Obvious Tags Twice Over
By Thoreau
So, with all the violence in northern Mexico, two very different groups of public officials have proposed two very different solutions to the problem:
1) The Department of Fatherland Security, last seen confiscating shampoo for the good of the rodina, is (not at all surprisingly) confident that they can contain any violence that might spill over into the US by sending crack teams of armed government employees to the border to do, um, something. Oh, for God’s sake! These fuckwits can’t even keep gardeners and nannies from entering the country (which makes sense, since the gardeners and nannies only get paying jobs if they get in, while the Border Patrol gets paid either way), and their approach to explosives threats is to confiscate 6 oz shampoo tubes (but let you right through with 2 tubes containing 3 oz each). Yes, these guys will surely be able to defeat well-financed criminal gangs. Uh-huh.
As predictable as this is, a different group of public officials shocked me by proposing a solution that would be obvious to anybody smarter than Michael Chertoff:
2) The El Paso City Council wants to talk about legalization. Anybody with more than 2 brain cells to rub together, plus some recollection of the 1920’s-1930’s chapter of the US history textbook, knows that this would be a very effective way to deal with violence by drug dealers. Predictably, though, the mayor of a border town vetoed even a discussion of actions that might dry up a lucrative black market that provides a pretext for lots of federal funds for law enforcement.
If legalization is not on the table, I at least ask that we have the border guarded by hot chicks with boomerangs.
Comment by Frederick —
January 10, 2009 @ 3:36 pm
Ah, The Killers before they lost their way with that last album. Legalize it! Might get some better music out there then the dreg they have now a days.
Comment by Thoreau —
January 10, 2009 @ 3:47 pm
I actually like “Sam’s Town” better than “Hot Fuss.” I haven’t gotten their latest one though.
I’m also a sucker for some of the stuff on “Sawdust.” The acoustic version of “Sam’s Town”, their cover of “Romeo and Juliet”, “Show You How”, and “Tranquilize” are all excellent.
Comment by Doctor Memory —
January 10, 2009 @ 4:48 pm
Actually, this is something that I’ve always been curious about and have never really done the reading on: what did happen to the booze-funded gangs after Repeal? Obviously the higher-ups like the Kennedys were able to quickly return to legitimate life (to the extent they’d ever left it), but if your primary contribution to the organization is an ability to lift casks and occasionally break heads, the end of Prohibition probably just meant that you were suddenly unemployed, and the creation of an instant army of unemployed head-breakers seems like it would have some negative externalities to say the least.
I’d assume the research on this has long since been done; is anyone familiar with it offhand?
Comment by Happy Jack —
January 10, 2009 @ 9:10 pm
what did happen to the booze-funded gangs after Repeal?
What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.
Comment by ajay —
January 12, 2009 @ 10:33 am
3: we probably aren’t talking about that many professional headbreakers with no other marketable skills. The drivers of booze trucks could go on driving booze trucks, the crooked accountants could go on being accountants, the speakeasy owners could transition to running legitimate bars etc. How many full-time thugs does a bootlegging gang actually need?
Comment by Barry —
January 12, 2009 @ 2:23 pm
My guess is that it was hard times for those guys; I’ve heard the repeal of Prohibition described as the single most powerful blow ever struck against organized crime. I imagine that the gangs, as such, were also involved in other illegal activies, and kept on with those.