As demonstrated by his recent decision to send help to the embattled Mexico border region, President Obama is well aware of the problem posed by drug violence, both here at home and overseas. His response, as summarized below, is all wrong. And that’s not just me talking – Harvard’s Jeffery Miron says that same thing….
Category: Crime
Thinking Self Destruction, Not Others’
There’s a mistaken idea floating around in some of our heads telling us that suicide is the most tragic end that a person can come to. While self destruction is a tragedy, there are far worse actions that the depressed, angry, or insane can take, as demonstrated this week in Winnenden, Germany when a former…
Mexican Police Tag Vandals – Excelente!
Police in Monterrey, Mexico know how to handle teenaged vandals in their town – literally spray-painting their stupid butts as a form of public embarrassment. Four teenagers say police in a northern Mexican town spray-painted their hair, shoes and buttocks to teach them not to paint graffiti on public property. Hey, the punishment fits the…
Sex, Drugs, Teenagers, Teachers, and Money
Looking like a lurid "All Nude" sign, today’s Houston Chronicle’s headline screams, "Wash. court: Sex between teachers, 18-year-olds OK". In fact, the Washington Court of Appeals said no such thing. Rather, the court ruled that sex between consenting adults is not a legal matter, regardless of a student/teacher relationship. Not the same thing at all….
War Crimes in Gaza, Mogadishu
Jeffery Goldberg wonders if American troops committed war crimes in Somalia while fighting rebels in Mogadishu. The question seems ridiculous at first. What war crimes could be committed against murderous insurgents responsible for a civil war? Goldberg’s big gun, however, is astounding. According to Mark Bowden, author of Black Hawk Down, 80% of Somalia casualties…
Casualties of the American Drug War
America’s War on Drugs is a known failure and it’s south-of-the-border derivative is literally the cause of blood – and decapitated heads – in the streets of Mexico. Drug lords there regularly defy the government’s efforts to stop narco-terrorism and Sunday dumped twelve headless, tortured bodies in Chilpancingo along with a love note to police…
Palin Church Arson a Hate Crime?
The church of Alaska’s Governor Sarah Palin, former Republican vice-presidential nominee, was torched Friday night and over $1M worth of damage was done to the structure and its contents. Happily, none of those inside the church were injured. This is obviously a hateful act. Should the arson be treated as a hate crime? That depends…
Islamic Honor Killings On the Rise in Iraq
Iraq has a Ministry of Human Rights that is working to end gender discrimination in that country. That’s a tall order in a country in which Islam-inspired honor killings – the ultimate form of misogyny – are common and on the rise. The Guardian reports that 81 known honor killings have occurred in Basra alone…
Obama on the Iraq Troop Surge
Barack Obama told Bill O’Reilly as much of the truth about Iraq last night as any Democrat not named Leiberman is likely to: “I think that the surge has succeeded in ways that nobody anticipated…I’ve already said it’s succeeded beyond our wildest dreams.” Yuval Levin: Nobody anticipated the surge would succeed in these ways? Why…
CyberPunks, an Apt Name
Mattathias Schwartz’s article in the NY Times magazine serves as a brief peek into the anarchic world of Internet trolls and hackers, people who are generally considered the enemy by business computing professionals like myself. There’s a freedom, or the perception of it, on the Net that doesn’t exist anywhere else in quite the same…