What an encouraging headline - Freeze-Frame Radio

Jeremy Riggs · 2011 Super Bowl Champions!

What an encouraging headline

Jeremy Riggs · 2011 Super Bowl Champions!

OH! Right after I posted that there's a NEW headline.

JIM DOYLE OPEN TO TOLLS ON WISCONSIN INTERSTATES

Yay! Now we can pay to drive around the state too!

MzHartz · Permanent Vacation

This is the second time I've heard of somewhere at least considering releasing prisoners.

Because of this, I predict that marijuana will be decriminalized in the next 10 years, if not sooner.

For the record, no, I don't smoke. But, think about it.

Canada decriminalized it.

Medical marijuana is legal in at least California.

The criminals convicted of possession are probably harmless compared to other crimes. Less prisoners, less people to pay for, less overcrowding, more money saved. Release the potheads from jail, and they're just going to go back to sitting on their couches.

disco strangler · Smiles everyone, smiles!

as soon as the government figures how to impose a tax on marijuana, they won't waste any time legalizing it.

Jeremy Riggs · 2011 Super Bowl Champions!

I think you're right MZ. I'm not sure how i feel about it though.

I understand the "marijuana is no worse than alcohol" argument more pot smokers will use. I also think the strain on the justice system fighting marijuana on the streets is a burden I don't know if we can afford anymore.

On the flip side I'm not fond of more stoned people out there, getting into cars, wandering the streets. etc.

I hope we never get to a day where you walk into a bar and it's ok to be smoking dope.

Then again, my bar days are long over so I guess who gives a crap. Let the next generation worry about it all. They'll probably need to be high while they're dealing with the enormous debt our generation has saddled them with.

Jeremy Riggs · 2011 Super Bowl Champions!

disco strangler wrote:

as soon as the government figures how to impose a tax on marijuana, they won't waste any time legalizing it.

There ya go! That'll be what they replace the cigarette tax with. Which by the way ol' Doyle increased in this budget another .75 so it's now up to $2.25 a pack.

So yeah, they'll legalize pot and charge an extra $5 an ounce in taxes.

JD The Jazz Doctor · Grand Poobah

see I hate that. lets let people dope themselves into a stupor while the govt screws em. people need open eyes, not doped minds.

disco strangler · Smiles everyone, smiles!

Jeremy Riggs wrote:
I think you're right MZ. I'm not sure how i feel about it though.

I understand the "marijuana is no worse than alcohol" argument more pot smokers will use. I also think the strain on the justice system fighting marijuana on the streets is a burden I don't know if we can afford anymore.

On the flip side I'm not fond of more stoned people out there, getting into cars, wandering the streets. etc.

I hope we never get to a day where you walk into a bar and it's ok to be smoking dope.

Then again, my bar days are long over so I guess who gives a crap. Let the next generation worry about it all. They'll probably need to be high while they're dealing with the enormous debt our generation has saddled them with.

not everyone who tries pot will try other drugs, but i think most do; not everyoney who experiments beyond pot will leave it at experimentation. i agree that it's not a dangerous drug by itself, but i do agree that it is a gateway drug.

the government will figure out how to tax it, and then all the people who are all for legalization now, will be sorry for what they wished.

and isn't that what we need -- more government micro-management?

-- Edited by disco strangler at 12:44, 2009-02-18

ghostdancer · Ghost In The Machine

I've always said they need to legalize pot and tax it instead of spending the money they do trying to keep it off the street and locking up the dealers. If they legalized it, they could pass laws similar to drunk driving laws so if you're caught driving stoned you'd have to pay fines, etc.

Mz, the voters in MI passed a law in November allowing for medical marijuana usage; I didn't think it would pass but it did.

Jeremy Riggs · 2011 Super Bowl Champions!

I'll tell ya JD, I have no idea how Doyle hangs onto his seat election after election.

Before he's finished we WILL be the number one most taxed state in the union.

I think they need to start taxing the hell out of the casinos. This Indian monopoly is BS. Start taking 50% of what they bring in every year and put that directly toward tax relief.

I moved back to this tax hell because I missed my family, but I guarantee you I will not be living here in twenty years or so. I hate this state when it comes to government.

MzHartz · Permanent Vacation

I wonder how much of that "gateway drug" stuff is propaganda. I know quite a few pot smokers, and very few (if any?) hard drug users.

ghostdancer · Ghost In The Machine

I think the "gateway" term is a bunch of proganda. I experimented with other stuff long before I ever smoked a joint. And like Mz, I know people that smoke but that's all they do....they have no interest in trying anything else.

-- Edited by ghostdancer at 12:49, 2009-02-18

Jeremy Riggs · 2011 Super Bowl Champions!

disco strangler wrote:

Jeremy Riggs wrote:
I think you're right MZ. I'm not sure how i feel about it though.

I understand the "marijuana is no worse than alcohol" argument more pot smokers will use. I also think the strain on the justice system fighting marijuana on the streets is a burden I don't know if we can afford anymore.

On the flip side I'm not fond of more stoned people out there, getting into cars, wandering the streets. etc.

I hope we never get to a day where you walk into a bar and it's ok to be smoking dope.

Then again, my bar days are long over so I guess who gives a crap. Let the next generation worry about it all. They'll probably need to be high while they're dealing with the enormous debt our generation has saddled them with.

not everyone who tries pot will try other drugs, but i think most do; not everyoney who experiments beyond pot will leave it at experimentation. i agree that it's not a dangerous drug by itself, but i do agree that it is a gateway drug.

the government will figure out how to tax it, and then all the people who are all for legalization now, will be sorry for what they wished.

and isn't that what we need -- more government micro-management?

-- Edited by disco strangler at 12:44, 2009-02-18

I agree with your points DS.

I view it as just one more step into a cesspool society. Every ten years or so we go down another rung with what's deemed acceptable, usually based on the argument that "well, that other thing is legal so why shouldn't this be"

Society keeps getting worse and worse and no one ever seems to want to put the peices together to realize that these little decisions we make add up quick.

The only concern out there is what the individual wants for themselves, never what's good for the community or the country.

Wow, didn't expect this thread to wind up here.

Let me get back to Doyle hating.

I GUARANTEE YOU this son of a bitch rigged an election or two. The people of this state CAN NOT be this stupid, to watch him year after year screw us over again and again.

I STILL can't get over how he stole the gas tax money to keep his campaign promise of not raising property taxes a few years ago, only to two years later claim we needed to raise gas taxes because we weren't raising enough money to fix the roads! (which by the way is why he's proposing a toll system now).

I was told I was paying a gas tax to pay for road maintenance. How can he legally just take that money and give it to homeowners (one of which I AM NOT!).

How could an entire state sit idly by, watch him do this, then RE-ELECT him!

MzHartz · Permanent Vacation

Good point. I'm surprised he keeps getting elected if he taxes so much. Has no one better run up against him?

JD The Jazz Doctor · Grand Poobah

I love my hometown and this state. its a shame I most likely won't be able to afford it when I retire. I'm gonna have to build a Clampett house (before he found the oil) on a mud-lot up in them hills somewheres.

Mad Mema · Bad Biker Granny

On the flip side I'm not fond of more stoned people out there, getting into cars, wandering the streets. etc.

No worries JR... there probably won't actually be MORE stoned people out there. This will just cause the company that makes Ozium to request a government bailout due to loss of business.

Jeremy Riggs · 2011 Super Bowl Champions!

MZ: He's always the Democratic candidate, I think in the primaries he's just always had the money to crush any competition.

As for the general election I just don't know. I think the fact we're a blue state and he's the incumbent just adds up to people who don't pay attention going with what they know.

confuzzed · Permanent State of Confusion

1. Hey JR Aren't you glad you moved back into WI?

2. Wait until that jackass hits you. You should give a crap. It doesn't matter where you are or when, just like a drunk driver.

3. If there were a way to control the dealing of marijuana, they would legalize it and tax the hell out of it the same way the do with alcohol.

4. WI can not out do Taxachussettes.

5. We already pay to drive around the state too. They say PA has some of the worst roads. That will happen when you are in the middle of the trucking corridor.

6. States will continue to screw their residents because there is less money from Uncle Sam. This naturally trickles down to the local level too.

Jeremy Riggs · 2011 Super Bowl Champions!

I think what scares me the most Fuzzy is there's no forward thinking.

Just tax the hell out of everyone. There IS a limit. Once we're being taxed at a 60 or 70 percent rate it can't go much further!

I read an article in Newseek a few years back that illustrated just how highly taxed we are. It approached nearly FIFTY PERCENT when you took into account the hundreds of taxes and permits we encounter.

This cigarette tax drives me crazy too. Keep raising it until it's cost-prohibative to smoke and then what? When tobacco companies go bankrupt from falling sales or people quit smoking and the state has this HUGE loss of tax revenue, THEN WHAT?

They just seem to bury their head in the sand and create a new tax so we can get through this year, EVERY year.

confuzzed · Permanent State of Confusion

Jeremy Riggs wrote:

Just tax the hell out of everyone. There IS a limit. Once we're being taxed at a 60 or 70 percent rate it can't go much further!

I read an article in Newseek a few years back that illustrated just how highly taxed we are. It approached nearly FIFTY PERCENT when you took into account the hundreds of taxes and permits we encounter.

You are correct, there is a limit. But they have no idea what it is. It is a shame because with this mess we are in, you would think they would notice that now.

And if you think about all the taxes we pay (income, sales tax, permit fees) the amount is incredible. If you just break down income taxes you get federal, state and local. Think about all the fees that not everyone pays - license fees for hunting, fishing, driving. The amount of money is incredible.

Jeremy Riggs · 2011 Super Bowl Champions!

gas tax, cigarette taxes (if you smoke), property tax, yearly license fee, taxes on interest earned, sales taxes, the list goes on and on and on...

Not hard to see how 50% of what we earn actually goes to the government eventually.

ghostdancer · Ghost In The Machine

Michigan is a high tax state too JR. I just heard they want to increase the cost of a fishing license and use the extra money to reimburse the Coast Guard when they have to go out on the ice and rescue people stranded on ice floes. I'm sorry, but I don't want to pay any more money for my license, and I sure as heck don't want to pay for some dumb azz that went out on the ice when they should've known not to. If I have to be rescued, bill me; if someone else has to be rescued, bill them.

Jeremy Riggs · 2011 Super Bowl Champions!

That makes too much sense Ghost.

On the drive to and from the airport the local talk radio show was fielding calls from some very irate Wisconsinites over this budget.

The host is a former prosecutor and is really upset about the releasing of convicted felons. He said he knows that most people don't go to jail on their first offense for some of these lesser crimes, the ones in Wisconsin prisons are multiple offenders and there is NO justification in his mind for letting them out.

confuzzed · Permanent State of Confusion

JR - if there was ever a good time to start carrying a weapon for protection, now may be the time.