The Campaign Speech That I Will Never Get To Hear

Hello, and it’s great to be here at the University of Southern North Dakota !!

I’m Joe Blow, and I'm here today to tell you about my plan for America. 

We’re doing poorly because we’re making bad decisions.  We’re relying on government for help, for stimulus, and to create jobs. 

Government is horrible at all three of those things.  If you think the last 100 years aren't proof, then you haven't been paying attention.   

So why do we continue asking the government to intervene?  In my opinion, it’s because voters don’t want someone with a proven record of helping others, growing a business, or creating jobs making things that people really need.  They want someone who can empathize with them, and the more dysfunction in his background, the better. 

In fact, a solid record of wealth creation is now considered a resume stain. 

I’m running a different campaign.  I know how to make money and create prosperity for myself and for my customers.  I take raw materials, add value to them, create a desire for these new products that never existed before, and people love them.  They love them more than they money they’ve worked so hard for. 

I’m really, really good at doing this. 

My parents knew that if they stayed married, I would have a better chance of getting through college and being successful in my career. 

They knew that if they avoided alcohol and drugs, there would be a better chance for my success. 

They taught me to work for everything I received. 

They taught me that charity begins at home, not at the ballot box. 

My opponents want you to believe that because they once spent time in a trailer park, were single parents, had alcoholic parents, or were on welfare, they can feel your pain.  They believe that Victimhood is next to Sainthood. 

I disagree. 

I know which behaviors work, and which behaviors lead to failure.  We’re going to create a society that rewards the good behaviors even more, and refuses to subsidize poor decisions. 

This won’t be easy.  There is a cult of dependency, in which more and more of our children are raised by a single mother, and with Barack Obama as the stand-in for a father. 

So I’m not going to say I feel your pain.  I’m going to tell you about working 90 hours a week to create something.  I’m not going to create programs “for the children”.  I’m just going to stop dumping debt on them.  I’m not going to eliminate inequality.  In fact, I’m going to try to create even more of it, since rising tides raise every boat in the harbor. 

In short, I’m not a victim, never have been, and I don’t intend to be. 

All of those bad things that my opponents have been doing for the past 50 years to create more and more victims?  If elected, I will do none of those things. 

I’m candidate Joe Blow, I’m running for Texas House District 323, and I appreciate your support. 

If you had ten million dollars....

If I were an entrepreneurial type and were to start my own business and somehow wind up with ten million dollars in the bank....

Or if I were to inherit ten million dollars....

Or if I were to hit the blackjack tables in Vegas and clear ten million....

I like to think that, after taking care of my daughter at Texas A and freakin' M university, I'd give a chunk of money to The Reason Foundation. 

Here's what they do:

Reason Foundation advances a free society by developing, applying, and promoting libertarian principles, including individual liberty, free markets, and the rule of law.
Reason Foundation produces respected public policy research on a variety of issues and publishes the critically-acclaimed Reason magazine.
Together, our top-tier think tank and political and cultural magazine reach a diverse, influential audience, advancing the values of choice, individual freedom and limited government.

I believe that educating people about the Free Market and Small Government and Personal Freedom would do more good than anything else I could do with my money.  Freedom helps people, Big Government hurts people.   

I'd probably give another chunk to The Cato Institute. 

The Cato Institute is a public policy research organization — a think tank – dedicated to the principles of individual liberty, limited government, free markets and peace. Its scholars and analysts conduct independent, nonpartisan research on a wide range of policy issues.

Founded in 1977, Cato owes its name to Cato’s Letters, a series of essays published in 18th- century England that presented a vision of society free from excessive government power. Those essays inspired the architects of the American Revolution. And the simple, timeless principles of that revolution — individual liberty, limited government, and free markets – turn out to be even more powerful in today’s world of global markets and unprecedented access to information than Jefferson or Madison could have imagined. Social and economic freedom is not just the best policy for a free people, it is the indispensable framework for the future.

I know that, despite avoiding the place for the last 5 years or so, I'd give a chunk to the Agape Meal at Broadway Baptist Church.  If you want to give something to the poor folks in Fort Worth, Texas, Broadway BC is the way to go. 

The Agape Meal is our weekly banquet for the community. Broadway hosts about 175 guests each Thursday with volunteer table hosts and servers for each table of seven guests. The meal is served Thursdays at 6:00 p.m.; tickets are available starting at 4:00 p.m. in the Baptist Center Breezway (west side of church on May St.) until all gone.Ideally volunteers should arrive by 5:30 p.m. for duty assignments (host, server, etc.) and enter through the Main Entrance on St. Louis St.

Hit the link above to read about their clothing ministry, the Room At The Inn program, and everything else they've got going on.  Good people, those Moderate Baptists.... 

I would give a massive chunk to the Libertarian Party Of Texas.  Hell, if I could get just one of the Nixon - Obama Drug War victims out of jail through political means, it would be money well spent.

It would be cool to sponsor a M.D. in some politician-ravaged region through the Doctors Without Borders program. 

That's my list.  It's heavy on political education, mostly because I think political ignorance (which leads to Statism) has created more poverty, hunger and want than anything else on the planet. 

Think of your list.  Jot it down.  Seriously.  Jot it down.  If you've read through all the other stuff and don't write down your list, you've wasted your time. 

Now, go here.  

An Alternative To Obamacare

When Libertarians criticize and ridicule Obamacare, they often get slammed for not providing an alternative, or for not caring about the poor, or for not having a plan at all. 

For a moment, please disregard the obvious reality of human action creating a spontaneous order, and the like.  Let's assume that someone has to write down a plan for the benefit of the Secular Theists out there. 

Here's a plan....

Designate a three-square-mile area south of Fort Worth TX as a "Free Market Healthcare Zone".  (Back in the early 80's, China designated four cities as "Free Trade Zones" as an alternative to having citizens starve to death.  These zones were wildly successful, led to the present success of the Chinese economy and standard of living, and everyone is still scrambling to get in.) 

In this Free Market Healthcare Zone, there would be no government regulations, only those regulations agreed to by the caregivers themselves (doctors, nurses, hospitals and pharmaceutical providers), and their customers.  Since the American insurance industry now has more government regulations than a nuclear waste dump, let's make this three-square mile area an Insurance Free Zone also. 

If you walk into a doctor's office or hospital in the Free Market Healthcare Zone, the first thing they'll ask you to do is sign a waiver promising not to sue if things go badly.  (These agreements are currently illegal, BTW.)  Yes, there is a sacred belief in the Libertarian mindset that if someone does you harm, you are entitled to compensation.  But there is another, equally sacred belief about honoring contracts.  Please hang with me for a few more paragraphs....

The second thing you'll do is see a nurse.  I've never known a nurse who didn't believe she could do 90% of what an M.D. can do.  If the nurse thinks you need some penicillin, she'll sell you some penicillin.  Or give you a morphine shot.  Or give you five stitches.  It's up to the nurse.  She might even call in a doctor.  After giving you whatever treatment she thinks you need, you'll walk up to a desk and write a check for the full cost of the visit. 

You might want to go only to a doctor who has been to a traditional medical school, one who will  have a little diploma on the wall stating that he's graduated, and has Rick Perry's permission to be a doctor in Texas.  Or you might be content to go to a doctor who has only been to DeVry.  Your choice.  Your life, your rules.   

But what if someone, or some institution, consistently provides bad service with poor outcomes?  How would the FW TX FMHZ possibly deal with that problem?  It would be done in the same way that we deal with bad grocery stores, bad mechanics, Betamax cassettes, Yugos and failed TV sitcoms.  People would stop purchasing those services. 

Things you will not have to pay for:  1) the involvement of a doctor, unless necessary, and 2) keeping the doctor and nurses safe from lawyers, and 3) a trip to the pharmacist, and 4) insurance overhead, and 5) Barack Obama's fantasies and delusions of being relevant to your health and well-being. 

I have a good friend who is a Marine medic.  If I get cut by a piece of rusty sheet metal, I can get him to give me a tetanus shot and five stitches, as long as we're in the lawyer-free, insurance-free, regulation-free Obama-free Fort Worth, Texas, Free Market Healthcare Zone.  It's none of Barack Obama's business.  Or Rick Perry's.  Or the law firm of Screwem Goode and Harte's. 

The same rules apply if I want to consult with some other dude who doesn't know much about stitches, but he's watched all of the YouTube videos.  I belong to me, you belong to you, and it really is none of your business. 

At this point, no one in the United States can tell you what it costs to treat a broken arm.  It depends on your insurance.  Chances are, no one in the U.S. with a broken arm has personally paid for the treatment in the last ten years.  The check was written by an insurance company or by the government, or the care was provided for, at no charge, by a hospital that can't legally turn anyone away.  Prices will never, ever drop as long as the user isn't negotiating the payment for the service. 

Would this Free Market Healthcare Zone concept cut America's healthcare expenses in half if every city had one?  Yes. 

Would one day in the hospital go back to a level where it equaled about two day's pay?  I bet it would.

Would it force the American Medical Association to start training more doctors?  Yes.  (BTW, things are more expensive when they are scarce, and the AMA creates an artificial scarcity by only releasing so many doctors into the market every year.) 

Would the level of innovation in these Free Market Zones possibly triple that of the current system?  Let's see... Risk wouldn't be punished, regulations wouldn't get in the way, and creativity would actually be rewarded.  I believe that's a yes.  There might even find a cure for cancer in that environment.   

Would more poor people be able to afford healthcare?  You betcha. 

Would more and more doctors and nurses be able to go back to treating indigent patients at no charge?  I bet they would. 

This would be so beautiful, and IMHO, so easy.  Give up the right to sue.  Stop worrying about whether the doctor or nurse has a certification from Rick Perry.  Get the insurance bureaucracy out of the way. 

We could do it next year, but we're just too compassionate to give up the trial lawyers, the insurance execs, and the Department Of Health And Human Services.....

Matthew McConaughey is starring in a new movie that'll be released in December called "Dallas Buyers Club", about a guy with AIDS who battled the bureaucracy to create something of his own very similar to a Fort Worth Free Market Healthcare Zone.  All of it illegal, of course.  Can't wait to see it. 


 

Nudges that I would like to see

Nudges are the big thing this year.  Instead of legislating that people do the “right” thing (in the eyes of our bureaucratic overlords) people are now being nudged. 

"Nudge" is a verb meaning:

1.push or poke somebody: to push or poke somebody gently, usually with a motion of the elbow

2.move something: to move something gently, especially by pushing it slowly and carefully

 

Here’s the New American:

In an effort to “nudge” Americans to support bigger and more intrusive government while changing behavior to suit the whims of the political class in Washington, D.C., the Obama administration is following the lead of U.K. authorities by building what the White House refers to as a “Behavioral Insights Team.” According to an official document about the scheme aimed at recruiting personnel, the controversial team will be charged with prodding the U.S. population to think and behave in ways that officials deem best on everything from "sustainability" to health and education.

Whereas a traditional Nanny Stater might demand that we recyle, and penalize those who don’t, a nudger might hand out free in-home recycling containers, literature on how much we save by recycling, and prizes for kids who experiment with recycling at the Science Fair. 

 

 

 

Another example: some employers beg, cajole, threaten and scare employees into participating in the 401K retirement plan.  At Jukt Micronics, we take a different approach…..  We sign up everyone, and then send out a memo stating that if you don’t want to be on the 401K plan, you have to fill out some paperwork.  In this case the nudge is a slight hassle to do the wrong thing. 

Here are a few nudges that I would like to see in place, and a few wouldn’t even require major legislation, but they would move the citizenry toward liberty.  (Of course, anyone wanting to remain a slave to the 20500 D.C. zip code inhabitants should be allowed to remain in bondage.) 

 

1)      Federal Income tax should be paid by the individual, not withheld by the person who happens to be purchasing labor from that individual.  If we get to hold the money in our fat little hands before it is sent to Washington to blow up Syrians, imprison black pot smokers, and subsidize failing schools, we are more likely to vote for smaller government.  Employers who want to continue to act as Obama’s bag man should be allowed to do so.    

 

2)      Federal income taxes should be paid once a month.  I really like the idea of 60 million American households pulling out the checkbook on October the first and writing a check to the Treasury.  And then doing it again on November the first.   And December the first.   And January the first.  Every month, you gotta write Barack a check.  (There’s a reason that election day and tax day are currently as far apart as possible.)  If households have to write a check each month, they’ll see The Teleprompter Jesus’s “investments” in green /education /infrastructure bullshit in a new and exciting way.  They would be more likely to vote for a different ” investment”  broker.  Preferably one who would leave them and their money alone. 

 

3)      We are currently in a Two-Party Death Grip.  The thumbs are the Silly Party and the fingers belong to the Stupid Party.   There are people in the Stupid Party who would be willing to vote for a 3rd Party candidate (like Gary Johnson), but they’re afraid that it’ll just help the Silly Party win.  And vice-versa.  If we had a system of approval voting (hit the link), Sillies, Stupids, and Libertarian Sluggards could vote for multiple candidates in each race, and the highest vote total would win.  It would end the “wasted vote” fallacy.  Until we do something to break the Two-Party Death Grip, we’re going to get the government we deserve.  This would cost nothing, it could eliminate expensive primaries, and voters would have a real choice instead of the lesser of two lessers.   Imagine a ballot with Barack, Hillary, Newt, Mitt, Rand Paul, Gary Johnson, a Green, a Constitutionalist, and anyone else who could get signatures or ballot access.  I might vote for Gary and Rand and the Constitution guy.  Someone in favor of debt slavery and war might vote only for Obama and Newt.   The single candidate with the highest total wins. 

 

4)      Current legislation is usually presented to the public with a price tag, but none of these price tags have a due date.  Wouldn’t it be nice to see  “to be paid in full no later than 12-31-2013” on a spending bill?  Along with some language detailing where the money would come from?  Do you think that might nudge politicians and voters to be more realistic? 

 

5)      I’ve written before about how my employer, Jukt Micronics, has achieved an astonishing level of racial diversity by the simple expedient of wanting to make a whole lot of money.  The Federal government tries to accomplish this goal by threatening to sue your ass until it glows like a Japanese power plant.  We should nudge employers to hire a wider assortment of minorities by ending all anti-discrimination “protections” for two years.  I promise that employers would be more likely to hire blacks, browns, gays, women, old farts and the handicapped if they couldn’t be sued for replacing the employee if the relationship went bad.  Money is one of the greatest nudgers ever, and if you don't discriminate regarding things that really don't freakin' matter, you have a much better chance of making a pile o' money. 

That's all I got.  Go ye therefore and nudge. 

 

If Barack Obama Were To Enter My Department Store

It looks like it's going to be "All Trayvon, All The Time" through the November 2014 elections.  We're going to be overlooking the tragedy, and the easily preventable causes, of thousands of black kids murdered by other black kids every year (see previous post) and concentrate on the one black kid who was murdered by a Hispanic guy who was also partly black and part white.  I think. 

I'm so sick and freakin' tired of political hacks dividing us into Hutu's and Tutsi's.  But if you had Obama's track record to defend, you'd talk Trayvon too. 

Therefore, it's time to start ridiculing every statement that the President Of The United States makes on the subject of race.  He gave a shameful speech the other day, in which he identified with the black kid who had the Hispanic guy on the ground, pounding his head into the curb.  There was no indication that this shooting was a "hate crime", but that's the direction that Obama, going off-teleprompter, chose to take it. 

There are very few African-American men in this country who haven’t had the experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store. That includes me.

Oh, sweet mantle of victimhood !! 

Barack, if you think people were following you around before you were president, wait until you see what happens afterwards.....

The actor James Woods recently tweeted that they only reason they've ever followed you was to make sure you wouldn't raise their taxes. 

I can top that.....  If Barack Obama were to enter my department store, I'd have him followed to make sure he wasn't going to break my windows.  The "broken windows" parable of Frederic Bastiat really does appear to be his dominant economic misunderstanding. 

If Barack Obama were to enter my department store, I'd have him followed to make sure he didn't take what wasn't his.  I've never known a human who was so enthusiastic about taking money from Person A to give to Person B, but not before raking some off the top to give to his Washington flunkies in Group C. 

If Barack Obama were to enter my department store, yeah, I'd have him followed.  "You Didn't Build That" isn't that much of a leap from "You Don't Deserve That", followed closely by "I Know Some People Who Could Use That And They All Voted For Me".

If Barack Obama were to enter my department store, well, I gotta be honest.....  I'd ask him for a subsidy.  I'd point out my Green Energy Perpetual Motion Machines that are invisible to the naked eye, I'd show him the documentation that the entire store is heated and cooled by Compressed Green Fairy Flatulence, and I'd agree to change the name of my website to "The Greened Sepulchre".  And, like so many of his other green energy subsidy benefactors, I might get a buncha money that I could walk away with before letting the thing go bankrupt. 

If Barack Obama were to enter my department store, I'd ask him to simply buy it.  Then I'd watch him destroy it, the way we shamefully destroyed all those cars during the "Cash For Clunkers" debacle. 

If Barack Obama were to enter my department store, I wouldn't insist on a cash payment.  Hell, there's no telling how much more of the stuff was printed while his limo waited in the parking lot.  I wouldn't want a check.  All of his post-dated checks are going to be bouncing soon.  I would want his credit card.  Please dear God, I know that I'm a sinner, but let me get my hands on that damn fool's credit card.  Whatever he bought, I'd add $51,000.00 to the total charge.  That's the additional amount that he's put on mine. 

The Ultimate Libertarian Sex Fantasy !!!

This is the ultimate Libertarian sex fantasy, compliments of the great Daniel J. Mitchell of the International Liberty website:

On the way home (an extreme libertarian) stopped at the gas station where a drop-dead gorgeous blonde was filling up her car at the next pump.

She looked at the ammo in the back of his pickup truck and said in a very sexy voice, “I’m a big believer in barter. Would you be interested in trading sex for ammo?”

He thought a few seconds and asked, “What kinda ammo ya got?”

What A Wonderful World

One of the first things taught in Libertarianism 101 is that "Utopia Is Not An Option". 

Statists often argue that if Farm Bill 2987234-234E doesn't pass, then what would Libertarians do about the kid with Leukemia whose father was diagnosed with Aids after the plague of locusts destroyed the farm because a family of raccoons chewed threw the electric fence, the very electric fence that Farm Bill 2987234-234E would provide along with the cheese subsidy.  What would you Libertarians do about that if you dared touch the funding for Farm Bill 2987234-234E?? 

This reasoning assumes that if John Boehner/Nancy Pelosi didn't take care of the kid with leukemia, no one else would either.  The private sector and charities would step in.  They did it in the past and they could do it again.  Absence of government subsidies made medicine cheaper and doctors less risk-averse.  It wasn't Utopia then, but it's not Utopia now, and it won't be Utopia (Lord hasten the day) in a more Libertarian future. 

But just imagine with me.....

We could end the Drug War.  The Drug Lords would go belly-up.  People could move freely across the Rio Grande.  Texans hopping down to Mexico would be like hopping up to Oklahoma.  Would it be a Utopia?  No.  Some people might become addicts who wouldn't ordinarily become addicted.  But they would probably be more likely to get treatment.  Hundreds of thousands of people wouldn't be in jail.  They recently legalized everything in Portugal, and addiction rates went down!!   One million government jailer/narc/torturer/DEA jobs wouldn't be necessary.  Barack Obama, George W. Bush, John Kerry, Al Gore, and Bill Clinton could all smoke weed openly, the way they did when they were younger.  Another 40,000 Mexican bystanders wouldn't die in the violence.  It wouldn't be a Utopia, but it would be better than the current disaster. 

We could End The Freakin' Federal Reserve.  A dollar saved wouldn't mean 50 cents lost.  Ben Bernanke wouldn't be allowed to do any more counterfeiting.  Would the absence of a Federal Reserve mean that we'd be at the mercy of the ups and downs of the business cycle?  (Which was part of the rationale for The Fed's creation - LOL.)  Yes, we might see some weirdness because of the ups and downs of the business cycle.  It wouldn't be a Utopia.  But I'd bet my bottom dollar that it would be less screwed up than what we have now. 

I've got a friend named Roger who is going to vote for Obama because of Obama's newly discovered support of gay marriage (among other reasons).  Never mind the total cynicism of Obama's new position on this.  The bigger question is what the hell is the government doing in the marriage business anyway?  If it matters to you who gets elected president, then your government is too big.  Would a smaller government be a Utopia?  Heck no.  But it would be infinitely better than the plague of busybodies currently trying to regulate your diet, health, safety, marriage, drug use, alcohol consumption hours, payroll and gun cabinet. 

If you're a taxpayer, your share of the national debt is $80,000.00.  Your share of the unfunded liabilities is a number so staggering that no one can calculate it properly.  Somewhere around 350K to 500K.  This is a lot of money, and we'll never, ever pay it off.  Imagine that it was your brother-in-law who got you into this much debt, mostly for what he considered to be worthwhile causes.  You'd kill him.  Every serious investor knows we're playing a shell game.  We keep acting as if the problem will go away.  When it crashes, it's going to be horrible.  Absolutely horrible.  Civil unrest, hungry people, and a total breakdown of society. 

I haven't mentioned the money we're spending killing women and children in Pakistan, and how we're going to pay a price for that.  There are some 15-year-old boys in Pakistan watching Obama's drones fly over, and they're plotting their revenge.  On you. 

The alternative would't be a Utopia.  There will be problems. 

But it would be so much better. 

What I want

Here's what I want, and why I put in a good number of hours with the Libertarian Party each week trying to reach these goals

1)  I don't want my tax dollars going toward killing people, exceptions being a declared war on another country. 

2)  I want the U.S. military to defend the U.S.'s borders and not those of Korea, Japan, Germany or anyone else.  Letting Hillary fly all over the place seeking out monsters to destroy is not a value-added activity. 

3)  I want to end the War On Drugs.  I don't want to leave the Mexican or Afghan Drug Lords with a monopoly on anything.   

4)  I want to end regulations and bureaucracies that give privileges and tax breaks for approved behavior.  i.e.- "I propose a tax break of 4% for small businesses who employ...."  or "we will protect American jobs by imposing a tariff of...." 

5)  I want to get  Barack Obama and John Boehner and Harry Reid and Rick Perry out of the marriage business. 

6)  I want to legally bet large sums of money on Dallas Cowboys opponents.  And I want to place those bets in Fort Worth, TX without worrying about the police intervening. 

7)  I want to remove all price ceilings, price floors, subsidies, set-asides, and quotas in the purchase of merchandise and labor.  However, those who like the idea of Barack Obama and John Boehner and Harry Reid and Rick Perry getting up in their bidness should be allowed to pay as much as they want. 

8)  If I want to allow ex-Marine medic Ray Lewis to stitch up my arm, I should be allowed to do so.  I trust Ray Lewis.  However, those who like the idea of doctors approved by Barack Obama and John Boehner and Harry Reid and Rick Perry should be allowed to pay more. 

9)  I want a competitor to the U.S. dollar.  If Starbucks agrees to accept a currency printed by Wal-Mart, that's nobody's business but mine and Starbucks'.  (Prediction:  In five years, Coke machines will accept $5 and $10 U.S. dollar bills.  American paper won't be worth.....paper.) 

10)  I ewant to end asset-forfeiture laws. 

11) Before I die, I want to attend a midnight screening double-feature screening of Reefer Madness and Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. 

12)  Since I am pro-choice, I want tax-paying parents to have a choice between public and private education. 

13)  Ok, this one is complicated.  Feel free to skip it if you havne't already skipped all my other caffeine-fueld crap....   I want to briefly exist in an alternative universe where ObamaCare becomes the law of the land, exactly as written.  I want ObamaCare's authors to get everything they wanted.  Especially the part where the penalty for no insurance is much, much cheaper than insurance.  And the part that needs 4,000 more IRS Agents.  And the part that calls itself "Affordable".  I want to take notes in this alternative universe for ten years and then come back to this universe with a full report. 

14)  It would be nice if everyone who advocates School Prayer, Ten Commandments In The Courtroom, etc., to spend just a little time reading about The Dark Ages. 

15)  I would like for the Department Of Transportation's CSA 2010 program to be replaced by two sentences:  "If your vehicle harms someone else, you must compensate them for the damages, the inconvenience, and the loss of future earnings.  Driver and vehicle standards are now enforced by 3rd party insurers, and you must have insurance to drive on our roads." 

That's all I want. 
If I don't get what I want, I'm going to strangle these dachshund puppies. 

Penn Jillette needs to stop examining my fantasies

Penn Jillette points out the obvious about Barack Obama's War On Drugs:

What troubles me about this... I think it's beyond hypocrisy. I think it's something to do with class. A lot of people have accused Obama of class warfare, but in the wrong direction. I believe this is Obama chortling with Jimmy Fallon about lower class people. Do we believe, even for a second, that if Obama had been busted for marijuana -- under the laws that he condones -- would his life have been better? If Obama had been caught with the marijuana that he says he uses, and 'maybe a little blow'... if he had been busted under his laws, he would have done hard f*cking time. And if he had done time in prison, time in federal prison, time for his 'weed' and 'a little blow,' he would not be President of the United States of America. He would not have gone to his fancy-a** college, he would not have sold books that sold millions and millions of copies and made millions and millions of dollars, he would not have a beautiful, smart wife, he would not have a great job. He would have been in f*cking prison, and it's not a god damn joke. People who smoke marijuana must be set free. It is insane to lock people up.

Well, yeah, but let me ask you a hypothetical question.....  Knowing what you know now, if you could go back in time and catch Obama smoking weed and inhaling Booger Sugar, would you see to it that he got busted?  Think of the lives saved overseas, the benefits to the economy, no Cash For Clunkers, and on and on and on.....
We can always dream. 

Here's Jillette's interview:

Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry on which way to walk

Here are some recent Tweets from Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry (who I first heard perfom in 1977, BTW.  Memphis, Tennessee.  Great show.) 

@AdmiralPerry
All the kids I talk to are into Ron Paul . They like his voting record. He's not a smiling grinning talking head spewing party BS.


@AdmiralPerry
Obama hasn't done anything close to what he promised he'd do.didn't get my vote and I got lotta grief. Well,my votes for Ron Paul.


@AdmiralPerry
Media is trying to crush Paul. It's so transparent. They will smear himevery chance.beware! Get your news from lot of different sources.

Here's what I hope happens....

I hope Ron Paul comes in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd in New Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida, and then maybe Nevada. 
Then I hope that a truly horrific Statist defeats him for the Republicrat nomination.  Romney, Gingrich, or Santorum.  Flip a coin for the BarackLite of your choice. 

Then I hope Paul comes back into the Libertarian Party fold to run as Veep or Prez with Gary Johnson, having shed any requirements to cooperate with the Demoblican establishment. 

Then we could give voters a choice between true change and more of the same.  Google some timelines of the last 50 years.  Look at government spending, debt, inflation, military spending and wars, or any other horrific metric you can think of.  Has it mattered which "party" was in charge? 

Here's Joe Perry and Aerosmith from the year I first heard them, 1977:



The voice distortion/phase shifter box that Perry is using in this vid was a big deal at the time.  Peter Frampton used one and sold a jillion records, so everyone else felt like they had to do the same.