The Wussification of America

All the world's a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed.
--Sean O'Casey

I think the world has turned upside down.
Want proof?
Consider these anecdotes:

Stephen Bassett, the founder of Paradigm Research Group, yesterday intoned that unless the Obama administration discloses all known government information on UFOs by the end of May, he will release all of the PRG's documentary evidence on extraterrestrials to the media.
Oooh!

Bassett did temper his ultimatum by adding: "...this is not a threat or anything; you don't threaten the United States government, they're heavily armed."
And...they torture people.

Among the bombshells in yesterday’s Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA interrogations: former National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice verbally blessedthe CIA's request to subject alleged al-Qaida terrorist Abu Zubaydah to waterboarding in July 2002.

What is significant about that point is that last fall, Rice told the Senate only that she had attended meetings on CIA interrogations. Apparently she “personally conveyed the administration's approval for waterboarding of Zubaydah, a so-called high-value detainee, to then-CIA Director George Tenet in July 2002," according to The Associated Press.

Are you shocked?
Think hard: Why??

Here's another goodie: According to the San Francisco Chronicle, starting next month, misdemeanors such as assaults, thefts and burglaries, will no longer be prosecuted in Contra Costa County--because of budget cuts.

"District Attorney Robert Kochly also said that beginning May 4, his office will no longer prosecute felony drug cases involving smaller amounts of narcotics. That means anyone caught with less than a gram of methamphetamine or cocaine, less than 0.5 grams of heroin and fewer than five pills of ecstasy, OxyContin or Vicodin won't be charged."

Does this mean that in that particularly nutty part of the country, it's now open season for executing of misdemeanor drug crimes, breaking minor traffic laws, shoplifting, trespassing or committing vandalism?
Not exactly.

Mr. Kochly says prosecutors will still consider charging suspects with certain misdemeanors, including domestic violence, driving under the influence, firearms offenses, vehicular manslaughter, sex crimes and assault with a deadly weapon.
When did sex crimes and assault with a deadly weapon become misdemeanors?


When did we become such a nation of wussies?

You’ve got a county in California deciding to not enforce the law because it’s too expensive…publicity-seeking congressmen are wringing their hands over how enemy combatants are treated in a war that threatens the safety of our homeland…and the Texas Legislature is actually considering a bill that would protect convicted DWI offenders from having to disclose their convictions.

I don’t know about you, but I think the world is upside down.

No wonder you’ve got more people buying hand guns and ammo and becoming licensed to carry weapons. No one else is going to protect us—so we’ve got to look out for ourselves.

There are some simple, common-sense solutions to many of the fiscal challenges our local and regional governments are facing. Most of our Departments of Corrections would be guilty of violating truth-in-labeling laws. They are not corrective, but instead are giant petrie dishes for cultivating and regenerating criminal and deviant social behavior.

There is something wrong when criminals are coddled and the public cowers behind bead-locked doors and burglar bars. Career criminals choose their path for a reason—in jail, there’s no death or taxes, and you get three squares a day, and a warm place to sleep at night.

Take away the cable TV, and make these thugs work for their keep. Bring back the chain gangs, if that’s what it takes, and turn them into productive human beings—and if the productivity is nothing more than picking up the trash along the highways, so be it.

City, state, and county budgets are all at risk because of declining revenues. The most expensive part of any business plan is the labor force; the state should utilize all able-bodied men and women incarcerated and under state care, and tap them for taking care of public works.

“But you’re going to put state and county workers out of a job,” you may whine.

No, it won’t. The price of this convict labor is the time they’re in service; the tasks they will perform will free-up paid state and municipal employees to expand their productivity and increase the efficiency of regional government.

It'll probably never happen.
Not in a world where we're having to think first about what is the officially-sacntioned method for dealing with somone who wants to destroy our way of life.
The irony is, we may very well be the one's who destroy it ourselves.

Are the enemies of the United States probing their leadership to determine whether planting IED's or detonating cars in crowds might somehow not be "acceptible?"
No.

Harsh times call for harsh measures, and the world is dealing with a global enemy that is not restricted by any code or treaty for dictating the terms of war. The use of "extreme measures" to interrogate our enemies is justified against a foe that hides behind the skirts of women and uses schools from which to launch rocket attacks.

In a contest between us and them, you fight fire with fire, and take the battle to them on their turf. In an economy that's forcing some to "do less with less," maybe it's time to take the perps to task, and put them on-task.

In either scenario, there's no room for wussiness.

Open Letter to Amegy Bank

My bank "recently launched" External Transfers, which allow customers to transfer funds from accounts held at the bank to accounts held at other banks. In truth, the ability to send funds from AmegyBank to say, American Express, has been in place for a while. While a $2.50 per transaction fee might seem like peanuts when thousands of dollars are involved, it still chaps my hide to be charged for something that's been free until now.

Amegy's not the only bank that's discovering the power of transaction fees as a source of revenue for bolstering its bottom line. The insulting aspect is that many of the banks charging these new fees, including my bank, are also recipients of federal dollars from the U.S. Treasury Treasury Dept to shore up their balance sheets.

I wrote a note to AmegyBank this morning:

"Your recent decision to charge $2.50 per external transaction is a rip off. Why did this service magically become more expensive for you to offer?

"What was once a convenience to me is now an additional, onerous tax, leaving me to decide between paying you guys $2.50 or putting a 44-cent stamp on an envelope. Now you're going to get to process a paper check--likely at a higher transaction cost than for an electronic payment.

"I hope you people re-think this boneheaded fee: Your parent company (Zions Bank) is the recipient of $38-billion in tax-funded Federal dollars. You're benefiting from my taxes AND charging me new fees?
That's unconscionable. "

The way things are going, I'll probably be charged a fee for them to read my message.

Getting the Point in Indy

Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others.
--Robert Louis Stevenson


Unless, of course, it leads to sword play:
An Indianapolis man died yesterday, after being involved in a swordfight with the grandson of a woman who was killed when she tried to intervene in the fight.
You just can't make up stuff like this.

A 39 year old got into an argument with a 69-year old that escalated when one of the men grabbed a sword, prompting the other man to also brandish a sword.
Swashbucklers in the living room, avast ye!

And you know what’s going to happen next: Bans across the land on swords. I can see the bumperstickers now: "Swords don’t kill people…people kill people." And, "you can have my sword when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers..." or just ease it out of my scabbard when I'm sleeping.

Remember, swords, cutlasses, and daggers are protected under the 2nd Amendment. Just don’t try to get on a plane with a pair of nailclippers or tweezers, though.
Ix-nay on the ox-cutter-bay’s, too.