patrick.net

Ironman says

I know it's false... my list was total sarcasm.... But some people here think legalizing street drugs will make all issues of crime, overdoses and abuse go away... it won't, just like it didn't for alcohol...

Definitely agree. The one thing legalization will do is remove the facade that government is responsible to cure drug addiction. As a Protestant it hurts me to say this, but that change will push church accountability to serve their local community to the forefront. We have failed miserably when it comes to assisting the poor and defenseless, one of Christ's most important mandates.

I just want to give respectful credit for two things Nancy Reagan did, that she doesn't always get enough credit for.

To understand the loyalty and success of her marriage to President Reagan, and to understand his success in his career, you have to understand that they worked together as a team, each with a distinct role and sphere of influence. I disagreed with some of President Reagan's policy decisions, for example regarding HIV and AIDS, but I don't blame her for those. Legally, she didn't have the authority to countermand his decisions, and personally, she was loyal and would not undermine his authority by criticizing him publicly. I don't know what private conversations they may have had, but I think he was probably immovable on some issues. I credit Nancy for using her sphere of influence to do what she could without undermining her husband and their marriage.

Nancy took charge of the White House, including designing beautiful new china and getting it donated so it didn't cost taxpayers a penny (somehow the media failed to give her credit for that, calling it too fancy and failing to thank her for the fact that the public received it as a gift). She also hired as decorators a gay male couple, whom she invited to stay in the Lincoln bedroom, and they did. In that way, without undermining her husband (who had invited a lesbian couple to stay in his home decades before btw), she put a human face on the Americans most at risk of getting HIV. She did that at a time when others (including the Pope and Pat Buchanan) were doing the opposite, or ignoring HIV entirely (usually including, publicly, the POTUS, though he and Nancy did privately call France to help their friend Rock Hudson). Also, American historians credit her rightly with helping to secure the publication of President Buchanan's letters showing that he was gay. Statisticians can tell you how many Presidents were probably gay, but the reason historians can tell you a name is partly because of Nancy Reagan. In today's celebrity culture, seemingly anything attached to somebody famous can get attention, but back in those days the letters of a long dead President whom most people hadn't even heard of might not have got much attention if she hadn't helped in her capacity of promoting the White House and its history.

P N Dr Lo R says

All true, but alcoholism was pretty much limited to adults

Not true. Plenty of teenagers used to become alcoholics before, and still do this day.

NuttBoxer says

Absolutely won't be any different. You and FortWayne are making the same false assumption that legalizing/illegalizing a substance affects a person's level of addiction, and their choice to be an addict.

Because they do affect it. Availability creates opportunity. If there is less, than less people are addicted to it. Only reason more people are not fucked up, is because it is hard to get and is illegal.

P N Dr Lo R says

Sounds good to me

Must be way over the hill. Cannabis is much safer than alcohol or tobacco, but you can look up the proof for yourself.

Also, why should anyone subsidize others bad choices with regard to health habits? If your dad died of lung cancer because he smoked his whole life, why should that have to be someone else's problem?

curious2 says

. She also hired as decorators a gay male couple, whom she invited to stay in the Lincoln bedroom, and they did. In that way, without undermining her husband (who had invited a lesbian couple to stay in his home decades before btw), she put a human face on the Americans most at risk of getting HIV. She did that at a time when others (including the Pope and Pat Buchanan) were doing the opposite, or ignoring HIV entirely (usually including, publicly, the POTUS, though he and Nancy did privately call France to help their friend Rock Hudson). Also, American historians credit her rightly with helping to secure the publication of President Buchanan's letters showing that he was gay.

See Wayne...your hero wasn't a homophobe after all...his daughter recently said he would have supported gay marriage...considering you can't find fault with Reagan, why are you such a homophobe?

DieBankOfAmericaPhukkingDie says

The Nancy Reagan memorial library will have a Sinatra Pavilion

Did anyone else open this thread just to confirm that DBOAFD/AF had posted the most recent comment?