Random Notes From The Illadelph

Last spring, I mentioned how much fun it is to watch men ogle at women.  Yesterday provided another stellar example.  Crossing the street in front of me was a veteran brick house.  She looked like she was in her late 30's, but could have been a young-looking fifty-something.  What wasn't in question was that at in her day, she was the truth like absolute veracity.  And the sun still had yet to set on her.  She had probably put on a few pounds since her zenith, but even the extra pounds had gone to the right places.  I watched her cross the street, interested to see which direction she was headed and whether anybody else was watching.  One guy seemed to perk up, but that was about it.  It turned out she was going west just like I was, but there was a double-length bus in the street so I couldn't see what was happening over there.  When she emerged from behind the bus, there was a line of at least four old heads, following her like ducklings.   Once again, I will tell you, if you're not watching men look at pretty women, you're missing out on some of the best fun summer has to offer. ****     There's an article on Townhall.com , Freedom Means Never Having to Take Down Your Fuzzy Dice, pitting freedom against governmental overregulation.  While I generally agree with the premise of the article, there are some things that leave me scratching my head.  To wit:   

To begin, California is banning soda in middle or junior high schools during regular school hours.  They also require that elementary schools serve only water, milk, and juice drinks that are at least half fruit juice with no sweeteners.  Sure, sugar isn't healthy in large quantities, but shouldn't parents and school cafeterias be allowed to make those decisions themselves

  The problem is not that the California legislature is taking pop machines out of the school, it's that they never should have let them in there in the first place.  Take my word for it, I know that under-funded (or perhaps properly funded but inefficiently managed)  school districts need all the money they can get their hands on, but selling sugar water to kids who are already likely to have poor dietary habits is not the way to do it.  Some kinds of legislation really are intrusive and really do constitute governmental micromanaging of the citizens' lives.  At the same time, certain things just ought not be, whether the market will allow it or not.    However…   If we take the argument made in this article out to its extreme, it goes to a very libertarian stance.  In fact, the author praises the state of Ohio and the Comonwealth of Virginia (she could've added Pennsylvania too) for allowing liquor to be sold on Sundays.  But what I want to know is, why stop there?  And I'm not being facetious here, these are just things I would really like to know:   Exactly why is marijuana illegal?  When get back home, I'm gonna run back through the book, Reefer Madness and highlight some points on the timeline that got us to where we are today.  Yes, it's an intoxicant and a carcinogen, but since when have those factors alone been grounds for illegality?   Hard drugs are one thing, marijuana is another.  And let's not get into the question over the legality of hemp.  Like I said, I'll make a note of this one so I can pay some attention to it when I get back.   Exactly why is prostitution illegal?  Illegal and immoral are two different things.  And again, I'm not talking about whether people should go to prostitutes, or what the potential damage to the family structure is or whatever, because that's a bogus argument anyway.  I don't have any hard numbers in front of me, but I'm sure there are more "homewreckers" who give it away free than there are who charge for their services.   All that to say, if anybody wants to answer, keep it on point:  why is it legal for John to buy Trixie dinner and then go somewhere and do the grown-up, but illegal for him to give her the same amount of money and skip the dinner? And for that matter, why is it illegal for Goldie to take the money from Trixie after she gets it from John?    I just wanna know.  Can anybody help me? ****    Training camp starts in a week.  I've already talked to one friend, who's a Redskins fan, who thinks the Skins are gonna go 10-6.  I'm don't know about all that, but I do know that the NFC East is going to be a tough conference this year.  I don't know what it would take for me to get excited about the Eagles again this year (probably watching two wins), but I'm not gonna let them break my heart again.  It ain't gonna go like it did last year…or the year before that.  (I'm talking all this stuff now, but watch around November, when they're 8-2 or whatever.  I'm gonna be geeked up just like it was January 2002 and none of those NFC Championship losses had never happened.)   Speaking of football, Madden 2005 comes out on August 12th.  Look out.