Quick Identification Guide

A quick-reference identification guide for those unclear on the concepts:

Tea party

Deranged killer

Any questions?

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I do, actually, have a related question from the BBC article sourcing the Loughner photo above:

When asked, [Loughner] said he understood that he could get life in prison or the death penalty for allegedly killing federal Judge John Roll on Saturday in Tucson, Arizona.

Mr Loughner was charged with five crimes - the attempted assassination of a member of Congress, the first degree murder of two federal employees and the attempted murder of two federal employees.

Not even a mention, it appears, of the nine-year-old girl he also killed, or the dozen or more people wounded.

So, explain something to me here.  Why should it be that the murder of a Federal employee is a distinct, and more serious, crime from the murder of anyone else?  No personal disrespect to Judge Roll, but ... does their shit magically stop stinking when they get a Federal appointment, or something?¹

More to the point, are the rest of us second-class citizens who don't matter as much or have less rights?²  Because if we are, there's something very badly wrong.  This is the United States of America.  We're not supposed to have an aristocracy.

"All pigs are equal, only some are more equal than others."

Photo links courtesy of writerspleasure

[1] Not singling out judges here; I'm asking this question about all Federal employees, appointees or elected officials.  They are not better than us; they are "us" ... or they're supposed to be.  Too many appear to forget that.

[2] Yes, this is a rhetorical question. Yes, I'm quite well aware of the answer. Are you?

The War on Drugs notches up another triumph

Electronic systems that track sales of the cold medicine used to make methamphetamine have failed to curb the drug trade and instead created a vast, highly lucrative market for profiteers to buy over-the-counter pills and sell them to meth producers at a huge markup.

....Duh?  Out here in the real world, we could have told you it wouldn't work.  Matter of fact, we did.  But what do we know?

Yup, it's another triumph for the War on Drugs.  The government has managed to expand the illegal drug trade again.