many drugs (not all) destroy life, civilization, families, and minds.
Help! Help! I'm being destroyed! Again, it's the destructive personalities that cause the damage, not the drugs. If you work in law enforcement then the range of situations you see involving drug-taking are self-selecting to be related to illegal use, and in many cases it is the illegality of the drugs that causes the problems rather than the drugs themselves. You continually see drugs in squalid and illegal situations and so assume the drugs are the cause, but all sections of society are taking drugs all the time and most people are fine. There will always be a section of society that "destroys" itself, and they'll do it with junk food or unsanitary living or violence or verbal abuse or lack of exercise, not just drugs.
It is an extrordinary case when cocaine, meth, PCP, or a plethora of other drugs make the world a better place
You could say the same thing about lemonade. Nothing in itself is either good or bad, it is the actions of people and the views of people that make the world a better or worse place.
And the other error "to take your mind off it for a few hours" is also equivalent to "escape"
Well, it's more equivalent to "step back and then return" in the sentence above; I was just saying they aren't always used that way.
I challenge you to show how the drugs were not crippling our great thinkers.
Well that's easy - did the Rolling Stones drug use cripple their music? Or Byron or Hunter S. Thompson? If people are "destroyed" they are destroyed by their own destructive personality, which was responsible not only for their destruction but for whatever their great works were - to separate the two and say the drugs were all bad and the cause of their destruction is to be in denial.
I have always found it interesting the way people strive to justify their addictions, it always seems justified in the eyes of the addict
Those who demonise drugs tend to believe they are justified, too.
They choose alcohol, or drugs, or video games, or some other distraction to take their mind off of life.
In defending one stereotype you have perpetuated another. Those of us who drink & take drugs aren't all doing it "to escape" - that's an argument used by people who demonise drink & drugs, not a truth. Drinking can focus the mind wonderfully on the problem at hand, or take your mind off it for a few hours so you can come back with a fresh perspective. Many of the world's greatest military and political thinkers and leaders were also the greatest drinkers and drug-takers; Churchill and General Grant, for example, and a whole host of drug-taking philosphers.
You can drink beer and still care about politics and the environment, and I think most of the world understands that many American people disagree with Bush. Just not of you to get him out of office, unfortunately.
That's a good point, actually - does this situation really merit that the "UK threat level" to be set to "critical -- the highest possible"? At the highest possible threat level I'd really expect to be worried for my life the moment I stepped out of the front door, anywhere in the UK. No, inside my house - at the highest possible threat level I should be scared to make a cup of tea in case the water supply is poisoned or look under the bed in case there's a monster.
We are not being shelled, we are not being invaded, we are not under attack, we still have a higher risk of dying from heart disease. By calling this situation "the highest possible threat level" the government is whipping up fear and paranoia, and MI5 runs the very real risk of inuring people to any real UK-wide dangers that may come along.
The first result in a search for "Serial Box" Serial Box gives an example of the new behaviour. A page headed "Malware Warning" appears and warns you the page you are about to visit may harm your computer.
Slashdot Mirror
Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
There you go. Like with Slaughterhouse-Five there is a movie version, it's just not very well known.
many drugs (not all) destroy life, civilization, families, and minds.
Help! Help! I'm being destroyed! Again, it's the destructive personalities that cause the damage, not the drugs. If you work in law enforcement then the range of situations you see involving drug-taking are self-selecting to be related to illegal use, and in many cases it is the illegality of the drugs that causes the problems rather than the drugs themselves. You continually see drugs in squalid and illegal situations and so assume the drugs are the cause, but all sections of society are taking drugs all the time and most people are fine. There will always be a section of society that "destroys" itself, and they'll do it with junk food or unsanitary living or violence or verbal abuse or lack of exercise, not just drugs.
It is an extrordinary case when cocaine, meth, PCP, or a plethora of other drugs make the world a better place
You could say the same thing about lemonade. Nothing in itself is either good or bad, it is the actions of people and the views of people that make the world a better or worse place.
And the other error "to take your mind off it for a few hours" is also equivalent to "escape"
Well, it's more equivalent to "step back and then return" in the sentence above; I was just saying they aren't always used that way.
I challenge you to show how the drugs were not crippling our great thinkers.
Well that's easy - did the Rolling Stones drug use cripple their music? Or Byron or Hunter S. Thompson? If people are "destroyed" they are destroyed by their own destructive personality, which was responsible not only for their destruction but for whatever their great works were - to separate the two and say the drugs were all bad and the cause of their destruction is to be in denial.
I have always found it interesting the way people strive to justify their addictions, it always seems justified in the eyes of the addict
Those who demonise drugs tend to believe they are justified, too.
Here's the "enough" I left off the previous comment.
They choose alcohol, or drugs, or video games, or some other distraction to take their mind off of life.
In defending one stereotype you have perpetuated another. Those of us who drink & take drugs aren't all doing it "to escape" - that's an argument used by people who demonise drink & drugs, not a truth. Drinking can focus the mind wonderfully on the problem at hand, or take your mind off it for a few hours so you can come back with a fresh perspective. Many of the world's greatest military and political thinkers and leaders were also the greatest drinkers and drug-takers; Churchill and General Grant, for example, and a whole host of drug-taking philosphers.
You can drink beer and still care about politics and the environment, and I think most of the world understands that many American people disagree with Bush. Just not of you to get him out of office, unfortunately.
Fire hoses don't suck.
They do at the other end.
Look, Apple couldn't have released GarbageCan without some form of DRM - the big Garbage companies would never have allowed it.
Oh wait.
That's a good point, actually - does this situation really merit that the "UK threat level" to be set to "critical -- the highest possible"? At the highest possible threat level I'd really expect to be worried for my life the moment I stepped out of the front door, anywhere in the UK. No, inside my house - at the highest possible threat level I should be scared to make a cup of tea in case the water supply is poisoned or look under the bed in case there's a monster.
We are not being shelled, we are not being invaded, we are not under attack, we still have a higher risk of dying from heart disease. By calling this situation "the highest possible threat level" the government is whipping up fear and paranoia, and MI5 runs the very real risk of inuring people to any real UK-wide dangers that may come along.
Odd. Here's a direct link to the Google page I get when I click the first result.. theserials.com/rated.htm
http://www.google.com/interstitial?url=http://www
The first result in a search for "Serial Box" Serial Box gives an example of the new behaviour. A page headed "Malware Warning" appears and warns you the page you are about to visit may harm your computer.