THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

This reminds me of this:

Some things that are perfectly normal to do in your own private life don’t sound so good in public.  And that is one reason why they should be none of the public’s business.

The public apparently cannot handle someone prominent saying, “Yeah, I used to smoke pot all the time.  Still do a little. So freakin’ what?  I also look at porn on the computer, occasionally jack-off to fantasies of underage girls, and I have some weird collections in my closet hidden under some old boxes of papers...”

That is a normal, human, male by the way…

I’d actually say cigarettes are an even bigger gateway drug than alcohol.

Obama: “I Inhaled Frequently. That Was The Point”

Guess I’m not normal. Never smoked pot, maybe because I never smoked tobacco either. Once I was offered some marijuana, but declined. Closest I ever came. I was the square nerd. Honest.

It’s not that anyone who has not done or tried those things is NOT normal, it is just that normal encompasses a wide variety of behaviors (or not).  In private we all know that. In public though, it seems to be a different story.

As Srul so aptly pointed out, no one has to apologize for smoking pot when they were younger and they probably don’t (have to apologize) if they still smoke pot.  No one.  That Washington has to is ridiculous. That he did is blatantly disingenuous.  Who is setting these standards?  The ghosts of the Puritans?

Blame it on the criminalization of drugs. Why an adult cannot choose what substances to consume, no matter how detrimental they may be to that person’s health, I know not. The only thing that prohibition does is make the activity more dangerous (and more expensive) by putting criminals in charge of satisfying demand.

It’s all the more jarring here, as another poster in the same BBTF thread said, because you have a 57-year old man claiming to have *just now, just this once* tried coke.  EVERYBODY knows that’s bullshit, yet apparently it’s required bullshit.

#4 - You’re as normal as I am (note: this may not be complimentary), and I’ve smoked (or otherwise ingested) my fair share.  I know some people who smoked their share and your share too One of whom is a teacher, and a damned good one (who can give you a hilarious rendition of his “don’t do drugs” spiel he has to give at least once a year to his students).

I’ve been the point where I barely touch the stuff (1-2 times a year, roughly) for several years, and now, with an infant in the house, it doesn’t seem likely to be a part of life going forward. 

They’ll pry my beer & wine out of my cold, dead fingers, though.  Those are a-ok.  Nobody abuses those…

Again, this is just so easy to see: look at countries that decriminalized “soft” drugs like marijuana, and see what happened.

Look at countries that banned the death penalty and see what happened.

Some people think that USA is so unique in any of these social or legal issues that they have no idea what would happen, when we can make a pretty good guess as to what will happen.

I’ve always looked at the government as a legalized crime syndicate.  The mob acts under the same principles (taxation, protection and enforcement), and they do it where the government fears to tread.

Let gambling and casinos roam free, and then you take away a huge revenue stream.  Let marijuana be controlled like cigarettes, and there goes another stream.  Set up red light districts for prostitution, and that’s another revenue stream gone.

If it’s bad for the criminals, it’ll be good for the law-abiders.

Let the police focus on murder, assaults, and theft and forget about the little stuff in comparison.

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(How many posts until someone says “children”?)

If you make comparisons to other countries you’re by definition some sort of Frenchy-loving, latte-drinking commie. 

Obvious example: healthcare reform “debate.” If you bring up Canada, or any of the other developed countries with universal healthcare coverage (in other words, all of them), you are met with derision and an absolute avalanche of disinformation.  I know it’s bull b/c I have relatives in both Canada and the UK, and because I see people posting online from Scandanavia, France, Germany, etc., and it’s clear that the stuff about “OMG, wait times!” is propoganda.

Those who oppose drug policy reform would utilize the same tactics.

Stick to baseball.

Memo to #10: Stick to posts about baseball.

If you haven’t seen it yet, this is *exactly* what this week’s episode of South Park was about, except they use “sex addiction” as the drug. Worth watching.

MGL said:

“Yeah, I used to smoke pot all the time.  Still do a little. So freakin’ what?  I also look at porn on the computer, occasionally jack-off to fantasies of underage girls, and I have some weird collections in my closet hidden under some old boxes of papers...”

That is a normal, human, male by the way…
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I get the gist of what you’re saying, and I agree. Except fantasizing about underage girls is not normal. It’s not healthy. You just can’t lump pedophilia in with that other stuff. Pedophilia hurts people. And I would absolutely argue that nobody has that fantasy unless they’re wired to be just like those guys who end up on “To Catch a Predator.”

An underage girl could be 1 or 17.  What exactly is a 25-yr old make thinking when he sees a 17-yr old Britney Spears strutting around?

And in some jurisdictions, underage would be under 16, not under 18.  So, what is considered pedophilia in one country is considered safe in another.

He said underage, not prepubescent. Nothing abnormal about noticing the charms of some 16 or 17 year old girls.

Right on 14 and 15 above.  Brittany Spears when she was under 18. Miley Cyrus. Your 16 yo babysitter.  I Carly…

Dude, not iCarly!… she’ll always be that little troublemaker from Drake and Josh to me. Alyssa Milano is not a hot chick either.  Thank god I never saw Jessica Alba in her early TV shows, or she would never have made my laminated list.

It’s been brought up on the IMDB message boards for “Caprica” - is it alright to think that 22 and 23 year old actresses playing 15 year old characters are ‘hot’?

I had no idea that the girl playing Zoe was that old. I now feel better about myself knowing that she is as old as I am.

Haha. She is nice but my favorite there is Magda Apanowicz as Lacy

Brian, you can “think” anything you want.  Thinking and doing are two different things.  If the thinking interferes with the doing in a negative way, then one needs to change their thinking, but “normal” people think and fantasize about all kinds of weird things.  If our thoughts were televised, all of us would be scorned, in jail, or in a loony bin.  All of us.

ok then, it’s comforting to know I have company.