If you'll excuse me (once again) running off in a random direction, I notice also that the country that uses its "war on drugs" as an excuse to, well, intervene on other people's territory, is the same one where the juice bars all seem to be pushing cocktails of dubious herbal extracts with claims of all kinds of dramatic cognitive effects. Asking people about this, they say, "ah, but these ones are natural" (as, I gather, cannabis and opium are somehow not?).

And of course, while you can no longer spank children, you can evidently pierce them to your heart's content.

Disrespect for logic, disrespect for the body, somehow it's part of a pattern where the crazy left and the crazy right come together. Maybe it's just as simple as the politics of power: that it benefits the few if the many lose all faith in themselves, physically, mentally and morally, and just go where they are led.

Or maybe I'm just becoming a paranoid old coot. I hope so!

In any case, I couldn't agree more, variation is good!