Earlier quoted context omitted.
But my point is that it can be enjoyed solely for the taste - whether you like it or not, there is at least an element of flavour choice when it comes to alcohol. It's an exceptionally skewed view to totally dismiss the taste aspect - whereas I've yet to hear anyone mention that drugs can be taken for any other reason than for their (even if only slight) mind altering affects. Plenty of people would pair a nice red w…
I am with you on this. I've had some pretty awesome flavors coming from alcoholic drinks. It's expensive, and I don't make any friends by drinking expensive drinks (my friends don't really care) I would love to see someone make "virgin" versions of various stronger drinks I like, but so far they don't taste anywhere near as good. It sincerely annoys me that drinks make me sleepy and such. I'm only having one or two,…
Grateful Dead Fan Timothy Tyler Has Been Granted Clemency
201–210 of 225 posts
Re: Grateful Dead Fan Timothy Tyler Has Been Granted Clemency
#202Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Note also that Erlichmann's family based their denial of the Baum story partly on the notion that he never said anything racist in front of them - though his propensity for racism is definitely confirmed in the Watergate tapes. Look, I'm not really here to stick up for Ehrlichmann. After all, he did go to jail for some time for conspiracy and obstruction of justice. First of all, that already makes him the least re…
> Look, I'm not really here to stick up for Ehrlichmann. After all, he did go to jail for some time for conspiracy and obstruction of justice. First of all, that already makes him the least reliable of witnesses, even if he really did say that. Second, he's an easy target for a journalist that wants to sensationalize their story, and instead believing him just because "he's a journalist" is not rational. Dan Baum has…
He had a good argument I think. Not sure if he's right but good argument.
Re: Grateful Dead Fan Timothy Tyler Has Been Granted Clemency
#203Earlier quoted context omitted.
Minus the legality issues, neither of these have shown to be any worse than some of the dangers of alcohol. Either can be bad for folks with severe mental illness of certain types. It probably isn't safe to drive on LSD, and you'd not really want to be too stoned (or drunk) to take care of your kids. But this same sort of stuff is true for so many other things. If it were that bad, I'm pretty sure there would be many…
LSD is not without risks. There are number of well known artists from the 1960s that experienced mental health issues related to LSD consumption. Look up Roky Erikson, Syd Barret, Peter Green and Skip Spence.
As far as the stuff in the 1960's, literature gets weird. Some say that the stuff from the 60's was stronger than the stuff from the 90's forward: Some say it is in general safer. Safety might just be because more folks know what to expect and the culture 'grew up' as they say. Some say there was more 'bad' acid back then. Doesn't change what happened to them, nor that the two might (or might not) have been related.
But to me, this is all a cry for legality so that such things can be regulated, down to earth talks about what to expect and side effects can occur, and much better mental health screenings (and diagnostics).
Re: Grateful Dead Fan Timothy Tyler Has Been Granted Clemency
#204Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Look, I'm not really here to stick up for Ehrlichmann. After all, he did go to jail for some time for conspiracy and obstruction of justice. First of all, that already makes him the least reliable of witnesses, even if he really did say that. Second, he's an easy target for a journalist that wants to sensationalize their story, and instead believing him just because "he's a journalist" is not rational. Dan Baum has…
So unless you can prove that something you read in the paper is a lie you must accept it as absolute truth? Seems healthy.. He had a good argument I think. Not sure if he's right but good argument.
Re: Grateful Dead Fan Timothy Tyler Has Been Granted Clemency
#205Earlier quoted context omitted.
No.... it's a constitutionally limited democratic republic. That's supposed to prevent "the majority of the voting public" from mandating stupid laws and forcing the minority to live under them. As such, place the blame where it belongs: the majority of Democratic and Republican party politicians, who have employed the drug war as a means to preserve or increase their political power, and to distract and propagandize…
You're correct, but unfortunately there is nothing about personal sovereignty over one's own biochemical processes in the constitution. The constitutional also permits the Federal government to enforce laws on interstate commerce, which effectively allows this kind of prohibition even if the states disagree internally.
Interpreting it such that a cannabis plant grown, harvested, prepared, and consumed entirely within the state of Colorado, exclusively by Colorado persons, may still be subject to federal law is a bit of a stretch, in my opinion. But the prestigious paid professionals still do it.
It took the 18th Amendment to prohibit "the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors...for beverage purposes" at a federal level in 1920. The Volstead Act was able to use that amendment as the basis for its authority. The 21st explicitly repealed it, thus obviating Volstead, which had already been unpopular for years. Note also that consumption was never outlawed. Even so, it was a disaster.
There was no such amendment to authorize prohibition or control of other, non-alcoholic intoxicants for recreational purposes. What happened to the Constitution between 1920 and 1970 that would have allowed Congress to pass another prohibition law like the Volstead Act? Nothing. Nothing at all. Or rather, New Deal politics happened. Federal power expanded without explicit authorization, just because of a temporary confluence between economics and political opportunity.
The various drug war laws are probably not authorized by the commerce clause, just as justices O'Connor and Thomas dissented (Rehnquist concurring with O'Connor) in Gonzales v. Raich [0]. It would seem that, looking also at Wickard v. Filburn [1] and US v. Lopez [2], the SCotUS is not likely to be of any help here. The underlying argument is that "drugs can be sold, therefore there exists an interstate market for them, therefore federal regulations on them are authorized by the commerce clause." Wickard v. Filburn seemed like politically-motivated bullshit to me, but who am I to argue with the precedent?
The laws will, like Volstead, mainly be overturned by the court of popular opinion long before any official federal action occurs.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonzales_v._Raich [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wickard_v._Filburn [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Lopez
Re: Grateful Dead Fan Timothy Tyler Has Been Granted Clemency
#206It's crazy to spend that much time in jail for a nonviolent offense, and such a small amount of substance in the US. The war on drugs is a big waste of many things. But to put it in perspective, I am currently living in SE Asia where you are informed by airline announcements and signs that drug trafficking is punishable by death in several of the countries here! I'm from Brooklyn, but I live in Indonesia now. I'm cur…
Needless to say, I stuck to the Bintang.
Re: Grateful Dead Fan Timothy Tyler Has Been Granted Clemency
#207Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're correct, but unfortunately there is nothing about personal sovereignty over one's own biochemical processes in the constitution. The constitutional also permits the Federal government to enforce laws on interstate commerce, which effectively allows this kind of prohibition even if the states disagree internally.
The interstate commerce clause has been used as a dumping ground for federal overreach for a long time. It is likely that it was only intended to provide authority sufficient for the federal government to prevent a state like Missouri from treating Colorado cannabis any differently from California cannabis, if either happen to be imported into its jurisdiction. This interpretation is considered obsolete by many feder…
That's pretty clearly not the case; the so-called "interstate commerce clause" in Article I, Section 8 is perhaps more accurately the "interstate and foreign commerce clause", and expressly gives Congress the same authority to regulate trade among the states as it does for foreign trade and trade with Indian tribes; it clearly was not intended to be limited to preventing states from erecting protectionist trade barriers (which, in any case, is the focus of the Article I, Section 10, limits on states.)
> It took the 18th Amendment to prohibit "the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors...for beverage purposes" at a federal level in 1920. The Volstead Act was able to use that amendment as the basis for its authority.
The Volstead Act went into effect in 1919, the 18th Amendment was ratified in 1920, and went into effect in 1921. Its clear that Congress -- which proposed the 18th Amendment before passing the Volstead Act, which it did over a Presidential veto -- did not believe that the Amendment was necessary to support the act, though they clearly thought it was desirable (perhaps because it didn't just authorize regulation, it explicitly mandated prohibition.)
Re: Grateful Dead Fan Timothy Tyler Has Been Granted Clemency
#208Earlier quoted context omitted.
The interstate commerce clause has been used as a dumping ground for federal overreach for a long time. It is likely that it was only intended to provide authority sufficient for the federal government to prevent a state like Missouri from treating Colorado cannabis any differently from California cannabis, if either happen to be imported into its jurisdiction. This interpretation is considered obsolete by many feder…
> The interstate commerce clause has been used as a dumping ground for federal overreach for a long time. It is likely that it was only intended to provide authority sufficient for the federal government to prevent a state like Missouri from treating Colorado cannabis any differently from California cannabis That's pretty clearly not the case; the so-called "interstate commerce clause" in Article I, Section 8 is perh…
In the most ferrous of ironies, the uniform commercial code--which was separately adopted by all 50 states in almost identical form--is probably the ideal form of legislation to be covered by the probable original intent of the interstate commerce clause, and yet there is no law that federalizes the UCC. Instead, it is used for all manner of laws that have no authorization anywhere else in the constitution.
Thus, anything further I might have to say on the topic is probably not appropriate for HN.
Re: Grateful Dead Fan Timothy Tyler Has Been Granted Clemency
#209Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can't assure rapists don't get 4 years (or less): > The convictions carried a potential sentence of 14 years in prison. Prosecutors recommended six years in prison while probation officials recommended a "moderate" county jail sentence.[19] On June 2, 2016, Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky sentenced Turner to six months confinement in the Santa Clara County jail to be followed by three years o…
But he was NOT convicted and sent to prison for rape, it was sexual assault and in some states penal systems those are different crimes with different sentencing guidelines: "On October 7, 2015, after reviewing the results of DNA tests, the two rape charges were dropped by prosecutors.[7][12][14][15] The trial began on March 14, 2016,[16] and concluded on March 30, 2016, with Turner's conviction on the three remainin…
Re: Grateful Dead Fan Timothy Tyler Has Been Granted Clemency
#210Earlier quoted context omitted.
So unless you can prove that something you read in the paper is a lie you must accept it as absolute truth? Seems healthy.. He had a good argument I think. Not sure if he's right but good argument.
Journalists' livelihoods are dependent on not misquoting those who they interview. The claim was that the quote is a fabrication. How can the journalist possibly defend against this charge? It's requiring him to prove a negative.