Some Christmas Cheer and a Little Cheating on The Side

Ahhh the holidays. The smell of cookies baking, the pitter-patter of little feet, jingle bells and visions of Santa. None of this happens at my home anymore, of course. With a teenager and a college student, a former husband and in-laws to share the holiday schedule with and it’s more like “Hi Mom! Bye Mom!” and a few stolen moments around the Christmas tree, followed by a day-long shopping spree to spend those coveted gift cards.

Jimmy Buffet said it well when he said, “My head hurts, my feet stink and I don’t love…” well, two out of three, anyway.

The weekend was a blur, but I did manage to get to the movies not once, but twice. Friday we went to view “Narnia” – WOW! That’s all I’ve got to say about that. A must see and a must buy (I don’t buy them unless I know I’ll watch them again and again). Christmas night we went to see “Cheaper By The Dozen II” – which was just o.k. There were a few moments I wondered why it was supposed to be a family movie, but it was otherwise an all right movie. I don’t think I actually laughed out loud, but the kids did. It’s basically another sell-out by Steve Martin, like Father of the Bride II – to cash in on the box office dollars of the first one.

I haven’t had much time to write anything, what with all the baking and wrapping of gifts. O.K. that’s a lie. I don’t bake and I was ready for Christmas by Thanksgiving, but hey…I was doing something. I just don’t remember what. And it’s not like I wasn’t thinking about all of the things I could be writing about. In fact, I’ve been waiting for a moment to sit down and rant about something I have ranted on in the past and, in fact, have received quite a bit of criticism over.

Those of you who have been hanging around for a while know my views on polling and how much I adamantly oppose the use of poll results to bolster media reports. You may have been surprised by my use of a poll on this blog, which asked the question, “Has anyone actually told you they were PERSONALLY OFFENDED by the words MERRY CHRISTMAS?” Normally, I stay away from polls and anything of the sort, but I thought it would be safe to put one on this blog. I'm not exactly CNN, you know? I searched for a “free poll” site and researched a few, making sure to choose one that could seemingly not be tampered with, and also didn’t require me to have pop-ups or banner ads on my blog.

Supposedly, the poll was set up so that only one vote could be cast per I.P. address. It worked for me – I was not able to cast more than one vote, however, I became skeptical when the numbers went up considerably (for the answer "all the time") in just a few hours. I went to the site and managed to extract the following information…

This information would indicate that someone from the same I.P. voted 31 times. The only response with that many votes is the “All The Time” response – which I was skeptical of from the start. I have an e-mail in to the site for clarification, so I won’t lambaste them or reveal their name just yet, just in case I misunderstood the information on the site, but you can imagine how irked I was to know that someone found a way to bypass the “safeguards” set up and ruin the results of the poll. At the same time, though, this bolsters all my previous posts regarding polls.

The bottom line is – there are a number of reasons poll results should not be trusted – particularly Internet polls. There is just no way of knowing who has the ability to vote numerous times or who the voters are, how old they are, where they are located and whether they are qualified to make a vote (i.e. polls regarding American voters being utilized by foreigners). In terms of telephone polls – in this technology savvy era, I can’t imagine who is answering their telephone and going through with a survey. Most of us don’t have time for that nonsense and don’t answer the telephone if the caller I.D. is not recognized. Unsolicited e-mail goes into the “spam folder” and if someone comes to my door and asks if I have time to talk, I usually respond, “Only if I can tell you about my faith in God” and ironically, they all have “another appointment in about 5 minutes”.

Like I often say, “I’m not always right…but I can usually find a way to not be wrong”. In this case, the latter was handed to me, courtesy of a not-so-fool-proof poll. Whoda-thunkit?

Critics vs. Defeatist - which side are you on?

If you missed the President's speech tonight, you missed a good one (read it here)
One point he made that is worth repeating and really, for me, sums it all up...

"...there is a difference between honest critics who recognize what is wrong, and defeatists who refuse to see that anything is right."

As neo would say...BAM!

God Bless America!

Paint a bullseye on your butt, Reid, cause we'z a gunnin' for ya now!

Excuse me for being so abrupt, but Senator Harry Reid is really starting to piss me off. Anymore, when you hear the dems squawking and calling for an investigation or a hearing or an indictment, it’s his ugly mug at the front of the line, squawking the loudest.

I will say, though, that he has opened up a whole new can of worms and invited conservatives to hold his feet to the fire with his latest quote.

While telling the MSM the current Republican-led Congress is "the most corrupt in history", he made this statement:

"I feel totally at ease that I haven't done anything that is even close to being wrong."

If that’s not an invitation to dig up everything that joker has ever done in his life, I don’t know what is. And when it happens…and it will…you can bet your bippy I’ll be squawking (and doing the I-told-you-so dance).

Really REALLY Stupid News and some GOOD News Too

Let me call you sweetheart....
In a CNN article, it is suggested that 60% of nurses feel they have been sexually harassed at work….by their patients! Having worked in healthcare for a number of years, I will be the first to say that it’s inappropriate for a patient to ever lay a hand to a nurse, but evidently calling a nurse “sweetie” or “honey” is now considered sexual harassment. Can I have the clerk at the convenience store I visit in the morning brought up on charges of sexual harassment? He calls me “honey” and it gets on my nerves to no end. Is it sexual harassment? Hardly!

Smile...though your heart is breaking...
A computer has decoded Mona Lisa’s smile. Scientists analyzed the portrait of the Mona Lisa, a woman with famously mixed emotions, hoping to unlock her smile. They applied emotion recognition software that measures a person's mood by examining features such as the curve of the lips and the crinkles around the eyes. The findings? Mona Lisa was 83 percent happy, 9 percent disgusted, 6 percent fearful, and 2 percent angry, according to the British weekly "New Scientist." Please tell me this was a pet project of some flakey scientist and not paid for by anyone! Don’t we have enough research on things like…oh, I don’t know…curing cancer to keep them busy?

Shhhhhhh....someone's listening!
So…President Bush allowed eavesdropping? WOW! That’s just terrible! What is this world coming to? Are you kidding me? It must be a slow week for the MSM if that’s all they’ve got! Every single person I have spoken to about this topic has said the same thing – if it means they are gaining intelligence that will protect us from terrorists – go for it! And here’s another thought…if you’re doing something you don’t want the government to hear about – you probably shouldn’t be doing it! The only thing that makes this story “newsworthy” is its stupidity factor. It should be listed in the “off beat” section of the newspaper.

Racism...sexism....can The Donald ever win??
Evidently viewers are at odds about Donald Trump’s decision to hire a black man as the Apprentice and give him the opportunity to decide if the “dame” should be hired as well. Somehow this is considered racist on the part of Trump. He hired the guy! Shut up!

Mistletoe extinct?
Mistletoe is evidently in short supply and The Wildlife Trusts said over-harvesting of the plant that only grows in the wild and is mainly found on old apple trees meant it was becoming increasingly rare. Oh no!

This can’t be grown in greenhouses like everything else? Please! This is news?

And for some VERY GOOD NEWS!

Oh happy day…oh happy happy day….when Howard Stern….went away!

That’s right, folks, on Friday, Howard Stern polluted the free airwaves for the last time. In January he moves to Sirius Sellite Radio. Now I hope the conservative Christian population in this country will do what I did – buy XM Satelite Radio and boycott Sirius. If the American Family Association will boycott Ford Motor Company for putting car ads in gay magazines – they ought to be encouraging all of their members to do the same with Sirius.

Sources: MSNBC CNN AP REUTERS

TAKE. IT. BACK.

Every day I hear talk about being politically correct and how careful we must be to avoid offending this group or that group, but what about the rest of us? What about those of us who are offended by all the things being done to protect the crybabies who claim to be offended by what used to be business as usual in the United States? I think it’s fitting for the gal who keeps a blog called, “The Politically Incorrect Mom” to speak up and talk about what I find offensive. In fact, it’s not only fitting…it’s way past due.

I’ll give one small warning before I get started. If you are a namby-pamby, tree hugging, vegetable eating, purpose driven liberal…walk away. You are about to be offended and I don’t give a flying hanukwanzimas, nor do I have any immediate plans to apologize.

In 1975, black people, white people, Hispanic people and gay people watched Archie Bunker and thought he was funny. Why? Because he WAS funny! Today, you could be arrested for a hate crime because you don’t happen to believe people are “born gay” and you have the audacity to speak your mind about it. Well, guess what? As a Christian who believes the Bible is literally true – I’m offended when I hear people say that God created them to be gay.

In 1975, we sang just as many songs at the Christmas pageant about the baby Jesus as we did about Santa Clause. The children of people who didn’t believe in God didn’t get offended and pull their kids out of the pageant. They put up with the manger songs, just like my mother put up with the flying reindeer songs. In my neck of the woods, there were very few Jewish people. We knew about Hanukah because we learned about it in school (yes, that’s right – we actually learned about religion in school). We didn’t sing songs about Hanukah because we didn’t know any. Nobody got offended. Nobody felt excluded. Today, schools are changing the words to “Silent Night”. They’ve completely eliminated the baby Jesus from the season and do you know what? I’m offended!

In 1975, it would have been considered more than offensive to refuse to say the words “Under God” while reciting The Pledge of Allegiance. I’m not sure what the consequences would have been, but I’m sure they were bad. Nobody ever brought it up because it would have been unheard of to change the words. It was also unheard of to exclude the words, “so help me God” from an oath. We sang “God Bless America” in music class and we said, “God Bless You!” when someone sneezed. We had a moment of silence after reciting The Pledge of Allegiance in the morning in case anyone wanted to say a prayer.

Today, my daughter must refrain from referring to God (unless, of course, she chooses to use profanity, in which case it’s her right to express herself). The teachers are not allowed to wear any jewelry that can be interpreted as religious symbolism, so they must leave their cross necklace at home. IF, however, 16 year-old Billy wishes to wear his swastika jewelry or perhaps his shirt bearing an up-side-down cross and the number 666 – he is well within his right to express himself in that way. If you guessed that this offends me – you guessed right!

In 1975, we watched the movie “The Ten Commandments” at school. Today, you won’t find as much as a copy of them on the premises. As a Christian, this offends me!

When I was in junior high, the school board struggled with whether or not to allow the book, “The Catcher In The Rye” in the school library. Today, your first grader may come home from library day with a book entitled, “Heather Has Two Mommies”. Also in junior high, my mother had to visit the school the day we watched a movie about entering puberty and “becoming a young lady”. Today, I have to worry whether my daughter’s middle school will decide to hand out a survey, without my knowledge, asking my daughter how many times each day she thinks about having sex. And as I should be, I am extremely offended!

In 1975, a real memorial was a tribute to good people. Today, there are people trying to deceitfully honor evil men who murdered innocent Americans on September 11, 2001. I am not ashamed to say that the murderers, their religion of hatred, everything they stand for and the sick architects planning this memorial offend me!

In 1975, the Sears catalog showed pictures of underwear that didn’t contain actual bodies in them. Today, I can’t turn on the television without seeing Tyra Banks or Heidi Klum strutting down a runway in nothing but the latest undergarments from Victoria’s Secret. Is it any wonder that my twelve year-old daughter is already worried about body fat? This offends me!

In 1975, it didn’t matter what church you entered, be it Catholic, Presbyterian, Pentecostal or Baptist – people heard real Scripture. There was no Hawaiian shirt wearing hippie selling a “feel good Gospel” loosely based on Scripture so as to draw people in without offending them. As a GOD fearing Christian – this offends me!

There’s more and more and more and more…

But, guess what folks? I’m not going to boycott Target. I’ve never seen anything on their shelves that wasn’t garbage anyway. I’m not going to write a letter to the ACLU, because they’re too busy representing perverts and terrorists to read my letter. Instead, I’m taking back what the ACLU, the fanatical liberal left and every other group that represents every evil thing in this country has stolen from me and from my children. Let’s face it…we’re all sick to death of ALL OF IT and there is no organized boycott or letter writing campaign that is going to make it go away.

TAKE. IT. BACK.

I’m mad as hanukwanzimas and I don’t care if you’re offended. The Bible tells us that if you’re living right – you WILL offend people and that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not palatable to everyone – but it’s TRUTH nevertheless. So, in the spirit of CHRISTMAS – I’m on a mission to celebrate like it’s 1975 again!

• I’m going to say…no, SHOUT “Merry Christmas” to everyone I see and I might just add a “God Bless You!” for good measure.
• If you say something offensive, I’m going to ask you not to open your mouth in my presence again.
• If you wear something offensive, I am going to ask you to stay away from me and my children until you learn how to dress like a respectable person.
• If I get a catalog in the mail offering offensive merchandise, I’m going to run it through the shredder and send it back.
• If the school gives my daughter offensive material, I’m going to show up at the next school board meeting and the next one and the next one until my family receives an apology. Same goes for anyone telling my daughter that people are born gay or that we evolved from monkeys.
• If you try to preach your “man-made Gospel” to me, you’ll hear me say, “you better get on your knees and get out your Bible!”
• If you change the words to a Christian Christmas carol for the school program, I am going to write a letter to the editor of the local newspaper to call attention to your stupidity.
• If I hear you say the Pledge of Allegiance and you don’t say it right, I’m going to embarrass you.
• If the National Anthem is played before a ball game and you do not remove your hat and at least pretend to know the words, I’m going to embarrass you.

To the conservatives – you can write letters and stay away from Walmart/Target/Kohl’s if you want. But if you really want the America we once knew…TAKE. IT. BACK.

To the worms who continue to whittle away at the very foundation of this country - If you offend me – I’m going to tell you I’m offended! In fact, I’m going to tell you so loudly and so boldly that you’ll be embarrassed you ever set foot across the path of this SUV driving, meat eating, pro-life, anti-ACLU, gun owning, Politically Incorrect Mom!

I’m takin’ it back!

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The Whole World Is Watching

If you work in an industry that is at all dependent upon the public’s perception of their reputation in order to be profitable, you probably have an understanding of loyalty – at least to the degree that regardless of how you really felt about your employer, you would not stand around at a party and tell people what a horrible place of business you work in. In fact, you may even find a section in your employee manual that outlines consequences of speaking unfavorably about the business. Take, for instance, my profession. I run a healthcare facility. Healthcare is very much a business that depends upon the public’s perception in order to remain profitable. If a hospital or outpatient facility develops a poor public image, it hurts the bottom line. If I overheard one of my employees telling their friends that they wouldn’t recommend our facility for the care of a loved one, I would at the very least reprimand the employee, and according to our employee policies, I would be justified in terminating the person’s employment.

This isn’t a new concept and is widely understood. In fact, I would go so far as to say it falls under the category of common sense and knowingly or not – we apply this to a number of things in our lives.

If you visited your child’s high school basketball game, you wouldn’t “boo” the home team.

These things should be a matter of common sense and are not about your freedom to voice your opinion, but exhibiting courtesy, professionalism and a sense of loyalty. If you hate your boss, you have every right to tell your wife, your best friend, your mother…but trust me, if you come to an interview in my office and I ask you why you want to leave your current employer, I do NOT want to hear how unfair he/she treats you or how much you are overworked and underpaid. Answers like these speak volumes to your work ethic and professionalism.

Take Martha Stewart….she was in trouble with the law and the Board of her multi-million dollar company asked her to step down. Then, as though that wasn’t insulting enough – they systematically began to either remove or reduce the size of her name on the products they sold, so as to distance themselves from her bad publicity. Did she go public with a tirade of, “I built that company! Don’t buy their products! They’ve squeezed me out of what is rightfully mine!” No, she kept her mouth shut and remained loyal and was eventually able to return to the company when she became less of a liability.

A couple of years ago while I was vacationing outside of the United States, I had a conversation with a foreigner about places we had visited. During the conversation, the gentleman said, “I usually vacation in Port Douglas”, then he looked at me with one of those expressions that indicated he was waiting for a grand response. When I simply said, “oh, and how do you like it there?” He said, “That’s where your former President Bill Clinton used to vacation!” I’m certain all the color drained from my face. To be sure, I do not wish to be standing on foreign soil and be pulled into a conversation about Bill Clinton. It’s one thing to talk with my friends or at least with an American about the Clintons, but quite frankly, the entire Clinton era is an embarrassment to me, particularly when I’m asked about it by someone who is not an American. If I had been having this conversation with a friend or neighbor, I might have said, “whoopdidoo!” or, "he wasn't MY President". In this case, however, a response of that nature wasn’t an option. I didn’t have to think about it or weigh my words. Being disrespectful toward a former President of the United States was not an option for me as I stood on foreign soil. My loyalty toward the United States simply prohibited anything other than the response I gave, “Oh! How nice!”.

Did I think it was nice? Not really. Did I care where Bill Clinton took his vacations? Not at all. In fact, I was a little mortified to be talking about the Clintons, but I never gave a second thought to what my response should be.

The likes of Natalie Maine, Johnny Depp, Madonna and of course, let us not forget about William Jefferson Clinton are perfect examples of disloyalty and an absence of ethics and professionalism. It seems that these people have something in common. Other than the obvious unpatriotic attitude toward the country that made them who they are and lined their pockets with American dollars, these people seemingly like to be in a crowd of cheering people. So, rather than exhibit appropriate, common sense driven loyalty for their country, they say whatever they think the crowd wants to hear – whatever will solicit more cheers and applaud.

In a speech yesterday in Montreal, former President Bill Clinton announced to delegates from around the world visiting at a U.N. climate conference that President Bush is “FLAT WRONG” in his statements regarding reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Then in the most patronizing of statements, urged the delegates to “try to work with the current administration”.

For what it’s worth, the delegation was not happy with Clinton’s impromptu visit. In other words, he wasn’t invited to speak – but showed up anyway.

Occasionally I get an e-mail or a phone call from one of my friends who live in other countries. Most often, somewhere in the conversation they make the statement, “the whole world is watching”.

It’s very difficult for me to understand why grown men and women can’t grasp the concept of loyalty and patriotism. I’m sick and tired of hearing people say “dissent is patriotic” and “freedom of speech”. It’s not about the freedom to say what you wish. It’s not about expecting people to agree with everything this administration does. It’s about having the decency, dignity and loyalty to NOT visit a foreign country and air your dissent while the whole world watches.

Feeling a sense of loyalty to your country and displaying respect for its administration should be as natural as being loyal to your parents or your employer or your alma mater. For those who were born without the very natural loyalty I’ve spoken of here, there IS a solution.

According to Wikipedia…

In law, treason is the crime of disloyalty to one's nation. A person who betrays the nation of their citizenship and/or reneges on an oath of loyalty and in some way willfully cooperates with an enemy, is considered to be a traitor.

In the United States Code the penalty ranges from "shall suffer death" to "shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States."

I can live with that.

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Are parents really that naive?

I can’t believe I’m the only person who is really tired of seeing the flagrant disregard for modesty that has not crept, but literally burst into our society. Some days I swear if I see one more bare midriff on a 40 year old woman, I’m going to scream. I can not tell you how many times I have walked back to my office and almost pounded my head against the wall for having to tell a 50+ year old woman that it’s not appropriate to dress like a hoochie mama in a healthcare facility. Yet more often than not, I can’t leave the house without seeing someone dressed inappropriately for anything other than a pajama party.

Today I spent the day at an athletic tournament. It was almost impossible to look down the bleachers and find a backside that wasn’t exposed. I hear people complaining from time to time (not often enough) that children’s clothing is no longer appropriate for children, but I would maintain that most of what I see isn’t appropriate for adults either.

I’m not super-spiro by any stretch of the imagination and I’m not suggesting women should be buttoned to their chin and flanked to their ankles, but I (and most of my friends) manage to find contemporary clothing that is classy and hip and maintains a level of modesty that leaves something for the imagination. So, the problem is not that the clothing is not available.

Of course clothing (or lack of it) is only the tip of the iceberg. There are a number of things I see more and more of which make me wonder when we, as a society, stopped caring about ourselves and our image so much that what was once “freakish” is now perfectly acceptable – not only among adults, but children too.

Do people really not know the message their children are sending when they represent their family in the attire and accessories the vast majority of young adults are sporting these days? Could they really be that naïve or do they just not care?

During today’s tournament, I began to make a mental list of the appalling sights in the gymnasium. I thought it might prove to be a good exercise to list some of the things that parents evidently don’t consider when they let their kids out of the house looking the way some of these kids do. And please feel free to take notes if you’re an adult and any of these things apply to you.

First (and one of the most important), if you can not sit down without mooning anyone who might be sitting behind you – the rise on your pants is too low. Most people would agree that it’s not o.k. to pull your pants down in public and wouldn’t want their child to do it either, but that’s exactly what you are doing when you wear low-rise pants that show your buttocks when you sit.

Second…as if “belly shirts” weren’t bad enough – what are parents thinking when they allow their teenaged (and some times younger) daughters to also ROLL DOWN the top of their sweats/warm-ups/shorts to expose even MORE skin? The only time it’s appropriate to see a belly is at the beach – and even then, I usually see more of them that shouldn’t be exposed than those that could. Guess what??? If I can see your hip-bones, I’m seeing too much.

Third…when someone walks by you with something written across their behind, where do you look? At their behind! Has it really not occurred to you that you’re inviting people to look at your child’s butt by allowing them to wear clothing with words scrolled across it? Speaking of words….things like, “juicy”, “hot”, Lonely and Looking”, “kiss me while my boyfriend isn’t looking”, “Girl Scouts Gone Wild”, and “I taught your boyfriend that thing you like” are an invitation to every weirdo in the vicinity “chase my sleazy daughter!”. Is that what you intended when you bought it?

Fourth…and this one is really blowing my mind. The last several sporting events I’ve attended have had Mardi Gras beads for purchase. Today, literally hundreds of children and adults were wearing the beads made available by the vendors. While many of the children (some of them as young as 7/8) would be oblivious to the behavior those beads represent – there’s no way I can believe that the parents and those selling the beads are not aware of it. Before you jump all over me and say that the beads are thrown from parade floats during Mardi Gras, to anyone who holds their arms out – give me a break. When people see the beads, they are not thinking about innocent fun, are they?

Fifth….and final….and I’m going to keep this one brief and to the point. Tongue piercing is not a form of expression…unless you consider “enhancing sexual pleasure” to be a form of expression. If you daughter (or son) has pierced her/his tongue – I hope you’re absolutely positive where he/she is every moment. If you believe it was done strictly as a fashion statement – trust me, the pervert salivating at the sight of a stud in your daughter’s tongue won’t care why she got it.

So, to re-cap…

1. Say no to crack.
2. Bellies are for the beach.
3. Words belong in a book (or a blog).
4. Beads are for boobies.
5. Jewelry is a choking hazard.

Class dismissed.

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Have we forgotten who the bad guy is?

• 14 ounces of heroin has a U.S. street value of more than 2 million dollars. That’s assuming the average junkie uses a 1.5 mg dose at the rate of $10 per dose.
• In the United States, there are more than 84,000 visits to emergency rooms each year due to heroin overdoses.
• According to Drug Abuse Warning Network, or DAWN, heroin and morphine accounted for 51% of drug deaths ruled accidental or unexpected in 1999.
• According to statistics in 1999 heroin overdose has caused more deaths than traffic accidents.

Heroin is a horrifying, deadly drug and a huge problem in the United States and around the globe. Heroin dealers make billions of dollars that represent hundreds of thousands of deaths each year. So why is it that people are finding Singapore’s strict policy on the death penalty for drug dealers so hard to handle?

Yesterday, Nguyen Tuong Van, an Australian who was caught red-handed with 14 oz of heroin in his possession at Singapore’s airport, was hanged before dawn. For three years the Australian government and numerous bleeding hearts around the world have worked to have the mandatory death sentence handed down by Singapore’s government commuted. The Associated Press reports,

Vigils were held in cities around Australia, with bells and gongs sounding 25 times at the hour of Nguyen's execution.

Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, said Nguyen's execution would damage relations between the two countries.

Are you kidding me???

"I have told the prime minister of Singapore that I believe it will have an effect on the relationship on a people-to-people, population-to-population basis," Howard told Melbourne radio station 3AW shortly before Singapore confirmed it carried out the execution.

Ok, so let me get this straight… The government of Singapore intercepted approximately 2.6 million Australian dollars worth of heroin headed for the “clean” streets of Australia and John Howard is playing, “you’re not our friend anymore!” as a thank you gift? And what was that? A threat? I wonder if John Howard would agree to NOT uphold his own country’s laws if the tables were turned.

I think it’s worth noting that Australia supposedly has a zero tolerance policy on drug trafficking. They pride themselves in being a “clean” continent and claim that any substances available are brought in by foreigners. What’s interesting is that I’ve been through customs at the Sydney airport (Van was headed to Melbourn). I couldn’t even bring popcorn into the country because it was “uncooked agricultural products”. Between the multiple stages you have to go through, each including dogs, wands and x-ray machines – it’s highly unlikely Van would have made it into the country with the smack, unless he had help inside the airport.

What’s more interesting to me, though, is that so many people have come to this scumbag’s defense. Nguyen Tuong Van was nothing more than a garbage smuggling drug dealer who got caught with his pants down. Most people would agree that drug dealers carry a large part of the responsibility for drug related deaths. Why then, when the statistics are CLEAR on heroin related fatalities, is anyone….anyone at ALL, defending this guy? Vigils? Church bells? Are you kidding me?

Another useless but interesting fact taken from the Australian government’s own online “Heroin Fact Sheet” is this…

Heroin overdose is now one of the leading causes of death in Australia in the 18-34 year age group. Non-fatal overdoses are also common amongst heroin users.

For those of you whose typing fingers are itching to play the “Christian” card, open your Bible to Exodus 21 –

“ …if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.”

So, let’s not go there.

This whole thing takes me back to1994 and the case of Michael Fay. You remember him. He was the spoiled rotten American kid who spray painted 18 cars in Singapore & had a bedroom full of stolen property and was only sentenced to 4 months in jail, a $2,200 fine and six cracks on the butt with a wet cane. Then President, Bill Clinton, pleaded with the Singapore government to spare the brat of the beating and they agreed to reduce the caning to 4 strokes of the cane. The whole world became outraged by the “brutal and excessive” punishment being handed down.

At the end of the day, there’s really only one statistic that is worth repeating. Singapore’s crime rate, per capita, is only 25% that of Australia’s. With stats like that – they don’t have to explain themselves to anyone.

Bottom line….
you don’t pull on Superman’s cape...
you don’t spit into the wind...
you don’t pull the mask off the Lone Ranger
and apparently you don’t mess around with Singapore.

I applaud them for not being bullied.

Resources:
ABC News
Singapore Statistics
Australian Drug Facts
U.S. Drug Facts

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