Welcome to Nice Ashes, I'm Nate. And I'm Mike. Now what in the heck are we smoking tonight, Mike? Well on a theme from a previous episode, we are starting our CAO Flavors extravaganza. And the one we're smoking tonight is the one I've had. I've never tried any of the other ones, but it is the CAO Moontrans. And how would you describe this flavor? It is officially bourbon vanilla. And the wrapper itself is a little sweet. Yes I noticed that. And the smoke is sweet as well. Alright so I'm lit.
It is a bit sweet, it's not, I would say initially it's not overpoweringly sweet. No, in my experience these have not been overpowering. They're just not nice. You know what? It took me about four or five puffs to finally get the vanilla. I'm not getting a whole lot of bourbon right now flavor, but the vanilla is coming through. Bourbon vanilla is a type of vanilla. Yes, I believe, I think. I can do some internet research and find that out real quick.
I thought it was bourbon with vanilla, but I don't know. So far I like it. It's a good change from our Kohiba Black that we smoked last episode. I wouldn't probably want to smoke two of these in a row. Just initially thoughts out into the void. But you know I also don't necessarily want to drink like two hard seltzers in a row either. Yes. But speaking of drinking. Oh yes, drinking. Well you do the bourbon vanilla thing first.
Okay bourbon vanilla is a type of vanilla and it is the OG powerful vanilla from Mexico. So for those of us who go to Mexico occasionally and pick up the big bottle of pure Mexican vanilla that is bourbon vanilla. That's why it's so good because it's the real stuff. Got it. Yes. Well I do like this vanilla flavor. Does not taste artificial really. You know it's got a nice feel, nice taste profile to it. Yes. I would say.
I'm drinking with my cigar an Insight Vibe which is a New England IPA from a Minnesota brewery. And I am drinking Michelob Golden Light because I had some extras from my trip. And a nice clean crisp light beer is perfect for a cigar like this I think. Yes. Any beer is a good beer if you like it. Yes. I saw that on a bumper sticker once. No I didn't. I just was trying to be prophetic but I'm not. Again, we always have this disclaimer for those listeners outside of the Northern Territories.
McGolden Light is a kind of like a Bud Light another light. It's a lot regional. It's better. I think it's better. But it's along the same vein. So real quick about McGolden Light. This is an interesting story for me and maybe not for you. But I didn't force you to subscribe to our podcast. So here we are. One of my good buddies spent many, many, many, many years. He's eight years older than me so many, many, many years. Many years bartending.
And I for some reason in my head I thought Coors Light was the end all be all for light beers. And I had gone to the bar he was bartending at and drunkenly, not so drunkenly, drunkenly, maybe I don't know. I wasn't there. Mentioned that Coors Light was the best light beer. And he goes hold up fucker and what he did is he blind poured me a taste test. We did a blind taste test right there in his bar. He poured Bud Light, Coors Light and McGolden Light.
And he said McGolden Light is the best light beer you can ever drink. And I said no way dude. And so he poured me those three and he mixed them up behind the bar in little shot glasses and I tasted them. And the one that I liked the best sure as shit was McGolden Light. Compared if you do a blind taste test with the three of them is very weird. It's very interesting because the Coors Light even though you think it's better than Bud Light, I don't know.
I might rank it the least least tasty of all of them and it just has to do with their marketing I guess. So that's really like the power of marketing. But if you do a blind taste test, you know McGolden, I'd drink McGolden if I was drinking Bud Light beer. Yeah. It's kind of a special treat for my friends who aren't from this area because they don't have access to it. Okay. So anytime you can get something it's kind of like Yinglings on the East Coast. Yeah we just had some of that.
One of our neighbors brought back a 12 pack for us and it was good. I liked it. I really like Yinglings. You can't get it here in Minnesota. No you can't. I actually saw a guy fishing who had Yinglings and I didn't have any beer on me but if I did I would have tried to trade him one. Yeah you would have traded. Here's a McGolden for a Yingling. A Yingling is the oldest brewery in America though. It's the first brewery. So that's kind of their claim to fame. And their beer is tasty. It is.
All right what are we talking about tonight Mike? This morning. Whenever you're listening. Whatever time it is on your clock right now you look and then that's what we're talking about right now. Yes. I believe the topic today is going to be the leak. The leak that we had from the Supreme Court. And not Roe v Wade. Oh yes. Roe v Wade. Okay. I think like just additionally up front. Let's just up front. Both Mike and myself are men. We do not have uteruses. We know this. We understand this.
We're going to say some things I'm sure that will be offensive to somebody somewhere somehow some way. Additionally I would like to say because this does matter Nate and I are both in a position where abortion is likely not going to be a part of our lives at this point. Because we're both stable adults in stable relationships and you know if my Sarah got pregnant we would not have an abortion. So it's not really not really something that personally affects either one of us.
Nate has a child as well. So you know that it's not going to affect him and his wife. So but we're going to we're going to try and be objective with this discussion and hopefully not piss too many people off. But well I'm sure I know because I have a pretty hard line stance. Okay well very very hard line stance. Okay let's let's get into it then. What's your hard line stance? Let's just get that out of the way and then we can talk.
Sure. Unborn children are not citizens of the United States and they do not have rights. It's not about morality. It's not what's right and wrong. Government policy is not about what's right and what's wrong. It's about laws and what the rights of citizens and oftentimes governments do things that are not morally right. That's why we have we round up illegal illegal aliens even though they're fleeing war torn poor places and they're trying just trying to work and feed their families.
That's why we get into wars. That's why we do all sorts of things. We as in our society our government is not a moral force. It's just a function of our society and it makes laws to make everything functions more smoothly right. There's not a moral element in fixing the road. There's not a moral element to regulating pollution in my opinion. Or regulating flavored cigars. Right a lot of people try to bring emotion and morality into government functions and that is not how good government works.
Good government works on just facts and focusing on the facts and the fact is is that a woman carrying a child is a citizen and the unborn child is not. So the woman has all the rights and the unborn child has zero of the rights. That's just the way the laws have to work in order for our society to function.
If we look at nature right a lot of other species that their children are their offspring I don't know some people get kind of messed up when you talk about pets or animals as like people or whatever so the other animals offspring are usually born and then in an hour a couple hours they're like good to go mostly you know yeah they still need their mom for food, nursements and protection but they are up there running they're walking
they're jumping whatever and us our evolution has favored the brain so it keeps us in for as long as the brain needs to cook and then we're out and we need you know the year, year and a half to actually be able to walk around longer to speak cohesively coherently to other people to communicate. So you could say that a fetus in the womb if you were to say well you can't abort this fetus because it is a person well take it out and you're going to find out really quickly that it's not.
It most certainly is not. It can't sustain itself. It can't breathe on its own. It can't even find food on its own. You know a baby human abandoned on a doorstep if nobody checks the doorway it will die. It doesn't have the means to feed. It doesn't have the means to protect itself. It can't move. It can't even roll over yet. I mean that's a developmental milestone is being able to roll over for humans.
Right and for those listeners who are trying to argue against Nate he's talking about wild animals not domesticated animals. A lot of people have experience with domesticated animals and a lot of times domesticated animals are helpless for weeks and months. Yes. But that's because we domesticated them and made them that way. A dog cannot survive away from human society. We purposefully evolve those animals to be dependent on us.
Yeah. And it's crazy because sometimes it doesn't even have to do with evolution. There's a Raptor Center here in Minneapolis and they rescue eagles and falcons and other Raptors birds of prey. And there are some that are there and they say this bird can never ever be released back to the wild even though we're here to rehabilitate them and to release them. That's our core mission. But if they've become too humanized or too dependent on humans they cannot go back. They'll just die.
You know and so I can see on one hand if we're going to stick with the Raptor Center. Let's stick with the Raptor Center just for a moment. You save a Raptor, you rehabilitate it and you say to truly be a Raptor you need to be in the wild. Well if you release it in the wild it will be killed or die of starvation. And then the Raptor you spent all that time and effort on that was all wasted more or less because maybe you bought it a couple extra months or a year but it wasn't ready to go back.
And part of the way that humans have evolved is we're very tribal and social and you know you need that I don't know if you need the full 18 years but you certainly need I don't know I don't know if it's six I don't know where it would be where you could go and actually kind of like survive on your own. It would depend on where you're from and where you live for sure because in a big city it's different than out in the wilderness or out in a more rural setting.
But that's part of part of how we've evolved is our children our offspring they're dependent on us for a good chunk of their early lives and without that input it's very very detrimental and life-threatening in some cases. Oh absolutely. Children are extremely labor intensive for a decade at least a decade.
Yeah our daughter she loved she loved playing in the snow and she would play out there literally all day but in Minnesota here it gets below zero and she doesn't know that she doesn't know what frostbite is she doesn't know what exposure is and if we weren't watching her and didn't bring her in when she started getting cold even if she couldn't tell that she was cold or couldn't articulate that she was cold you know there's there's certain things like
there's environmental factors to to consider as well. Absolutely but this is just kind of a lengthy way of saying or trying to say that we're trying really to look at this from as many angles as we can without becoming overly passionate about one side or the other because like most things in American politics or just American society because football teams can be very divisive and you can get to the very the us versus them argument very very quickly in anything that you try and talk about with
Americans very quickly and especially when people try to bring up morality because that's like your opinion man you know you that's not a fact you can't back that up with evidence you can make moralistic arguments but you can't it's not like one plus one equals two you know. And maybe and maybe this is a good kind of piggyback off of our last episode when you were talking about the the Treaty of Tripoli where we're not and never have been and maybe until recently a Christian nation.
Right right you know. Right and neither one of us are Christians so that does skew our perception. Excuse it. Not that I was raised Catholic so I do understand. Yeah I was raised Lutheran which is Catholic light so. Right. You know we have less Latin but just kind of you know as much kind of strict adherence to random random ramblings from the sky. The Bible I mean. Oh geez that's that's that's that's a zinger that's going to make people upset. Good. Let's get get your heart pumping.
Sure heart disease is one of the leading killers of Americans so let's let's get that blood pressure up a little bit. Let's let's delve into this first and foremost I think I should say this out front. I am not concerned in the least about the leak from the Supreme Court. I don't care that it happened. I don't care who did it. I don't want them to be punished. Our our our court of the land should not be secret. I don't care about the leak as much as I care about what was leaked.
See and I will come up I will say that I am not I'm not against the leak. I think that it was politically motivated who knows by who. There's various factors that go into it and I ultimately don't think that Roe versus Wade being struck down is going to matter ultimately because people who support abortion are the majority and the states that have a lot of Democrats are already have legal abortion it won't change.
The states that are run by the anti-abortion forces generally Republicans already restrict abortion extremely. I think that eventually those states will loosen up their abortions regulations due to public pressure. Unless there's some crazy riot there won't be any immediate change unfortunately people will suffer usually poor women typically poor women or teenagers. See that's what I was going to say.
You know that's who's getting abortions to begin with are poor women and you know disadvantaged women and teenagers or women that have our their life is threatened or who've been raped you know there's usually not a good situation. I mean I should say 100 percent of the time there's reasons why people get abortions and it's because it's not good.
I don't have any proof of this but I saw something that said that you know the people who outlaw abortions are the same people who will drive their kids to the abortion clinic or will pay extra to have a kind of a clandestine abortion where nobody knows of it.
And I think it just kind of comes down to if you're in the ruling class you're not the average citizen whether that citizen is wealthy or poor if you're in the ruling class a politician or a corporation that sponsors or has bought in several politicians you know what the laws don't matter to them and they're going to do whatever they do and mostly what they do is kind of two faced and is really for some.
The best way to explain this is kind of like I've been reading Dune in the Dune series and I'm halfway through the second book already but one of the lines in there is like plans within plans within plans and so some of this stuff like we're just not going to understand like why does what is a Republican conservative Republican Christian want to restrict abortions when maybe they themselves have driven their daughter or their son's girlfriend to go get an abortion like what's in it for them.
I don't know I couldn't tell you it's something that I can't I can't put a number on I can't put a figure on because I'm not in that in that circle in that realm. I don't know what all happens happens there. The polling shows that about about 25 percent of the country is a hundred percent against abortion and then about 60 percent are for abortion in some fashion of which about 25 percent are like me where it's like abortion all the way like I don't care. It's not a matter of morality to me.
I don't think that abortion is a good thing and I wouldn't I'm not a participant in abortions. I would say that it's not right for me to do for me but I look at it purely from just a government angle. You know government is not a moral entity. It does all sorts of things that are morally wrong but it does it for practical reasons and abortion exists for practical reasons because we have poor people. You know we have prostitutes we have rapes we have teenagers who get pregnant.
These are factors in society that we have not alleviated and we have people that for whatever reason the pregnancy doesn't go as planned and could threaten the mother. Sure. Absolutely. You know absolutely and that's and I think bring up as well. Yeah. Well how about this. How about this. I'd say it's not a poor woman. I'd say it's a slightly well to do woman and she gets pregnant but you know that doesn't fit with her plan for her life. That's her right or.
Okay. I mean that's what I'm trying to get at because there are some people that say like if you're limiting women's right to choose regardless of class and I would say. I don't want any limitations on it. It's not my business. No it's not my business either. I'm just saying that you know you hear all these arguments from the pros and the anti's. Sure right. My argument is typically not made in public because people aren't very philosophical about what the role of government is.
They can choose what they want the government to do based on whatever their opinion is at the time. Yeah same with the Bible. Absolutely. So for those readers who don't know me obviously readers listeners who don't know me I was heavily influenced by John Stuart Mill who wrote on liberty and who wrote utilitarianism and I pretty much agree 100 percent with those two treatises.
For those who don't know utilitarianism is the concept that decisions should be made based on what brings about the quote unquote greatest happiness which I generally think how the is how the government should be run and on liberty is a statement that says the individual should be free to do whatever they want as long as it does not directly harm another individual not indirectly but directly harm somebody else. See that's similar to to my thoughts.
I don't know where it came from or where it started out but the my right to swing my fist ends at your face is is basically like a summation. Right. Of that. Not not saying that you know given somebody the old one too isn't sometimes called for but it's usually only in self-defense. Usually speaking you can't just go waylay somebody because they called you a bad name online or something like that.
But then we get into that definition of directly harming another individual and we've got people that that say an unborn fetus is an individual. Well that's where utilitarianism comes in. Right the government has to run as a utilitarian entity in order to be fair and prosperous and well run.
And unfortunately because of where our society works the greatest utility is that citizens have rights and non-citizens don't because we as a society give benefits and rights and perks to being a citizen and you have to in order to give benefits and perks you have to exclude people who are part of the group. And we don't give social security numbers to unborn children. Right this is social security. Now you're part of the system.
So let's talk about that because you're born and you don't necessarily have to file for the social security number right away. So are you telling me that if you put off filing for the social security number that you could choose to post a post abort your child. Very interesting. I did not know that the parent had the option not to file for social security number. I figured it was automatic. You know it's I don't think it's no well it's not necessarily automatic.
It's something you certainly have to do but the hospital doesn't really care. You know what I'm saying. You have to fill out the birth certificate. Kind of like your service card you know like you have to fill it out.
Yeah I don't you know I'm not sure you have to fill out the birth certificate but I know that you know until the birth certificate is filed anyway you don't you're not assigned a social security number and it takes the social security office some time to assign one because they have all those numbers to count I guess. Sure we're kind of splitting hairs here but you know what I mean. Well no but I'm doing this as part of a devil's advocate. Yes that's true.
Because I want to let's like delve into it a little bit. Sure. Because you know we're a modern society and even non-modern societies had bureaucracy. So your child was born let's say you've got I don't know if there's a if there's a limit between how long you can go before picking a name. You know I mean and filling out the birth certificate like there's I'm sure there's some statute of limitations like you have to do it at a certain point.
But then but then that's that if you if you would sit there and say until you have a social security number you're not a citizen you don't have rights you're not an individual. There's like a two maybe a two week window between everything being you know agreed upon name wise and sent in and filed and then returned. Sure. Would that also be a legal time to terminate the pregnancy?
You know I would say that from a government perspective they have to establish some point at which you become a citizen and have rights. So if it was at the point of birth or is it at the point of you know at social security I would say it has to be when you have a social security number. Well okay so here's the other question because legally legally if you're born on American soil you're an American citizen. Absolutely.
That's why we have so many foreigners that come in and they call them anchor babies and if that's a racist term I'm sorry but I don't know what else to call them. Sure. So then but they wouldn't have a social security number immediately either. It's just they were born here. Oh they would have a social security number if they're a citizen. Yeah but did they file the proper paperwork? Well that's another question. Yeah I know. That's another question. That's why I'm asking it.
By the way update I'm about halfway done with my cigar. You're only halfway done? I'm only halfway done. Oh Mike Mike Mike. I'm just about to the little wrapper the little. Oh I took my wrapper out right away. What's it called? A band. I've only got about an inch and a half left of the cigar. Oh see and I have a good two inches left. I've been smoking it slow. I usually like this a lighter tasting tobacco. Very smooth. Yeah it's very smooth. It's got that nice vanilla flavor.
Yeah. I really enjoy it and I like to smoke these cigars with my Sarah because she likes them. Okay yeah. Here's my thoughts. The first few puffs were not overly vanilla-y. The subsequent I don't know 15 or 20 pretty strong vanilla. I don't know if it's just my palate acclimating or the vanilla kind of tapering off a little bit. But I still get the vanilla. It's just not as strong so it's a very smooth, very very smooth. The sweetest part is probably the very beginning I think.
And it becomes kind of less sweet as you move along. A lot of that has to do with the flavor on the wrapper. Which is good for me. Like I enjoy this. This is a very good cigar. They're excellent. I don't particularly care for flavored tobacco products but those that I do like. I really like. And this is one of my favorites. Well I can see why. Just about anybody can smoke a cigar like this. Yes. Who's of age of course. But you can definitely give one of these. This was a Robusto size.
I don't know if we said that. But anybody a non cigar smoker can easily smoke one of these and enjoy it. Very nice and light and smooth and still got the good tobacco taste. But they're overall a very good cigar. Yeah it's still very much a cigar. It's not one of the heavy air quotes cigars that the FDA is trying to ban where you smoke grape cough syrup. This is very much a cigar with vanilla in it.
Yes. So anyway so yeah and you know like I say I'm pro-abortion and I don't pretend to care what the arguments against abortion are because I don't it's just not practical. And I don't care about the morality of it. Do I think it's moral? No. Doesn't matter. The government's not about what's right and wrong. What is functional and what they can tax. Right you know I mean we can look at the war on drugs and the legalization or persecution of marijuana.
I guess I'm you know what I'm going to go out and just say that I am pro-citizen's choice whether that's male, female or any of the other genders. If you're a citizen then you have your choice and that should not be infringed by the government. Absolutely. I am very pro-personal liberty. Yes. And I don't think that there should be any restrictions on what people can and can't do to themselves. I support full drug legalization. Oh me too.
Nobody's going to start smoking meth tomorrow because they legalize it. It's not a realistic fear. I'm not going to smoke meth. You know people who are currently smoking meth are doing so regardless of what the law states. We might as well make it a little safer, legalize it and tax it. Oh yeah. I mean here I guess this is kind of you know. Here's my kind of thought on hard drugs and things and I wouldn't consider marijuana a hard drug. But let's just go let's go here.
Preventative laws real quick. I am 100% against preventative laws. If I'm driving home and I'm staying in my lane and you pull me over and I blow over the legal limit. I didn't hurt anybody, I didn't harm anybody else's property. Leave me alone. Now if I am intoxicated and I did damage to somebody's property or I did damage to somebody's person or life, there should be a higher tier of punishment for me. But there shouldn't be preventative. If I'm speeding, leave me alone.
If I am speeding and kill somebody or damage property, give me a higher tier punishment but do not give me a punishment preventatively for something I have not yet done. I'm not as extreme on that as you. Generally I think speed limits in residential neighborhoods should be low and enforced and on highways they should be not there. Who cares what you're driving as long as the highway, drive as fast as you want on the highway. It's very difficult to design a highway that way.
Granted it's very difficult to design a highway that way. But we could initiate an auto bond like policy and have people drive in the right lane at a responsible speed and people who want to drive fast have them drive in the left lane. Well I mean that's the whole issue is those slow people in the left lane. They're ruining it for everybody, really. But you know speed limits when they were first instituted, the cars were not the same as today.
And you know you've got all of these crazy, crazy things that have come out. And I drive a 2004 Honda Civic. It doesn't have any sensors, it doesn't have backup cam or anything. And my wife drives a 2016 Toyota RAV4 and it's got backup cameras, it's got proximity sensors, it's got blind spot detectors, it's got radar cruise control of all things. And I don't know, you know, if those things work and those things are legal then there shouldn't be a speed limit.
Sure. But like I said, the only issue would be teenagers driving through residential neighborhoods. I can see that. You know, I mean I understand, you know, kids playing in the street. But that also comes kind of down to personal responsibility too is if you feel in control of your vehicle is one thing, that's personal responsibility. And if you're not in control of your vehicle then you need a punishment befitting that. The other personal responsibility is the roads, the streets.
And kids aren't perfect and kids are learning. But roads are not play areas, you know. And that's something that we're working with our daughter on is if we're crossing the street you hold one of our hands or both. You know, we look both ways and she's not quite two yet. But she knows when she comes up to the street she'll reach out for one of our hands. So that's where I mean we're working on. She doesn't do it every single time, but she does it a majority of the time. But you know what?
All it takes is one time. So you know, for me there could be a little wiggle room in residential areas and things like that. But the other thing is we've got an uncontrolled intersection in our neighborhood here. There's no stop signs whatsoever on one intersection and that bothers me just as a driver because I don't trust other people. But we don't really value personal responsibility in our society. So that's another kind of contributing factor.
Given your neighborhood I'm guessing you have a lot of Norwegian standoffs at that intersection. You know, actually I've never ever met another car at that intersection. But it still bothers me. I try not to go that way. I go different ways to avoid that intersection because I don't like it. I don't like it. But I love roundabouts. But I hate that intersection. Most people hate them. The roundabout. Depends on where they're located. They're my favorite thing.
I wish every intersection was a roundabout. I know we can't do it because of square footage or whatever, but I love roundabouts. A lot of it is traffic volume too. I hate other people trying to use roundabouts, but I love using roundabouts. I almost rear-ended an old lady at a roundabout. I had to take the center of a roundabout to avoid hitting her because she stopped in the middle of the roundabout. Yep. And that's the problem with roundabouts is people aren't taught them and they can't.
It's almost like, can you fix my Wi-Fi? Can you teach me how to use this roundabout? Like it's simple. Same one. Somebody came backwards down that same one and was going in a circle, man. Was going down the road when I was driving down it. It's interesting. Yeah. People are interesting. I don't think we solved the Roe v. Wade thing.
One of the concerns I saw online, and it's very tough now for me to decipher if people are actually being reasonable or if they're trying to perpetuate a political message one way or the other, but they were saying that if Roe v. Wade gets overturned, then they might also make condoms illegal unless you're married or something. And I don't know, man. There's a lot of open room there. And I will say, this is one thing that I will say that is political.
I feel that I have not been pro or anti-democratic Republican too much. But as of today, and it has been for a long time, there's a bill in the Senate with 48 Democratic sponsors who have already written onto it that would legalize abortion nationwide. And those weak Democrats will not bring it up for a vote even though they have 48 signatures. So those of you who are going to say all Republican this and Republican that, you're barking up the wrong tree.
The Democratic Party are the ones who have caused this problem because they can't put the pressure on the members of the Senate and the members of Congress to pass a law even though they have a majority. They have a majority in the Senate, they have a majority in the Congress, and they have the presidency. They could easily pass this through. Easily. No problem at all. And they won't fucking do it.
So if you want to look at who's responsible if you're pro-abortion, look at your Democratic senators and Congress people. And the president. Or better yet, give them a call. Send them a letter. Sure. I don't know if that works. I think it does. I mean, it might. It might. I don't know. I know usually they don't read them, their aides do. Right.
I know one of the big talking points during the last election was that Joe Biden was going to be an arm twister because he was in the Senate for so many years. It's like, well, the people who are in charge of the government, who are all Democrats, are not willing to bring up the dirty laundry of their fellow members of government to get this law passed. And that's what it takes. But they're all like 102 years old, though.
Well, I know, but you know, there's always dirty laundry to bring out, you know. LBJ was having secret meetings with the Republicans in his bathroom, you know what I mean? They can do the nipple pinch if they got to do it. Have all the places to do a secret meeting. He did. He did, famously. He would take shits and talk to people and threaten them. Well, you know, I guess if you're talking to somebody taking an angry shit and they're threatening you, they don't really have a whole lot to fear.
Right. But so that's, you know, that is my little political statement is that there is a bill, there's been a bill, it's the same bill that's been around forever. It's basically codifying Roe versus Wade into federal law, which would make the Supreme Court null and void. But they won't do it because they don't want to do it because they want to run on it because it's a political issue and they don't care about the consequences. And there's no there's no negative repercussions for them doing so.
And they're going to continue to do it probably. Yeah. And you know what, I don't know if we talked about it, but I don't vote anymore. I used to and I used to vote third party and until I realized and it was I learned that Republicans and Democrats work together to keep third parties off the ballot because they feed all the media and they say, you know, vote for third party is stealing a vote from insert your favorite political party of the two here.
And they work very efficiently together to keep third parties off the ballots, to keep third parties out of the public mind. You know, and they work very hard to keep things that keep them in power is kind of what it comes down to. And it's very, very frustrating for somebody who was kind of taught that even one vote can count and matter.
But with the Electoral College and with the kind of the brainwashing of the American populace with third parties are wasted votes, it's going to take a huge campaign to undo that in the public eye, I think. Well, the winner takes all voting system we have benefits a two party system. And it is just a fact that the Democrats and the Republicans are almost identical on every issue that matters. Yeah, that'd be economics, war, taxes.
They agree on all the things that actually affect how government works. Yeah, and they fight on the little little things that don't affect them, but could have huge consequences for for citizens. Sure, it has huge consequences. But there's typically and this is my opinion, the arguments usually don't have negative consequences if they just do the quote unquote right thing. You know, legalizing gay marriage didn't negatively affect anybody.
People owning guns legally doesn't negatively affect anyone. You know, there's a lot of these issues that they want to talk about. There's no negative consequences for half of the issue, quote unquote. You know, trans people having basic human rights does not negatively affect anyone. Yeah, you know, a lot of it's just bullshit. It's bullshit because it makes people emotional and they want to talk about morality and blah, blah, blah. And, you know, it doesn't matter.
What matters is that we don't have a flat tax. What matters is we don't have universal health care. What matters is that we are fighting wars on multiple continents. What matters is we have 180 military bases. What matters is that our military takes half of our budget. What matters is we're running deficits every year. But both parties want to run deficits. Both parties want to have fucking a huge war machine. Both parties don't want to tax corporations.
Both parties don't want to put tariffs on foreign made goods. So it won't change. And those things would have real long term benefits, you know. Yeah. Not to sit on my high horse or, you know, up in my tower. Hey, it's called the soap box, Mike. Yeah, I know. I know. It's all bullshit is what it is. It's all bullshit. Yeah. But you know what? It's our podcast and if we have soap boxes, then they're ours to stand on. I guess so. Yeah. But, you know, I agree.
It's very it's one of those things where the more you learn about American politics, kind of the more depressed you become. Oh, sure. I love the CNN quote and they were talking about firearm control after a school shooting, which I'm anti school shooting. Yeah, me too. I just I want to make that clear that we're both anti school shooting. But some CNN host said fully semi automatic firearms. And it's like what a manipulation to people who don't understand firearms.
Fully semi automatic is a nonsense term to scare people that don't know what the fuck they're talking about. Yeah. You know, and I don't like Steven Crowder. I'm not a fan, but he did a great video where he had a bunch of models of the Ruger 1022 and he had people point at which ones they want to ban and which ones would be legal. And then of course, they pointed all the ones that were souped up with the extended magazines and they had plastic stocks. You know, they're like, oh, that one's OK.
And it's like the wood one with a short magazine in it. Yeah, it's like they are all extended magazines. They're all the same gun. You know, they're all the same firing mechanism. Well, yeah, it's all the same. It's all the same thing. Mine is stainless. I've got a Ruger 1022 stainless steel composite stock. I've got a couple of banana clips, you know, quote unquote banana clips. I also have a Ruger 1022. Yeah, and it's wood. And I have a lot of 25 round all Ruger branded magazines.
Well, yours is safe and mine is not very clearly. Yeah, because mine's wood. Yeah, it's got a scope on it. Yeah, mine's stainless steel. I don't have a scope. I just got the pop up sights. So OK, yeah, no, I have a scope. I used to shoot Prairie Dogs with it. We would do all that. Obviously, you know where I live. It's like shooting squirrels and porcupines and, you know, the skunks and stuff. Oh, yeah, just the last one. Last skunk I shot, I shot him with your hunting rifle.
Well, sometimes you got to send them extra quick to God. I just wanted to make sure that I hit it and it would die right away. You know, all those things. Yeah, but the humane thing. Yeah, I was trying to be I was trying to be as humane as possible. And it was a way it was long enough to where I wasn't quite sure that 22 was going to be able to, you know, I wasn't sure about my optics. Yes. So anyway, it's it's it's all AstroTurf. And this I feel that abortion is along the same lines.
The most of the people that really care about abortion are not going to be affected by the laws changing. You know, it's kind of a hidden issue. People getting abortions. Yeah, it's you know, there's definitely social stigma around it. Oh, sure. And now they're publishing various animal medicines you can take to induce abortion. And, you know, there's all sorts of stuff like that.
You know, I think and maybe that's a good point and maybe a good because I'm done with my cigar and it was it was very delightful. I did enjoy that. But I think that by making abortion illegal or trying to or giving people the impression that it is, will make people do more dangerous things. And by doing that, you are not not having your citizens best interests in mind when you're passing laws, which is one of the functions of government, allegedly. And it's kind of the same with drugs.
And are drugs legal or not legal? And if they're not, well, guess what? Somebody is going to go huff glue or somebody is going to, I don't know, do something else when they could be getting a legally illegal amount of drugs. The only kind of anecdote that I have is going to like a weed dispensary. You know exactly the content of THC and CBD and everything in those drugs is right on the package.
You're not taking a chance that somebody put rat poison in it or or whatever else you might mix with it or cut with it to save a buck and make more money at the drug dealer's table. You know, you know exactly what's in it. It's been tested. It's there. You know, you know the amount, the potency. The same with drinking beer. You can look right on the can or the package. What's the ABV? You know, you know, they're all legal things. Like there's there's no harm in legalizing everything.
The leading cause of death of 18 to 48 year olds is drug overdose. And it was during the pandemic and it is now. And it's largely caused by fentanyl being cut into the drug supply and people are largely unaware of it. So if we really want to save American lives, we'd legalize drugs and people would go to the pharmacist and pick up their heroin. So there wasn't any fucking fentanyl in it. And I think to be clear, fentanyl is a legal drug. It's legal. Right. And it's been and it's been.
Oh, lobbied for and the big powers that be big pharma companies have lobbied to keep that legal. Oxycontin and other narcotics that are terrible, terrible things when you could just smoke weed or some other drug that's a lot safer, but illegal. Right. And if people want to use fentanyl, if they could pick it up legally, then they would know the dose they would need and they wouldn't overdose. Well, overdose less often. They might still overdose.
But at least you could put it squarely on them and not on the drug companies that just make this stuff, pump it out and want people to use it. Right. You know, I mean, look at all the drug ads on TV. Is this drug right for you? Go ask your doctor. It's the only country in the world where drug companies market directly to citizens. New Zealand. Oh, New Zealand is New Zealand's the other one. But they have a universal health care system. So yeah, it's kind of other places.
The doctors are the experts. And if the doctors think your drug is good, they're going to recommend it. And if they think it's bad, they're not. But here they get a cut for everybody who gets whatever drug it is. Right. And like you say, this is a tertiary issue to the main event.
But there is an argument to be made that Russia, or not Russia, China is initiating a quote unquote third opium war because they're allowing mass production, legal production of fentanyl and illegal sale to the United States. So but that's a separate, you know, obviously not related to Roe vs. Wood. Yes. That's another podcast topic in the future. Yeah, it might be another podcast topic in the future.
But the point is to say that the government, we're just trying to get to the bottom of what the government should or shouldn't be doing for its citizens. And I hope that we have shown that maybe government limiting things that could be safely done if they were legal is dangerous to everybody. Right. And as an update, last final cigar update, I am borderline roach clipping this and it is still lovely. Yeah, you know what, I smoked a lot more off of this one than the than the Cohiba.
And I could have kept going, but my fingers are getting a bit warm. So that's where I'm at now. Yeah. So anyway, CEO Moon Trance. I'm for them. I like them a lot. I recommend if you see them at a cigar shop and you've never had one, buy two. Yep. And if you don't see them at your cigar shop, call your congressman. That's right. Fight against the man or woman or them. Until next time, have a good weekend.