Granberry's Parlor

This is an interesting turn of events. An opportunity to perhaps improve relations between US and Vietnam.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/05e83b34-94db-11e0-a648-00144feab49a.html

I'm certainly in favor of Vietnamese relations... both my current and my previous girlfriends were born there.

I like the food. Pho rocks...

Never understood Pho fascination. Shoe leather in salty water. Must be missing something.

DPBD!

I think this guy is where I got the climate change denier tattoo idea from. The column was written firmly tongue-in-cheek.

Some people obviously didn't get that subtle bit of nuance...

On a more serious note - death threats to climate scientists is just scary. What next, are we entering another anti-science dark age?

Bruce, you haven't had good pho, then.

lol. But yeah, violence seems to resolve all matters at hand...

Pho? "What is it GOOD! PHO!?" Absolutely NUTHin .. say it agAIN!....
:)

Bruce,

If it's shoe leather, it's not good pho...

Welcome to Thunderdome. It's getting insane down there. We've got to stop fueling this crap with our guns and money. It's going to cross our borders in a big way soon.

That sounds almost unbelievable. Like the sort of thing an Arizona politician might say in rhetoric.
I'm not against decriminalizing drugs, but I'd like for all the stereotypical pot-smoking liberals to understand the human cost of their weed. Maybe they need to come together as a great nation and start new Victory Gardens. Buy local.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/15/2011 01:55PM by johnny k.

I am firmly in the decriminalization camp. At least until I am shown that it's worse than the current way. Again, look at Portugal.

I think the drugs in question are a bit more hard core than pot...

Nope. Marijuana is easily the number one export of the cartels. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126978142
You could say that criminalization is the problem, not casual use of the drug. But it's a want, not a need, and I can't sympathize with people whose disposable income helps drive Mexico into anarchy while we wait for saner laws.

Hrm. I'm surprised by that. I thought that meth would have been bigger.

Quote

But it's a want, not a need, and I can't sympathize with people whose disposable income helps drive Mexico into anarchy while we wait for saner laws.

That's being a tad harsh, JK. By that logic people's voracious demand for Apple products (which is mostly a want rather than a need) is responsible for the suicides of Chinese factory workers.

Beautiful.

In my experience, we make a lot of meth right here in the good ol' U.S. of A. But then, i lived in Arizona. Next to meth dealers in the suburbs. I might be biased.

Now you're being hyperbolic. Certainly, whether it's illicit drugs or consumer electronics, your freedom in the capitalist system is to vote with your dollars, and you are then partially responsible for what happens down the food chain. Our responsibility is to be informed consumers; our purchases are political actions. I have no problem with Apple because a) the suicide rate of those factory workers is no higher than the rest of China, and b) pressure from consumers and the media caused Apple to work with the factories anyway to raise the bar on standard conditions for the workers.

That's how it should work, and can work because it's all happening above ground. So until their drug of choice is legalized, users should, I dunno, ask who the grower was, or otherwise align their principles. I was just picking on an easy target, the intersection of pot smokers and free-trade coffee drinkers. I don't give a shit about drug use until it encroaches on the freedom of others.


This reminds me of the old line about how the only two professions that call the customer "users" are drug traffickers and designers.

And software engineers.

On reversing his opposition to gay marriage in New York, Sen. Roy McDonald:

“You get to the point where you evolve in your life where everything isn’t black and white, good and bad, and you try to do the right thing.

“You might not like that. You might be very cynical about that. Well, fuck it, I don’t care what you think. I’m trying to do the right thing.

“I’m tired of Republican-Democrat politics. They can take the job and shove it. I come from a blue-collar background. I’m trying to do the right thing, and that’s where I’m going with this.”


http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2011/06/15/2011-06-15_brink_of_history_as_ny_gay_marriage_bill_needs_just_1_vote_to_pass_trying_to_do_.html

Wow, tell it like it is... I like it.

I'm wondering how many votes that have "changed" are because of big gay skeletons in the closet...