Dutchman9

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/now/dec10/apha_infant.html http://abcnews.go.com/Health/GlobalHealth/story?id=1266515 http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/parenting/0.../mothers.index/ Oh yeah, private medicine, so good because saving infants isn't very profitable. I thought you insane Republicans were pro-life ? European / Scandinavian countries with socialized medicine do better...

Oh you insane right-wing maniacs. 1) I'm advocating European & Scandinavian post-WW2 social-democratic pacifism, not Castro's revolution. But you Neo-Con idiots are too stupid and ignorant to make a distinction. 2) 70% of Americans believe the US is on the wrong track under Bush. This is especially due to American general public opposition to capitalistic Neo-Con economics and American general public opposition to Neo-Con foreign policy militarism. If you disagree with those SMART Americans, then you are BY DEFINITION, *Anti-American*. You see, I can bash the elitist and rejected Bush-Wackos without being Anti-American. 3) Killing millions of innocent civilians in a Christo-Fascist frenzy while coddling private Blackwater mercenaries in their profit-based bloody rampage is rather immoral and impractical. But insane, ignorant and OBLIVIOUS ultra-right-wing WACKOS don't acknowledge morality, logic, science or reality (they are too busy memorizing faith-based Republicultian slogans). The only way to peace in Afghanistan AND Iraq is through negotiation and compromise.... on both sides. Stop the extreme polarity and circular attack mode, and discuss each sides concerns and requests *rationally*, not *violently*. Getting off of other people's land, when they don't want you there, also helps.

Under Dion, the Liberals and Conservatives have effectively merged. There is really NO opposition. NO counterbalance. Which is why it's imperative we vote Green or NDP next election. Also, even though I'm not a Libertarian, why can't the Ron Paul express influence politics north of the border ? It would be nice to have the right side of the spectrum influenced by something other than destructively oblivious Neo-Conservative insanity.

That's a rather dynamic scarecrow (misrepresentation). Maybe you should open your eyes to empirical reality and common sense.

Apparently, there are ruthlessly oblivious supporters of Neo-Conservative foreign policy on this forum. They ignore and dismiss the deleterious manifestations of such polarizing and destructive ideological rampages in foreign lands. Those supporters of Neo-Con foreign policy and subsequent imperialistic nation smashing via Christo-Fascist corporate-militarism, are presumably able bodied potential soldiers simply too scared to go and help create the waves of orphans which inevitably arise from such self-righteous campaigns of coercive attempts at civilization. If the current approach isn't working (in a history repeats itself Vietnam kinda way), why not look at progressively creative alternative strategies ? According to Bushians, you simply go harder and faster with the approach until it 'works'. Aggressive, preemptive, dogmatic Neo-Con foreign policy does not work. It is immoral and impractical. It is simply a unilateral and ideological military-corporate directive.

You may be to the right of me politically, but you certainly sound like a principled, pragmatic progressive on this issue.

The evidence is there if you study the *recent* center-left Sask. NDP reign and the recent and current center-left Scandinavian examples, but you must open your eyes first. My eyes are certainly open to the fact that old school pure socialism (and Communism) is stupid, destructive and impractical in theory and in practice. That's also a realization the Finnish social democrats took and propelled their country to recently outperform the US in economic competitiveness ratings, several years running. Also, consider the Greens. What about having more than 3 parties in parliament ? We both know that the Libs and Cons will get TONS of votes in the next election. I'm merely suggesting the slightly increased empowerment of the 2 marginalized underdog parties, so as to counteract a 2-party monopoly.

Prohibition doesn't work. It just criminalizes and incarcerates non-violent consenting adults, and enables and empowers organized crime by handing them the particular industry on a silver underground platter. Harper & Co. close their eyes to this fact.

Apparently, a bunch of brain-dead, chain-smoking, alcoholic, pill-popping Fascists don't realize that THEIR drugs of choice are 100,000X more lethal and addictive than Cannabis.

The overwhelming majority of States have NOT decriminalized cannabis. The ones which have or are close to doing so (Alaska, Colorado, California), still have harshly draconian and brutally authoritarian federal DEA directives putting cannabis users/producers/consumers in prison for years, if not decades, basically ignoring state law with impunity. Why ? The hypocritical, right-wing, religious, Falwellian Neo-Cons enjoy persecution, incarceration, torture and unjustified hyper-criminalization of a relatively innocuous substance.

Actually, you are utterly retarded and likely pumped full of toxic BigPharma poisons, tobacco and alcohol : a combination which is literally 100,000 times more lethal and addictive than Cannabis. Stupid, hypocritical, behavioural Fascists.

That's in the PREVIOUS paradigm. In the new Neo-Con clampdown, under bill C-26, 1000's of people will be unjustly incarcerated, while dictatorial hypocrits go home and pursue a much more lethal and addictive drug use pattern with hard liquor, packs of tobacco, and pharmaceutical cocktails. To be so dismissive of the hardline clampdown which is being advanced, is to deny reality.

That's blatantly hypocritical, inaccurate and ignorant of you. Alcohol causes 100,000+ fatalities per year, and some of the most severe withdrawal symptoms in the form of delerium tremens. It is 1000's of times more lethal and addictive than Cannabis. But yet, I would not promote legislation which puts a responsible adult in jail for drinking in moderation, or even for producing alcohol. And Google "alcoholism brain damage", you might learn something. Tobacco and pharmaceuticals ? JUST AS BAD as alcohol, and 1000X more lethal and addictive than Cannabis. Yet, we all know that mass incarceration of alcohol users, tobacco users and BigPharma pill poppers would be INSANE. Yet, some of us are willing to banish and criminalize a LESS harmful drug, and pursue the hypocritical and socially destructive American war on drugs. The US has the highest incarceration rate on earth, many/most imprisoned due to NON-violent CONSENTUAL behaviour criminalized by puritanical, authoritarion, behavioural Fascists. Based on the degree of harm the substances cause (indicated by the scientifically documented drug induced fatalities and potential for addiction), for every year you want to put a pot user/producer/distributor in jail, the respective involvement in alcohol, tobacco or pharmaceuticals should carry a prison sentence 1000X more severe.

There are 2 types of right-wingers, Libertarians and Authoritarians. Libertarians believe that adults have the right to consume and produce non-lethal, relatively non-addictive cannabis. Even though the NDP and Green Party are not capitalist, or right-wing, they do have a sort of Libertarian aspect to their social policies : leave people's behaviour alone, if they are doing such consentual acts privately and are not harming others. The Liberals and Conservatives are all for rounding up pot smokers, producers and distributors and mass incarcerating them. As with the prohibition of alcohol, this only exacerbates the (minor) problems associated with cannabis and makes them severe, and GREATLY fuels organized crime takeover of the industry as it is driven underground. What would happen if we thought Coffee was a social problem and we criminalized it ? It does cause 100X more fatalities per year than Cannabis (due to inducement of cardiac irregularities in those who are predisposed or have preexisting conditions) and it does induce more severe withdrawal symptoms. If we criminalized it, the overall use would likely not decrease, but it would greatly fuel organized crime CONTROL of the banished underground industry. If we were to ban alcohol and tobacco, the same effect would occur. Tobacco smoking is WAY down in Canada recently, due to education. It wasn't necessary to mass-incarcerate the industry and tobacco users. Fines, regulations, licensing and education worked. In the Netherlands, a LOWER percentage of their population uses Cannabis than in the States (with their severe prohibition). It's time for the right, center, and left to link together in this *one* issue of social policy and not promote or pursue harsh criminalization for such a *relatively innocuous* substance, as long as it's only for private adult use, away from the operation of vehicles and machinery.

1) The federal NDP has never been given a chance to govern. 2) The most recent example of the NDP, in Saskatchewan, ran balanced budgets and did NOT destroy the economy. 3) Examples in Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark prove that the center-left, NON-extreme social democrats can increase economic competitiveness, and create the best standard of living on earth. The NDP used to be old school socialist, but they are no longer. They are progressive semi-socialists who understand how economies work, as they have adopted the policies found in Scandinavia.