Category Archives: Alcohol

Alcohol, Keep it Metal!, Motorcycles, Suicide Silence

RIP Mitch Lucker

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Mitch Lucker, vocalist for Suicide Silence, died yesterday.

Mitch was a heavy metal dad.

Some things in life are happy accidents. Like the fact that Suicide Silence vocalist Mitch Lucker is releasing his band’s second album, ‘No Time to Bleed,’ on June 30, the same day his daughter turns two. When he’s not touring, the 24-year-old Lucker is a full time dad. “I go from two extremes,” Lucker told Noisecreep. “From being full-time on tour for three months straights to flying home and being at her beck and call until I go to bed! That’s also my job. They’re both me. I wouldn’t have it any other way!”

Being his daughter’s primary caregiver presents a conundrum for Lucker and that’s leaving her for brief spurts to tour the country. “It’s the hardest thing I deal with, but what I’m doing is the reason we have a roof over our heads and that I can take care of her. I hate being gone, but my family couldn’t survive without me going on tour. Tons of fathers out there don’t want to wake up and go to work, but they have to, in order provide. I don’t consider Suicide Silence work. I just tell her, ‘Daddy is going to leave and go play music now!'” Lucker makes the separation bearable through technology like Skype and his cell phone, saying, “It’s cool to be able to be elsewhere and hear her.”

Lucker’s daughter is probably the youngest attendee at Suicide Silence shows, too. “We put the decibel-eliminating headphones on her and she is super entertained.” Her first show wasn’t Suicide Silence, though; it was Circa Survive’s Anthony Green on a solo tour. “The bus dropped me off at the end of the Mayhem tour and that night, I took her to the show. She sat her on my shoulders. As long as there are lights, movement and music, that girl is happy. She saw me performing, telling the crowd to jump up and put their hands in air. I looked over at her in the corner on stage and she was jumping up and down and dancing, too!” And with that, Lucker pulls the phone from his mouth and says, “Hi, baby. Don’t tell mommy ‘no.’ You have to take your vitamins.” He comes back to the interview conversation, saying, “She’s gotta take her vitamins, you know?”

You only get one shot. Why’d you have to disengage, Mitch? A question that will remain unanswered.

One thing’s for sure, though. Alcohol and motorcycles don’t mix.

He’s an alcoholic, and it’s a been a big battle. And I tried to stop him. I was in front of him begging him not to leave the house. Begging him. Like, ‘Just seriously, for us, don’t leave.’ And he did. And this is what happened. I mean, It’s a wake-up call. He’s an amazing man. He’s a wonderful father and a great husband. And now he’s gonna miss out on watching [his five-year-old daughter] Kena grow, because he decided to drink and ride. Just don’t. Just think before you guys do something stupid. Please learn from this. Please.

Alcohol, Freedom, Jihad on Drugs™, Libertarianz, Live Like It's Legal, Tax

The 4:20 tax plan

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Every man and his dog has a tax plan.

Here’s mine.

1. A $20,000 tax-free income threshold
2. A flat rate of 20% on all personal income over $20,000.
3. A flat rate of 20% on all corporate income.
4. GST to be phased out and replaced with an excise tax of 20% on alcohol, tobacco and cannabis.

I call it the 4:20 tax plan. With a name like that, how could it not get the wasted vote?!

Alcohol, ALCP, Christian Libertarianism, Consciousness, Democracy, Faith, Freedom, Galatians, Hedonism, Heroism, Intelligent Design, Jihad on Drugs™, John, Justice, Keep it Metal!, Kingdom of Heaven, Libertarianz, Live Like It's Legal, Love, Luke, Mark, Matthew, Merciful Grace, Meta-ethics, Monism vs Dualism, Motorcycles, Necrophilia, Parables, Paul, Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Physics, Pink Floyd, Propaganda, Psychology, Religious Toleration, Revelation, Revolution, Riddles, Righteous Rants, Salvation, Science, Self-sacrifice, Semantics, Slashing Bureaucracy, Slayer, Theism, There is a God!, Thomas Jefferson, Totalitarianism, Treaty of Waitangi, Venting Spleen, Vote Wikiriwhi!, Zombies

Eternal Vigilance… In Da House.

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Communion. Christian Libertarians / Eternal Vigilance bloggers Reed, Richard, and Twikiriwhi. Liberty Conference. Crowne Hotel. Auckland. 6-10-12.

It was great to meet you Reed, and to catch up again with you Richard.
HAHAHA! Check out our Halo’s!
“…And there appeared on their heads Cloven tounges… as of Fire…”
(Acts2vs3) 🙂

Alcohol, Jihad on Drugs™, Labour Party, Libertarianz, Nanny State, National Party, Privacy, Prohibition, Propaganda, Sheeple, Slashing Bureaucracy

Trained circus seals

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On Facebook, a libertarian friend posts

Sue Bradford complains:

“Bennett & English begin promoting next round of welfare changes – this time, it’s drug testing of beneficiaries. No thought appears to be given to lack of adequate A & D services, consequences to personal & family health & well being if you have no income, & downstream medical, police, court, prison & other costs. All aimed at appealing to beneficiary bashing vote, again, sadly.”

If you choose to take drugs, then get done when they stay in your system, any resulting consequences are of your own doing – so deal with them like a mature adult. It’s called taking personal responsibility. How hard is this to understand?

My response? Sue Bradford is right, for once. Here’s a post from my old blog that explains why.

[Reprised from beNZylpiperazine, August 2007. Five years later, National has picked up where Labour left off and nothing much has changed.]

What is it with right-wingers and their fetish for trained circus seals?

Popular among right-wingers is the following proposed solution to the problem of welfare abuse: make welfare beneficiaries jump through hoops. Exactly which hoops it’s thought welfare beneficiaries should jump through depends on the right-winger making the proposal. What particularly irks me is the suggestion put forward here.

Shouldn’t one have to pass a urine test to get a welfare cheque because I have to pass one to earn it for them??

Please understand – I have no problem with helping people get back on their feet.

I do on the other hand have a problem with helping someone sit on their arse drinking piss & smoking dope all day.

Surely, paying people to sit on their arses drinking piss and smoking dope all day is one of the better uses of government money. But I digress. There is an obvious problem with the proposal. If you make passing a urine test a condition of eligibility for the dole, this will have the unintended consequence of inducing people to apply for the sickness benefit as alcoholics or drug addicts, where failing a urine test is a condition of eligibility.

It’s all far too reminiscent of Jenny Shipley’s failed and embarrassing 1998 Code of Social and Family Responsibility. [PDF]

The truth is, there is only one solution to the problem of welfare abuse – remove the state entirely from the provision of welfare and devolve that responsibility to voluntary charities and private insurance companies – and only one political party advocating this solution – Libertarianz. Here are a couple of ideas which may (or may not) be part of the soon-to-be-announced Libertarianz transitional social welfare policy.

First, stop treating “alcoholism” and “drug addiction” as afflictions which qualify the afflicted for the sickness benefit. Drug addiction is a lifestyle choice, not a disease.

Second, put a six month time limit on the unemployment benefit. I don’t mean that beneficiaries should cease to receive the dole after they’ve been on it six months. I mean that all unemployment beneficiaries should cease to receive the dole six months after the policy is implemented. So, if the policy were to be implemented tomorrow, the unemployment benefit would be off the WINZ menu come February next year. Six months should be ample time to find a job. Perhaps some right-wingers might offer employment opportunities for professional trained circus seals.

Alcohol, Prohibition

Brewin up a Storm! Popcorn vs The State.

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Now here is the first of 11 youtube vids about the last batch of Moonshine old Popcorn Sutton made in the classic ‘Covert style’ in the hills before he made the ultimate protest against tyranical laws… he committed Suicide… rather than do time in the Boob for the so-called crime of brewin likker. This set of vids is an American Libertarian Classic! As you watch this son of a son of a shinner you will hear HillBilly Libertarian Gems!(His Grand Pa helped build the local Baptist church with his ‘Non-taxible’ income!).
It is in the Best spirit of Civil disobedience and refusal to be subjected by tyranny. He talks about suffering Oppression. He admits he was forced to quit, but his Rebel Spirit against Tyranny never left him, he simply got too old to carry on. He’s an inspriraition!Loved his Good Lady and his two model A Fords. God Bless Him! (What? A Christian praisin a Devils Brewer?… Did not Jesus turn Water Into Wine?)
Tim Wikiriwhi

Alcohol, Freedom, Meta-ethics

Attempted murder is a victimless crime

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By definition, there are no murder victims.

Suppose you board a bus with a suicide bomber. At the appointed stop, the suicide bomber pulls the cord to detonate the belt of explosives around her waist, hidden under her jacket … and nothing happens. She lives to die another day. No one on the bus, including you, is any the wiser. There are no victims that day. But a crime has been committed. Attempted murder is a serious crime. A victimless crime, but a serious crime, nonetheless.

If you drive home blind drunk at 150 kph, with your children unseatbelted in the back and passenger seats, and you’re fortunate enough that there is no oncoming traffic on the several occasions when you veer into the other lane … and you and your children arrive home safely … it’s a victimless crime. But a crime has been committed. Driving while drunk is a crime. A victimless crime, but a crime, nonetheless.

There are obvious differences between the two cases. The suicide bomber intends to initiate lethal force against others, and the odds of success are relatively high. Whereas the drunk driver does not have murderous intent, and the odds of killing anyone are relatively low.

There are laws against attempted murder and laws against drunk driving. As there should be. But why?

Some libertarians get themselves into a tangle trying to justify a prohibition on drunk driving. At first glance, the non-initiation of force (NIOF) principle seems insufficient to justify a law against drunk driving. The drunk driver who arrives home safely does not, and does not intend to, initiate force against other road users. A common libertarian perspective is one where drunk driving is seen as a breach of contract between the road user and the road owner. In a libertarian utopia, roads are privately owned, and the road owner sets the terms of road use. When it’s in the commercial interests of road owners to offer safe passage to road users (as, almost invariably, it will be), sobriety will be a contractual obligation. Take this perspective, and you get the right answer … but for the wrong reason.

Drunk driving is wrong, not because it is a breach of contract (implicit in the case of our state-operated roads), but because it endangers the lives of others. It’s really quite simple. There ought to be a law against drunk driving because there ought to be a law against endangering the lives of others.

Provisos apply.

Please note carefully. In cases where it is other adults only whose lives are endangered, and those adults have consented to having their lives endangered, no laws should apply.

Roads are dangerous places. When I go for a drive, I’m endangering my own life and that of others, simply by being behind the wheel, sober or otherwise. But there ought to be no law against driving per se, even though such a law would dramatically lower the road toll. But why not?

It’s really quite simple. It’s a matter of degree. The question is, where to draw the line? And the answer is, at 80 milligrams per 100 millilitres of blood.

The above figure is arbitrary, and blood alcohol level is only a proxy for driver impairment, but this approach to endangerment is right in principle. Importantly, we can quantify the risk that a driver who has been drinking poses to other road users. We can multiply the chances of a fatal collision by the number of lives lost in the collision and come up with a number. And we can set a threshold. If the number is over the threshold, you’re too drunk to legally drive. If the number is below the threshold, it’s legal to risk getting behind the wheel.

We can apply the principle of an endangerment threshold to other issues, including the issue of parents endangering the lives of their children: allowing their children to climb trees, be vaccinated, be unvaccinated, ride bikes without helmets, travel to dangerous countries, sail, eat food cooked on an unlicensed Komodo Kamado or have their children live with them in Lyttelton houses in danger of being flattened by falling boulders.

In all cases, the same endangerment threshold should apply. Is the risk of staying with your children in your Lyttelton house more or less than driving them to safety after you’ve had one drink too many?

And one last question. Who gets to decide?

Alcohol, Jihad on Drugs™, National Party, Prohibition, Vote 2011

Death penalty for dealing P?

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Kiwis and Aussies are the world’s biggest stoners. But we already knew that. “Experts are not surprised by new research showing New Zealand and Australia share the highest rates of cannabis and methamphetamine use in the world,” says the NZ Herald.

Here’s something I didn’t know. I clicked on the Herald’s handy related links and discovered that intelligent children are more likely than their less intelligent peers to use illegal drugs in later life, according to a study which has found a link between high IQ scores and drug use. Well, who’d’ve thought? I must be a genius!

Will de Cleene has an informative post showing where (else) in the world to find the stoners, the coke heads, the smack heads, the ravers, the speed freaks, the smokers and the drunks. Check it out.

After serving the standard sound-bites from the executive director of the New Zealand Drug Foundation, Ross Bell, the Herald reports some remarks from former police officer and managing director of “methamphetamine eduction company” MethCon, Dale Kirk.

“We’ve treated cannabis as a soft drug and we’ve ignored the risk of methamphetamine use, and unfortunately we’re playing catch-up.

“We’re now seeing initiatives from the Government aimed at the supply end, which are having some effect, I believe, yet it’s a little bit too late.”

Mr Kirk said the right way to tackle the drug problem was a mixed approach, including punitive measures like harsher sentences, more education, and more resources to treat addicts.

Harsher sentences? What can Kirk possibly be proposing? The maximum sentence for the sale, manufacture or importation of methamphetamine is already life imprisonment. How do you get harsher than that? The death penalty?

Methamphetamine had a devastating effect on families and communities, he said.

“I’m speaking to people all the time in the community who have family members who are affected by methamphetamine, and it is a consistent theme that you hear – it’s a downward spiral in their life, everything else takes secondary interest to the drugs.

“They lose families, they lose jobs, they lose money – and obviously ultimately they can lose their lives.”

Ultimately, yes, if we ever allow drug fascists like Kirk to have their way. Unfortunately, Kirk’s predecessor, Mike Sabin, is now in government as the MP for Northland.

In the picture above, sourced from Sabin’s own website, Sabin gives the thumbs up to alcohol, a drug responsible for more social ills than P and all illegal drugs combined.

Sabin is an enemy of freedom and sane drug policy. Watch this space.

Alcohol, Freedom, Jihad on Drugs™, Prohibition

Government Crackdown on Alcohol Kills.

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Here is another doozie for all you Controlfreaks out there who think Heavy measures ought to be taken to curb Alcohol consumption in NZ.

Read this NZ hearld article… ‘NZ rugby tourist’s fatal Bali cocktail’
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10770049

Note in particular that… Michael Denton, 29, died after consuming a drink believed to contain a distilled local alcohol called arak, which in 2009 killed dozens of people, including four foreigners.

And…

A month after Michael Denton died, a warning appeared on the Foreign Ministry’s safe-travel website warning that arak was often mixed with fruit juice. It said anyone trying it should ensure it came in a sealed bottle from a commercial distillery.

Authorities in Indonesia have blamed rogue producers in small factories that have started after crackdowns on alcohol imports.
**************************************
There you have it. All prohibition achieves is that it exposes innocent people to Dangerous products.
Tim Wikiriwhi.
For more on this subject See my Blog post : Prohibition is a Bad trip.
http://blog.eternalvigilance.me/2011/11/prohibition-is-a-bad-trip/