THOUGHTS...
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Chuck Conrad's
THOUGHTS...
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Somebody sent me this page back in '97 or '98 as an HTML attachment on an email. I'm sure it's someone in legalize.org because he has reproduced one of their pages here and links to many other of their interesting pages and invites everyone to plagiarize it. So I've used it as a basis for my web page and spent many hours tweaking it and will probably spend many more before I'm happy. He seems to have gotten it all pretty well except that the only two parties now are the fascist Republicats. The Socialists have been demonized and cointelpro'd since the '20s, which leaves us with only the Fascists. And of course we have the NAM morphing into NSA to thicken the plot a bit more.
I know that's a little heavy for
most of you, so just enjoy and use what you see here. Just when you
think you have the WoD all figured out, that other door will open and...
"Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give the appearance of solidity to pure wind."--George Orwell
"Man's mind stretched to a new idea never goes back to its original dimension." --Oliver Wendell Holmes.
"You can't conquer an idea with an army."--Thomas Paine.
"One has to multiply thoughts to the point where there aren't enough policemen to control them."--Stanislaw Lec
"It is the absolute right of the state to supervise the formation of public opinion." --Joseph Goebbels.
Let your mind be stretched on a regular
basis! Here follows a useful quote to start this article. This is from
the beginning of Thomas Paine's book The Age of Reason.
from 1794.
TO MY FELLOW-CITIZENS OF THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:I put the following work under your protection. It contains my opinions upon Religion. You will do me the justice to remember, that I have always strenuously supported the Right of every Man to his own opinion, however different that opinion might be to mine. He who denies to another this right, makes a slave of himself to his present opinion, because he precludes himself the right of changing it.
Rigid ideological beliefs have characterized
US politics and US religious beliefs for decades. Ideologies have had terrible
consequences on drug policies, spirituality, and much more.
Ideological thought often gets in the way of logical thought, especially as concerns drugs. It is important that we as individuals, and as a society, get past ideology, slogans, crusades, flag waving, holy wars, drug wars, hysteria, etc.. I like the title of Mike Gray's book Drug Crazy.
I like to think of ideology as "idiot-ology." Ideologues are often ignorant of their rigidity in thought, belief, and feelings. Even worse, they often want to impose their beliefs on others.
Drug Warriors are a perfect example, but we are all susceptible to ideology. It is pervasive.
This writer has been ideologically or religiously fanatic in the past. I'm glad I escaped from most of them (I hope).
One way out of ideological thought is to realize that for almost any rule there is an exception. You can't easily find a set of all encompassing rules to explain politics, religion, life, society, etc..
The United States used to be known mostly for its protection of INDIVIDUAL rights and beliefs, more so than for Majoritarian or Ideological or "Patriotic" Rule. This is the country with state mottos and historical slogans such as "Give me Liberty or Give Me Death," and "Live Free or Die." This nation was founded by REBELS!!!
Here is an example of ideological madness. Deranged Republican President Nixon was a rabid flag waver, yet he broke his Presidential oath to defend the Constitution and he ended up being the only President to be forced out of office. So much for flag waving one's way into power. Someone said "Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels." Nixon certainly qualified!
This same scoundrel Nixon declared an insane "War on Drugs" in 1971. He justified this and other repressive policies by referring to a "Silent Majority." Yea, right. In other words, shut up, kiss my ass, and obey, or you will be silenced. Literally.
An example was Nixon's ratcheting up of the unconstitutional COINTELPRO program. It caused the deaths of many activists. Other examples were Watergate, his aid in overthrowing the elected government in Chile, and installing the fascist Pinochet dictatorship that murdered tens of thousands. Look up any of these words in a web search engine.
Between 1940, the end of the Great Depression and the beginning of WWII, and 1980, the rate hovered in a range between 160 and 200 [inmates per 100,000 US population]. Then it took off [FORFEITURE LAWS AND VASTLY EXPANDED, MANDATORY-MINIMUM-SENTENCING DRUG LAWS, etc.], reaching 319 by 1985, 473 by 1990 and 519 last year [1993]. These are levels normally associated with POLICE STATES"
UNITED
STATES, 1980 to 1997.
*U.S.INCARCERATION
RATE PER 100,000 POPULATION.
Evil Incarnate. The Reagan
Revolution (and Bush, Clinton....). Ronald (6) Wilson (6) Reagan (6) {RWR}.
Think of the odds! A world leader! See Revelation 13:3,14,17,18. (Reagan's
assassination wound passed his bills).
Prison reports came out December 31 every year through 1995. From then on they came out June 30.
At midyear 1997 there were
99,175 federal prison inmates and 1,059,588 state prison inmates. At midyear
1997: 1 in 155 Americans were behind bars. At the end of 1996: At least
2.1% (1 in 48) Americans of all ages were under some form of correctional
supervision--jail, prison, parole, probation (1/1/97 U.S. population of
266.5 million). 2.8% of the adult (18 and over) population. At midyear
1997 women made up 6.3 % of those in jail, and 10.6% in prisons. In 1995
blacks made up around 51% of prison inmates (need jail inmates percentage).
*Statistics [GOP-REAGAN-BUSH TRIPLING OF INCARCERATION
RATE THROUGH DRUG WAR and MANDATORY MINIMUM DRUG SENTENCES, ETC.]
http://www.gnv.fdt.net/~jrdawson/drugwar102.htm
*DRUGWAR 101 [1980-97 U.S.] INCARCERATION RATES
[& In 2nd half - PROGRESSIVE NATIONS' CANNABIS AND DRUG POLICIES. MANY
LINKS!]
*DATA - INTERNATIONAL USE OF INCARCERATION [inmates
per 100,000 people. USA RATE 5 TO 16 TIMES HIGHER than ALL Western nations]
Just because a majority of people in a country or region believe in a rigid ideology, that doesn't mean they are right. The Drug War is a perfect example.
Here follows some analysis of various ideologies as they relate to the drug war.
Why? In an unregulated or barely regulated free market--as in the US--wealth concentrates in fewer and fewer hands. A people that allow themselves to be economically raped in this way also often allow safety nets to crumble. The destruction of the US safety net is one of the root causes of the huge US drug trade. Why? Because desperate, unnecessary people are far more likely to be willing to take the risks of dealing drugs.
Without safety nets, decent minimum wages, unions, progressive taxation, etc., many, many people are left behind. Many people in the US don't realize just how badly the safety net has been destroyed. Many upper middle-class Americans rarely get out of la-la lotus land in well-off suburbs. Let me enlighten you. I have lived in cities, poor suburbs, rich suburbs, America, Europe. The high level of American urban and rural poverty is unique among Western nations. In late 1997 there was a CNN show comparing the capitals of France and our United States (Paris and Washington, D.C.). If you saw it, or if you have lived in Paris, as I have, then you know some of the reasons why violent crime and the violence of the drug trade are so much more prevalent in the US. The safety net and universal healthcare are the NORM in ALL Western nations, except for the United States.
Europeans have had bloody wars, riots, strikes, etc. where economic justice was a key factor. Americans have yet to fight in a big way for economic justice (Let's start). The American workforce is only slightly unionized. We need to get off our knees. I'm not talking about bullshit Marxism either. True economic democracy is what I prefer.
Back to the free market ideology failings: In any free market, whether regulated or not, there is almost always some unemployment. A whole class of people can end up jobless, homeless, and/or ill. Illness is the worst in my opinion. healthcare is one area in particular where the unregulated monopolistic free market fails many people very badly - especially when one is ill and/or unemployed. An unregulated free market will not provide universal healthcare. The US is the only Western nation without universal healthcare, which is essential for the best harm-reduction drug policies (more about that later).
An unregulated free market ideology is inherently unfair. Profits and capital gains go to owners and stockholders no matter how that stock was acquired. Stock is often inherited, or is acquired unfairly through insider trading or unfair privatization programs (as in Russia and Mexico), or it is otherwise acquired without real work or creativity. Wealth concentrates in fewer and fewer hands unless there is progressive taxation. Many rich kids inherit their wealth from their parents. So selfish billionaire brats like Steve Forbes lobby for flat taxes in order to keep that unearned wealth. An unregulated free market does little to fairly distribute wealth.
Free markets work far better when wealth is continually redistributed through progressive taxation, and when monopolies are prevented or broken up. In such situations free markets INCREASE productivity per capita, and thereby create more wealth FOR EVERYBODY, NOT JUST THE RICH.
Poor people in the US see the huge differences
in wealth in the US, and get justifiably pissed off. How can drug
dealing be considered immoral next to the utter corruption, greed, and
depravity of many rich people and politicians? This country is ripe
for revolution, whether violent or nonviolent. Either one is justified,
and long overdue. Economic justice delayed is justice denied. No
justice, no peace. Say it. Mean it. Most Americans are
such incredible wimps that even thinking any of these thoughts scares them.
Read or reread the damn Declaration of Independence, you wimps.
The main force for progressive drug policy in the rest of the Western nations has been the other Western nations' use of universal healthcare and HARM REDUCTION. Universal healthcare is absolutely essential to a comprehensive harm reduction drug policy. That's because poor people need universal healthcare the most, and poor people can benefit the most from a harm reduction drug policy.
http://www.ihra.org.uk
*International Harm Reduction Association Home
Page
http://www.lindesmith.org
*The Lindesmith Center. [articulate Harm Reduction
advocates]
Many other Western nations prefer a harm reduction
drug policy over a strictly criminal justice response to drugs. Our criminal
justice approach is mean-spirited to the nth degree. Why do we have drug
laws anyway? Is it not to protect people from harm? The drug war kills
and maims FAR more people than drugs do or will ever do. Marijuana has
NEVER killed anyone in recorded history!!!
*MEDICAL MARIJUANA LINKS GALORE! USE, SAFETY,
MYTHS, FACTS. Lineman: Medical [cannabis.com: Cannabis Related Links].
Medical section.
A chart from the back cover of the March, 1995 edition of "The Emperor Wears No Clothes: Hemp & the Marijuana Conspiracy," by Jack Herer.
HOW
DANGEROUS IS MARIJUANA...
IN
COMPARISON TO OTHER SUBSTANCES?
NUMBER OF AMERICAN DEATHS PER YEAR that
result directly or primarily from the following selected causes nationwide,
according to World Almanacs, Life Insurance Actuarial (death) Rates, and
the last 20 years of U.S. Surgeon Generals' reports. (Figures are for 1994
from the federal government's Bureau of Mortality Statistics and the National
Institute on Drug Abuse, et al.--the last complete year at the time of
this writing.)
------------------------------------------------------
TOBACCO.............................340,000
to 450,000
ALCOHOL (Not including 50% of all highway
________deaths and 65% of all murders).........150,000+
ASPIRIN (Including deliberate overdose)....180
to 1000+
CAFFEINE (From stress, ulcers and triggering
________irregular heartbeats, etc.).....1000
to 10,000
"LEGAL" DRUG OVERDOSE (Deliberate or accidental)
________from legal, prescribed or patent
________medicines and/or mixing with
________alcohol--e.g. Valium/alcohol..14,000
to 27,000
ILLICIT DRUG OVERDOSE (Deliberate or accidental)
________from all illegal drugs..........3,800
to 5,200
THEOPHYLLINE (Pharmaceutical drug legally
________prescribed for asthma)......................50
________Theophylline is also responsible
________for 6,500 Emergency Room admits
________and 1,000 cases of permanent
________brain damage per year.
MARIJUANA/CANNABIS ........................0
------------------------------------------------------
LOWEST TOXICITY.
100% of the studies done at dozens of American
universities and research facilities show pot toxicity does not exist.
Medical history does not record anyone dying from an overdose of marijuana
(UCLA, Harvard, Temple, etc.).
All other Western nations have universal healthcare,
and spend far less per capita for total healthcare costs (both public and
private). What's more, compared to the US they have better health statistics
overall. This has been explained in the articles on healthcare and harm
reduction. Universal healthcare is less expensive per capita because the
government controls costs and prioritizes spending.
These facts disturb rigid free market ideologues.
It has been impossible for the free market to
regulate total healthcare costs. There are many reasons why it is
unlikely that the free market will EVER be able to adequately control healthcare
costs -- not without some government regulation and cost controls.
Free market ideologues refuse to accept these
facts. None of their healthcare schemes have worked or are likely
to do so. If healthcare is looked at as an unavoidable expense like
taxes for roads, for the military, etc., than it is logical to try to lower
its total costs through universal healthcare, global budgets, prioritizing
expenditures. single-payer healthcare, etc.
Reductions in total healthcare spending would free
up wealth to be used in the rest of the economy. The rest of the
Western world has figured out how to lower total healthcare costs and still
have better health statistics overall than in the US. The change
needed requires that free market ideologues get a clue, or that these true
believers become outnumbered by those who think.
The US spends over 15% of its GDP on total healthcare
costs, both public and private. No other Western nation spends more than
10% of its GDP on healthcare. 5% of the US GDP equals $350 to $400 billion
dollars a year!!! What an incredible loss to the rest of the economy!
A single-payer system is NOT socialized medicine,
no more than any other form of government contracting such as military
equipment contracting, highway building contracting, etc.. The government
does NOT own the means of production. The government (the "single-payer")
PAYS for services. People who use the phrase "socialized medicine"
are clueless pinhead moron idiot ideologues of the worst kind. On
the 10 point cranial-rectal inversion meter (10 points means the gray matter
is lodged higher up in the poop chute where the light of reason does not
shine) these ideologues rate a 15!
From Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary
(1986)
Social Darwinists do not support universal healthcare,
because it allows the "weak" to survive. In its most extreme forms
social Darwinism blends into more active forms of insuring the survival
of the "fittest," such as ethnic cleansing, genocide, nazism, drug wars,
etc..
The "fittest" are often defined by one's minority
or majority status, or by one's inheritances, or by one's "connections."
Drug users are a convenient scapegoat, since they are a minority.
Social Darwinism is a rich persons' form of pack
mentality, or "gang" status. Your survival depends on the "insurance"
of your pack connections. If you get sick, you depend on this insurance.
Rigid free market social darwinists therefore
only support free market insurance plans. Of course, people not born
with a silver spoon in their mouth often can't afford health insurance,
so they suffer, often for their whole lives and often with undiagnosed,
easily treatable medical conditions.
Social Darwinists are not your friends!
At the most they are fair-weather friends and fair-weather patriots. Just
watch what happens when you or your friends become sick, disabled, unemployed,
poor, or an outcast. The Libertarians, other than their drug war
policy, are right there, too.
They are another ideology causing the carnage
of the Drug War. Their one real purpose is to perpetuate their jobs.
Market forces or administration changes affect them very little.
They like it that way.
Big prison guard unions are powerful players with
powerful PACs (Political Action Committees). They like the Drug War.
It provides an endless stream of "clients." The politicians they back are
supposed to fulfill their part of the quid pro quo by implementing
policies like Zero Tolerance and passing laws like Three Strikes and Mandatory
Minimums and all the other Drug War laws and policies with which we're
only too familiar.
On the other hand, Big Government can, when well
directed and supervised, effect positive change quickly, especially on
the federal level. Universal health care is one area where government
policy making is absolutely necessary. Some other examples are the
federal highway system, civil rights, environmental protection, union rights,
college education, etc..
Yet these same positive bureaucracies often become
havens for gold-bricking bureaucrats whose only purpose is to shuffle and
reshuffle paper and to keep their ever increasing salaries and benefits.
The bureaucracies' original purposes become secondary to wasteful spending
on and by the bureaucracy itself. These bureaucrats are often pathologically
opposed to attempts at privatization and cost-benefit analysis. They
often succeed in avoiding nearly all government and citizen oversight.
Therefore big government ideology can tie up more
and more of the economy in less and less productive pursuits, and in bureaucratic
privilege. This eventually causes the economy to stagnate, because
average taxpayers have less and less after tax money to spend, since they
end up paying more and more taxes to support unaccountable bureaucracies.
So since more and more wealth is sucked out of
the economy, poverty increases. Anytime poverty increases so does the drug
trade and the Drug War. It is another vicious poverty/Drug-War cycle.
As you can see, there are many ways to tie up money and keep it out of
the hands of the middle-class and the poor.
Money and wealth can be locked up in the hands
of the rich, in bloated government bureaucracies, in monopoly controlled
industries, etc.. In any case the economy stagnates. Poverty
then ensues and the drug trade and the drug wars then escalate.
The current model is the Reagan-Bush-Clinton Republocrat-Demican
1980's and 1990's Military-Industrial Chemical/Drug-Medical Criminal Justice
- Prison/Slave Labor Spending Coalition. Republicans are, by far,
the most frequent sponsors and cosponsors of repressive, fascist drug war
laws. Even though Democrats cosponsor far fewer of these NAZI laws,
enough Democrats vote with the NAZIs {oops, I mean Republicans} to pass
many of these pogroms. Republican soft money control of the media is far
greater than Democrat soft money, so many Democrats, especially in the
"Bible belt," vote with the latest KKK {oops, I mean Republicans} in order
to not be smeared as "soft on crime."
[6] Ronald [6] Wilson [6] Reagan's Soviet "Evil
Empire" was the first enemy of the 1980's. In the last half of the 1980's
Drug Users, and perceived drug user lifestyles, became the "enemy." Can
you say "Just Say No," "Zero Tolerance," and "gangsta rap!"
Estimated
number of sentenced BLACK AND WHITE MALE PRISONERS per 100,000 male residents
in the U.S. [FIGURES DO NOT EVEN INCLUDE JAILS!]. Please
use a monospace/monotype/fixed-width font so that the chart columns line
up.
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/ascii/p96.txt
http://www.census.gov/population/estimates/nation/intfile3-1.txt
Big government ideologues all spend huge amounts
of money on the machinery that defends their power: the military, the secret
police, the regular police, the prisons, the chain gangs, the forced labor
prison camps, etc. These forces become more and more unregulated
and independent of elected authority, the press, etc. Police brutality
is more and more brushed under the carpet. Criminal proceedings for
the poor become a joke.
http://www.prop1.org/legal/prisons/970317itt.htm
Both Republicans and Democrats have nearly bankrupted
the US through huge deficits built up through vastly expanded defense,
prison, and criminal justice budgets during the 1980's.
Federal
Mandatory Drug Sentences
The
average sentence for a first-time, federal drug offender compared with
other offenses:
http://www.famm.org/about.htm
http://www.famm.org/about3.htm
Today, the U.S. Drug-War, one-party ideology has
gone international and is often used to extend US counterintelligence and
US Drug-War, DEATH-SQUAD "democracy," especially into Latin America.
Once the communist bogeyman was gone, Republican President (and ex-CIA
chief) George Bush began to use the Drug War to justify much of US foreign
policy. An ex-SouthCom (US Southern Command, the military overlords
of Latin America) general, Barry McCaffrey, now heads the US Drug War and
frequently cheer leads US Drug-War intervention in Latin America.
He also encourages escalating military involvement in the US Drug War here
at home. Talk about one-party government! The new fascist NAZI overlords,
except this time in the Western Hemisphere. (They've been here all
along. cpc)
Big-government, one-party ideologues also usually
give monopoly control or shared monopoly control of various economic sectors
to their cronies. "Crony Capitalism" seems to be the model nowadays.
One simple form of monopoly control is state ownership,
such as in education all the way through high school.
Another form of monopoly control is shared monopoly
control through revolving door cooperation between government regulators
and the businesses they regulate.
The FDA, AMA, NIH, NCI, and even the EPA, have
worked hand in glove with the pharmaceutical and petrochemical companies
in order to effectively ban natural, non-patentable alternatives, as in
the virtual banning of natural foods, herbs (marijuana, etc.), vitamins,
minerals, etc. from accepted medicine. Also, government research money
is steered away from nearly all natural medicine.
Big government ideologues form hierarchies of
power at all levels of society. There is little room allowed for competition
in the economy, and also in the marketplace of political ideas. Both
would threaten the security of their jobs and their perks. Big corporations
are allowed to own more and more competing radio, TV, and print media in
any one city, and across the country.
Big government ideologues lobby hard to keep their
huge US criminal justice and prison bureaucracies. In some states criminal
justice and prison PAC's spend more lobbying money (bribes?) than most
other PAC's.
Since the majority of US inmates are in for drug-related
or drug-trade-related (stealing money for drugs, etc.) crimes, the bureaucrats
and politicians in both of the main political parties try to outdo each
other in prosecuting the Drug War, in order to get that PAC money mentioned
previously. The Democrats and Republicans often sound like the same
party, especially when seeking that PAC money.
So, in effect, we in the US are experiencing a
new form of one party big government, run by the Demican-Republocrat party.
The Libertarian Party also helps them out by supporting laissez-faire free
market economic royalism, and thereby helping to create the inequalities
of wealth that cause poverty, and the resulting exploding drug trade exacerbated
by poverty. So all 3 end up propping up the Drug War.
The two main political parties try to outdo each,
especially around election time, to "crack down" on drugs. The Libertarians
rail against crime in general, but do nothing to attack the poverty and
desperation at the root of most crime. Libertarians are stealth social
Darwinists whose literature openly calls for the elimination of Social
Security, all welfare, Medicare, Medicaid, etc. And forget about
universal healthcare, government-paid treatment, and government aided harm
reduction. The Libertarian "solution" to all safety net issues is
private charity. Libertarian "liberty" to pass the buck to that other
charitable sucker.
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n524.a06.html/all
This gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "blind
faith." It seems that in religion and in spirituality, as well as in politics
and economics, people have to think and feel a little for themselves.
Organized religion often wants unthinking followers.
The Christian establishment centuries ago did not even allow people to
read the Bible in their own language, much less to question its authenticity.
Ignorant fundamentalists today believe that every word in the Bible came
from God, and should be followed literally.
Uta Ranke-Heinemann, chair of the history of religion
at the University of Essen, Germany, in her 1992 book (1994 in English),
Putting Away Childish Things, compiles evidence about what Jesus really
said. What words did Jesus actually say? Uta discusses Bultmann's work
thusly (annotations are Uta's or Bultmann's):
"Which words? Bultmann tried to find the characteristic
features of Jesus' preaching.' And he cites just a handful of sayings that
we can assume really come from Jesus himself (we can muster any sort of
confidence in ascribing one of the logia [words] to Jesus only in a few
cases'). Among these few words that he traces back to Jesus himself, Bultmann
mentions Jesus' sayings in the Sermon on the Mount about retaliation (Matt.
5:39b-41) and loving our enemies (Matt. 5:44-48). All these sayings contain
something characteristic, something new, which transcends folk wisdom and
folk piety, and yet is no more scribal-rabbinical than it is Jewish-apocalyptical.
Thus here, if anywhere, the characteristic features of Jesus' preaching
must be found' (Die Geschichte der synoptischen Tradition, p. 110)."
Thus, these possible words of Jesus do not justify
"us against them" philosophies, such as many of the ideologies previously
described, or the ideologies used in the Drug War. And you know, Jesus
supposedly talked about visiting prisoners, too.
Here is something Jesus supposedly said that I
like in the Bible (from New American Standard version): Matthew 12:32 "And
whoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven
him; but whoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven
him, either in this age, or in the age to come." I interpret it boldly
as in one can say "Screw Jesus." How's that for a more open spirituality
worldwide? I interpret this to allow people to escape verbiage. Or the
ramblings of any so-called "sacred text." People wrote them. If there is
no living spirit, then of what value is your dead religion? And the spirit
of compassion, empathy, and truth has nothing to do with the mean spirited
posturing of fundamentalism - no matter what religion it is based on. Marijuana,
mushrooms, etc. seem to facilitate a living spiritual connection for many,
many people over many millennia. Real connections, no matter how facilitated,
are much preferred to ideological religion.
Any solution is non-ideological if it doesn't
rigidly adhere to one ideology. It is that simple.
Universal healthcare costs far less per capita,
and works far better than a strict free market form of healthcare, or any
other form of healthcare. It produces far better overall statistical results,
and it does it for everybody, leaving no one to a Social Darwinian fate.
Universal healthcare spends far less on bureaucracy,
paper shuffling, and other big government and big insurance company gold-bricking.
It does not fit any one ideology, and once instituted and experienced in
any country it is supported across the spectrum of ideologies and political
parties.
Americans as a whole do not have a clue about
what universal healthcare really is, because the US media has been co-opted
by hundreds of millions of dollars of Harry-and-Louise type propaganda
ads and other misinformation.
The American news media rarely takes its head
out of its US ass, and rarely bothers to check out healthcare in other Western
countries.
Universal healthcare is the number one reason why
the quality of life is far higher in the cities of all other Western nations
(such as Western Europe, Scandinavia, Ireland, Britain, Canada, Australia,
etc..). Since with universal healthcare, healthcare needs are assured for
everyone, then that only leaves food and shelter as the main safety net
needs. Food and shelter safety nets cost far less than healthcare safety
nets.
Poor people are far less desperate in other Western
nations. They feel far less need to commit crime in order to survive. Their
safety nets cover the most important need--health. Health is easily the
most stressful part of being poor. I know. I have been poor often.
Universal healthcare abroad is often used to take
care of the health needs of drug users, far more than using the criminal
justice approach of throwing drug users in uncaring prisons.
Concerning violence, in all other Western countries
handguns are very hard to legally acquire. Handguns are unhealthy! Duh!
This is because handguns cause most of the harm from guns. Rifles are far
less of a problem in any country. So, for health and harm reduction reasons,
handguns have been mostly banned or regulated into oblivion in nearly all
other Western nations. This is another reason violent drug-trade-related
turf wars are far less frequent in all other western nations. Violent crime
there, in general, is far less frequent and far less lethal.
Because of all the above there is far less desperation,
strife, and hatred in the cities of all other Western nations. Crime is
mostly nonviolent. Therefore there is far less need for prison as a punishment
for crime. Incarceration rates are one fifth to one fifteenth the US rate.
Large percentages of cops in many Western nations do not even carry guns!
Drug-trade turf wars are far less violent overall. The total turf war body
counts per year are far lower.
This writer has been poor many times in his past.
I don't mind being poor. But chronic ill health combined with no healthcare
has devastated me many times. It is impossible to hold a job for any length
of time if one is truly chronically sick. Chronic sickness causes chronic
fatigue. One only has so much energy when one is chronically ill and can't
get help. What little help offered through Medicaid is difficult to get,
and often only when a chronic illness has taken one to an acute life threatening
phase in the emergency room. Catastrophic or acute stage healthcare costs
far more than healthcare instituted earlier on in an illness. Prevention
costs even less.
When chronically ill, even a shortened work week
is often out of the question. Yet social workers in the US will cut off
even food stamps if you don't stick out your work-fare or work week, week
after week. Chronic illness and chronic fatigue are real, though often
difficult to prove or diagnose.
It is no surprise to this writer that so many
US people are homeless, desperate, criminal, suicidal, or homicidal. They
are only reflecting the homicidal, Social Darwinist culture they are living
in. What goes around comes around.
American culture is only getting back what it
is putting out: Institutional Violence, Social Darwinism, Ethnic Cleansing,
Ivory Tower Cranial-Rectal Inversionitis.
Our US inner cities are becoming big third world
violent cesspools. They are little different from those in banana republic
narco-democracies such as Mexico and Colombia (poetic justice since US
Drug War policies play such a big part there too). Violent crime rates
are similar. Poverty rates are similar. Squalidness is similar. Drive into
the US inner cities. Walk around if you have the courage. Imagine living
there. I have lived there. Have you? Or has la-la lotus land been your
only zip code so far? That can change. Then what? Then what will your ignorant
ideologies do for you?
http://www.fortunecity.com/meltingpot/parklands/166/home.html
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/6443/politic.html
http://www.ka.net/randy/conspiracies/timeline/txt/chronology.txt
socialism. noun (1839). 1: any of various
economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership
and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods.
2a: a system of society or group living in which there is no private property.
2b: a system or condition of society in which the means of production are
owned and controlled by the state. 3: a stage of society in Marxist theory
transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal
distribution of goods and pay according to work done.
SOCIAL
DARWINISM
Free market ideologues are also often social darwinist
ideologues. Social Darwinists rigidly believe in the survival of the fittest.
There is very little, if any, good to be said about this ideology.
Many people believe in this ideology, though few people since the fall
of the Nazis will admit to believing in it. Social Darwinists do
not support universal healthcare or harm reduction.
BIG
GOVERNMENT
On what appears to be the opposite end of the political
spectrum are the big government ideologues, and the big spender political
machines.
ONE-PARTY
IDEOLOGIES
Some extreme big government ideologues can also create
one-party governments, such as the German National Socialist (Nazi) government,
the Italian Fascist government, Communist Party governments, and the Reagan
Military-Industrial Chemical/Drug-Medical Prison/Slave Labor Complex (still
kept in existence by the Democan-Republocrat one-party state). All
these "one-party" ideologies successfully consolidated power when they
were able to create enemies to demonize. Can you say "crack
baby" and "this is your brain on drugs."
**Violence, Drugs, Politics, Drug-War PRISON-INDUSTRIAL
COMPLEX.
--------------------------------
YEAR________WHITE____BLACK__
1985_________246_____1,559__
1990_________339_____2,376__
1995_________461_____3,250__
--------------------------------
In 1993, the last year of apartheid, in
pre-Mandela South Africa there were 851 BLACK MALE inmates per 100,000
black males!
--------------------------------
Number
of Hispanic PRISONERS in U.S. State or Federal Prisons. People
of HISPANIC origin may be of any race. Percent of Prisoners who are
Hispanic [FIGURES HERE DO NOT INCLUDE JAILS!].
Percent of U.S. Population that is Hispanic (for 1990, 92, 94). On Dec.
1, 1997: estimate of 11.1% of U.S. population.
__________________________________________________________
_____HISPANIC_________________|__HISPANIC_prisoners_per_
_____prisoners________________|_100,000_Hispanic_residents
______________________________|___________________________
YEAR__NUMBER__PRISON%_US_POP%_|____TOTAL____MALE__FEMALE
1985___54,672__10.9%__________|______285_____542____22
1990__103,065__13.3%___9.1%___|______437_____817____43
1991__112,520__13.7%__________|______461_____863____44
1992__125,018__14.1%___9.6%___|______493_____928____45
1993__138,699__14.6%__________|______529_____994____50
1994__156,908__14.9%__10.4%___|______580____1092____53
1995__174,292__15.5%__________|______622____1174____57
__________________________________________________________
**2 tables above: Prisoners in 1996. Lineman:
ASCII text file.|
**[Census] Population Data [by Sex, Race, and
Hispanic Origin].|
**Prisons, America's Newest Growth Industry.
[WITH NRA HELP!]
Laws passed in the mid-1980's. 1 kilo is
1 kilogram, which equals 1000 grams. 1 pound equals 454 grams. 1 ounce
equals 28.35 grams. Various states' 2 and 3-strikes laws double these sentences,
or give life sentences.
________________________________________________________
Type_of_Drug.____5-year_sentence_____________10_years
_________________without_parole._____________w/o_parole
________________________________________________________
LSD______________1_gram_[10_to_20_doses_if___10_grams
___________________carrier_weight_included]
Marijuana________100_plants_or_100_kilos_____1000_plants
___________________________________________or_1000_kilos
Crack_cocaine____5_grams_[heavy_user's_______50_grams
___________________5_to_10_day_supply]
Powder_cocaine___500_grams___________________5_kilos
Heroin___________100_grams___________________1_kilo
Methamphetamine__10_grams____________________100_grams
PCP______________10_grams____________________100_grams
________________________________________________________
The federal sentences above are for
NON-VIOLENT possession only. Similar laws exist at the state level.
One must serve 80% of the sentence before parole is even considered.
----------------------------------------------
----------------------------------
Offense_____________Time_Served
----------------------------------
Drugs.______________82.4_months
Firearms.___________73.8_months
Sexual_Abuse._______66.9_months
Assault.____________33.4_months
Manslaughter._______26.8_months
Burglary/Breaking_
_and_Entering.______24.6_months
Auto_Theft._________20.0_months
----------------------------------
**What Are MMS? [Federal Mandatory Minimum Sentencing
Table]
**FAMM Facts [Average Federal Sentences. LONGEST
FOR DRUGS!
**5/98: The Right Wing Is On Drugs [Canada. A
discussion of cannabis and drug policy reform, history, IDEOLOGY, healthcare,
LIBERTARIANISM].
FUNDAMENTALIST
CHRISTIANITY
Many respected Biblical scholars analyze the Biblical
texts to determine which verses and parts of verses were actually written
or spoken by whom they are claimed to be written or spoken by. For example,
much of what is claimed to come from Jesus CANNOT be historically proven.
Some words have more historical proof than others.
NON-IDEOLOGICAL
SOLUTIONS Sunshine for Gray Matter
--Or "What goes around, comes around."
**More CHUCK CONRAD'S
THOUGHTS...
**Underground Roots, a Jan Irvin site
This is a must-read for anyone who thinks the courts or congress is going to yield to logic or pressure from the electorate.
The Elkhorn Manifesto
**What do Hemp and Hitler have in common? World War II, that's what. An Open Letter to All Americans by R. William Davis
**Occupied America: A Chronology of Nazi Infiltration
PLEASE JOIN THE STRUGGLE
TODAY!
Revised
Wednesday, May 23, 2001
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