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pot

My main gripe with pot smokers isn't that I don't like my public bathrooms smelling the way they do... it's the fact that they're implicitly supporting the violence that is going on in Mexico. Drug users in general provide the major source of revenue for violent groups (e.g. those that kill US troops in Afghanistan).

So I understand the whole legalize pot mentality (and I think it's sort of bogus), but until pot - of the non-medicinal variety - is legalized, there really is no excuse for smoking it. It irks me that pot smokers in SF are so blatant about it. I'm surprised there isn't some sort of statewide campaign to label pot smoking as unpatriotic (or something else, I don't think pot smokers in general are too keen about being patriotic).

As for legalizing pot... if it were up to me, tobacco products would be illegal. Alcohol wouldn't. There are responsible ways to drink alcohol, there aren't any responsible ways to smoke or chew. Besides, the government has a history of regulating self-destructive behavior (e.g. seatbelt laws and suicide laws). But I don't feel strongly either way.

taiwan

Now I know what it feels like to be illiterate... well, more like illiterate and mute. The other day I was at a restaurant, and when it was my turn to order all I knew how to do was point at different pictures on the menu and say "can I have this?", haha.

I've always wondered how different I'd be if I had grown up in Asia. The culture and language (does one influence the other?) certainly would have made me a different person. But more importantly, the set of people I could relate to would be completely different. I'm sure there are people here I could probably be good friends with if they had only grown up in the states; right now, though, my relationships with them are limited to the superficial-type. Not that this is an incredible tragedy (it's not like I'm super social and have deep relationships with everyone back home), but the idea that some people are fundamentally "off-limits", to me anyway, is weird? Although really, personality differences often create larger barriers than any cultural differences could.