The further and continuing adventures of the girl who sat in the back of your homeroom, reading and daydreaming.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
The World Just Got Stupider
I thought I felt a disturbance in the Force.
William F. Buckley passed away last night. I agreed with him half the time or less but oh, what a delight he was to read or listen to. He treated the language like fine food -- and in his hands, it was.
I once saw one of his big round table things on PBS. This one was about drugs, and there were all sorts of big wheels there. The drug tsar, police chiefs from like LA or Miami, congressional drug policy people, a real summit. It went something like this:
At one point marijuana came under discussion, maybe decriminalising an ounce or less. Buckley asked the person to whom he spoke, "How big is an ounce of marijuana? I know it weighs an ounce, but how much space does it occupy?"
Silence.
"No, I rally do want to know. Is an ounce of marijuana as much as a pack of cigarettes? A gallon bucket? How much is an ounce?"
"Um, I don't know."
"Police chief, you know, you must have arrested people with an ounce. Tell me."
"Um, no I haven't actually."
And so on. NOT ONE OF THE "EXPERTS" HAD A CLUE.
It was absolutely priceless how he exposed, by accident, such basic ignorance in all these policy makers.
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I once saw one of his big round table things on PBS. This one was about drugs, and there were all sorts of big wheels there. The drug tsar, police chiefs from like LA or Miami, congressional drug policy people, a real summit. It went something like this:
ReplyDeleteAt one point marijuana came under discussion, maybe decriminalising an ounce or less. Buckley asked the person to whom he spoke, "How big is an ounce of marijuana? I know it weighs an ounce, but how much space does it occupy?"
Silence.
"No, I rally do want to know. Is an ounce of marijuana as much as a pack of cigarettes? A gallon bucket? How much is an ounce?"
"Um, I don't know."
"Police chief, you know, you must have arrested people with an ounce. Tell me."
"Um, no I haven't actually."
And so on. NOT ONE OF THE "EXPERTS" HAD A CLUE.
It was absolutely priceless how he exposed, by accident, such basic ignorance in all these policy makers.
I will miss him.
ReplyDelete