I Hate Canton cannot remember the last time we have been so aggravated by a Rep thread. We intended to let this one go pretty much after the March 31 entry, but the purposefully stupid comments continuing to emanate from the keyboards of the locals is indeed frightening. These comments are, I think, indicative of where "we" are going. Ostensibly about mandatory drug testing of welfare recipients, the thread is really about class war, race hatred, misogyny, eugenics, economic meltdown, and an increasingly out-of-control militarized culture. While forced drug testing, state or private, might be an inconsequential matter for some people, it serves as a psychological weapon in the broader war against free thought and action.
If you wonder how totalitarianism came to power in Europe between the two wars, all you need to do is read what our fellow Cantonians think of us, our neighbors, and the laws and Constitution of the United States. It's not much.
The article itself, States Consider Drug Tests for Welfare Recipients is a straightforward piece on states that have, or are considering, mandatory drug testing of welfare recipients.
I Hate Canton is generally opposed to drug testing, and certainly opposed to government mandated drug testing of anyone for any reason unless it pertains to criminal proceedings, in a few cases national security, or some other extraordinary purpose. We concede that private business can require drug testing of employees and in very limited instances may have sound reasons for the requirement. As an overall practice, though, it is inimical to individual rights and liberty interests. Coerced drug testing, either private or state sponsored, is an abrogation of the core meaning of the Constitutional right to private property: self ownership. Without self-ownership all other private property is meaningless. Forced drug testing is corporatism of the body.
The whole idea of drug testing begs the question: why are certain drugs good and others bad?
I Hate Canton hesitates to use wiki as a source, preferring to use primary sources, but in this case wiki offers a quick and good overview of the history of drug prohibition in the US and it's political meaning. The History Channel's Hooked: Illegal Drugs & How They Got That Way (type in title in search engine; it is also available in several parts on YouTube), is must-see TV for anyone interested in what makes a drug "bad." Should we be surprised that drug prohibition is rooted in race, demographics, protectionism, and Big Phrama profits? The government's right to define, and a citizen's duty to acquiesce, to what is "legal" and what is not to put into your own body is a singular marker of the "progressive" liberal corporate welfare state where the citizenry is required to look to the government for moral and politically correct de jour guidance.
Marijuana for instance, became criminalized in the wake of anti-immigration and racial hysteria following the 1910 Mexican Revolution when Mexicans streamed across the border bringing their recreational weed with them, much like Americans might bring their Marlboros if it were the other way around. Even Harry Anslinger didn't go along with it, until he realized he could make a career out of Protestant moral panic.
Opiates, too, were once legal and popular. They were available by prescription in drug stores. Before World War 1 some Canton saloons offered cocaine and opium over-the-counter (more or less). Canton reputedly hosted at least four opium dens located in rooms in the upstairs or side rooms of saloons. In the early part of the 20th century while Canton officials and police were busy cracking down on saloons, brothels, wine rooms, and gambling dens, they seldom gave fairly extensive local drug traffic, a second thought, even though the federal Opium Exclusion Act of 1913, made possession, except for Big Pharma's "medicinal "use, illegal.
Morphine came into popular use after the development of the hypodermic needle in 1853 and was used extensively to treat wounded soldiers in the Civil War. It was popularized as a "cure" for opium and alcohol addiction, and became a popular woman's drug that took care of cramps, depression, and "hysteria." Morphine, by prescription or otherwise, kept women, across the economic strata, in their place.
Heroin, developed by Bayer (the aspirin people) became a "cure" for morphine addiction, which later needed to be "cured" by Methadone. Is there a pattern?
And let's not even go into current legal drugs such as Dilaudid, Oxycotin, and the ever-popular and respectable Mothers Little Helpers which are quite legal and have made doctors rich for decades. Does anyone remember Canton's own Dr. Feelgood, Harold Schmuck? The good doctor who'd lost his privileges at old Mercy Hospital years before, was probably the largest purveyor of "diet pills" in Stark County until he was whacked in December 1973 by a customer/paid teenage boyfriend. For a few dollars a 98 pound woman could score a hundred speckled eggs from Schmuck to take off those extra pounds.
The point of this entry today is not drug laws, but the way the Canton thuggery cottons to the idea that it's OK for the government to hijack us. The thuggery likes the idea because just about anyone who collects "welfare" (and their definition varies to what that is--anything from WIC and food cards to unemployment compensation) is a drug addict, a drug dealer, a crook, a baby machine, a baby daddy, pickpocketing cash from the hard-working thugs to spend on undeserved pleasures. The thugs' willing ignorance of how the welfare system works and the demands and limits made on recipients is abysmal. Perhaps they're been told all about those welfare queens (and kings) by the titular head of the Republican Party, Rush Limbaugh, blathering on the radio how he had to spend 6 hours standing in line for his oxy at his local Welfare Royal's crib. But then, Rush's not on the public dole, or so they say.
Even surprising to I Hate Canton, is the doofy perception of Canton's Brainless Wonders that men collect welfare. Outside of disability or old age (and that's even rough) it is virtually impossible for a man, single woman, or childfree couple to collect public assistance. Welfare is a feminized ghetto inhabited by women and children. And what drug dealer in their right mind would want to collect public assistance, with its constant threat of government snooping? Not that some welfare collectors don't deal drugs or live or hang with people who do. Of course, they do. Just like some engineers, social workers, teachers, students, lawyers, secretaries, cops, executives, and doctors--especially doctors--do.
I Hate Canton is not condoning drug addiction or crime. Having spent some time with druggies and drunks, we know that they are not a pretty or intelligent sight. The issue though is larger: the old slippery slope. Though focused now on welfare recipients--or rather what the local thuggery thinks welfare recipients are--the real issue is the easy promotion of the subjugation of "the other"--the disenfranchised, the unempowered, the weak, the bum, and quite honestly, sometimes. the vile. It starts with them and works its way up. First they came for the Jews...then they came for....
With one exception.
Oddly, this desire to stick it to drug addicts, cheats, and the undeserving under the rubric of "welfare recipient," is not extended to real criminals: the real people in silk suits and $500 ties who have bankrupt this country. There is no cry for the head (or other parts) of insurance bonus babies, mortgage shysters, and stock market chiselers, or politicians and defense contractors who have mortgaged generations of Americans with imperialistic wars. Apparently, they're either too big to kick around or models the thugs emulate in their dreams. Drug test? Bernie Madoff?
The proliferation and acceptance of mandatory drug testing softens people to accept state intrusion in other intimate matters and to follow unquestioningly the authority and power of government and its cronies to lead and control of our lives as much as they can get away with. Inexplicably, none of this is apparent to our faithful Rep thuggery who in every other scenario declaim that Obama is stripping away our rights daily, including our right to private property, enslaving us with Godless Communism. They claim personal ownership and autonomy is unAmerican and has nothing to do with property rights.
To get the full, hair-curling or hair-straightening, as the case may be, effect of the thuggery in action, you really need to read the thread in the aggregate. I'm not sure if the hob-nailery in the sample below comes across as bad as the whole thing is. After you spend the morning being hammered in the head by these bullies (up to 273 comments as of this posting) you're ready to cop some rock yourself.
These comments also need to be read along side the habitual race baiting postings, sent constantly by the same drug-test huggers, which (ahem) suggests that they're a little more worried about the Black Menance that being pick-pocketed by the government in the name of drug dealers and baby mamas. For example, here's a small snip from last Sunday's Charita Goshay: No town's story is always black and white, even Louisville:
Bob Matthews:
I have an idea,Lets split the U.S. right down the middle for five years.(Whites on one side blacks and browns on the other side) cut out the welfare system.I will bet you a dime to a dollar after only five years the White side will progress and the black and brown side will regress.
Only in the Rep could a black columnist, attempting to deconstruct racist accusations against Louisville, Ohio, long considered a hotbed of bigotry, be considered racist and "stirring the pot." But then, anyone-- especially black anyones--who claim for one minute that Canton/Stark County contains an ounce of racism is...a racist!
THOUGHTFUL DISCOURSE FROM THE REP:
stevie123:
It's about time! maybe nicotine testing too, since the smokers taxes have gone up to pay for childrens health care of the people of lower income. they do drug testing all of the time on the people working, why not? make sure they are random since alot of them know how to 'test clean'. our own jobs are at risk now so if we need assistance we would have to play by the same rules. go to the article about taxing cigarettes, the non smokers tell the smokers 'we will have a longer living healthier population.'
Incoming:
Drug testing for families receiving welfare is a wonderful idea. I repeat families mom, dad, brother, sister everyone list as the recipient of the welfare support. Lets also take the same steps to those receiving unemployment checks. Drug free society means everyone. While youre at it also investigate who living in the government support housing of those welfare recipient.
NOW THIS IS THE CHANGE WE ALL CAN BELIEVE IN
kris2166
I don't see anything wrong with random drug testing. Unless you have something to hide, what does it really matter? This isn't a matter of profiling or labeling, it just makes sense.
goldenone
It's about time welfare started tightening the screws. Also, if tested positive for drugs, the kid(s) should be taken from the parent(s). That way, the kid(s) will have a fighting chance in life instead of a life with welfare loser parent(s)
NunyaB
How will this plan work when our government provides 'crackheads and alcoholics' with social security checks-they know these people are addicted to drugs and that's why they receive this 'assistance'.I mean, I would agree if there were loopholes, but what's good for the goose needs to be good for the gander.
-Also, what happens when these people start claiming ' I don't smoke weed, I was at a friends house that smoked and....'
In regards to the comment left about random house searches-I don't have anything to hide either, but I also choose to live in America and excuse me if I don't want strangers going through my underwear drawer. There's a reason a while CCW is in effect and so popular now that there's a waiting list to get your license- we will all see desperate times and desperate people
Didn't realize the liberal Democrats had drifted this far off the radar screen. God Help Us!
MAXWELL
'I AM MY BROTHERS KEEPER!!!! WE 'ALL' are on Government assistance unless you pave your own street, put out your own fire, call yourself when something bad is happening or defend yourself from foreign nations.' I don't see how expecting the taxes I pay to the city, state, feds be used to pave the streets, provide fire & police protection places me on gov't assistance. I have no issue with helping those that 'OCCASSIONALY'' need help, very few of us will go thru life without needing a helping hand at some point, but what galls me is having to trudge off to work everyday to provide $$$ for those unwilling to help themselves. Don't 'Bogart that joint my friend' pass it over here, I want some of whatever it is you are smoking! Maybe the thing to do is for us all to stop working and paying taxes so we can all be on equal footing.
working and paying taxes so we can all be on equal footing.
MAXWELL
Castrate them, sterilize them, euthanize them, I don't care ....just get their hands out of my pocket!
past7971
Considering??? There are very few private-sector and NO government jobs that do not REQUIRE pre-application and random drug testing of ALL employees. Any group that feels this singling them out or an act of profiling or prejudice--please notice I said ALL employees. If this is enforced on the working-class, why does it even have to be 'considered' for any government aid that you are willingly signing up for?
Jayhawk_in_OH
"Well, a little reality check, my friends. The vast majority of TANF money (and that's what we're talking about) goes to feed, house children. Children can't control the drug habits of their parent(s). So, be prepared.' *** Nancy, 'my friend,' that's when someone steps in and finds a better home for those kids then. The fact remains, the parent gets the check. If they are on drugs - how much of that money do you think is actually feeding the children? Whether we refuse the check to a drug-using parent, or give it to them anyways - I highly doubt a dime makes it into their mouths.
get some sleep so I can go to work in the morning. Take care.
tapout1003
Any one with a serious job get's drug tested .I mean people who make more than 20k a year. It's not selling your body. It's a safety issues with some jobs. As for the foster system, I know a little something about that. Remove the children as early in life as possible and they will be easier to place with loving families. If you can't keep yourself off drugs you don't deserve to set an example for future generations.
phipsabk
mean the it is about time I have been saying this for years! To get a job and work for your pay most places require a drug test. So I totally agree with drug testing how about alcohol testing too. If you cant afford to provide for your family and our taxes once again paying for welfare, ssi (and i donteldery people that had worked and obtained their social security legally) i mean the people that are just plain LAZY and then complain because they dont have enough 'FREE MONIES to get through the month, and all the other agencies then make sure that the monies sent out to these families are truely in need.
Oneness09
WHILE THEIR AT IT, THEY SHOULD RANDOM DRUG TEST PEOPLE/FAMILIES WHO LIVE IN SUBSIDIZED HOUSING...UNLESS the alleged father signs paternity to have his name listed on the birth certificate in Ohio.
gwoman
Its the System that needs change!!!!! Test them ? YES Lifetime loss of benifits if possitive? YES Loss of medical license for doctors who sign false disability claims? YES Manditory sterilization for welfare moms after 2nd child ?YES Chemically induced castration for all felons ? YES No life sentences, only execution for murderers, rapists, molesters, assult ? YES The Judges need to think about the children when placing then in the hands of a Mother that does not have a job...But the Father goes to work everyday! And Yes has to be tested before he gets the job!!!! Also in my life time I've seen so many fathers paying for the children & keeping them all the time & feeding them...But still paying their child support..Did you know That our system Takes away the fathers driving liscense if he misses a payment..HOW IS HE GOING TO WORK!! IF HE DRIVES WITH NO LISCENSE THEN HE GETS HIS CAR INPOUNDED 350.00 A 250.00 BAR PUT ON HIS CAR! 250.00 COURT COST!! AND HOPE HE STILL HAS A JOB SO HE CAN FEED THE CHILDREN AT HOME THAT HIS WIFE HAS COUSDY (SP) OF. ALSO how about our system and the adoption laws & fees! One moment made to me not to long ago. A couple went to our Social Services and ask about what they had to do to adopt a child...You know what she said to them.....YOU DON'T WANT ANY OF THESE CHILDREN IN OUR SYSTEM THEY ARE ALL BAD!!! WOW!! I ABOUT CRAPPED! Why do we have to go to other countries to adopt??? Why is so expensive here in USA??? ITS ALL ABOUT THE SYSTEM!! IS THE SYSTEM RIGHT???? Where do I vote on this issue at? We the People is who pays for the system...We the people should have some say on the changes...........................................................................
Bob Matthews
I think thats the best idea since sliced bread!!!!!!! Test them all.......If they are positive, cut them off all assistance. Then we will see there true colors.there are two ways they get anything,They beg it or take it.
Bob Matthews
Just go out tonight and drive through skyline terrace, (highland park) robin court,chips townhouses(lol) and you will see why they are proposing this idea.I think it's great! Hey,why not make it a urban adventure? Tomorrow take a drive down to the welfare office and take a look around,then go to wic office and take a look around.For the grand finally go to the courthouse and take a look around,take your seat in the courtroom(It's your right as a taxpayer) and listen.I think the light will go on for you.If you take that drive tonight make sure you keep your window rolled up because the smell is wretched.
dsteelman1
It seems that the back half of these comments are more geared to us crazies and the poor poor kids of the drug addicts on welfare.
So why exactly can we not end welfare? Duh, cause then the welfare class wouldnt vote for democrats. That may be the truth but it doesnt mean the idea of not paying for others laziness is without merit.
On to the other bleeding hearts on here whining about the poor pooooooor chlidren.
Exactly how great is it for them now being raised by drug addicts? You are the real reason the poor children grow up to be the maniacs that many of them end up. Because you sentence them to a life with a druggie .
You are the one who shows no compassion for the kids. You take every penny of the welfare money and spend it taking care of those kids the way they need to be taken care of , raise them with love and morals and discipline.
YOU LET THEIR PARENTS STARVE TO DEATH IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET
If youre damm dumb enough to starve to death before youll work for your own food then you deserve to die.
Bob Matthews
When I was 17, I saw the mushrooming african population all over the world and read the growth statistics, and I knew that if the world's leaders didn't force those individuals to put a cork in it, we'd be overrun with hungry african people by the time I was thirty. And sure as heck, we are. I watched part of one of those 'Feed the Children' ads they're constantly putting on the tube, begging for always more money to feed the starving africans that are being born faster than they can find diapers to put on them. They panned across a scene that made me sick, literally. It was hundreds of small african children, all sitting at long benches side-by-side, shoveling down huge mouthfuls of food from hundreds of bowls just as fast as they could cramm it down. And who was serving them but an army of very pregnant african females, all about to add to the problem while lazy african males laid up just outside the range of the cameras, stuffing their faces and keeping the women fat and pregnant. All they know how to do is eat and make more children. It's literally like sweeping the desert with a toothbrush. An exercise in total futility. For no matter how many starving children they feed, tomorrow there's twice as many clambering at the door, wanting white people to feed them. More and more and more and more children as fast as they can pop out. And those idiot Christian organizations are dumping vast amounts of money down a bottomless pit that's serving no purpose and solving no problems...
Bob Matthews
I do not think they are talking about prescription meds, What they are trying to stop is the crack smoking and weed smoking, you know the drugs of the dregs, the prefered drug of the lowest class of people in our sociaty.You must understand that it is the welfare class that has kept the drug cartels in $$$ for decades.So if we want to stop the cartels then first we must stop the welfare and project residing lower class of people who smoke crack and weed in front of there children.
1. Anyone receiving a government paycheck funded by tax payers should be drug tested, including politicians, all government employees (fed, state, county) as well as welfare recipients. 2. Test for all illegal drugs, including marijuana, or make it legal if you don't want to test for it. 3. One positive test - funds/salary cut 25%. Two positive tests - funds/salary cut in half and mandatory treatment. Public officials lose their job. Third strike - no funds for five years.
Bob Matthews
saturn6 Another saying I love is 'opinions vary' you have yours and I have mine.I feel great that my tax dollars are there to help the working class when they fall on hard times,But I will always fight to stop the funds going to the project and ghetto people.For example I knew a guy who worked for park farms and drove a taxi for a second job.He told me a story about going to the projects and picking up a young african american girl and her mother.When they got into the car,He smelled the faint scent of weed,The young girl just had a baby and was already pregnant again.There destination was the welfare office (of coarse), He told me that on the way there the mother was in the backseat the entire time coaching her daughter on what to say and what to tell the people at the welfare office to get the most out of the deal.She even had the paperwork information of the girls boyfriend and was telling her to say that he lives with her so they could recieve more money in foodstamps,He said after that the mother looked at him in the rearview mirror and giggled.So now do you understand the types of people I am referring to? By the way,The guy I knew,The taxi driver that told me the story, was african american working two jobs to support his wife and children.
Bob Matthews
lol what is this grammer school?Everytime you ask questions or post something people don't like the others send out the teacher squad lol the reason people spell incorrect or do not use or miss punctuation is because we are on a comment board JACK@## everyone does enough spell check and punctuation at work so I sure as heck am not worried about it on the Rep.lol lol/ So back to the subject at hand anyone who advocates use of drugs or abuse of alcohal is a loser and anything they post should have no merit anyway.some of you keep saying this would cause our country to become worse then the time of the great depression.Good flush it down the toilet and lets start over.Get rid of the undesirables and rebuild this country with some real reform.In one post urjoking said this 'Someone taking $20 of their 'free' money and buying some marijuana with it does not affect you directly no matter how much you try to act like it does. Maybe you should stop stereotyping and live and let live. God bless you, Robert.' CAN YOU BELIVE THIS GUY? THESE ARE THE KIND OF PEOPLE I AM TALKING ABOUT,FLUSH IT ALL DOWN THE TOILET...................I will continue to stand up for the working class and I say LIVE AND LET DIE......
seabeejim24
What do we have to do to ensure that this comes to stark county soon? I am all for this. if i have to take a drug test to keep my job which pays for the welfare system then those who take this money should have to take a drug test to receive the money. But lets not stop there, if you owe child support you should not be allowed to buy extras in life like tobacco, alcohol, sport tickets, ect.
2 comments:
As I sat here and read the comments something occurred to me. One thing for those who are concerned about the bullies making trouble for the rest is those commenting the loudest are the least likely to do anything about their perceived concerns. It would require involvement greater than keystrokes on a computer keyboard. Thankfully, there is no cohesive organization to unite these people and give them a collective voice in Stark County and Canton. They are a cacophony at best. Otherwise the concern would be greater than a few nameless, faceless voices in a crowd taking over what used to be a decent forum to discuss issues.
If these people were to really organize there would be plenty of reasons for concern. The greater concern is while these unorganized voices in a crowd are garnering all the attention, there are others who could be taking advantage of the situation and pushing forward with their agendas without the notice of the general public. It would be easy to to with a distracted plurality.
Perhaps this is the Rep's agenda. Keep people distracted so as not to report and allow discourse on real issues. At one time I would have argued against this, but today, I am not so sure.
Oh, I agree John. I think though, that this mentality or attitude is
increasing in the US. My own area of expertise is a little different than these types, but they overlap. The chumps who post at the Rep probably won't do anything, but there's others out there who will. They're sitting there waiting for the right moment. And there are always lone crackpots.
Americans traditionally don't examine the system(s) that screws them. In the past they've blamed themselves when the economy fails. This was a prevalent view during the Great Depression, especially amongst the middle class. So what if Wall Street tanked or banks went out of business. I should have.....
This time around I'm seeing a lot of anger targeted not at the cause of this worldwide catastrophe, but at the "underclass" who skim off pennies compared to the overclass who robs,rapes, and kills. I guess it's the chain of abuse model.
That may change. I'm heartened by the "riots" in the UK and the invasion of the Bank of Scotland. There are more than a just a few anarchists of "Marxists" on the lines there. The US never had a strong political labor movement. It's always been tied up with money,benefits,and leisure time not systemic rot and systemic change. I'm not sure how much of that will change, but this time around there's a much larger middle class that is being destroyed and a much richer ruling class to hate. I hope this anger eventually boils over, and when it does, look out. If so many people weren't suffering it would be entertaining. And obviously nobody with any kind of power cares.
I don't see it with the Rep, though.
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