Your Tax Dollars At Work: Drug Warriors

Imagine if this was your home these men came to:

That is how quickly lives are lost in the war on drugs. When police invade private homes in search of drugs, anything and everything can go wrong, and even the slightest misunderstanding becomes a matter of life and death. The victim in this case, Todd Blair, brandished a golf club in terror as armed men stormed his home in the night. We'll never know for sure if he realized they were police. But we do know that only a small amount of drugs were found in the raid that took his life.

That drugs and violence often go hand in hand isn't a mystery to many among us – the bloodshed gripping Mexico is old news by now – but this is a very different kind of drug war violence than the infamous turf wars of the cartels. This is a rare glimpse into the unbelievable level of force our own public servants unleash routinely in order to protect us from ourselves. This man was just a drug user. Whether he ever sold drugs is in dispute, but there's no question that he lived and died in poverty, and not from drugs, but from police who gunned him down in his own home.

Warning: you're about to watch a man get shot to death by his own government because he wanted to decide for himself what he could put into his own body:


Your tax dollars funded this man's death, and they pay the salaries of every politician in Washington who votes to continue their tragically unsuccessful War on Drugs against the American public.

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American Power And Verboten Cut And Pasting

Apparently my conservative counterpart Donald Douglas of American Power has some issues with my lack of condemnation of Alan Colmes:

Geez, I'm getting linked by lefty media folks all over the place this week. But I wonder if idiots like JBW are gonna hammer Alan Colmes for his verboten cut-and-paste hack job, "Why Are Some Right-Wingers Defending Terror Suspects?"

It seems that Colmes cut and pasted a compilation by Fire Dog Lake about how right-wingers are ignoring/excusing the recent revelation that a right-wing militia group has been plotting the deaths of American police officers and this has apparently upset Don because a) I noted a while back that Colmes had linked to me in a post about Sarah Palin's callous exploitation of her handicapped son and/or b) I routinely chastise Don for being a serial cut and paster rather than composing posts taken from his own grey matter.

Quite right Don, and it's an error that I'll correct here and now: Mr. Colmes, how dare you merely cut and paste someone else's thoughts as if you were a tubby, middle-aged neoconservative with an established history of victimology and a pathetic persecution complex to boot. Don't you know that there are people like Don Douglas, PhD. out there on the Internets keeping track of hack writers like yourself, using their own lack of rhetorical skills as a comparison to vilify you in between their frequent Twinkie binges and Ronald Reagan jerk-off fantasies?

Happy, Don? Now, try and convince yourself that it's better to be a fat, greying community college prof on the downward slope of a career than an "idiot" who doesn't have the free time to police every liberal blog that's ever linked to himself and can still see his own dick without the assistance of a strategically placed set of mirrors. Too harsh? Yeah, well too bad; it's the middle of the night and I'm very, very drunk, Tubs. Cheers.

Yakuza And Baseball: I'm So Japanese!

No time for blogging today, I have to attend my book club meeting and then it's straight home to prepare for my baseball fantasy league auction draft later tonight (yes, I know that I've called baseball boring as hell in the past but what the hell else am I going to do until football season?). Since it was my turn to pick for the club last time I chose Jake Adelstein's "Tokyo Vice", a tell all about his time as a Jewish American working for a Japanese newspaper and taking on some of the most dangerous characters of the Tokyo underground. Learning about the danger and betrayal of certain Yakuza was very interesting and it provided a fascinating glimpse into many aspects of Japanese culture I wasn't familiar with; you can watch his interview on The Daily Show here. Hopefully I'll have time to write a bit more tomorrow. Sayonara, ya'll.

CSI: The Birth Of An Internet Meme

Per a previous post in which I admitted that this is my current favorite Internet meme comes this compilation of overacting sunglass donning greatness:


Bonus memeship: Create your own CSI sunglass coolness in any situation with this handy clickable link. And I dare you not to smile and think of me every time you hit it.

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Michael Jackson Fingering

No, no, no, it's not what you think (if you're thinking of the late King of Pop digitally diddling some trusting young fans tipsy on Jesus Juice) but if you're thinking of a chick on a Brazilian talent show ambidextrously continuing with today's apparent eighties dance theme then yes, it's exactly what you think:


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The Changing Weather Outside Is Frightful...

Bradford Plummer at The New Republic explains why the current cold weather does not disprove the science of global warming:

In response to all the lovely e-mails (and to preempt the inevitable George Will column): Yes, I've noticed it's bitterly cold across much of North America right now. Record lows, heavy snowfall, the works. Sadly, this doesn't prove global warming is fake. Long-term temperature trends do allow for short-term variation. A warming planet will still experience plenty of record lows...

Even though the 2000s were the hottest decade on record, there were a lot of record lows set in the United States during that time. It's just that there were even more record highs—and the ratio of highs to lows was greater than the ratio during the 1990s, which was, in turn, greater than the ratio during the 1980s, and so on. Note also that the United States is just a small patch of the globe, and while we're bracing ourselves against freakish cold, the central Pacific has been seeing freakish highs. The thing to watch is the overall trend.

But, it's cold outside. I can feel it. And didn't those hacked scientist emails settle this? They used the word "trick"; and since I'm not a scientist I know that means "lie" and hence, global warming isn't real. Plus, it's cold outside. Cold ≠ warming. Am I wrong?

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You Can't Make A Death Omelet...

Growing up in Texas taught me that Americans love their death penalties but I still find these kinds of numbers disturbing:

An October 13th Gallup Poll found that more than half of all Americans who support the death penalty believe that someone innocent has been executed in the past five years. (About two-thirds of Americans support capital punishment, a figure that has been steady for years.) David Dow, the director of the Innocence Project of Texas, argues that this is not surprising. "Most people, whether they’re death penalty supporters or not, are going to acknowledge that the system makes mistakes," he says. He argues that for capital punishment, as with everything else, it comes down to a cost question: can a state afford to execute people, with all the years of legal wrangling that usually entails?

The economic argument made here is a good one but it's the ethical considerations that cause me to object to a state run death penalty. Now this is not to say that I don't believe that there aren't many good reasons to punish a criminal offender by killing them; that isn't my concern. What does bother me are the myriad flaws within our justice system that allow for innocent men and women to be executed: evidence tampering, inaccurate eye witnesses, crime scene contamination, dirty cops, etc. In the face of so many human flaws I just can not countenance putting the power of life and death over American citizens into the hands of our government.

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The Balloon Boy Story

I've been fairly busy/sick over the course of the last week so I didn't really have much time to follow this story until it had all gone down and they supposedly found the kid safe and sound hiding in his own attic. So now it appears that his parents have aspirations toward careers as reality television stars and that it's likely that the entire incident was a publicity stunt for which they'll probably be charged with conspiracy, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, attempting to influence a public servant and filing a false police report.

I'm of course glad that the kid was OK but I hope that the parents are made examples of for callously attempting to exploit the caring and goodwill of their fellow Americans. I'm getting pretty tired of this collective fascination we have with appearing on television for any reason and at all costs, even if it means sacrificing one's own integrity and dignity in the process. The actions of selfish idiots like this are one of many reasons other countries have lost respect for us in recent years, and frankly it's becoming rather embarrassing.

Picture Of The Day

"Color-Coded Criminals", a Reservoir Dogs tribute by Loy Valera.

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Urine Tests To Receive Welfare Checks

Last month I got an email that's been widely circulated around the web from a friend that I had to disagree with. In lieu of original thoughts during my current domestic transition I reproduce that email for you here:

Now here's an idea that just seems too simple........

THE JOB - URINE TEST
(Whoever wrote this one deserves a HUGE pat on the back!)

Like a lot of folks in this state, I have a job. I work, they pay me...
I pay my taxes and the government distributes my taxes as it sees fit.
In order to get that paycheck, I am required to pass a random urine test
with which I have no problem. What I do have a problem with is the
distribution of my taxes to people who don't have to pass a urine test.
So here is my question. Shouldn't one have to pass a urine test to get a
welfare check because I have to pass one to earn it for them?
Understand, I have no problem with helping people get back on their
feet. I do, on the other hand, have a problem with helping someone
sitting on their rump doing drugs, while I work.Can you imagine how much
money the state would save if people had to pass a urine test to get a
public assistance check?
I guess we could title that program, 'Urine or You're Out'.

Pass this along if you agree or simply delete if you don't. Hope you all
will pass it along, though. Some thing has to change in this country --
and soon!!!!!!!

And now my response (and no, I didn't simply delete when I disagreed):

I realize that you didn't write this yourself Tami but the reason this seems too simple is because it is. All requiring urine tests for receiving a welfare check would do is punish poor people for personal behavior that shouldn't be any of the government's business in the first place, not to mention punishing any children whose parents didn't pass the tests. Also, the vast majority of welfare recipients must meet certain work requirements in order to be eligible for aid. While the popular perception of the average welfare recipient is that of a terminally lazy drug addict the reality is that most recipients (not including the elderly, children and the handicapped) are employed at least part time and leave the welfare rolls within twelve months of joining. If the use of illegal substances and being gainfully employed were each mutually exclusive situations as this person seems to be saying then over 40% of Americans would now be jobless.

Welfare recipients and other poor people are obvious targets when people start talking about social engineering through the distribution of government funds (this post about illegal immigration similarly addresses this type of populist demonology) but the truth is that most middle and upper-class Americans also receive "welfare" in the form of tax deductions for home mortgages, corporate and farm subsidies, capital gains tax limits, Social Security, Medicare, and a multitude of other tax benefits. Should we require everyone who receives any of these government benefits to be similarly tested as well? We're trying to save money by denying it to those who use illegal drugs and those tax dollars are worth the same no matter who receives them. And do we really want to give the government that kind of power over our bodies and personal/private recreations?

If this person really wanted to save tax dollars we should have urine tested the CEOs and boards of directors of every investment company and automobile manufacturer that has received any amount of bailout funding and subsequently withheld said funding from any company that didn't pass (do you doubt that these millionaires might have a few illicit substances in their own systems?). While we were at it we could have done the same for every private contractor doing business in Iraq. The government spends $324 billion a year on all welfare and unemployment. The banking industry alone received over twice that much in bailout money while the total cost of the Iraq war is estimated to be seven times that.

I suspect that the person who wrote this is not so much concerned with saving the government money as they are with trying to control the behaviors of others that they disagree with by picking on a group of people who are easy targets and can not easily defend themselves. And incidentally, this person doesn't have to pass a urine test in order to earn a paycheck that will be taxed by the same government that distributes welfare benefits. They've chosen to work for a private company that has this policy, which of course is that company's right. But as I said, giving that power to a government that is the only source of welfare (at whatever level it's being distributed) would be oppressive and dangerous as to our individual liberties and privacy rights. This person may not have any qualms about government intrusion into their own life but I for one do not want to have to piss in a cup to receive my tax return or get a student loan, which is the path down which this course of logic would invariably lead.

Whether you agree or disagree with my take on this, I of course welcome all comments.

Picture Of The Day

The painting "Marvel Mobsters" by artist Edwin David (click image to enlarge). Some of Marvel comic's more morally ambiguous heroes reimagined as 1930's-era gangsters. Just cool.

The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day Trailer

Finally! If you haven't seen The Boondock Saints stop reading this right now and go do it. OK, wasn't that fucking awesome? Now that we're all on the same page enjoy the trailer for the long anticipated sequel:


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Bill O'Reilly: Still Crunching Those Numbers...

In a previous post I took FOX News to task for a misleading report about the Netherlands by using actual facts and data to counter their claims about Holland being a moral cesspool because of the high levels of atheism amongst the population there. Bill O'Reilly then followed this up by claiming that Amsterdam was being overrun by crime and corruption because of their permissive legalized drug and sex policies, which spurred a native Dutchman to make this video countering his claims.

Well now he's claiming the same thing about the Netherlands again but this time he's refuting the Dutch statistics using the same logic he once applied to Canada:


Is it any wonder I love watching this guy? In Bill O'Reilly's world (and it seems that most of the less intelligent right-wingers live in this same world) the United States is inherently superior in whatever category you're measuring simply because that's what they want to believe. Verifiable facts and provable data say something different? They use different math in those countries, what do you expect?! And failing that of course, just rub some Wikiality on it:

You see O'Reilly and Colbert don't need literal facts, just the right facts. And in both cases those facts are the ones they make up for themselves, the only difference being that Colbert is actually playing a character making fun of serial conservative liars like O'Reilly. I'll say it again: The bar for getting your own television show in this country is set depressingly low.

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August 4th Is Megan Fox Media Blackout Day

What exactly the fuck do these obvious homosexuals think they're doing?:

A dozen male-focused Web sites including AOL's men's lifestyle/humor site Asylum.com — as well as Ask Men, Just a Guy Thing and Double Viking — have sanctioned Aug. 4 as a Megan Fox media blackout day.

Why the diss? All the editors feel the starlet has become a bit too overexposed — and they're not just talking about her fashion sense. Fox has appeared on the covers of Esquire, Empire, Maxim, GQ UK, Entertainment Weekly and Elle this year alone, plus she did heavy press for her role as Mikaela Banes in "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen."

"You can have too much of a good thing," says AskMen.com's Editor-in-Chief James Bassil, who tells us, "We're joining in the media blackout and giving our readers a one-day reprieve from the woman we've been drowning in all summer." Jokes Doug Sheckler of on205th.com: "She needs to do more to earn our undying praise and affection. For instance, she hasn't even returned any of my calls this year asking for a date. What's up with that?"

“Enough is enough already!” men’s website Double Viking said on its website. “Yes, Megan Fox is banging. Yes Megan Fox is delicious. Yes Megan Fox farts rainbows. But seriously, enough is enough!”

You can say what you will about unauthorized wiretapping of United States citizens, free speech zones for law-abiding protesters, government sanctioned torture of terror suspects and vegetarian hamburgers on restaurant menus but this has to be one of the most un-American things I've ever heard of. Enough is never enough! Here at Brain Rage I don't bow down to the whims of the corporate controlled, male-oriented Interwebs so please enjoy an extra large helping of Megan on me ("Megan on me": Jesus, I wish...). Oh, and make sure you bury that gym sock at the bottom of the laundry hamper when you're finished. You're welcome.

ESPN's Roethlisberger News Blackout

This actually doesn't really surprise me except for how blatant and transparent it is:

The accusations of sexual assault contained in a civil lawsuit filed against Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger have been widely reported in the sports and entertainment news media — except by ESPN.

The sports-media giant’s single exemption from its reporting blackout has been to let its ESPN Radio station in Pittsburgh update the case in news reports. But the station’s talk-show hosts are prohibited from discussing it…

...The ban on reporting the lawsuit was issued on ESPN’s internal newswire and e-mail system at 10:48 p.m. Eastern Monday, after the news began to break. Doria said ESPN’s caution was to protect Roethlisberger from the fallout of potentially false allegations, not to shield its TV partner, the N.F.L.

Just who do they think they're fooling by ignoring this story? If you're not much of a sports fan you may not have heard about it but ESPN's core audience eats, drinks and breathes sports and has obviously heard about the story through alternate media sources. And yes, of course it's because he's the quarterback of the current Super Bowl champions. If this is where the bar is set for the level of journalistic integrity at ESPN I'm pretty sure that Payton Peyton Manning could bomb a children's hospital and it wouldn't make that night's Sportcenter.

[Update: ESPN has apparently decided to cover the story after Reno law enforcement officials have announced that they will not investigate the accusations unless the woman files a criminal complaint against Roethlisberger. Now don't get me wrong: I like Ben Roethlisberger and I love NFL football; I wouldn't want to see any type of false accusations or lawsuits damage that sport. But this is news in the sporting world and ESPN had an obligation to report on it, regardless of their conflict of interest. Glad they finally came to their senses.]

FOX News Trashes The Netherlands

It seems that the decidedly conservative network has a problem with Holland for being what they call "militantly secular", amongst other things:


Cheap legal cannabis, easily acquired casual sex, marriage equality for everyone and death with dignity: yeah, that place sounds like a real nightmare! I've personally been to the Netherlands and I have to say that I quite enjoyed myself there. In addition to the aforementioned amenities it's a beautiful country and the people are extremely polite and friendly to foreigners, so I decided to do some research to help explain the discrepancies between my own experiences there and FOX News' partisan condemnations.

Less than an hour on the Internets dredged up some very interesting information:

- life expectancy: Holland is 28th in the world; the U.S. is 45th

- per capita income: Holland is 10th; the U.S. is 15th

- percentage of the population living below the poverty line: Holland has 10.5%; the U.S. has 12%

- health care systems as ranked by the World Health Organization: Holland is 17th; the U.S. is 37th

- heart disease mortality rates per 100,000: Holland has 75.1; the U.S. has 106.5

- obesity rates: Holland is 20th with 10% of the pop. being obese; the U.S. is 1st in the world with 30.6% of the pop. being obese

- infant mortality rates per 1000 births: Holland has 4.7; the U.S. has 6.3

- teen pregnancy rates: Holland has 172 births per one million people; the U.S. has 1672 births per one million people

- murders per capita: Holland is 51st; the U.S. is 24th

- rapes per capita: Holland is 22nd; the U.S. is 9th

- firearm related deaths per capita: Holland is 22nd; the U.S. is 1st in the world

- divorce rates: Holland is 20th; the U.S. is 7th

- suicide rates per 100,000: Holland has 9.4; the U.S. has 11.1

- freedom of the press: Holland is tied for 16th with three other nations; the U.S. is tied for 36th with five other nations

- religious affiliations: Holland has 39% of the population claiming such; the U.S. has 83.1% of the population claiming such

- subjective well-being (happiness) ranking: Holland is 8th; the U.S. is 16th

The only significant statistics I could find where both countries basically tied were for literacy rates, alcoholism rates, drug abuse rates and STD infection rates, several of which would seem to defy the puritanical calls for harsher laws in the failed "war on drugs" in this country. But the obvious conclusion we can come to after processing all of this scientific data is this: The Netherlands needs more religion in their society! I mean, if they're only leading the most powerful nation in the world in each of these 16 categories with less than half as many religious citizens per capita then they're obviously failing as a country. Where's God to conveniently clean up their mess? I'm not sure but am I wrong here?

Now, am I saying that the Netherlands is a subjectively better country than the United States or that I'd rather live there than here? Fuck. No. I love my country and I absolutely love living in the lush, verdant bosom of Northern California. Now of course I'm not going to definitively say that this is "the greatest country in the world" in that knee-jerk fashion that conservatives and jingoists like to use because based on the percentages detailed above, how are they even logically coming to this conclusion? And for whom, other than their own obviously self-absorbed personas?

But I will say this: It's been the greatest country in the world for me to live in thus far and I've been to many other countries in my lifetime, so that's saying quite a bit. And might I suggest that what we as Americans need right now in relation to the rest of the world is a little less definitive declaration about how great we are and a little more measured qualification about how great we can become with a bit of hard work and some honest self-realization. We were once the shining city upon a hill and I truly believe that we can again achieve that goal, we just need a sufficient amount of measured humility and educated inspiration to show us the way. Proost!

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Stupid People Are The Best

Thank the gods that we have access to the antics of people as stupid as this:

This video is several years old, but worth sharing for those who haven't seen it. A CCTV camera captures the efforts of two young men, one of whom stands guard while the other tries to bust the window of a building with bricks.

The audio would have to have been added to the video; whether the rest is somehow faked or not is uncertain; Snopes addresses a similar event, but doesn't seem to have an entry for this specific one. There may be some clues at the YouTube discussion, but I can't bring myself to wade through the drivel on such threads.

Dude, seriously. If you can't laugh at these two dumb-asses then you have no sense of humor at all. Just saying:

Can I get a "hell, yeah!"? Word.

Magneto vs. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

Per a comment by the now apparent ex-Deranged Leftwing Baker is this highly debatable point as to whether KSM could escape a SuperMax prison based on the wholly fictional escape committed by Magneto in the first X-Men film:

A while ago, in response to conservative fearmongering over holding Guantanamo inmates on American soil, Atrios pointed out that terrorists aren't "actual supervillains with special powers." The fact is that Congress has a Constitutionally mandated responsibility to consider the possibility that terrorists are supervillains with actual powers. Today, Glenn Greenwald makes a completely incorrect assertion:

Take note, Chris Cillizza and friends: while it's true that "not a single prisoner has escaped from Gitmo since it was created," it's also true that no Muslim Terrorists have escaped from American prisons and our SuperMax prison "has had no escapes or serious attempts to escape." Actually, the only person to even make an escape attempt from a SuperMax is Green Arrow, who hasn't succeeded despite the help of Joker and Lex Luthor.

Greenwald clearly doesn't remember the Magneto incident of 2003, in which the mutant supervillain escaped from his glass prison facility after Mystique increased the iron content in his guard's blood, which Magneto extracted using his ferrokinetic powers and then used to destroy his cell. Obviously, we need to discover if Gitmo inmates do have mutant abilities, which will undoubtedly require more waterboarding, and this has to be done before the administration gets a dime to close Guantanamo. In fact, I'm pretty sure Nancy Pelosi was briefed on the subject in 2002.

Now we can ignore the fact that the Magneto escape happened in the films and not within the actual comic canon but even then, comparing Magneto's escape to Green Arrow's failed attempt is like comparing Marvel apples to DC oranges. While I truly love Green Arrow he's obviously no Batman, who has infiltrated and also escaped from Gotham's Blackgate prison a number of times, not to mention the time Superman did the same from Metropolis' own SuperMax facility in the guise of Clark Kent whilest interviewing Lex Luthor.

When you add these previous successful attempts to Magneto's own documented cinematic yet dramatic escape one can only draw the obvious conclusion that absent superhuman abilities or a lifetime of training and knowledge in the escaping arts terror suspects like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed would be utterly powerless to liberate themselves or any others from America's most inescapable facilities. And as I've said more than once, these guys aren't Houdini-esque escape artists or even highly trained super soldiers, they're a bunch of thugs and religious nuts...a well trained American marine could beat the shit out of a couple of these guys at once.

A criminal the likes of Magneto would rightly scare me, as would that the likes of Superman, Batman and even Green Arrow. Those are the types of individuals, if realistic, actual, and evil, we should fear as a people and a society. The two hundred and forty or so potential douchebags we have imprisoned in Gitmo, I take a bit more lightly. When one of them starts to manifest ferrokinetic abilities, you go ahead and let me know. Until then, they're pretty much just a bunch of assholes who've trained on a jungle gym in the middle of the Afghani desert for pr films. You'll excuse me if I don't, as opposed to the current leaders of the Republican party, shit my pants in fear at the prospect of their incarceration on American soil.

The Detainees Are Coming: Run Away!

Here's the latest fear-mongering attempt by the Republican right:

I don't like to quote myself but I don't think what I've said on this subject can be rephrased any more succinctly:

I'm tired of hearing all of these Republican congressmen and governors crying about how dangerous it's going to be having the 245 Guantanamo detainees imprisoned here in the United States after that prison is closed in Cuba. These guys aren't Houdini-esque escape artists or even highly trained super soldiers, they're a bunch of thugs and religious nuts (except for the ones who haven't done anything but were caught up in our security net anyway); a well trained American marine could beat the shit out of a couple of these guys at once. We incarcerate vicious gang members and psychopathic serial killers in prisons all across the country, I think we can handle a few hundred terror suspects. Am I wrong?

I have yet to find anyone who can sufficiently answer this question in the negative.

[Update: Regular commenter Deranged Leftwing Baker calls attention to this rebuttal to right-wing fear-mongering:
]

Something Someone Else Said

"No, I think that it's not time for that, but I think it's time for a debate. And I think that we ought to study very carefully what other countries are doing that have legalized marijuana and other drugs, what affect it had on those countries, and are they happy with that decision." -California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, when asked at a press conference if the current economic crisis means that it's finally time to legalize cannabis.

A reasoned debate amongst responsible adults would be a good first step, and much more preferable to the alternative.

[Update: This account from a former budtender in one of Oakland's "Oaksterdam" dispensaries closely mirrors my own experiences working there.]