It's another hit piece, but this one by an arrogant dimbulb. We live in a "total police state." Really. And we're all stoopid. Really, really stoopid, unlike him.
I know Britain is full of incompetent water board officials and stabbed Glaswegians but even so I fell on my knees this morning and kissed the ground, because I’ve just spent three weeks trying to work in America. It’s known as the land of the free and I’m sure it is if you get up in the morning, go to work in a petrol station, eat nothing but double-egg burgers — with cheese — and take your children to little league. But if you step outside the loop, if you try to do something a bit zany, you will find that you’re in a police state.
I guess one man's "zany" is another man's "felony."
We begin at Los Angeles airport in front of an immigration official who, like all his colleagues, was selected for having no grace, no manners, no humour, no humanity and the sort of IQ normally found in farmyard animals. He scanned my form and noted there was no street number for the hotel at which I was staying. “I’m going to need a number,” he said. “Ooh, I’m sorry,” I said, “I’m afraid I don’t have one.”
Did you think of looking on your receipt? Since I'm purported to ahve an IQ higher than that of a barnyard animal, it would have occurred to me right away...
This didn’t seem to have any effect. “I’m going to need a number,” he said again, and then again, and then again. Each time I shrugged and stammered, terrified that I might be sent to the back of the queue or worse, into the little room with the men in Marigolds. But I simply didn’t have an answer. “I’m going to need a number,” he said again, giving the distinct impression that he was an autobank, and that this was a conversation he was prepared to endure until one of us died. So with a great deal of bravery I decided to give him one. And the number I chose was 2,649,347.
Wasn't smart enough to look on the receipt, or he preferred to lie. How zany.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Lileks wrote the ultimate comprehensive refutation of this nonsense about five years ago.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/04/2006 0:41 Comments ||
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#2
This is an actual article in Times Online! And they complain about blogs not being sophisticated. This doesn even rate as a good-nasty blog entry. It's what you expect to read in a cranky 14 year old girl's diary.
#6
Apparently Jeremy is the Times answer to Dave Barry. Pathetic, isn't it. He also hosts a show on the BBC called Top Gear that is watched by 350 million world wide. I imagine that he was pissed off that none of us brain-dead Yankees recognized him.
Actually his politics aren't too far off from Rantburg's. He's a Europhobe and loves to piss off Enviro-Nazis on his shows and in his columns. Maybe if the Beeb was smarter about licensing (like maybe hiring some actual businessmen into that Socialist morass) more Americans would know him and we'd be spared his tantrums.
This is a stark reminder of one glaring aspect of why we fought to free ourselves... only a raving git poofta ponce can pen such posturing pretentious preening puffery.
#12
I watched Top Gear once, he was pounding the snot out of a Ferrari Enzo.
I'm ashamed to say I envied him at that moment, but that was before I realized his brains don't work.
#13
Wait a minute, I thought we were in the grips of an implacable hard-right Christian theocracy, looking to keep women barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen! Now it's a police state?
I guess Europeans would know fascism and totalitarianism, however. They have so much more first-hand experience with it.
#14
I liked it. It showed we love our 2nd ammendment, but don't like outsiders with guns in our country, good on the cops. We also have rules about setting up cameras in the street, something to do with blocking traffic, good on the traffic cops. And then there's the taking a car out in "our" desert and shooting it up. He probably was going to leave it there and did not do all the environmental things like drain the oil and radiator first. Good on all the cops that stopped this guy. I only wonder why he came here to do all this disruption. He certainly could not do any of it in the civilized UK.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
07/04/2006 10:25 Comments ||
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#15
I luv the part where he said he needed a number for the hotel and the govt. worker kept telling him he needed a number. I was thinking after the first time that govt worker just wanted a number any number, but it took this idiot 5 times before he fiqured it out.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/04/2006 10:50 Comments ||
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#18
He's European, give him a break, he's thoroughly conditioned that it's somebody's fault, (Not His) just decide who's fault it is and continue on.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/04/2006 12:07 Comments ||
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#19
that is hilarious. It sounds like this guy was trying to make some kind of film here in America with NO budget. He didnt figure that in the land of Hollywood, the maroons who live there wont just give away the commercial filming rights to their stuff.
Brits in America need to leave their culturally myopic attitude at home if they want to travel and enjoy it, otherwise it would be better for them to remain on their Island. This guy is obviously a Muggle.
Posted by: bk ||
07/04/2006 12:27 Comments ||
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#20
Hoisted on his own smarmy petard. The man comes across as the utter childish fool he is.
#23
I read this through and was cringing by the end of it. So I read the original article and it was all very clear to me - it was written by Jeremy Clarkson.
For those who don't know him, he hosts a TV show called 'Top Gear' which basically consists of him taking the piss out of a shorter bloke in the programme, driving around in uber-expensive cars going "whoaar!", taking the piss out of the French, figuring out how to drop crappy cars onto caravans, taking the piss out of the Germans, driving extremely fast on the autobahns - again going "whoaar!", bemoaning the state of the British car industry (what industry?), taking the piss out of the Spanish, Australians!, Belgians, Dutch (kept asking them about 'chocolate sprinkles' - tee hee) and just about anyone else he can get hold of.
He can be unbearably obnoxious, tries to be 'laddish' and writes these type of columns just for the effect. Oh, and did I say he takes the piss? Well he does, a lot. He did have a talk show, but it was rubbish and was canned.
His one saving grace IMHO is that he hates officious people and is not keen on the EU. Ok, two saving graces.
Other than that, he's not funny and is a dolt.
I apologise for him ;)
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
07/04/2006 15:30 Comments ||
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#24
"...he hates officious people and is not keen on the EU. Ok, two saving graces."
I dunno, Tony, that may just be one.
Man, they just can't get a good protest goin' -- I'm beginning to see letters to editors about our sorry college kids, who just can't seem to get it together, to go protest (like we did, (not me) back in the day) 'Course, what I write to the editor, is, no protest from these kids, 'cause they are volunteering to go into harm's way! Austin, TX statesman, just won't print that.
Star Hollywood actor-activists including Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon and anti-war campaigners led by bereaved mother Cindy Sheehan plan to launch a hunger strike, demanding the immediate return of US troops from Iraq.
As Americans get set to fire up barbeques in patriotic celebration of US Independence Day on July 4, anti-war protestors planned to savour a last meal outside the White House, before embarking on a 'Troops Home Fast' at midnight.
"We've marched, held vigils, lobbied Congress, camped out at Bush's ranch, we've even gone to jail, now it's time to do more," said Sheehan, who emerged as an anti-war icon after losing her 24-year-old son Casey in Iraq. Yep, and none of it has worked. Sorry
The hunger strike was the latest bid by the US anti-war movement to grab hold of American public opinion, after numerous marches, vigils and political campaigns.
Despite polls which show the Iraq war is unpopular and many Americans are skeptical of President George W. Bush's wartime leadership, peace protests have not hit the opinion-swaying critical mass seen during Vietnam War. I'm so tired of livin' in the past. And I'm as old as our President! Can't these folks get over this? After 30 years? I didn't like them then, and I don't like them now.
"We have been continually sheltered from the actual cost of war from the beginning," said Meredith Dearborn, of human rights group Global Exchange, explaining how anti-Iraq war protests have stuttered.
While 2,526 (they are now having to wait a few days before they can change this number. Man, that's got to hurt) US soldiers have died since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, according to an AFP tally based on Pentagon figures, the impact of the deaths has rarely dominated headlines.Let's not try to be bias to the headlines. And why, tell me, Mr./Mrs Report, why didn't PFC Thomas Tucker and PFC Kristian Menchaca dominate your headlines?
While it is not unusual to see an Iraq-war veteran or amputee in an airport for instance, or newspaper features on horrific injuries inflicted by roadside bombs in Iraq, the United States hardly feels like a nation at war.
Some protestors and experts in public opinion put that down to the absence of the Vietnam War style conscription draft, which means only professional soldiers or reservists can be sent off to war.
"We have done everything we could think of to end this war, we have protested, held marches, vigils ... lobbied, written letters to Congress," said Dearborn.
"Now it is time to bring the pain and suffering of war home. We are putting our bodies on the line for peace."
Perhaps the only time the anti-Iraq war movement captured lasting coverage was in August 2005, when Sheehan and supporters pitched camp outside Bush's Texas ranch, where the president habitually stays in high summer.
Even then, the fiercely partisan debate unleashed may have harmed Sheehan, who faced fierce fire from conservative groups and radio talk show hosts, as much as it hurt the Bush administration's image over Iraq.
The hunger strike will see at least four activists, Sheehan, veteran comedian and peace campaigner Dick Gregory, former army colonel Ann Wright and environmental campaigner Diane Wilson launch serious, long-term fasts.
"I don't know how long I can fast, but I am making this open-ended," said Wilson.
Other supporters, including Penn, Sarandon, novelist Alice Walker and actor Danny Glover will join a 'rolling" fast, a relay in which 2,700 activists pledge to refuse food for at least 24 hours, and then hand over to a comrade.
Though the anti-war movement is trying hard to puncture public perceptions, some experts believe such protests have little impact on how Americans view foreign wars.
Ohio State University professor John Mueller for example, argued in the Foreign Affairs journal in December, that only rising US casualties could be proven to erode public support for a conflict.
Anti-war movements during the Korean and Iraq wars have been comparitively invisible, but public support had eroded in a similar way to the Vietnam conflict, in which the peace movement played a dominant role, he wrote.
Recent polls reveal public scepticism over Iraq, and damage to Bush's personal ratings.
In a poll in Time magazine published Friday, only 33 percent of respondents approved of Bush's leadership on Iraq while 64 percent said they disapproved his handling of the campaign.
A Pew Research Center poll released on June 20, found that only 35 percent of Americans approved of Bush's handling of the Iraqi conflict -- though that was up five percent from a similar poll in February. What a sorry, sorry article. I hope this reporter isn't in any way kin to me
#4
The US isn't offended by the war in Iraq in general because many are able to see the bigger pitcher, not being blinded by bush-hate and such. It is as simple as that.
These folks can't even see the successes and the slowly winding down process that already appears to be beginning.
#6
Let's see if this lasts longer than Saddam's hunger strike.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
07/04/2006 10:25 Comments ||
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Other supporters, including Penn, Sarandon, novelist Alice Walker and actor Danny Glover will join a 'rolling" fast, a relay in which 2,700 activists pledge to refuse food for at least 24 hours, and then hand over to a comrade.
I suggest the protest be renamed.
24 hours on and 24 hours off should make it the 'half-fast for peace'.
#12
The hunger strike will see at least four activists, Sheehan, veteran comedian and peace campaigner Dick Gregory, former army colonel Ann Wright and environmental campaigner Diane Wilson launch serious, long-term fasts.
"I don't know how long I can fast, but I am making this open-ended," said Wilson.
Notice Penn and Sarandon aren't included in that list.
Oh puh-lease, this isn't a hunger strike, a hunger strike is supposed to go right to the very bitter end, to when your eyesight and kidneys fail. When you've gone so far that your body is irrepairably damaged from the fast. And then you die. Or make it much quicker - refuse water as well.
Although I despise the IRA, at least Bobby Sands went right to the end - are any of these tools going to die for their cause?
Bueller?
ps I used to like Danny Glover, now I think he's a joke. I never liked Penn and after his 'red bucket' incident last year, I'm convinced he's not all there.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
07/04/2006 13:35 Comments ||
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The Pew Poll, now that is a real non-partisan and fair minded outfit. Do a Google on the Chairman, Andrew Kohut. It is a Times Mirror group, he appears on NPR as a commentator. Why don't these pollsters get off their dead asses and do polls out in the real world. Keep it up Penn, Sarandon, Gregory, et al. If anyone is into gaming, try this one on for size. Imagine Al Gore was President on September 11, 2001. It is an interesting mind game to speculate on where we would be today. But that is fodder for a whole 'nother thread.
#14
Sounds more like practice for ramadan than a hunger strike.
Posted by: ed ||
07/04/2006 14:43 Comments ||
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10:45 here on the east coast. Is it over yet?
And remember celebrity dilletantes. A hunger strike can only succeed if someone actually gives a shit that you're on one. Ask your friends at Gitmo.
In which the tranzi fantasy of the modern nation-states sublimated peacefully and seamlessly into a borderless utopia is given form ... welcome to Palisrael. I cannot begin to express how dangerous this worldview is. Read it all, read it carefully, prepare yourself to strangle this concept in the crib, for it is malignant and will certainly metastasize with lightning speed.
For more than half a century, Israelis and Palestinians have been fighting over the same tracts of earth. Numerous proposals for dividing the land have come and gone, and none has proved workable. Israel's most recent effort to end the territorial stalemate by pulling out of Gaza and dismantling some of the West Bank settlements has drawn criticism for being too little, too late. The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, has outlined plans to finalise the country's boundaries by 2010 - but as long as the Palestinians demand a return to the 1967 borders, few expect the deadlock to be resolved. Given the current downward spiral of violence, the prospect of a peaceful and mutually agreed two-state solution seems further away than ever. But it also makes it necessary for us to think about the conflict in new terms.
In today's world, control of geographic territory doesn't mean as much as it once did.
Borders are for meeting friends for coffee and buying books, any other use is *so* 20th century.
Statehood has become less about territory, and more about access to markets, technology, and the rule of law.
And all these things apparently grow on trees, or maybe in the refrigerator in the faculty lounge at Oxford.
What if the Israelis and the Palestinians were able to somehow separate the concepts of statehood and territory and to explore new ways of living together? What if both peoples were given the right - at least in principle - to settle in the whole area that lies between the Mediterranean and Jordan?
The road to the mass graves is paved with the blood, bones, and tears of the peoples given "rights in principle." The author of this piece also consistently neatly sidesteps any discussion of how the "rights" are to be determined, and who will enforce said rights.
I'll admit that it might not be the easiest thing to imagine. When we think about states, we naturally think about borders - real, specific, definable borders that you can plot on a map. What I have in mind is utterly different, and no doubt somewhat far-fetched.
"Golly gee shucks, I'm just thinking out loud, here. Don't go getting all riled up now. A guy's allowed a little fantasy now -n- again, wouldn't you agree?"
(That said, given the failure of all the "realistic" solutions over the past 50 years, forgive me for suggesting that it may now be time to consider other possibilities.)
(But I really meant what I said.)
You might call it a "dual state". Instead of the familiar formula in which two states exist side by side, Israel and Palestine would be two states superimposed on one another. Citizens could freely choose which system to belong to - their citizenship would be bound not to territory, but to choice. The Israeli state would remain a homeland for Jews and, at the same time, become a place in which Palestinians were able to live freely. This basic administrative structure has worked elsewhere: for example, in the cantons of Switzerland. There people of different origins and beliefs, speaking different languages and with different allegiances, live together side by side. In the Israel-Palestine dual state, smaller territorial units could be given the right to choose which state to belong to, based on a majority vote. At the same time, individuals would be able to choose citizenship for themselves, regardless of where they lived. A person living in a canton that opted to belong to Palestine could continue to be a citizen of Israel and vice versa. An Israeli and a Palestinian living side by side in, for example, an Israeli-administered area would share many of the same rights and live by many of the same laws. They would both be free to move about within the area now occupied by Israel and the territories. They would share a common currency, participate in the same labour market and contribute common taxes for a number of shared services. Civil disputes could be settled by independently appointed arbitrators. Parents would be free to send children to the schools of their choice; government funding for education could be allocated on a proportional basis. Neighbours would vote for separate leaders in separate elections, but these elected representatives would harmonise legislation on a number of matters, such as taxation, criminal law and traffic regulations. There would be no need for security fences or barriers, no need for corridors or safe passages, and no need for checkpoints. A joint defence force could secure the borders, and a joint customs service could ensure one economic space. Both states could keep their national symbols, their governments, and their foreign representation. Local affairs would be dealt with by canton administrators on a majority basis, while individual human rights and freedoms could be guaranteed by the two states in cooperation.
It is not difficult to imagine a Jewish-majority area consisting largely of present-day Israel, plus a number of major settlements. That area would be under Israeli jurisdiction but remain open to Palestinians who wished to live under Palestinian jurisdiction. Similarly, one can imagine a core Palestinian area, consisting of the West Bank and Gaza, and perhaps even parts of Israel where Israeli Arabs are the predominant population. The whole of this area would also be open to Jews living under Israeli law. Jerusalem could be subject to the same principle. The demographics of neighbourhoods would not change overnight - for example, the divisions between East and West Jerusalem would linger for some time - but there would at least be the opportunity for people to move and live freely.
Continued on Page 49
#4
Notice how 'nationalism' bloomed full strength with the fall of the Soviet Union. How many independent countries arose? The tranzies don't get it. It's human nature. Group identity, even their own is a far stronger force than any transnational theory.
#5
Obviously the writer has never actually talked to real Switzers. Never mind Cantons, try moving from one village to the next -- you and your decendents will be scorned as foreigners for several centuries, at least.
#6
The Swiss are the world's bagmen, they are ciphers, well-mannured parasites who skim, aid and steal the wealth of the world. One day they will be obliterated, this worthless bidet of civilization, and the world will take little note as there are many "grey" banks and many chocolateers in the world.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
07/04/2006 12:59 Comments ||
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#8
I think Israel would go for it. But I don't think for a minute that the Paleos will ever quit trying to kill them, so there you are, back to square one.
On Sunday, as Cpl. Gilad Shalit's terrorist captors in Gaza prepared their ultimatum, in Jerusalem, at the Mt. Herzl military cemetery a crowd stood quietly around a grave, bowed their heads and remembered one of the greatest heroes the State of Israel has produced.
The 30th memorial ceremony for Lt.-Col. Yonatan Netanyahu, who was killed on July 4, 1976 while commanding the raid that freed more than 100 hostages held in Entebbe by Palestinian and German terrorists, could not have come at a more significant moment. For Israel's Arab enemies, who today hold Cpl. Shalit, no doubt the decision to set July 4, 2006 as their deadline for Israeli surrender to their demands is motivated by their desire to wipe out for the world Yoni's legacy and that of the Entebbe raid he led.
The legacy of Entebbe for the world couldn't be clearer. The message of the raid is that nations must never give in to the demands of terrorists. Through their war crime of taking over the Air France jet, the terrorists declared war not only on Israel but on all who abide by the norms of human decency and value freedom. If Israel is brought to its knees 30 years later, it will send the message throughout the world that the barbarians are the victors after all.
While the Entebbe raid is vested with deep significance for the entire world, its significance in shaping Israel's national psyche has been deeper still. This was apparent on Sunday evening on Mt. Herzl. As speakers stood at the foot of his grave and one by one discussed the significance of Yoni's life and his death for Israelis today and for generations of Israelis to come, it was clear that Yoni - now immortal - is an embodiment of Israeli exceptionalism, Israeli morality, Israeli Judaism, the Israeli warrior ethos and the inherent justice of Zionism.
ADDRESSING THE mourners, Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Ben-Hannan - whom Yoni rescued when Ben-Hannan was wounded and caught behind Syrian lines during the Yom Kippur War - discussed Yoni's legacy for Cpl. Shalit.
As he sits alone with his captors in Gaza, Ben-Hannan said that Shalit has hope. His hope is based on the knowledge - seared into the collective consciousness of our nation at Entebbe - that the IDF does not leave men behind. Yoni, Ben-Hanan noted, "is one of the foundations of this moral underpinning."
Yet, just as Yoni's memory and that of the heroic raid he led at Entebbe is one that Israel's enemies are desperate to blot out, so too in Israel's culture wars there are powerful forces vested in tearing down Yoni's memory and in dwarfing the significance of the Entebbe raid. Indeed, these forces, motivated by a mix of envy and politics, have been attacking Yoni for 20 years. The aim of his detractors is not dissimilar from that of Israel's enemies. His domestic foes also wish to weaken the power of Yoni's legacy and the legacy of Entebbe over Israel's national ethos. They too wish to make Israelis believe that we have no option other than to placate our enemies.
We aren't alone in having revisionist tranzi idiots who wish to destroy us from within.
Via the new and improved Townhall.com wesite! Check it out
On the eve of a holiday that used to stir patriotic emotions -- the Fourth of July -- it has been painful to see examples of how little remains of that glue that holds a society together.
Perhaps the worst of these signs of national disintegration was the New York Times' recent revealing to the whole world the covert methods by which the American government has been tracking the money that finances international terrorism.
Americans may in fact be dying literally now because of what the terrorists have been told -- and ultimately because a jerk inherited the New York Times. As usual, the mainstream media circled the wagons around one of their own. The media spin is that the terrorists were already bound to know that we were monitoring their international transfers of money. The Times says terrorists had to "suspect" this.
This is an all-or-nothing argument. There are vast numbers of terrorists around the world and not all of them are affiliated with the same organizations. Nor is there any reason to believe that they all have the same level of knowledge or sophistication.
Whatever knowledge or suspicions some of the terrorist leaders may have had about American surveillance of the money transfers that finance their operations, that does not mean that all the terrorists knew about all the methods or about all the countries that were cooperating to track them down by their money trails.
After all, so many of these terrorists would not have been captured or killed if they were infallible.
The media may not publicize the casualties we inflict on the terrorists but they are vastly greater than the casualties that terrorists inflict on Americans, even though too many in the media focus almost exclusively on the latter.
Not only do the terrorists now know how they are being tracked, some of the countries that have secretly helped in that tracking may now back off from helping, now that the New York Times' revelations can create internal political problems or fear of terrorist retaliation in those countries.
The all-or-nothing idea that secrets are either secret from everybody or secret from nobody will not stand up under scrutiny. Back during World War II, the Chicago Tribune made the devastating revelation that the United States had broken the Japanese code and could read their military plans in advance.
This was an enormously important secret, especially during the early days of the war, when Japan had overwhelming naval superiority in the Pacific and was seeking to destroy the remnants of the American Pacific fleet that had not already been destroyed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Fortunately for this country, the Japanese did not read the Chicago Tribune or did not believe it. In other words, the secret was out, but it was not out very far. There are degrees of secrecy, as with everything else.
New York Times has spread the secret of American financial surveillance of terrorists around the world, undermining or destroying this method of tracking them, as well as undermining the cooperation that can be expected in the future from countries fearful of political or terrorist repercussions.
Patriotism is not chic in the circles of those who assume the role of citizens of the world, whether they are discussing immigration or giving aid and comfort to the enemy in wartime.
The decline and fall of the Roman Empire was as much due to the internal disintegration of the ties that bind a society together as to the assaults of the Romans' external enemies.
The pride of being a Roman citizen was destroyed by cheapening that citizenship by giving it to too many other people. The sense of duty and loyalty eroded among both the elites and the masses.
Without such things, there could be no Roman Empire. Ultimately, without such things, there can be no United States of America. In neither case have tangible wealth and power been enough to save a country or a civilization, for the tangibles do not work without the intangibles
I do not subscribe to the idea that Americans (particularly the red states, but even most members of the blue) are unpatriotic. It's been an uphill battle against the leftist tranzis, and the victories on the side of right and America have made them increasingly isolated and unhinged. Never let your guard down. We will win
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/04/2006 15:00 ||
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I do not subscribe to the idea that Americans (particularly the red states, but even most members of the blue) are unpatriotic.
#2
Go tell it on the mountail Frank G.
We will win. The left is fractured by the war in Iraq, weakening and becoming bizzare and anti-American in general. People are starting to pick up on this and they don't like it. They don't want war, but they sure as hell don't want to lose a war. They want all the touchy feely social programs, but the last thing they want is to get their taxes raised. The economy is raging, but people still believe we are in a recession because they have to pay $2.75 a gallon for gas.
#3
I live in So. California, San Diego to be particular - along with Orange, Imperial, and San Bernardino counties, an island of red in a blue state. You will not find a more patriotic and pro-military (and ex-military) population in a red state, I'd wager. The central valley is much of the same, so yeah, I know
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/04/2006 16:35 Comments ||
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#4
Frank - the link soured since you posted, I think. I get a not found error page...
Even searching for Sowell, which retrieved 2 hits for today's date, got not found errors - and they provided the links!
Looks like they are having trouble with their new site. I hope it's temporary.
Thomas Sowell is pure class - Thanks for posting in full!
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
I know Britain is full of incompetent water board officials and stabbed Glaswegians but even so I fell on my knees this morning and kissed the ground, because I’ve just spent three weeks trying to work in America. It’s known as the land of the free and I’m sure it is if you get up in the morning, go to work in a petrol station, eat nothing but double-egg burgers — with cheese — and take your children to little league. But if you step outside the loop, if you try to do something a bit zany, you will find that you’re in a police state. 
