Ah, Voting

As Tim already said, the coffee tax in Seattle was shot down, by a large margin. Personally, the tax revolt has been ongoing for the past few years in Seattle, with the judiciary siding with the tax-hungry politicians when the politicos bring it to the court. However, the people keep speaking, and taxes keep getting shot down. Last year is was the gas tax, the year before that was taxes and fees on car tabs, and now the coffee tax. The one question I have for the people here is this: If you don't like taxes, why do you keep voting socialists into office?

The other measure on the ballot was an inititive to make posession of small amounts of marijuana a "low priority" for law enforcement. I've got mixed feelings on this one. On one hand, I hate pot. I hate being around people who are high, and my allergies give me a headache whenever I'm near pot smoke. I honestly think that smoking dope effects you a lot more than people say it does.

On the other hand, nobody smokes a joint and shoots up a Mini-Mart. Nobody smokes a joint and goes on a axe-handle killing spree. They smoke a bowl, eat a twinkie, giggle at the crappy movies on late night TV, and go to bed. The argument could be made that alcohol does more damage than pot, both monetarily and physically. Is driving high any worse than driving drunk? And more importantly, on the subject of what law enforcement can do, would I rather the cops chase a dope smoker, or a crack smoker?

Well, that's an easy question, isn't it? A crackhead bothers me more than a pothead. Someone tweaking on meth is more likely to hurt me than a dope smoker. When I was an MP, I never worried about a pothead raging out of control. It was crack/meth/PCP, so on and so forth.

So I'm kinda mixed. Anyone else have thoughts on this?