An interesting case out of California (of course) has a man being prosecuted for “driving under the influence”… of caffeine.
Joseph Schwab was pulled over by a California cop – an Alcoholic Beverage Control cop – who accused him of cutting her off and driving “erratically.” Like a dentist in search of cavities to help him cover the cost of his new boat, the ABC cop was determined to pin some kind of DUI charge on Schwab, even after he took and passed a Breathalzyer test that measured (cue Dean Wormer from Animal House voice) zero point zero alcohol in his system.
So she carted him off to the clink where his blood was drawn (no doubt against his will; the Fifth Amendment being as null as the Fourth) to test for other “drugs.”
Caffeine was (eventually, after a second lab test) discovered.
Voila – Smith was charged with driving under the influence of a “drug” (which caffeine is, of course) just as if he’d been boozing it up – or toking it up. He faces the usual huge lawyer bills, license suspension and general tarring and feathering. It is entirely possible he may be required, as part of his eventual sentence (assuming a conviction) to attend mandatory “drug abuse” counseling sessions.
Schwab’s lawyer, Stacey Barrett, says it may end up before a jury. Your tax dollars at work.
The case tells us a lot about the vengefulness of the state and its minions – as well as something about what may be in store for us with regard to driving under the “influence” of… pretty much anything.
First, there is this ABC cop.
This is speculation, but it is probable she was not happy when the Breathalyzler registered zero and no “illegal substances” were discovered in Schwab’s blood. You have probably heard the saying: When you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail. And when you are a vengeful hammer…
Schwab’s real crime was Contempt of Cop. This offense is not on the books, of course, but it carries weighty consequences.
He “cut off” the ABC harpie.
She will show him who’s boss.
A mere traffic ticket won’t do the trick. But a major misdemeanor – one that carries with it the possibility of jail time as well as license suspension and years of exorbitantly expensive insurance premiums, based on a conviction for “DUI”… One can almost see this cop poring through the statute book to find something … anything.
The statute book obliged. Under CA law – and the law in many states – any “substance” that could impair a person’s driving qualifies.
Consider the possibilities.
How many people regularly take meds that could impair their driving? Note the italics. Could. Not necessarily did.
Just could.
This low legal threshold is enough to charge most of us of with “DUI” at almost any time.
How about tryptophan? You know, the stuff that’s in turkey that makes you feel glad (and tired) after eating a plateful?
Tryptophan isn’t illegal – but then, neither is caffeine. Both, however, are “substances” that could affect your driving… in theory.
And caffeine is found in more than just coffee. It is in soda and chocolate, too.
How many M&Ms do we dare eat before driving?
And there’s part of the rub: There is no precise/scientific measure of “impairment,” whether by alcohol or any other “substance.” And it is not necessary to establish that a person’s driving was impaired.
Instead, an arbitrary standard – such as “.08 BAC”- is enough to convict a person of “drunk” driving, regardless of their actual driving.
Or, no standard at all – as in the case of Schwab. There is no legal threshold defining the amount of caffeine in one’s system that constitutes “impairment.” Merely to have measurable traces of this “substance” was apparently enough to cuff and stuff Schwab. And may ultimately prove to be sufficient to convict him.
There is precedent.
A driver under the age of 21 who is found to have any traces whatsoever of alcohol in their system – even if nowhere close to the Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) threshold necessary to arrest and convict an adult – can be arrested and convicted for “drunk” driving. In theory (and probably in fact), the trace amounts of alcohol in cough syrup would be sufficient. And even if the under-21 driver hasn’t got any alcohol in them, under Zero Tolerance laws in most states, an “open” container in the car is enough to charge that person with “drunk” driving.
It all sounds crazy, but there’s a purpose behind this. It is to criminalize everyone for anything. To make it impossible for us to escape a cop – and the system – once it decides to focus attention on us. In order to keep us all in a state of perpetual fear, the necessary prerequisite to subservience. The IRS used to be the main practitioner of this art, but the various other appendages of the government have caught on. If they can’t get you for this, they’ll get you for that. The point being, they’ll get you. Remember your Beria… .
There is no other sane explanation.
The system is either going looney – or it knows exactly what it’s doing.
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I find myself wondering how it is that this booze coppette really has the authority to enforce regular traffic laws. Has she had the equivalent training of traffic cops? Beat cops? I doubt it. Then HOW can she legally be allowed to enforce traffic laws, when her area of “eggspirtease is riding herd on barkeeps over under age drinking, package sales, hours of operation of public houses, etc? Seems SHE is the sort that needs taking out behind the barn and receiving a few stripes with Papa’s big gun belt. Bet she never got that treatment. Seems so high and mighty.
The state serves only its own interests, not those of the people. The state uses its agents(cops) to act as hired thugs in order to extract as much wealth from the people as it can. Excessive fines, over criminalization, stacking charges or creating crimes in order to confiscate as much wealth and property as the state sees fit.
Witness the criminal act of civil asset forfeiture. Made legal decades ago to combat the Mafia now used for nearly every instance of wrong doing on the part of the perp, whether its DUI, domestic violence and merely suspicion, the state can steal everything you own, including your children, your bank accounts, vehicles, everything and the profits will go to the local pig sty, where fancy boats, even little cottages where the heroes can bring their little “girlfriends” in for an afternoon interlude.
Nice huh?
Don’t forget, there are a lot of Murkins who continue to believe in hero worship of cops and of soldiers who murder innocent men, women and children in Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria.
Murkins desperately need heroes to make themselves feel good again after the disaster of Viet Nam and My Lai, only to be reborn in Iraq and Falluja.
Cops are nothing more than extensions of the state. They represent one and the same. To be critical of either is bad speak.
Scary; and it can happen anywhere, but…
I have no sympathy for anyone who voluntarily continues to live in the People’s Republik of Kalifornia. That state, above all others, has been a loony rabid police-state for at least 4 decades now. Everyone knows it by now, especially those who live there. It’s not like there are not MUCH better places to go (and the better places all offer a much lower cost of living, so no excuses!).
You choose to stay in one of the West Coast states; the Northeast, or Illinois, you’re pretty much doing so at your own risk and cost of your own freedom. Not that such can’t happen anywhere…but in those states they go out of their way to make it so that you can not live without state/armed-goon interference. (Unless yiou’re a criminal or illegal- then they cut you some slack- but if you’re a normal productive citizen, and especially a straight white male, you’re easy pickin’s. They want what you have, and no one there will stand up for you.)
In a way, I’m kind of disappointed that Hitlery lost the election. WW3 likely would have obliterated those very places, like boils being lanced off of the butt cheeks of America.
The problem is that it is such a darned beautiful state. I have said for years that it is a crime to waste it on Californians.
So true, Arylioa! Some of the nicest geography in the world, and some of the best climates, too. ‘Specially when ya get off the beaten path. Could be a real paradise, if it weren’t for the liberal scum in LA, SF and Sacre-demento wielding their reign of terror.
Granola-land – home of fruits, nuts and flakes.
Let’s say you are a farmer of several generations and that’s what you know to do. You raise vegetables, know the complex system and have no idea of how to farm in Texas or elsewhere and you really don’t want to give up land that’s been in the family for 100 …or 200 years or more. So you just say “so long” to everyone you know and your kids that have grown up learning what you know with the expectation of inheriting that farm(s) and have learned enough to make money in other ways with that land and everyone, including the current owner, is just going to chunk it, go to some other state and get on the dole or try to keep from losing everything you have and start over at 60 or 70 years old? Seriously, it’s not like everybody simply works at McDonald’s and can up and leave. And you sell at a time the market is tanked along with land prices? I’d be looking to find somebody to off Jerry Brown and company. There probably are plenty of people looking to do just that.
Not all Californians emigrated in the last few years from New Jersey like the gal I spoke with ordering car parts. She admitted she’d just moved from Maryland and it was easy to tell just speaking with her. She might leave and the people who worked at some shitty job might leave……if they can find a better job(not likely) in another state. And people don’t realize their $25/hr job in Ca. is actually a better living in another state at half that amount.
But that doesn’t mean the average Californian is able to move somewhere else. I’ve seen the interstates clogged for years with people headed, mainly, east. I have no idea where they are from but Ca. is a good guess.
I wanted to leave the US 15 years ago but hated to simply leave the wife. The writing was on the wall long before I really, desperately wanted to leave but it wasn’t screaming out “leave the US” like it did later. Once the fed realized a great many people wanted to leave they used the IRS to strip them of most of their money. Then they passed laws(under the shrub)to take what money you might make somewhere else as if you still lived in the US. Never underestimate the cunning and power of the elite. They have done everything they can to keep the sheeple in line and that includes me and you. We just didn’t realize we were their sheeple but every day that goes by and we continue to pay everything they tell us we owe we get closer to “yas massuh” if we don’t already think of it that way.
Now Texas is hugely in debt with Dallas and Houston about to go bankrupt so where do I go? I can’t leave the country with any money or at least much of my money. It doesn’t make a damn where you live right now since the feds are taking what you have in inventive ways they think of every day.
If I had the answer I’d be acting on it.
I know what you mean, 8SM. My grandparents came here 100 years ago, and our family had always been in the big east-coast blue state (which wasn’t too bad before the 80’s), but the noose just kept tightening, and it was just a matter of practicality as to whether you stayed and lived as a slave/kept your mouth shut/ended up in jail/just did whatever they say; or go where it’s a little freer.
Basically, to stay in place like that is to accept communism. To be an outlaw, just for living an honest life and doing the things our Founders acknowledged as being our basic rights.
Don’t know if there’s any place in this world where we can be totally free, and there definitely isn’t such a place in this country, but even in this country, there is still a big difference in the level of tyranny, and how intrusive it is; how it affects us in daily life.
I know TX ain’t what it used to be, but compared to California, it’s a veritable Galt’s Gulch! In the cities, all bets are off, but in the small towns and rural areas/ranges, if they tried pulling the crap in TX that they do EVERYWHERE in CA., there would be a revolt!
I think one reason they were able to get away with so much in CA. and so early on, is that CA has long been largely made up of transplants from elsewhere- and I’m not talking about Mexicans- but people migrating from all over this country- as opposed to many places in TX and the Mid-West and South, where families have lived in the same areas/communities for generations, and thus even when in the employ of our overlords, feel an obligation to their neighbors and relatives, and to the reputation of their own families. All that is gone when you have places like FL and CA where everyone is from somewhere else, and all the people around you weren’t there 10 years ago. And THEN you add the foreigners to that list…..
This is why Uncle loves and encourages and protects and subsidizes illegal immigrants….not only are they new people with no history/nothing to lose coming in….but they also cause others to flee, and become the change agents in the places they migrate to (And it’s amazing how stupid those people are. Those people from NY or CA will practice the exact same poliotics in their new locales, as they did in their old locales- as if the outcome will somehow be different!)
This is a result of policing for profit, but I agree with eric that the charge was laid because of “contempt of cop”. Policing for profit is what the majority of police are doing the majority of the time.
Pedo Elites Do Exist. They’ve molested us all, for that is their core value, violating our bodies and minds.
Joe Biden Sexually Assaults Children
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sd8o3WUKP8M
C-SPAN: Biden Caressing Child W/Penis, Hands, Words
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYqOqu3oioI
A modern re-enactment of the French Revolution, American style, is not out of the question. These are badge carrying thugs operating with the State’s blessing. People don’t care what alphabet soup agency it might be. Thugs like her know what they are doing.
Considering that you don’t have to be drunk, or even driving to be convicted of DUI, what is the problem here?
I posted a link to merely show where the CA pedo reference came from. I’ve seen it several times today.
California Dems Legalize Child Prostitution
http://nation.foxnews.com/2016/12/29/california-dems-legalize-child-prostitution
I enjoy your writing.
But perhaps you are bringing science and reason to a hopeless clusterf*ck situation and likely wasting your talent and time.
Which I often enjoy doing.
But you seem to have higher aspirations.
It’s like Louis Leakey doing an archaeological dig through a McDonalds dumpster.
It might be an interesting and diverting exercise but likely nothing will be gained that advances knowledge and technology.
Amazon Zeppelin warehouse 10 miles overhead
http://www.nextbigfuture.com/2016/12/amazon-patents-blimp-warehouse-and.html
Hi Tor,
I understood your intention, thank you.
Jeremy
Merry Christmas all from an incorrigible sh!tposter.
21 Ayn Rand Christmas Cards
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/12/22/1353470/-21-Ayn-Rand-Christmas-Cards
I agree with the sentiments of all these. The joke is their cannibalistic morality scams, not Ayn’s red pills.
The good news is that due to the intense public pressure, the charges have been dropped against the driver.
IMHO he should still sue.
I wish that the ABC officer and the DA could be held personally liable. If they had to forfeit their own dime for their mistakes, they might think twice next time.
Punishing a government official is darned near impossible under current management.
That is horrible advice. He should not sue. If he thought his life was hell before…
Rather than sue he should track that bitch down and administer some street justice, sneak up at a time and place of his choosing put a bag over her head and smash a kneecap; she can ponder the error of her ways while hobbling on crutches.
Michaael Rivero, he certainy should. SHE had no probable cause for the initial contact, thus no grounds for her blow test, and particularly not for the blood draw and handcuffs. UNlawful arrest.
The cop is guilty of discrimination.
It does not matter who you are, if you are treated different than everyone else that is a classic definition of discrimination. In this particular case, it doesn’t matter if you are white, black, blue, or whatever.
No one is going out there arresting people for drinking too much coffee, period. Unless there is discrimination involved. In which case, the cop has to prove she is not discriminating against this male.
The penalty for said discrimination can vary. I suggest she is likely to be brought before the Infernal Affairs department and possibly fired. More likely she will be given some kind of mention in her record.
The liability of the department is such, that should the individual bring a civil suit they are likely to recover substantial financial damages from that department of government. That is if the Federal Government rules they can be sued.
Now that is assuming the male in this case brings legal suit against the department with a competent lawyer.
The department needs to know if she had any extenuating circumstances that may have effected her judgment. That could be almost anything. Some people experience a problem with a full moon. Or a hormonal circumstance in the body. Ask any police desk about a full moon and they will give you an earful of tales of people coming out of the woodwork doing ridiculous things.
This woman with her poor judgment has made a laughing stock of the police department she works for.
What she did was also dangerous to every other cop in the field in that area.
A police person has to have the respect of the community they work for. And the bottom line here is her actions were unbecoming of a police officer. That reflects on anyone else in the same uniform and the same police department.
d, ever been in a real shitty with a pig? It simply doesn’t go away. My wife and I got raided by just about every acronym agency with badges you can imagine. It was a fishing expedition so everyone wanted a piece of the pie. That was 14.5 years ago. We have a farm(shoulda sold it)and didn’t have a good idea of where to exchange equal land prices we’d like to live. Turns out, any place you don’t get raided regularly when you’re only a truck driver mostly breaking on DOT regulations and not even real traffic laws. We’ve been raided 3 times since with only one charge sticking the first time. The last time was Aug. 1st, 2016 and I was luckily off work and home.
If you can draw anything from our experiences it would be “Get the hell out of there”. Not only that but sell everything you have that won’t fit in a couple pickups and big trailers, toss your cellphones(or put them on a piece of equipment or some load where they’re hidden headed for NY or Ca. or Canada)and when you have all the money you’re going to get, leave in the middle of the night and do not return. Already have your mail forwarded to some place like a Fed Ex box somewhere someone you know can retrieve it and send it to some PO Box somewhere not in your name that it can be retrieved by someone else who will get it to you……however. I used to pick up mail from boxes in towns far away, box it up and ship it via the outfit I worked for to be delivered somewhere else. I should have used my own knowledge of doing that.
Once things quit coming to you try to forget where you ever lived and do your best to get new identities. Sue these rats and they’ll make you regret shit out of it. BTW, when you stay in the US just because your wife has “family” there and won’t leave, divorce her stupid ass and let HER deal with them.
Remember we are dealing with statutory “law.” That is, corporate policy. And to whom does it apply? Well, legal fictions, that’s who. It applies to “persons,” “drivers,” “individuals,” “NAMES.” Legal fictions, all. Of course, you can’t tell that to your local Barney Fife. He doesn’t know his ass from a hole the ground. But your local robed priest knows whats up.
But you must be very careful with these people. It’s a word game and they will do everything they can to trip you up. Remember this: you are a man and the NAME on your “driver” license is a fiction. They have jurisdiction over the NAME, but NOT the man.
The Snag? They will do ANYTHING to protect their extortion racket from folks that know the score. It’s a sad, sad state of affairs.
California Democrats legalize child prostitution
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/california-democrats-legalize-child-prostitution/article/2610540
First, in a free society, prostitution should not be illegal. Second, the bill doesn’t “legalize” child prostitution as the “john” or pimp is still subject to arrest. The bill removes the power of the Sate to burden those under 18 with an arrest or conviction record.
Section 647 of the Penal Code is amended to read:
647. Except as provided in paragraph (2) of subdivision (b) and subdivision (l), every person who commits any of the following acts is guilty of disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor:
(a) Who solicits anyone to engage in or who engages in lewd or dissolute conduct in any public place or in any place open to the public or exposed to public view.
(b) (1) Who solicits or who agrees to engage in or who engages in any act of prostitution. A person agrees to engage in an act of prostitution when, with specific intent to so engage, he or she manifests an acceptance of an offer or solicitation to so engage, regardless of whether the offer or solicitation was made by a person who also possessed the specific intent to engage in prostitution. No agreement to engage in an act of prostitution shall constitute a violation of this subdivision unless some act, in addition to the agreement, is done within this state in furtherance of the commission of an act of prostitution by the person agreeing to engage in that act. As used in this subdivision, “prostitution” includes any lewd act between persons for money or other consideration.
(2) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), this subdivision does not apply to a child under 18 years of age who is alleged to have engaged in conduct to receive money or other consideration that would, if committed by an adult, violate this subdivision. A commercially exploited child under this paragraph may be adjudged a dependent child of the court pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (b) of Section 300 of the Welfare and Institutions Code and may be taken into temporary custody pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 305 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, if the conditions allowing temporary custody without warrant are met.
I would conclude that the “system” knows exactly what it’s doing.
Which is why it needs re-booted. Violations of “the law” should not be based upon possibility or probability; they should only be based upon a real event happening.
The only crime that should ever be based upon possession is when the item is/was stolen from someone else. Any other form of possession should be deemed legal. This would eliminate 90% of drug arrests.
The concept of the peremptory crime is illogical.We are arresting people based upon the supposition that there’s a mere possibility that they might, in the future, do something that may cause a potential injury to some unknown individual. By that logic, the law could be written that an individual can only get out of bed on a specific side, otherwise getting out on the wrong side of the bed can be the root cause of you injuring someone in a car accident that morning on the way to work.
I have the suspicion that the end game is to give everyone a police record, then place requirements similar to probation on everyone, so that nothing would be able to be done without specific government permission.
When I was a teenager, we used to laugh at the way people in East Germany needed permission slips from the government to do anything. Sadly, we are now crying because the system has moved to the United States.
“…there’s a purpose behind this. It is to criminalize everyone for anything. To make it impossible for us to escape a cop – and the system – once it decides to focus attention on us.”
You’ve nailed it exactly — if THEY want to arrest you, THEY will find a “reason,” no matter how subjective. Problem is, once you’ve been arrested, even if you beat the charges, you’re screwed anyway. Your professional reputation has been ruined, it costs you money for an attorney, if you have a security clearance it’ll be revoked, etc. In New York state, ANY arrest, even if the charges are dismissed, will result in the CONFISCATION of all your handguns — and long guns too.
“Land of the free,” my ass. This country becomes more and more Soviet every day.
The bass player in my friend’s band consumed exactly one beer before the last set and put up his gear and left the gig. Let’s say it took him about an hour from consumption to pork encounter. He was pulled over for being on the road at an oddball hour. They smelled alcohol. 1.5 hours of wasted time and a State Trooper DUI recognition expert later they determined he had a BAC of 0.005. Below 0.05 BAC you’re safe in my State from getting a DUI.
They would have jailed me on some other charge I would have been so hot at the pork. I won’t even have one drink after hearing that story. As I said, I’m known for pissing pork off to the point the veins are bulging from their head.
Notice how all of a sudden (“Internet troubles”?) the DA now drops the charges. Surely the publicity of pursuing a case so flawed couldn’t possibly have affected her chances of becoming governor or perhaps a senator, could it? But they still have that wild card to play. Reckless driving. Always seen in the eye of the beholder, and cops behold perfectly. And how would the public not love her for continuing to persecute (sorry, prosecute) a reckless driver?
But a danger lies in “Internet troubles”. We have all praised the internet as our voice in overcoming government oppression here and abroad. In this case, it obviously scared the daylights out of authority. It is the average man’s way of speaking out and hearing that there are folks like him out there. But all our eggs are in one basket. What happens when the shit really hits the fan and the wires are pulled? We have nothing left but smoke signals. And authority knows it. I have no solution, just a warning that they still have us right where they want us when things get rough.
It’s called “mesh networks”…look it up. It’s a way to keep things going at least minimally until the big system is restored.
But even this assumes some means of “moving the data”. If phone lines are disabled, satellites are blocked, and even radio frequencies are jammed, how do you move the information from node to node? And in tight martial law, all of the above, and more, will be employed. My four computers may be able to talk to each other, but even that assumes no power interruptions longer than my UPS batteries and gasoline for my generator last.
Essentially we will be in a face-to-face mode of communications, and that precludes informing any but a small circle. And knowing how things work, at least one in every small circle will be either a rat or a coward and will cry (for) “Uncle”.
Hi Arylioa,
I am not sure what I’ll do in such a scenario… which I recognize is a bad plan.
I do have a backpack, gear – all ready. I could easily walk out my back door into the woods and… disappear. I could probably hike my way to Mexico, given time. Or, just live in the woods. Thousands of acres of empty forests all around me.
But that would be a nasty, brutish (and short) existence, no doubt.
If I were a younger man, I’d seriously consider just picking up sticks and moving to, say, Argentina – and starting over. But it’s too late for that, now.
So, come and get me, Clovers.
Read up on how things went down at Lexington and COncord back in APril 1775. You’ve likely heard of Paul Revere and his little horsey ride…. few also know about Billy Dawes, who left Dr, Warren’s office with Revere the night they started…. the pair rode out, different ways, to alert the patriots of the impending powder raid by General Gage’s underlings at Lexington and COncord. In the space of 12 hours more than FOURTEEN THOUSAND armed and trained patriots were in the field, marching to confront the British Regulars. No cell pnone, sland lnies, radios, telegraph, internet, tweets….. every town and crossroads within fifty miles of Boston exxcept for one crossroads got the word.. and mobilised.
The missing point here is, the ABC cop isn’t in this by herself. The government lawyers are in on this scam with her. Never forget, lawyers will grow anything and everything throuh, “wordsmithing” and this is a clear case of them doing that. Cops are nothing mean nothing more to lawyers than, useful idiots. Cops haven’t figured that one out yet. The overall bottom line is, government employees will circle the wagons for each other, one for all and all for one. The problem is government in itself.
btw/ As of January 1st 2017, under age children in CA can legally engage in prostitution and the police are not allow to arrest them.
“btw/ As of January 1st 2017, under age children in CA can legally engage in prostitution and the police are not allow to arrest them”.
Please provide evidence for this claim
This has been all over today:
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/california-democrats-legalize-child-prostitution/article/2610540#.WGXQ4vzIdA1.twitter
Remember, a liberal is typically unable to think something through far enough to reach its ultimate consequence, so nearly all liberal legislation is loaded with unintended consequences, which I believe, is the case here.
It’s not as if they wanted to legalize child prostitution, but in the course of “protecting” these children, the obvious consequence is that the hands of LEOs will be tied to the point of being unable to stop it.
Your tax dollars at work.
This cop should be stopped from further predations by any means that prove to be necessary.
It’s hard not to feel claustrophobic with de Tocqueville’s predicted soft tyranny gradually binding us. If only there were a second Mayflower and an open country to sail to. The last bastion of freedom may only be in our minds, as in the dystopian movie “Brazil,” but even now scanners are beginning to tell when we have ungood thoughts.
Screw technology–anything past, say, 1970.
Hi Ross,
I suppose most people grow nostalgic for the past as they get older; I am certainly guilty in that department. But it’s hard not to be nostalgic about a past America that, though far from perfect, compared favorably to places like East Germany.
Today’s America is East Germany with sail fawns.
DUI laws for caffeinated soda wouldn’t surprise me anymore. We had a four year sentence -er- tenure in the Northwest that mercifully ended in 2014, and, during the entire time, I never stopped hearing lectures about my Diet Coke habit from family, people in our social circle, and even complete strangers in the grocery store.
Hi Greg,
The “busybodyness” of modern Americans is depressing. These people who not only know best, but can’t help telling you and – if they get the chance – forcing you to their way of thinking.
“The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.” — Justice Louis Brandeis (1928)
Hi Larry,
I don’t give them the benefit of the doubt. I attribute to them the most evil characteristic a human being can be afflicted by: The urge to control others. Not well-meaning. But because they enjoy it. It gives them satisfaction. Observe, for example, a creature like Hillary. The gloating. The condescending, patronizing effrontery.
Well Greg, Diet Coke is a bad habit, but the diet part (aspartame) is worse than the Coke part. Some stores are starting to sell Mexican Coke, made with cane sugar instead of HFCS. But it’s not cheap.
PtB, there used to be a Dr. Pepper bottling plant in Dublin, Tx. that bottled Dr. Pep. They weren’t a corporate bottler so they often bottled with Imperial Pure Cane Sugar, quite a difference to regular Dr. Pep. They had a radius they could sell it and did so for decades but not many years ago Dr. Pep caught them selling to stores outside that area and shut them down. No more HFCS free DP and the bottling plant folded leaving costing a lot of jobs…..just because of a different ingredient.
Clover would say they deserved it but the truth was, they weren’t cutting into regular DP sales since it cost more than beer.
Yep – I haven’t drank Dr. Pecker since they closed Dublin as I won’t ingest HFCS. I choose HEB pure cane sugared Dr. B. now. Used to take the kids to Dublin to visit the Dr. Pepper bottler and grab a few cases. That was really a short sighted move by Dr. Pecker/Snapple. I still have some Dublin labeled bottles, maybe they’ll be worth something some day.
Phillip, my son travels abroad quite a bit and he tells me that in those countries that forbid HFCS there are no hideously deformed monsters walking around in those countries like there are in the US.
There is something very sinister about HFCS. And no amount of corporate/statist (one and the same) propaganda will ever convince me otherwise.
Hi Skunk,
Absolutely concur.
Anyone who is older than 40 today can remember the ’80s (and the ’70s)… hugely fat people were a rarity; a guy like John Belushi – considered a tubby guy back then – would be considered almost normal today. Yet people drank soda. It’s not like it’s a new thing.
Ah. But New Coke is (or was). Do you recall?
I do.
Circa 1986 or so, Coke changed the formula. Now, the interesting thing is that when they brought back “classic” Coke, it was not the same product as it had been before. It contained HFCS instead of sugar. A very clever bait and switch. Soon, other sodas used HFCS… and in other products, too.
Suddenly, Fatness Everywhere.
Grotesque obesity. Common. Normal.
See also: What they have done to wheat.
Hadn’t thought of it that way before, my dad always said “new” coke was a marketing ruse, but I bet you’re right, it was a con to get us to embrace coke “classic” when it was brought back after a short absense, while really it was a diversion to change the original to HFCS, while we weren’t looking.
eric, I recall Coke drinkers saying it was different, didn’t taste the same.
I didn’t dig too deep at the time. I was just glad that it tasted so much better than ‘New Coke.’ I did my own blind taste test and couldn’t tell the difference between New Coke and Pepsi – which I don’t care for at all. Then a few years ago when I began hearing about what was going on w/HFCS I wondered it that had not been the plan all along.
Eric, yeah, I am 55 and I remember the whole “New Coke” fiasco. But I never thought about it being the time coke switched to HFCS in the coke “classic”. Makes sense though and does explain a lot.
Interestingly, Pepsi makes real sugar Pepsi and Mt Dew which I enjoy every now and then. But Coke has not followed suit by offering real sugar Coke. Wonder why.
Mexican Coke is real sugar and I have one of them every now and then too but they do not taste the same as I remember the old Coke did. Maybe its the Mexican water.
The problem is too that HFCS has replaced sugar in so many things now. Catsup to bread, that crap is in just about everything. But I see a lot of new products that are boasting of being HFCS free now and I purchase them exclusively. I am certainly not a health food zealot but some things are just not food and should not be eaten.
Let me be clear here though: Not for a second am I suggesting any sort of ban on anything. I do not care what one chooses to put into their own body. I am not a contemptible busybody.
Hey Skunk,
“Let me be clear here though: Not for a second am I suggesting any sort of ban on anything. I do not care what one chooses to put into their own body. I am not a contemptible busybody”.
The dominance of HFCS is the result of GovCo interference. Namely, corn subsidies and import tariffs. Remove those and HFCS would almost certainly disappear, no bans required.
Jeremy
Jeremy, full agree.
Although as a “conspiracy nut” I also think that US amerikans have been purposely used as unwitting guinea pigs in frankeinfood experiments so methinks there is more than just the profit motive at play here. Of course you cannot have one without the other.
I suppose I fucked up not drinking Coke or their Orange drink, whatever it’s name might be. That was all I saw people drinking but I saw no fat people a dozen years ago.
I didn’t know when I went to Mexico Coke had a lock on the entire country and you wouldn’t see any other US soft drink there. They seemed to drink plenty of Coke or the orange drink and I always drank beer(no, hell no, not Corona……and wouldn’t even ride the horse it came from).
We went out in the country one day and this was in the mountains. A small river valley had a good field that was full of malanga but sugar cane grew wild all around it. I’ve had sugar cane most of my life(you don’t see it any longer)at a certain time of the year. But just cutting some fresh and stripping it down and chewing it was very good.
At the time I still drank soft drinks but this was right before I quit. My cousin and I went to Wally before we crossed the border and had several cases of regular Dr. Pep and sugar free.
Everybody went crazy for it, since unknown to us, it wasn’t sold in Mexico. Everywhere I went I’d come back to my pickup and people would be drinking Dr. Pep and say, I hope you don’t mind I drank one of your Dr. Pep’s. Hell no, if you’re that deprived I’m glad to trip your trigger soft drink wise.
I’d bet peddling Dr. Pep there would get you in jail or prison quickly. It’s no laughing matter to Coca Cola.
Another thing we’ve been lured into addiction to is gluten. It’s added to everything including beer and soft drinks. You know those people who need their fix of a soft drink in the morning or something else they crave, such as everything fast food comapnies sell, are just answering their need for their fix of gluten.
READ the ingredients to learn whether HFCS is used or not. Simple. Once you understand what that rot does to your entire body you will avoid it. Mexican coke and peksi, and their amazing Jarritos sodas, (tropical fruits, real flavour, and pure cane) are tasty, no HFCS, and not that bad in price. I rarely drink even them but do at times.
And yes, HFCS is brought to us by an alphabet soup gummint agency (USDA, FDA) seriously in bed/debt to big ag and the sugar industry here in the USA. It is far cheaper to produce and transport, easy to use in manufacturing, and the dirty secret of the American food insudtry. I even read labels on bread, breakfast cereals, salad dressings, jams and jellies, juices, coffee sweeteners, most caned/boxed premade food items, ketchup (Heinz brought their original back, its called “Simply Heinz” and tastes just like it did when I was a kid, and no HFCS
The mention of Beria: Go back and read the bio of Beria, and remember, this character was not from hundreds of years ago, but just in the past 70 years. Combine that, with things like ISIS, and there is just as much pure human evil in the world today, as there was a thousand years ago.
Beria was a government goon cop on steroids. And his type is around today, manning such things as radar guns and “breathalyzer” equipment.
People that value freedom ought to present an annual “Beria Award” for the most disgusting example of copping.
“And his type is around today, manning such things as radar guns and “breathalyzer” equipment.” Not to mention red light cameras and similar items that aren’t even ‘manned,’ just programmed.
Aljer, you are on to it. “Beria” is not so much a person as it is a mindset – a sick, twisted mindset.
While I am certainly not a “religionist” I do see the wisdom of the admonition against men trying to be a “god” i.e. one man trying to claim authority over another man. AKA busybodyness. No man can claim authority over another man who is not harming another.
What baffles me is that 99.9% of human beings cannot seem to understand this most simple and basic Natural Law.
ANY amount of measurable alcohol in you system can be prosecuted as DUI if the officer thinks you are impaired. So says the North Carolina HP PR rep in this interview…
http://wbt.com/episodes/carolina-focus-12-18-16-dr-richard-land-apologetics-salisbury-nat-cemetery-expansion-nchp-holiday-enforcement-charlotte-rescue-mission-dental-health-dr-dove-new-cms-super/
Who says railroads are in decline? This case proves that railroading is indeed still viable in the US.
Being a tinfoiler , my guess is “knows EXACTLY what it’s doing”.
Joseph Schwab was pulled over by a California cop – an Alcoholic Beverage Control cop – who accused him of cutting her off and driving “erratically.”
This is a factor that only excacerbates the problem. Putting women in ANY position involving authority or that requires the ability to make a split-second life-or-death decision involving critical thinking and objective analysis of facts in evidence is pure foolhardiness.
While most “men” occupying such jobs today are clearly no better (the result of a feminist-dominated education and legal system that is designed to erase all natural traces of masculinity from them), women are structurally unable to cope with the demands of these jobs. This is evident in the excessively petty and petulent reaction to Mr. Schwab by this AA porkette, one no doubt over the top even by swine standards. Why this overreaction?
Because any she-cop knows that both physically and mentally she is no match for even the weakest and most dim-witted male civilian potential suspect she encounters. She has no choice but to overreact and overcompensate by making her hammer a jackhammer and by attempting to overproject authoritah, even knowing that she has an army of testosterone at the ready as backup. This inevitably and unnecessarily escalates a confrontation that can otherwise be avoided – and that stands an excellent chance of getting porkette hurt or killed. The only reason that more porkettes are not routinely killed or injured is that nearly all police departments have an unwritten rule that female cops must be partnered with male cops. You will never see a pair of she-oinkers operating by themselves. That would be a bloodbath –and a lawsuit– waiting to happen.
Libberatner, well said and therefore fully agreed.
Estrogen, despite the incessant shrilling (is there any other kind of shrilling?) of anti-female females, is indeed a factor.
And FTR I do also include the power of estrogen over all pheroes, both female and (alleged) males.
I am confident that Schwab can likely beat this charge, but I am equally confident that neither the ABC agent nor the prosecutor will lose their jobs, or face any other penalty, for arbitrarily persecuting this man. When government apparatchiks break the law, there are rarely, if ever, any consequences for it.
Even if Schwab does beat the charge, it will still cost him boatloads of money, time and trouble to do it.
Hi Dervish,
Charges have been dropped. Not because the prosecutor realized she was wrong, but because she couldn’t prove what she “knows to be true”.
“Abrams still believes some drug other than caffeine was in Schwab’s system, but that testing didn’t reveal it”
“The attention from the press or the media or the social media would never dictate what we do in a case,” Abrams said. “As my dad always says, ‘shut out the noise and do what’s right.'”
Of course none of these people will be punished. They believe that petty harassment, vindictive prosecution, wasting tax dollars, etc… is “doing what’s right”.
http://www.kcra.com/article/da-drops-dui-charge-after-fairfield-man-tests-positive-for-caffeine/8543519
Jeremy
The entitlement there is breath-taking. Too bad we don’t tar and feather corrupt officials anymore, sometimes the point has to be driven home.
This is a simple uncomplicated case.
The hero was angered by the mundane’s driving.
Because his only authority was substance enforcement. He pursued the case the only way he could.
The system wants to stay in power and won’t rule against itself.
This Stalinesque reality makes clear why detailed analyses of the authority system are a waste of time.
Perhaps Trump will be able to restore legitimacy to the system, perhaps not.
Until then concentrate on creating value and not getting caught by your enemies.
For now the laws are neither here nor there. Do as you know is right as best you can.
Meanwhile, lawless cops turn NY City Highways into their personal bumper car rides jeopardizing citizens lives for fun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsaSHqd3beY
But no one in the media cares, no one in the City bureaucracy cares, let alone NYPD and CCRB – (No one even responded). Yet us lowly AMERICAN Citizens are now stripped of all Constitutional Rights and are made criminals for driving under the influence of Juan Valdez.
With every amassing outrage, we are witness to the fertile grounds of violent resistance being seeded
Hi Thought,
Agreed.
For now, I urge practicing avoidance and evasion; running under the radar, as they say. But a time may come when even that is no longer feasible.
40 years ago I went to the Highway Dept. as it used to be known. They produced all sorts of road maps. One book cover a large portion of west and northwest Tx. county by county. They were aerial maps so everything showed including turn rows and even some county roads that had reverted to turnrows. In some areas getting on a state or US hiway was unavoidable due to large ranches. We could make our way though via county roads, mainly just graded dirt from our house near Sweetwater to the high plains with only a short stretch of driving on state hiways.
Every now and then we’d load up with guns and ammo and beer and ice and tear off for the upper panhandle where various friends lived. We eventually knew the turnrows we could drive that cut between areas of back and forth on county roads. Once on the high plains some turnrows were comfortable 70 mph traveling…..but watch out for new cuts for irrigation ditches. We could probably still do this but the chances of meeting LEO’s of various sorts on the state paved roads would be greatly increased.
I have trouble having sympathy for a left lane blocker though.