Pubdate: Fri, 16 Dec 2016
Source: Telegram, The (CN NF)
Copyright: 2016 The Telegram
Contact:  http://www.thetelegram.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/303
Author: Brian Jones
Page: B6

LESSONS FROM THE LUNATIC FRINGE

As the lunatic fringe has long said, allowing people to grow their own
marijuana would kill the illegal drug trade as soon as the first crop
was harvested. But the task force, being an arm of government, had to
be stupid.

Watching sanity finally seep into the country's drug laws, you have to
marvel at the stubborn narrow-mindedness that kept marijuana illegal
for so long, causing suffering and injustice for half a century.

Once again, the lunatic fringe is proven right. We could have listened
decades ago, and prevented people from being imprisoned for pot
possession. The impending legalization of marijuana will be
vindication for the vocal lunatic fringe who long argued the laws
against it were illogical, hypocritical and indefensible.

And yet, even with most Canadians supporting legalization, the
government won't fully overturn laws better suited to the Victorian
era than the 21st century.

Predictably, the federal task force on legalized recreational
marijuana didn't have the courage to thoroughly trash the laws that
have done so much damage for so many years.

Grant people the level of freedom they should have in an ostensibly
free society? No. Undercut and kill once and for all the illicit drug
trade run by organized crime? No.

As the lunatic fringe has long said, allowing people to grow their own
marijuana would kill the illegal drug trade as soon as the first crop
was harvested. But the task force, being an arm of government, had to
be stupid. It recommended a limit of four plants per person.

To be consistent, this should also extend to alcohol laws, henceforth
limiting people to making only four bottles of beer or wine for
personal consumption.

*

Sometimes the lunatic fringe is intelligent and wise, and other times
they're merely lunatics.

For the next few paragraphs, I'll declare a truce in my ongoing
argument against the detestable Liberals, and offer some advice to
Finance Minister Cathy Bennett, who this week described some of the
nasty online hate and abuse directed toward her.

My many detractors won't be surprised to hear I have considerable
experience regarding hate mail.

Ms. Minister, ignore it. This will be difficult at first, but you'll
get better at it. Hone your skill at saying, "Whatever." Rude morons
who can only throw insults are worth no more time than that. Don't let
them intrude into your thoughts or your emotions.

The cliche is to have a "thick skin," but, more substantially, you
should strive to be utterly unaffected by people whose intellectual
capacity is limited to obnoxious name-calling.

"Jones, you're an incompetent idiot, a disgrace to journalism,
laughably unfit to write for a high school newspaper." Whatever.
Admittedly, adopting this attitude must be more difficult for women
than for men, given the sexism and misogyny that such insults can
include. I'm not saying sexism and misogyny in wider society should be
ignored. But in personal terms, for people whose work is public, yes,
ignore it.

Good luck, and let us know how it goes.

OK, truce over. Next week, watch your back.

- -----------------------------------------

Occasionally, the lunatic fringe's good intentions can cause them to
not have a clue.

The ongoing death and destruction in Aleppo, Syria, prompted a lot of
mournful wailing on social media this week. A National Post columnist
declared, "This is the depravity to which we have all sunk." Uh, no,
speak for yourself pal.

This depravity was caused by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, who in
2011 decided to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad by funding
and arming "rebels." Thus a rebellion escalated into the Syrian civil
war.

As in Libya, the rebels were overwhelmingly Islamists - ISIS and
branches of al-Qaida - but anyone who pointed that out was denounced
by Western liberals as "Islamophobic."

Millions of Syrian refugees and thousands of innocent dead can be
traced directly to Obama and Clinton, who naively believed, "The enemy
of my enemy is my friend."

Aleppo, and all of Syria, is indeed a tragedy. But don't let
lamentation forestall recognizing who is to blame.
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MAP posted-by: Matt