Jacob Sullum in Forbes: Why Drinking Is Not a Good Excuse for Smoking Crack (or Anything Else)


Office of the Mayor

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford and U.S. Rep. Trey Radel (R-Fla.) both blame demon rum for driving them to cocaine. Writing in Forbes, Senior Editor Jacob Sullum explains why it would be a mistake to accept that excuse.

Read the article.


NEXT: Friday Funnies: Executing the Law


  1. Booze just lowers your inhibitions. I have never done anything drunk I didn’t want to do. The difference is that some of those things I would have had the judgement to choose not to do.

    1. You mean like posting here?

      1. No, you post drunken rants on Facebook not Reason.

        1. +1 block from my newsfeed

        2. I think a large percentage of the commentariat will be surprised by this, John.

  2. “Jacob Sullum in Forbes: Drinking Is Not a Good Excuse for Smoking Crack”

    I love how Reason writers the courage to defend unpopular and controversial positions!

    Politicians who get caught should run ads against their opponents pointing out some bad policy they support and say – “the stuff he does sober, I wouldn’t even do when hopped up on crack!”

    1. Up next, Reason explains why hurting puppies is just wrong.

  3. The only excuse for smoking crack is being a poor victim of the nihilist Teathuglicans and their Koch handlers.

  4. But is drinking a good excuse for screwing your sister-in-law? Asking for a friend.

    1. Hell yeah! Cheers!

    2. Depends on the sister in law. Is she hot?

    3. You mean while you’re drunk, or the next day?

    4. Jerry Springer wants you to call him.

    5. Is she married to your, uh, your friend’s brother or is she your friend’s wife’s sister? These are important details.

      1. Excellent point. Don’t screw your brothers wife. Definitely talk your wife and her sister into some sexy action.

  5. Why does the AM links only have one story?


    1. “Why does the AM links only have one story?”
      Black Friday is a libertarian holiday!

  6. It seems like Ford is still popular with the people who elected him and is capable of doing the job. So who cares? I kind of wish we had some more politicians with balls like his in the US.

    1. As I’ve said before, a politician who spends all his time smocking crack and screwing around is far superior to a righteous man. Related C.S. Lewis quote:


      1. That is one of the best quotes of all time. I would rather live under the thumb of an ordinary crook than a crusader.

        1. The difference between a corrupt politician and an idealist politician: the corrupt one stays bought.

          -Robert Heinlien.

  7. It’s as good of an excuse as any. I’m drunk, it’s my day off, I’m on my lunch hour, it’s Tuesday, the zombies are coming, whatever. I’m sure he can figure out his rationalizations for himself.

  8. Why is there a hockey game at 11am???

    1. Archduke von Pantsfan|11.29.13 @ 11:45AM|#
      “Why is there a hockey game at 11am???”

      They tried to schedule it for 1AM, but the soap info-mercial was more popular.

  9. Americans were asked to identify European countries.
    Let’s see how they did.

    1. I wouldn’t do much better on the Balkan part. Maybe 50/50 on the Baltic area too.

      1. You can practice here.

        1. I was about right. Got a 90% but was able to guess the Baltics/Balkans within the three tries they gave.

        2. 97%. Screwed up the Balkans of course.

        3. What the crap is FYROM? I thought that was called Macedonia. Are the Greeks still all bitchy about that?

          1. I believe they are.

            1. Well, that’s the one that screwed up my score. I thought Maybe it was Moldova.

              1. “Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”. Apparently that’s the name they were admitted to the UN under because of Greece’s complaints.

                1. Ask a Greek about that sometime. They typically have a HUGE bug up their ass about Macedonia.

                  1. Alexander the Great says says too bad

          2. That either stands for Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia or Fuck You Return Our Moniker.

        4. What is it with Canadians always pushing THAT geoquiz site?

      2. I always have to guess on the Baltics. Balkans I can usually figure out if I think about it.

        The only part of the world I have much trouble with is the middle part of Africa.

        1. Baltics are alphabetical from North to South: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania.

          1. That’s a good mnemonic. I actually got them on the map test by guessing based on what kind of languages they use and somehow remembering that Latvia is in the middle.

    2. I have a hard time believing this was done seriously by the respondants due to the nature of the comments (or that the sample size was culled to the most humorous sheets).

      I know I screw up the low countries when I don’t stop and think about the fact that Belgium borders France. And I would almost certainly botch the order of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, but I want to know why that map doesn’t have Kosovo on it! I was sure they got their independence from Serbia a few years back.

      1. I think it’s still under discussion

    3. Ancient Dilbert comic for some perspective.

      1. It’s true that a lot of “essential knowledge” really is trivia that doesn’t much matter (though I’d argue taht knowing geography is more important and useful than some other things). I just don’t get why you wouldn’t want to know stuff like the countries of the world or the US presidents.

        1. It is always better to know than to be ignorant, but ignorance is inevitable. So I guess you have to choose what you can accept being ignorant about. Some choices are clearly better than others, but I’m not sure how many. Is it really better to know the story of Millard Fillmore’s childhood than MC Hammer’s? I don’t think that has a clear answer.

          1. Also, does knowing the commonly accepted label for a political entity really constitute knowing the country?

            1. knowing the country

              I’m assuming you mean in the Biblical sense.

              1. Among others, yes. You certainly have to penetrate it to know it, IMO.

      2. How do you tame a horse in Minecraft?

        1. Why is there no horse meat in minecraft!

          1. USDA regulations.

            1. (now, if you can get enough blocks together to build your own USDA regulated horse only slaughterhouse, then you’re in business. Survival mode only, Creative-mode slaughter houses are not applicable for licensure.)

          2. A friend and I made a special trip to Ikea when it was announced there was horse meat in the meatballs. We were sorely disappointed to find out that it wasn’t in the American ones.

    4. “There’s a lot of ? I don’t know what the term is in Austrian ? wheeling and dealing ? and, you know, people are pursuing their interests, and everybody has their own particular issues and their own particular politics.”

    5. It’s interesting that the Americans surveyed seemed to know where the countries that are of any importance to people not in Europe are, namely UK, France, and Germany.

      I’d love to see a survey of Europeans identifying U.S. states. Besides identifying Florida I suspect most would be hopelessly lost.

      You can practice here.

      99 percent first try. I screwed up Lithuania and Latvia.

      Oh yeah, fuck Europe.

  10. I’d be okay with it if the President dragged a couch out onto the front porch of the White House and spent his days smoking crack, playing poker with his Secret Service detail and shooting bottle rockets at the tourists outside the fence.

    1. Good news – Ex-Presidents no longer get lifetime Secret Service protection details. It stopped a few presidents ago (Either Bubba or Bush Sr was the last I think)

      1. Bubba but Obama signed it back into law last January before any ex-Prez would be affected.

    2. That would really be the ideal president, I think. Yesterday I proposed that we should try going with out a president for 4 years to see how that goes. My attending family members, who were a combination of not-too-political Christian conservatives and not-too-political Christian liberals, seemed to think it was an OK idea.

  11. Off topic: Husker Du may be the greatest band ever.

    1. They are not even the greatest band ever from Minneapolis.

    2. replace “greatest” with “most influential” and you may have the beginnings of an argument.

  12. Well, Baby Liberty finally got here at 9:48 last night.

    Baby Liberty!!!

    And what the fuck is wrong with reason on chrome? Is it just me, or is it just totally screwed for everyone.

    1. Congratulations!

      Reason is the same as it ever was for me on Chrome.

      1. I have no idea why just this site is fucking up on it. But if I go to it through my cloud server I’m fine. Meh, it’s all good now.

        1. I’m good with just blaming it on Taboola.

    2. fine here.
      nice kid.

    3. Good looking kid. Congratulations!

  13. I had a number of joypopper episodes with crack in the early 90’s. Sordid as they were, I never got hooked on the stuff, so I have to give Ford the benefit of the doubt if he says he can quit drinking and avoid other political mishaps. If he has the stomach for municipal politics, he can do it.

    As for the article’s premise, Ford himself would probably agree, but of course he has to say what he must for political expediency.

  14. As a Canadian, I find the oddest thing about the Rob Ford “scandal” is that none of his critics cite anything he has actually done wrong insofar as being Mayor (beyond the “OMG, Conservative!” stuff.) It’s all “Uncouth Drunken Drug Addict Mayor”.

    1. Comparisons to DC’s Marion Barry may well prove valid.

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