Drug Laws

I believe in freedom. If that freedom leads to you making bad decisions with your life, so be it. Society will always look ill upon drug abuse. Alcohol is legal, but alcoholism is seen as an ill. If it wasn't for the amount of money that the government makes off of the drug war and the inability to nail down a way to tax drugs (because of the ease of smuggling and home production), they would already be legal. By maintaining their current criminalized status, we do nothing but artificially prop up the price and create an environment of risk that breeds violence. The Netherlands has legalized drugs and it seems to be working out just fine for them.

I want to know what gives any man or government the right to own or control another. To me, each man is his own ruler, and as such should be free to make his own decisions.

The biggest objection I encounter when I present these ideas is that you can not trust people to make their own decisions. Anyone that says that is advocating slavery, plain and simple. It starts with safety and security (warrantless wiretapping, naked body scanners, universal health care). I know where it ends up, as does anyone who has extensively studied eastern european politics. I'm not willing to be a slave and I do not expect anyone else to make that decision for me.

So, that's where I'm coming from. People think it is controversial, but that is typically the way that new ideas are met. I'm a grown man, who can take care of himself and his property. Unlike most, I also believe other people can as well.

On Wikipedia

I posted this in my Psychology class in response to the Professor discrediting Wikipedia as a source.

"It's interesting that this has come up. I have had this debate in every class I have had since Wikipedia was founded. In its early days, anyone could edit an article on wikipedia. This lead to many factual errors. In the last few years, however, Wikipedia's community has developed a strict set of rules that should apply to any reference material. There is far more oversight and citation required for Wikipedia than any encyclopedia I have ever heard of. Certainly, the bias against Wikipedia by Academia is without merit at this point and begs the question: Why do they have a problem with easily accessed information?

If you go to Wikipedia, you will find every article has a list of source material. Without this citation, the article does not get published. If an article's bias is called into question, it is noted on the article and is subject to review by the community. Certainly, no other source will tell you that it is biased. I doubt any professor would admit a bias against Wikipedia or have a logical argument to back up their attempt to discredit it as a source.

To be honest, I will probably use Wikipedia. I probably won't use the online library. In my experience, Wikipedia is far more efficient at information gathering than university library systems. And time is money.

I am not posting this to be argumentative. This is not the first time I have experienced Wikipedia bias in a classroom. I understand that crowd-sourced information is a scary prospect to academics and universities that have controlled information for so long. I just can not stand to be a silent party to it."

I considered going into the fact that Wikipedia is free and Professors write the books and articles that are deemed "acceptable" and university libraries are incomplete, but I'll save that for the inevitable email conversation with my professor.

Bowf. It's time to reinvent the automobile.

900 dollars.

900 dollars for a belt.

900 dollars for a belt that makes my car's engine work properly.

Can you really trust a belt with all that responsibility? I think it's time to reinvent the car. Let's at least address the engine. Why can't the timing be run electronically or with magnets? I believe a car should have fewer "wear and tear" parts than it does currently. If GM wants to make a comeback, screw the electric car and build a car that require NO regular maintenance. It could be a mix between the Jetson's flying car and the Batmobile. It is appalling that in 2010 we still have cars that break down. It's down right Un-American. Bowf.