From: Henryindivideo@webtv.net   
      
   POTOk, I can't hold back any longer!  How STUPID are those new   
   "anti-pot" commercials?    
   "It's more harmful than we all think."    
   Please!  My ass it is!!!!  And the sad part is, people are SO easily   
   lead!  They'll believe anything if it's explained to them the right   
   way.  In case you don't know what I'm talking about, let me tell you   
   about these commercials.    
   Commercial Number One:  Pot causes accidental shootings.    
   Two boys are sitting in a room.  One boy is in a leather arm chair   
   behind a large desk.  A wall of books are behind him.  Another boy   
   is sitting diagonal him with a bong.  The room is full smoke, and both   
   boys are speaking slowly and about nothing in particular.  Then the   
   boy behind the desk picks up a gun and says, 'hey, look at this, it's my   
   father's gun.'  And his friend asks, 'is it loaded?'  The first boy   
   responds, 'no,' and lazily points the barrel at his friend.  The gun   
   goes off, everything fades to black,  and a voice tells us that pot   
   'distorts our sense of reality.'    
   Scary, huh?  That kid was so high he didn't even realize how dangerous   
   a weapon a gun is.    
   But... wait a minute.  What was a gun doing there in the first   
   place?  Just laying around where anybody could pick it up, instead of   
   locked up somewhere.  And... wait just one second longer.  What the   
   FUCK was it doing loaded?  What kind of idiot leaves a loaded gun   
   lying around?  And, while we're at it, let's continue this little   
   critique.  Those kids appeared to be smoking in a study.  A study   
   clouded with smoke.  Now, I'm no expert on smoke, but I'd say a smell   
   like that would linger.  So, either these boys are REALLY stupid (as   
   stupid as the father who left a loaded gun on his desk and seemingly   
   forgot about it) or they're not afraid of getting caught.  Why   
   wouldn't they be afraid of getting caught?  Either their parents are   
   ok with it, or, more likely, these parents pay so little attention to   
   their kids that they'd never even notice.  So, what's the real lesson   
   this commercial teaches us?  That parental neglect is bad.  And,   
   possibly, that some people just shouldn't have children, because it   
   you're stupid enough to leave a loaded gun on your desk, you're probably   
   stupid enough to hand a grenade to your toddler and say "Hold this while   
   daddy gets a beer!  Don't pull that pin, kay junior?"   
   Commercial Number Two:  Pot causes rape.    
   So, in this one we're at a party.  The kids appear to be middle school   
   aged.  The house is buzzing with conversation, and we're looking at a   
   couch where a boy and a girl are sitting.  The girl's smoking a bowl,   
   and each time the door bell rings she gets up to get the door.  Each   
   time she sits down again she's a little more high.  Eventually, she   
   sits down and looks like she's ready to fall asleep.  The boy on the   
   couch notices this, and puts his hand down her shirt.  As the picture   
   fades to black we hear her weakly say "no.."  Then the voice from the   
   beyond tells us that that pot impairs our decision making abilities.    
   Well.  This one is different, isn't it?  There's no gun involved.    
   This is just two kids at a party, something that could really happen.    
   In fact, rapes at parties happen all the time.  This commercial is   
   much scarier.    
   Except... well.. where are that girl's parents?  She's obviously the   
   hostess, and she appears to be under the age of 15.  When I was 15 I   
   wasn't allowed to kick my parents out for a party.  But maybe they   
   went out for the evening, or the weekend.  So, she's a good girl, she   
   gets peer pressured into having a party her parents don't know about,   
   she decides to smoke a little weed.  Ok.  So far, this commercial   
   makes sense.  And so far, this commercial seems harmless.  The bad   
   stuff starts happening when that boy sticks his hand down the girl's   
   shirt.  Since the boy hasn't been shown smoking, we're going to assume   
   that it wasn't the pot that caused him to be overtaken by hormones and   
   lose his sense of moral judgement.  We're going to assume that he's   
   just a bad egg to begin with.  That simplifies things.    
   First of all, she made her decision.  She said no.  Lots of women   
   who aren't high say no and get raped anyway.  So I don't think that   
   has anything to do with it.  She has enough state of mind to say no,   
   but she says it so weakly that we're left to assume she cannot defend   
   herself.  My first thought is, doesn't she have any friends at this   
   party?  Friends who would protect her?  Apparently not.  My second   
   thought is, even if she didn't have friends, is everyone going to stand   
   around and watch her get molested?  It's happened before, so maybe.    
   Then my thoughts drift to the fact that it is VERY unlikely pot would   
   make her so out of it that she would let herself get raped.  Pot's   
   just not that kind of drug, unless you're especially susceptible to it,   
   and I doubt many people are.  The problem with this commercial is that   
   it's unrealistic.  Getting so high that a threat to your person   
   doesn't snap you out of it is EXTREMELY difficult with pot.    
   There is a drug out there that will do that to you mess you up so bad   
   you won't be able to defend yourself against rape.  Depending on how   
   much of this drug you intake, you may not realize your being raped.    
   When you wake up the next day, you may not even remember it happened.    
   This drug is called alcohol, and it's widely accepted, popular, even   
   consumed at formal dinners by our president.    
   Commercial Number Three:  Pot causes little girls to get hit by cars.   
   This one has to be the best.  A car full of men are at a drive   
   through.  Smoke pours out the window.  Someone says "may I take your   
   order" and the driver responds with something stupid.  This is   
   repeated ("May I take your order" "Got any air?") until the driver   
   realizes he has no money.  One of his passengers says go, go, go!    
   And they haul ass out of the drive through.  Right into a little girl   
   on a pink bike.  A voice from the deep tells us that pot shows our   
   reaction time.    
   This one sucks.  All that little girl was doing was minding her own   
   business.  In the above two examples, the victims were smoking.  In   
   this commercial, she's completely innocent.  Are you scared yet?    
   Because the government wants you to be.    
   Let's look at this a little more in depth.  The real flaw in this   
   commercial is this:  Where did that little girl come from in the first   
   place?  To my best knowledge, they don't put fast food restaurants in   
   residential sections.  So this little girl was riding her bike on a   
   commercial street without parental supervision.  That say something   
   about her parents, doesn't it?  ("Hey, have you seen little Molly   
   today?"  "Yeah, she went out to play on the frozen lake about an hour   
   ago.")  Also... don't you think the same thing could have happened to   
   a perfectly sober SUV driver on a cell phone?  Think about it.  He's   
   late for a meeting, so he gets a quick bite to eat.  He's talking with   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)