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Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for October 26, 2010
Transcript:
Zipper: Wow... what's going on here, Uncle Z? Zonker: As you know, nephew, I've long dreamed of openly growing hemp in the California backcountry... thanks to Prop 19, that dream is ow within reach! This is a dry run of my new future as a small family farmer! Zipper: Wow... wait! Don't you have to have a family? Zonker: Well, eventually. Zipper: But how will you meet someone in the wild? Zonker: I think they have square dances.
Nebulous Premium Member over 14 years ago
The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper.
More durable that wood pulp paper and naturally low acid.
Coyoty Premium Member over 14 years ago
You can get hemp breakfast cereal at Trader Joeâs.
MiepR over 14 years ago
Yâall just wait. Zonker is going to show up here in the comments, spamming his hempware site.
I donât think there are any squares in the wild, though.
Sandfan over 14 years ago
Actually, we meet at tractor pulls and Lynrd Skynrd concerts.
lewisbower over 14 years ago
Sure glad honest family farmers will control the market and the crooks will never get involved. Like alcohol or gambling. I trust those honest men in Washington.
cdward over 14 years ago
^Why trust anyone? There are crooks at every level of government and business (which is actually even more crooked).
FriscoLou over 14 years ago
If Zonker is serious about his dream he better move his garden indoors.
Nemesys over 14 years ago
@ Spaghettus from yesterday:
I am assuming that the high cost of doing business is driving them overseas, which includes increasing taxes, collective bargaining agreements, environmental regulations, and many other direct and indirect factors which result from government interventions. The same happens on the state level.
We can argue if these government mandates are important or not, but we cannot credibly argue that they donât close down US factories.
Nemesys over 14 years ago
@ Mike Price from yesterday,
Mike, take a clue from Garry and donât demonize Sarah until after the election. All youâre doing is proving your hateful nature to the election-deciding Independents, who will pull the Republican lever out of disgust with associating with you. Bush benefited from the same phenomenon in 2004.
cdhaley over 14 years ago
Nemesys, In your exchanges with Spaghettus and Neocon regarding the Federal governmentâs interference with business, you overlook cdwardsâs point that business on the whole is more corrupt than government. Iâd rather deal with the IRS than with a banker.
American corporations make greater profits overseas not only by exploiting the cheap labor but by paying foreign taxes (and bribes) required to escape regulation and oversight.
Much like those corporations, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce spends vast anonymous sums on bribing the voters to reject the Federal regulations that protect them from exploitation.
After seeing what the business-friendly administrations from Reagan to G.W. Bush have done to lift the rules, how can you argue for still less regulation? Carter began by deregulating the airlines and Reagan and Clinton freed the banks. Both those industries have profited (or grown enormously âproductiveâ) by ruthlessly exploiting the consumer.
No matter what the outcome of next weekâs vote, the Consumer Protection Agency is going to make it harder for business to profit by cheating. Weâve drifted too far into lawlessness, and the pendulum is about to swing back. Thank God and Obama for Elizabeth Warren.
Nemesys over 14 years ago
palin, you may be happier dealing with IRS agents than with bankers, but having dealt with both, I must tell you that Iâve benefited much more from the latter than from the former.
As to business being more corrupt than government, that viewpoint is challenged by reports such as provided by CBS News, who tell us that Medicare fraud is estimated to add up to $60 billion annually. That number is more than the profits earned by the top 16 medical insurance companies combined. Government programs may (or may not) have good intentions, but the fact that they have always been the biggest target for plunder from the outside and from within. The corruption within business pales when compared with that of government, which is compounded by the fact that this is our money weâre talking about, not that of a private enterprise.
Iâm not arguing for less regulation⊠as Iâve said, we can argue about the proâs and conâs of each new rule as it comes along. However, these regulations drive corporations from state to state, and ultimately out of the country.
Someday the United States will have the dubious distinction of being the country with the best, most comprehensive deck of government regulations and no companies left to regulate under them. Will that signify a victory for you? Since everything will be owned and run by the government at that point, perhaps it will.
Dragoncat over 14 years ago
Just ask nephew Zipper to move in with you. THEREâS your âsmall familyâ right there.
CedarCircle over 14 years ago
A well thought-out plan, Zonker.
rotts over 14 years ago
Nemesys,
Iâm sure you understand that Medicare fraud isnât committed by the Federal Government, but by unscrupulous BUSINESSES!
cleokaya over 14 years ago
As a marijuana farmer you get to meet people in high places. Gary, once again you have opened the floodgates. :-)
Potrzebie over 14 years ago
AND put luxury taxes on it!
uhuru1968 over 14 years ago
Attempting to discard unwanted stems down the garbage disposal (back in the day, of course) I can attest to the toughness of hemp fiber. Poor garbage disposalâŠ. Arenât we all family? Sly Stone, some time in the distant past.
misterwhite over 14 years ago
Isnât it odd that hunters, who vilify big intrusive government, are the ones so quick to turn in cannabis growers in the wild?
Nemesys over 14 years ago
My problem with pot isnât adults use it to relax now and then, but the kids who get psychologically hooked on it to the exclusion of everything else they could be doing.
Most of us who went to college remember the guy (or girl) with big dreams who ended up flunking out of school because they spent his/her time partying instead of studying. I run into one at the deli department at my local grocery store. Instead of designing innovative computer systems, which he used to describe to me when he was my room-mate 30 years ago, heâs spending his time slicing provolone cheese during the day and still getting stoned at night.
What does that really cost a country?
person918 over 14 years ago
who is against the legalization of marijuana these days? I ask because I know there must be some on this forum⊠I just donât understand the logic. did we learn nothing from prohibition?
Possum Pete over 14 years ago
Will they rely on subsidies to maintain the American Pot Farm?
yumitori over 14 years ago
They have tractor pulls in northern California?
Zonker would rule at square dancing!
Carolo1 over 14 years ago
Happy 40th
Dtroutma over 14 years ago
MOST IMPORTANT!! THIS PROPOSAL SAVES âBACK COUNTRYâ!! Get the growers down there right with the cotton, corn, and other subsidized crops, and get them OFF our public forest and park lands! Remove the incentive to screw up the âback countryâ with their illegal plots. Save law enforcement billions of dollars in wasted efforts to wage war on pot. Letâs police the real criminals, like bankers, fund managers, and politicians!! We could throw in a few âdefenseâ contractors as well.
BrianCrook over 14 years ago
Actually, Clark, many do do that while stoned or drunk. They are seldom the best dancers. Worse, they are mostly male, who are trying to lead. There can be problems.
Zonker is correct. You can meet your fellow hemp farmers at square dances.
You have trusted some in Washington, Lewpeon. Your bosses have resided there your entire life.
Nemesys, demonizing Sarah Palin would be a promotion. The only people who take her seriously have trouble finding their way to the polls. She is just a few years away from her first infomercial.
In 2004, Bush-Dick benefited from evoking fear of terrorists and hatred of homosexuals and from the corrupt election in Ohio. It is all past, though. President Obama continues to clean up your Bush-Dickâs messes.
That figure about Medicare fraud? You found it where?
Drome, I much appreciate your concise answer to Nemesys and was thinking, during it, of the contaminated foodâespecially infantsâ foodâin China, where unregulated capitalism reigns.
Russell, the phrase used to be âheels over headâ. We should bring that one back.
Nemesys over 14 years ago
Brian,
It doesnât matter if you take Palin or Bush seriously. What matters is that throwing that level of hateful verbal diarrhea at them only discredits the messenger. Bush benefited from many things in 2008, including having an opposition that was way out of his league, but what put him over the top was CNNâs and Foxâs coverage of the anti-Bush protestors. The signs and chants they displayed against Bush would have made any Tea Partier blush, and many folks voted for Bush because they wanted to distance themselves as far away from that toxicity as possible. In other words, negativity that takes the form of inane personal insults backfires in election season, so please hold the Palin bashing until after the election. Even Garry has finally woken up to that.
The Medicare Fraud figure was from http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/23/60minutes/main5414390.shtml . According to CBS, defrauding the government has displaced drug trafficing as Floridaâs biggest cash crop.
jeanne1212 over 14 years ago
Person918 Ah, your are expecting people to learn from Other Peoples Past Experience, not their own. History, in fact. When have they EVER?
Doonsbury in the âboonies. hang on to the side rail of the buckboard - it could get rough!
And whatâs with those stupid commercials? Flag âem!
BrianCrook over 14 years ago
Nemesys, Bush-Dick didnât run in 2008.
Thanks for the link to the story on 60 Minutes: It is one more unregulated mess from the days of Bush-Dick & the Republicans. Are you glad that Attorney General Holder & health & human Services Secretary Sebelius have put Medicare fraud on the front burner? I am.
C.B.S. got onto the story after The New York Times wrote about this in July. President Obama continues to clean up after Bush-Dick & the Republicans. Why would anyone want to put the Republicans back into control of Congress?
MatureCanadian over 14 years ago
Happy 40th Garry! I have enjoyed the ride, thanks very much.
jrholden1943 over 14 years ago
Holder/Sebelius HAD to put âMedicare Fraudâ (itâs real) on the front burner because the new Health Care Law ASSUMES $500Billion in Medicare Cuts in order to make their math work. If they canât get that back in âFraudâ then Seniors who depend on Medicare will get rationed Health Care.
Now if the Government and the Media already knew Medicare was corrupt and laden with fraud, why havenât they already taken care of it? Because they canât - the Federal Bureaucracy is not capable of running these programs.
pbarnrob over 14 years ago
Nemesysâ allusion to Medicare fraud as a Guvâmint corruption symptom misses the point.
The fraud wasnât IN Guvâmint, it was PRIVATE criminals taking advantage of a largely UNregulated industry, that a Single-Payer (call it Medicare-for-All) would have a chance of bringing under control, when put together with proper auditing.
One of the people my wife worked with, just after she left that section, defrauded (a Huge Aerospace Company) of some $12 Million, once she realized the auditing was going away. No Guvâmint involved aâtall there (except for being the Customer), and she might even be out by now.