A VC blog response

I am delighted to read what is the first purely political entry I've come across in my vast experience of reading the A VC blog-- uh, eleven days, I think. The two words that caught my attention, as they have been missing from all political discussion I've seen (even in the grande damme of journalism, "The New York Times"), are "common" and "sense" strung together. This concept has completely fallen out of the political arena. When a self-styled whacko like Lewis Black is the most sensible man in the public eye spouting off on political issues, the concern becomes have we approached political madness? Stem cell research could conceivably lead to cures of many life threatening diseases, but the FETUS has become the conservative cause celebre. Any reason in particular? Yes. The Red States fall in line when unborn babies are hoisted up the flag pole. Same with the flag, foreign people of color, welfare fraud, the melding of religion and law, gun laws, and a host of other fabricated issues that are debated endlessly in the media. It's a ruse. A fake. A fraud. In truth, this is simply a means of holding onto political power. The one truth revealed in all of these machinations is that those in power will hang onto that power at whatever cost. Take welfare cheats for one moment. Do you think all the welfare cheats in the entire country cost us nearly the amount of money as a people as governmental fraud, theft, or deception? No way. Did more poeple die from Enron's stealing of funds from the public or from a single mass murderer? In no sense am I advocating mass murder. (One would hope this would be obvious, but the nature of these kinds of discourses devolve into accusations of that kind). Rather, I'm asking for a sense of proportion, or let us say, COMMON SENSE. I'm argueing Ken Lay did more damage to the country than Charles Manson, and I guarentee that indirectly he is responsible for more deaths than Manson ever dreamed up. Still, we as a people, via our government, at the very worst, park the Lay-like offenders in cushy, country club-esque prisons, while the drug dealer in a housing project in Brooklyn is sentenced to prison with the most grotesque conditions imaginable. Why? Well, there is the economic bias, the racial bias, and many other biases that come into play.

A journalist goes into this same project in Brooklyn (true story), and he finds exactly two out of twenty-one kids who are hanging out at the entrance to the project,who actually know someone with a full time job. Not have one. Know someone! As a result, the only folks who have money in their hands in that area are... drug dealers. Big surprise. Are these folks meaner, crueler, more vicious than their counterparts in the area? I'd argue they are simply more practical and probably have a touch more intelligence and get-up-and-go than the average project Joe. No money anywhere except in the drug trade. Can't eat without money. Go into drug trade. Logical.

Unfortunately, the risk often doesn't justify the reward. Instead they should go into the oil business. The profits are better, and when you get caught you wind up dying of natural causes, like Ken Lay, instead of getting stabbed in the prison showers. (Little aside: I'm picking on Lay because he's dead. Twofold benefit to that. One, he can't defend himself. Two, no harm done. Hell, he's dead. And he got away with it and the bloody President of the United States showed at his funeral. See if anyone of that standing shows up at yours or mine. No shot. We need to be bigger and more successful thieves than what we've achieved thus far for that to occur.)

Further, one could argue without much difficulty, that the uneven distribution of wealth caused by the shennanigans of a Ken Lay results in urban projects packed with folks without jobs or prospects for a job. Hence, the logical outcropping of this line of thought results in Lay's responsibility for the many, many, many deaths which occur as a result of our government's "War on Drugs."

As for my thoughts about our government's War on Drugs, War on Crime, War on Terrorism, War on Household Mold, War on Oppositionist Sarcasm and the like, you will have to wait for my next rant, which will arrive when the mood strikes. Til then, adios and happy trails.