Leveraging racism

A MAJORITY of Americans now favour the legalisation of marijuana. Two decades ago, 80% opposed it. Remarkably, about a third of the swing in public opinion came in just the past three years. It seems the tide has turned. However, William Galston and E.J. Dionne, scholars at the Brookings Institution, warn legalisers not to get too excited. "Support for legalization, though growing markedly", they write, "is not as intense as opposition, and is likely to remain relatively shallow so long as marijuana itself is not seen as a positive good." The trend in favour of legal weed, they observe, is not as inexorable as the trend toward the legal recognition of same-sex marriages. Much of the support for legalisation comes from the increasingly widespread belief that the benefits of prohibition have not outweighed the costs. Such pragmatism may be enough to shift opinions about the wisdom of legalisation, but it rarely generates the moral passion necessary to overwhelm fervent moral opposition and bring about lasting change. From a certain, rarefied liberal perspective (eg, mine), marijuana prohibition violates the individual's right to do whatever he likes with his own body as long as it does no harm to others, and is clearly unjust. The very existence of "victimless crimes" is enough to work me into a lather. Similar views about the injustice of paternalism drive most legalisation activists. Still, this sort of libertarian sensibility is not widespread. So why are views on marijuana changing? Because plenty of consequences of prohibition pique typical Americans. It's monstrous to deny therapeutic marijuana to AIDS or cancer patients struggling with nausea, or to those who suffer from debilitating chronic pain. And it's fairly easy to engage sympathy and elicit indignation over this sort of cruelty. Drug warriors have often complained that the push to legalise marijuana for medical purposes is largely a pretext for full-blown legalisation, and they're right. Successful legalisation of recreational marijuana in Washington and Colorado came after the drug had become normalised through the medical-marijuana dispensary system. This is no happy accident. I've known a good number of legalisation activists who have fought hard and nobly to increase access to therapeutic marijuana. That they were also healthy, hearty enthusiasts of the drug's recreational uses is not incidental. Medical marijuana has taken the legalisation movement far, but it may not be enough to tilt the whole country toward legalisation, as Messrs Galston and Dionne seem to suggest. But I'm not sure this means, as they argue, that support for legalisation is "likely to remain relatively shallow so long as marijuana itself is not seen as a positive good". There are other real injustices on which to hitch the cause, and legalisers are already hard at work. Racism is the new medical marijuana. A new ACLU report, "The War on Marijuana in Black and White", exposes the outrageous inequities in the enforcement of marijuana posession laws. These two graphs make the case. Note that marijuana use among young whites is slightly higher than among young blacks. Of course, the ACLU does not go on to demand racial equality in arrests for marijuana possession. It takes the finding of "staggering racial bias" and the fact that billions of dollars have been squandered failing to reduce marijuana use, and concludes that the war on marijuana is a failure. This Bill Maher monologue, nominating marijuana legalisation as "the next gay marriage...the next obvious civil-rights issue that needs to fall", beautifully encapsulates the shifting tactics of savvy legalisation advocates. Mr Maher jokes openly (starting at about 2.20) about the sham, de facto legalisation brought about by California's medical-marijuana system, frankly suggesting that concern for the comfort and welfare of the sick and suffering was a pretext for people like him to acquire weed legally. He then goes on to profess solemnly his concern for "the three-quarters of a million people who are arrested for simple possession every year, and the fact that blacks are arrested at seven times the rate of whites, which is a subtle way to suppress the black vote, because 48 states limit voting rights for convicted felons". Marijuana prohibition: racist and undemocratic! You know what? It is outrageous. Legalisation supporters are going to get plenty of mileage out of this. Perhaps it will even push legalisation efforts past the intense moral objections of prohibitionists. But what about the shameless opportunism of privileged middle-class stoners (or rich ones, like Mr Maher) suddenly up in arms about the systemic racism of the American criminal-justice system? We should welcome it. We should cheer it, even if it begins in bad faith. Indignant exhortation only gets us so far. The best hope for justice is always an alliance with self-interest. It's unlikely that my legalisation activist friends would have come to care much about the cruelty of denying marijuana to the sick, but they came to care, genuinely and deeply. Once they saw the strategic sense of focusing first on the legalisation of medical marijuana, the needless suffering caused by prohibition truly engaged their empathy and compassion. Suddenly, tens of thousands of people too weak to fight for themselves had legions fighting sincerely on their behalf. The legalisation movement's strategic turn toward the racism of America's criminal-justice system is heartening for similar reasons. Institutionalised racism is America's great wickedness, and it remains braided through everyday American life, but its salience has faded for most. If the prospect of one day smoking a spliff with impunity is what it takes to get college kids outraged about the fact that the war on drugs turned out to be the second coming of Jim Crow, so be it. Sick people don't care why we came to want to help them. The unjustly jailed won't care why we came to set them free.

Fresh jokes

I know you are hear just to laugh, so here we go

Neighbors in Montana

A sucessful business man became disenchanted with the stress of the fast life in the big city and decides to chuck it all. He takes his savings and purchases a large ranch in the middle of nowhere in Montana. After a couple of months of enjoying the solitude he hears the drumming of hoofbeats outside his cabin. Grabbing his rifle he challenges the man riding up on the horse. "Hold it neighbor" the man says, " I'm your neighbor, I have a ranch only 6 miles from here, and I want to invite you to a Welcome Party I'm throwing for you next Saturday. There's going to be music, dancing, hugging, kissing, drinking, fighting.... We'll have a great time". Not wanting to be unneighborly the new rancher lowers the rifle and ask's " How should I dress?" " Aw, don't matter" replied the neighbor, " Only gonna be the two of us".


An old guy and his son had a one-mule farm where they eked out a living. One day, the son hit the lottery and won $50,000. He rushed into town, collected his money, then hurried back home, where he told his father the good news, and handed him $50 bill.

The father looked at the money for a moment and then said, "Son, you know I've always been careful with what little money we had. I didn't spend it on whiskey or women. In fact, I couldn't even afford a license to legally marry your Ma."

"Pa!" the son exclaims, "do you know what that makes me?"

"Sure do," said the old guy fingering the fifty-dollar bill. "And a damn cheap one, too."


A man approaches his best friend's wife one day when her husband is at the office. "Will you have sex with me?" he asks.

"No. My husband wouldn't approve."

"O.K. What if I give you $1000?"

"Well, for a $1000 I think I will. Come back tomorrow afternoon when my husband is at work."

So the man shows up next day and slaps $1000 on the table and they do whatever it was they did(!!!). In the evening her husband comes home a little distraught:

"Was my best friend here today?"

"Y-y-yes." his wife says with concern.

"And did he leave $1000?"

"Y-y-yes." she says expecting the worst.

"Oh good, what a great pal he is. He came in this morning and asked if he could borrow $1000 from me and promised to return it this afternoon!"


A woman was telling her friend , "It is I who made my husband a millionaire."

"And what was he before you married him?"

"A multi-millionaire."


Men who have pierced ears are better prepared for marriage. They've experienced pain and bought jewelry.

Report card

Father to son after exam: "let me see your report card."
Son : "My friend just borrowed it. He wants to scare his parents."

miraculous and powerful wife

Wife : You always carry my photo in your bag to the office. Why?

Husband : When there is a problem, no matter how impossible, I look at your picture and the problem disappears.

Wife : You see how miraculous and powerful I am for you?
Husband: Yes, I see your picture and say to myself, "What other problem can there be greater than this one?"

Ingenuity

An Ibo man walks into a bank in New York City
and asks for the loan officer.
He tells the loan officer that he is going to Nigeria on business
for two weeks and needs to borrow $5,000.

The bank officer tells him that the bank
will need some form of security for the loan,
so the Ibo man hands over the keys
and documents of new Ferrari parked
on the street in front of the bank.
He produces the title and everything checks out.
The loan officer agrees to accept
the car as collateral for the loan.

The bank's president and its officers
all enjoy a good laugh at the Ibo
for using a $250,000 Ferrari
as collateral against a $5,000 loan.
An employee of the bank then
drives the Ferrari into the bank's
underground garage and parks it there.

Two weeks later, the Ibo man returns,
repays the $5,000 and the interest,
which comes to $15.41.
The loan officer says,
"Sir, we are very happy to have had your business,
and this transaction has worked out very nicely,
but we are a little puzzled.
While you were away,
we checked you out and found that you are a multi millionaire.
What puzzles us is, why would you bother to borrow "$5,000" ?

The Ibo man replies:

"Where else in New York City can I park my car
for two weeks for only $15.41
and expect it to be there when I return'"

She whispers in his ear

"That's me before the surgery."

a good laugh

Laughter they say is the best medicine, it helps the facial muscles and makes you look better, also a good joke, when told properly can make ones day, so why not find time to get a good joke daily.
I believe a joke a day makes life better!