Which is more evil, meat, soy, gluten, or southpaws?

[Ecky]

I personally don't tend to think much of society's taboos. If I'm trying to impress someone or earn their regard, I'll follow the rules, but otherwise it's all fair game.

Consider: I have a 9-5 office job at which I wear a tie, but I ride a corrugated plastic velomobile to work and stop by a dumpster on my way home.

[Xist]

I enjoy my job, but I think that I had more fun driving a school bus. One day I wore pajamas!

I regretted it, though, too hot.

[redpoint5]

I've never tried an illicit drug or smoked anything, but based on what I've heard, it seems pot is relatively benign to society. It's consumption and distribution probably shouldn't be criminalized.

Originally Posted by Xist

It should be possible to rehabilitate most people in prison for using drugs. If they did bad things to get the money for drugs, they still deserve rehabilitation, even though they need to pay for their crime.

Rehabilitation has little to do with what is deserved, and much to do with maximizing well-being to both the community and the individual. By giving people a path to be reconciled to the community, they have hope. Hopeful individuals are more likely to be contributing members of society rather than liabilities.

... on the subject of capital punishment; I'm against it. Primarily I'm motivated by my belief that human life should be preserved and has intrinsic worth, regardless of the nature of the individual. Secondary to this, my best guess is that 2% of people in prison are innocent. Death eliminates the ability to correct mistakes or reconcile relationships. Thirdly, in the US, it is more expensive to the taxpayer to sentence someone to death than to sentence them to life without possibility of parole. Finally, valuing human life is what separates good people from evil people. By preserving the life of a murderer, we rise above their nature, taking no pleasure in the destruction of someone else, despite the fact that they deserve to die. BTW, allowing someone to live is no mercy, as death is nothing, and life is a struggle.

[Ecky]

I think my views are very much in alignment with yours.

[freebeard]

So say we all.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Xist

My sister is a huge advocate of medicinal [word I am not sure I can use at work]. From what I understand, the version used for recreation has been bred for potency, while the useful part has been reduced, while the medicinal version supposedly does not induce euphoria.

Though there are some varieties bred for potency, I'm not sure about the effect over their beneficial properties.

Then the rumors that the hemp industry (and associated products) were put out of business by the cotton industry.

Not sure if the cotton industry or the petroleum industry with its synthetic fibers had more influence on that matter. Considering that hemp seed oil can be used in chemical industries, and hemp fiber may serve for many purposes that both cotton and synthetics usually serve, I'm sure both might have their influence.

Then, supposedly, Prohibition and drug laws have been based on racism.

It seems like people find racist ties everywhere.

It seems like pulling the race card became a very profitable business. Look at those BLM riots, for example.

[Xist]

Marijuana has definitely evolved in the last few decades. Its potency is higher than ever: A lab in Colorado has just analyzed 600 samples of marijuana, both recreational and medical, and found that tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content has risen markedly, whereas cannabidiol (CBD), which many say has therapeutic value, has declined.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegw.../#5f926fa059e5

Racism is real and sad. People profited off of the riots?

I had never heard the paper industry rumors, but cotton (textile), although when I turned to Google, all that it showed was paper!

[freebeard]

At permalink #68 I posted a link to Debunking the Hemp Conspiracy Theory.

The assertion there is that the industrial argument fails because the machinations of bankers are opaque. (?)

When Prohibition failed, Harry Anslinger, who'd been appointed by [banker] Andrew Mellon, needed raison d'etre for his FBN:

Harry Anslinger, head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, headed the charge. "If the hideous monster Frankenstein came face to face with the monster marihuana, he would drop dead of fright," he thundered in 1937.

An ambitious racist ... who had previously been federal assistant Prohibition commissioner, Anslinger railed against reefer in magazine articles like 1937's "Marihuana: Assassin of Youth."

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Xist

Racism is real and sad. People profited off of the riots?

Racism is indeed real, but the blame shouldn't be placed only on white people like the lefties usually do. When it comes to profitting off of the riots, what about those lefties selling T-shirts with the "black lives matter" slogan and black celebretards like Beyoncé and that spoiled douchebag Colin Kaepernick getting even more space on the media to brainwash the black youth?

[Ecky]

Yes, someone selling t-shirts is worse than the systematic disadvantage of millions of people, for factors outside of their control.

If we're going to use anecdotes here, while I was working at a dental office in the south, I got to see an educated, pretty young black woman have her application for a front desk position tossed in the trash solely because her name was "Shaniqua". The dentist was afraid she would lose money because her white customers wouldn't want to go to a dental office which had identifiably black people answering the phones.