The Daily Dose/February 7, 2019
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off : El Chapo and supply and demand.
The federal case of Mexican drug dealer Joaquin Guzman Loera has been in the hands of the jury this week after a three-month trial. The entrepreneur known as El Chapo stands accused of murder, money laundering, racketeering and smuggling tons of weed and cocaine into the US.
Now, we don’t approve murder or money laundering any more than you do, but regarding the drug smuggling charges:
So what?
Good gravy, El Chapo and his cohorts were smuggling tons of weed and cocaine into the United States because there was, is, a demand for tons of weed and cocaine in the United States. His arrest didn’t change the demand here in America either, it merely changed who makes the attendant fortune off of it.
The jury appears to be doing its work with no small amount of diligence as already there have been numerous requests to review both evidence and testimony. Their work is not easy, it took the judge three hours to read their instructions and there are 53 decisions – guilty/not guilty, proved/not proved, ‘yes/no – to make.
What has struck us throughout this entire imbroglio is how if drugs were legal those jurors would have been doing something else with their time the past three months. Now, you may not particularly want to do drugs – good for you. I don’t either – but good heavens, if drugs are legal El Chapo goes from being an international arch-criminal to a vendor merely looking to move some product.
America has taken a flier on heeding the lessons of Prohibition: namely that morality laws don’t work. People who choose to do things that are prohibited will merely ignore such laws and go about their business; no drug law prevents anyone who really wants to – except maybe a Lutheran – from doing drugs.
It’s time for the United States to legalize drugs and treat drug use as health problem and not a crime.
Today At The Site
The Diary of a Nobody: The Haliburton crew is back for early morning coffee at the hotel, and it could be Commander Sparrow again at the Legion post. Today’s Diary.
The Haliburton crew was in early for morning muster and I had coffee for them, of course, tho there weren’t many takers…I am not generally too nosy, but I did listen to their briefing…They were urged to use their downtime constructively, doing things like housekeeping and maintenance, like “topping off greasers”…I don’t know what that means, either, but it sounded like something useful to do during an idle hour or two.
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On This Date
In 1979 – Pluto, then enjoying full planetary status, moves inside the orbit of Neptune for the first time since either planet was discovered. Pluto would remain the eighth planet from the sun for 20 years and four days, until February 11, 1999. Due to the fact the planets travel on separate planes and never actually cross the same point in space, there is never any danger of Pluto and Neptune colliding.
In 1976 – Darryl Sittler of the Toronto Maple Leafs establishes a new NHL record with 10 points as the Maple Leafs defeat the Boston Bruins 11-4. Sittler had six goals and four assists, breaking the record of eight that had been set by Maurice Richard (1944) and Bert Olmstead (1954), both of the Montreal Canadiens. The record still stands.
In 1970 – The Dutch group Shocking Blue is at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for its only week with Venus. The song also went to #1 in Canada, Australia, Belgium, France, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Switzerland and Spain, but only went to #3 in their native Holland and Shocking Blue remains one of the few groups whose only US Top 40 hit went to #1. Venus would return to the Hot 100 in 1986 when Bananarama also took it to #1.
Quotebook
Young man, why wilt though haste so fast? Thy vessel sails the open sea, and the harbor to which I am steering thee is still far off.
Ovid
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
George Jones has the most entries on Billboard’s country chart with 168.
Today’s Stumper
When will Pluto next move inside of Neptune’s orbit? –Answer next time!
