new coup for you

Leave Lindsay A-Lohan!
Or: Republican Scandal, the Beautiful People and False Consciousness

Imagine before you a line, and to your left and right all of the people of this great nation. A booming commands you: All those who have driven after drinking, step back from the line!

Do you step back from the line? 80% of Americans (self admittedly) do.
The voice continues.
All those who have smoked marijuana take a further step back!
Do continue to stand firm? 47% percent of Americans take a further step back.
All those who have used cocaine!
A much small portion steps back this time, only about 5%.
Now for the big one…All those who have had sex outside of marriage!
Nearly everyone steps back. Certainly yourself.
With more then 20 partners!
About one in ten women, and one in three men take another step.
The voice continues…

How far are you from the line? How many steps back? Is it really that many fewer then Lindsay? What are we really punishing her for? And who’s punishing her? Cocaine is illegal, but do we really want to put 5% of all Americans in jail? Do we really want to put 47% of Americans in jail? 80%?

And are one in ten women and one in three men in this country immoral hedonists?

And what if we adjust these figures for race and income level? We’d have to imprison entire segments of the population. Many argue that’s exactly what we’re doing.

If we hold ourselves to the standards we hold Lindsay how many of us are “good” people?

Lindsay’s pretty, Lindsay’s rich, Lindsay does drugs and has sex. She generally has a great time.

Why can’t that be something to be celebrated, instead of demonized? Isn’t fun…fun?


Send Lindsay to jail if it makes you feel better. But you know who will never see the inside of a jail cell? The following:

Not Tom Delay, for brutalizing our representative system and brazen corruption.

Not Scooter Libby, for similarly warping our government and behaving as a political enforcer of the Bush administration’s ideology.

Not Alberto Gonzalez, for allowing, defending and aiding the Bush administration in illegally wiretapping thousands of US citizens.

Cocaine, booze, sex with people I don’t know…

OR

Threatening the function of popular rule, forcing our government officials to adopt one monolithic ideology and systematic surveillance of our populace without legal transparency…

Personally I think exposing Wonderbead devouring suburbanites to cocaine and weird sex at young ages would probably be a positive force in American culture. Are Megachurches and Halliburton really less dangerous then drugs and sluttiness? Doing ecstasy and forgetting to wear panties has yet to involve America in an unwinnable foreign war. I’d rather have a country of Nicole Richies and Lindsay Lohans then a country of Jerry Falwells and George W. Bushes. Nicole and Lindsay can dance. And they’re nice to gay people.

Me and Lindsay are going to Europe. **** this country.

1069

I don't care how much cocaine Linday Lohan- or you yourself, for that matter- do; however, when you become an apologist for driving under the influence, there's a problem.

__________________
Lightdemon: "Is 10 going to outer space or something?"
Jerry: "...yes, 10 is going to outerspace."

new coup for you

we all drive under the influence. it's inevitable.

this is how i see it:

when you leave you're house you are make a tacit compromise witht the world: you get the benefits of roads and culture and food you didn't have to grow yourself and all the other things living around other people brings you BUT you might get run over, shot, stabbed and raped

that's just how it is

1069

No, we do not. No, it is not.
I, for one, have never "driven under the influence".
Although, to be fair, I rarely drink, and only learned to drive a couple of years ago.
Those factors aside, however, I'm sure I'm not alone.
I know many people who don't drink at all, and many more- especially parents- who are conscientious drivers and would never dream of getting behind the wheel while inebriated.

new coup for you

I see three inescapble facts here:

1. Society needs a release valve. That would be substances. Large masses of people CANNOT live around each other for extended periods of time without substance consumption. I think history teaches us this.

2. America is a driving country. Personally, I live in the city. I rarely ever drive. But I understand that, that is not the norm.

3. People do not live in bars and many places don't have available mass transit or cabs.

Im willing to compromise my safety. I dont have a gun, and don't like them. I live in a neighborhood where shooting and robbing white homos seems like a good idea to many of the residences. But i understand that my safety is not worth more then the satisifaction of all of those people who keep voting gun control away. Im willing to play, why isnt anyone else?

WI Crippler

Don't let the door hit you in the *** on the way out.

And take the religious fundies with you too( you can drop them off in the ocean on the way over ), we don't want them either.

__________________
"What Jesus fails to appreciate is that it's the meek who are the problem."- Reg

americanwoman

Lohan makes millions of dollars. I think she could afford to have a driver at her beck and call 24/7. She is having fun yes, but she is also young and stupid and that is a dealy combination. I myself live have 3 bars within a 3 block radius to my house so I don't drink and drive. If I choose to go to a bar outside my neighborhood I make sure I have a sober driver.

It doesn't take Albert Einstein to know that it's cool to have a good time and do whatever you want but not at the expense of innocent bystanders.

RightinNYC

The two situations are not analogous, so to try to draw conclusions about one vis a vis the other is useless.

A better question would be why Lindsay and Paris go to jail while Patrick Kennedy gets off with a $350 fine.

__________________
People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.

new coup for you

THAT is a totally fair point, for which i have no response.

I've often wondered why they don't have drivers too.

rathi

Drinking and driving is dangerous and not. comparable to having sex, smoking pot or even doing coke. I party with great vigor and intensity. If I see some random person having sex while high, its fine. They get into a car drunk, I stop them. Why? Because maybe I'm person they crash into and kill. Using substances is about personality responsibility, drinking and driving is the responsibility of everyone on the road.

__________________
He'd be right at home on some ancient battlefield, swinging an axe into somebody's face.