POST SCRIPTS

The citizens of the United States are the main financial sponsors of this war, spending millions each day on illegal drugs pouring across the still wide open border. We are indirectly helping to finance drug lords and their private armies with the best of everything in this multi-billion dollar industry!

Thanks for this story Jack...and this one thing is the key to the whole story. The left likes to blame corporations and the economic principles that make America the envy of the world for our troubles in the world. My opinion is that drugs are the root of many of the problems that plague America both internally and externally.

The drug industry is huge. Often it provides funding directly to terrorists. It certainly is a great source of income and activity for criminalals and evil tyrants.

The countries south of our borders are becoming more and more dangerous and Marxist...aligned with those who wish to do us harm.

The best thing we could do for America and the world would be to end the cycle of addiction and the stupidity of indulgence by our youth. In the fifties and earlier kids were taught about the dangers of drug use and it was shunned. (same with indiscriminate sex) Today it is celebrated as a natural part of growing up. Standards of behavior are a matter of "choice" and anyone objecting is viewed as uptight and judgemental. Demanding a standard is no longer fashionable...might lead to a stiffling of creativity! This is BS and needs to be adamantly countered. Our failure to reverse this trend makes us weak, as we have seen, and very vulnerable.

I don't know why you're so distressed. All this blood and gore results from the fact that the Mexican government (for a change) has really been leaning on these here drug lords. They are, of course, leaning back.

And our Army has been raising hell in Columbia since Bush got into office, and it's had effect. The Columbian drug lords have moved their operations to West Africa. The Columbians are probably quiet grateful, but the supply of cocaine is unfettered.

And, if heroin is your preference, you are are in hog heaven. Thanks to the operations of the Taliban in southern Afghanistan, we are having a poppy glut on the market.

There's no beatin' down that ol' supply and demand thing, no there is not (not with a paltry 150,000 soldiers).

So why is there such a demand? I have to say that Tina's Rockwellian lament is not illuminating. The fifties abounded in soused people, the sixties in stoned people, the seventies in cracked people: it's all of a piece. Technological advance, you could call it, or perhaps just fashion.

But "just say no" ain't gonna do it. It's the why: that's what will help.

It's the why: that's what will help.

Illuminate us oh brilliant one.

Adults drank in the fifties, yes. They did not give up all manner of self restraint embracing activities that lead to out of control disease and criminal thugery along with the coctail parties and fun. The liberal open loop belief system that eschews the word "NO" can hardly be made a comparison. You lefties just refuse to get that people can say no...and they can demand better things of each other and our kids.

Maybe it's only my humble opinion, but I think the "why" is moral relativism. It began when the hippy generation rejected most commonly accepted social values in favor of the Id. If it feels good do it. Ever since the followers of "if it feels..." have been searching for ways to justify wrong into right and it's been tearing at American society to the point of a nation divided against itself. Hard working, responsible addults on one side spoiled, petulant childlike behavior on the other (not referring to Libby, because I know she's a self supporting worker (like me) and she cares about many things the far left simply rejects).

Libby, we finally found common ground,if only on this one issue, Send more soldiers. "Supply and Demand" should not be a consideration in matters of illegality, don't you agree? Wether it be people or dope. We should hold the wrong doers accountable. We certainly don't want the kind of citizens who think that the way this issue is being handled in Mexico, is the way it should be handled here. Unfortunately we already see this kind of violence on the streets of our citys, and over the same subject. in 1993, the South Bureau Homicide Unit of the LAPD handled 428 Homicides. 90% of which were Gang/Drug related. These homicides occurred in an area equivalent to approximately 60 Square miles. The majority of those occurred in 77th Div, Southwest Div and Southeast Div, which accounts for about 36 square miles of the above mentioned 60. This accounts for less than 1/4 of the total square miles of the City of Los Angeles. One case that stands out is that of a five year old, sitting at the breakfast table with his 12 year old sister. Two rival dope dealers shooting at each other over a block away, missed and the bullet went through the front window of the five year olds house and took him off of his chair. So "why so distressed?" That is just one of many instances like it, when drug dealers push back. They don't have shooting review boards, or citizen drug commissions wathcing over them. They do however have people financing them that don't seem to have any idea of what their money supports, they are the CASUAL drug user. In the interest of disclosure, my source for the above numbers is me, I was assigned there during the time period refrenced. And I can tell you, having gone back to New York City on an investigation, as bad as 428 sounds, it doesn't even come close to their number of homicides. Even with stricter gun laws. And I think "Just Say NO" would work, if the mentality of some in our country was less about if it feels good do it, and more about personal responsibility. We have tried the if it feels good do it mentality for too long. Maybe it's time to try teaching self restraint, personal resposibility, abstenance. It will never be 100%, but it will be a helluva lot better than it is now. Its harder to do the right thing, I know.

It's funny this story should show up here. The other day I read a news story about some stink-hole town in Northern Mexico and how they are replacing the wooden hotel doors with steel doors because of all the shootings. I guess a lot of drug traffic flows through that area and the drug people use the hotels and get shot at. I think we should find the shooters and give them bigger guns. I am kidding, I know the people doing the shooting are the same as the people being shot. What we really need to do is sell them some really shoddy steel doors!

Just in case some women in our readership are interested:

Two rival dope dealers shooting at each other over a block away, missed and the bullet went through the front window of the five year olds house and took him off of his chair. So "why so distressed?" That is just one of many instances like it, when drug dealers push back.

This is how the male animal expresses his compassion and caring. He becomes outraged at injustice and vows to do something about it even to the extent of losing his own life. Ironically he often does it for "the children" as in this case, but truly he would do it for anyone in trouble. Feminists like to call it chauvinism or ego or barbarism. It is not. Instead it is the highest expression of love there is...and it's high time we acknowleged and appreciated it. Men know the dark side of a mans nature like no woman ever could and therefore are especially equiped to recognize the "bad guys". We women need to get our "nice" ideas the heck out of the way and let good men of the world rein these thugs in for good...no cushy sentencing either. Harsh behavior deserves harsh consqences. Men get this and much too often women do not..

Maybe it's only my humble opinion, but I think the "why" is moral relativism.

Absolutely.

Maybe it's time to try teaching self restraint, personal resposibility, abstenance. It will never be 100%, but it will be a helluva lot better than it is now.

This is the world in which Norman Rockwell found great joy, celebrating America through his painting and drawing. It isn't a silly pipe dream but a very possible alternative to the mess we experience today and all that is required is to embrace excellence and demand it from each other. That includes teaching ourselves and our children to practice a simple empowering discipline...saying "NO" to those things that harm our entire society and ruin individual lives.

Does anyone else find it odd (or rediculous)that liberals make fun of the notion of a more responsible society and yet are constantly trying to create utopia through controls and programs of government?

Jack...I would agree, without knowing her, that Libby is a hard working person with a big heart. It's exactly the thing that makes her illogic so frustrating...that and the fact that she seems to take such pleasure in the game playing that produces frustration...tee hee.

Kiss kiss...sweetie!

Does anyone else find it odd (or rediculous)that liberals make fun of the notion of a more responsible society and yet are constantly trying to create utopia through controls and programs of government?

I find it odd (or rediculous) That liberals seem to think that when a government attempts to enforce laws, and "Leans on the Law Breakers" we shouldn't be surprised when the law breakers "lean back".

"I don't know why you're so distressed. All this blood and gore results from the fact that the Mexican government (for a change) has really been leaning on these here drug lords. They are, of course, leaning back."

That one pretty much said it all for me Libby, It is the fault of those who would be so brash as to try and enforce the law. I guess we should just accept that is the way it is. "Supply and demand", yada yada yada and extend our appeasment to drug dealers, gang members etc.
If we just leave them alone, it will be okay.

Did I say I had a plan? I never did. But I do get most profoundly irritated at people who pine for a good-old-day that never was.

Read some history, some real history. In the old days keeping body and soul together required so much work that all that hedonistic substance abuse was kept to specific occasions and special purposes. Solstices, equinoxes, and all that sort of thing.

I know of an Oxycontin addict. If we, as a society, would drive him back into the fields, either the withdrawal would kill him, or the hoeing of trees would save him. But what's actually going to happen ... is some insurance company is going to pay him off, and he's going to consume Oxycontin (much to the delight of the pharmaceutical industry) until that finally kills him.

You tell me what's to be done?

I do get most profoundly irritated at people who pine for a good-old-day that never was.

Perhaps for you there wasn't a better time in America...I can't speak for you.

I do know that my mother and father didn't worry about me being kidnapped and sold into the child porn or sex slave industries like parents today do...they left our doors unlocked at night without a second thought or worry that some crazy child molester would snatch me from my bed....these are examples of recent historical events Libby and if you can't acknowledge this difference you are in severe denial.

No one believes we can create a crime free environment but with high standards and follow through on consequences for wrongdoing we can shove the current trend of open-loop criminality back and begin to create a safer and more civil society. Cinicism about that reveals that you expect the worst from people...and liberals always say they think people are "basically good". so what's up?

"I do know that my mother and father didn't worry about me being kidnapped and sold into the child porn or sex slave industries like parents today do..."

I have to tell you. I laughed out loud. Again, I would advise you to read some real history. Bad boys have been bad since the dawn of recorded time, and slavery, sexual or otherwise, is nothing new. In fact, we as a species have made spectacular improvements ... though not, alas, any sort of irradication. But I have to tell you that things have mightily improved since the 15th century, and even, you will be astounded to hear, from the 1950s. In the 1950s, wives and children could be brutalized by their husbands and/or fathers with no legal recriminations and/or recourse at all whatsoever. Not so today. Extraordinary progress. You gotta get that head out of that Rockwellian butt. How's that for insulting?