The fallen angel

 

What’s wrong with Satan? Satan is the angel with cojones to stand up against a totalitarian dictatorship. Metamorphosed as “el Tio” (the Uncle), he is the protector of the miners of Potosi, one of the most oppressed people in the world. You rarely hear of crimes committed by Satanists, and when you do, it’s mainly propaganda from other religious sects. No Satanist is out there, blowing himself up in the name of the Angel of Light like others do in the name of Islam or Buddhism. No Satanist is fostering rabid nationalism like Orthodox patriarchs. No Satanist is hindering science and the sexual well being of Africans like the Catholic Church. No Satanist is building illegal settlements on the West Bank because he was told to do so by his Master. No Satanist is starting wars in Mesopotamia guided by Baalzebub. So please, a bit of sympathy for an unfairly smeared angel.

Reverend Monbiot takes on Charlie users

Monbiot has just got it wrong again and wrote a piece of puritan cant lambasting cocaine snorters for their immoral consumer habits. I don’t do drugs, but for some Scotch once in a while and the puff I very occasionally give to my pipe. I also have to say that I find most drug users boring. The war on drugs is something that really interests me and I know I am a chatter-box, and yet I can’t see the point of talking hours and hours about the last substance that got you high. But that’s my shot. The problem with our failed policies on drugs is how entangled they’re with the unhealthy rigid moral code of the Pilgrims and their ilk. I couldn’t resist and shot at one of George’s most idiotic comments.

Drug production should remain illegal, possession and use should be decriminalised (…) Every year cocaine causes some 20,000 deaths in Colombia and displaces several hundred thousand people from their homes. Children are blown up by landmines; indigenous people are enslaved; villagers are tortured and killed; rainforests are razed

That’s why production has to be legalized as well, George. All the problems you talk about happen where the drug is produced, not where it is consumed. In the latter, it has filled our jails up, raised violent crime and more often than not, corrupted the police. The stupid idea that drugs are bad for you is what has to be challenged. All drugs like cocaine, heroine and morphine can be used as pain killers. Marijuana can be used to treat nausea. They can also be used as recreation drugs, such as tobacco or alcohol are. The problem is abuse and addiction, not use. Legalize production and you’ll create huge revenues for local peasants, while giving a severe blow to the mafias that control the illegal traffic. Legalize consumption and tax it, and the NHS will be able to give every person in the country first class service.

Will addiction disappear? I don’t think so, and it even may go up, but it’s all the by-products of prohibition what is destroying our social fabric, not addiction. You can even be an addict and get your degree and have a career. My dad got his BA and PhD taking huge doses of amphetamines during exams. Then he stopped and never got addicted to them, but he could study 12 hours a day. He could buy them at the chemist’s. He didn’t need to mug an old lady to get money for his pills and the bribe for the police.

The law of the land

Inayat Bunglawala wrote an article on Cif supporting “the work shari’ah councils do” in Britain. His main argument to defend that jump back to the seventh century was that… 

The supremacy of English law has always been acknowledged by Beth Din courts that have existed and operated for decades in the UK. Never has the authority of English law been questioned in relation to the arbitration offered by the Jewish courts

If English law is what calls the tune, why do you need parallel courts (Beth Din or Shari’ah councils), then? Equal justice under law. That’s the principle upon which society has escaped from feudalism. In my view, the decisions of any of such courts have as much legal value as my Monopoly currency.