I'm About to Hit the Popeye Curve
I've seen so much turmoil and bad stuff both in people close to me and in our community here in California lately that I'm feeling a real need to go Galt. So much dysfunctional behavior. Saw a guy chasing a lady down the street the other afternoon in rush hour traffic, trying to mug her. Al kinds of lived-in vehicles on the side of the road on my way in to work every morning. Tent cities along the river where we used to walk and fish by our place. I'm seeing people I've known a long time start to spin out of control too. It's as though, as I decided to start to withdraw from society a bit (go a little Galt - so far) that I'm seeing other get sucked up and spun around in a tornado of malarkey. Have any of you ever felt or noticed this? While playing golf with a buddy one night last week I explained it, "I feel as though I'm calming down, slowing down, and getting more focused while others all around me are doing the opposite." My most concise remarks seem to come without thought...haha.
Oh, and the term "hit the Popeye curve" is an old expression a friend of mine used to say - to imply that one has been dealt enough BS and is about to "get busy". Anyway, I think it's funny.
Another example: A couple weeks ago my mother-in-law crashed her car into a tree. My kid was in the back seat. Luckily, no injuries. A lady driving buy decided to file a claim against my mother-in-law. No reason. Just wants money. Hint: the lady probably just sees an old infidel and thinks it's ok to do this. Then, the fire department sends a bill to my house for $400 - for the kid who was riding in the back seat and wasn't hurt. I called and asked who called them to show up. They don't know. Well...why would they? Then, I threatened my golf buddy that I was going to send the fire department to his house...
Oh, and the term "hit the Popeye curve" is an old expression a friend of mine used to say - to imply that one has been dealt enough BS and is about to "get busy". Anyway, I think it's funny.
Another example: A couple weeks ago my mother-in-law crashed her car into a tree. My kid was in the back seat. Luckily, no injuries. A lady driving buy decided to file a claim against my mother-in-law. No reason. Just wants money. Hint: the lady probably just sees an old infidel and thinks it's ok to do this. Then, the fire department sends a bill to my house for $400 - for the kid who was riding in the back seat and wasn't hurt. I called and asked who called them to show up. They don't know. Well...why would they? Then, I threatened my golf buddy that I was going to send the fire department to his house...
There is some place far worse than Oregon, I found out. I am surrounded by non-thinking idiots.
cry of "Black Lives Matter"????
Go Galt, young man, go Galt.
I've had a peaceful existence here the last decade, but I get nervous when the voters decided to pursue "medical" marijuana. The law passed by referendum is so loose it begs the cartels to set up shop. The governor needs to call a special session to tighten things up, but doesn't want to out of fear the session will also override her veto of a constitutional carry law. Things are not perfect in paradise.
California law enforcement agencies are asking for a tripling of their budget for drug enforcement since they're swamped, and the environmentalists are screaming about illegal grows in state parks. Marijuana is an energy hungry and very thirsty crop, and some of the big wildfires are thought to have been accidentally started by cartel farms.
Legalizing other drugs also means increased opportunity for the cartels, and increased deaths from impure or corrupted drugs. Licensing doesn't do squat, because the user can flash his license at a curious cop, but there's no sure way short of confiscating and testing to prove the drugs are legal.
The real world is a bitch, as Colorado and California have discovered with their recreational marijuana experiment. Market forces still apply, even when part of the providers are criminals. I predicted this would happen, as it's simple logic.
Take the illegality of it away, and the cartels go away as its no longer profitable in a competitive environment.
Think of it this way, illegal drugs arent government regulated as to quality now, and I really dont hear a lot of complaints from users. competition among drug dealers is operative now.
I just dont think government does even a reasonable job of "protecting" us. It protects
them" and their retirements more than us.
Watch "kitchen nightmares" to see just how well the health departments inspect and control restaurants. If they did a bang up job, that show wouldnt exist.
Cartels are big business, and when they see how big an American market will be if drugs are legalized, they will be all in. Just like some former Mafia organizations are alive and kicking, transitioning to legal offshoots of their formerly illegal (bootlegging) rackets. The cartels are already expert at efficient growing, shipping, and direct distribution of drugs, so why shouldn't they dominate the market?
Wherever there's widespread use of legal drugs, there's a bad environment of dirty needles, homelessness, and dangerous streets. Unless you also make drugs free, set up "shooting galleries" and recovery centers to keep druggies from laying around on the streets, you get a very bad situation. People mug and kill for the money for the next fix, and making it legal doesn't avoid that for really addictive drugs.
If you make drugs legal, then you better make constitutional open carry legal too. No "illegal" means of self defense either, and law enforcement stays out of what happens on the streets. Sounds like my kind of world - NOT.
With lower prices, wouldnt crime be reduced too? If your fix is $10 vs $100, you dont need to steal as much. Also, and this is politically incorrect, interest in drugs would go down as more people were just dying of drug addiction. Its really not a great way to live, and this would become more obvious if they were de crimminalized.
As regards theft, as I said before, the druggies are not rational thinkers. If they steal enough for the next round of fixes, they will steal enough to buy more and distribute. San Francisco tried literally subsidizing druggies and supplying them with clean needles and a place to safely shoot up. The street death rate didn't budge, and the theft and mugging rate climbed
The current opioid crisis is proof of the flaw in your thinking about deaths causing a reduction in users. The death rate has been highly publicized and still climbs in spite of the public being well informed. Your ideas reflect the well meaning wishes of a non-user. Like I said earlier, reality is a bitch.
Not to mention the whole cartel thing.
I would also say that the war on drugs is immoral at its core and violates so many individual rights its indefensible.
We coddle the druggies so they dont experience the problems with their addictions. We give them free medial care, shelter when they are homeless, and much more if they are in SF.
I am sorry to say it, but if they die, they die. We cant force people to stay alive no matter what they do.
Maybe they dont care if they die, and the fix is just too good to pass up. Let them do it and reap or suffer the consequences.
I just know that what we are doing now just isnt right, and doesnt work.
So, we will continue to spend huge dollars and loss of substantial freedoms in the quest to control the use of "illegal" drugs, and never win that battle (cause it isnt something that can be won in principle). In addition, the crime will result in many deaths and the formation and continuation of cartels.
The acceptance of the evils caused by the war on drugs reminds me of the acceptance of the evils of caused by socialism. No matter how many evils are uncovered, it never seems to be accepted by the die hards.
Legalizing all drugs isn't a good solution, because some like meth and crack are quickly addictive. I've known functioning users of alcohol and pot, but none who use more serious drugs, at least not for long.
If in fact certain drugs keep the users from functioning for very long, then the problem is self correcting.
I mean if people start jumping off buildings, is it right to ban the existence of all buildings high enough to hurt a nutcase that wants to jump off?
Thats what we have done with this war on drugs.
Don't know where all the psychopaths are hiding. We are second only to DC in psychopathic concentrations but it sounds like your state takes the cake.
When you pay for emergency services, why are they publicly funded? Private services will kill them. Perhaps that is your point.
I like the idea of truly privatizing emergency services if we can avoid abusive situations. I'm thinking of two kinds: (1) charging the victim for needless third-party interventions such as LibertyBelle describes, and (2) price gouging enabled by the near-monopoly on these services (and the fact that their use is often not voluntary). Of course, both problems are possible even with the government monopoly in place.
Here in MA these guys can retire after 20, like the old military rules. They work until 45 and coast on taxpayer pensions. In my little rural town of 10k they had two firehouses, one on each side of town. They had to have better facilities, and built a $12M giant firehouse with six engine bays. The police have a nice little newer office near it, but when the firehouse was built, the police needed a new building too. Fortunately the town said “no”.
I assume CA is similarly wasteful.