Insanity Defense

I usually don't delve into the abyss that is the law, but some things are simply too irritating to be left without comment.  One of those things is the insanity defense, which I realize is rarely used, but is usually found in the most heinous cases.  Most of these cases involve someone murdering someone else.  Murder is not an easy thing and usually takes some physical and mental effort to accomplish the task.  I think of people who are insane as people who think their committing murder by urinating on the lawn.  People who can go through the actions necessary to commit their particular crime may be insane but they knew what they were doing or they wouldn't have succeeded.  There is some cognition of their act and their surroundings or they would fail miserably.  They may not know right from wrong.  Most criminals don't, or they are like politicians and actually believe their own propaganda wherein they can act on their dubious world view.  In either case, they are responsible for their behavior.  Depending on the crime, they need to be put safely away from society before they lose their mind again.  There can be no abdication of responsibility because you have bad brain chemicals.  

Terrorism is Doublethink

The recent act of terrorism in Boston highlights the Doublethink of the terrorists but you will never hear about it in the mainstream media.  The terrorist organizations use guerilla warfare techniques to fight against an enemy they can never defeat.  Conventional warfare would be a lost cause against the United States so the terrorists try to inflict some physical casualties and psychological damage.  Unfortunately, terrorism actually has increased the resolve of the United States to defeat the terrorists.  While they have certainly inflicted a certain degree of existential damage to the citizens of the United States, the terrorists are nowhere near anything that could be called a victory.  The state of Israel has been under nearly constant terrorist attack for nearly 65 years and is solidly viable.  So, the terrorists cannot win, and yet they persist.  Much like the United States, having a perpetual enemy and a perpetual war keeps the people in power in power. The energy and money spent on terrorism, converted to education and industry, would actually give Islamic extremists more influence over the policies of the United States, much in the way China has leveraged its economic prowess.  But that would cause a change in the power structure.  It is far better to keep waging a war that will never be won.  

Obama as Madison Avenue

Obama tried to sell gun control legislation in the same way infomercials sell useless products:  Appeal to the emotions.  He paraded Sandy Hook survivors at the State of the Union speech.  He gave them his weekly address before the Senate vote.  Unfortunately, the Senators are not the public.  His sales tactic of shamelessly evoking a tragedy would certainly have worked if it had been a national referendum.  He could have kept parading the survivors and pictures of bloodied children until the masses screamed for gun control.  It turned out to be both despicable and ineffective.  Sure we should have gun control, gun owners should be licensed, there should be background checks, if you use a gun improperly your ownership rights should be revoked, and if you have a firearm and you're not supposed to have one you should go to jail.  This is reason.  Obama preferred sensationalism and emotionalism.  Two factors that guide the decision making process in government, much to our detriment. 

There is a name for it

The Ineptocracy:  " A system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers."  Nice.  Now there is a word (and a t-shirt) for the way the government is degrading our infrastructure and diluting our wealth.  We are creatures of patterns and those patterns are self-reinforcing.  The pattern of debt and corruption will continue until such a time as the producers are unable to support those incapable of producing adequately for themselves.  Hopefully, it will take over 30 years and I won't have to be a part of it.  I would like to witness it, high on a hill overlooking the collapse.  But it will probably be a long and drawn out process, and we will adapt and forget, adjust and succumb, until human voices wake us. 

Boston Marathon Bombing-Define Disaster

Certainly the bombing at the Boston Marathon was a horrific event.  We humans like to focus on the spectacular.  The government harnesses all of its resources in response to a sociopath getting his thrills. Meanwhile, in 2011, 32,367 people died driving their shiny metal boxes around.  We have become used to the carnage on our highways.  Our cars are safer, and as a percentage of population and miles driven, we continue to improve.  But somehow we have become accustomed to the results of our need to drive automobiles.  We live on symbols.  While the Boston bombing and the Sandy Hook shooting don't equal the human cost in one day of driving in the United States, they have received far more attention and resources.  The car in the United States is a symbol of prosperity and freedom, generally a favorable symbol untarnished by its cost in human lives.  It would make sense to fight more vigorously against the death toll on our highways as it does to fight against terrorism.  But the public doesn't have to make sense, and there is no indication that we ever will.     

How I learned to Stop Worrying

The mass (hysteria) media have have a good time recently with the sabre-rattling regime in North Korea.  They treat it as though it were serious.  They should be treating it like the farcical propaganda it is.  North Korea has no desire to fire a missile, nuclear tipped or otherwise, at the United States or Japan.  This "1984" regime has to be in a constant state of war to justify their poverty and repression.  North Korean leaders are not so ignorant to think that launching a nuclear missile at the United States will not result in everyone in North Korea eating radioactive rice krispies for breakfast the next morning.  That is all and it is quite evident.  Yet, the media and even the military treat it in the United States as though it were an actual threat.  Because the government of the United States needs to keep us in a constant state of war to justify the military-industrial complex.  It's hard to tell which side's propaganda is the most egregious.