Re: What do we have in common?

Just some more friendly discussion here, MP, nothing more:-)....but....

Your example is NOT a good one... There's a HUGE difference between smoking a joint and having sex in front of the whole crowd. In principle, yes, it's the same, but in REALITY it's way different.

Let's look at a different but similar example: My guess (assumption) is that you drink alcohol (since most people do). I'll bet you don't give a 2nd thought to having a drink in a restaurant in front of whole crowds of people, despite what others think of the practice. Even if this is not true with YOU personally, it's true with millions of drinkers -- people take it for granted that it's acceptable -- so it is with smoking pot for others.

To be offended by someone smoking a joint seems to me to be just as ludicrous as someone being offened by your drinking in a restaurant. Both positions are ridiculous -- unreasonable positions -- and you wouldn't expect to be criticized for doing it. Forget for the moment that pot is not fully legal yet: that's coming and then you'll HAVE to accept the practice just as you have accepted alcohol. Actually, pot has been decriminalized in California (possession of under an ounce), so don't try the "pot is illegal therefore your example is erroneous" argument.

I mean, really! How can anyone be offended by someone smoking a joint? Presumably, they're not getting that alleged 2nd hand smoke, so that's NOT the issue for the objection. And how is smoking pot any more offensive than you drinking in a restaurant in front of non-drinkers? Life makes no guarantee that your sensibilities will not be upset. There are no guarantees that everyone will agree with your sense of right and wrong. What irrationality makes people think they can "legislate" morality? -- cuz it's just that: a moral judgement against the other person and an attempt to coerce the other person to subscribe to your pet morality issue.

Let's get a grip here: Seems to me that a larger "moral" issue would be the nudity, yet no one has brought that one up yet. Maybe it's because we all agree IT'S OUR DAMNED RIGHT TO DO AS WE PLEASE SO LONG AS WE HURT NO ONE (but ourselves). It appears also that what we have here is selective morality. Where it offends the senses, we try to stop it. Where we agree (and participate) in it, we accept it. What happened to just enjoyment of the Springs?

Let's leave the politics at the Ranch and just enjoy ourselves in the way we all agree hurts no one or the Springs. Our common enemy are those who do NOT respect the Springs and peaceful enjoyment of it.