Pubdate: Thu, 23 Apr 2015
Source: Reno News & Review (NV)
Copyright: 2015, Chico Community Publishing, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.newsreview.com/issues/reno/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2524
Author: J.R. Reynolds

FOX NEWS LIES

Re "Borders on slander" (Letters to the Editor, April 2):

It may seem odd to some individuals that I am hardly a "member of the 
elite liberal progressive class," as, apparently, some folks on the 
right (and please forgive me for using labels here, but I do so 
merely to make a point) have labeled me. Evidently, I have given this 
impression because I questioned the role of Congress. Seriously, I 
believed they represented the people. The former and current Congress 
may not be the worst in our history, but it's darned close. The 
manner in which some members of Congress conduct themselves is beyond 
shameful. Spending so much energy on vilifying the sitting president 
is schoolyard bullshit. You may get standing ovations and cheers from 
the part of your constituency that really hates the president, but 
you're not getting anything done. And that is why sitting members of 
Congress should be working to get things done! It is called 
compromise, folks. It's finding some common ground somewhere and 
working on it. Perhaps some of Sen. Dean Heller's fellow senators can 
take a cue from our GOP senator from Nevada. He's far from perfect, 
but at least he tries to get things done for his home state and for 
his country. We "liberals" can applaud him for that.

Then I had the audacity to claim that FOX, in particular, will be 
caught in a lie almost on a daily basis without providing a shred of 
evidence. Slanderous! Dude, Jon Stewart made a living exposing the 
crazy shit that goes on the air over there. And Rush Limbaugh reminds 
me of a professional wrestler. You must realize, at some point, how 
phony he is, but his antics are so entertaining you listen anyway. 
Personally, I admire the guy. There's much to be said about 
longevity. So, when Professor Rush, with his many degrees in science, 
says that climate change is a hoax, well, I guess that's it, then.

My favorite, though, is the drug war. To think that after a lifetime 
of treating the marijuana plant as the "devil weed," some people 
presumably still believe Reefer Madness is a serious, factual film 
about pot use. This is where I truly believe ignorance reigns. 
Marijuana is not a threat, and yet, billions of dollars, perhaps in 
the hundreds of billions, is wasted on a drug war that has reaped 
wasted lives, families torn apart, and crime. And with this madness 
we seem to have forgotten the hemp plant a possible answer to at 
least part of our environmental problems, and yet, research is 
scarce. For more than 70 years we have endured one lame excuse after 
another why we are not taking advantage of one of the most useful 
plants on this earth. Imagine a headline: Last Year We Produced 
Enough Paper out of Hemp to save One Billion Trees! Instead, 
marijuana becomes a Schedule One drug, more harmful and more 
dangerous than heroin or cocaine. This is what I call insanity.

J.R. Reynolds

Reno
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