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DEMOCRATS PICK LAUGHING GAS OVER FRACKING

Doubtless the writer of the article from the Los Angeles Times in a recent Daily Press was not trying to be funny, but that report on the recent convention of the California Democrats certainly gave that impression.  "Democrats call for marijuana legalization, fracking ban," was the headline for the piece.

But what a laugh.  Nobody needs marijuana except a tiny handful of ill people, but everybody not wanting to live in a third-world country needs natural gas.  Yet California Democrats unanimously "support the legalization, regulation and taxation of marijuana, in a manner similar to that of tobacco or alcohol," and an immediate ban on fracking ( a method of extracting natural gas ), according to the party's platform.

As to marijuana, what is "similar" about it to tobacco and alcohol? Long before the latter came under government control, they were widely used and abused, culminating in campaigns to restrain their use or even to convince people to give them up altogether.  A couple of generations ago, hardly anybody smoked marijuana, but the pied pipers of the hallucinogenic world charmed many onto the primrose path.  Where are the equivalent campaigns today to "just say no" or "if you blow, don't go"?

One doesn't have to be a psychic to figure out that the campaign is actually to treat marijuana in a manner decidedly dissimilar to alcohol and tobacco.  The motivation is actually libertarian ( read: libertine ), not the public good.  Even Gov.  Jerry ( Moonbeam ) Brown recently wondered out loud how good citizenship is possible if more people are "stoned." Already, there are signs that the legalization of marijuana in Washington and Colorado is degrading the public mind and sound policy.

Rather than being a curse, as Democrats evidently believe, oil and natural gas obtained by fracking is a blessing.  Almost overnight, our country and state have been freed from the tyranny of Middle Eastern oil states.  It also makes it possible for us to export these natural resources to our friends abroad, most notably the Ukrainians fighting for their freedom from Russian domination.

According to the Times, our governor took some grief on this issue, as "protesters ( kept ) interrupting ( his ) speech to the convention Saturday, unhappy that he has not moved to ban the controversial practice, which involves injecting chemicals, sand and water deep into the ground to release oil and gas." But there is no evidence that fracking causes environmental damage, as corporations have minimized the effects on soil and water almost to zero.

The real agenda of fracking's enemies is to reduce our dependence on misnamed "fossil fuels" and boost the far more expensive and less efficient "green" energy schemes of solar, wind and geothermal.  And that in turn is part of the left's animus against free markets, which they unfairly blame for all pollution and which they mean to stifle, if not destroy.

I don't know if the enemies of fracking smoke marijuana, but if they do it would certainly keep them from thinking clearly and enslave them to their passions.  After all, on both proposals ( amid cheering ) no debate was held and only a voice vote was taken, like Communist Party congresses in the days of Soviet rule in Russia and its conquered provinces.

This "soft despotism" that simultaneously encourages bread and circuses and stifles enterprise will not long remain soft as muddle-headed citizens are brought into "hard" despotism that has no tolerance for people still in their senses.