POT GETS SMOKED
Over the past few years, a handful of extremely wealthy eccentrics, like George Soros, in league with a handful of professional marijuana enthusiasts, like Keith Stroup and the other arrested adolescents at NORML, have quietly managed to pass a series of local and statewide initiatives designed to legitimize their favorite plant. In nearly every case, these pro-pot campaigns have come disguised as mercy: a plea that “medicinal” marijuana be made available to terminally ill people. Actual doctors say actual marijuana isn’t actually good for you, especially if you’re already sick. But never mind.
This year the cannabis “movement” finally abandoned its “medicinal” pretense–at least in certain key elections–and candidly campaigned for the decriminalization of dope-smoking generally. The Scrapbook is pleased to applaud Mr. Stroup et al. for their belated honesty. The Scrapbook is also pleased to report that they’ve just been soundly whipped.
A statewide initiative in Arizona would have reduced most marijuana offenses to civil, rather than criminal, violations, subject only to a fine. The measure was defeated by a 14-percentage-point margin. Nevada’s “Question 9” would have eliminated every penalty for possession of under three ounces of marijuana, and would have required state officials to establish a regulatory system for open commercial sales of the stuff. “Question 9” was defeated by a 22-percentage-point margin. And Ohio’s “Initiative 1,” under which prison terms for “non-violent” drug offenses would cease to exist–that plan got trounced by a full 35 percentage points.
Each of these ballot measures was lavishly funded; “Question 9” advocates outspent their Nevada opponents 20 to1. But each, nevertheless, produced a strong and successful grass-roots resistance, led, for the most part, by local law enforcement officials and parents’ groups.
The marijuana lobby is blaming its crushing defeats on Bush administration drug czar John Walters, a longtime friend of The Scrapbook’s. Walters does indeed deserve some of the credit: He made a total of four brief trips to these three states, and spoke against the reefer referenda each time–for which modest effort his enemies are now threatening, ludicrously, to sue the federal government. Still, it must be said: Our pal John is not the central reason why NORML’s fondest wishes have suddenly vaporized. Turns out, when they think about it directly, most people quickly figure out that legalized marijuana is a dumb idea.
THE ISSUE THAT DARE NOT SPEAK ITS NAME
Think abortion wasn’t a salient issue in the elections last week? Most news coverage, and nearly every politician’s speech, was silent on the subject throughout the campaign, so you’re forgiven for overlooking the phenomenon. Nevertheless, it now seems clear: Abortion was a big deal. Exit polls conducted for Fox News Channel suggest that being pro-life was a key advantage to Senate candidates in several close races.
For example: In Missouri, where pro-choice incumbent Jean Carnahan was up against pro-life Republican Jim Talent, respondents were offered a range of options and asked to choose the one issue that had mattered most to them while deciding whom to select as senator. A small plurality of Missourians (21 percent) identified the economy as most important, but next on the list (at 17 percent) was abortion. Among these latter voters, the ultimately victorious Talent beat Carnahan by a more than four to one margin.
Incidentally, NARAL, the nation’s leading abortion lobby, lost 18 of its 19 officially designated key elections.
WHY WE LIKE DENNIS MILLER
Next time somebody you know starts complaining about ubiquitous knee-jerk liberalism and all-around imbecility in the entertainment industry, remind him that sweeping generalizations are usually wrong. . . .
Okay, don’t do that. But definitely show your friend the following excerpts from comedian Dennis Miller’s most recent appearance on Jay Leno’s “Tonight Show.” Nothing knee-jerk or imbecilic about it.
LENO: I’m fascinated to hear your take on the election. Because you always have a little different look at things than most Hollywood people.
MILLER: I want to congratulate my president. I think he had a great day. I think George Bush is a good man. [Applause.]
LENO: Yeah? He did a fine job.
MILLER: I think, I think he’s a good man and I think he’s done a fine job in these last two years. I don’t think he’s a great man but I would prefer that our president would be a good man, because great men tend to believe they’re great men and then they end up not being great men anymore. I like Bush because he seems like a regular decent guy. . . . But uh, I think the thing I like most about him is that he’s not Clinton. I just think he’s a decent guy. I mean, you know [applause]–I’m telling ya when I watch those, the videotape of the retarded kids playing tee-ball on the White House lawn, on the field that he built for them.
LENO: Yeah.
MILLER: And I juxtapose it with Clinton and the wocka-wocka porno guitar of the Clinton administration. I just like Bush; he makes me proud to be an American again. He’s just a decent guy. . . . Listen, I began to go off liberal America when they insisted to me that Rudy Giuliani was a bad guy. You remember that years ago? How they told us Rudy Giuliani, they always like tinged on the Nazi reference.
LENO: Right, right, yeah right.
MILLER: “He’s a storm-trooper! He’s a bad guy!” Every time I’d go to New York it was cleaner and safer and I’d think, “Wait a second, how bad a guy can this guy be?” And now you don’t hear anybody saying that because it’s been proven out that Rudy Giuliani is a good man. . . .
It’s not a perfect world. Listen, I think Bush’s old man could have ended this whole dilemma in the Middle East around 12 years ago. We were like two exits away on the Jersey Turnpike from croaking this toad and we back off because the coalition doesn’t want us to go up the road. Are you kidding me? The coalition? This better not happen again. . . .We gotta assassinate Saddam Hussein. Why have we taken assassination off the table as a viable political tool? And yet they’ll tell you the collateral damage of civilians is acceptable. But you’re not allowed to assassinate the main pain in the ass. My theory is if you have trouble with your conscience, pretend you’re trying to kill the guy next to him, and think of him as collateral damage, alright?! If that will allow you to get to bed at night. [Applause.] . . .
You know I find our approach to the war on terrorism to be amazingly nonchalant. I mean the simple fact is we are not being protective enough of ourselves. I think that was a mandate yesterday, saying, “Listen! We don’t want these morons trying to croak us!” You know when the al Qaeda made a big mistake? It’s when they whiffed that dog on videotape. That got the liberals into it. Because they’re all sitting at home with their Marmaduke day-planner saying, “Wait a second? They croaked a puppy?”
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