Guy (St. Louis metro punk with a record, arrested and charged with setting two of 7 recent church fires) is a walking advertisement for Three Strikes and You are Out. I really don't mind hundreds of more prisons. Any yahoo with three misdemeanors or felony convictions, should go away for life. No parole. One meal a day, based upon food they grow in the prison yard. No t.v. No library. No weight room. No basketball court. No handball court. No legal library. Just sit in there and vegetate and ponder a life wasted. 

Because I am really really tired of all the criminal nonsense that is, yes, allowed and encouraged through plea deals, soft prosecutors, first-time offenders, soft judges, and the like. Imagine how much safer any community would be, with all the three time losers gone. GONE. It simply is not that difficult to get up every day and lead your life in peace while making a simple living. 

Our entire mindset about crime and criminals needs to change. Now. What passes for criminal justice in America is merely revolving door repeat business for all involved who make a very good, secure living: bailiffs, court reporters, guards, public defenders, paid prosecutors, defense lawyers, alleged expert witnesses, judges, their staffs, bail bondsmen, etc., etc. Tired of it all. 

This guy had a long rap sheet. Put him away, permanently, at the third offense (if misdemeanor) or felony (totalled up with any misdemeanors) and he is nowhere near any of these churches. How many people are out on bail right now, walking around, with or without ankle monitoring bracelets, carrying guns, planning and doing all sorts of nonsense? More Vonderrit Myers Jr. punks we do not need. 

Not that hard to live on the right side of the law. Make a habit of not doing so, and you can leave. 

Permanently.

Any doubts about the strength of memory of American voters was cleared up during the presidential candidate debate the other night, when Jeb Bush turned to Donald Trump and said ".....my brother kept us safe.", and the audience applauded.

I do remember 3,000 Americans being murdered one Sept morning; an absolutely wrong invasion of a country that had not harmed us in any way, under the pretext of looking for weaponry that was never found; and 14 ensuing years of terrorist attacks against Americans at home and overseas, the deaths of about 5k American soldiers alone, untold numbers of wounded left to deal with the VA, and yet again another unstable time period in the Middle East.

Yep, his brother kept us safe alright. For just under nine months of his presidency.

And voters applauded the statement.......geez.

We live in a culture that says "if you disrespect me in any way, if you disagree with me over anything, if you cut me off in traffic, if you take my parking space/shopping cart/space in line, I will shoot you."
Somehow along the way, we have produced at least two generations of parents who forgot the part about teaching their young 'uns how to work out differences without being stupid or violent. Pre-school disagreements in the sandbox, taking someone's crayons in kindergarten, cutting in the water line in 3rd grade, knocking someone out of the way to board the school bus in 7th grade, bumping into someone in the high school hallway, the hangout location, or just riding down the road. None of these daily occurrences should be the source of tremendous rage, violence, death, and stupidity, but among at least two generations now, they are considered normal. Adults think nothing, nothing, of flipping their middle finger at rude drivers, setting a wonderful example for their children in the car and/or those nearby who witness this immature choice.
Again, it is not the weapon of choice, it is the individual reaction, the individual choice to the perception or reality of having been slighted. Mature people of any age can avoid violence with proper conflict resolution skills at almost any age.
This insanity can be prevented by proper education in the schools, if legal guardians at home can't do it. Far more important to learn this skill, than calculus or Spanish.

Try not to focus on the weapon of choice. We have had a seismic culture change across America in how we Americans solve our disagreements and conflicts and accidental/incidental public contacts, up close, and from a distance.
I never, ever was exposed to road rage until I saw it in the 90s. I was amazed that folks would respond to rude drivers in that manner. RR then advanced to gun fire as a response, instead of a middle finger. These were grown adults in their 50s in some cases, professional lawyers, accountants, etc. Really incredible stupdity levels.
We now are into our second generation of young people of all shades across the country, who clearly seem to believe, that the ONLY way to resolve conflict, is to instantly pull a weapon, usually a gun, and shoot the other person. Incredible. Stunning. And equally stupid.
The pages of this particular online paper have been filled with such stories, incuding the adults who went armed to a local park to "defend" their teenage children. Incredible. Stunning, And really really stupid.

Pontificating further, it is my sumise that such a cultural shift is connected to the continuing purge of religion from our culture. Attendance in church is down across religions, I believe. (I could be wrong). Minority voices of one or two people, that's all, has been enough for elected and appointed judges to order the removal of Ten Commandment displays, Christmas holiday displays, banning prayers at high school activities such as sporting events and graduation functions, etc. Mind you, these bans did not swell from a massive write-in campaign, or massive media campaing. One or two people went to a judge and whined. Instantly, activities that were commonplace and universally accepted and tolerated for over 200 years, were eliminated. 

How the minority overruled the majority on these and other matters is to me one of the great unanswered questions of our time. I don't get it. Exactly what harm was there in: displaying a nativity scene; praying before a game; praying before a graduation ceremony; displaying the basic tenents of one particular religion, and all the rest that has occurred? I'm confused by it all, too. Apparently, if one parent, one adult is offended, the rest of us without being heard from, must instantly kowtow and be politically correct and just nod our heads and say yep yep yep. 

Just passing through, confused.

As much as many of us thought the week of Supreme Court decisions was a tumultuous one, this latest Iran deal may beat them all.
A guy who won't acknowledge so much as his birth place, who never even run a city council meeting, served as a puppet senator in waiting, now is about to run to the U.N. to get one of the most one-sided treaties since the Armistice of WW I approved, before Congress can return to debate its merits.
Embargoes and sanctions have been lifted for most if not all European and Middle East countries, in fact most of the world, to restore trade to Iran. All except America, of course.
We have kept the Persian Gulf and Straight of Hormuz open to international shipping traffic of oil and other goods for half a century, all for naught, now. Our presence there, despite all the nonsense, has insured the flow of day to day life for millions in relative peace.
We have turned our backs on Israel, who would not surprise me at all by launching pre-emptive strikes, as they have been prone to do, at anyone they perceive to be a danger to them. Pretty sure Iran lobbing nukes from a few hundred miles away qualifies.
We still have four Americans being held. Genius Kerry and the rest of the idiots in the State Dept. did nothing to bring them home.

The entire Middle East took terrifying steps closer to true war with this deal. It is stunning in its one-sidedness, despite our fearless, knowledge-less leader's spin, and that of his Muslim minions.
Stunning. Scary. The world has known nuclear peace of mind for 66 years, knowing only two superpowers possessed them. Now, hell, everyone we know, half of whom are our stated enemies, have them, and the ability to deliver them.
And we're concerned abut the Kardashian morons?

 It is my personal perception, that billionaires like Soros and the Koch Brothers and the Walton family and Gates, among a long list, are using their billions to improperly influence the rules the rest of us mortals must live by. How else to explain Walmart paying wages ($9 hr) that are far below the federally established poverty level of 11.90 an hour, and making it up for that corporate strategic plan, by being subsidized by the taxpayers to the tune of $7.2B annually? About $6.2B of that goes to personnel for subsidized housing, food stamps, and Medicaid. In other words, WM is not paying for the benefits they supply their slaves. We taxpayers are. I can think of better places for our country to spend $7.2B, and I don't mean overseas. Money-deficient schools, some of which are crumbling in more ways than one; roads and bridges that are crumbling, no mistake about that, etc.

Bill Gates is pouring some of his money into changing the ways schools operate. Is he suggesting? No, he is offering his idea of school improvement programs to schools along with some computer freebies and every supt. starts bowing down to his Foundation. I am all for free enterprise and the amassing of fortunes. It is what the recipients do with their profits that concerns me. You can't take it with you, so why not spend it on the greater good? That is what drives me nuts about the oil industry. Double-figure quarterly profits in the BILLIONs were normal for years until the recent dip in crude and Brent crude barrel prices. The irony is they bring it in over the very road and across and under the very bridges that their trucks have helped deteriorate, and need some serious repair and replacement work. Do we ever, ever hear of any of the American or foreign oil conglomerates announce they are donating funds to fix those items, anywhere in America? What we get, are media ads touting how they need their profits to increase technology and find more oil. World is awash in the stuff, and yes there is an extraction and manuf. cost. But look at their quarterly profit statements easily accessible on line, then wonder why your local school district has to have booster clubs to raise funds for basic education needs.

Greed wasn't so dominate a topic once upon a time. Somewhere along the line these past 40 years we've gotten out of balance in America. Living wage jobs are fewer. Corporations buy smaller companies under the guise of having responsibilities to their stockholders, and turn around and close those companies, laying off thousands, whose lost income effect ripples through their communities. We have been living in such a world for at least 25 years. Who is going to be able to keep buying stock if no one is working a decent paying job to buy stock? We're already at that point.

Mr. Soros is reputedly behind some of the social unrest in this country. He is a life-long committed, dedicated socialist and a long-time financial supporter of, wait for it, Pres. Obama.

The Koch brothers have, in my opinion, wielded undue influence up and down all the halls and cloakrooms of Congress, influencing votes, bill outcomes, Supreme Court rulings.

I am pretty sure that the FF did not have this evolution in mind when they wrote our founding documents. Our give-away welfare programs are out of control. Our tax code has more holes than swiss cheese. The five year farm bill Congress passed a year ago to the tune of about $962m, was so complicated and so loaded with pork that Congress admitted publicly they have NO IDEA how to fix it.

Read the Patriot Act some day. I still haven't been able to finish it. Talk about loss of freedoms.

Read the Affordable Healthcare Act, that Ms. Pelosi admitted "we didn't read it so we don't know what's in it." This, is your representative (employees) govt. in action.

A plutocracy is an ugly thing, sir. In my opinion, we have been one for some time. Probably reached it about the time corporations started banking off-shore to avoid the IRS reach, banking laws, etc. Read the spin that corps. put out every year about how they "pay taxes, yes we do." Someday I want to read BOTH sets of books.

In summary, we created our own problems. We have a do-nothing Congress completely at odds with the Executive Branch. We have a bunch of lifetime bench sitters on the Supreme Court that have, in recent years, rolled back all major court decisions regarding integrating schools and corporate campaign contribution ceilings. We have twice elected a man to the WH who to this day refuses to discuss or provide the most basic documentation about his birth, background, educational institutions attended and graduated from, or held any kind of job that would remotely prepare him for the mess in which he finds himself today, partly by his own inabilities, and partly by a citizenry that refuses to vote or care. Waiting in the wings is Bilary Clinton, who has no idea what truth might actually be, not a scintilla of character or integrity, but retains the ability to fast and double-talk her way out of everything disgusting she does, which is everything. She will gather votes next year because too many sheep think it will be cute/great to have a woman in the WH finally. We made that "first" mistake 6 years ago. Let us not repeat.

 How to Change America:

Take the Congressional Handbook of Operating Rules Away from the Roosters in the Hen House.

Reduce Supreme Court positions to 7 years. 

Representation in either house limited to three terms. Our FF never envisioned idiots making a career out of hearing themselves talk. 

Presidential term shall be one six-year term per lifetime. No relative may ever be elected, eliminating dynasties and power grabs, like the Kennedys and the Bushes. 

Return to the days of ceilings on campaign contributions. And none of this one-dozen $3k gifts, either, from one person. 

Reduce presidential campaigns to 90 days, with three mandatory debates that must include all candidates. Governor and state legislative offices to 60 days. Lower offices of all types to 30 days. 

Eliminate the: CIA; NSA; Bureau of Indian Affairs; ED. and Energy depts. The Indians are not thriving through segregation, self or govt-imposed. Leave education questions to the states.

Eliminate all subsidies: farmers, Big Oil, Big Energy, Wal-mart and all retailers, pharmeceuticals, you name it. Return that money to all 50 states. They'd have their infrastructure repaired inside of ten years.