Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Right Wing Gonzo Located?

By Smitty

Stacy had been alluding to HST HST while wandering In Search of Right-Wing Gonzo. As SMTP would have it, one of those great pre-RSS pundits blew into the inbox today: Fred Reed. He holds forth on Mexico:
Latin America does not have a drug problem. It has a United States problem. The problem is that Americans want drugs. The US is a huge, voracious, insatiable market for drugs. Americans very much want their brain candy. They will pay whatever they need to pay to get it. All the world knows this.
Why, Mexicans wonder, is America’s drug habit Mexico’s problem? If Americans don’t want drugs, they can stop buying them. Nobody forces anyone to use the stuff.
Ah, the rub is that Washington doesn’t want Americans to have drugs. All right, say Mexicans, that is a problem between the American government and the American people. Let America solve it.
Why, Mexican’s ask—read this sentence carefully—should Mexico tear itself in pieces, lose thousands of dead annyally[sic], and turn into a war zone to solve a problem that America refuses to solve?
I've been a Fred Reed fan for a Really Long Time. I was too young for the Hunter S. Thompson thing, but Fred would be my entry into a Right Wing Gonzo competition, as nominating ToM would be too incestuous.

4 comments:

  1. If you haven't already, search all Fred Reed columns that have the words "Maureen Dowd" and read them. 'Priceless' is not good enough to convey how good those columns are.

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  2. As a former LEO, I've often thought the answer is to create "Treatment Centers" where one can have all the drugs they want; free. Dealers will go bust as their customers go to the treatment centers. Crime will drop because users don't have to commit crimes to get drugs. Think drugs are glamorous; take a peek inside a treatment center. Get picked up under the influence; in you go. Want out? Got to be clean for 30 days. We'll help.

    Jerry in Detroit

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  3. In a world where PJ O'Rourke is (never mind a few stray comments last fall) about as right-of-center as one can be, do we =need= some other candidate to be HST-right?

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  4. Why does Fred seem right-wing to you?

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