Dear Governor Schwarzenegger:

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger:

I understand from today’s news announcements that you would like to move the state forward in discussions on legalizing the use of marijuana.  I have heard and read about many of the pros and cons, academic debates and wild ludicrous rants about legalizing marijuana.  After taking all of these into account; my rationale and reasoning for being an opponent to the prospects of your agenda is simple and first hand.

I am 46 years old. Today I am executive in the technology field. I am in the highest tax bracket, I am not wealthy, I still have to work to put my kids through school. I grew up in the poorest sections of the South Bronx, what is typically referred to as the Ghetto or the “projects”.

Growing up, my mother worked in the elementary school as a teacher’s assistant while she attended college at night to become a teacher. This gave my mother a first hand perspective of working with many of the children in the neighborhood.  We lived in a small two bed room apartment in the projects and both of my parents smoked cigarettes.  I grew up hating smoke. This is probably why I personally never smoked marijuana or cigarettes for that matter.  I hated being around smoke from a very young age.

As many of the kids in the neighborhood progressed through elementary school, and into middle school and high-school many of them started smoking marijuana recreationally.  I hung out with a large group of kids, and probably through the last year of middle school and through high-school lighting up a joint on the way to school was a normal occurrence.  And getting high, on the benches in front of our buildings at night was also a normal occurrence.  It was fair to say that there was not a single “drug fiend” amongst the group.  The “getting high” always seemed to be “fun times”.  I learned how to simply hang-out, keep out of the smoke, and when the joint passed my hands I just passed it on to the next person, everyone knew that I didn’t smoke and it wasn’t a big deal.  There were a few of us that never par-took of the drugs and beer (40oz’s) which also  became a normal accompaniment to the pot.

I can’t put my finger on why a few of us always managed to refrain, nonetheless we were still all looked at as a good bunch of kids.  We generally did well in school, some of us excelled, others were mediocre but we all graduated high-school and moved on into adult hood, getting married, having kids and so on.

All of the above is some basic context, now here is my perspective. Thirty (30) years later, I went back to the “old neighborhood only to find some of the “old crew” sitting on the “same bench” in front of the “same buildings” that we grew up in,  still smoking pot and drinking their 40oz of Old English beer. It’s as if time stood still for them. I remember calling my mother, and sharing with her what I witnessed.  Her response was enlightening; remember she had these kids in elementary school and later in middle school (before their pot smoking started). She recalled each one that I told her about by name, and she recounted how each one of these kids were the brightest kids not only in the school but the entire neighborhood.  There was one kid especially that she was so saddened about, his name was Frankie, and she recounted how Frankie scored higher on many of the standard tests that were administered than any kid in the state.

It was amazing that how some of these kids, now men my age, were still living in their parents apartments in the projects, sleeping on the same twin beds for 30 years.  Some just inherited these subsidized apartments after their parents passed away. They were on welfare, disability, SSI, food stamps, you name it – if there was a program available they knew how to qualify for it.  And, no they did not move onto other gateway drugs, they loved and were loyal to their weed.

For the few of us that managed to refrain from the recreational drug use; I did spend some later bachelor years experimenting with harder drugs, and eventually pursued the career that I make my living in today. Another of us joined the NYPD and have since retired to the Caribbean with his wife who was also NYPD and retired. Another, became a fire-fighter in the Bronx. A few of us joined different branches of the military and served with distinction and have since retired.

All in all, looking back, my mother recounts how some of the kids with the greatest aspirations and chances for success based on their sheer brain-power had their lives muffled due to smoking some harmless marijuana joints – they are now wards of the government, and supported by the other group of us, smaller in number, according to my dear mother, not even close to being as smart. Yet we have given back to our communities, pay taxes, and have raised honest hard-working children of our own.

I can’t for the life of me imagine why you would entertain the legalization of marijuana.

Comments welcome

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Let Detroit Go Bankrupt

A real dose of common sense. Mitt Romeny stands apart with a brilliant OP-Ed piece published in the NY Times. This continues the same “work out” not “bail out” stance that he took during the 2008 primaries. He suggests that this is an opportunity to “work” with the auto-industry, not to abandon them.

IF General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed. Read more

How the Democrats Created the Financial Crisis

Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) — The financial crisis of the past year has provided a number of surprising twists and turns, and from Bear Stearns Cos. to American International Group Inc., ambiguity has been a big part of the story. Read more

Wealth Distribution? Winfall Tax? The Ant and the Grasshopper

The And and the Grasshopper is a well known story originally attributed to Aesop.  An unknown author wrote a humorous part II. They are provided below as the old version and the modern version. Read more

Congressman [Barney Frank] introduces bill to decriminalize personal marijuana use

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) has made good on his promise to introduce what he called the “Make Room for the Serious Criminals Bill” on a March 21, 2008 appearance on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher. Co-sponsoring the bill are Reps. Ron Paul (R-TX), Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) and Sam Farr (D-CA).

Text of Thursday’s press release, from Rep. Frank’s Congressional website, follows.

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Congressman, 4th District, Massachusetts 2252 Rayburn Building · Washington, D.C. 20515 · (202) 225-5931

April 17, 2008

FRANK INTRODUCES LEGISLATION TO REMOVE FEDERAL PENALTIES ON PERSONAL MARIJUANA USE

Congressman Also Files Bill Permitting Medical Use of Marijuana in States that Choose to Allow it with Doctor’s Recommendation

Congressman Barney Frank today introduced bi-partisan legislation aimed at removing federal restrictions on the individual use of marijuana. One bill would remove federal penalties for the personal use of marijuana, and the other – versions of which Frank has filed in several preceding sessions of Congress – would allow the medical use of marijuana in states that have chosen to make its use for medical purposes legal with a doctor’s recommendation. Representative Ron Paul (R-TX) joined Frank as a cosponsor of the federal penalties bill. The cosponsors of the medical marijuana bill are Rep. Paul, along with Reps. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), and Sam Farr (D-CA).

Congressman Frank released the following statement explaining the legislation.

“I think it is poor law enforcement to keep on the books legislation that establishes as a crime something which in fact society does not seriously wish to prosecute. In my view, having federal law enforcement agents engaged in the prosecution of people who are personally using marijuana is a waste of scarce resources better used for serious crimes. In fact, this type of prosecution often meets with public disapproval. The most frequent recent examples have been federal prosecutions of individuals using marijuana for medical purposes in states that have voted – usually by public referenda – to allow such use. Because current federal law has been interpreted as superseding state law in this area, most states that have made medical use of marijuana legal have been unable to actually implement their laws.

“When doctors recommend the use of marijuana for their patients and states are willing to permit it, I think it’s wrong for the federal government to subject either the doctors or the patients to criminal prosecution. More broadly speaking, the norm in America is for the states to decide whether particular behaviors should be made criminal. To make the smoking of marijuana, whether for medical purposes or not, one of those extremely rare instances of federal crime – literally, to make a ‘federal case’ out of it – is wholly disproportionate to the activity involved. We do not have federal criminal prohibitions against drinking alcoholic beverages, and there are generally no criminal penalties for the use of tobacco at the state and federal levels for adults. There is no rational argument for treating marijuana so differently from these other substances.”

To those who say that the government should not be encouraging the smoking of marijuana, my response is that I completely agree. But it is a great mistake to divide all human activity into two categories: those that are criminally prohibited, and those that are encouraged. In a free society, there must be a very considerable zone of activity between those two poles in which people are allowed to make their own choices as long as they are not impinging on the rights, freedom, or property of others. I believe it is important with regard to tobacco, marijuana and alcohol, among other things, that we strictly regulate the age at which people may use these substances. And, enforcement of age restrictions should be firm. But, criminalizing choices that adults make because we think they are unwise ones, when the choices involved have no negative effect on the rights of others, is not appropriate in a free society.”

“If the laws I am proposing pass, states will still be free to treat marijuana as they wish. But I do not believe that the federal government should treat adults who choose to smoke marijuana as criminals. Federal law enforcement is a serious business, and we should be concentrating our efforts in this regard on measures that truly protect the public.”

by RAW STORY Link to Article 4/17/2008

Who is Barney Frank? Below is an excerpt from Wikipedia, a link to the complete article can be found here.

Frank is one of the most liberal members of the House, and has been outspoken on many civil rights issues, including gay rights. In 1987, he spoke publicly about his homosexuality for the first time. He said in a 1996 interview: “I’m used to being in the minority. I’m a left-handed gay Jew. I’ve never felt, automatically, a member of any majority.”

Reprimand

In 1990, the House voted to reprimand Frank when it was revealed that Steve Gobie, a male escort whom Frank had befriended after hiring him through a personal advertisement, claimed to have conducted an escort service from Frank’s apartment when he was not at home. Frank had dismissed Gobie earlier that year and reported the incident to the House Ethics Committee after learning of Gobie’s activities. After an investigation, the House Ethics Committee found no evidence that Frank had known of or been involved in the alleged illegal activity.^[2] Regarding Gobie’s more scandalous claims the report by the Ethics Committee concluded, “In numerous instances where an assertion made by Mr. Gobie (either publicly or during his Committee deposition) was investigated for accuracy, the assertion was contradicted by third-party sworn testimony or other evidence of Mr. Gobie himself.”^[3

Also, a biography for Barney Frank can be found here>> Barney Frank bio.

 

Obama’s Tire Inflation Energy Plan

The commentary on this one speaks for itself, Obama suggests to an audience that America can save gas by properly inflating their tires. While, that is factually correct, proper tire inflation leads to better gas mileage, or better said, improperly inflated tires can contriubute to lower gas mileage, the suggestion from Obama is ridiculous in the grand schme of the economic turmoil that the country currently finds itself. The over riding message that Obama portays is not one of confidence but of lack of substance.

Here is audio from yesterday, July 31, 2008, of Rush Limbaugh taking Barack Obama apart for his ridiculous suggestion that we do not need to increase domestic oil production to bring down gas prices, but rather just properly inflate our tires!

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http://www.bothwaysbarack.com/

Let Freedom Ring, a political special interest organization, is airing a TV ad targeting Obama titled “Both Ways Barack.” The spot focuses on Obama’s dueling positions on a number of issues.

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Obama Flip-Flops Leave the Race Tied

After almost six weeks of a constant Obama lead, generally in the five to seven-point range, Scott Rasmussen’s daily tracking poll records two consecutive days of a tie race (July 12-13) and a one-point Obama lead on July 14. What happened to the Democrat’s lead?

Part of the slippage is Obama’s fault and part is McCain’s gain.

Obama has carried flip-flopping to new heights. In the space of a month and a half, this candidate — who we don’t really yet know very well — reversed or sharply modified his positions on at least nine key issues:

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Reverend Jesse Jackson, Hot-mic Perspective

Is it possible that a very savvy and experienced radio and television person such as the Reverend Jackson can make such a mistake? Some are saying that it wasnt a mistake? If that’s the case, then what would be the motivation for creating such controversy for himself and Barack Obama. Is it possible that Jackson, as well as other civil rights organizers, see their organizations threatened by an Obama Presidency? What do you think?

Full Story on Fox News http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/07/09/jesse-jackson-apologizes-for-obama-remarks/

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Global Warming as Mass Neurosis

Last week marked the 20th anniversary of the mass hysteria phenomenon known as global warming. Read more

Grand jury clears man in shootings of possible burglars

Sometimes bad things happen to people in the act of doing bad things. Read more

Poll Question, What do Rich People Do with their Free Time?

An Important Distinction: Democracy versus Republic

At the close of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia Read more

Boone Pickens: Oil Probe a Waste of Time

The probe into speculators causing oil price increases is Read more

The sub-prime mortage mess explained, with some humor.

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This little gem has floated around the internet as a PowerPoint file and is on YouTube. If you watch it end to end and read the cartoon bubbles, inbetween the humor (and some language language which we have not edited out) you will find a real dose of reality and common sense. Read more

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