That’s right. I’ve declared that the term domestic abuse is no longer operable, because now, on days that I don’t beat her, I buy her flowers, do something nice for her, or apply firm non-violent discipline.
It’s a new balanced approach to marriage. And I should be getting some credit from all of you for being so much better than her previous husband (who didn’t do those extra nice things).
….
Those who know me have figured out by now that this is merely a disturbing analogy (and they’ve probably even figured out to what similar outrage the analogy refers) – I’m not married. This is inspired by a recent twitter exchange with Kevin Sabet.
Drug War Rant: @rafaelONDCP @KevinSabet If ONDCP ended war on drugs, why is Panetta going to Canada to announce increase in drug war? bit.ly/GTqmO6
Kevin Sabet: @DrugWarRant You are using the term drug war (as is the media).Point is the term is outdated, but foreign assistance and cooperation isn’t.
Dan Riffle: @KevinSabet @DrugWarRant @rafaelONDCP is the term outdated, or just unpopular? If policy is the same, why else call it something different?
Drug WarRant: @KevinSabet If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, you can’t make it not a duck by simply calling it a “balanced approach.”
Drug WarRant: @KevinSabet The truth is that the U.S. is waging a violent war on drugs and drug users that results in thousands of deaths, here and abroad.
Kevin Sabet: @Doctor_Iffle @drugwarrant @rafaelondcp Policy is different. Fair Sentencing Act. HOPE. DMI. Vet Tx Courts. Safe Disposal. PDMPs. ‘Nuff said
The twitter conversation is still continuing, but this gives you an idea.
So, in Kevin’s mind, the policy is different. Sure, he’s still beating his wife supporting an overall policy that results in death and destruction worldwide, but now, there’s all this other good stuff as well. And shouldn’t that be what counts?
Update: At Kevin Sabet’s request, post has been corrected to show that Kevin is not still beating his wife.
Kevin Sabet (via Twitter): Ur latest post using the wife beating analogy is disgusting and I demand you take it down.In your post you say”he’s still beating his wife”.
Apparently all the people who have died in the drug wars worldwide, those who have had their civil liberties taken from them, the families who have been robbed of a parent to incarceration, the people who have lost their livelihood, their possessions, their children because of overzealous drug war prosecution, the people in real trouble who have been ignored because their behavior was considered a criminal justice issue — all these are not disgusting.
Well, they’re disgusting to me. As disgusting as domestic abuse (which I do find extremely disgusting) and that’s why I use the analogy. Because it maybe shocks you into realizing that supporting the drug war is as bad as supporting domestic abuse.
Oh, he so BADLY wants to appear moderate. It’s like if the inquisition announced they would no longer execute witches by stoning, then it’s not an inquisition. The moderate position is burning at the stake, right?
I still can’t get over Kevin Sabet lying about Rand Corporation being a nonprofit independent of the government even though it is mostly funded by it ($200 million+ annually – see Guidestar.com) to do studies against legalization when it needs to.
Great analogy, Pete. And it illustrates nicely why the drug warriors’ “balanced approach” is actually a (mentally) unbalanced approach.
A completely unnecessary and abhorrent analogy. You make us look terrible. And you should be ashamed.
instead of coming in and leveling an empty derogatory statement, please explain why you say what you say. Complaints here normally go in the mental round file but I suspect there is more behind your complaint. So please… elucidate.
Ha hahahahaha!
Funny how when Sabet gets his name mentioned on one of Pete’s posts, there’s always some “legalization advocate” who we’ve never heard from before posting in his defense…
So true.
Sabet is a drug war criminal (+ profiteer) and the victims of his policies, whatever euphamism he uses to describe them, deserve justice.
Survivors of the drug war will unite!
Seriously. I have a sneaking suspicion that our new friend “Janice” might be related (very-closely related) to our old friends “mappy” and “ElVira28“. (Hmm, that’s odd. I don’t believe I’ve seen either of them around here recently.)
And by the way, “Janice,” I LOVED the “420” in your name. It was inspired. I mean, we almost fell for it this time. Please don’t stop playing! Oh, and say ‘hi’ to Kev for us.
when i read janice420’s response i thought it was someone like francis being ironic
I’m good, but I’m not that good.
You’re going down Kev!
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Cheese it people, it’s the PC cops!
Everybody is worried about battered women, but when was the last time you heard anyone worrying about battered fish sticks? Why doesn’t anyone care about the fish sticks?
What’s with these people who pop down on Pete’s couch, make a provocative statement, then leave?
The drug war is AT LEAST as disgusting as domestic violence, all the more so because it’s not generally recognized as the great moral evil that it is.
I haven’t known Pete to use this kind of analogy trivially, or to fail to back it up with reasoned, civil discourse. C’mon Janice, tell us what the problem is.
lol, I thought Janice was being sarcastic.
Go ahead and make us look terrible Pete,,nothing you can do,including standing naked on the Statue of Liberty smoking a joint will ever make us look terrible as America and the world shakes off this drugged stupor that we have allowed our country to push down our throats.
As more world health and criminal justice organizations call for ending prohibition,the price of keeping it in place goes up.
PS: I want a pic of that allan!
a pic of which allan? huh? hello? (taps phone) Some questions can act like strobe lights to some people. But dang it! still no flashbacks…
And back to Kev… dear Kev, you fail in the same way all your fellow sado-moralist excrementalists do. You don’t address the very nasty and vile goings on w/ the enforcement of the drug laws. Get your ass out that ivory tower Kev… that castles made of sand thing bodes not well for thee lad should you continue believing that parapet is built on firm ground.
When I hear Kev or any of his peers address the deaths of [begin litany] Peter McW, Zeke, Kathryn Johnston, Jennifer Odom, Donald Scott, Patrick Dorismond, or any of the obscenely-too-many other names of those who have fallen prey to the War On (some) Drugs, I may give up drinking. And that’s just starting w/ the fatalities Kev… like Pete and many others ask, what about those families wrongfully raided (some would say that’s most of ’em)? … those w/ pets shot? (a corgy Kev? Really?) (Ever run up against a killer corgy Kev? yeah, me neither)
Get off your (un)high horse Kev. Get your hands dirty and actually f’ing listen for a change. And when you write an essay on the casualties of the drug war, I might have to consider that there is a heart in you after all. But not until then. So that’s your assignment. Minimum of 1500 words…
You can add another one to the list of dead from the wosd:
http://www.petoskeynews.com/gaylord/news/pnr-friends-of-reddie-they-didnt-have-to-kill-him-20120316,0,5398810.story
My comment at The Agitator, FB, and others (edited):
RE: the marijuana death article
So, now the child’s future is up in the air, he is in a foster home. He had a loving dad who took good care of him, and now he doesn’t have any parent (if he’s in foster care the mother is obviously out of the picture). I’m certain, even tho he is only 2, that the sight of his dad being killed in front of him is going to cause trauma and he’ll carry the memory for life.
Isn’t it time we stop doing these kinds of things to people who use the “wrong†substance to relax? Not only should people NOT be killed over it, they should not even have to pay a fine for being caught using one of those “illicit†substances, and especially not for one as innocuous as cannabis/marijuana.
Comments have been disabled on that article, I think the periodical doesn’t want people raking the cops and social workers over the coals. Those who initiated and carried out this vicious vendetta against this man and his child need to be berated and vilified in public and demands for removal from their jobs and a change in policy also made publicly.
Dear Mssrs. Wenzel and Speer,
I am trying to understand your treatment of the William Reddie shooting.
In particular, your paper has disabled comments on your coverage of the story, with the explanation that it is “due to the nature” of the story.
Newspapers commonly disable comments in stories involving sexual abuse of minors in order to protect the minors’ privacy, but it is not clear what the motivation is here. Are you concerned that people will criticize law enforcement and CPS? If so, why should that concern you?
I appreciate any clarification you can offer.
Best wishes,
Matthew Meyer
[Here are the addresses of the guy who disabled comments and the editor: mwenzel@gaylordheraldtimes.com,
jeremy@gaylordheraldtimes.com]
“It is our policy to disable comments on all crime related stories, due to repeated abuses to our terms of use. We had intented to block comments on the Reddie stories initially, but a technical glitch didn’t allow us to do so.
Thank you,
Jeremy Speer
Editor
Gaylord Herald Times”
.
.
Now don’t go getting carried away clay. I think Pete naked on the SOL would be a net negative to our cause. Well unless we can extort re-legalization by threatening to make it happen!
I eventually figgered out that was the pic Clay was talking about… (slaps palm to head) slowin’ down in my dotage.
There once was a prohib named Sabet
Who outlawed a drug called Habit.
The drug didn’t exist,
But drug wars persist,
So Sabet kept his habits.
I bow to your balanced approach.
I beat my head (not wife or girlfriend) into the computer desk.
Thanks for all you do Pete!
Child abusers use the same tactic when they call it ‘discipline’.
“sir, why did you break your sons arm?”
“they knew the rules and knew they’d be disciplined if they broke them”
could someone translate sabets screed of acronyms explaing why the policy is different.
As has been pointed out before, Sabet occupied the Inner Sanctum of the drug (hah! don’t make me laugh!) ‘control’ policy’s PR Hive, servicing the ‘queens’ and enabling them to produce brood after brood of intelligence-insulting ‘policy’. He reminded me of a Mel Brooks character:
Dole Office Clerk – Occupation?
Comicus – Stand-up philosopher.
Dole Office Clerk – What?
Comicus – Stand-up philosopher. I coalesce the vapors of human existence into a viable and meaningful comprehension.
Dole Office Clerk – Oh, a bullshit artist!
Comicus – Hmmmmmm…
Dole Office Clerk – Did you bullshit last week?
Comicus – No.
Dole Office Clerk – Did you try to bullshit last week?
Comicus – Yes!
Yep. If drug prohibition is BS from the get-go, and “Doctor” Kevin is riding the right-wing-welfare train (who’s footing his bills?), then draw your own conclusions…
Talking of the Right Wing Welfare Train, Kevin Sabet has a tweet up about what he calls “one of the best articles ever on mmj.”
Turns out its by Henry I Miller, a notorious “scientist for hire” at the Hoover institute. Miller has been engaged in evidence- supplying activities for the tobacco industry, and lately for genetic modification agribusinesses and is little more than a scientific prostitute to the highest bidder. Yet little kev loves him….funny that.
I’m also thoroughly sick of Kev’s continual lying about what happens to his victims in the drug war. Again he’s using the “they just get a ticket” analogy on his latest tweets, ignoring the life changing consequences for those branded as felons for minor possession. Wife-beater is too good an epithet for this lying sado-moralist.
Just wanted to say that I love seeing the History of the world part 1, reference used all these years after the movie was made. Nicely done.
KEVIN SABET YOU’RE GROSS. Your wife, not so much. But from the fingertips of the proudest heroin lover you will ever know, i want you to know, very deeply, very passionately, that I TRULY BELIEVE you deserve to experience the most PROFOUND CASE OF SYRINGE SHARED HIV, HEP C and other STD’s, ONLY FROM A DIRTY SYRINGE of COURSE. This is not the opinion of anybody on any website BUT CJ, ME, MINE, MY OWN. MY OPINION. and My name is CJ, and I am a heroin lover. as the nWo used to say on TNT every Monday night (AND YES I PAID ENOUGH ATTENTION IN BETWEEN NODDING OUT!) FOR LIFE!
LOL i mean seriously, this analogy is great. I ONLY BANG DOPE 6 DAYS A WEEK BECAUSE ON THE 7TH DAY I CANT AFFORD ANYMORE, and WHAT?! SUDDENLY IM A KEVIN SABET PROHIBITIONIST? GIVE ME A BREAK.
That isn’t true. Domestic abuse only corrupts and harms small groups of individuals. The drug war corrupts and harms all.
Message to Mr. Sabet (and Janice420):
Supporting the current prohibitionist agenda is much, much worse than wife beating. Prohibition has killed tens of thousands, costs trillions of dollars, ruins millions of lives, violates all manner of civil rights, contributes to massive corruption of public officials, and is counter-productive. Not one single goal of the War on Drugs has been met – unless the goal was chaos. The only people who benefit from prohibition are gangsters and the evil, selfish, intellectually-dishonest drug warriors who continue to perpetuate prohibition for their own personal gain.
So, which one are you?
“Update: At Kevin Sabet’s request, post has been corrected to show that Kevin is not still beating his wife.”
Love it
Re-branding has worked for years…
i.e.
Shell Shock is now PTSD
Anti-Abortion is now Pro-Life
Estate Tax is now Death Tax
Liberal is now Progressive..
etc etc.
Speaking of re-branding,,, The anti-prohibition movement needs to re-brand the phrase “recreational use”. It just reinforces the idea that we are just a bunch of stoners who just want to get high. I would suggest something like “personal use”.
I’ve heard “adult enjoyable use” but it’s a mouthful.
I choose to enjoy cannabis.
I prefer the term “forced pregnancy”.
———-
Kev Kev certainly does manage to get news writers to call him for quotes.
Pot growers store opens in Washington, D.C.
Dubbed the ‘Walmart of Weed’ for medical marijuana growers, the store could reignite a debate
By MICHAEL FELBERBAUM updated 3/30/2012 9:04:05 AM ET
/snip/
D.C. officials on Friday are set to announce those eligible to apply for permits to grow and sell medical marijuana to dispensaries under the district’s 2010 law. Applicants must sign a statement saying they understand a license doesn’t authorize them to break federal law.
“They do so at their own peril because I can’t imagine that the federal government is going to allow marijuana selling for any purpose right in their backyard,” said Kevin Sabet, a former senior adviser to the president’s drug czar and an assistant professor in the College of Medicine at the University of Florida.
“Whether it’s D.C. or all the way out in California, the government’s been pretty clear that medical marijuana doesn’t pass the giggle test.”
/snip/
So I guess the first part of my comment in the post directly above was too extreme. I sincerely apologize.
No problem. Tricky line and I didn’t quite want to go there.
Huh? I must be thick, ’cause I think I’m missing something.
yeah, you’re missing the part of Duncan’s post that went away…
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You guys should see the stuff I self censor. I absolutely love gratuitously insulting prohibitionists and frankly think I’m very good at it.
If you think John Walters wasn’t a true believer, look at the expression of unmitigated glee on his face when he got the opportunity to “eradicate” a pot plant.
hope it was an extreme piss take of sabet. the man is totally insufferable. id rather listen to richard nixon or gingrich talk about the need for prohibition than suffer through sabets lies obfuscations and general attempts at justifying the inexcusable
edia-pr whore
Sabet stopped beating his wife because he’s just too busy beating a dead horse. Seriously, prohibition is all but over, if you want it.