Last week while driving around Atlanta, I saw a new bumper sticker that made me chuckle at first. I love my country, but I think it's time we started seeing other people. It then occurred to me the owner of this vehicle most likely meant this interpreted as protest of various efforts to draft laws attempting to consistently define how to treat the very serious problem of illegal immigration.  These laws have been proposed because the federal government has failed to secure our borders. I have not forgotten that we are still in the midst of crisis in national security and a financial meltdown. Our country faces imminent bankruptcy, but Nero fiddles while Rome is burning. If given the opportunity I would say to this fellow motorist that it is not racist to support law enforcement and legal immigration, or to oppose illegal immigration. If the driver in front of me really wants to "see other people" besides the legal residents and visitors to our country, let me remind him of the slogan of our locally based service provider.... Delta is ready when you are. … [Read more...]

I prefer news to lift my spirits, but for every story like the one I just wrote about great sportsmanship in a college softball game, I come across at least two stories that frankly depress the hell out of me. First comes this story of a SWAT team that invaded a private residence at 6:00 a.m. looking for defaulted debtors on a student loan.  In their infinite wisdom, the U.S Department of Education sent the SWAT team to the wrong address, where the cops detained an innocent man for six hours while they sorted out their mistake. Then on the local front, I read where officials in College Park decreed certain canine breeds to be "dangerous dogs"requiring special registration for an annual $25 fee under the guise of "improving public safety." If you don't enter my house without permission, my German Shepherd will not bite you. If you do trespass, you're getting what you richly deserve -- a bite taken out of your butt. The public is perfectly safe.  Any burglar stupid enough to enter my house will be toast but taste like chicken. No longer do the authorities wait until after a dog it has bitten someone to deem it dangerous. Owners of pit bulls, Rottweilers, Doberman Pinschers and German Shepherds in College Park must pay this annual tax or they will face both fines and possible confiscation of their pet. You know, I'm starting to believe in vampires.  The government is full of blood suckers! … [Read more...]

In truth, most news stories depress me. The latest one to do so was the story where thieves in Massachusetts stole a wheelchair from a disabled dog. Our world is often harsh and cruel. Some people we believe are human significantly worsen our human condition. What's wrong with them? Do you really need a canine wheelchair that badly but can't afford one?  People steal stuff they don't even need or want, just for the thrill of stealing. Mindless stupidity. Playing sports can be a wonderful means of escape from the drudge of our daily routine and the cruelty of our world. We may relax for a few hours of pleasant respite spent in purposeful exercise formed into game. But as soon as we begin to organize ourselves into teams, it tends to bring out the worst in us. It is demonstrated most often by our competitive nature. The desire to win for the group by any means necessary can lead to "taking one for the team." Screw the individual player; if it's a game, you might get away with legal homicide. You've got an opening to take a blind hit on a player with the opposing team?  Hey, take him out.  It's a cruel world. Now, you'd hate it if the skate was on the other foot and you were the one in the cross hairs, but it's dog eat dog, right?  Then you can steal the wheelchair because the dog won't need it anymore. You could have broken the guy's neck or killed him, but it was a great opportunity for a cheap shot, wasn't it? It's all about winning for the team. Or is it? That inhuman mentality of the worst in sports is precisely why we all should sit up and take … [Read more...]

I drive down from Atlanta to Savannah periodically to visit my family.  Invariably I'll pass by some poor soul having their car searched by the police. Sometimes I'll pass a number of such stops on each leg of the trip. In the past I have attributed the increased activity to police fundraising to support their local municipality, set my cruise control and drove through.  I figured I wouldn't give the police a reason to stop me and didn't have anything to worry about. I often wondered what these people had done to merit police interest. I've learned over time the answer is: nothing. Apparently the police can make up any old excuse to pull you over and search your car. What happened to probable cause, you ask?  What did happen to probable cause? It no longer seems to exist. The AJC has reported that former Atlanta Falcon Warrick Dunn was pulled over and searched by police south of Atlanta for absolutely no reason. Dunn posted a series of tweets that said, Got pulled over today by police outside of atl and they stopped me because he said my window tint was too dark. During the stop he ask a lot of personal questions and said I had the characteristic of people transporting drugs and guns. So he searched my car and he me a warning for my tint. I felt violated and I've had my car since 08 and never got pulled over for tint. That ruined my morning but not my spirit. I was Taken back because I think the reasoning was bad and they are trying to fill end of the month quotas. Also its a holiday weekend. Go figure. The funny thing is you can see inside … [Read more...]

I admit it -- my vision of America has always been an idyllic one. Living with an eternal optimist for twenty two years now hasn't helped matters. My wife always sees the glass half full, not half empty. My father taught me to cooperate with the police. Their  job is "to protect and to serve" the general public. Good cops were nice guys, like Andy Griffith. Sometimes they were gruff good guys, like Kojak.  Bad cops were usually just lazy or incompetent, not mean and stupid. Or so I once thought. Now, I'm not so sure. Without a doubt, police work can be a tough, dangerous and mostly thankless job. If we were not already going broke as a country, spending money on social programs like drunken sailors on shore leave, it might make sense to increase police pay for the rank and file officers. We would attract better, more qualified people in the process. Even as I wrote the blog entry titled Police State, I deluded myself to believe the sort of incident described in the article was isolated. Nevertheless, it chilled me to the bones to think a cop ignorant of the law did not hesitate to draw his weapon and detain, threaten and harass a citizen conforming with local ordinance. There's plenty of aggressive and/or violent nuts in the general public who are roaming the streets without the cops joining them. Lunatics everywhere are doing crazy stunts like threatening people at Dairy Queen with a grenade, trying to use a sword at Pizza Hut to similar effect, or two female thugs beating the crap out of a transvestite at McDonalds for being in the wrong place at the … [Read more...]