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>>>Yes, O'Reilly panders and that's too bad, but do does the "mainstream" media.
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>>>I never watched him - I don't have the channel- but a lot of people do, and we should be asking why.
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>>O'Reilly had an M.O. that I partly liked. Just like Denzel Washington's character in the movie Philadelphia would say, "Explain this to me like I'm a five year old", O'Reilly would often stop a convoluted argument by saying, "I'm a simple man, explain this in basic terms to me so that we can all understand it".
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>>As someone who taught for five years, this is a great approach - as a starting point.
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>>And I appreciate that O'Reilly wanted the country to be TOUGH on drugs. I am a straight arrow when it comes to drugs and I agree with most of his positions.
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>I didn't even agree with him on that - my thoughts are that drug abuse should be considered a health issue vs a legal issue - and lets be honest here, the 'war on drugs' is a failure and has resulted in a huge number of unintended consequences. It just doesn't work we should try another approach.
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>>However, that's where my affinity with the man ended.
I'm guessing you don't know much about O'Reilly's actual positions. He wanted tougher sentences for those selling/distributing drugs.
He certainly didn't mince words about even casual drug use, but he focused much of his anger on drug pushers.
Given the impact of pot on teens, I can't fault him for any of his positions.
Looks, here's what it boils down to: drug use (except when prescribed by a licensed physician) is just royally, royally, royally stupid. Drugs destroy the youth, destroys families and communities.