Apolitical Staples

Government statistics are bogus and self-serving, see Shadow Government Statistics. Similar tricks are used in the USA and Canada. A quick phone survey of your friends and relatives who live in various parts of the country (the ones who don’t work in government) will tell you a lot more about whether people think everything is hunky-dory in the economy. That, and maybe a quick look at some harder-number economic indicators.

BTW the prevalence of the use of “paper bags” for government transactions increases with the size of government and is independent of which party is stuffing the bags. If you think that Harper can ratchet up the police state in the new and expanded “War on Bad Things” and not get entangled in corrupt practices related to the procurement of prisons, weapons, treatment programs, computer systems, etc. then you don’t know anything about how govt works.

The previous post reminded me… why are more bloggers not commenting on Harper’s insane desire to resuccitate the “war on drugs”? His comments about harm reduction programs are particularly maddening:

“I remain a skeptic that you can tell people we won’t stop the drug trade, we won’t get you off drugs, we won’t even send messages to discourage drug use, but somehow we will keep you addicted and yet reduce the harm just the same,” (Harper) said.

Yes, Steve, the harm will be reduced by eliminating or at least reducing the chance that addicts will acquire Hep-C or HIV. Harm reduction is emphatically not about dealing with addiction itself, but with dealing with the obvious negative consequences of intravenous drug use.

It is “a second-best strategy at best,” he said, “because if you remain a drug addict, I don’t care how much harm you reduce, you’re going to have a short and miserable life.”

Certainly, if you develop AIDS or Hep-C or a myriad of other conditions, you will have a short and miserable life.

I am assuming the new crackdown will include the most prevalent and dangerous drug on the market, the one that has perhaps caused more human misery than any other substance in history, i.e., alcohol.

Nah. I didn’t think so. Finish your drinks, boys, we got some drug dealers to nab!

I’m not ready to get too excited yet - if this keeps up the tourism, retail and manufacturing are going to continue to suffer - that’s a lot of possible lay-offs.

Tourism losses could be up to 200,000 people alone.

Let’s just see what happens.

Food for thought:

CBS 5 / KCBS) SAN FRANCISCO San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom proclaimed the nation’s war on drugs a total failure and insisted the crime rate would go down if the government spent money on treatment as opposed to jailing people with drug problems.

“If you want to get serious, if you want to reduce crime by 70% in this country overnight, end this war on drugs,” he told reporters at City Hall on Thursday. “You want to get serious, seriously serious about crime and violence end this war on drugs.”

The mayor maintained local jails are overcrowded with people incarcerated for drug offenses, taking up room that could be used to hold more violent criminal offenders. He said violent criminals with lengthy felony records are being turned loose, too often.

San Francisco Sheriff Mike Hennessey, who has run the county jail for 28 years, told CBS 5 that 60 to 75 percent of the 2,000 inmates currently held are there for drug crimes or have underlying substance abuse problems.

He also agreed with Newsom.

“No, the war on drugs is not working. The war on drugs is not working because we are relying on law enforcement instead of on treatment,” Hennessey said The mayor maintained local jails are overcrowded with people incarcerated for drug offenses, taking up room that could be used to hold more violent criminal offenders. He said violent criminals with lengthy felony records are being turned loose, too often.

San Francisco Sheriff Mike Hennessey, who has run the county jail for 28 years, told CBS 5 that 60 to 75 percent of the 2,000 inmates currently held are there for drug crimes or have underlying substance abuse problems.

He also agreed with Newsom.

“No, the war on drugs is not working. The war on drugs is not working because we are relying on law enforcement instead of on treatment,” Hennessey said.

In a ten-minute tirade about the drug war’s failure, Newsom told reporters that most politicians - including those in his own party - just don’t have the guts to admit the obvious.

“It’s laughable that anyone could look at themselves with a straight face and say ‘oh,we’re really succeeding.’ I mean it’s comedy. And as I say, shame on my party, the democratic party, because they don’t have the courage of their private thoughts, because we don’t want to appear weak on this topic,” Newsom said.

The mayor said the ‘politicizing’ of the illegal drug use issue prevents a discussion about real solutions to the drug epidemic.

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