You concentrate on the negative. I concentrate on the positive. Both are out there. Like I said, Im not a cynic
as for the bong thing, I haven;'t made a misdemeanor MJ arrest in a long time. Many cops didn't care about bongs even before it was legalized, but the drug war is NOT the fault of cops. We don't make (stupid) law. Legislators do. Blame them, not us. THEY are the reason some cops care(d) about bongs. Without laws against it, it would be irrelevant.
And again, you'll concentrate on the negative, I'll concerntrate on the positive.
fwiw, I m not aware of Ladson being "watered down". Numerous cases since Ladson have helped define what is pretext and what isn;'t. I think the WA courts have done a pretty good job. The problem with outlawing pretext stops is you inject a subjective element into the analysis, which has always been problematic . But given the no pretext thang, the case law I have read since Ladson has done a great job of applying it.
We are lucky in WA state to have a constitution that protects PRIVACY specifically, the federal one does not (not in that wording).
Again, I;m not a cynic.
Life does NOT suck. It's pretty awesome. It's even more awesome in WA - right to privacy, no income tax, shal issue CCW, open carry w/o permit etc. We have some pretty sweet freedoms here.
First off don't take my criticizing of the state as a lack of pride in the things they get right, I am proud about many things of the state I was born in.
And then, duh we don't concentrate on the chains that are not attached to us.
Plus what I did is show that the positives you mentioned are not that sound from the states point of view.
Right to privacy-first off there is no "right to privacy" there is property rights one Washington is eroding very very fast.
Have you gotten a call from a government agency telling you they are going to spend three days in your house going through your computer and your records? I have...they decided not to when I told them I have guns I carry guns and I will not put them away because they come to my house.
I pay a large amount of my "income", I prefer wages since there is an SCOTUS decison that hasn't been overturned that defines income as corporate profit, into taxes our state has one of the highest rates of taxes, just because its not in the form of an "income" tax. We do have shall issue CPL after you submit for your government checks, lets make it no permit necessary. Yes we can OC w/o permit but don't get into your car without your CPL or on a bicycle. We do have some sweet freedoms but they are not ours here they are everyone's everywhere we are born with them the state doesn't grant me these freedoms although they like to believe they do.
I have skeptic tendencies not cynic.
I don't have a general distrust of people, matter of fact my anarchal and libertarian philosophy is one of a general trust of humans acting as individuals in a society, the more I study history and look at the problems that do exist today the overwhelming majority of societal problems are because of our government, I will do everything I can to limit that, if that irritates some people's sense of statism for good so be it.
P.S. Life is good, it also has it's up and downs and worries and can always be better, at no time has any "government" been the best solution or couldn't have been more liberal.
There are many too who don't make a living off of money stolen from others and will have a nice comfy retirement on the continual theft, those who have to struggle every day to look for another client to compete with others for the next job, who has been forced to live month to month or have little to save for their elderly years because a huge portion of their earnings are stolen.