Ask ME! (Esme) anything and I (unlike others on here) WILL answer

[Draggon]

what are you politically?

[McGiver]

I like rules - you know where you are with them

They provide consistency

yes, for the person who made the rules.
i have always been an outside the box thinker and have found very little logic in most rules.  they tend to be written for the sake of convenience.

laws are a different matter.  i believe that laws are important, ie: no rape, murder, theft, etc...
but laws written to protect the individual for themself are annoying and limiting of freedoms.  ie: prostitution, drugs, seatbelt and helmet laws, etc...

[esme456]

Left-wing

[duncvis]

Rules usually = coercion, and a judgement made by someone as to what is desirable/acceptable. on the whole, I can't see that as a good thing myself - if there are to be 'rules' they should follow spirit not letter, and be as few as possible.

I fall into the left-libertarian (i.e. anarchism) pigeonhole mainly - the main gripe I have against socialists is the tendency to micromange everyone.

[duncvis]

Have you seen this before? where do you fall?

[esme456]

I was including Laws in with Rules

I think some rules are pedantic and silly and others are a conflict between freedom of the individual and
what is in the individual's best interests

Is society really doing it's best for people if it just says 'OK, take whatever drugs you like, we won't penalise you'??

What about the people who suffer the effects' of others' drug-taking?  Do they have rights?

[McGiver]

if peoples actions are only harming themselves then it should be allowed.
if someone steals to support their habit then the crime should be theft.

if it effecting a family, then ideally the situation could be made into individual choices.  the man is a heroin addict the wife should leave his sorry ass, and start anew with the kids.
both parents are messed up, well people have lived through much worse, and came out of it as better people.
you should never legislate commonsense.

[duncvis]

The drug war is doomed to failure - making criminals out of people who take drugs helps nobody - and keeps the black market going, along with other negative effects (like addicts stealing to fund their habit, instead of making heroin available on prescription to registered addicts). This is along with the fact that most drug users do not commit crimes, other than the 'crime' of using a substance which the powers that be have decreed should be forbidden to them.

[McGiver]

The drug war is doomed to failure - making criminals out of people who take drugs helps nobody - and keeps the black market going, along with other negative effects (like addicts stealing to fund their habit, instead of making heroin available on prescription to registered addicts). This is along with the fact that most drug users do not commit crimes, other than the 'crime' of using a substance which the powers that be have decreed should be forbidden to them.

yes dunc, and to mention the overcrowding of jails which lets rapists on the streets again in as little as ten months, same with kiddie fiddlers.  just because people with substance abuse problems are takingh up beds and resources.

[duncvis]

you should never legislate commonsense.

quoted for truth.

[esme456]

Politically I was Libertarian Left

wrt the drugs debate:-

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/crime-victims/reducing-crime/drug-related-crime

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/drugs/story/0,,997390,00.html

A person's perspective on drug-use is invariably going to be directly related to whether they take drugs themselves or not

Even cannabis has now been shown to significanlty increase the risk of schizophrenia and psychosis in certain people so it's by no means a safe bet:-

http://www.rethink.org/how_we_can_help/campaigning_for_change/cannabis_and_mental_illness/cannabis.html

(NB I used to work for Rethink)

I've had this discussion so many times and neither side ever budges an inch so it's pointless  Lol

 

[duncvis]

The issue is not whether it is safe to take drugs, it is whether the state has the right to make criminals of those to choose to do so - I contend that it does not. I don't think you necessarily need to be a drug user to take that position.

[esme456]

But you are tho aren't you?   

[duncvis]

When the mood takes me, I don't see any difference between a couple of spliffs on a weekend and a few pints in front of the telly. I consider alcohol and tobacco to have a far more detrimental impact on society and on the individuals who use them to excess, but I don't see a rush of cries to lock up the tobaccos barons, who are in effect legal death pushers. its all about power, and who holds it. I'd be of the same opinion if I didn't occasionally indulge personally.

[thepeaguy]

Peegai, why do you insist on biting the hand that feeds you?   I am trying to help you reach your NT potential.  I realise my bullying may seem harsh but it is to help you improve yourself - "tough love" if you will.   I knew you would resent me for it but I prepared myself for that, because I know that deep down you realise it is for your own good.  Now you can either appreciate the lesson and learn from it , or run back to the hospice and cry into your roses.  I don't know why everyone is so  ungrateful about recieving my enlightenment.
 

Hello Flo. Speaking nonsense again?