Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Law and Order

Roberto, a grower of the herb yerba mate who lives near Yaguaron, tells me that Paraguayans "need another Stroessner to stop Lugo." He is one of those who fall into the trap of thinking that the alternative to left-wing populism is right-wing authoritarianism. "He did some nasty things to some people," Roberto acknowledges of the late dictator, "but there was order in the country."

From: Alvaro Vargas Llosa

Update: We have a commenter who thinks yerba mate is a drug. It is. From the wiki:

Mate contains xanthines, which are alkaloids in the same family as caffeine, theophylline, and theobromine, well-known stimulants also found in coffee and chocolate. Mate also contains elements such as potassium, magnesium and manganese. [11] Caffeine content varies between 0.3% and 1.7% of dry weight (compare this to 2.5–4.5% for tea leaves, and 1.5% for ground coffee).
HT Instapundit

Cross Posted at Classical Values

5 comments:

M. Simon said...

reliapundit,

I guess we will have to outlaw coffee. From the wiki:

Mate contains xanthines, which are alkaloids in the same family as caffeine, theophylline, and theobromine, well-known stimulants also found in coffee and chocolate. Mate also contains elements such as potassium, magnesium and manganese. [11] Caffeine content varies between 0.3% and 1.7% of dry weight (compare this to 2.5–4.5% for tea leaves, and 1.5% for ground coffee).

Reliapundit said...

caffein is ADDICTIVE.

but socially accepted.

it makes us better workers.

but it is addictive.

i'd rather hang out at a starbucks than the methadone clinic around th corner from my office.

outlawing coffee would do nothing but drive productivity down. hurting everyone.

forcing illegal drug addicts into forced treatment programs is good.

legalizing their habits would not help anyone, and it would not effectively deal with their underlying reason/diathesis for addiction. if they have one other than having used the drug for amusement - at the urging of another user/addict/dealer and getting addicted themselves.

BTW: in our many exchanges on this issue you have NEVER responded directly to this.

instead i get accused of being a fan of totalitarianism.

which is a dumb reply and false.

having laws and enforcing them is not totalitarian,

drug laws are good - as are laws against pedophilia.

the pedophile claims that the sec doesnl;t harm the child; the investigation does.

it's bs.

and so is claiming that illegal drug use should be legal.

all the best :)

Reliapundit said...

question:

will you bug out on being a hawk if hillary takes a position on drugs more to your liking - the way sullivan caved into kerry and the "antiwar" crowd because he likef their position on gay marriage better than the GOP's?

does legalization trump WW4 to you?

M. Simon said...

Totalitarians always find some group characteristic that is "objectionable" and use it to have a nice little pogrom on the group.

Schizophrenics take drugs. Alcohol and cigarettes in excess. They seem to also like other drugs to self medicate. Pot being among the more popular. Heroin for those with more serious pain.

Our war on drugs is just another way to punish the mentally ill for being deviants.

Totalitarian. A modernized eugenics movement. We don't have to sterilize them, we can put them in
jail. Kinder and gentler.

About 70% of female heroin addicts have been sexually abused. A good portion of the male heroin addicts fall into the same category. a lot of the people you see at the methadone clinic are victims of sexual abuse. Others are no doubt victims of other trauma. Obviously they deserve further punishment for taking heroin to relieve their pain.

Totalitarian indeed.

Every society seems to need its devils. Our devils are abused children. Swell. Just swell.

Excuse me for not falling into line, but the Emperor is naked and covered with feces and is followed by a horde of flies. Not a parade I'd care to join.

Anonymous said...

Simon sure is good at copying and pasting. Must make the Google count go up faster.