacks, any other minority, and even womens' rights you wouldn't be one.