Safer in Afghanistan

For those of you unfamiliar with the Washington metropolitan area, here's a brief geography lesson.  Washington DC is surrounded by the state of Maryland (or, as the Vulture refers to the state in which he lives, the People's Republic of Maryland).  There are two PRM counties surrounding DC: affluent Montgomery County to the West, and HURTing Prince Georges County to the East.

PG County has always been a high crime place.  But now it's achieved the kind of milestone that has heretofore never been approached by any stateside jurisdiction - EVER!

Federal agents are embedding with homicide investigators in Prince George's County starting this week in a rare move as authorities scramble to react to a string of 13 killings that have occurred already in 2011.

"It is very unusual for us to bring in agents and embed them in our homicide division," said police spokesman Maj. Andy Ellis. "I can't remember us doing that since probably the mid-to-late '90s."

The county has been rocked by news of a homicide spike since New Year's Day. The county's 13 killings exceed the 12 U.S. military deaths that have occurred this year in Afghanistan as of Friday morning.

Yes, you read that right. There have been more shooting deaths in PG County in 2011 than fatalities in Afghanistan.

Please, explain to me again how the Great Society welfare state, gun control, and the War on Drugs have made our lives so much better. 'Cause I ain't seein' it.

I'm not the only one...

...who thinks that NWA was right.

When the police are shooting military vets with MBAs in public and pregnant women in their own bedrooms, the war is not on drugs. It is on the American people.

Vulture Droppings - the question is when...

Vulture Droppings is a semi-regular feature of this blog. It's a kind of "Random Thoughts" post in which I try to quickly summarize a particularly large event or series of events. Think of it being sort of like what a vulture leaves behind after devouring a horse. You don't get the whole horse, just highly processed leftovers.

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It's been a LOOOONG time since I did a Vulture Droppings. There just hasn't really been anything going on that would merit that kind of in-depth breakdown.

I'm doing something different with this edition of VD. I'm going to address things I'm sick of. Yeah, I know. Not exactly the kind of weighty, issue-oriented post you've come to expect from Droppings. But it's my blog, and my rules. So read it and like it!.

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WHEN is that sub-90 IQ loser Levi Johnson's 15 minutes of fame up? I know it's chic to put that knuckle-dragging monosyllabic douche bag on TV 24/7 because he gins up more anti-Sarah Palin sentiment, but COME ON! There ARE limits! If this guy weren't such a gold mine of anti-Palin material, there's NO WAY anyone would even know his name, let alone be subjected to his Neanderthal-like puss on virtually every talk show known to man. Enough already! Find a new flavor-of-the-day, please!

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WHEN is Big Media (the BM for short) going to stop the Kabuki Dance and admit that the Ft. Hood massacre was perpetrated by a Muslim acting in accordance with the precepts of his religious beliefs, NOT a common soldier who "snapped" under the strain of being exposed to the stresses of other service men and women? People who "snap" don't go around yelling Allahu Akbar! as they mow down innocents.

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WHEN are NFL analysts going to stop with the Brett Fav-re worship? OMG, it's SOOOOOO old! Seriously, there ARE other players making contributions to the Vikings' success this year. Yeah, even besides Adrian Peterson. So...enough, please!

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WHEN is the American public going to demand an end to the ridiculous "War on Drugs"? It's a complete waste of money, police resources, prison resources, and human lives.

In the case of marijuana, we're talking about a product with proven medical use (Federal "studies" to the contrary are heavily flawed - perhaps even falsified). We're talking about a product that is infinitely safer than, less addictive than, and less likely to lead to criminal behavior than alcohol, yet alcohol is legal and universally available, while marijuana possession is still a felony in excess of 1 oz.

It's the stupidest policy enacted by a government known for stupid policies. It's time for a change. Make it legal, tax the crap out of it, and empty the prisons of everyone prosecuted for any marijuana offense.

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Last one. WHEN is the NBA going to come clean and admit that they're every bit as rigged as the WWE?

I'm just saying...

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How to undermine your own argument

Joe Klein writes for Time Magazine. I suppose he's a pretty good writer. But in this article, he demonstrates the quintessential way to undermine your own argument. His choice of poisons? Boomer self-importance.

Here's a sampling.

For the past several years, I've been harboring a fantasy, a last political crusade for the baby-boom generation. We, who started on the path of righteousness, marching for civil rights and against the war in Vietnam, need to find an appropriately high-minded approach to life's exit ramp. In this case, I mean the high-minded part literally. And so, a deal: give us drugs, after a certain age — say, 80 — all drugs, any drugs we want. In return, we will give you our driver's licenses. (I mean, can you imagine how terrifying a nation of decrepit, solipsistic 90-year-old boomers behind the wheel would be?) We'll let you proceed with your lives — much of which will be spent paying for our retirement, in any case — without having to hear us complain about our every ache and reflux. We'll be too busy exploring altered states of consciousness. I even have a slogan for the campaign: "Tune in, turn on, drop dead."

He goes on to present a very detailed and convincing case for the legalization of marijuana. But, by the time he gets there, he's already used 3 column inches waxing self-important on just how wonderful his "generation" is. Were it not for my personal belief that the War on Drugs is an immoral and wasteful exercise in futility, I wouldn't have continued reading to see what his take was. As it was, it took every fiber of my being to suppress the urge to throw up in my mouth.

Boomers, please. STFU about how "wonderful" and "enlightened" and "special" you are in your own eyes. Everybody who isn't you hates you! You're the Chris Berman of generations: all bombast and self-congratulations all the time. Please just stop.

This guy could have been our President!

That Frankenstein-looking moron John Kerry is still trying to attain relevance. It's a pity.

Kerry had this to say during hearings on the escalating violence on the Mexico-US border.

At Monday's hearing, committee Chairman Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said he had been shocked to see killings and beheadings "just a stone's throw across the Rio Grande from where we're sitting this morning."

Across the border, thousands of Mexican soldiers patrol Ciudad Juarez, which saw about 2,000 murders in 14 months.

Kerry called for a ban on the imports of assault rifles, such as the AK-47, into the United States. (emphasis mine)

Let me break this down for you.

1. The violence is occurring between rival drug cartels in Mexico.
2. The AK-47 is illegal in Mexico
   
3. The AK-47 is manufactured primarily in China and Russia.
4. The primary smugglers of AK-47's into Mexico are the Chinese.
   
5. What violence has spilled over the border has originated from Mexico.
6. Full-auto AK-47s are already illegal in the US.

So...given these facts, what do YOU think of Senator Lurch's proposal?

The fact is that "make guns illegal" is the default liberal answer to every crime question. The asshats at the SF Chronicle try in vain to support the Senator's claim by citing testimony of an official from the BATF (a patently unconstitutional agency largely responsible for putting the match to the Waco powder keg back in '93). William McMahon is quoted as saying, "Assault rifles bought in the United States are favorites among cartel gunmen, who find them effective for the urban warfare." Yet the best "evidence" to support this that the Chronic could roust to support their claim was the seizure of 60 weapons used in an April 2008 shootout that were traced back to the US. I don't want to burst your bubble, Chronic, but there are certainly a lot more than 60 guns in use by the various cartels.

The fact that the weapons utilized by the drug cartels are (a) already illegal in Mexico, (b) most likely from China, (c) already illegal in the US in full-auto mode (which, one would assume, is the preferred mode of the cartel "warriors"), and (d) illegally smuggled into Mexico, not legally imported (a not-too-subtle distinction lost on the dim-witted Senator), should be cause to make a thinking man reconsider requesting a total ban on a reliable weapon that "looks menacing".

It's a pity he's not a thinking man.

And to think he could have been our President! *shudder*

Obama gets one right

King Obama, Lord and Savior of Big Media (the BM for short), finally got one right. After weeks of misstep after pratfall after faux pas after f-up, Obama finally enacted a policy that is Constitutional.

Raids by the federal government on legally sanctioned medical marijuana facilities will become a thing of the past. President Obama is averse to using federal funds for this purpose, particularly when state law provides for medicinal marijuana use. Moving forward, decisions on medical marijuana raids will be left up to state government.

FINALLY, a reversal of the ridiculous and patently unconstitutional policy of King George the Dim! Our Constitution explicitly provides for states to make their own laws and for those laws to supercede Federal law except in cases where it directly violates the Constitution or the Constitutional rights of the citizens of that state. This is the first step towards more individual freedom undertaken by this administration. Hell, it's the first step toward more individual freedom that I can remember in a very, very long time.

Regardless of how you may personally feel about drugs and drug abuse, there's one true unassailable fact: the Drug War is an absolute failure. It's a cluster eff on a biblical scale. It's done nothing but ruin lives, both here in the US as well as in the drug producing and drug importing countries. Look at Mexico. Mexico may erupt in civil war at any moment - drogistas against federales. And for what? Did we learn nothing from Prohibition? Absolutely nothing?

Apparently.

So give credit where credit is due. Obama scores major libertarian points with this new policy. It's a start.

Militarized Police run amok in PG county

Tip of the Beak to Rachel Lucas for calling my attention to this steaming mess.

Prince Georges county (PG county or "piggy" county to you out-of-staters) is a highly schizophrenic place. There is the PG county of bedroom suburbs of Washington, DC; places like College Park and Silver Spring. Bowie and Laurel. But much of the county sits hard against the worst and most crime-ridden Wards of DC. Places with names like Suitland and Capitol Heights. High-crime places.

But now, thanks to the PG County Sheriffs Department, the phenomena of increasingly militarized and out of control local police forces has come home to Maryland.

Don't believe me? Ask the mayor of Berwyn Heights. He's seen it, up close and personal.

When the shooting stopped, two dogs lay dead. A mayor sat in his boxers, hands bound behind his back. His handcuffed mother-in-law was sprawled on the kitchen floor, lying beside the body of one of the family pets that police had killed before her eyes.

After the raid, Prince George's County police officials who burst into the home of Berwyn Heights' mayor last week seized the same unopened package of marijuana that an undercover officer had delivered an hour earlier.

What police left behind was a house stained with blood and a trail of questions about their conduct. No other evidence of illegal activity was found, and no one was arrested at Mayor Cheye Calvo's home in this small bedroom community near College Park.

This week Prince George's police arrested two men for orchestrating a plot to deliver marijuana to the addresses of unsuspecting recipients -- among them, Calvo's wife, Trinity Tomsic.

Yet neither county Police Chief Melvin C. High nor Sheriff Michael A. Jackson have apologized to him, his wife or her mother, Georgia Porter, for the raid that traumatized the family and killed their black Labrador retrievers, Payton and Chase.

Apology? APOLOGY?!?!?! We're the Law! We don't have to apologize.

Mayor Calvo is calling for a Federal investigation of the invasion. Good luck there, Mayor. Who do you think it was that provided all of those neat toys for destroying homes to the PG County Sheriffs Department in the first place?

Apparently the PG County Sheriffs Department likes to get their aggression on versus family pets.

In once such case, Prince George's sheriff's deputies executed a warrant on the home of Frank and Pamela Myers of Accokeek in November. The Myers told sheriffs that they had the wrong address as their dog began barking from the yard. The couple asked if they could retrieve their dog, but deputies refused. Minutes later, two shots were fired and the dog was killed, according to a notice of a tort claims filed by attorney Michael J. Winkelman. The Myers were never charged and nothing was seized from their house.

So, what's it going to take before the sheeple are sufficiently roused to decry this Cops-vs-Citizens war that the Federales have fueled? Is it when the Stoßtruppen move beyond killing pets to killing homeowners? Oh, I'm sorry. They're already there in some parts of the country.

Wake up, people! The next house the Stoßtruppen crash could be yours!

Performance-enhancing drugs

When you see the words "performance-enhancing drugs", what do you think of? Professional athletes, of course. Uh...according to the British journal Nature you might want to rethink that stereotype.

Twenty percent of scientists admit to using performance-enhancing prescription drugs for non-medical reasons, according to a survey released Wednesday by Nature, Britain's top science journal.

The overwhelming majority of these med-taking brainiacs said they indulged in order to "improve concentration," and 60 percent said they did so on a daily or weekly basis.

Scientists. I should have known.

Over 1,400 scientists responded to the survey. Over one third of them said they would administer the drugs to their children "if they knew other kids at school were also taking them." Unbelievable.

The performance-enhancing drugs most commonly utilized by professional athlete consist of substances (steroids, human growth hormone) that assist in "bounce back" -- the time needed to recuperate from heavy weight lifting or other exertion. When "bounce back" time is reduced, the athlete is able to work out more frequently and thus improve their strength, speed, and endurance more rapidly as well. In other words, these athletes are "healing" themselves so that they can perform at peak efficiency.

And what of the scientists?

The survey focused on three drugs widely available by prescription or via the Internet.

Ritalin, a trade name for methylphenidate, is a stimulant normally used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, especially in children. Modafinil -- marketed at Provigil -- is prescribed to treat sleep disorders, but is also effective against general fatigue and jet lag.
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The third class of drugs included in the survey was beta blockers, prescribed for cardiac arrhythmia and popular among performers due to its anti-anxiety effect.

Uh-huh. Speed and anti-anxiety drugs. And they feel absolutely no remorse about abusing them, either.

In the survey, 80 percent of all the scientists -- even those who did not use these drugs -- defended the right of "healthy humans" to take them as work boosters, and more than half said their use should not be restricted, even for university entrance exams.

The next time you hear some preachy droning head prattling on about how awful it is that professional athletes are using performance-enhancing drugs, remember this: none of us are pure on this count. My coffee and energy drinks, your tea, his speed, her Valium. We're all looking for an edge. And we all take shortcuts.

But doesn't it make you wonder what other shortcuts these scientists are taking?