# Six of one, half dozen of another. Pubs and demmies **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 2, 2004, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-of-one-half-dozen-of-another-pubs-and-demmies/248188 "2004-06-02T02:37:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Razorsharp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/53a042/32.png) [@Razorsharp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Razorsharp)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-of-one-half-dozen-of-another-pubs-and-demmies/248188/41 "2004-06-12T13:38:30Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > “Neo-Israel”? I’ve never seen that phrase before. Did you invent it? I assume you mean it to distinguish the modern state of Israel from the ancient kingdom that was destroyed by the Assyrians. But why? Who would confuse them? Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and the rest of the Religious Right. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-of-one-half-dozen-of-another-pubs-and-demmies/248188/42 "2004-06-12T19:34:20Z")
> [@Razorsharp](#): > > Problem is, the illuminati of the left don’t really give one whit about personal freedom or choice. “Illuminati”? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-of-one-half-dozen-of-another-pubs-and-demmies/248188/43 "2004-06-12T20:02:34Z")
Anyone interested in this thread might want to check out another GD thread I just started: “Nader and Buchanan find common ground?” > **[Nader and Buchanan find common ground?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=261070)** > > The June 21, 2004 issue of The American Conservative, Pat Buchanan’s new paleoconservative weekly, carries an interview of Ralph Nader by Pat Buchanan. Now, when you put America’s leading left-progressive maverick in the same room with America’s... ---
**Author:** ![Razorsharp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/53a042/32.png) [@Razorsharp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Razorsharp)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2004, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-of-one-half-dozen-of-another-pubs-and-demmies/248188/44 "2004-06-13T14:04:10Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > “Illuminati”? Yes, a self-annointed intelligensia who look upon themselves as endowed with a supremacy to lord over the proletariat. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2004, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-of-one-half-dozen-of-another-pubs-and-demmies/248188/45 "2004-06-14T00:08:50Z")
> [@Razorsharp](#): > > Yes, a self-annointed intelligensia who look upon themselves as endowed with a supremacy to lord over the proletariat. At the moment, **Razorsharp,** that would be the neoconservatives. _Heute die Welt, morgens das Sonnensystem!_ Fnord! ---
**Author:** ![Razorsharp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/53a042/32.png) [@Razorsharp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Razorsharp)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2004, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-of-one-half-dozen-of-another-pubs-and-demmies/248188/46 "2004-06-14T12:29:19Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > At the moment, **Razorsharp,** that would be the neoconservatives. Which leads us right back to the premise of “Six of one, half doxen of another”. Anyway, back to a point I made earlier, do you think that the Clinton administration was right in evoking federal law to prohibit the citizens of Arizona and California from using marijuana for medicinal purposes? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2004, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-of-one-half-dozen-of-another-pubs-and-demmies/248188/47 "2004-06-14T19:24:36Z")
> [@Razorsharp](#): > > Which leads us right back to the premise of “Six of one, half doxen of another”. Anyway, back to a point I made earlier, do you think that the Clinton administration was right in evoking federal law to prohibit the citizens of Arizona and California from using marijuana for medicinal purposes? No, I don’t – but only because I’m pro-legalization of marijuana, not because I question the legitimacy of the federal government’s involvement in such questions. In fact, ideally I would like to see weed legalized by Congressional fiat in **every** state including those whose state governments are too conservative to consider the idea. Politically impossible, of course. And there’s no constitutional way to do it, not unless SCOTUS decides the Constitution’s implicit “penumbra of personal privacy” they recognized in _Roe v. Wade_ is so broad that it extends to deciding what substances you can put in your body. Which isn’t going to happen in this decade or the next. _sigh_ ---
**Author:** ![Razorsharp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/53a042/32.png) [@Razorsharp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Razorsharp)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-of-one-half-dozen-of-another-pubs-and-demmies/248188/48 "2004-06-15T18:32:34Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > No, I don’t – but only because I’m pro-legalization of marijuana, not because I question the legitimacy of the federal government’s involvement in such questions. The legitimacy of the federal government’s involvement is beside the point. The Clinton administration had the option to stay out of it, but instead, choose to interject the Fed’s involvement and threaten the citizens of Arizona and California with prosecution of federal law. I bet that really came as a shock to the members of NORML, who, I bet, voted 100% for Clinton. As I have been trying to point out, and to the premise of the OP, it’s six of one, half dozen of another. The Democratic party is just fooling its constituency that it is the party of personal freedom and choice. Only when it suits the powers-that-be. Otherwise, the sentiments of freedom and choice be damned. Every knee shall bow. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-of-one-half-dozen-of-another-pubs-and-demmies/248188/49 "2004-06-15T19:59:18Z")
> [@Razorsharp](#): > > The legitimacy of the federal government’s involvement is beside the point. The Clinton administration had the option to stay out of it, but instead, choose to interject the Fed’s involvement and threaten the citizens of Arizona and California with prosecution of federal law. I bet that really came as a shock to the members of NORML, who, I bet, voted 100% for Clinton. > > As I have been trying to point out, and to the premise of the OP, it’s six of one, half dozen of another. The Democratic party is just fooling its constituency that it is the party of personal freedom and choice. Only when it suits the powers-that-be. Otherwise, the sentiments of freedom and choice be damned. Every knee shall bow. So . . . where does that leave us? Do you think we shouldn’t go to the polls at all because voting only encourages them? Or is there a third-party movement out there you support? And how do you feel about electoral-system reforms designed to open the field to third parties, such as instant-runoff voting, ballot fusion, and proportional representation? (We’ve had GD threads on all of these – I started several of them.) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2004, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-of-one-half-dozen-of-another-pubs-and-demmies/248188/50 "2004-06-16T04:15:14Z")
– On that note, see current GD thread, “What do you think about proportional representation in the US House of Reps?” – [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=261571](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=261571) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-of-one-half-dozen-of-another-pubs-and-demmies/248188.md?page=2)