Bribery. Drug trafficking. Migrant smuggling.I don't know what anybody expected. Oh, wait, I forgot--"Only Ones" are supposed to be better than this, because they're...uh...better and all.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection is supposed to stop these types of crimes. Instead, so many of its officers have been charged with committing those crimes themselves that their boss in Washington recently issued an alert about the ''disturbing events'' and the ``increase in the number of employee arrests.''
"Homeland Security" always sounded like a term the Soviets would use anyway. I don't know why "civil defense" wasn't adequate, but I guess that's too uniquely American, and just doesn't sound like it fits with the international direction everything is going. Besides, it's not like you'd want local teams of volunteers working with the sheriff, the fire department, the hospitals--they'd just make a picnic out of training weekends, get to know each other, maybe figure out some things they could do to help, and it'd make folks a whole lot less dependent on (and obedient to) whatever FEMA teams we manage to get out there, supplemented by a few California Highway Patrolmen--just to make sure no old ladies drink contaminated water or shoot themselves.
I always thought it was ridiculous after 9/11 when the "Vote Freedom First President" basically told us as citizens to be on the alert (for what?) and just go about our business (meaning "spend") and they'd take care of everything--oh, and we'll just need to tweak a few liberties here and there, but that shouldn't worry you none unless you've got something to hide.
You don't, do you?
[Via Peter R]
4 comments:
Interesting that Washington is getting all twitterpated about this, while the crap BATFEces pulls is A.O.K. Gun owners really ar third-class citizens.
Homeland Security was their second choice for the agency's name. After careful consideration and some focus group input they decided their first choice of "Fatherlan Security" carried bad juju.
Ah, a Statist's Quandary.
They want a perfect government to police the defective behaviors of the populace. However, this requires that they must draw from the general population to fill their ranks -- the larger the body of men required to do the job, the more likely that body of men will represent all the defective behaviors of the general population.
And this is just the beginning of the problem.
"'Homeland Security' always sounded like a term the Soviets would use anyway."
Funny you should say that David: I have it from a couple of my Russian speaking friends that Komityet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti (KGB) can indeed be translated without much stretching at all as (wait for it) Department of Homeland Security.
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