Don't do the crime if you don't want the time

Every time you turn around, someone's belly aching about how we need to overhaul our criminal justice system.  I agree there are a lot of things we could to do to improve the system, but making prison more pleasant is most definitely NOT one of those things.

Only an idiot thinks prison is supposed to be comfortable.  You don't go to prison to be comfortable.  You go there because you did wrong and you're being punished for it.  You most certainly aren't there to get a bachelor's degree yet that's what some on the far left want.  Honest, law abiding people get screwed out of college all the time because they can't afford it, but you want my tax dollars to pay for some criminal to learn a trade?  Screw you.

They call giving rapists and murderers a taxpayer funded college education "rehabilitation".  Criminals don't need punishment, they say.  They need therapy.  They say rehabilitate and love felons so they won't commit more crimes when they get paroled.  They say without our moral support, ex cons will break the law again instead of becoming the good law abiding citizens they could be.

Bullshit.  The thought of going back to prison should be all it takes to keep parolees in line.  The only reason it doesn't is because soft hearts want to coddle everyone including people they shouldn't.  If criminals had any desire to be good law abiding citizens they wouldn't be criminals in the first place.  Stop with the frickin' excuses.  Lots of people have shitty childhoods and don't grow up to be criminals.   You CHOOSE what kind of person you want to be and if YOU CHOOSE to be a criminal, you don't deserve that much sympathy.

I'm all for second chances for those who deserve it.  First time offenders for minor offenses, kids who made a mistake because they weren't thinking.  I get it.  We all screw up and if they're repenting, give them a chance to prove they won't do it again.  I believe in a three strikes rule.  If you don't learn your lesson by the third strike, you don't want to learn it and it's time to stop giving you chances.

But there are some crimes that don't deserve sympathy period.  Rape, murder, pedophilia, and other violent crimes are not crimes you forgive.  They cross a line we as a society can't cross if we want to survive as a species and they deserve to be punished.

There are people out there who would have given Hitler therapy if they could have.

First thing we need to do to fix our penal system is to distinguish between minor and major crimes and then tailor punishment accordingly.  Why does someone get 30 years for an ounce of pot but only 5-10 for rape?  It's ridiculous how ass backwards our so called justice system is.  We need to fix that system so that it's fair, so innocent people or minor offenders don't go to jail for extended stays in the first place.  That's how you stop over crowding in prisons.  THAT'S where we need to focus our over haul of the criminal justice system.  Not on making prison more comfortable.

It's not supposed to be a vacation.  It's prison.

Bad schools: who's really to blame?

The antics of the students at Dade Middle School in Dallas are so atrocious they're making headlines.  Low income inner city neighborhood. High crime zone.  If you've ever seen Lean On Me, it's the kind of place that school was before Morgan Freeman showed up.  The problem with Dade is that there's no Morgan Freeman in Dallas and they really need one.

Recently, a huge fight broke out.  Dozens of students, possibly armed (it's that kind of place) were either in the fight or gathered to watch it.  The police came. Pepper spray was used to break up the fight.  Now, you'd think most of the parents would condemn the fight.  Instead, there are parents condemning the use of pepper spray.

What?  That's your concern?  The fact that your child was acting a fool at school is no big deal?

And then there are the parents who are blaming the school.  They say the reason their children misbehave is because the teachers are bad.  The teachers aren't disciplining the students.  The teachers are letting the students be bad.

What the hell?  No, morons.  Discipline starts at home with you the parent.  Your job is to teach your child how to behave appropriately.  If you were doing your job, your kids wouldn't be acting a fool in school. If you were doing your job, Dade Middle School wouldn't be the way it is.

Don't you dare refuse to parent your child and blame it all on the teachers.  Don't you dare leave it up to teachers to parent your child.  What the hell are you doing?  Letting your brats run wild because you're too busy smoking weed or whatever you do instead of parenting and you're doing it on the taxpayers' dime.  We're paying for a school that isn't being used for education but as a day care for your misbehaving brats.  You're bad people and your horrible kids are proof of that.

Behavior is learned by watching the world around us and our primary role models are first and foremost our parents.  If your child is a monster, it's your fault.  Take responsibility and do something about it.

Here's the link to the story:

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2015/05/12/mom-says-daughters-dallas-middle-school-is-in-total-chaos/

The price of free speech

Free speech has consequences.  Like it or not, how free your speech really is will always depend on the whim of the majority.  Every day you're judged in the court of public opinion.  When you say or do something large parts of the public find offensive, they will punish you.

This means a single comment that enough people disagree with can cause you to have your basketball team taken away from you or get you fired from your radio show.  You can lose your job.  You can be sued for slander.  And in the case of some folks in Garland, TX, you can even be targeted by terrorists.

This isn't to say we need censorship.  I believe in the right to say whatever you want, but with the knowledge that you WILL be held accountable for it.  Maybe it wouldn't hurt to think before you speak.  Consider the ramifications of what you want to say and how others may take it before you tweet it.

Stop whining about sensitivity.  Everyone's too sensitive towards your "innocent" remarks until YOU'RE the one offended.  Don't get all offended when you offend someone and they call you on it.  That makes YOU a douche.  They're just being human.

How dare those morons in Garland pretend that a contest to draw rude pictures of Mohammed shouldn't be offensive.  They are so outraged that anyone dared to question their actions, that it garnered any outrage from the Muslim community.  WHY?  Did we learn nothing from Charlie Hebdo?  When you INTENTIONALLY do something you KNOW will offend an ENTIRE COMMUNITY, don't be arrogant enough to assume nothing will happen.  And don't have the audacity to claim it's ok for you to be offensive to this community because it's just poking fun at a religion you personally despise.  If Muslims were to have a contest drawing Jesus masturbating, you'd be up in arms too.  Yes, morons of Garland, you DID do something wrong.

It's not ok to kill someone for saying something you disagree with.  Blasphemy laws are stupid and I will never condone terrorism, but let's not pretend you don't know what's offensive to say and what's not and let's not antagonize people just because you don't like their religion and the law says you can.  That's not defending free speech. That being an asshole.

Bad parenting is no excuse

I'm tired of excuses for bad behavior.  I'm tired of everyone blaming their parents for their own failings.  I'm tired of people blaming poverty for crime or the reason they're not as successful as they want to be.  I'm tired of the black community blaming the white man for why black folks in the hood don't act right. Enough is enough.

Poverty isn't the reason you're stealing things. Be honest.  Pretty much all the money gained from armed robbery doesn't go to pay bills or buy food.  It goes to drugs, alcohol and stuff you WANT, not stuff you NEED.  You didn't steal the copper from the church AC because you were desparate to make rent.  You did it to buy cigarettes.  And with all the welfare programs out there, even if you are desperately poor, you DON'T have to turn to crime.  You're a criminal because you WANT to be and NO other reason.

The white man isn't the reason the ghetto is a shit hole.  Race has ZERO to do with why you aren't respectful of your neighbors.  White people are NOT the reason you don't take pride in your neighborhood or why you don't do right.  They aren't the reason you refuse to wear your pants correctly or insist on using bad grammar.  The white man isn't forcing you to play your music that loud, drop out of school if you bother going at all, commit crimes, smoke weed, throw your trash on the ground, get pregnant at 16 or be confrontational to everyone (especially the police) to show how hard you are to your homeboys.  The white man isn't forcing you to do ANYTHING.  You CHOSE to act badly.

And it's not really your parents' faults.  Unless you live in total isolation, the world shows you what's good and what's bad.  There are billions of people on this planet and they are ALL role models.  It doesn't take a genius or even someone all that wise to recognize what kind of behavior is acceptable and what kind isn't, what actions get you ahead in life and what actions will guarantee you never amount to anything.  There is NO SUCH THING AS IGNORANCE.

You choose the kind of person you want to be.  There are no outside factors controlling your decision.  You either want to be a good person or you don't.  You either want to do good or you don't.  And if you choose to do bad and suffer the consequences, the only person to blame is YOU.

Cops kill white people too

The media has a double standard that drives me nuts.  When a white cop does something to a black person, it's national news.  One more case of white people oppressing black people. There are riots, social media goes wild and the rampant racism of our white majority is condemned by blacks and whites a like.  And the media plays up the racial tension to massive ratings, but it's not a fair portrayal and it isn't accurate.  Here I was thinking journalism was supposed to be about facts.  Guess I was wrong.

I don't condone racism and I won't pretend it doesn't exist, but when it comes to police brutality, I can assure you, cops are equal opportunity offenders.  And the media IGNORES it.

Take Gilbert Collar, an unarmed WHITE teen shot by Trevis Austin, a BLACK cop in Alabama.  Where was the media coverage?  Where were the cries of racism and the condemnation?  Only after the violence of Ferguson (an eerily similar event to Collar's murder) did ANYONE bring up Collar and the fact that his killer wasn't charged either.  And those who dared to mention Collar in relation to Ferguson were immediately deemed racists.  Because black people can't be racist and all white people must be.  Yeah, right.

Dillon Taylor in Utah, also an unarmed white man shot by a black cop. Where was the outrage?  The media didn't even give it a blurb.

Cops shoot white people too.  It's a fact.  Cops shoot Hispanics, Asians, Arabs and pretty much everyone.  It isn't just white cops that are too quick to shoot.  Black cops, Asian cops, Hispanic cops all do it too.  The media ignores all that.  They only care if it involves  a white cop and a black man because that's what gets the idiots watching their shows.  Double standard.  The media is the most racist entity ever.

Police brutality is not solely based on race.  It's CULTURAL.  It's in the training of police officers.  It's in the mindset and attitudes prevalent among police officers.  It's a by product of a gun happy nation.  If we refuse to acknowledge that, if we insist on making it all about race, we're NEVER going to stop the problem.

And the media should remember they're journalists and keep the opinions in the editorial column.  Get your facts straight and burn your race card.

Stop police brutality against EVERYONE.

Israel: Is it worth fighting for?

What's so holy about the supposed holy land?  What makes it more important than the rest of the world?  I don't think Israel is all that great as far as countries go and I definitely don't think it's worth fighting over for anyone outside Israel.

It's just land.  So it got a shout out in the Bible.  Who cares?  That was 2000 years ago.  Jesus doesn't live their anymore.  Muhammad doesn't live their anymore.  Neither of them imbued the land with any magical powers.  It's just dirt.

But we humans are petty, stupid little things and we fight over dirt.  Geez.  It's not even very pretty dirt.

Pay attention, sweeties.  God doesn't live exclusively in Israel.  God is everywhere.  You can talk to God from anywhere.  Israel is NOT the holy land.  The whole damn world is the holy land.

So give it a frickin' rest.  2000 years we've been fighting over this particular patch of dirt.  We're stupid.  Israel needs a reality check.  They aren't all that.  They aren't more special because they're Israel.  Jews aren't the chosen people of God anymore than anyone else is.

God made the entire world and He loves every bit of it.  Not just stupid Israel.

Blessed are the meek for they shall inherent the earth.  That's what the Bible says.

Israel, time to be a little more humble.  Time to come down from your self made pedestal and start being NICE to people.  Maybe then your neighbors would like you more.

Time to throw the race card away

There's no easy way to put this so I'll just come out with it.  Everybody's racist to some degree.

I don't pretend to know why.  Maybe it's just society conditioning us.  If behavior is learned, naturally our attitudes regarding race are also created by our observations of the world around us. We soak up the way race is handled by our parents, the media, etc and it becomes imprinted in our minds.  We then copy what we see.  The level of our racism would, therefore, be determined by our exposure to it.  So it makes perfect sense for rednecks to be more racist than liberals.  It's a matter of breeding.

Then again, it could simply be a biological predisposition to favor what is like ourselves over what is different in much the same way dogs prefer other dogs over cats. It's an unconscious reaction we aren't necessarily even aware of.  This could also explain our divisive nature over politics, religion and a host of other ailments, but some other time.

In the end, the reason behind racism doesn't matter.  The ugly truth is, there will never come a day when we look beyond race.  We're shallow creatures who form our first opinion of someone based on how they look to us.  Appearance will always matter.  The best we can hope for is a day when race doesn't bother us so much.

We need to stop looking at race as a whites only disease because that's not being honest.  Every ethnic group on the planet has it share of racists.  You may have been conditioned to not want to accept this, but it's still the truth.  Most white people aren't out to oppress black people.  A lot of white people aren't overtly racist.  A lot of black people are.  And so are a lot of Hispanics, Asians, Arabs, Aboriginals and anyone I left out.

It's not pretty.  It's hard to swallow, but there's the painful reality of racism.  Everybody does it.

But here's the rub.  You can't use racism as an excuse for you not making anything of yourself.  I'm tired of hearing about white privilege and the white man's trying to oppress you.  If it bothers you so much, get off your ass and do something about it.  Vote.  Better yet, run for office.  If you don't think the justice system treats your kind fairly, go be a cop or a lawyer or a judge.

Is it really the white man's fault that you don't take care of your own neighborhood?  That you throw your trash on the ground or are disrespectful to your neighbors?  What kind of person plays loud rap music at 3am anyway? Does the white man make you do that too?  Is the white man really forcing you to commit crimes (even smoking weed) or join street gangs?  Is the white man keeping you from getting a job or is it your lack of education?  Is the white man really keeping you from going to school or did you skip class today because you wanted to?  When's the last time the white man actually made you do anything you didn't agree to do?  You can think for yourself, can't you?

There are way too many successful people of color out there for your failure to be all due to your race.  These successful minorities aren't flukes.  They didn't pull one over on the white man.  Their skin color didn't hold them back so why should it hold you back?  You'll have to pull your pants and put more effort into school, but I think you can accomplish more than you want to admit to.

It isn't poverty or even skin color that makes the ghetto so awful.  It's the bad attitudes of the people living there and you chose to behave that way.  No one made you.  Hard truth is you're responsible for most of your own mess and you're the only one standing in your way to cleaning it up.

Listen, racism isn't going away.  There will always be someone out there who isn't going to like you, but you can't let that dictate your life.  If you want something, you have to work for it.  You have to say "I'm gonna succeed despite the haters" and keep trying.  Blaming your failures on someone else will never bring you success.

It's time to throw the race card away.  Time to stop blaming racism for you're own shortcomings.  It's not productive.

The real person holding you down is yourself.  Now fix it.