Jack M. -- SobekPundit -- Reason -- Boo Radley War Continues

Sobek Pundit runs down the cases Mary Beth Buchanan has prosecuted and finds there aren't a lot of drug posecutions, contra Boo Radley.

Boo Radley objects that this listing doesn't examine the plea-bargained cases, which is a fair point, but neither has Boo Radley offered to tally up all the plea bargain drug cases to prove his point, either. He basically says, here's a link, there's a few of them there, do your own math. And, of course, plea bargains take a relatively low level of a prosecutor's time; jury trials take up much more time. So if we're just assessing how many hours are devoted to drug cases and how many are devoted to "important" cases, I'm not sure that simply noting there have been a great number of caught-dead-to-rights, so-there's-really-no-reason-for-the-defendant-to-insist-on-a-trial plea bargains really advances this argument all that much.

One point I'd like to make is that libertarians have not yet succeeded in convincing the public to legalize pot and other drugs through normal political, legislative channels.

Having failed in this endeavor, they seek victory by goading prosecutors and judges to simply not prosecute or punish drug offenders. They seem to have this idea that, even though drugs remain illegal, prosecutors and judges ought to act as if the libertarian position on drugs has carried the day and sort of treat drug laws like antiquated vestiges from the eighteenth century, like laws against adultery and sodomy, and treat them as no longer binding law.

Well -- no. They remain the law of the land and it's just juvenile for the pot-crazed hopheads to keep insisting, over and over, that while as a nation we've agreed to keep the prohibition on narcotics in effect, our jurisprudential betters ought to save us from our stupidity and de facto repeal all these laws.

Instapundit used to do this on occasion -- oh dear Lord, another big federal effort to stamp out Ecstacy, don't we have a war to fight? As if there's a list of crimes we should and shouldn''t be taking seriously anymore that we all agree on.

Actually, we do have such a thing; it's called the US Criminal Code, plus the various criminal codes of the 50 states. And we tend to take most of the crimes on those lists seriously, with a few exceptions.

If the glue-huffing amyl-nitrate crackies want to take drug laws off those lists, well, have at it.

But it's just annoying for these guys to continue whining every three weeks that even though they've (as of yet) lost the political battle we should just pretend they won, because, you know, it's kinda hard to pursue a legislative agenda when you're all amped up on crystal meth and sweat is pouring out of your eyeballs from the nine tabs of acid you just dropped while injecting distilled gila-monster venom directly into your testicles. Real buzzkill, you know?

Who the fuck took my mallomars? I swear to God I'm going to dose the bastard who took my goddamned mallomars.

Oh -- and? The constant reefer madness jokes? Are, in fact, jokes. (Mostly. As Jack M. says -- "I went to college." As most of us did, and yeah, we can't help shake the memory that most of the guys really into this thing called "libertarianism" tended to be the same guys who really liked their weed.)

But either way: lighten up, fellers. You're always selling yourselves as the hip, cool alternative to judgmental, dour conservatism; you could try acting like it once in a while.

And Yes... I know the name is "Radly Balko." Or something like that. I didn't know the exact name or spelling so I went with Boo Radley.

Just joking. Don't freak out and tell me you've never once been a major character in a beloved Southern Gothic novel before.

Okay... That was unncessary. Balko keeps saying he doesn't smoke pot, which is a perfectly justified statement, given that the implication made is that he's personally invested in getting the drug laws repealed. A lot of pro-legalization guys don't do drugs; Penn Gilette is fond of bragging he's never had a puff of a cigarette, a gulp of coffee, or a sip of alcohol in his life.

I guess what was coming out there was my general annoyance with many (not all, of course) libertarians who are very big on this hipper-than-thou, shock-the-straights sort of juvenile attitude. I've just come to regard libertarians as the Madonnas of the right, always showing off their gold-lame torpedo bra and hanging upside down from crosses while feigning fellatio on a prop MX missile reading "RAND CORP." on its side.

Not really something to do with Balko. Just more an annoyance with libertarians generally. We get -- you're really super-cool and shit. You don't have to tell us so every three minutes.

Again-- that really has nothing to do with Balko. Just a standing peeve that saw an opportunity to pet itself and jumped at the opportunity.

posted by Ace at 08:10 PM

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