The terrorist threat is overrated
on
Top Secret America
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Reminds me of the following scene from The Simpson's: Homer: Not a bear in sight. The Bear Patrol is working like a charm! Lisa: That’s specious reasoning, dad. By your logic, I could claim that this rock keeps tigers away. Homer: Hmm. How does it work? Lisa: It doesn’t work, it’s just a stupid rock! Homer: Uh-huh. Homer (after a moment's thought): Lisa, I want to buy your rock
It could well be that the ridiculous sums of money spent on "Homeland Security" (a phrase that creeps the fuck out of me) is indeed money well spent. But please allow me to posit that the terrorist threat is actually McCarthy-esque bogeyman. Nevertheless, if the people of the US truly want to be (as opposed to feel) more safe, the best policy just might be to refrain from meddling in other countries' affairs quite so much...
>I'm fairly certain that the same drugs that aren't legal here are illegal in Sweden.
This is completely true. Also, when it comes to drugs, Sweden is faaar away from the liberal paradise people sometimes make it out to be. Within the EU, Sweden is zealously promoting its own (failed) policies of prohibition and "zero tolerance." I say failed because, for example, Sweden has twice the number of heroin addicts per capita compared to the Netherlands (where you will recall cannabis is quasi-legal). Sweden and the US are unfortunately kindred spirits in the war of (some) drugs.
>I'd guess there's far less steep penalties for drugs though, and probbably just treatment.
Whereas this is true as compared with other types of crime (including violent ones), our judicial system is NOT lenient on drug offenders. Also, somewhat uniquely, having an illegal substance (or metabolites of such) in the bloodstream, is actually a crime over here.
Decades of government propaganda have gone into stigmatising drugs, to the extent that youth here have stopped taking government drug information seriously. If you're taught that smoking a joint will melt your brain, and later find out that is not the case then...
So you abolished slavery before Saudi Arabia, good for you. The rest of the world does tend to hold USA (a self-professed beacon of hope and freedom and all that) to higher standards than those of a theocracy! Does this really surprise you?
You know, I had hoped that the days when you could score some easy karma by throwing in spurious Beowulf references were over. Obviously, I was mistaken.
Slashdot Mirror
Reminds me of the following scene from The Simpson's:
Homer: Not a bear in sight. The Bear Patrol is working like a charm!
Lisa: That’s specious reasoning, dad. By your logic, I could claim that this rock keeps tigers away.
Homer: Hmm. How does it work?
Lisa: It doesn’t work, it’s just a stupid rock!
Homer: Uh-huh.
Homer (after a moment's thought): Lisa, I want to buy your rock
It could well be that the ridiculous sums of money spent on "Homeland Security" (a phrase that creeps the fuck out of me) is indeed money well spent. But please allow me to posit that the terrorist threat is actually McCarthy-esque bogeyman. Nevertheless, if the people of the US truly want to be (as opposed to feel) more safe, the best policy just might be to refrain from meddling in other countries' affairs quite so much...
FYI, I am Swedish.
>I'm fairly certain that the same drugs that aren't legal here are illegal in Sweden.
This is completely true. Also, when it comes to drugs, Sweden is faaar away from the liberal paradise people sometimes make it out to be. Within the EU, Sweden is zealously promoting its own (failed) policies of prohibition and "zero tolerance." I say failed because, for example, Sweden has twice the number of heroin addicts per capita compared to the Netherlands (where you will recall cannabis is quasi-legal). Sweden and the US are unfortunately kindred spirits in the war of (some) drugs.
>I'd guess there's far less steep penalties for drugs though, and probbably just treatment.
Whereas this is true as compared with other types of crime (including violent ones), our judicial system is NOT lenient on drug offenders. Also, somewhat uniquely, having an illegal substance (or metabolites of such) in the bloodstream, is actually a crime over here.
Decades of government propaganda have gone into stigmatising drugs, to the extent that youth here have stopped taking government drug information seriously. If you're taught that smoking a joint will melt your brain, and later find out that is not the case then...
Your other comments are spot on, by the way.
So you abolished slavery before Saudi Arabia, good for you. The rest of the world does tend to hold USA (a self-professed beacon of hope and freedom and all that) to higher standards than those of a theocracy! Does this really surprise you?
Okay, had to add some text here to defeat the lameness filter. Read the subject!
I guess you're the sort of person who admires Dubya then.
[ducks and runs for cover]
"Sure he's a loony but at least he's consistent" is faint praise indeed.
Please refrain from trademarking your 'unique' spelling of intellectual. Thank you.
You know, I had hoped that the days when you could score some easy karma by throwing in spurious Beowulf references were over. Obviously, I was mistaken.