CHOOSING WEED POLICY OVER CYBER SECURITY

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    Steve Sack / Minneapolis Star-Tribune

    A cyber attack altered your holiday movie choices last year. Sony Pictures was the victim of a massive security breach. Personal emails were revealed, films pirated and employee data leaked. The corporation immediately kowtowed to the terrorists, rumored to be North Korean-sponsored, killing the theatrical release of the third in a trilogy of Seth Rogan and James Franco bromance movies called, The Interview.

    It was terrorism. And it was terrifying. A major motion picture studio had just been brought to its knees groveling for whomever they upset not to do any further damage.

    The U.S. has the largest army in the world. We outspend the top 10 militaries in the world combined. We outspend China with the second largest military expenditure by more than three times. Our military budget hovers around $650 billion a year. Every year. We are armed! We are ready! We are fighting! Yet companies on our shores and our citizens are totally vulnerable—sitting ducks waiting for the next hacker to take us down. Anyone at any time can take our personal information and wreak havoc.

    “No foreign nation, no hacker, should be able to shut down our networks, steal our trade secrets, or invade the privacy of American families, especially our kids,” said President Obama in his annual State of the Union address. “We are making sure our government integrates intelligence to combat cyber threats, just as we have done to combat terrorism.”

    So here’s a problem with our current situation: The FBI needs people who know the computers and all. And some of these people who are knowledgeable in this cyber hacking stuff, who could maybe thwart another attack promising to “keep our kids safe”—not all of them but some—like to smoke pot.

    This came up last year when FBI director James Comey told an audience at the White Collar Crime Institute conference that the agency was having trouble finding computer crime experts who didn’t smoke marijuana. “I have to hire a great workforce to compete with those cyber criminals and some of those kids want to smoke weed on the way to the interview,” Comey said.

    He said he was “grappling” with loosening the current requirement that to even be eligible to work at the FBI you must not have smoked pot in the last three years.

    Then anti-drug Senator Jeff Sessions clutched his pearls and admonished Comey during a Judiciary Committee following those comments. “I am absolutely dead-set against using marijuana,” then clarified Comey. “I did not say that I am going to change that ban.” And according to the FBI’s website, as of this writing, the ban hasn’t changed.

    After September 11th, the military was only able to translate at three-quarters capacity. They were unimaginably desperate for Arabic speakers while discharging linguists for being (wait for it) gay. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell—#headdesk. So after the largest terrorist attack in our nation’s history, when Americans were willing to give up any civil right for the promise of safety, we wouldn’t let openly gay translators in the military? Basically. Even in the throes of hysteria and grief, when we came together as one nation standing resilient—we still managed to marginalize homosexuals, declining their expertise and opting for a gap in competent personnel instead. Yes, we did.

    And now we repeat a dark, self-defeating and completely stupid policy when it comes to personal drug use.

    Are we a nation that prioritizes security and stability in our systems or do we want to just finger wag at sinners?

    It’s puritanical folly that the FBI doesn’t just consider candidates who want to serve their country and are good at what they do; they must also be candidates for canonization.

    Love it or hate it, the war against pot has been lost. It’s mostly decriminalized and now in four state people can buy it without even claiming it’s medicine. It’s taxed and regulated in those states. It’s out in the open. Americans can now admit to smoking marijuana for fun, just like they can drink alcohol for fun. They just can’t work at the FBI (among many other employers).

    The irony is Seth Rogan and James Franco movies would have no audience whatsoever if not for the consumption of marijuana. So shouldn’t the people who could protect their interests be allowed to toke if they choose?

    Yes.

    —–

    © Copyright 2015 TinaDupuy.com, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.

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    19 COMMENTS

      • 1) Being Open Minded: To a liberal, this has nothing at all to do with seriously considering other people’s ideas. To the contrary, liberals define being “open-minded” as agreeing with them. What could be more close-minded than assuming that not only are you right, but that you don’t even need to consider another viewpoint because anyone who disagrees must be evil?

        2) Racism: Liberals start with the presumption that only white people who don’t belong to the Democratic Party can be racist. So, for example, even if Jeremiah Wright can make it clear that he hates white people because of their skin color or if liberals take an explicitly racist political position, like suggesting that black people are too stupid and incompetent to get identification to vote, they can’t be racist. White Republicans, on the other hand, are generally assumed to be racist by default, no matter how much evidence there is to the contrary.

        3) Fairness: In all fairness, I must admit that fairness is an arbitrary concept. So, you could make the argument that no one could get “fairness” wrong. Still, liberals do because they don’t make any effort to actually “be fair.” As a practical matter, liberals define “fairness” as taking as much as possible from people who they don’t think are going to vote for them and giving it to people who may vote for them in return for their ill gotten largesse. Certainly conservatives, libertarians, and moderates might disagree about how much money to take from the wealthy to redistribute to the poor or how to help the disadvantaged, but the only liberal answer to the question, “How much is enough?” is “more.”

        4) Greed: To a liberal, believing that you pay too much in taxes or even opposing paying more in taxes is greedy. In actuality, wanting to loot as much money as possible that someone else has earned to use for your own purposes, which is what liberals do, is a much better example of greed.

        5) Hate: Liberals often define simple disagreement with them on issues like gay marriage, tax rates, or abortion as hatred. No matter how well a position is explained, or the logical underpinnings behind it, it’s chalked up to hate. Meanwhile, the angriest, most vicious, most hateful people in all of politics are liberals railing against what they say is “hatred.” This irony is completely lost on the Left.

        6) Investment: Actual investments involve putting money or resources into a project in hopes that they will appreciate in value. Liberals skip the second half of that equation. To them, an “investment” is taking someone else’s tax dollars and putting it into a project that liberals approve of and whether a profit is made or lost is so irrelevant that they typically don’t even bother to measure the results.

        7) Charity: Contributing your own money or time to a good cause is charity. Liberals view themselves as charitable if they take someone else’s tax dollars and give it away to people they hope will vote for them in return. At a minimum, they should at least credit the taxpayers who paid for the money they gave away for the charity, although it’s not really charity if it’s involuntary. Of course, there’s nothing charitable about asking someone else to sacrifice for your gain, which could actually be better described as selfish.

        8) Patriotism: Liberals love America the way a wife beater loves his spouse. That’s why they’re always beating up the country “for its own good.” Doesn’t the country understand that liberals have to hit it in the mouth because they LOVE IT SO MUCH?!?!? Of course, the conventional definition of patriotism, which is loving your country and wishing it well, isn’t one that liberals can wrap their heads around.

        9) Tolerance: In a free, open, and pluralistic society, there are all sorts of behaviors that we may have to tolerate, even though we don’t approve of those activities. Liberals don’t get this distinction. For one thing, they don’t understand the difference between tolerance and acceptance. They also don’t extend any of the tolerance they’re agitating for to people who disagree with them. Liberals silence people who disagree with them at every opportunity which is, dare we say it, an extremely intolerant way to behave.

        10) Diversity: What liberals mean by “diversity” is that they want a broad range of people from different races, colors, and creeds who have identical political views. A black or Hispanic conservative doesn’t contribute to “diversity” in liberal eyes because he actually has diverse views. Incredible role models for women like Sarah Palin can’t be feminists to liberals because she doesn’t share the same liberal beliefs as sexist pigs like Anthony Weiner and Bill Maher. How can you have any meaningful “diversity” when everyone has to think the same way?

        All of these points are 100% accurate, and the tragic irony is that they are COMPLETELY lost on the left.

        Basically liberals are communist and when a country becomes communist the real communist consider liberals the greatest threat. Their beloved buddies would not hesitate to send them to the gulags.

        Just Sayin 🙂

        • “All of these points are 100% accurate, …”. No 1cb, the tragic irony is that you honestly believe the cowpile you just threw into the face of all who read it. What a sad, ignorant misrepresentation of an ideology you despise.

    3. Can anybody still say that mary jane is not addictive? Of course it is, because some people just cannot stop smoking it, no matter what it cost them. Look at the college and Pro athletes who have to smoke it even though it cost them their careers and to be able to play with their teams in bowl games, and play off games. We need to crank up the war on drugs. Spends trillions of dollars on it. Build massive prisons of such a size as to be able to hold hundreds of thousands. Now if we cut off all welfare and put that money to fight drugs and crime………..

      • John ,marijuana is not anymore addictive then a cup of coffee , sure I’ve drank a couple cups of coffee everyday for the past 40 yrs ,but I still choose to drink coffee like I choose whether to smoke or not smoke weed…

      • Aren’t you the person whose morality is such that you would do away with Tropicana? Yet, the idea of letting innocents starve because of the activities of a small minority of their parents doesn’t offend your morality?

        • Yes Laura it’s me ,thank you for remembering I have morals lol
          spouses and children do w/o food ,clothing and many things when the bread winner of the family gambles his paycheck at a casino whether boat or on land
          all my children are grown up and left the coop,when they were kids I was completely sober
          and no I don’t use it or alcohol and drive

          • Mine was a reply to John, who informed us that his Christian morality made him want Tropicana gone. He is the same person who had a post that threatened Connie Robinson taken down. I was pointing out how oddly un-Christian he is. He voices a death-wish for a woman who has worked hard to serve her community and he wants to do away with any way of feeding those who are innocent, yet he’s a “Christian.”

    4. I remember seeing the old ads for cigarettes touting the health benefits of smoking. It reminds me of current arguments for legalization of pot and the assinine cartoon printed in today’s CCO.

      Somehow the chemicals from marijuana smoke are less toxic than the chemicals from tobacco smoke?????!!?? That’s simply illogical

      I don’t care if we legalize weed or not. Tax it. Free up some jail space. Sounds ok to me. Society had better save some of that money back for long term health care for regular pot usersnn

      But dot try to sell me on the health benefits of smoking weed. Its every bit as harmful as cigarettes. It just adds the intoxication to the mix.

      • Tobacco companies add chemicals to tobacco , if I grew my own weed without any added chemicals it would be the safer of the 2 products … Weed is also safer then drinking alcoholic beverages ,I know this for a fact cause the 2 legal products almost killed me years ago.

        • Pharmaceutical companies also synthesize THC.

          And you’re all right. I suppose the majority of those folks in Colorado using their recreational pot are ingesting cannibis by safer delivery methods. I’m sure they are worried that my irrational fear that putting smoke (of any kind into your lungs) could be an irritant that may increase the risk of cancer. So they avoid inhaling healthy pot smoke.

          I guess it doesn’t really matter because Eviltaxpayer tells us that marijuana smoke is safe! Ha ha ha. I’m a F$&@ING MORON to think that the vast majority of users actually smoke the stuff and that the smoke causes similar health problems as tobacco.

          I’ll get off of here and go try to learn something. Cause I guesss I’m the idiot here.

          • Heavy pot smokers may smoke 4/5 joints a day while heavy tobacco smokers may smoke 50/60 cigarettes a day
            Your not a idiot my friend , you just have your own opinion like myself

      • Mr Davis, IMHO medical marijuana could be prescribed to many patients as an alternative to opiates
        marijuana does not need to be smoked nowadays ,they can put it in pill form or even a drink . But you can form your own opinion too.

    5. That a person cannot control himself to forego using an illegal drug a couple of weeks prior to an interview for a great job is proof in itself of that drug’s addiction. I can withhold coffee and alcohol for weeks on end without a detrimental effect on myself, but potheads can’t or they would when they needed to.

      • Yes I can agree with you on that to a large extent, but I know that the 2 legal products damn near killed 10 yrs ago ,

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