Been a while

Took a break from posting as I needed to recenter. It's been a hot minute thanks to life and generally having my shelf finally shatter from all the falsity being piled on it. I walked away from the church the day I was told it was better to be homeless than to move in with my fiance and his mother.

That was the day I decided fuck this, I'm living my life. But that's not good for the church. It's very very bad as any member who leaves is not only cash lost, but someone who has insider info that can make the church look bad.

So now they are stalking me.... Lovely.

From the lips of babes

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a45719/gay-mormon-community/

Beating a Dead Horse: The War on Drugs

The war on drugs has always been a hot button issue in the United States. The problem is, one cannot fight a war on inanimate objects. One can only fight a war on people. The war on drugs isn't about drugs, it's a war on the addicts rather than the real issue, the manufactures and the dealers. William F. Buckley wrote a paper declaring the war on drugs dead, this paper will discuss his logic and options that might be viable if the war on drugs is indeed dead.

            In the 1970s, President Nixon declared a war on drugs. This wasn't a violent war in the traditional sense of the word, but a criminal war. He made federal drug control agencies larger and have more power in order to squash the rising drug using population (drugpolicy.org, 2015).  A year later, the very commission Nixon put in place recommended weed was made legal for personal use (drugpolicy.org, 2015). Nixon of course ignored this recommendation and chose to push forward banning all of what is now considered illegal drugs (drugpolicy.org, 2015). The view on personal use weed went back and forth like a pendulum until the 1980s (drugpolicy.org, 2015). By the 1980s and 1990s incarceration for drug charges went from 50,000 to over 400 thousand by 1997 (drugpolicy.org, 2015). This number is the equivalent of a small city’s worth of people serving time for some kind of nonviolent drug charge ranging from possession for personal use to manufacturing of the drugs themselves.

            William F. Buckley wrote a paper in the 1990 declaring the war on drugs dead. This author whole-heartedly agrees with him. Per Buckley’s paper, the US has wasted over 100 billion dollars a year in tax payer money to punish those who have the mental illness that is addiction and those who seek to use that illness against them.  Buckley cites money as a reason to legalize drugs, that if the state were to control the drugs and charge for them, it would put the US into the black as opposed to wasting so much money (Buckley). Buckley goes on further to talk about how crime rates have gone up over 400 percent since the grand war on drugs has started. The article further speaks of legalizing the sale of drugs, which this author disagrees with, citing that the country could make far more money that what it costs to prosecute and lock up those who are caught with only enough drugs to get themselves high (Buckley).

            Instead of keeping the possession of personal use levels illegal, the US should take a page from other first world countries and legalize possession for personal use amounts legal and instead offer options to treat the addiction which is the root of the problem. This would of course require other safety nets to be in place for those fresh from recovery. They would need jobs, housing, food, medical care, and of course steady mental and social support. Those who receive this support would be expected to pay the government back by participating in drug prevention programs and by paying their share of taxes based upon their tax brackets. The Portugal made possession of personal amounts of drugs legal in 2001 and instead started to treat the root of the problem, the addiction itself (Kain, 2011). For such a small country that equated roughly 100 thousand people nationwide (Kain, 2011). If the US were to do that same thing and get the same results that would mean an estimated 200 thousand people would become clean and sober over the course of ten years.

            The US has been fighting a losing war since 1971 thanks to the knee jerk reaction of the political sphere to people experimenting with drugs of various types. This has cost taxpayers more than t it would to treat the problem as a mental illness instead of a criminal one. While drug manufactures, distributors, and sellers should still face the fullest extent of the law, it does no one anyone good, but those who own for profit prisons, to keep those who are addicted to drugs going through the revolving door that is the current penal system. We should instead legalize possession of personal use amounts and offer to treat each person for their addiction and offer to help them get back onto their feet so that they might become productive members of society and pay back into the very system that helped to save their lives.

References

A Brief History of the Drug War. (n.d.). Retrieved May 22, 2015, from http://www.drugpolicy.org/new-solutions-drug-policy/brief-history-drug-war

Buckley, W. (n.d.). The War on Drugs is Lost. Retrieved May 22, 2015, from http://web.archive.org/web/20121116132827id_/http://old.nationalreview.com/12feb96/drug.html

Kain, E. (2011, July 5). Ten Years After Decriminalization, Drug Abuse Down by Half in Portugal. Retrieved May 22, 2015, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2011/07/05/ten-years-after-decriminalization-drug-abuse-down-by-half-in-portugal/

This won the internet for the day!

http://www.upworthy.com/she-grew-up-mormon-and-carried-a-big-secret-for-most-of-her-life?c=ufb1

I'm done...

I hate Christmas, I really do. There isn't anything happy about a season where people have to pretend to be generous while actually being greedy. Give a 'great' present and next year the recipient will feel compelled to get you a better one. There is no real generosity in Christmas anymore, it's all fake. Even the people who go nuts on facebook with all the memes of "He's the reason for the season" These are the same people who spend the rest of the year only posting silly photos or cats. Nothing real there either. The supposed Christmas mass is nothing more then a farce as well. Going to church on Easter and Christmas isn't going to save one's soul. It's only a way make yourself feel better.

There is no joy left in the holiday. Instead people trudge around, struggling to buy the ever more expensive gifts for spoiled children who can't truly appreciate the things being bought for them since the parents are so readily willing to pull out their credit cards to replace it with the next biggest thing a year later.

The Christmas season is dead. Real and truly dead, now it's all about one upping each other, making money, and shopping for meaningless trivial crap.

Christmas holidays....

Christmas was a blast! I got awesome things! I got this beautiful watch and sweater from the BFs mom, a wonderful skein of yarn from his sister and bro in law, a great dvd from the BF, and a book from his mum again! It was great! I may have only gotten a few gifts but I loved them all and the thought that was put into them. I did the same, only I got everyone a single gift. Except the BF and his nephews. I got the boys a gift to share and the BF's present had little goodies in it. In his body pillow, there was chocolate and a dvd for him to watch lol. Over all Christmas was great! Hope all my readers had a great one as well.

Just a note, I would really love to hear from the people who have read my blog thus far. It would really mean a lot to me if someone were to tell me what they thought of my words as they come out.

Toodles!

The weekend

Things were...interesting this weekend. I offered to watch the BF's nephews, believing it was going to be only for the after noon, imagine my surprise when I find out his sis and her husband were going to be gone all night and I would have the kiddos that long >.< Now, don't take this wrong, if she had asked, I would have said yes, but it did tick me off that she assumed I would be willing. I did wind up watching the kiddos all night and thankfully the BF came over to his mum's after work. Like a respectful man, he slept on the couch, holding guard, while I slept in the spare room and the kiddos slept in their grandma's bed. I did enjoy it and I was glad the BF called his sis and made it clear she has to ask from now on if I'll watch the kiddos over night and not just assume I will.

I am looking forward to X-mas this year. This will be the first year where I think I'll actually feel welcome in a house since before my grandma died. The last few years, each Christmas, no matter where I go or who I am with, even if it's my own family, I've felt like an outsider. I hope to eventually have a holiday where I don't feel like I'm just along for the ride.