I had waited dutifully for this to come up because I KNEW it would happen, but I guess with the release of Sarah Palin's Blood Libel video and the ensuing brouhaha, his words were drowned out.
David Frum, former Bush speechwriter and brain-dead fuckwit says blame marijuana for the shootings, not weapons or 'rhetoric'.
Yes he did.
He went there.
What. A. Tool.
"After horrific shootings, we hear calls for stricter regulation of guns," he wrote. "The Tucson shooting should remind us why we regulate marijuana.
"Jared Lee Loughner, the man held as the Tucson shooter, has been described by those who know as a 'pot smoking loner.' He had two encounters with the law, one for possession of drug paraphernalia."
Sweet Jesus in a Hummer - what an asshole.
Those 2 full 33-shot clips are a bit bigger of a concern than a bong or a pipe. Or even 2 bongs.
I know that stupidity about marijuana transcends party lines, but it is endemic on the republican side. It has long been a central feature of republican ideology and a litmus test for those Repubs who want to go anywhere of importance ion the party. It's friggin' gospel.
Frum demonstrate just how ignorant people in positions of power are when it comes to knowing shit from shoe polish on this not-very-difficult topic.
I know more about marijuana than David Frum ever will. Mostly because he's a republican. His mind is closed for business when it comes to learning which end is up on this topic and he dutifully hauls water for them and their reefer mad religion.
He - or anybody else - could be up to speed pretty quickly just by reading Medical Marijuana:Review and Analysis of Federal and State Policies, a document produced by the Congressional Research Service and obtained by Wikileaks in 2009. It is about 50-some pages, reads quick, is authoritative enough for MOST people who still get all their info about marijuana from The AntiDrug and the ONDCP. You cannot talk about marijuana if the only info you have comes from those shitholes.
[Added on edit: NIDA too: their info is tainted at best. The US government is NOT the place to get your marijuana information.]
Simply stated, marijuana doesn't kill people. It just doesn't. If you try to make this statement, you're a sad, pathetic person.
It is known to not make people violent. People who attempt to suggest otherwise have zero facts to back this up and sound like morons when they try to claim it.
That said, it CAN exacerbate psychotic states in SOME people with underlying disorders. Not everybody, but some people. It doesn't cause it: you get psychotoc disorders from genetics, not smoking pot.
Frum's job as a republican and a tool, though, is to lie and obfuscate. This is how people earn the term "tool". It's not meant to be flattering.
"After the Tucson shooting, there may be renewed pressure to control the weapons that committed the crime," Frum wrote. "But what about the drugs that may have aggravated the killer’s mental disease? The trend these days seems toward a more casual attitude and easier access to those drugs. Among the things we should be discussing in the aftermath of this horror is the accumulating evidence of those drugs’ potential contribution to making some dangerous people even more dangerous than they might otherwise have been."
Typical of the dishonesty in anti-marijuana propaganda, Frum mentions 'marijuana' once in his screed, the rest of the time it's "drugs".
As in "druuuuuugs". A nasty, fingerwagging, judgmental expression.Standard anti-marijuana technique.
I am waiting for more information of Jarred's background and possible mental illness. Mental illness DOES seem to figure prominently in what's going on. We'd be better off knowing if he was supposed to be taking medications or was able to get any sort of treatment.
And yeah, I saw the reports he has a history of some marijuana smoking, possibly other undisclosed druuuuuuugs.
Here's a factual aside, since we're blaming things for people dying:
For contrast, America's most popular legal drug, alcohol, played a role in the deaths of "approximately 79,000" Americans from 2001 and 2005, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Deaths resulting from intoxication on marijuana are virtually unheard of.
There is barely a complaint about people smoking tobacco for 30 years and giving themselves cancer and pulmonary diseases; we don't like drunk driving, but alcohol is very popular and acceptable.
But, for some strange reason (ideology) NOT dying from marijuana smoking is HEINOUS. Not dying from marijuana smoking makes it WORSER in the republican mind. The effects of marijuana on you are worse than dying.
He casts blame where it doesn't lay and obfuscates, as rightwingers are expected to do, the real causes of the tragedy, which are pretty well nailed down: violent rightwing eliminationist rhetoric permeating the TV and radio. That is ugly behavior. Interferes with an effort to get to the bottom of the matter if you ask me.
Marijuana isn't to blame. Only an asshole can make such an outrageous claim. So democrats will NOT want to go there.
Hey....do you think Frum has any bright ideas on how to curtail the availibility of the Evil Weed, given his intellectual superiority?
No.
Frum did not suggest how the US might make access to marijuana more difficult, but reform advocates point to research showing that many teens today find it easier to procure illegal drugs than alcohol or tobacco.
Oddly, Frum attacks REGULATION of cannabis as the "problem" when, in fact, it is totally illegal in Arizona.
Frum is being a tool for bringing up the word "regulation' in connection with the huge tragedy this shooting is.
REGULATION would actually make it harder for kids to get, but facts like these just make a mess of republican anti-marijuana propaganda. Their goal is - surprise - to obstruct any attempts to correct marijuana laws.
They are fearmongers and we are still supposed to fear the reefer.
Frum is a tool of epic proportions.