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Fort Lauderdale has a big and potentially dangerous problem. Since November 2005, police in this party-heavy town have reported four incidents of alleged male sex acts in public restrooms! Oh, the humanity! Well, Fort Lauderdale mayor Jim “love the sinner and hate the sin” Naugle thought the city should invest in some single occupancy toilets. You know—if people don't have the room to have sex that he deems inappropriate, they won't have that sex! It is time for all of us... to realize this world and our lives aren't about being gay, straight, white, black, Muslim, Christian, or Atheist—our lives are about being human.Hate to tell you Mr. Naugle, but people have sex in airplane lavatories. Have you ever seen those? And I also hate to tell you, but homosexuals and heterosexuals alike are going to have sex in weird places—like public park bathrooms. You may deem sex in such places inappropriate—and that's fine—but what's not fine is holding the homosexual community responsible for it. It is time for all of us—every single one of us—to realize this world and our lives aren't about being gay, straight, white, black, Muslim, Christian, or Atheist—our lives are about being human. The sooner we realize that, the sooner we can get to work on fixing this mess we've made.
[CNN] The headline says it all. This is what we've come to, America.
This nation is already paranoid enough. Two Massachusetts fathers have invented the devices, which can stop hollow-point 9-millimeter bullets, among other dangerous projectiles. The inventors and founders of My Child's Pack, Joe Curran and Mike Pelonzi, came up with the idea after the Columbine shootings in 1999. Though the bags are pricey at $175 a piece, they do offer another option for parents worried about the safety of their children. After all, it doesn't seem we can go more than a day without hearing about some kind of violence in American schools.
Then again, think about how this kind of device impacts a child's view of the world. With these drastic safety precautions, are we saying to our children, “We care about your safety,” or are we telling them, “You can't be safe unless you're bulletproof”? I would never admonish parents for caring about the safety of their children, but ensuring that safety can come at a price. This nation is already paranoid enough. It seems that we believe that with the proper precautions and regulations, we can become invincible, and that is simply not the case. Speaking of cases—case in point...
[WCVB] Here's a question: what do you think the best way to combat the “drug epidemic” in America would be? Better education about dangerous chemical abuse? Radical policy reform? If you answered yes to either of those, the U.S. government would like to say that you are wrong. The correct answer is “bribery.”
Oh sure, we can argue semantics. What the federal government terms a “carrot and stick approach,” I call “bribery.” But the fact of the matter is, our government is offering increased financial incentives to officials in Afghanistan who combat the opium trade. Afghanistan is responsible for 90 percent of the world's opium.
Parents do this to their kids. If a kid has trouble in school, instead of addressing the underlying issues at play, some parents bribe their kids into doing “good.” “Johnny, if you bring your C to a B, we'll get you an Xbox 360. NOW do you want to work hard?”
And what does that teach Johnny?
I don't have all the answers. But at least I'm asking the right questions.Perhaps instead of looking at eliminating the supply of drugs, we should look at why that supply is in such a high demand. There are reasons that people get high on whatever drug they choose, and those reasons are the most important information we can have if we want to resolve the drug epidemic. It is a fact of life: many human beings enjoy augmenting their conscious experience through the use of chemicals. There is no way we can eliminate that joy, and there is no need to. When practiced responsibly, it can have significant social and individual benefits.
So why do people search so desperately for the next big high? Why do some teenagers, who should have so many more interests in their lives, huff whatever they can find in the garage? Why do many of us use drugs not just as a way to relax and socialize, but as a way to escape our problems?
There is a problem with drugs in this country. But the way our government proposes to solve that problem is ignorant and irresponsible, and has been for decades.
And no—I don't have all the answers. But at least I'm asking the right questions.
[Reuters]
Compiled by Branden Hart, TheSequitur.com Senior Editor.
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